I suppose it’s not too early to start one of these. As far as my tastes were concerned it was a good year. Damn good year. The discs I pretended to listen to ( I’m being flippant and cynincal; that’s a hip thing to do on this forum ) in 2007 the most were:
Jesu - Conqueror
Jesu - Pale Sketches
Jesu - Lifeline
Earth - Hibernaculum
Rush - Snakes & Arrows
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Down - Over the Under
Plant and Krauss _ Raising Sand
Intronaut - Challenger
Gigs of the year -
Jesu - St. Andrews Detroit MI
Rush - Germain Amphitheater Columbus, OH
i have a hard time listening to much of anything that has come out recently but a few recent albums i remember are:
pj harvey - white chalk (best complete album of 07 for me)
angels of light - we are him
jesu - pale sketches (and the rest of them but i like this piece the best)
wu-tang - 8 diagrams
threshold house boys choir - form grows rampant
a place to bury strangers - s/t
red sparowes - every red heart…
grinderman
from 2006, but listened to a lot this year:
i love u but have chosen darkness - fear is on our side
russian circles - enter
mahogany - connectivity
letdowns: i used to be a nin fan but that last album was pathetic. and having 2nd row cure tickets for a show that got rescheduled to a date i can’t go to.
for 08: MBV, the cure, nick cave, portishead, alec empire, magnetic fields, broadrick projects, lead into gold unreleased shit (hopefully).
Highlights:
Siouxsie - Mantaray
Rush - Snakes & Arrows
Cy Curnin - Returning Sun
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
Just ok:
Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker
Crowded House - Time On Earth
The The - Mrs Mac
Disappointments:
Ministry - TLS, RGDub
RevCo - Cocktail Mixx
Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque
NIN - Year Zero
Satellite Party - Ultra Payloaded (2 decent songs with Peter Hook, the rest is unlistenable)
Xymox - Heroes single
Concert Highlights:
Skinny Puppy, Tempe, AZ
Nitzer Ebb, Tempe, AZ
Rush, Phoenix, AZ
The Fixx, Scottsdale, AZ
2008:
Xymox - Visible (2-DVD video collection, finally)
The Cure - new album
The Fixx - new album
The The - new album???
Well, I’m not much on new stuff lately, but here’s a few I was pleased with this past year:
Dear Leader: The Alarmist - political music in a very good way. I heard this and went out and bought their entire back catalog.
USSA: The Spoils - You guys know I like this one. Paul Barker +indie music = good.
16 Volt: Full Black Habit - After quite a break since the last album, I had a pretty low expectation for this album. Some of the songs were weak, but several blew me away. Good stuff.
Skinny Puppy: Back And Forth 7 - Quite a bit of filler, but there were enough tracks with Ogre to keep it ineteresting. Most of this stuff was leaps and bounds ahead of Mythmaker.
KMFDM: Tohuvabohu - They’ve been going downhill for the past several albums, and with no good guests to pull this one back up, I expected 1 listen all the way through, if that. There were several songs that actually got listened to quite a bit.
Throbbing Gristle - Part Two: Endless Not
Angels Of Light - We Are Him
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Jesu - Conqueror
Thurston Moore - Trees Outside The Academy
Dark Throne - F.O.A.D
Liars - Liars
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Earth - Hibernaculum
Scott Walker - And Who Shall Come To The Ball…
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Black Dice - Load Blown
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer
Best: U.S.S.A., by far. Type O’s latest wasn’t too bad either.
Worst: Year Zero and Mythmaker.
The former was blatantly unlistenable, and the latter, aside from Jaher, didn’t really work for me.
Most anticipated in '08: You know it - Flowering Blight.
A whole bunch of good albums this year, but not one really that stands out, apart the Ramesses one maybe which I listen on a regular basis.
The records I’ve listened the most this year (and don’t ask me how many I bought…):
Antigama - Resonance
Atavist - II: Ruined
Blut Aus Nord - Odinist
Cobalt - Eater Of Birds
Cult (The) - Born Into This
Dirge - Wings Of Lead Over Dormant Seas
Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today
Entombed - Serpent Saints
Harvey (PJ) - White Chalk
Hollow Corp. - Cloister Of Radiance
Jesu - Conqueror
Jesu - Pale Sketches
Ministry - The Last Sucker
Minsk - The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment
Neurosis - Given To The Rising
Obituary - Xecutioner’s Return
Om - Pilgrimage
Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb
Portal - Outre
Prong - Power Of The Damager
Ramesses - Misanthropic Alchemy
Red Harvest - A Greater Darkness
Scorn - Stealth
Today Is The Day - Axis Of Eden
Ulver - Shadows Of The Sun
Zatokrev - Bury The Ashes
M.I.A. “Kala” - about a half of the album is pure gold, a quarter of it I don’t like and the other quarter is good. “Paper Planes” is my song of the year and I love Afrikan Boy in “Hussel”.
South Rakkas Crew “Mix Up” Just out but I love it. Kind of like the first MIA in terms of gameboy maximalist freak-out pop but this is pure dancehall reggae on top of all that.
Saul Williams “Niggy” I like it. It’s not my favorite ever, but it’s good stuff.
NIN “Year Zero” My favorite since “TDS” I liked it when it came out and I still like it now. The remix album ain’t bad either.
Ministry “TLS” Some really bad stuff on here (“The Dick Song”) is made up for by the really good (“Die in a Crash”). Better than “RGB” not as good as “HotM”
Mala Rodriguez “Malamarismo” Great hispanic hip hop. Mala’s got a really focused and unique delivery.
Download “Fixer” Best Key release in ages. Good stuff through and through. I wish Phil Western had been a part of “Mythmaker” instead of Walk, might have made it worthwhile.
I got the new Burial album but have only listened to it once. Good but I haven’t heard it enough to have a firm opnion. New She Wants Revenge was fucking terrible. Like a mediocre remake of the first album. Matthew Dear’s new one is good but hasn’t gotten a lot of play. Jesu “Lifeline” falls in the same boat, I like it when I’m listening to it but it has no magnetic pull for me.
M.I.A “Kala” is awesome. My fav song is the one Blaqstarr produced… “The Turn” i believe it is? That is superb. The beats are beastly! “Paper Planes” is another fantastic cut too…she’s playing over in Glasgow next week!
I too recently picked up Burial’s new album “Untrue”…it’s excellent. It is very VERY mellow though. I prefer the first album but as you said “Untrue” needs more listens. The Skinny paper named “Untrue” it’s album of the month.
“The Turn” is one of the tracks that hasn’t grabbed me as much as some others (it fell in my good category) but I’ll give it a bunch of listens today and see if that changes my mind. I’m really digging the “Shake it to the Ground” single by Blaqstarr right now. Mad Decent is my label of the moment.
The only Behemoth I ever enjoyed was Satanica and the Nefilim cover. Vader is far better than Beh because they have a sense of dynamics that few death metal bands have, including many of the bigger names.
