Best New Albums of 2018

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Johnny Reb, Jan 10, 2018.

  1. LarsO

    LarsO Forum Resident

    Savoy - See The Beauty In Your Drab Hometown

    [​IMG]

    Released earlier this month. It is a very strong album throughout with a good variation. Possibly their strongest since their debut Mary Is Coming (1996) or Mountains Of Time (1999).

    It has a bit of nordic electronica, a bit of New Order, a bit of Beach Boys and more. Tracks 1-4 and 9-10 are my favourites so far.

    This is the Savoy of Paul Waaktaar-Savoy from a-ha and not the newer Savoy band, also based in New York.
     
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  2. pokemaniacjunk

    pokemaniacjunk Forum Resident

    Location:
    south paris maine
    I'll get back to you when Paul's next album is released
     
  3. Arkay_East

    Arkay_East Forum Resident

    Location:
    ATX
    New Khruangbin next week.

     
  4. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

    The Go! Team - SEMICIRCLE

    The first new release of 2018 that, even though I wasn't 100% in love with every track, kept me engaged all the way through (Sorry First Aid Kit fans), some of it in a "holy crap what did I just hear" way and some of it in a "why doesn't all music sound like this" way.

    Ian Parton, the man behind Go! Team, said he wanted the album to sound like "a school marching band gone rogue, chucking away their sheet music to blast out northern soul stompers or japanese indie-pop swooners or old-school hip-hop jams." Mission accomplished.

    From the label's site:
    ==
    i like the swing and the toughness of marching bands, the physicality of feeling a beater walloping a bass drum,” explains ian, “but i wanted to reclaim them from patriotic or sporty associations. that was the kick-off for this record.” yet his extensive sample library could only take him so far. in order to fully realise his vision he knew he had to reach out, to entice a group of unlikely new collaborators into the go! team fold.

    so ian made a pilgrimage to detroit – city of motown and the stooges, of musical (and actual) revolution – where he hooked up with the detroit youth choir. their age was key; he didn’t want kids (too twee) but nor he did he want adults, with all their emotional baggage and wariness and tendency to over-sing. equally he wanted to avoid the religious connotations of a church or gospel choir. “i’ve always had a thing for gang vocals and group singing, particularly the roughness of community choirs,” says ian. “normally they might be singing showtunes or whatever, but i like the idea of getting people to do something they wouldn’t normally do. i like making things happen that wouldn’t otherwise happen. it’s always a gamble, but in this case it paid off.”

    the sessions were so inspiring that they came to define the album. the choir’s ebullient chanting is all over the opening track ‘mayday’, a morse-code-inspired soul belter about a love emergency, in the proud lineage of ‘rescue me’ and ‘sos’. they bring the album to a rousing, defiant conclusion on ‘getting back up’. in between, they reveal a little more about themselves on the heartwarming ‘semicircle song’. when ian needed a lo-fi r&b vocal for ‘chain link fence’ – kooky and soulful but not slick or drenched in melisma – he approached a detroit high school. “i love the idea of recording people who wouldn’t think of themselves as singers, who perhaps have never been recorded before.”

    but this being a go! team record, where routine is outlawed, there are a multitude of other voices to be heard, sometimes in the course of the same song. best-known among them is probably utrecht indie-rocker annelotte de graaf aka amber arcades, whose dutch-accented english lends a unique flavour to ‘plans are a dream u organise’. previous collaborator julie margat aka lispector delivers ‘hey!’’s breathy french interlude. and sassy girl group kiss-off ‘the answer’s no – now what’s the question’ is fronted by houston-based darenda weaver, a texan mod that ian found on bandcamp.
    ==


     
  5. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    Enrapture!

    Mayday, oh, Mayday!
     
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  6. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    Bahamas (Afie Jurvanen) 4th record "Earthtones" out on the 19th.

    Love the progression in songwriting from the last LP,
    can't believe it's been since 2014, time flies.

    Still has all the hallmarks of his earlier work; the hooks,
    the clever lyrics, great grooves, amazing guitar sounds,
    and of course the killer harmonies from the singers.
    The songs on this album are more personal, and he got
    some really interesting results from the musicians he
    collaborated with this time, giving the sound a more
    R&B vibe in places.

    So happy with this record. Maybe i'm biased, he lives
    in my hometown of Toronto!




    Bahamas - No Wrong (Audio)
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2018
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  7. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    This is streaming over at NPR and it is indeed very, very good. All over the map stylistically (there's one song that's a dead on take of The Contortions), but he does it so well you won't care . Excellent album.
     
    octaneTom likes this.
  8. Bevok

    Bevok Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    2018 certainly is off to a great start!
    Somehow I had never heard First Aid Kit before but listening to Ruins I will definitely be investigating them further. Quality Americana.

    Ruins by First Aid Kit on Apple Music
    Ruins - First Aid Kit

    Blue Madonna by BØRNS - exquisite melodic pop, no tracks to skip here. My favourites so far are the lead single "God Save Our Young Blood", Faded Heart and I Don't Want U Back.
    BØRNS - Faded Heart
    Blue Madonna by BØRNS on Apple Music
    Blue Madonna - BØRNS

    Encore by Anderson East - again someone I hadn't come across before but a solid album with no filler and well performed and produced blues. King for a Day and Girlfriend are good places to start.
    This Too Shall Last
    Encore by Anderson East on Apple Music
    Encore - Anderson East

    Between Two Shores - Glen Hansard - I've only listened to this once but very enjoyable and will be getting repeat plays, nice singer/songwriter material with a good earthy sound.
    Why Woman
    Between Two Shores by Glen Hansard on Apple Music
    Between Two Shores - Glen Hansard

    Just for Us - Francis and the Lights - nice honest pop again worth a repeat listen
    Francis and the Lights - Just for Us (full album)
    Just for Us by Francis and the Lights on Apple Music
    Just for Us - Francis and the Lights

    and of course the opportunity to revisit Fleetwood Mac (the album!) with its new Deluxe release, the simplicity of the early cuts is a pleasure, love Monday Morning and Landslide especially!
    Fleetwood Mac (Deluxe) by Fleetwood Mac on Apple Music
    Fleetwood Mac (Deluxe) - Fleetwood Mac

     
  9. calgary669

    calgary669 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Calgary, Canada
    Another vote for First Aid Kit! Discovered the duo via the AllMusic weekly new release newsletter. Spotified it this morning: a nice way to kick off 2018. Will get the Cd!
     
