I Can't Write Left Handed was my first, non-hit holy shit moment with Bill Withers. Live At Carnegie Hall is probably my favorite live album, at least of the 70s.
Because I have ears, I disagree with your assessment of his later material, but seeing him live in 03 was among the most tedious experiences of my life.
My favorite Callahan album. I think he has at least a couple masterpieces to his name (Knock Knock certainly), and recent-ish offering like Dream River and Apocalypse are at an upper tier as well, but nothing has ever hit with as much impact as Dongs of Sevotion. Between "Bloodflow" and "Permanent Smile" - oh my God.
Awful news. Please people, listen to 1976’s Fly With The Wind. It is a 10/10 masterpiece and fits comfortably within a modern jazz context. Fabulous album, one of my three or four favourites from the era (along with Keith Jarrett’s Bremen and Lausanne Solo Concerts, Cecil Taylor’s Silent Tongues and Carla Bley’s Elevator Over The Hill).
Here are my top 25 jazz album's of the last decade. Note, some are a little bit more "jazz-adjacent."
1. Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D+Evolution (2016)
2. Cameron Graves - Planetary Prince (2017)
3. The Bad Plus & Joshua Redman -The Bad Plus Joshua Redman (2015)
4. John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble - All Can Work (2018)
5. Vijay Iyer Trio - Accelerando (2012)
6. Miho Hazama - Dancer In Nowhere (2019)
7. Mary Halvorson Octet - Away With You (2016)
8. Hailu Mergia - Lala Belu (2018)
9. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
10. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - The Centennial Trilogy (2017)
11. Mary Halvorson and John Dietrich - A Tangle of Stars (2019)
12. Zara McFarlane - Arise (2017)
13. Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (2011)
14. Esperanza Spalding - Exposure (2017)
15. Kamasi Washington - The Epic (2015)
16. Dave Harrington Group - No Country, Pure Imagination (2019)
17. Resavoir - Resavoir (2019)
18. Tom Barford - Bloomer (2018)
19. Vijay Iyer with Prasanna & Nitin Mitta - Tirtha (2011)
20. Dave Douglas - Be Still (2012)
21. Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die (2017)
22. The Bad Plus - Never Stop II (2018)
23. Vijay Iyer Sextet - Far From Over (2017)
24. Aqueduct Ensemble - Improvisations On An Apricot (2018)
25. Matt Mitchell - A Pouting Grimace (2017)
OK, bye!
The Ayn Rand shit is so overblown. His lyrics only grew with time. Moving Pictures is a masterpiece, Grace Under Pressure uniquely special and Clockwork Angels is an example of a band that refused to rest on its legacy laurels.
RIP
The correct No. 1. FWIW, here's my list:
1. Pup Morbid - Stuff
2. Denzel Curry - ZUU
3. Billy Woods - Hiding Places
4. Big Thief - Two Hands
5. Benny The Butcher - The Plugs I Met
6. Miho Hazama - Dancer In Nowhere
7. Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
8. Oso Oso - Basking In The Glow
9. Big Thief - UFOF
10. Mannequin Pussy - Patience
11. Great Grandpa - Four of Arrows
12. Rozi Plain - What A Boost
13. Emily King - Scenery
14. Bedouine - Bird Songs of a Killjoy
15. Mary Halvorson and John Dietrich - A Tangle of Stars
16. Dave Harrington Group - No Country, Pure Imagination
17. Spirit Adrift - Divided By Darkness
18. Nocturnus A.D. - Paradox
19. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
20. Resavoir - Resavoir
Agreed. Meir and the debut still blow me away, but something was lost on Nattesferd. That said, there really is nothing like those first two albums and they more than sustain me.
There are a lot of great krautrock albums - Can has a half dozen, Kraftwerk a bunch, Popol Vuh a few, Faust a couple, Neu as well, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Temple - but Magma's Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh stands above them all.
Don't see any Magma talk here.
Also Christian Mistress, Grayceon, Dawnbringer, Hammers of Misfortune, Spirit Adrift and sort of with Woods of Ypres, Yob and Primordial.
Lots of accessible metal here.
I think it's the most viscerally powerful metal albums in...ever? Just a titan or primal force.
That Vektor album needs to be recognized as the masterpiece it is too.
Here are the metal albums that round out my top 200:
Vektor - Outer Isolation
Christian Mistress - Possession
Carcass - Surgical Steel
Grayceon - All We Destroy
Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas
High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine
Dawnbringer - In The Lair Of The Sun God
Kylesa - Spiral Shadow
In Solitude - Sister
Integrity - Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume
Incendiary - Thousand Mile Stare (hardcore, but still)
Pallbearer - Heartless
Kvelertak - Kvelertak
SubRosa - More Constant Than The Gods
Baroness - Yellow & Green
Panopticon - Kentucky
Black Breath - Sentenced To Life
Torche - Harmonicraft
Ludicra - The Tenant
SubRosa - No Help From The Mighty Ones
Shining - Blackjazz
Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street
Kevin Hufnagel - Messages To The Past
Chapel of Disease - ...And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye
Xenoblight - Procreation
Nails - Unsilent Death
Harvey Milk A Small Turn of Human Kindness
Elder - Reflections of a Floating World
Yob - Atma
Dawnbringer - Night of The Hammer
Inter Arma - Sky Burial
Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Lights
2019 entries will likely include Spirit Adrift and Nocturnus AD
That album is all-consuming. Little else in the history of the genre can touch its primal force.
