Info: Such is the flood of high quality local acts, I find it hard to keep up to date with 'happenings' outside of Ireland sometimes. So I made a deliberate decision to scour the web for new releases this year, and share my favourites on a monthly basis, I managed to do this up until the month of October, I'll take it!
Above (Playlist) and below (list) are a collection of albums that I listened to quite a bit in 2018, I was even lucky to see 4 of these 10 acts live in Dublin over the last 6 months. Two of those performances, from Natalie Prass and Screaming Females in particular, were a dream come true.
1) Natalie Prass - The Future and the Past
Jeez Louise, it's the best soul n' rn'b album to be released since, well, a long, long time. Natalie Prass' The Future and The Past is simply delicious. The album was released on the 1st of June. I went to a number of gigs in The Workman's Club, and from March onwards they had the poster up for her show on 6th of November, no way in hell was I missing it! Prass was arresting, towards the end of her set the band left the stage and she dropped guitar and sat at the keyboard, sang, the world slotted into place, just for a minute.
Key tracks: 'Oh My', 'Sisters', 'Short Cut Style', 'Ain't Nobody'
Key tracks: 'Oh My', 'Sisters', 'Short Cut Style', 'Ain't Nobody'
2) Screaming Females - All at Once
I was just as lucky to see New Jersey's Screaming Females on their tour for their latest studio album, All at Once, on the night, local Dublin trio Alien She were supporting. It was distilled anarchy, and this stretches across the album, the brimming and the overt, I listened the shit out of opener 'Glass House' this year too, such a powerful and alarming track from a rare album.
Key tracks: 'Glass House', 'I'll Make You Sorry', 'Agnes Martin', 'Fantasy Lane'
3) Krakow Lóves Adana - Songs From the Blue
At least one of my album's of the year comes about by chance, of sorts, do you believe in chance?! A recommendation from a friend or stranger, a fluke of streaming algorithms, a support act at a show. In the case of Hamburg's Krakow Lóves Adana it was a single, and then another one, and then another one. Another of my biggest regrets of 2018 was not reviewing Songs From the Blue, it got away from me with all that was happening here locally in Dublin at the time. It is littered with singles, even ones that haven't been released, and I adore the chill groove of the duos music and Deniz Cicek's vocal, so cool, but not trying to be, just is. This album accompanied me on cold, warm, and darkening seasons, it is so, so good. "First you lose control, then you lose yourself".
Key tracks: 'Rapture', 'American Boy', 'Heather', 'Bloom'
4) Snail Mail - Lush
Album title = appropriate. Baltimore's Lindsey Jordan and band deliver a ridiculously casual collection of songs on album Lush which mixes slacker rock and light grunge with aplomb. DIY vibes abound on 'Speaking Terms' with an 'in the room' feel, and yes, latest single 'Let's Find Out' draws lines around the beauty of hopelessness like few others this year, gorgeous.
Key tracks: 'Speaking Terms', 'Pristine', 'Let's Find Out', 'Golden Dream'
5) Anna Calvi - Hunter
Guitar, rock, I love it. Got a resonant message? Even better. I've loved Anna Calvi's modus operandi ever since she released her self-titled debut in 2011, and on it, one of my favourite songs of the 21st century, 'Suzanne & I', I'm sure I'm not alone in that. From Hunter, single 'Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy' felt like an anthem for much of the wonderful societal upheaval that has happened here in Ireland over the past few years, and in spite of how great the music is, the message and lyrics gripped me most. Calvi's vocal rocket at 2:37/8 is inspiring. Interestingly, the other 9 songs on this album are amazing!
Key Tracks: 'As a Man', 'Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy', 'Chain', 'Eden'
Key tracks: 'Glass House', 'I'll Make You Sorry', 'Agnes Martin', 'Fantasy Lane'
At least one of my album's of the year comes about by chance, of sorts, do you believe in chance?! A recommendation from a friend or stranger, a fluke of streaming algorithms, a support act at a show. In the case of Hamburg's Krakow Lóves Adana it was a single, and then another one, and then another one. Another of my biggest regrets of 2018 was not reviewing Songs From the Blue, it got away from me with all that was happening here locally in Dublin at the time. It is littered with singles, even ones that haven't been released, and I adore the chill groove of the duos music and Deniz Cicek's vocal, so cool, but not trying to be, just is. This album accompanied me on cold, warm, and darkening seasons, it is so, so good. "First you lose control, then you lose yourself".
Key tracks: 'Rapture', 'American Boy', 'Heather', 'Bloom'
Album title = appropriate. Baltimore's Lindsey Jordan and band deliver a ridiculously casual collection of songs on album Lush which mixes slacker rock and light grunge with aplomb. DIY vibes abound on 'Speaking Terms' with an 'in the room' feel, and yes, latest single 'Let's Find Out' draws lines around the beauty of hopelessness like few others this year, gorgeous.