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  10. Deaf_in_ LA_1974

    Deaf_in_ LA_1974 Forum Resident

    the three albums released this week from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, have to be in there, Im not sure ive heard them yet or not, but lets put em in there anyway
     
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  11. medium Rob

    medium Rob Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Virginia

    moiré, by xuiqen
    moiré

    moiré, by xuiqen. The music (electronic) is similar to that of late-period Autechre. It flows really well despite the fact that it's loaded with percussive detail and spatial ambiguities. It's a bit more melodic, too. I've been really hyped about these guys for the last few weeks. They call it "abstract dance music", or ADM. The genre descriptor is pretty good, probably better than IDM, heh.
     
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  12. noname74

    noname74 Allegedly Canadian

    Location:
    .
    Which 3 albums are you referring to? I don't think they released 3 albums this week...of course in the 3 mins it took me to read your post, check their website and then type this they may have released a couple more! :laugh:
     
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  13. Bevok

    Bevok Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    That's what got me onto them! Of course it's like buying a car, once you've bought that model you see them everywhere!
     
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  14. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Yea, you guys need to pay more attention while you're around here, there's multiple threads about them and quite a few mentions in other threads, especially for the last album. Fairly popular :)
     
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  15. Naughty Chord

    Naughty Chord Hole in my Socrates

    Location:
    Sub-Tropo Texas
    I have the white vinyl on preorder. :waiting:

    I've enjoyed their previous stuff. As a native Houstonian, I hear a lot of "inner loop" Houston guitar tone in their recordings.
     
  16. lesterbangs

    lesterbangs Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Indiana
    This

    :cheers:
     
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  17. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

    Someone help me with First Aid Kit's new one here. I like "It's a Shame," but the rest of it came off to me sounding like "It's a Shame" but not as good. I like the genre and the motif, but it all blended together to me in the end.

    Maybe I was in a bad mood or something. What am I not catching with this one?

    +1 on AllMusic's weekly newsletter. Great resource. Subscribe if you don't.

    PS - the one on the left is a knockout.
     
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  18. lesterbangs

    lesterbangs Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Indiana
    They tend to not stray from what they do best, which may not be everybody's thing.

    It may not be for everyone
     
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  19. savemenow

    savemenow Forum Resident

    Location:
    SE Pa
    Looking forward to a new John Fogerty album in 2018
     
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  20. Arkay_East

    Arkay_East Forum Resident

    Location:
    ATX
    :shh: Go on ....
     
  21. Frank

    Frank Senior Member

    Walking Papers - WP2
    [​IMG]
    Release Date
    January 19, 2018
    Duration
    01:01:42
    Genre
    Pop/Rock
    Styles
    Hard Rock
    Alternative/Indie Rock
    American Trad Rock
    Neo-Glam
    Recording Location
    • BKB, Seattle, WA
    • Jupiter Studios, Seattle, WA
    • Pink Duck Studios, Burbank, CA
    • Soundhouse, Seattle, WA
    From AllMusic.com:
    ===
    Packed with enough dirty guitar riffs to fill a smoky roadside bar, Walking Papers' second album, WP2, is another dose of no-nonsense rock & roll from the Seattle-based group. Recorded in early 2015 -- shortly after wrapping up touring behind their self-titled debut -- WP2 arrived three years later in 2018, due to bassist Duff McKagan's obligations with his other band, Guns N' Roses. Improving upon their first with polished production and a livelier vigor, WP2 is blues-drenched rock that fans of Queens of the Stone Age and Screaming Trees should enjoy. Frontman Jeff Angell's voice carries the project, his gritty delivery reminiscent of Bono filtered through the murk of Mark Lanegan. Despite this being a straightforward rock blast, those subtle hints of early U2 pop up multiple times, from the slow-burning "Red & White" and the theatrics of "Before You Arrived" down to the harmonies and rhythm on "Yours Completely." Elsewhere, the band gets wild on the rollicking "Somebody Else" and elicits a visceral yearning on the crunchy "This Is How It Ends." Of all the pleasing doses of testosterone-drenched rock, "King Hooker" is a highlight that snakes and grooves with an addictive outlaw flair. While there aren't many novel ideas presented by Walking Papers, fans of sprawling guitar solos, unfiltered bravado, and expert songcraft will find much to appreciate on WP2.
    ===
    Track 1 is fairly representative...
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2018
  22. cgoodwin22

    cgoodwin22 Senior Member

    Location:
    Severna Park, MD
    [​IMG]

    so good!
     
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  23. jazdoc

    jazdoc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bellevue, WA, USA
    Picked this up on Friday. Excellent songs and good to excellent sound quality. Can't wait to hear them in concert later this month!
     
    Bevok likes this.
  24. Dreadnought

    Dreadnought I'm a live wire. Look at me burn.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    A Portuguese Doom band, which isn't a genre that offers much for me usually, but here the honey throated female vocalist brings a very distinguishing feature to it.

     
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  25. LarsO

    LarsO Forum Resident

    And here’s the first single from that album, Night Watch:

     
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