There was a lot of music new to me this year, a lot of it sadly courtesy of @chelseadave
But of stuff actually issued this year
The first group because I saw the artist perform it live, this experience somehow solidifes an album in my mind,
Not in any order
This has to go here, even if it arrived barely in time:
Whisper it: “It’s a concept album!”. Remember those? This one’s about the end of the world. Can’t really nail 2020s zeitgeist any harder.
It’s a properly mixed bag of styles - I mean all over the place - and it’s all performed with real heart, warmth, love, sincerity, and anger.
Seems from reading reviews, some people really don’t like that. Sure - a black guy culturally-appropriating white musical influences?! Mashing them up along with black sensibility and universal concerns - I mean: what next? Cultural integration? Fairness? Equality? Heretical stuff! Nigel don’t like it… Suella don’t like it… Rishi don’t like it… Rupert deplores…
It’s by far the most honest, real and sincere thing I’ve heard this year.
…and one final contribution, because I loved it the first time I heard it and like it better with every play:
Edena Gardens : Agar
This is the second of three albums released to-date by the extremely low-key trio calling themselves ‘Edena Gardens’ (which seems to be a fictional place, as I can find no reference to it as a place name), and is another album that doesn’t pigeonhole comfortably in any particular genre, in part because it’s entirely instrumental.
It’s a little bit krautrock, a little bit prog, a little bit psych, a little bit jazz, even a little bit post-rock. It’s also a big bit good - certainly not the confused mess that all those tags might suggest - and ploughs its own groove very successfully.
Some tracks remind me of more developed versions of Tom Verlaine’s solo works like ‘Warm and Cool’, and that’s definitely a very good thing. The overall vibe is distinctly chilled. There’s no obvious standout tracks, which is also good TBH, though I do especially enjoy Sombre del Mar, and particularly the lengthy (12min) Veil.
If there’s one thing forum membership’s taught me Al, it’s that I have no clue what the rest of you will like! I seem to have some overlap with many of you, but it’s completely unpredictable, so do stream it first. Of their 3 albums it’s the one that’s had the least positive reviews, but that means nowt to me, notwithstanding that I just ordered the other two!
N-N-N-Necro! This CD took weeks to arrive, hence the beyond-late entry, but it was very much worth waiting for: just love it! Broadly Ms Cleveland’s work seems to be described as psych-folk, but it’s a little more mainstream than that - the obvious cliches are absent, instead beautiful, tender songs with an airy, glacial-meltwater clarity.
If female singer-songwriter is your bag, have a listen on the link above. Vinyl’s sold-out, but the CD is beautifully produced if you have the means to play it, and one imagines the high bitrate downloads are, if anything, better.
This was great, thanks. Will be ordering on CD. I’m generally quite ambivalent about this sort of music, but there is a certain charm to her. Will be checking out her other albums now.
