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