Albums of the Year 2014

And so to the final post of 2014, my favourite albums of the year. It was a devilishly tricky old business ranking them, with positions changing a number of times as I listened and re-listened to the shortlist, though the top five were never in any real doubt. I've featured several of these artists on the blog over the past 12 months (click on the red highlights to check out the original posts and music) and hope to return to a few of those that have yet to grace these pages in the future.

Top 20

1. David Thomas Broughton & Juice - Sliding the Same Way

2. Quilt - Held in Splendor

3. Mazes - Wooden Aquarium

4. Boy and Bear - Harlequin Dream*

5. Jane Weaver - The Silver Globe

6. St Vincent - s/t

7. Robert Plant - Lullaby & the Ceaseless Roar

8. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold

9. Micah P Hinson - MPH and the Nothing

10. Gruff Rhys - American Interior

11. Gogo Penguin - V2

12. Courtney Barnett - A Sea of Split Peas

13. Sun Kil Moon - Benji

14. Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra - Pulsion

15. Real Estate - Atlas

16. Pete Fij & Terry Bickers - Broken Heart Surgery

17. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream

18. Big Blood - Unlikely Mother

19. Karl Hector & the Malcouns - Unstraight Ahead

20. The Soundcarriers - Entropicalia

Favourite Reissues/Compilations etc

African Gems (Various Artists)

Haiti Direct - Big Band, Mini Jazz & Twoubadou Sounds, 1960-1978

Wilco - Alpha Mike Foxtrot

Musi-O-Tunya - Give Love to Your Children

Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako

Virgin Front Line - Sounds of Reality

Bob Dylan - Basement Tapes

Captain Beefheart - Sun Zoom Spark

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
William Oneyeabor - Complete

Bunny "Striker" Lee - Full Up

Hailu Mergia - Tche Belew

Bubbling Under...

King Creosote - From Scotland With Love

Temples - Sun Structures

Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems

Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté - Toumani & Sidiki

Tinariwen - Emmaar

Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness Of Dancers

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots

Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather

Sinkane - Mean Love

Damien Jurado - Brothers & Sisters of the Eternal Son

The Furrow Collective - At Our Next Meeting

Ibibio Sound Machine - s/t

Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains - Piano Ombre

Joan as Police Woman - The Classic

Aldous Harding - s/t

Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal

School of Language - Old Fears

Tuneyards - Nikki Nack

Joe Henry - Invisible Hour

Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit

Eno & Hyde - High Life

Teleman - Breakfast

White Fence - For the Recently Found Innocent

Childhood - Lacuna

Golden Gunn - s/t

The Coral - The Curse of Love

Hookworms - The Hum

Rachael Dadd - We Resonate

Tweedy - Sukierae

It just remains for me to say a big thank you to everyone who stopped by in 2014 and also to all the bloggers out there who I read, listen to and am inspired by every day. A Happy New Year to you and those you love.

Let's do it all again in 2015.

(*Special thanks to Shell Hunter over at Tune Doctor for the Boy & Bear release date info!)

Still My Home

Christmas - a bit of driving, a bit of eating, a bit more driving, a bit more eating, a massively long country walk, yet more eating, still more driving, still more eating then one last weary drive. There was also a fair amount of snoozing scattered throughout.

The house is bone-chillingly cold, but the wood-burner is already roaring away and, as Viking Moses notes, it's 'Still My Home'.

Aldous Harding

Did I miss a meeting? We're in the dying days of the year and I've only recently bumped into New Zealand singer/songwriter Aldous Harding for the first time, despite her self-titled debut LP having been released back in the summer. Methinks there's something very special going on here. One to watch in 2015.

Christmas 1961

It's Christmas Day 1961, my second festive season, but the first at which I'm old enough to sit up and take notice. I'm clearly having a ball, while Mum keeps a close eye on me to ensure I don't become too over-excited. We're wearing paper hats, meaning the post-dinner crackers have been pulled. Dad has no doubt just finished the washing-up. The trusty family radiogram is probably piping soothing yuletide vibes into the room, via the BBC Light Programme.

Charles Brown's 'Please Come Home For Christmas', was first released in December 1960, but became a US hit 12 months later, right about the time this photo was taken. I doubt it made the Two Way Family Favourites playlist though, more's the pity.

Wishing you and yours a happy, peaceful festive period, however you choose to celebrate it, from all the gang at Swede Towers.

Christmas - Funky, Blue or Stone Soulful?

2014 - Unfinished Business

Inspired by my recent re-discovery of an end of year top 20 LP chart from 1984, I'm attempting to forge a similar selection from the albums of 2014. I'd forgotten how tricky it is. In recent years I've just produced an 'in no particular order' list for anyone who's interested and actually trying to rank each record this time around is proving a problematic task. I think I'm just about there, but leaving out so many great titles is heartbreaking, particularly if I didn't get around to featuring them on these pages in 2014.

With this in mind, here are a couple of tunes from albums that didn't quite make my Top 20, (though if I made another list from scratch tomorrow, they might well feature on it) 'The Soul of All Natural Things', the title track from the first Linda Perhacs LP in 44 years and 'How We Be', the lead single from Sinkane's fifth album, 'Mean Love'.

African Gems - World Music Album of the Year 2014

If you are going to treat yourself to just one 'World Music' LP with your Christmas money this year, I would wholeheartedly recommend 'African Gems' on SWP Records. This isn't Jit-Jive, nor Afro-Beat or even Saharan Desert Blues. 'African Gems' is a compilation of field recordings made in Uganda, Congo, D.R. Congo, Chad and Cameroun between 1965-1984, where droning horns, polymetric xylophones and percussive soda bottles jostle for your attention. It's an extraordinary set of recordings, occasionally verging on the avant-garde while simultaneously remaining hypnotic and accessible.

Here's a 7½ minute sample, containing brief excerpts from a few of the tracks. Find out more about this remarkable LP here.