shmusings

Why hello there. I'm a bit late, but I wanted to post about some of my favorite albums of 2014. As I've done the last few years, I'll just list a bunch of albums I enjoyed, in no order... with no commentary!

• Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots


• Caribou - Our Love


• FKA Twigs - LP1


• The New Pornographers - Brill Bruisers


• Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness


• Spoon - They Want My Soul


• St. Vincent - St. Vincent


• A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Sea When Absent


• Sharon Van Etten -  Are We There


• The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream

Decent year for music, though not as good as 2012. Here are ten 2013 albums I enjoyed, listed alphabetically (i.e., not ranked):

• Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You


• Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe


• Cults - Static


• The Dodos - Carrier


• Islands - Ski Mask


• The Knife - Shaking the Habitual


• Jamie Lidell - Jamie Lidell


• The National - Trouble Will Find Me


• Suede - Bloodsports


• Zola Jesus - Versions

I don't think I can really choose a favorite from the above, actually.

This link will take you to my lists from previous years.
 

A pretty good year for music. Here are the albums I would consider my top 10 (though not in ranked order, just alphabetical):

• Beach House - Bloom
• Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
• Father John Misty - Fear Fun
• Grimes - Visions
• Grizzly Bear - Shields
• Husky - Forever So
• Japandroids - Celebration Rock
• Mark Lanegan - Blues Funeral
• Purity Ring - Shrines
• Santigold - Master of My Make-Believe

I'd probably put Purity Ring at the top, though that could change at any moment.

Last year I only listed eight, and would have had an easier time choosing this year if I had done only eight as well, as I had some trouble choosing the last two (which are Husky and Mark Lanegan).

Wait, I think that Grizzly Bear album was my favorite.

Follow this link for a page of all my top music lists back to 2005 (excluding 2008 and 2010, which I guess I skipped).

Hold on, put Purity Ring back on top again. Thanks.
 

I finally really got back into music in a big way this past year. Well, it happened towards the end of last year, but this was the first year in a while I feel like I really kept up (and even caught up). I think there are two reasons for this: 1) I got a RCA to mini adapter allowing me to play things from my mp3 player on my stereo, 2) I stopped streaming full albums at work and started listening to internet radio again. I found that streaming the albums, usually once each, meant I was listening to everything but hearing just about nothing. Internet radio (specifically, 3wk and KEXP) allows me to hear a wider breadth a few times each, so I can figure out what I like.

So, for the first time in a few years, here's a list of my favorite albums of the year. I did not rank them, but here are my eight favorite albums of the year, listed alphabetically. This was a great year. I probably could have listed 10, or 15, or 20, or 25. But less is more.

• Cults – Cults
• Destroyer – Kaputt
• The Dodos – No Color
• PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
• Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
• The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong
• St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
• Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

For reference, this post has my 2009 list and links to my 2005-2007 lists (I skipped 2008 and 2010).

I'm also working on my 2011 year-end mix, as usual. I'll keep you posted.
 

This journal is now over 5 years old (first entry was December 19, 2004). Happy birthday!

I didn't post a top albums list for 2008 because I didn't feel like I heard enough that year. I did post in other years (here's 2007, 2006, and 2005). This past year I again feel like I heard enough new music, but I've decided not to rank the albums. So here, in alphabetical order by artist, are ten albums shmoo liked from 2009.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Islands - Vapours
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Kings Of Convenience - Declaration Of Dependence
Rain Machine - Rain Machine
White Rabbits - It's Frightening

I actually only own five of these, and one of the ones I don't own is by a band from whom I have eight other albums. Things have changed.
 

Really, it's all I get.

Here's my top 20 for 2007, in approximately ranked order:

1. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
2. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
3. M.I.A. - Kala
4. The Go! Team - Proof Of Youth
5. Björk - Volta
6. Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This
7. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
8. Neko Case - Live From Austin, TX
9. Tulsa - I Was Submerged
10. White Rabbits - Fort Nightly
11. The Cops - Free Electricity
12. Blonde Redhead - 23
13. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
14. Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated
15. The New Pornographers - Challengers
16. Radiohead - In Rainbows
17. Feral Children - Second To The Last Frontier
18. Enon - Grass Geysers... Carbon Clouds
19. Band of Horses - Cease To Begin
20. The Bird & The Bee - The Bird & The Bee

Six of those albums are by artists I was unfamiliar with before 2007. That's pretty damn high and I'm proud of myself!

Hmm, I just looked back at my 2006 list, and I think six of those artists were new to me that year too. Maybe I wasn't so open-minded this year after all, or at least not more than last year. Damn me.
 

It's 2007, the year I graduate, the year I turn 30, and the year I start working again. That sucks. Maybe it will also be the year people start calling me to do fun things, rather than leaving it up to me to always contact them and feel like some needy friendless loser. So frustrating. There are a few exceptions, but the most notable is now in Hong Kong for the quarter so there goes that. Anyway, maybe I'm just feeling extra lonely after such a boring week (with the exception of New Year's Eve itself, which was quite fun).

Anyway, I promised a list of my favorite albums of the year, so here it is. Order approximate of course:

1. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
2. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
3. Black Heart Procession - The Spell
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes EP
   
5. Eric Bachmann - To The Races
6. The Knife - Silent Shout
7. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
8. Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
9. The Bon Savants - Post-Rock Defends The Nation
10. Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
11. Night Rally - Preston Family Crest
12. Built To Spill - You In Reverse
13. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas
14. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
15. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
16. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
17. +/- - Let's Build A Fire
18. Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
19. Bound Stems - Appreciation Night
20. The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off

A mix of veterans and newer artists, and a few Boston bands thrown in for good measure. Stay tuned as I will have my 2006 year-end mix relatively soon. Though it will probably be quite different in make-up than the list above. Probably only half the albums above have an individual track that will make my mix.
 

It has come to my attention that I may have more readers than I thought. One classmate told me last night that she reads this blog, and then proved it by knowing all my stories before I told them. I know at least five other classmates who have read this blog at one point, but whether or not they still do, I have no idea. Therefore, I encourage you to comment if you have something to say, or just to say hello. You don't need to have an LJ account to comment. Probably 75% of my comments have been non-user comments thanks to the Jackal, Tosh before she became photojenp, McG, and la demoiselle d'snork. So let me know if you're out there, just sign your comment with a nickname so I can figure out who you are, feel free to make your own.

Anyway, down to business. Today is the last day of 2005. And you know what that means... party! Well, I suppose, but for blogging, and for me, it means a 2005 year in review. We'sa gonna have two parts today. 1) Music, 2) Other. That is how my life is divided. Except food. That's divided into chocolate and other. Special thanks to lee_cheri for providing the format for the Other section.


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