Based on the number of likes, the following received 7 or more and at this stage will make up the pole/vote. If you want to enter another please do so and if you could make it one nomination per post (otherwise it’s too hard to work what’s what).
Also I feel neither Abbey Road or Space Oddity are eligible as they aren’t really “new” releases.
1-Western Stars Bruce Springsteen
2-Gosteen Nick Cave and The Badseeds
3-The Soul of the King The BB King Blues Band
4-Philosophers, Poets and Kings Kate Rusby
5-The Imperial The Deliners
6-War in My Mind Beth Hart
7-Bloom Innocent Fink
8-Fear Inoculum Tool
9-Thanks For The Dance Leonard Cohen
10-Up In Smoke Ese & The Vooduu People
I’ll leave it open till New Years Eve.
Cheers
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Sorry I missed Lana Del Ray NFR.
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I’m no longer much a concert goer, but I did venture out this year to see the wonderful Kate Rusby. She seems to get better and better. Not only did Kate release the very fine Philosophers, Poets & Kings this year, but also her best collection of Christmas songs so far,
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It was a very entertaining concert this year, with stories, jokes and frivolity, not to forget the wonderful songs she collected and interpreted, and her own works too. I never tire of seeing her performances.
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That list is a nice illustration of why new people are so difficult to attract into hi-fi. Heard all of them at shows this year bar Lana and Cave. Guy from a dealer who should remain un-named remarked at one show that Fink and Rusby were bland, safe and not a little boring but would always appeal to some because they’re well-recorded.
Sorry you seem to struggle with a democratic system, I suggest you not bother reading the thread if it’s such an insult to your own personal tastes.
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Mike
I am sure I am not alone in that my hobby is music, HiFi is just the tool that maximises the pleasure as much as possible. Good recordings are far from essential.
I suspect I am also not alone in that I have never been to a a HiFi show and would not be remotely interested in hearing music and making a choice of kit that environment. Surely people who are buying HiFi are more likely to do so at home, or in a personal demo where they can take whatever edgy music they like?
As for Ghosteen, you may not like it but I would be surprised if you called it either bland or safe. Maybe try it
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Sigh. Not really.
Bruce,
I’m the same. I love Ghosteen. Absolutely up there in my top 10 of this year. The rest of this list? Not so much. Show music. Nice, safe, bland, demonstrates systems at shows, impresses the neighbours etc.
Here’s 22 artists whose albums have been lauded across the board in 2019. Doubt we’ll be hearing them at any shows soon. This is a thread which really just shows how unadventurous owners of decent kit are. To be fair by any account Springsteen would be in there too but I found it to be well recorded; derivative and bland. Just my opinion.
FKA Twigs
Harding
Weyes Blood
Callahan
Woods
Big Thief
Lizzo
Dawson
Cave
Lewis
Olsen
Jacklin
Lana Del Ray
Kiwanuka
Dave
Eilish
Slowthai
Van Etten
Little Sims
Solange
Yanya
Purple Mountains
Kate certainly appeals to me. Couldn’t care less what a dealer says, he doesn’t have to listen if he doesn’t want to. It is much better when folk enthuse about artists they like rather than post negative comments about those they don’t. True, many of us are inclined to do it, but I try hard not to. Reviews and critics are fairly pointless these days as it is easy to listen to most music and decide for oneself it it appeals.
I’m unadventurous and proud of it. Why not? I know what I like and I like what I know.
Give me Love, give me Can, give me Meat Loaf
Give me Purple, give me Marquee Moon
Michael Ball or The Fall
I could listen to them all
In the twilight or the afternoon
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Ah yes, the Tory government argument about not trusting experts. A winner every time!
Nothing about experts - simply critics and reviewers
Those who can do, those who can’t become critics.and reviewers
Not really worth arguing about though and it’s getting political so not for here…
I’ll only buy music I want to listen to, which in my case includes Kate Rusby.
I am not looking to discover lots of new music; we may be different in that respect.
