Sufjan Stevens – Carrie and Lowell
Whilst Sufjan Stevens is often described primarily as a folk artist, his work often has a theatrical flourish and an audacious mixture of themes and instrumental layering that takes it beyond any solid genre boundaries. No more so than his last studio album 2010’s The Age of Adz, his most enjoyably outlandish and maximalist work yet. But Carrie and Lowell strips all that back to make an album which is markedly bare, one which relies almost entirely on his softly-spoken lyrics and sparse instrumentation. Concerning the death of his mother with whom he had a troubled relationship, as well as exploring his own personal struggles, the album is almost Stevens exposing himself to the point where it could become uncomfortable. But his remarkable poeticism (his lyrics are pure poetry) create a profoundly melancholic but hopeful record, which at once engages with the sheer universality in its themes on grief and loss, whilst also making something deeply personal and unique.
Róisín Murphy – Hairless Toys
Listening to Hairless Toys the first time, I found it fairly impenetrable and a little distancing. But listening again a few months later, in my room, lights off and no distractions, it really grew on me. Give it the time and attention it deserves and it rewards with an inventive and deeply atmospheric and immersive listen. Murphy’s inspirations are diverse, from Nile Rodgers-esque funk to stark experimental electronica and house. Each track takes its time to build to some excellently evocative highs, filled with some playfully ironic wordplay and carefully constructed layers that reveal themselves through further listens.
The official remix is well worth checking out too.
Tame Impala – Currents
Kevin Parker is undisputedly one of the most creative and talented minds working in music today. With the gradual release of four top notch singles earlier this year, he introduced the shift on Currents largely away from the guitar-based rock of before to some gloriously psychedelic synth-infused soundscapes complete with elegant drumlines. Like previous records, this finds Parker questioning his place in life, the need for solitude and his feelings of distance from other people. But like how Currents is a record of transitions in style, so too does he address how he himself is in transition. Many have read it as a break-up album – consider how epic centrepiece ‘Eventually’ explains how change is needed to relieve pain, how “I know that I’ll be happier, and I know you will too”. The ambiguity of the lyrics and how they often contrast with the gorgeous arrangements meant I found Currents more difficult to engage with at first compared to Lonerism, but it didn’t take long to appreciate it as a lush collective album.
Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People
There have been so many established artists who I’ve only just gotten round to truly discovering this year. But I’m sure it was a big discovery for many listeners in the case of Ezra Furman, who I first encountered getting deserved airtime on BBC 6 Music over summer. It’s upon finding out that he’s already released several albums with various bands before that explains why this album comes feeling so confident and assured. It wears its outsider status with pride, coming from a bisexual genderfluid practising Jew, and taking loving influence from Velvet Underground distortion and 1950s doo-wop pop. It covers social and personal issues invitingly and playfully, and bristles with such a raw energy to make these disparate genres and influences feel refreshing and new. I was upset when I missed out on tickets to see him live this year, as I’m sure his live shows are a blast.
Joanna Newsom – Divers
I have to confess Joanna Newsom is another one of those artists I only got around to listening to this year but, like many more before me I suspect, I was instantly enamoured with the richness of her compositions and playful expanse of her lyrics. It was second track ‘Sapokanikan’ that got me, with the amazing vocal flourishes at the ends of the verses, when her voice is so sweet and airy as she sings “Do you love me? / Will you remember?”. Her propensity for storytelling and her dense vivid vocabulary means I’ll probably need a few more listens at least before I can really begin to appreciate the content in any depth, but I couldn’t help but immerse myself in the gorgeous precision and textures of her baroque instrumentation. None more so than the vast magnum opus of the title track, a feminist epic of longing that counts as probably my favourite song of this year.
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Courtney Barnett’s debut is probably the most brazenly enjoyable album I’ve heard this year. Again, I was unfamiliar with her before, but the intensely witty and personal observational storytelling of Sometimes I Sit and Think… feels wonderfully fresh and necessary. The real standout is her droll yet invitingly warm delivery of her idiosyncratic views on life in modern Australia, from her pervasive sense of ennui, her struggles with the consumerist choices of buying organic vegetables or not (amongst other things), her indifference to the fear of missing out, or her affront to the weight of expectation others place on her in ‘Pedestrian at Best’. It often feels urgent – the music sometimes struggles to keep up with her tongue-twisting rambling – but never to the point it becomes alienating.
John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
I had no idea John Grant was back with new material until I unexpectedly saw him performing on Jools Holland a few months ago. He’s continuing his string of excellent self-examining albums with his third solo effort which sees him approaching middle age and coming to terms with his HIV positive status. As before, his genuine confessional takes on his personal life comes with his trademark wry wit and offbeat humour, like his coming to terms with his health by proclaiming “there are children who have cancer / and so all bets are off / cos I can’t compete with that.”
Extra mentions: LA Priest – Inji; Alabama Shakes – Sound and Color; C Duncan – Architect; Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear; Jamie xx – In Colour; Grimes – Art Angels; Slaves – Are You Satisfied?; New Order – Music Complete; Matthew E White – Fresh Blood
Musings from a Darkened Room 