Best Albums of 2015 … So Far!
Posted by: osprey on 20 September 2015
This album was released already in April if I remember correctly. I bought it only recently though and have listened to it lot.
"Sound & Color is not an electronic record. But it is strange and mystical and unexpected—more Houses of the Holy than "Holy Cow". It’s got past lives and future people, traces of Curtis Mayfield, Erykah Badu, MC5, the Strokes. There’s a song called "Shoegaze" that could find a second home on the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You. Bon Iver collaborator Rob Moose provides eerie string arrangements that slowly encroach on songs like ivy climbing up a fence while the band and co-producer Blake Mills tweak tones and rhythms to make guitars and drums and bass and keyboards sound genuinely exciting—fresh, even—in 2015. "
- Pitchfork
Are there any other 2015 releases you can nominate to the best of list for the year?
Peet posted:k posted:+1The guitar playing on that album is outstanding.He has got chops in abundance yet never overplays and the dialogue with Gomes is telepathic.Originally Posted by Peet:Just finished first round of listening but I think the new Carmen Gomes on Sound Liaison gets my vote. Stunning.
http://www.soundliaison.com/st...omes-inc-little-blue
Little Blue is a collection of songs that I feel strongly about. Songs of my youth that made an lingering impression and original compositions, some written a long time ago; some only recently.
They all deal with topics of everyday life that keeps my mind occupied: the choices we make, how we define ourselves and how we deal with life in general.
I was a reasonably happy but lonely kid. I felt myself an outsider, a bit different, maybe to a certain extend excluded. Making up for this, I locked myself in my room and listened to music, singing along with every song. I developed a taste for artists that were more ''deep''.... Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Neil Young. There was something in their voices that touched me, some emotion that I recognized.
I internalized all of Neil Young's lyrics; they made a huge impact on me and served as a heavy influence on the lyrics that I started writing myself. Billie's voice still tears me apart.
Growing up, I came across songs that stuck with me. Holding Back the years and Brass in Pocket for example. I strongly related to the lyrics. I could almost smell them. Songs about love in all it's splendour and compassion. Songs about addiction, inequality and loneliness. Songs about the eternal search for an answer. I’m a grown woman now, a mother, experienced, but still searching.
To sing a song I need to picture the story of the lyrics in my head; I have to feel them. If I can't feel them, I can't sing them. And how can I expect you to believe what I am singing if I don't feel it myself? So you can say that the songs on this album are very personal, very close.
Carmen Gomes
Maybe the most beautiful song on the album. I believe I can hear what they are describing in the album notes;
[quote]Every word and melodic phrase seems to appear from years of soul searching and life experience. Carmen Gomes knows just how much or little is needed to convey the right amount of feeling for a particular song. Although sometimes the amount of feeling and emotion that is needed is almost too much for Carmen herself. We had to call for break after the Little Girl Blue take because Carmen was in tears and overcome with emotions. You can hear the voice starting to break up towards the end of the song. [/qoute]
There is a live version of the song on youtube from a Jazz.tv recording, very beautiful.
Quad 33 posted:Recorded late 2015.....
And the whole band are Jazz musicians!
This one I bought only just recently mainly in order to find out what the fuss around it was all about. Although Hip hop – West Coast hip hop as a genre is not something which I claim to be familiar with that well this one is a positive surprise and I can now understand better all the praise given to this album. I am not sure if I yet could go as far as Patterson Hood who is saying:
ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
“Wildly ambitious and potentially trainwreck embarrassing, KL keeps it together and created a true bonafied masterpiece. One that wildly rewards repeated listens and closer inspection. It's my favorite record so far this decade and one that I can place alongside London Calling and White Album and other decade toppers.”
Time will tell but this is surely something worth of try.
Finally a short summary for this thread might be in order since I believe the year 2015 has now been fully handled – we are after all already in the middle of the first quarter 2016 and a good new thread has already been opened. There has been total of 181 suggestions including 139 separate albums by 43 members. The below albums got more than 2 nominations:
Hand. Cannot. Erase. | Steven Wilson | 8 |
City | Stuart McCallum | 4 |
Have You In My Wilderness | Julia Holter | 4 |
The Race For Space | Public Service Broadcasting | 4 |
Currents | Tame Impala | 3 |
Music Complete | New Order | 3 |
Rattle That Lock | David Gilmour | 3 |
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit | Courtney Barnett | 3 |
Under Branch & Thorn & Tree | Samantha Crain | 3 |
At least I purchased a couple of interesting albums based on suggestions in this thread which I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. So thanks for everyone who participated and keep the good tips coming in the other thread for 2016…
migo posted:
As long as music has existed it has been known to have spiritual and even healing powers.
The group Space Master Silence was started as a musical search party, traveling headfirst into the uncharted land of music, emotion and spirit.
The beautiful ambient-electronica-jazz soundscape City is the new album from Manchester guitarist and composer Stuart McCallum and his second studio album for Naim. City features a handful of seasoned musicians including McCallum on guitars, Robin Mullarkey, bass (ESKA, Roisin Murphy), Sean Foran (Trichotomy), Rhodes and Richard Spaven (Flying Lotus, José James) drums, synths and electronics.
Naim Label.http://www.naimlabel.com/
The real challenge for a musician
once he has mastered his instrument
learned all about harmony and rhythm
absorbed the music of the masters that came before him
and found his own voice
the real challenge is one that in itself sounds very simple
place yourself in complete service of the music at hand
and play only what the music is asking for
but as every musician will tell you this is the most difficult of all musical challenges.
So many musicians these days are emphasizing the improvisation at the cost of the melody, with the result that .....''you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to''...(Louis Armstrong)
Sound Liaison http://www.soundliaison.com/st...-witmer-trio-en-azul
Nice ''making off video'' here;
ewemon posted:Originally Posted by King Size:Chris Stapleton's "Traveller".
Bought this album about four months ago and have probably listened to it every week since.
You can feel that he has lived every note on this record. I am pretty sure I won't hear a record that touches me more this year.
One of my top albums of the year if not the top album.
I did not know they made this kind of albums no more, thanks