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!)

Come See, Come See, Remember Me - 1984 Part 3.

A last look at my favourite albums of the year back in 1984. This was my top ten, thirty years ago.

'Gravity Talks' was Green on Red's debut full length LP, released in the USA in 1983, before appearing in UK record shops to coincide with the band's first visit to these shores. Green on Red were another band that I saw live many many times and I was delighted to catch up with main man Dan Stuart once again, earlier this year (here).

Do I really need to say anything regarding the inclusion of The Smiths first LP in this list? I don't think so. Other than to note, perhaps, that it's way too low down the order.

The were a lot of good, retro-tinged, guitar bands coming out of Australia in the mid-80s and The Hoodoo Gurus debut LP arrived as part of that wave. Albums two and three, 'Mars Needs Guitars!' and 'Blow Your Cool!', were probably superior, but 'Stoneage Romeos' is still a fun ride.

I saw Miles Davis in concert twice during 1984 and the time spent in the same room as this giant of 20th century music, overshadowed virtually everything else all year. Hence the high position for 'Decoy', a good late period LP, but, in my opinion, not as strong as its predecessor, 'Star People', or successor, 'You're Under Arrest'. Great to see this clip again though.

Rank and File operated within the short-lived Cowpunk genre. 'Long Gone Dead', the second of their three LPs, is a lot of fun, but is absolutely not the fifth best album of 1984!

Unfortunately, the nearest I ever got got to catching the mighty Gun Club in concert was passing a worse for wear Jeffrey Lee Pierce in the entrance to Dingwalls one night, as I was on my way into the venue to see another band. Mind you, this performance was a pretty cool thing to witness on tea-time telly at the time. (Somebody tell Jools that his mic is still on!)

I've no qualms about the lofty positions occupied by Lloyd Cole's first LP and REM's second - both terrific pieces of work that still hold up effortlessly today. Which brings us to The Triffids, with two albums in the top 10. 'Treeless Plain', was another one of those records that only arrived on a UK label in 1984 following its actual release (in Australia) the previous year - and a stunning debut it is too. With the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious that there are serious omissions from this list and erroneous inclusions in it, but if I had to make the top 20 again today, the number one would be the same. I've watched this clip a few times over the past couple of days and still struggle to make it through without becoming emotional. David McComb - gone, but never forgotten.

(Addendum:  A wider look at the full sheet upon which my Top 20s LPs of 1984 are listed, reveals a 'late addition' scrawled in the margin - and what a belter it is. The Nomads are still rockin' today, thirty years on.)

Come See, Come See, Remember Me - 1984 Part 2.

Towards the end of 1984, I and the rest of the staff at the record shop in which we worked, each put together lists of our top 20 favourite 45s and 33s of the year. I recently rediscovered my original handwritten copy and wrote a little about my singles selection here. Today I'll look back at the bottom half of my album top 20.

1984 was an ominous year for Madness, with Mike Barson announcing his departure from the ranks. Their music had gradually moved away from the early 'Nutty Boys' sound and I particularly liked (and still like) the darker elements of 'Keep Moving' and its successor 'Mad Not Mad'. 'Neville-ization' by The Neville Brothers was a tight little album, recorded live at Tipitinas two years earlier and pre-dating the band's, Daniel Lanois produced, success. 'New Sensations' is an oft overlooked Lou Reed LP, which, along with 1980's 'Growing Up in Public', I played an awful lot at the time and continue to enjoy.

All of which brings us to The Go-Betweens, a band that I had the opportunity to see in concert more than once, but, for many reasons, never did. A major regret. Here's the much missed G.W.McLennan, with 'Bachelor Kisses'.

I got into Jamaaladeen Tacuma via his recordings with Ornette Coleman in the 1970s and followed his solo career for a while into the 1980s. Unfortunately, while the playing on 'Renaissance Man' is undoubtedly top notch, it's a record that sounds very much of its time and isn't one I can listen to now.

