My Favourite Albums Of 2017

Another year, another 100 albums. Some familiar names, some new discoveries. So much brilliant music.

I can’t remember another year when my favourite kept changing so much (at one stage or another each album in the top ten below all held number one spot I think).

Here goes...

1) Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up (live review)

2) Elbow - Little Fictions

3) Oddfellow's Casino - Oh, Sealand

4) Grandbrothers - Open (album review)

5) HAIM - Something To Tell You

6) Hannah Peel - Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia

7) The Charlatans - Different Days (live review)

8) Slowdive - Slowdive (live review)

9) Amadou & Mariam - La Confusion

10) Dutch Uncles - Big Balloon

11) Ariel Pink - Dedicated To Bobby Jameson

12) James Holden - The Animal Spirits

13) Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid

14) Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works

15) Penguin Cafe - The Imperfect Sea (live review)

16) Forest Swords - Compassion

17) Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

18) Courtney Marie Andrews - Honest Life

19) Balmorhea - Clear Language

20) Grandaddy - Last Place

21) Ed Dowie - The Uncle Sold

22) Les Amazones d'Afrique - Republique Amazone

23) Bing & Ruth - No Home Of The Mind (live review)

24) The Weather Station - The Weather Station

25) Oumou Sangaré - Mogoya

26) Ifriqiyya Electrique - Rûwâhîne

27) BNQT - Volume 1.

28) Nubya Garcia - Nubya's 5ive

29) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers

30) Gareth Sager - 88 Tuned Dreams

31) This Is The Kit - Moonshine Freeze

32) Girl Ray - Earl Grey (live review)

33) Colleen - A flame my love, a frequency

34) Fizzarum - Frisson

35) From The Mouth Of The Sun - Hymn Binding

36) I, Ludicrous - Songs From The Sides Of Lorries

37) The Bug v Earth - Concrete Desert

38) Eluvium - Shuffle Drones

39) Björk - Utopia

40) Alessandro Cortini - AVANTI

41) Justin Walter - Unseen Forces

42) Martin Glass - The Pacific Visions Of Martin Glass

43) Ryuichi Sakamoto - async

44) The Necks - Unfold

45) Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - Adiós Señor Pussycat

46) Mogwai - Every Country's Sun

47) Yasmine Hamdan - Al Jamilat

48) William Basinski - A Shadow In Time

49) Martyn Heyne - Electric Intervals

50) Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner & James McAlister - Planetarium

51) Euros Childs - House Arrest

52) The Shins - Heartworms

53) David Crosby - Sky Trails

54) Fiium Shaarrk - We Are Astonishingly Lifelike

55) Poppy Ackroyd - Sketches

56) State Broadcasters - A Different Past

57) Ride - Weather Diaries (live review)

58) High Plains - Cinderland

59) Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

60) Seamus Fogarty - The Curious Hand

61) Iron & Wine - Beast Epic (album review)

62) Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness

63) Natasha Barrett - Puzzle Wood

64) Moon Diagrams - Lifetime Of Love

65) Richard Dawson - Peasant

66) Prins Thomas - Prins Thomas 5

67) Högni - Two Trains (album review)

68) Human Pyramids - Home

69) Jessica Moss - Pools Of Light

70) Gwyneth Glyn - Tro

71) GAS - Narkopop

72) Esmerine - Mechanics of Dominion

73) Ex Eye - Ex Eye

74) Giulio Aldinucci - Borders And Ruins

75) Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology

76) Hidden Orchestra - Dawn Chorus

77) Gaussian Curve - The Distance

78) Msafiri Zawose - Uhamiaji

79) Lung Dart - Some Other Hunger

80) Bola - D.E.G

81) Masaki Uchida - Xenolinguistics

82) Kronos Quartet & Trio Da Kali - Ladilikan

83) Loney Dear - Loney Dear

84) Ellen Arkbro - For Organ And Brass

85) Nadia Reid - Preservation

86) Goldfrapp - Silver Eye

87) Laura Marling - Semper Femina

88) Saltland - A Common Truth

89) Mark McGuire - Ideas Of Begnnings

90) Clocolan - Nothing Left To Abandon

91) Hammock - Mysterium

92) Blanck Mass - World Eater

93) Snow Palms - Origin And Echo

94) Dustin Wong - Are Euphoria

95) Children Of Alice - Children Of Alice

96) Maya Youssef - Syrian Dreams

97) Ben Gibbard - Bandwagonesque

98) Flying Saucer Attack – In Search Of Spaces

99) Andrea Belfi - Ore

100) Sampha - Process

My Favourite 100 Albums Of 2015

I always seem to begin these end of year album lists by remarking on how good a year it was for music. In this respect 2015 was no different to previous years, proving that if you have the time and desire to seek out and listen to music there’s an absolute abundance of stuff to discover. It was also no different to previous years in that the pace and volume of releases made keeping up a challenge. There were lots of albums ‘on my radar’ that probably would have featured here that I simply just didn’t get round to listening to due to lack of time/lack of cash to buy etc.

There are lots of familiar names on this list that have regularly appeared in my end of year round ups since I started them back in 2009. It also features many of my favourite bands. It also features lots of new artists/bands that I discovered for the first time in 2015. In the end, my favourite band of all time narrowly eclipsed arguably my favourite band of the 90s to claim top spot. Ones And Sixes by Low proved they are one of the most consistent and enduring bands of the last two decades. It saw them refocus on their core strengths whilst introducing newer elements and had everything you’d want from a Low album. It may seem like a predictable choice (especially given posts like this) but it’s actually the first Low album to top my list (other albums have been edged out into second and third place in 2013 and 2011 retrospectively). In a way it’s a shame that Modern Nature by The Charlatans didn't get past it to claim number one position – it’s a fantastic album that also re-establishes a classic, immediately identifiable sound. Given their recent history its positive, euphoric, feel-good nature is even more remarkable and it would have been a justified number one.