I’ll sit back in my old rocking chair.
That said I did enjoy the Chanson, @frenchrooster recommended.
And I do think Ese’s album is really good.
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Which show did you hear Ese’s album at @mikehughescq? Curious to know – I didn’t know she was being played at hi-fi shows…
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The problem is, Mike, your argument falls flat because this list is hardly challenging or cutting edge itself, is it? Most of those artists churn out mainstream pop or the kind of semi-“woke” musical box-ticking that the Guardian’s tone-deaf, streaming-shilling music hacks like to indulge in.
One of the more regrettable aspects of “2019 the year in music” is that there wasn’t a great deal of boundary-pushing or challenging going on, except at the far margins.
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Are there any other cliches you’d like to regurgitate? Nowadays the overwhelming majority of reviewers play a musical instrument and often across a variety of genres. You’d be hard pushed to find any music reviewing publication where that isn’t the case. Nevertheless I don’t see it as relevant. Some of the greatest writers/reviewers have never been near a musical instrument. It is the most offensive and ignorant of cliches.
Arguably there’s never been a “need” for critics but that doesn’t stop the best from being very good and very accurate indeed. Admittedly I come to this with the bias of having once been a reviewer myself for a now deceased major publication but again it’s irrelevant. If you’re so closed minded you don’t read reviews then frankly you’ve an interesting problem. What’s the issue? Is it that you’d be scared of being influenced. Get frustrated if their opinion didn’t coincide with yours? It’s a bizarre approach. We like the music we like but that doesn’t mean some of it isn’t objectively poor. Some of my favourite tracks are off terrible albums. Some of my favourite albums are weak in many many objective ways but mean something to me for many complex or often simple reasons.
Surely we’d all welcome hearing great music? Why on earth don’t reviews have a role in that?
Brings us nicely to the “writing about music is like dancing about architecture” cliche. Again, it’s lazy nonsense. Start with asking the question as to what exactly might be wrong with dancing about architecture! Given that one of the greatest modern ballets I ever saw was about a building!
Not sure what would be “political” about any of that.
@TheKevster I didn’t posit it as a list of challenging music. I posted it as a list that the majority of critics and indeed the majority of listeners I know outside of this forum would accept as excellent albums this year. A starting point rather than a definitive list. My point is that the list here tells us less about great music and more about the conservatism of the listeners.
There’s also an interesting discussion to be had about where the cutting edge is nowadays. Simon Reynolds has repeatedly made the point that the avant garde nowadays is a dead end and if it’s innovation or difference you’re looking for then actually the pop mainstream is at the heart of that in terms of production; song structure and atonality for example.
Ese - certainly played at Cranage by a North West dealer. Can’t recall the other but I was over in the US for several spells this year and paid my first ever visit to RMAF and it may have been there. Can’t honestly say for certain though.
The best critics (music, film etc) write about the item rather than just rate it. They may add a depth of understanding rather than just an opinion. I have read plenty of interesting reviews with low ‘scores’ that have piqued my interest enough to buy the album, and in general the better professional critics are useful sources of new music to me and I do trust their judgements to a degree. The art of professional criticism has been besmirched by ignorant clickbait amateurs in my view!
Kermode on 5Live is my favourite film reviewer. He never awards a score.
Bruce
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Absolutely spot on. It’s an oft used cheap shot from people with closed minds. Like yourself I’ve read reviews I consider to be great writing; bought the album; thought it rubbish but often read stuff where my interest was piqued even when the review suggested otherwise.
I can still remember searching out Chronic Town by R.E.M. based on a review which said it had one great song (Gardening At Night) but something intangibly potentially great about the group. None of what they did should have worked; mostly it didn’t and yet somehow there was something there which suggested that it could and, if it did, they could soar. Then came Murmur.
Kermode used to annoy me immensely but the bottom line is that he’s magnificent.
Dude you lost me at Meat Loaf!!
See there I am, going all negative . . .