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.

**********************************************

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 - 98. Fennesz - Bécs

98. FENNESZ - BÉCS

Timing is everything and this nicely coincided with the release of the artists new LP Agora which came out last Friday. I write this in my kitchen now as noise and dissonance washes all over me. Black coffee is the fuel to pump in, after a brunch of shrimp and tomato sandwiches. The Dire Straits ran a lyric once that went "I run on heavy fuel" - that juxtaposed with Christian Fennesz's ambient washes - provide a sunny, non-jokey April 1st as Spring truly sets into life.

I first encountered Fennesz in 2004 at The Coronet in London, and he was on the same bill as Four Tet, Caribou, Animal Collective and Explosions In The Sky. Brilliantly - I've just clicked that event - and it transpires that it was on 30th April, so we must have been fresh as a whistle. The discordance of sound from Fennesz, in between post-rock, folktronica and electro-funk sets, brought the mood down to a suitable down. This man is the sound of poised.

His debut LP Endless Summer was a breath of fresh air and came in at #86 on my list of best albums of the 2000's. A few LP's in-between ,and this conceptual follow-up to that debut has never felt better timed. As the seasons blend into one, and a new page begins, the sound artist crafts another tapestry.
Static, submerged, complex, beautiful. Go get 'em kid.

albums of 2012 - 3. Tame Impala - Lonerism

3. TAME IMPALA - LONERISM

"I just don't know how to feel right / beautiful girls wasting my life" is tantamount to how this album sounds. It's so insecure and so confident at the same time. Tons of effects-pedals, feedback, punchy riffs and slow build-ups both-all. It's old and new. It's gonna shape-up as one of the best records of the decade. It reflects a lot of the things I think about - insecurity, women, hedonism - we're down.

People sometimes say "on a different day my list would be different" but I have had 2 years to digest 2012 now and I've made my mind up.  I know I flutter around like a hungry caterpillar but, hey, I'm sorry.

Tame Impala come from Australia and I'm ready for all their next glorious shit in holy technicolor all over again.