Albums of the Decade - 28. Nick Cave - Push The Sky Away (2013)

 28. NICK CAVE - PUSH THE SKY AWAY (2013) 

I've been on a huge Nick Cave trip lately, since his amazing live album that was released last week, at the time of publishing. Idiot Prayer is just him alone at a piano at Alexandra Palace in London and it's the most affecting live piece that I've ever heard.

Push The Sky Away however, is a mellower reckoning, an ode to Brighton on the South coast of England, best encapsulated by the glistening tracks "Wide Lovely Eyes" and " Water's Edge" - and glancing through Wikipedia just now, it seems that various reviewers mention the fogginess, tenderness, funeral-pace, hollowness and rumbling bass-lines to name but a few characteristics.

When the majority of talk is often about the full-bodiedness of The Bad Seeds' swampy characteristics and nooks and crannies, fucking cracks and crevices - I am fully on board - but it's a bit like when PJ Harvey's White Chalk came in at #54 in the decade prior on this blog - I have a moonward boon towards musicians that distill their infuences into chill pills, and for all the blues and heavy bass - I'll rest at this pace. Come again.

Albums of the Decade - 29. Four Tet - New Energy (2017)

 29. FOUR TET - NEW ENERGY (2017)

I have a special disposition towards this artist as I started listening back in 2002 with "Rounds" Kieran Heddens third and prettiest LP - which came in at #60 in my best albums of the 2000's - and definitely opened up the: 

sluice

• barricade, 
• barrier, 
• block

• barrage, 
• milldam, 
• stank
•  [British], 
• weir

• lock

• canal, 
• channel, 
• ditch, 
• gutter, 
• trough

• breastwork, 
• bulwark, 
• earthwork, 
• rampart

• breakwater, 
• jetty, 
• seawall

A brilliant collection of words, specialy given the freshness of this ninth album "New Energy" - which had an extremely fluid and fluent texture - low on the beats and light melodies to drift into excellence...

#Four Tet and Marcus drifting into excellence #

Albums of the Decade - 30. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)

 30. LANA DEL REY - NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL (2019) 

When this came out last year, a girl that I was in love with met me and motioned with her hand like a conductor to the "I'm waaaaasted" in "The Greatest"  - it was heart-achingly nostalgic - which I feel is what this LP is all about. What it boils down to. Hey Kevin, turn the water off ya ratbag.

That whole remembering of the times once had, when you bought a truck in the middle of the night, or threw off your nightgown, just like Sylvia Plath, or wanted to go to a party in California just hit me up. Kevin, make me a cuppa, would ya kid?

The hype surrounding this last year was just staggering, and I was initally skeptical of the Pitchfork hype and such, but wy be so, when you can just let the sheer quality wash over you? Kevin. Milk no sugar.

When c-wolves are giving flak to artists like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande because of their gender - the best way is to shove them a Lana Del Rey or Fiona Apple record and ask them to gobble it up.  My brew's ready. Thanks Kev.

Albums of the Decade - 31. Thom Yorke - Anima (2019)

 31. THOM YORKE - ANIMA (2019) 

The spaghettiblogonese  #1 album of 2019 - this baby had an electronic peacocking quality about it - I used to and often still do go jogging to the beats of  "Twist" - which is one of the greatest dubstep songs of all time - this is the least Radiohead-like album that their frontman has ever produced.

The hymnal "Dawn Chorus" is another highlight to this underground heavyweight of an album - it is so grainy, so dusty, so dubby, so shady - it's cobbled together sequentially - and these imperfections make the darkness rather spellbinding actually; it sputters but never freakouts. 

If you drink yourself up a scotch, you'll note that this album goes quite well with that single malt vibe - that perfect November freezing outside vibe - when the unbelievable "runwayaway" brings down the final curtain  to dub - yes dub - what the actual? Artists frequently possess the ability to spring surprises, and this cat has done it again. Cat out the hat. Rabbit from the bag.

Albums of the Decade - 32. Spiritualized - And Then Nothing Hurt (2018)

 32. SPIRITUALIZED - AND THEN NOTHING HURT (2018) 

I'd like to sit around and dream you up a perfect miracle
I'd part the clouds and have the sun proudly shining on you
I'd take the stars as well and line them up to spell "Darling, I love you"
And little by little watch it all come true

"And little by little let it all come down" is how my reedit goes to the the opener "A Perfect Miracle" - which Jason Pierce does what Pitchfork claimed:

...simply distills and gathers the essence of what has often made Spiritualized so powerful—hypnotic hymns of self-doubt, charging rock ...

It is that distillation that makes this album a hark-back to his wondersome catalogue of Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space, Let It Come Down and Lazer Guided Melodies to name but three. Even when the lyrics go drivetime - he literally has a song about driving a car down a hill - all the components of a true rock & roller still remain, and that was all our gain.

