Captain’s Picks 2020
Captain’s Picks 2019
Captain’s Picks 2018
Captain’s Picks 2017
Captain’s Picks 2016
Best compilation: Van Morrison, It’s Too Late To Stop Now box.
Ten Albums of 2015
A year of easy listening. And that’s how it should be.
1. Lonelady – Hinterland
2. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think..
3. Lana Del Rey – Honeymoon
4. Shamir – Ratchet
5. Blur – The Magic Whip
6. Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys
7. Josefin Ohrn + the Liberation – Horse Dance
8. Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
9. Charli XCX – Sucker
10. Shopping – Why Choose
Bubbling under the top ten – Jason Isbell, The Chills, Salad Boys, Gold Class
Best compilation: The Jam live box. Oof.
Ten Albums of 2014
Pretty amazing all round.
1. Robert Plant – lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar
2. Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time
3. TV on the Radio – Seeds
4. Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots
5. Allo Darlin’ – We Come From The Same Place
6. The Phantom Band – Strange Friend
7. Martin Carr – The Breaks
8. Gallon Drunk – The Soul of The Hour
9. Azaelia Banks – Broke With Expensive Taste
10. La Roux – Trouble In Paradise
Just missed the list: Afghan Whigs, Tony Allen, Chumped, Robyn Hitchcock
Best compilation: Marshall Allen presents Sun Ra and His Arkestra – In the Orbit of Ra
Ten Albums of 2013
I’m thinking maybe I have finally reached that ‘certain age’, and the skeletal finger of the Grim Reaper is pointing at the salmon mousse of popular music and saying “Ye shall no longer listen. Thine ears are but arid receptacles for wax”. My number 1 album sounds like Joni Mitchell. Number 2? CSN with a smattering of Y. Number 3? Siouxsie and the Banshees. And #4.. is dear old Bill. Don’t get me wrong, they’re really good albums, and I’ve listened to them a lot and enjoyed them greatly. I liked what Bowie and Suede came up with, and their records felt good, but familiar. New and challenging? No.
Any road up, I’ve totted up the plays, stuck my finger in the air (and a couple of other places) and come up with this (which Tweeps have already seen):
1. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle
2. Savages – Silence Yourself
3. Billy Bragg – Tooth and Nail
4. Disclosure – Settle
5. Mark Mulcahy – Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You
6. Jagwar Ma – Howlin
7. Tricot – THE
8. The Drones – I See Seaweed
9. Public Service Broadcasting – Inform Educate Entertain
10. London Grammar – If You Wait
The rest of the year’s “critically acclaimed” albums were just so fuckin’.. floppy. Holy Fire’s Coldplay Lite, Arctic Monkeys’ muddled mix of Dean Martin and secondhand QotSA knockoffs riding across Palm Desert on a horse with no name, neatly ignores everything the band used to be, to its detriment, Reflektor and Random Access Memories sound like they’ve been tossed off by Daft Punk and Arcade Fire Pickwick Records cover bands, and Overgrown, under the Mercury Music Prize hoodoo, limply noodles about and goes.. nowhere.
Ten Albums of 2012
1. Saint Etienne – Words And Music By Saint Etienne
2. Bob Mould – Silver Age
3. Patti Smith – Banga
4. Public Image Limited – This Is PiL
5. Tame Impala – Lonerism
6. Jessie Ware – Devotion
7. The Eversons – Summer Feeling
8. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber
9. Graham Coxon – A+E
10. The Wedding Present – Valentina