Dec 7 - Dec 22 listening

The Roots - ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (2014) - "total command of their combination of jazz-influenced hip-hop and social awareness.

Aidan Moffat - Songs That Weren't To Be (2017) - "I had this idea that I’d write drinking songs in a more literal sense, which would attempt to address Scotland’s relationship with The Bevvy itself."

Days Fade, Night Grow - Amelioration (2017) - "a grasping of beauty from the punishing maelstrom of existence, building a cohesive whole out of the fractured remnants of a life"

The FRIGHTNERS - More to Say Versions (2017) - "Rocksteady, Reggae, & Early Dancehall Inna The Finest Nyc Fashun ... *romantic Murderation/ Rub A Dub Assassination*""

Inna De Yard ?– The Soul Of Jamaica (2017) - "invites legends of the Jamaican reggae scene, including Cedric Myton and Ken Boothe, to rework classic songs in the great outdoors"

Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) - "A masterpiece of dream pop, as well as an ethereal and emotional experience"

Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll (1988) - "their airiest, cottoniest album, with an enticing use of space on the production but with hooks that sound oddly restrained."

Goldfrapp - Silver Eye (2017) - "a decent but unsurprising return to synthpop"

Future Islands - The Far Field (2017) - "The Far Field is carried by light catharsis, diffused and mild-tempered fun, virtuosic vocal delivery, and steel-clean production."

A.Savage - Thawing Dawn (2017) - "... finds Savage treading the familiar territory of an urban creative distilling personal and contemporary concerns through an alt-country framework."

Ty Segall - Ty Segall (2017) - "he's taken yet another strong step toward turning retroactive garage rock into high art."

Soul Jazz Records Presents STUDIO ONE Supreme: Maximum 70s and 80s Early Dancehall Sounds (2017) - "Loved it some great tracks on here plus some gems genuine studio one very nice indeed"

Hans Chew - Open Sea (2017) - "The six lengthy tunes here twist and turn, boogie and burn, staying focused and sharp no matter what paths they travel down"

Zeitkratzer - Performs Songs from the Albums "Kraftwerk" and "Kraftwerk 2" (2017) - "the six tracks reveal a bucolic and even psychedelic aspect of the ensemble that's mostly known (or feared) for its interpretatory and aesthetic acerbity"

Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker - SpiderBeetleBee (2017) - "Picking in the tradition, Walker and MacKay summon drafts of slide blues, baroque dance, percolating latin and deep-focus space to push them on their way beyond the sunrise"

Benjamin Booker - Witness (2017) - "the New Orleans-based Benjamin Booker makes retro music feel modern, reflecting on racism in America while drawing on blues, soul, and gospel."

N*E*R*D - No_One Ever Really Dies (2017) - "...boasts a gripping, consistent sound behind its plethora of high-profile cameos."

Thee Oh Sees - Orc (2017) - "John Dwyer’s garage-punk band continues to travel further toward rock’s outer limits."

Phoebe Bridgers - Strangers in the Alps (2017) - "... alchemizes sorrow into redemptive beauty. It’s never about wallowing, but about slowly moving through it."

Nov 18 - Dec 6 listening

The Weather Station - self titled (2017) - "Lindeman reinvents her songcraft with a vital new energy, framing her prose-poem narratives in bolder musical settings."

Alvvays - Antisocialites (2017) - "For all its darker and uneasy lyrical content, this is still a record that begs to be blasted on road trips and at rooftop parties."

Detroit (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2017) - "features original architects of the immortal ‘Motown Sound’ as well as a new song from GRAMMY® Award-winning multi platinum hip-hop icons The Roots"

Wild Billy Childish & The Buff Medways - The Xfm Sessions (2007) - "La dimensione live, oltretutto con qualità quasi da bootleg, fornisce all’istrionico Childish il territorio ideale nel quale sfogare il suo sudato vigore musicale"

Joni Mitchell - Hejira (1976) - "a meditation on the value and melancholy of being alone, her guitar imitating the rhythms and expanse of the road... a real grown woman album and may not make tremendous sense to anyone under 30."

Hunt for the Wilderpeople Soundtrack (2016) - "Surprisingly interesting, dreamy, and really good. Great meandering, calm background music for creative endeavors. Or, while plunking away at Excel spreadsheets and data all day."