Here are the metal albums that round out my top 200:
Vektor - Outer Isolation
Christian Mistress - Possession
Carcass - Surgical Steel
Grayceon - All We Destroy
Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas
High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine
Dawnbringer - In The Lair Of The Sun God
Kylesa - Spiral Shadow
In Solitude - Sister
Integrity - Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume
Incendiary - Thousand Mile Stare (hardcore, but whatever)
Pallbearer - Heartless
Kvelertak - Kvelertak
SubRosa - More Constant Than The Gods
Baroness - Yellow & Green
Panopticon - Kentucky
Black Breath - Sentenced To Life
Torche - Harmonicraft
Ludicra - The Tenant
SubRosa - No Help From The Mighty Ones
Shining - Blackjazz
Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street
Kevin Hufnagel - Messages To The Past
Chapel of Disease - ...And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye
Xenoblight - Procreation
Primordial - Redemption At The Puritan’s Hands
Nails - Unsilent Death
Harvey Milk - A Small Turn of Human Kindness
Elder - Reflections of a Floating World
Yob - Atma
Dawnbringer - Night of The Hammer
Inter Arma - Sky Burial
Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Lights
Likely 2019 inclusions would be Spirits Adrfit and Nocturnus AD
I think Divers is the least gimmicky of Newsom's album's and as much as I love Have One On Me, I think it may be the most rich and rewarding. It's the only album of hers that never has "slog" moments. Even the debut, which is light and breezy, tends to get a little too sweet, like gorging yourself of Skittles. Divers feels balanced and, well, I really enjoy the songs in all their richness and variety.
My top 40 of the decade - pre-2019 edit. The perfect 10s start at 22.
1. Pinegrove - Cardinal
2. Cobalt - Slow Forever
3. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
4. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
5. Fang Island - Fang Island
6. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
7. Japandroids - Celebration Rock
8. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
9. Miguel - Wildheart
10. Propagandhi - Victory Lap
11. Vektor - Terminal Redux
12. Motorpsycho & Stale Storlokken - The Death-Defying Unicorn
13. Esperanza Spadling - Emily’s D+Evolution
14. Jim O’Rourke - Simple Songs
15. RVIVR - The Beauty Between
16. Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off, Dog
17. Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit
18. Tony Molina - Dissed & Dismissed
19. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You
20. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
21. Jeff Rosenstock - WORRY.
22. Horrendous - Idol
23. Propagandhi - Failed States
24. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels II
25. Deafheaven - New Bermuda
26. Cameron Graves - Planetary Prince
27. Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams
28. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
29. Tribulation - Children of the Night
30. Joanna Newsom - Divers
31. Screaming Females - Ugly
32. Big Thief - Masterpiece
33. Pinegrove - Skylight
34. Goat - World Music
35. Deafheaven - Sunbather
36. Bill Callahan - Dream River
37. Kurt Vile - Waking on a Pretty Daze
38. Anderson .Paak - Malibu
39. Kvelertak - Meir
40. D’Angelo - Black Messiah
I had I different response to it. I was red hot on Young Enough when it came out, but have really cooled on it since. I think I started to hear a lot of "formula" in the songs I couldn't unhear it (lots of four on the floor kickdrum). I think the album is still quite strong, but I've downgraded from "major album" to "damn solid follow-up to a major album."
I think Travistan was an artistic reach and one that could have used more collaboration, but All Y'All actually rules. Some bum lyrics, but basically every song works and there are a whole lot of interesting things happening.
Uncanney Valley is the most low-stakes indie record of all time - super talented dudes just having a laugh, comfortable in their own skin and happy to throw some ideas against the wall to see what sticks. It's faaaaaar from the band's previous two offerings, but I am really charmed by the record.
And yes, I'll never forget Ryan Schreiber punitive stance with Travis. Even before Travistan came out you know they were going to cut him off at the knees. I always thought it was a bad look.
Two 10s in my opinion. I always think of it this way:
E&I is Drums & Wires
Change is Skylarking
OR
E&I is More Songs About Buildings And Food
Change is Remain In Light
Saw the Death and Dismemberment Tour as a Plan fan and a potential DCFC devotee, but the Plan's performance so thoroughly eviscerated Death Cab that I could never enjoy them ever again.
Red - 10
Blue - 9
Yellow & Green - 8
Purple - 7
Gold & Gray - 7 or 8, not sure yet. Better than Purple I think.
Purple has some good tracks, but that clippy production hurts it and it just generally feels like the band going through the motions.
The album splits so perfectly into its two distinct sides that I don't understand the "overlong" criticism at all. Maybe it's not a "one sitting" album, but the two sides are both equally transfixing.
The EPs are a revelation and I'd count Compilation as an essential rock document of the last decade. Need To Feel Your Love couldn't quite hit the same heights I think because the band's real skill is in exhibiting soul and full on "choogle" vibes ("Need To Feel Your Love"), not necessarily "rawking." Case in point, deep cuts like "Pure Desire" and "Milk Honey" way outperform token rockers like the lousy "Meet Me In The Street" and the perfunctory "Turn It Up."
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