Albums of the Decade - 33. James Blake - Overgrown (2013)

 33. JAMES BLAKE - OVERGROWN (2013) 

This was a coming-of-age album for the artist, who collaborated with RZA of Wu Tang, on one of the tracks of the decade -  "Take A Fall For Me" - about unrequited love, that packs the biggest punch, as does "Digital Lion" - another laser shredding track that is out of this macrocosm, an outlier of suspense.

This sophomore album from James Blake - I saw it on tour when he came to Taipei - was a mix of angular trajectories, piercing shreds and harsh realities. To absorb it up at Legacy in Huashan Arts Park feels like a yesterday ago and now I got the new me.

Still, though I got the new me, the old me was still grooving and getting pumped full of electrolytes when I saw this live. Holy ghost. Fucking pup.

Albums of the Decade - 34. My Bloody Valentine - MBV (2013)

 34. MY BLOODY VALENTINE - MBV (2013) 

Ear shredding

Base of a shoegaze

Of a cavity

What goes up

Grinder can

Pump me full of smoke

Ending up on your back laying sideways

Ending on your own - lieing - cryways

You popped it of your own accord

To fathom or try and cobble some kind of target together

But that ain't your reckoning

At least not for another year

Albums of the Decade - 35. Kind Midas Sound - Solitude (2019)

 35. KING MIDAS SOUND - SOLITUDE (2019)

This would've been perfect for the pandemia of 2020, but nevertheless, contrarily on the other hand -  and anyone who's been through a break-up will feel the bare-bones poetry spoken over spare, instrumental soundscapes and dub.

This album was an ogre; a brutal sense of discordance and disassociaton - the feeling when you're flummoxed when they're gone, when you can't eat, but you force-feed yourself and you bring it up anyway; the details are raw and the truth of falling out of love is as valid as the on-boarding process - a utensil in it's own right.

Listening to Solitude is best done in exactly this context; I wouldn't bang this on at a dinner party - unless you are a fan of an atmosphere of grizzle come swiftly and I know you're not a big fan of that as you're speading posh lard on your rye bread, doing vodkas and eyeing up caviar.

Albums of the Decade - 36. Amen Dunes - Love (2014)

 36. AMEN DUNES - LOVE (2014) 

Burned some candles last night after work, turned off the main lights and just slumped out to "Lonely Richard" - one of this band's best tracks - Damon McMahon is one of the most unique (warbling but resolute) voices in contemporary folk music.

Popped open a pack of blueberries just after finishing a short 4km jog and quickly getting in at home to wash the dishes. Amen Dunes' 2018 follow-up to this Freedom - was soundtracking my workout and that LP also gives an artistic stride to the beginning of the day.

Just pressed a coffee and the lyrics of "Splits are Parted:" 

"Moved to free house with violent people

Roam the streets at night
Born to love your jagged sound
Sing a decent dime
Oh, I could love you

Oh, I could make it easy"

So, all in all - stunning with candles, berries and coffee - any tme of day. Roger that.

Albums of the Decade - 37. Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar (2018)

 37. YOUNG FATHERS - COCOA SUGAR (2018) 

The grooves behind this thing are utterly shuffletonic and razorwired. It's a bizzare suffusation of TV on the Radio and Cypress Hill, mixed with a glass of tropicana. When this actually came out, I'd just moved to Vilnius, Lithuania to start a new life and would often blast it on, on bar speakers galore - it always went down with mixed results as it seemed like noone really knew what it was, or was ready for it. After all, I wouldn't have guessed Edinburgh for the origin - but life is indeed strange.

If this kinda hybridized funk, soul, punk-hop had been released a decade back, it would have been met with absolute mega-critic praise, but as it stands - Young Fathers remain a below the radar, tucked-under-the-bonnet kind of band which suits them quite nicely, but it still feels like they're just one album away from absolutely clearing up an end-of year Metacritic list if they just got the praise across the board.

Albums of the Decade - 38. Caribou - Our Love (2014)

 38. CARIBOU - OUR LOVE (2014) 

What's not to love about Dan Snaith, who has had a glittering career, who started out making "folktronica," who dazzles in kaleidoscopic tropes. who hushes-fizzes then grooves then syncopates? Who had five stunning albums before this? Who keeps getting better and better no matter? Caribou.

As I played DJ sets in Taipei for a few years in the mid-crunch of this decade, some of the tracks from this tapestry went down an absolute treat, gems like 'Can't Do Without You," "Your Love Will Set You Free" and "Julia Brightly" flowed into four hour showcases like olive oil flowing into my roast onion and pepper soup. Sometimes with butter.

In a similar way tthat Daft Punk absolutely revoluted last decade with "Discovery" - here Caribou autumnalized a good head of six years with the delicious Our Love - an ode to one of the gooeyest, yet sweetest feelings known to man - and the tunes never sound sickly. Honestly, if you haven't, get this Spotified quickly.