January Music

I’ve trawled through the music of January and here’s what I’ve found.

Napalm Death – Apex Predator – Easy Meat: Awesome. The metal album I’ve been waiting for. And I thought ND were over-the-hill 20 years ago.

Marilyn Manson – The Pale Emperor: Not awesome. Over-the-hill. Brian Johnson should ditch his persona, as the further he gets from it, the better the music gets.

BC Camplight – How To Die In The North: Thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy (gotta see that), there’s a real retro-moment going on, right now. I like how Abba/Carpenters/70s singer-songwriter this is, with a complete odd miserable lyricism as a contrast. It’s messy and unfocused but it’s good.

Mark Ronson – that album that has that song that Bruno Mars sings on: Yeah, I know. This is much better than it has any right to be. Mystikal kicks some flame-shooting ass.

Decemberists – Do You See Any Decemberists On My Playlist?: No, cause I hate them, and their new album sucks. I did give it the old college try, but after listening to half of three songs, I’m still confused. Why do people like the Decemberists?

Another Sleater-Kinney album: Which means it’s good … but after Portlandia it just seems odd. I don’t know, did the world need another Sleater-Kinney album? I can say that their drummer is easily the greatest live drummer I’ve seen, so that fact alone, the world needed another Sleater-Kinney album.

Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass: this album holds together so well, yet when I try to listen to individual songs they just … don’t …. seem to work. It’s mysterious. Maybe it just doesn’t pare well with Viet Cong. Maybe with enough spins I’ll be able to separate the gold from the mountain.

Here’s playlist to keep you up at night.

Best Songs of 2014

So – best songs of 2014. Now that I’ve fixed my WordPress, here’s my meticulously constructed list, in order, from 100 to número uno. And then you get my Beats Music and then Spotify playlists.

Without further ado:

100 – Beat The Drum Slowly by Timbre Timbre
99 – Predators by Old Man Gloom
98 – Let There Be Light by SunnO))) and Ulver
97 – Life of Sin by Sturgill Simpson
96 – Crash On The Highway by Hurray For The Riff-Raff
95 – I Heard The Owl Call My Name by Snowbird
94 – Silver Timothy by Damien Jurado
93 – Dark Matter Gods by Agalloch
92 – Opale by Alcest
91 – Dissolve by Cities Aviv
90 – Koud Edhaz Emin by Tinariwen
89 – Super Rat by Honeyblood
88 – Full Moon by Woods
87 – Maiden by MØ
86 – Soul Food by Big K.R.I.T. w/Raphael Saadiq
85 – Childs Play by SZA w/Chance The Rapper
84 – Never Catch Me by Flying Lotus w/Kendrick Lamar
83 – Hunger of the Pine by alt-J
82 – Happy Idiot by TV On The Radio
81 – Reeling by Nux Vomica
80 – Doom by Deerhoof
79 – Pauline Hawkins by Drive-By Truckers
78 – Endlessly Beautiful by Cynic
77 – West Coast by Lana Del Rey
76 – The Silent Orchestra by Hamilton Leithauser
75 – Under These Hands by Dum Dum Girls
74 – The Satanist by Behemoth
73 – Mr. Noah by Panda Bear
72 – Nolan by Ben Frost
71 – Goddess by BANKS
70 – Sandwich For The Attic Angel by Cretin
69 – Glass Boys by Fucked Up
68 – Cavity by Hundred Waters
67 – Telephone Call by Peaking Lights
66 – Little Glass Pill by Bob Mould
65 – Brother by Mac Demarco
64 – Darkest Place by Woman’s Hour
63 – Have Walked This Body by Susanna
62 – Whorehouse by ceo
61 – Pattern Walks by Cloud Nothings
60 – Edge of Darkness by Tombs
59 – CIRCLONT6A [141.98] [syrobonkus mix] by Aphex Twin
58 – Verlaine Shot Rimbaud by Lydia Loveless
57 – Waterfall by Ex Hex
56 – Place Names by Cymbals Eat Guitars
55 – Ducking & Dodging by Parquet Courts
54 – Want Remover by Protomartyr
53 – Ratchet by Objekt
52 – I Am Nothing by Electric Wizard
51 – Do You by Spoon

New Music Express

Beats Music came out in January. I’m whole hog into the music streaming thingie, so I signed up. The thing I like best about Beats are the playlists. I pretty much loathe any of the streaming radio stations (I loathe radio in general, actually), so I’m only in for stuff like Spotify and Rdio. I find the Beats playlists have a much better signal-to-shit than any of the streaming radios (even Pandora, maybe even especially Pandora).

Anyway …

Since then, I’ve been making a playlist out of all the new music from the previous month. I’ve finally gotten around to assembling my list for July, and it makes sense to share it on this blog. I post whatever the hell else on my blog, so why shouldn’t I?

Yeah, well, without further ado, here’s July’s new music playlist.