Key tracks: 'Speaking Terms', 'Pristine', 'Let's Find Out', 'Golden Dream'
5) Anna Calvi - Hunter
Guitar, rock, I love it. Got a resonant message? Even better. I've loved Anna Calvi's modus operandi ever since she released her self-titled debut in 2011, and on it, one of my favourite songs of the 21st century, 'Suzanne & I', I'm sure I'm not alone in that. From Hunter, single 'Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy' felt like an anthem for much of the wonderful societal upheaval that has happened here in Ireland over the past few years, and in spite of how great the music is, the message and lyrics gripped me most. Calvi's vocal rocket at 2:37/8 is inspiring. Interestingly, the other 9 songs on this album are amazing!
Key Tracks: 'As a Man', 'Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy', 'Chain', 'Eden'
6) Connan Mockasin - Jassbusters
From a small town on the north island of New Zealand, Te Awanga, Connan Mockasin has proven himself to be one of the most musically diverse artists of the 21st century. A grand attribution! But true. His sophomore album Forever Dolphin Love was a trip through Hades and Paradise, warped, gleeful, insane and unsettling. His third LP, Jassbusters, is mostly unrecognisable from there, it's a modern masterpiece of soul-jazz with a strong flavour of baroque pop. In tone it summarises that 60's counterculture phrase, "turn on, tune in, drop out". Heaven.
Key Tracks: 'Charlotte's Thong', 'Les Be Honest', 'Last Night', 'B'nd',
Key Tracks: 'Charlotte's Thong', 'Les Be Honest', 'Last Night', 'B'nd',
Post script: I went into Freebird Records in Dublin the other day to buy Jassbusters, and sadly it wasn't there, but! Forever Dolphin Love was, so I bought it and Blood Orange's Negro Swan. I asked the shop owner at the counter did they have Jassbusters, he told me they sold their last copy earlier that day. Then he muttered; "No one is buying new albums on vinyl any more", I was bemused and said "Really? I thought there was an ongoing revival?" He laughed, and said, "Sure, people are buying vinyl again, but they're only buying Fleetwood Mac, you're the first person to buy the new Blood Orange for example". Weird.
No vids from the new album, so one from the old album!
7) Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
Jazz is DEAD! Lol! Kamasi Washington churns another masterpiece out with enviable ease in Heaven and Earth, surpassing in my opinion 2015's The Epic. Gospel tones, soulful vibes and a fluid brass romp spit there way unceremoniously through his fourth album. Toe to toe with Coltrane, Davis, Brubeck et al, Washington lathers his new album with high-end free-form pulsations, it's accessible too, but more importantly, musically spiritual.
Key tracks: 'Street Fighter Mas', 'Fists of Fury', 'Hub-Tones', 'The Psalmist'
8) Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar
Edinburgh's Young Fathers have released three ground-breaking albums on the bounce Dead (2014), White Men Are Black Men Too (2015) and now Cocoa Sugar, plus, two epic EP's in Tape One and Tape Two (2011 / 2013). Cocoa Sugar sees them get proper no holes barred dirty, balmy (hear opener 'See How') and care-free like never before. This is U.K. prima facie U.K. hip-hop at its most exquisite.
Key tracks: 'Toy', 'Wow', 'In My View', 'Fee Fi'
AND Holy Shit, with Massive Attack, one of my favourite music videos of all time starring Rosamund Pike - 'Voodoo In My Blood'
9) Blood Orange - Negro Swan
London's Devonté Hynes has blow apart preconceptions about not only U.K., but worldwide alternative rn'b. The genre was predominantly trapped in popular chart music in the late 90's and early 00's. Through Blood Orange he has turned what was initially fun, then stale, then non-existent, into a multi-coloured kaleidoscope of soul, rn'b, pop and chill electro sounds. 2016's Freetown Sound was outrageously brilliant, Negro Swan seamlessly continues the trend, but instead of being a 'Part Deux', Hynes observes the 'right now' (again), best encapsulated in third track 'Take Your Time'. The chaotic world as it is, as he (we) sees it, making Negro Swan an updated diary-like reflection, just like Freetown Sound was.
Key Tracks: 'Saint', 'Charcoal Baby', 'Jewelry', 'Chewing Gum'
10) Andy Cooper - The Layered Effect
Outlier, such a dirty word! Hailing from Long Beach, California, West-Coast hop-hop act Andy Cooper dominated my January and February headphones with his sophomore album The Layered Effect. This is all of your Beastie Boys, House of Pain, N.W.A.'s, Public Enemy ét al rolled into one jam-joint. It is laden with absolute hip-hop bangers from start to finish, there was only one track I didn't like, 'Do The Andy Puppet', and I couldn't stop listening to it. Cooper's second solo album flies off the book shelf with opener 'Here Comes Another One', in an age where sampling ist verboten, Cooper makes the most of sounding like he has sampled forebears. This is a Goodfellas-esque club joint, hip-hop, extravaganza. This is beast-level 2018 hip-hop and rap, get ready.
