What are you, some kind of Libermusictarian? :dubious:
I really liked that Chromatics. I hadn’t heard of them before.
Screaming Females was interesting, but never quite made me go “fuck yeah”.
I was kicking myself all day for not linking to songs from my favorite album, so here’s two by Ne Obliviscaris:
Even if you can’t imagine yourself listening to progressive death metal, give them listen. They aren’t what you’re expecting.
Nelly Furtado - The Spirit Indestructible
By default (I only bought one album), but also because it obviously is the best album of the year, my answer is *Warrior *by Ke$ha. It just came out a couple weeks ago.
But what are these “albums” you speak of? I vaugely remember something from my childhood where you could only buy mp3s on these plastic platters a dozen or so at a time. And you had the carry those platters around so you could stick them into these big boxes when you wanted to listen to them.
That was a record.
An album is a collection of something.
Not enough (any?) jazz mentioned above.
My personal favourite: The Cherry Thing by Neneh Cherry and The Thing.
Awesome, but not for everybody, esp. those with an aversion to skronky free-jazz.
Bastion videogame soundtrack. Electronica with a folksy vibe.
Lykke Li “Wounded Rhymes”. Very catchy with a 90’s alternative throwback feel.
…other than that I’ve been trying to round out a bunch of old blues dudes that I should have owned decades ago…Lightnin’ Hopkins, Guitar Shorty, et al.
Blunderbuss, by Jack White. That is all.
I have to go with Bob Mould’s latest, Silver Age. It’s strong guitar-driven work, with a decent amount of good pop blended in. More comparable to his work with Sugar than his forays into guitar/electronica in more recent years. Love the hell out of it.
I forgot two, which came out back in February (on the same day, in fact!):
Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
Grimes - Visions
Actually a CD, since we are being pedantic.
Out of curiousity, how do people decide whether they are just going to buy/download one song or an entire album?
For me, it depends whether I just like the song, versus love the artist. If I hear a random song somewhere, I’ll probably buy it if I like it enough, then might listen to samples of other songs by the artist. If I love the artist, I usually just buy the whole album unheard on/around day of release.
Also, not actually mp3’s.
The Whippoorwill by Blackberry Smoke.
Of course, I think it’s the only album I bought in 2012 but I’m obsessed with their music. Great harmonies, kick-ass guitars, totally infectious hooks, kind of dopey lyrics, great arrangements and instrumentality.
I must have listened to it 50 times by now. I’m going down to Boston in February to catch them live. I can’t wait.
My best album is something you wouldn’t care about but the album I was most underwhelmed by was Ed Sheeran’s “+”. Upon viewing my iTunes I’ve unchecked almost half the songs. He’s supposed to be the next big folk sensation but the album was all over the place. (There was a reggae song for Og’s sake! ::shudder:: ) I’d liked the couple songs I’d heard by him and liked the stuff he wrote for One Direction but I felt kind of let down. I have ticket to see him next month which I could probably resell for quite a bit but I think I’m going to go anyway so I can make my teenage tumb1r minions jealous. ::diabolical laughter::
Quite.
Damn, it’s hard to narrow it down to a single album. The following were all released this year and each one is pretty great in my opinion:
Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts
Colleen Green - Milo Goes To Compton
Chromatics - Kill For Love
Best Coast - The Only Place
If I really had to narrow it down to just one, I’d probably go with Milo Goes To Compton. It’s just a simple, no-nonsense lo-fi punk record. I’m pretty sure it’s a one-woman band, just a fuzzy guitar plus a drum machine, but it works. It just works. One of my favorite songs on the record is “I Wanna Be Degraded” an almost copy of the Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated”. Good stuff if you’re into lo-fi music.
Hard to believe we’re this far into the thread and no one mentioned Port of Morrow by The Shins. Amazing stuff, and I didn’t even particularly like it upon first listen; eventually, it got to the point where I had to consciously stop playing it, since I couldn’t stop listening to it. Do yourself a favor and lend it an ear.
El Camino - The Black Keys.
Blunderbuss - Jack White (A close second)
Dr. John - "Locked Down"
Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys produced and he did an incredible job of bringing Dr. John back to his swampy voodoo-hoodoo roots. A really great album.