Spagheti Blogonese's Top Albums of 2021

SPAGHETTI BLOGONESE'S ALBUM CRUNCHES OF 2021!!!

 1. NALA SINEPHRO - SPACE 1.8 - Spacey jazz in the most capsuley way ever. These jazz suites were an incredible and incredulous rush of relief after a stagnating time which we don't have to reference. 

2. CASSANDRA JENKINS - AN OVERVIEW OF PHENOMENAL NATURE - Another record that's tantamount to healing, a trully hush-hushly sung/sang record that breathes in your fiery vitriol and breathes out                                                                             rainbows of wonder.

3.  THE WEATHER STATION - IGNORANCE - Completing a female podium; 2021 has been the year of the ladies for sure - beautifully sensitive, fully fleshed out narratives against global warming - often personified.

4. LOW - HEY WHAT - This band incredibly put feedback and reverb through decontrictive loops and reinvented their sound again with a divine pairing of couply vocals parched over smeltering piledriving riffs and white noise.

5.SUFJAN STEVENS & ANGELO DE AUSUSTINE - A BEGINNER'S MIND - Lovely fairytale-esque side to Sufjan. Seeming like he'll have a fair whack of classics in his musical career, well here's another

6. DRUG STORE ROMEOS - THE WORLD WITHIN OUR BEDROOMS - Dream pop. Angelic. Crystalline. They don't even have a Wikipedia page yet, unlike your local pharmacy or favorite Shakespeare love play.

7. MADLIB - SOUND ANCESTORS - Kicked off my 2021, fresh off the bat in a Hilton hotel devastated by the news that MF Doom had passed. This instrumental album from close friend producer Madlib, compliled by Four Tet, helped soften the blow.

8. BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD - FOR THE FIRST TIME - This seven-piece crafted what will likely go down as one of the classic debuts. British indie at it's finest - but with brass, strings and woodwind. And unbelieveably, it's on Ninja Tune.

9. LOST GIRLS - MENNESKEKOLLETIVET - The audio equivalent of walking into a Berlin modern art installation. Jenny Hval documents an improvised take on the artistic process. I played this is at my friends place and they begged me to change artist - what more endorsement do you need?

10. JON HOPKINS - MUSIC FOR PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY - Really didn't imagine that this kind of output would make it onto here, but seriously this is the most gorgeous natural field recording ever made without being shoeboxed into the newage shoebox.

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Honorable mentions: 

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Floating Points, Ghetts, Genesis Owusu, Ducks Ltd, Emma-Jean Thackray, Leon Vynehall, Painted Shrines, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Jack Ingram, Lana Del Rey, Still Corners, Greentea Peng, Cedric Burnside, Marianna Faithful, Lael Neale, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, Cloud Nothings, Damien Jurado, Matt Sweeney & Will Oldham

Albums of the Decade - 45. Cornershop - Cornershop & the Double 'O' Groove Of (2011)

45. CORNERSHOP - CORNERSHOP & THE DOUBLE 'O' GROOVE OF (2011) 

Cornershop gave a great Punjabi album here. It's the best band name in history maybe. Famous for Brimful of Asha in the nineties, I've tried to enthuse to so many people about the validity of the statement that they're one of the best British bands of their generation, but I usually get curried for it.

There is an inherent funk to this LP that has to be span to be experienced. The intensity and then looseness and sheer smorgasbord of colour on this teapot effort sends Darjeeling down my spine. I used to chuck a couple of these cuts on, when DJ'ing in Taipei and it always raised an eyebrow, while it shimmied my hips. I wanted to sway with the yoga teacher after the picnic we'd had - have a red wine and then go back to mine. Of course not gonna bed her to this music or she would've curried me for it.