for the end-of-year roundup: favourite albums (either new to you or just all-time faovurites) + articles you've read?
the articles list got too long so i will post is separately but here are my favorite new-to-me albums released this year! they are mostly instrumental because that's what i've been drawn to lately.
jim ghedi - in the furrows of common place: i haven't shut up about this album since i first heard it, so all i will say this time around is that there is something very beautiful to me about new folk music that engages with what came before both earnestly and with real skill, and both of those things are present in jim ghedi's work.
lankum - the livelong day: see above, but with an added 'they are so interesting to watch in videos and i hope to see them live someday!'
peter talisman - lord of the harvest: really neat, i think the first electronic music i've found interesting in a long while. love the accompanying browser game as well!
mamman sani - unreleased tapes 1981 - 1984: this is all i listened to for a solid 6 weeks at the start of the year. something i've been really interested in in my own music and in what i've been listening to is chord repetition - i think it helps you unlock emotional meanings in sound that you might not without the repetition, and this is such a great album for that. i really love the sound quality, and the cover of "500 miles", and the translation of these old traditional rhythms to electronic instruments for what as, at the time, the first time ever.
mitski - lush: i decided this year that i wanted to do a deep dive into mitski's discography, and this is my favorite of all of her albums. it feels like the perfect blend of the music school comps precision of her early work and the excellent lyrics of her later work.
mo kenney - covers: such a great selection of covers, and i love her voice. as always i'm very glad mo kenney has not become more popular because her music would singlehandedly resurrect toxic butch masculinity discourse.
cosmo sheldrake - pelicans we EP: got into cosmo sheldrake's music this year, and this is my favorite of his albums. song about pelicans and a song about tardigrades on the same album? groundbreaking.
johnny flynn & robert macfarlane - lost in the cedar wood: it's no sillium, but nevertheless...i think macfarlane is not as strong a lyricist, but he does bring some interesting ideas to the table, and the album feels very fitting for the time. also some nice forays into near-discordance on the instrumentation, which i hope shows up more in flynn's future work.