Elsewhere, the two bands that I’d rank as my second and third favourite bands of all time (Yo La Tengo and Mercury Rev) returned with solid offerings and other recent favourites like Beach House, Jaga Jazzist and Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat also released excellent albums. Albums by bands/artists I’ve admired for a long time like Sleater-Kinney, Sufjan Stevens and Calexico also all stood out.

There were also two excellent releases by two of the key players in contemporary, experimental classical music – Bang On A Can All Stars and Eighth Blackbird - and the adjacent genre of neo/modern classical continued to be productive with notable releases by the likes of Rachel Grimes, Lubomyr Melnyk, Michael Price, Iskra String Quartet and Nils Frahm. 

In terms of global music I really enjoyed the albums by Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal, Trio Chemirani, Bixiga 70, Mbongwana Star and Shye Ben Tzur/Jonny Greenwood & Rajasthan Express. Two big musical names from India – Anoushka Shankar and Jyotsna Srikanth - also impressed once again. And then there were those excellent albums that either came out of nowhere or were pleasing difficult to easily categorise – Ian William Craig, Matana Roberts, The Internet, Finland, Kathryn Joseph, Felicia Atkinson and Petrels just to name a few.

Anyway, here’s the list including links to reviews I wrote for musicOMH.

100) Biosphere/Deathprod - Stator

99) Nadine Shah – Fast Food - album review

98) Helen – The Original Faces

97) Jib Kidder – Teaspoon To The Ocean - live review

96) Terakaft - Alone (Ténéré)

95) Luke Abbott – Music For A Flat Landscape

94) Arca - Mutant

93) Mount Eerie - Sauna

92) Romare - Projections

91) Tyondai Braxton – HIVE1

90) Linden – Rest And Be Thankful

89) Jyotsna Srikanth – Bangalore Dreams

88) Bixiga 70 – III

87) Sexwitch - Sexwitch

86) Polar Bear – Same As You

85) Philip Jeck - Cardinal

84) Jeremy Young & Aaron Martin – Pulse Passes From Hand To Hand

83) Eivind Aarset – I.E.

82) Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band – Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band

81) Yo La Tengo – Stuff Like That There

80) Colin Stetson/Sarah Neufeld – Never Were The Way She Was

79) Thundercat – The Beyond/Where The Giants Roam

78) Portico – Living Fields

77) Ibeyi - Ibeyi - album review

76) Various Artists – A Guide To The Birdsong Of South America

75) Kathryn Williams - Hypoxia

74) Anoushka Shankar - Home

73) Felicia Atkinson – A Readymade Ceremony

72) Goldmund - Sometimes

71) Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – Ba Power - album review

70) L A N D - Anoxia

69) Erland Dahlen – Blossom Bells

68) Steve Hauschildt – Where All Is Fled

67) Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

66) Jan St Werner - Miscontinuum

65) Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets Grim Reaper - live review

64) Pure Bathing Culture – Pray For Rain - album review

63) Haiku Salut – Etch And Etch Deep

62) Mercury Rev – The Light In You

61) Secret Pyramid – The Silent March

60) Cass – Magical Magical

59) Cinerama - Valentina

58) Nils Frahm - Solo - blog post & Prom 27 review

57) Huntsville - Pond

56) Bruce Brubaker – Glass Piano

55) Flying Saucer Attack – Instrumentals 2015

54) Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear

53) David John Sheppard – Vertical Land

52) Olan Mill - Hiraeth

51) Iskra String Quartet - Iskra

50) Jerusalem In My Heart – If He Dies, If, If, If, If, If, If

49) Blanck Mass – Dumb Flesh

48) Eric Chenaux - Skullsplitter

47) Ryley Walker – Primrose Green

46) Björk - Vulnicura

45) Michael Price - Entanglement - album review

44) Esmerine – Lost Voices - album review

43) Dan Deacon – Gliss Riffer

42) John Carpenter – Lost Themes

41) Tame Impala - Currents

40) Ian William Craig – Cradle For The Wanting

39) Lau – The Bell That Never Rang

38) Inventions – Maze Of Woods

37) Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness

36) Eighth Blackbird - Filament

35) John Grant – Grey Tickles Black Pressure

34) Rival Consoles - Howl - album review

33) Trio Chemirani - Dawar

32) Ballake Sissoko & Vincet Segal – Musique de Nuit

31) Christina Vantzou – No. 3

30) Floating Points - Elaenia

29) Eska - Eska

28) Colleen – Captain Of None

27) Calexico – Edge Of The Sun

26) John Metcalfe – The Appearance Of Colour - album review

25) Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

24) Petrels – Flailing Tomb

23) Holly Herndon - Platform

22) Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Three

21) Kamasi Washington – The Epic

20) Helios - Yume

19) Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & Rajasthan Express - Junun

18) Julia Kent – Asperities

17) Lubomyr Melnyk – Rivers And Streams - album review

16) Mbongwana Star – From Kinshasa

15) Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – The Most Important Place In The World - album review

14) Mark McGuire – Beyond Belief

13) Finland – Rainy Omen

12) Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love

11) Rachel Grimes – The Clearing

10)The Go! Team – The Scene Between - live review

9) The Internet – Ego Death

8) Kathryn Joseph – Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled

7) Vetiver – Complete Strangers - album review

6) Joanna Newsom - Divers - live review

5) Jaga Jazzist – Starfire

4) Bang On A Can Allstars – Field Recordings

3) Beach House – Depression Cherry

2) The Charlatans – Modern Nature - live review

1) Low – Ones And Sixes - interview with Alan Sparhawk