Albums of the year - 27. TINDERSTICKS - THE WAITING ROOM

27. TINDERSTICKS - THE WAITING ROOM 

A special band who produce albums that you can just sink into. And I'm pretty sure that I've said it a few times this year already about other records, but who gives a shizzle when it's just a turn of phrase? "How He Entered" combines poetry with brass and piano; it's sumptuous. "Hey Lucinda" is a beautiful duet concerned with asking someone out; it's alluring. The title-track is devastating. It's all here.

Interestingly the exclamation in the track "We Are Dreamers!" brings the penultimate punch before the downbeat finale of "Like Only Lovers Can"drifts the album away. This album has been perfect in this particular sitting, as with the last entry Purple Pilgrims - it's freezing cold outside and it's time to get warm. I'm such a mad-head to go running in it.

Went running in it, felt great. Last nights wine still lingers on in the pit of the stomach though but booze certainly plays a part in the makeup of The Waiting Room so I wouldn't worry about it. This album may have a soothing aesthetic but the narrative has the full spectrum of emotion and is all the better for it.

Albums of 2016 - 28. PURPLE PILGRIMS - ETERNAL DELIGHT

28. PURPLE PILGRIMS - ETERNAL DELIGHT 

Dream psych pop candle sisters chimes feverish light channels dark channels orange seeping sepia glowing incense not unlucky sounds like death doesn't sound like it's got much life in it a dog is sleeping beside me well and truly it was raining outside like a cold monsoon and luckily inside provides an ethereal quality with Christmas tree glow black coffee gives me momentum.

Coal the fire sin into winter pucker up your big clock and hang up your fears ease your fears slice open the psychedelia this is exactly what I bargained for this is exactly what I bargained for talk to your partner allay their fears, crystalline gold blue green lo-fi why does the first song have issues with volume?

Cleaning out drinking water hanging lamp posting sci-fi books carrying boxes memories disintegrated into all vacuums of possibility don't be nervous don't be nervous take it jittery take it jittery calm down control yourself strap in for albums of the year.

Albums of 2016 - 29. THE AVALANCHES - WILDFLOWER

29. THE AVALANCHES - WILDFLOWER 

They did it. They came back. I'd been waiting 15 years for a follow up to Since I Left You which was such a breath of fresh air in 2001 - a dream album of samples - a vision, a quest and not just a mix-tape or something you just chuck on. It was something to get washed up in, escape on the beach in your head on the metro.

Wildflower doesn't fizz and chime and sway as much as the previous effort. However, it feels like an album full of episodes. And boy do those episodes build up the suspense. There's a sense of kinetic energy throughout the record that's only ruined by the atrocious  "The Noisy Eater" - a highly one-dimensional song about eating everything under the sun - MF Doom sailed that ship a while ago with Mm.. Food in 2004 - a fantastic culinary opus.

And he appears here on Wildflower on "Frankie Sinatra," the third track that absolutely picks up the intrigue, even though Danny Brown takes most of the spoils. Then follows some amazing guest appearances - most notable Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev -  but nothing can prepare us for the last track "Saturday Night Inside Out" which is pure poetry over beautiful wafted-in electronica and brings tears freshly delivered. Nice to have them back.

Albums of 2016 - 30. LAMBCHOP - FLOTUS

30. LAMBCHOP- FLOTUS 

Album #12 for this band, though not really a band. I have been informed, mostly with paramount trust from a man who know longer speaks backtalk, that it's mainly the work of Kurt Wagner, and that suffice to say is enough for me, with sacred faith, tantamount to everlasting friendship in music.

FLOTUS is the sound of an artist sonically reinventing himself with vocoders and even electronic beats here and there. But these devices are peppered in there. Just like when a paramount man seasons his beefy steak, or cuts a pineapple ring to sling with a pork as a medallion. Did he bring the peas?

Lambchop have really delivered an album to sink into. The running time is over an hour, so I'd honestly smoke a pipe, literally and metaphorically, ambitiously and with cowardice. Here layeth a band sans pretence. I've been keen since 2000's Nixon and will remaineth as long as the chances keep
a-coming.

Albums of 2016 - 31. LEONARD COHEN - YOU WANT IT DARKER

31. LEONARD COHEN - YOU WANT IT DARKER

A bad year for deaths. Prince, Muhammad Ali, Terry Wogan, Gene Wilder, David Bowie and now this. Seems that Cohen, in his early 80's, was getting ready to go. The album is very sad and bleak and wintry and full of croon.

The guy wrote everything, sang, painted and more in his lifetime. Once in a second-hand bookshop, I was looking around and there were loads of dusty old paperbacks for sale, some for less than a pound but I wasn't keen as they were tat / trash / codswallop. Then, I saw a hardback copy Beautiful Losers, his second and final novel from 1966!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And so I bought it for nearly 16 quid I think.

I just think that there is a time and a place for everything. I am late on the bandwagon once again like for a lot of things. Whether fourteen albums or two novels or a few decades of poetry, it is apparent that is his epitaph and should be treasured and by God will it be. It will be.

Albums of 2016 - 32. CARLA DEL FORNO - YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE

32. CARLA DEL FORNO - YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE

On Halloween I played this spooky, eerie music while walking by the canal and through a dark bridge and I got reeled in, all hypnotized. It didn't exactly scare the shit out of me, merely intrigued me as I always look for at least a feeling of chill. Not going out to party for Halloween again - not after last year when I had a wallet stolen as I dressed as a tampon.

A really great thing I just read is that this is a debut. I had no idea before just checking Metacritic. As the opener "Italian Cinema" swirls in, soon to follow is the gloriously lo-fi "Fast Moving Cars." It's massively urban even though I just told you I tried to get Haloween-ee-ode in the countryside.

The above two paragraphs were written at midnight after a static night in front of el-lapito, my laptop and I was going brain-dead. Or maybe I was just entranced by this amazing piece of introductory work that will lead on into a love affair with urban witchcraft.

Albums of 2016 - 33. DAMIEN JURADO - VISIONS OF US ON THE LAND

33. DAMIEN JURADO - VISIONS OF US ON THE LAND 

I just read that this is the twelfth album for Jurado. Woweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Like the title would suggest, this sounds like a road-trip kind of album. However, don't let that distract you because it's not that shallow; this is a trip of grandeur and rugged terrain.

Like many of the albums on this choc-a-bloc countdown, I'm giving it a couple of spins to really feel the aesthetic - and here we have dusty, yet refined and raw, yet cinematic.
There are 17 tracks here to feed on, feed on, feed on, feed off. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm.

This guy could certo become one of my favourite singer-songwriters and how lovely to have such a big back catalogue to explore. Things are looking uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuppppppppppppppppppppppp.
There's no filler on this album like there is in this article.