'Born in the USA' also has production values that are very 1984. It was a massive LP in that year and continued to be so in 1985, but although it contains some great songs that I still enjoy in a live context, I don't return to the record very often these days.

In addition to the records I was listening to, my top twenty also reflects the concerts I attended during that period, the next two entries being good examples. I must have seen The Violent Femmes half a dozen times in the 1980s and any one of their first four albums is deserving of your attention. 'Hallowed Ground' is only bettered by 1986's 'The Blind Leading the Naked' in my opinion.

True West weren't around for very long, splitting in 1987, in fact I think I might have even caught the only two London shows they ever played, early in 1985. 'Drifters' is too high in this list. It probably shouldn't have made my top twenty at all. It's a very good LP, but not a great one. It does, however, contain one bona fide corker in 'Look Around'.

'Trap Door' is too high as well. It's another good LP (mini album actually), but not a patch on T Bone Burnett's fantastic self titled LP, which came two years later.

And so to Rain Parade, another live favourite. On my handwritten draft, I've mistakenly written 'Emergency Third Rail Power Trip', their fine LP from the previous year. I must have realised my error though, as I stapled an addendum, 'Explosions in the Glass Palace', to the sheet. This makes more sense. 'Explosions...', another mini-album, was actually released in 1984 and features the Paisley Underground classic, 'No Easy Way Down'.

This short series concludes next time with my remaining 11 favourite LPs from 1984. Yep, I said 11.

Come See, Come See, Remember Me - 1984 Part 1.

Journey with me, back to 1984. At the time I was a branch manager in a small chain of independent record shops - a happy time, if you exclude the owner of the business from the picture. He was highly skilled at making my life, and that of every other manager in the chain, a misery. But let's not dwell on the negative. Towards the end of 1984 the staff in our store each compiled our own personal top 20 singles and LP's of the year and I recently unearthed the original handwritten copy of my selections, thirty years on.

Taking a look through my singles list, I was initially surprised to see three reggae tunes included, as I'm sometimes quick to dismiss any reggae made after 1980. An erroneous generalisation on my part. Aswad's last great moment, 'Chasin For the Breeze', Patrick Andy's melancholic 'Regular Heartbreaker' and Michael Palmer's wicked 'Lick Shot', still sound great to these ears.

Elsewhere, two singles apiece from The Smiths, REM and Bruce Springsteen made it into my top 20. The first Smiths LP and 'Reckoning' were massively important records for me, but, in retrospect, 1984 was a funny old year for this long-term Springsteen fan. A brace of unforgettable live shows rubbed shoulders with a very commercial album that I find difficult to listen to now. 'Dancing in the Dark' certainly wouldn't be at No.1 if I made the list today.

Clay Allison was the name on the sticker of an American import EP I bought in 1984, though by that time the band had re-christened themselves as Opal. The line-up featured Kendra Smith from The Dream Syndicate and former Rain Parade guitarist David Roback. Smith was replaced by Hope Sandoval in 1987 and the duo later found success as Mazzy Star.

The debut Jesus & Mary Chain single was an extraordinary thing to play in the shop, in amongst the endless Nik Kershaw, Sade and Miami Sound Machine tosh. I wasn't destined to become a long time fan of the band, but 'Upside Down' remains a quite magnificent racket. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Two Tribes' is that rarest of beasts, a massive, virtually omnipresent, hit single that I never got tired of hearing. At the other end of the popularity spectrum was Float Up CP, a band who emerged from the ashes of Rip Rig + Panic, issued one fine album to a largely indifferent public, before disintegrating. Four years later, lead singer Neneh Cherry would release 'Buffalo Stance' and have her own massive hit single.

Glancing down the remainder of my favourite singles of 1984, I'm pleased to note that there are no absolute stinkers, no major regrets about what I included (though what I omitted is another matter - no 'C.R.E.E.P.' for example. What was I thinking?). Next time, I'll take a look at my top 20 LPs from 1984. Anyone care to guess what might have made the list?