1. We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships
This is a band that a friend from
home turned me onto and for that I owe her a huge debt. Finally seeing release
in the UK earlier this year, Rise Ye
Sunken Ships was born out of the disintegration of Pela and the untimely
deaths of frontman Billy McCarthy’s brother and mother. With McCarthy’s wounded
heart stitched firmly to the record’s sleeve, We Are Augustines channel this
emotional intensity into twelve beautifully crafted songs. Surging and
uplifting, not since Eels’s Electro-Shock
Blues has heartbreak and personal loss sounded so jubilant or indomitable.
2. Poliça – Give You The Ghost
What a monster of an album. Poliça
tread a fine line between warm intimacy and cool claustrophobia. Glacial synths
and Channy Leaneagh’s echoing vocals provide a clinical frostiness, while
resonant bass and cascading percussion give their sound an organic virility.
These blend together into undulating waves that break against you in a way that
is both sedating and stimulating at the same time. It’s a heady, intoxicating
mix, which draws you in and envelops you on the first listen.
3. Bill Fay – Life Is People
Full of sublimely soulful music,
this album signals the return of a major songwriting talent. From the majestic
opener There Is A Valley to the contemplative
closer The Coast No Man Can Tell, it
is clear that Bill Fay has endured a lot in his absence from the music scene.
But Fay delivers his experiences and tribulations without bitterness, just
hard-won compassion. Gospel singers and triumphant instrumentation buoy up the
record, while Fay delivers his perceptive lyrics in a bruised, yet magnanimous,
voice. Tragic and sweet, this is an album about overcoming hardship and looking
back on it from the other side with your love for humanity still intact.
4. Chromatics – Kill For Love
There always has to be one album
I stumble across while compiling these lists which shoots straight into it. This year it’s Chromatics’ Kill For Love,
whose bewitching blend of 80’s electro-pop and Italo-disco snatched it a place
in the top five. As with all Chromatics
related projects (Desire, Glass Candy, Symmetry), there is a heavy focus on the
cinematic and visual quality their music possesses. Here on Kill For Love, Chromatics deliver a
collection of beguiling nocturnes presented in glorious Technicolor.
5. Jack White – Blunderbuss
Jack White has always had a sense
of the American Gothic around his music and just one look at Blunderbuss’s cover, which seems like a
modern version of Edgar Allen Poe’s The
Raven, will give you a pretty good approximation of what the album sounds
like. Like a rag and bone man, White picks up scraps of whatever musical
detritus is lying around and tinkers it into something which is new and recognisably his. Here, elements of traditional country and bluegrass are forged
with White’s blues-punk sensibilities to create an album of astounding quality
and musical ingenuity. Blunderbuss
oscillates between riffy vitriol and melodic nursery rhyme, and my God does it
sound good.
6. Lee Fields & The Expressions – Faithful Man
Criminally underrated for over
four decades and still howling like a man half his age, Lee Fields is finally
getting the recognition he deserves. With the departure of Solomon Burke (R.I.P.)
in 2010, Fields may be the last of the great soul singers and Faithful Man proves just that.
7. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – 'Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
What is there that can really be
said about Godspeed, which hasn’t already been said? Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is Godspeed doing what they do best
and is yet another jewel in their post-rock crown.
8. RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost and Found
Reasons Why I Like Independent
Record Stores #8: Hearing an album in-store that you fall in love with and buy
immediately. Such was the case with RM Hubbert’s stunning collection of
collaborations with friends and contemporaries.
9. Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
Leonard Cohen has always been old
before his time and Old Ideas sees
him wearing his age comfortably, like his well-cut suits. Though his output is
resigned to a per-decade basis these days, these autumnal meditations on
mortality show that Cohen’s bright star remains undiminished.
With a deeply soulful voice and a
talent for indelible songwriting, Michael Kiwanuka really struck a chord in me
with his debut Home Again. If you’re
after an album of sophisticated tunes with contemporary soul leanings, then
this is the place to look.
JM
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