And another list for the new year: the albums I’ve discovered and enjoyed this past year.
Like last year, I’m still digging through a large collection of albums alphabetically, although the pace has slowed considerably. This year I made it through S and T, and nothing more. Mostly, I enjoyed long-acclaimed albums that I’d never got around to hearing: Tortoise, the Smiths, Stereolab, and finally a few Sonic Youth albums that I found accessible. Sufjan Stevens was a surprising and intriguing find, though, and Tyson put me on to a fantastic Buck 65 disc.
Why the slowdown in new consumption? Well, the shift from a computer science job to transit took its toll: I’m no longer spending hours in front of a computer with the headphones on. Instead, most of my listening this year took place during my two hours of commuting to work. The iPod was helpful there – I mastered the fine art of listening to music while biking Vancouver’s back streets. (The one time I tried using my isolating earbud headphones was scary, though – I couldn’t even hear a truck pulling up next to me. Apple’s original headphones are thankfully very poor at isolating the sound.) The sound quality while biking was so poor that I couldn’t really experience new music, so I stopped trying.
The CBC Radio 3 podcast was another excellent find this year. While they don’t have much on electronic music, they cover some very interesting rock groups.
As for concerts, I saw a few good ones. We Are Wolves were entertaining enough to justify watching twice more, RJD2 was great, and Art Brut was entertaining. Electronic shows really aren’t doing much for me these days, though… I was quite disappointed by DJ Shadow.
So there we have it. On to the next year’s music.
Great Albums (8/10)
- boards of canada. the campfire headphase. ambient.
- broken social scene. broken social scene. rock, pop.
- buck 65. talkin’ honky blues.
- herbie hancock. v.s.o.p.: the quintet. jazz.
- sufjan stevens. michigan: the great lakes state. folk, pop.
Good Albums (7/10)
- rae & christian. anotherlatenight. downtempo, soul, hip hop.
- smiths, the. the queen is dead. rock.
- sonic youth. daydream nation. rock, postrock.
- sonic youth. goo. rock, postrock.
- sons and daughters. the repulsion box. rock.
- spiritualized. ladies and gentlemen we are floating in outer space. rock.
- squarepusher. ultravisitor. drum & bass, experimental.
- stefie shock. le décor. chanson, pop.
- stereolab. emperor tomato ketchup. pop, downtempo.
- stereolab. transient random-noise bursts with announcements. pop, downtempo, rock.
- stone roses. fools gold (the remixes). rock, downtempo.
- stone roses. the stone roses. rock.
- sufjan stevens. illinois. folk, pop.
- sufjan stevens. seven swans. folk, pop.
- sweet trip. velocity : design : comfort. glitch, ambient.
- swollen members. bad dreams. hip hop.
- tortoise. it’s all around you. rock, jazz.
- tortoise. millions now living will never die. rock, jazz.
- tortoise. tnt. rock, jazz.
- tubbs. good days, better nights. acid jazz.
- u.n.k.l.e. sounds big brother is watching. big beat, hip hop.
- we are wolves. non-stop je te plie en deux. rock, français.