Thundercat - Drunk (2017) - "a lopsided wonderland of stoned soul"

Fred Locks - Star Liner True Rastaman (1976) -  "I would listen to this record anytime and it makes me feel like going outside and sitting under a tree and covering myself with leaves and grass."

IDLES - Brutalism (2017) - "A rare rock record with the rage, urgency, wit and shattering of complacency usually found in grime."

Tommy Keene - Strange Alliance (1982) - "He introduces a sharply chiming power-pop formula from which he would rarely deviate from for the rest of his still-ongoing career."

Wand - Plum (2017) - "an intuitive work that exists at the confluence of avant-pop, psychedelia and garage-rock."

Queens of the Stone Age - Villains (2017) - "It’s equal parts disco inferno and devil-may-care experimentation."

Wolf People - Steeple (2010) - "Some may hear this mélange of spindly proto-metal riffs, Fairport Convention-style electric folk and batty harmonica parts, and find it hard to believe that this was written and recorded any time after 1972."

Dan Auerbach - Waiting on a Song (2017) - "exudes his signature retro-soul fetishism"

Nov 1 - Nov 17 listening

Dead Moon - In the Graveyard (1988) - “An authentic mix of psychedelic rock, punk, blues, country, & every other American music worth a damn.”

The Left Outsides - The Third Light (2013) - “atmospheric, hypnotic songs echo Nico's icy European folk, pastoral psychedelia and chilly English fields at dawn.”

Datblygu - Porwr Trallod (2015) - “The delightfully titled ‘llawenydd diweithdra’ (The Joy of Unemployment) sounds like Delia Derbyshire discussing current affairs with Metal Mickey in a washing machine.”

Wolfgang Riechmann - Wunderbar (1978) - “If you like Man Machine era Kraftwerk then you'll love this. Wolfgang looks extremely cool on the cover despite wearing blue lipstick.”

Hiroshi Yoshimura - Music For Nine Post Cards (1982) - “Inspired by a series of window views, Japanese ambient pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura’s 1982 album... has a disarming presence, cutting sweetly into the listener’s reality.”

Four Tet - New Energy (2017) - 'hippy-ish sensibility' - Financial Times

Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe (2011) - “the sound of a kind of sensuous virtuality, the artist as simulacra, both the experience and problematization of the post-human, a new cyber-pop unconscious.”

Beck - Colors (2017) - “his most overtly pop record, one filled with sunshine and sadness, but feels connected to little more than a good idea.”

Baxter Dury - Prince of Tears (2017) - “The different characters Baxter inhabits throughout the album are all anti-social, isolated, maudlin and incredibly, incredibly foul-mouthed”

Jr & His Soulettes – Psychodelic Sounds (1971) - “10-year old Harold Moore Jr and his three younger sisters deliver souped-up strip joint soul from Oklahoma City.”  Start Price: USD 1500

King Krule - The OOZ (2017) - “a wilfully idiosyncratic outpouring of songs about depression and bodily fluids”

John Bender - I Don’t Remember Now (1980) - “the holy grail of minimal lo-fi electronics. Layers of fractured melodies, distorted synthesizers, hollowed-out rhythms and claustrophobic vocals unfold …”

Spinning Coin - Permo (2017) - “The band match skuzzy, barbed wire indie pop riffs to lyrics that detail a crumbling society”

Here Lies Man - Here Lies Man (2017) - “Who thought heavy metal and Afro Beat could sound so good together?”

Childhood - Universal High (2017) - “British indie rock band influenced by 1970s soul music”

Wand - Golem (2015) - “draws from the old-school prog/psych sourcebook”

Wand - 1000 Days (2015) - “a giddily eccentric piece of contemporary rock and roll”

Daniel Patrick Quinn - Acting The Rubber Pig Redux (2014) - “our best bet for a next-generation British cult figure likely to continue surprising us in 10, even 20, years”

Le Forte Four - Bikini Tennis Shoes (1975) - “Its 40 tracks (many under 30 seconds) veer from electronic experimentation and media manipulation to plain goofing off. Wild, ramshackle and unique.”

Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference (2017) - “displays a tireless ambition with his compositions, performance, and spiritual approach”

Oct 19 - Oct 31 listening

Betty Davis - Betty Davis (1973) - ”a petite figure with an oversized afro, [Betty] was the true innovator of punk-funk beats as well as vulgo queen style, and this album is genre-defining”

Lindstrøm - It's Alright Between Us As It Is (2017) - “pleasant but powerful dance workouts”

CTMF -  Brand New Cage (2017) - “Wild Billy Childish tries once again to recapture the spirit of 77 with CTMF, and succeeds for the fifth time in a row”

Ariel Pink - Dedicated to Bobby Jameson (2017) - “Refining the gonzo pop-collages of his previous work, Ariel Pink crafts an immersive, intimate record, marked by solitude”

Vagabon - Infinite Worlds (2017) - “28 minutes of uncompromising and effortless genre-bending”

All Them Witches - Sleeping Through the War (2017) - “continues to showcase their southern swagger of bluesy, soulful, hard psychedelic rock charm”

Girl Ray - Earl Grey (2017) - “The influence of shambly 1990s indie such as Pavement and, most obviously, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci is clear on their winningly gauche debut”

Corridor - Supermercado (2017) - "upfront, dissonant guitars upheld by minimal beats and syncopated bass lines ... Supermercado leans on repeated strong melodies, slow progressions, bolstered by two distinct voices, yielding a more hypnotic, sharper, and strangely, poppier result."

Supersister - To the Highest Bidder (1971) -  “full of imaginative playing, cute melodies, erotized nursery rhymes, soft flute grooviness and atmospheric keyboards.”

Heldon - It's Always Rock 'n' Roll (1975) - “The band investigates the possibilities of tortured synthetizers and dissonnant Frippian guitars.”

Jem Targal - Luckey Guy (1978) - “The sparsely arranged, squeakily sung, barely “rock” songs on this album show a surprising pop sense.”

Third Power - Believe (1970) - “The band's power trio sound is reminiscent of Cream, with Targal's vocals a match for those of the late Jack Bruce”

Dr. Philter Banx - Insertion In Middle "C" ‎(1975) -  “Mad experimental cosmic rock LP"

Oct 3 - Oct 18 listening

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (1976) -  “The songs are cute, the riffs executed with more dynamism than usual, and the singing attractively phlegmy.”

Max Richter, Various ‎– Behind The Counter With (2017) -  “a refined mixture of canonical classics, post rock and contemporary electronic composition”

The Clientele - Music For The Age Of Miracles (2017) - “The gauzy seductive songs feel like euphoric conjuring, chinks in the doors of perceptions that reveal another hidden capital, a misty tapestry of late-night idylls, laced with a rapturous melancholy magic.”

Mogwai - Every Country's Sun (2017) - “brash, gritty, unpretentious, and thrillingly claustrophobic”

Joni Mitchell  - Court and Spark (1974) - “her bridge of sighs between folk-rock singer-songwriter and neo-jazz experimentalist”

Various Artists - Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown 1973-1980 (2001) - “a collection of 18 covers of American soul tunes by the famous Jamaican label's finest '60s and '70s artists”

Various Artists - Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares (2017) - “Lifted from the ashes of the acid rock hell fire are 18 distorted tales of dope fiends, pill poppers, and the baddest of trips.”

Dinosaur L - 24→24 Music (1981) - “alluringly ugly and unkempt ... it's disco at its loosest, warmest, and weirdest”

Messthetics # 1: UK '78-81 "D.I.Y." - Bands R-to-Si - “the holy grail of post-punk compilations … A barrage of D.I.Y. madness that will keep you enthralled from beginning to end.”

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers (2017) - “The Canadian apocalypticists take aim at a familiar set of targets (money, environmental destruction, warfare), the usual trigger for their scorched-earth symphonies.”

MFSB - Love is the Message (1973) - “a landmark LP for Philadelphia's early to mid-'70s soul movement”

Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now (2017) - “Although Lekman's voice sometimes sounds like Morrissey doing a Kermit the Frog impression, he revels in strong songwriting and brilliant hooks played on steel drums, funky horns and hip-hop bells.”

Courtney Barnett / Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice (2017) - “an album, of scraggly, lackadaisical, and compulsively listenable rock”

Sept 14 - Oct 2 listening

Max Richter - Taboo Soundtrack (2017) - "textural greatness, a fabric woven of dark shades and thick strings"

Neil Young - Hitchhiker (2017) - "a dusted-off portrait of an artist near his peak."

Twin Peaks - Music From The Limited Event Series  (2017) - “a triumph of musical programming, mood, and David Lynch’s strange reality."

Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Soundtrack (2017) - "Takes us back to beautiful experience of mystic and wonderful episodes of my favourite show ever"

The National - Sleep Well Beast (2017) - "full of abandon and quiet contemplation"

The Fall - New Facts Emerge (2017) - "ever nastier, ever greasier, ever more hypnotically righteous."

Six Organs of Admittance - s-t (1998) - "a collection of mostly-instrumental meditations"

Garden of Delights (BIg Chill Folk Album) (2006) - "basically a compilation of artists on The Transatlantic Record Label, which specialised in signing offbeat Folk orientated act"

Laraaji - Bring on the Sun (2017) - "an immersive experience, one that shimmers and glistens and throbs in all the right places"

Jhené Aiko - Trip (2017) - "Aiko's odyssey rises to levels metaphorical and metaphysical as her quest turns further inward over the hour-and-a-half span of dreamlike, meditative grooves."

Bonobo - Migration (2017) - "pensive ambient electronica from a nomadic soul"

Peter Green - The End of the Game (1970) - "a far looser strand of improvisational rock comprised of wholly instrumental outings"

Brix and the Extricated - Part 2 (2017) -  "Blondie meets Patti in the half light simultaneously on Manchester back streets and catwalks everywhere."

Santana - Festival (1976) - "As a salsa band they're still OK, but a ten-tune format and the sincere desire for AM proselytization don't make them a pop band."

Santana - Inner Secrets (1978) - "probably insures continued airplay but doesn't mean sheep-dip in the larger scheme of the band's discography."

Sep 1- Sep 13 new listening

This is the Kit - Moonshine Freeze (2017) - “rootsy arrangements of banjo, horns, and gentle percussion”

The Light Of Saba - In Reggae (1976) - “Mystical, uplifting, sensual, difficult.”

Pastor T.L. Barrett And The Youth For Christ Choir - Like A Ship (Without A Sail) (1971) - “rare gospel soul classic”

Kris Kristofferson - Jesus was a Capricorn (1972) -  “singing about religion, romance, and roughhousing with equal fervor”

Toro y Moi - Boo Boo (2017) -  “still-funky but more ambient”

LCD Soundsystem - american dream (2017) - "virtuosic comeback full of harmonies and humblebrags"

Real Estate - In Mind (2017) - “understated pleasures from steadfast indie-rockers”

Endless Boogie - Vibe Killer (2017) - “continuation and further honing of the band’s heavy psychedelic blues sound”

Holger Czukay - Der Osten ist Rot (1984) - ”warped sensibility”

Holger Czukay - Radio Wave Surfer (1991) - ”imaginary radio broadcast”

Ulrich Schnauss - No Further Ahead than Today (2016) - “populist electronica”

Pontiak - Dialectic of Ignorance (2017) - “heavy barrels of stomping, lunging acid rock”

Arcade Fire - Everything Now (2017) - “tangled, joyless record of Banksy disco and bloodless new wave”

Feral Ohms - Feral Ohms (2017) - "ferocious onslaught of sped-up, blues-tinged mayhem”

Wooden Wand - Clipper Ship (2017) - “guitar-led songcraft”, “a set of lush, free-born soundscapes”

Arbouretum - Song of the Rose (2017)  - “Baltimore quartet's folk-rock project plunges deeper into the mystic”

Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives (2017) - “rhythm-driven album that feels less like electronic music and more like the work of a full band.”

Big Moon - Love in the 4th Dimension (2017) - “nostalgic indie with wide-eyed conviction”

Serge Gainsbourg - Madame Claude (BO du Film) (1977) - “une foule de petit instrumentaux funk”

Whataboutery

Inspired by Tom Ewing's Unheard Album project, I too - an elderly man of unsound mind - do hereby vow to listen to a new-to-me album a day, on average, for the next year. The year starting as they usually do on 1 September 2017. I may listen at home at work in the gym ha ha ha or while laying awake in the middle of the night. The albums may be new or old, or like whatever, it's my game.

Don't worry I won't review them, just listen to and list them, for my own amusement and record keeping record purposes. If I put an album in bold, or add five stars or something, that means something. Thus Confucian renovation and Dantesque renewal come together.

If it's not listed, then I've either:

• heard it already
• never heard of it
• don't want to hear it
• other

Lee Holloway