5. Spectrum Road--Spectrum Road; Another bad on paper but brilliant in execution supergroup, this time with rockers laying down some awesome jazz fusion. For my money, Vernon Reid's very best work and the teaming with Jack Bruce and longtime jazz master John Medeski proves to be superb.
Whoa! Finally got around to listening to this, and it was better than I expected (and I was expecting it to be good!). Agree that Vernon Reid's playing's gotten better -- he always shredded, but his playing has more feeling now, without, at age 53 at time of recording, having lost a step. Actually, Reid started his career playing experimental jazz-rock, and Cindy Blackman Santana was a mainstream jazz drummer well before she started playing with Lenny Kravitz and Santana (and married Carlos).
Bobbyb5, don't know how much you like high-octane jazz-rock, but Jack Bruce sings on two songs.
I didn't expect to see 2013 winning, I usually see people talk shit on that year. It has some personal favorites for me from Rashad Becker, Olivia Block, and year bookend releases in January and December from Jar Moff. But if I was going to throw out one album with broader appeal to vouch for 2013, I'd say this one right here
this one makes me ok about 2013 winning, if you haven't heard it you should check it out. it's a very refined approach to instrumental synth driven electronic music with heavy organic elements, but with more of a bite than the folktronica that that description might suggest. seriously, give this one a listen, it should be bigger.
also I decided to vote for 2016 because I could talk your ear off on the top 40 here https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=28964 and that's a lot of albums. but they are all fantastic. seriously call me on my bluff ask me about any one of these, I'll do it. but I can't do it on all of them, it would take too long.
It's in this decade that I've listened to more music from the last 50 years than ever ("people look to the past when the future dries up"). I haven't listened to the radio even casually in the car for at least 5 years. I teach guitar for a living, and most of my exposure to new pop music is via kids wanting to learn particular tunes that they bring to me. It would seem to me that the current pop music that's spoon fed to everyone is the most unimaginative, formulaic, soul-less shite I've encountered in my lifetime. Maybe that's just me becoming an old man?
However, in recent years I've more avidly sort out my own new music, and found plenty to love. I said this basic same thing in the last thread.
I voted 2017, and I dont think it's necessarily the best year, just the year I engaged with new music the most. In this climate, you've got to go looking for it, and the stuff you find most likely won't be the stuff that's on the radio, and most likely will be different from the stuff the people you know like. There's less and less common cultural ground.
I voted 2016, even though 2015 and 2012 were both well above average in my opinion as well.
A Moon Shaped Pool is by far my favorite Radiohead experience and has moved its way all the way up to 3rd on my overall chart. Accompanying AMSP I loved...
RTJ3 - RTJ
Atrocity Exhibition - Danny Brown
22, A Million - Bon Iver
Blonde - Frank Ocean
The Lion Across The Field - KSHMR
Imperial - Denzel Curry
TLOP - Kanye
How to Be A Human Being - Glass Animals
Untitled Unmastered. - GOAT
I also thought there were plenty of other wonderful releases not quite on par with the ones above including:
Awaken My Love - Childish Gambino
All three Gucci Mane records released that year
Southern Family by Brent Cobb & Various Artists
Blank Face - ScHoolboy Q
Do What Thou Wilt. - Ab-Soul
We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service - ATCQ
Malibu - Anderson .Paak
99.9% - KAYTRANADA
There was plenty other records I thought were notable that year too, but just didn't stick with me like Black Star, Coloring Book, Nonagon Infinity, Light Upon The Lake, Cardinal, A Sailor's Guide To Earth, Jeffery, IV, Sleep Cycle, Is The Is Are, etc..
So yeah. I thought it was a fantastic year for music.
It's in this decade that I've listened to more music from the last 50 years than ever ("people look to the past when the future dries up"). I haven't listened to the radio even casually in the car for at least 5 years. I teach guitar for a living, and most of my exposure to new pop music is via kids wanting to learn particular tunes that they bring to me. It would seem to me that the current pop music that's spoon fed to everyone is the most unimaginative, formulaic, soul-less shite I've encountered in my lifetime. Maybe that's just me becoming an old man?
However, in recent years I've more avidly sort out my own new music, and found plenty to love. I said this basic same thing in the last thread.
I voted 2017, and I dont think it's necessarily the best year, just the year I engaged with new music the most. In this climate, you've got to go looking for it, and the stuff you find most likely won't be the stuff that's on the radio, and most likely will be different from the stuff the people you know like. There's less and less common cultural ground.
I don't think I knew you taught guitar, rkm, that's cool. I teach drums so I can relate to being exposed to a lot of music (newer pop music or otherwise) through students. It's not always music I follow through on, but I've been given some very interesting recs from students lately. _________________ Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.
Interesting article. Aside from loudness wars, and the sacrifice of quality for convenience, it feels like a lot of pop music simply tries too hard to grab your attention at the expense of anything that might have any longevity just on a compositional level.
Regarding sacrificing quality for convenience, I've often wondered why we can stream Netflix but not higher quality audio? I researched and answered my own question. Netflix at SD uses about 1GB of data per hour, and at HD uses 3GB of data per hour. That's a lot of data, but if I'm at home I have unlimited data. No problem. High quality audio is totally possible. An hour long album on CD, even as an uncompressed WAV file is much less than 1GB.
I've been using Apple Music and Spotify before that, and have been too cheap to try Tidal. Tidal offer 16bit/44.1kHz (same quality as CD) as lossless FLAC streams, but are also going beyond CD quality with 24bit/96kHz FLAC streams (they're calling it Master quality recordings).
If Tidal can do it, then surely Apple Music and Spotify will follow?
It's in this decade that I've listened to more music from the last 50 years than ever ("people look to the past when the future dries up"). I haven't listened to the radio even casually in the car for at least 5 years. I teach guitar for a living, and most of my exposure to new pop music is via kids wanting to learn particular tunes that they bring to me. It would seem to me that the current pop music that's spoon fed to everyone is the most unimaginative, formulaic, soul-less shite I've encountered in my lifetime. Maybe that's just me becoming an old man?
However, in recent years I've more avidly sort out my own new music, and found plenty to love. I said this basic same thing in the last thread.
I voted 2017, and I dont think it's necessarily the best year, just the year I engaged with new music the most. In this climate, you've got to go looking for it, and the stuff you find most likely won't be the stuff that's on the radio, and most likely will be different from the stuff the people you know like. There's less and less common cultural ground.
I don't think I knew you taught guitar, rkm, that's cool. I teach drums so I can relate to being exposed to a lot of music (newer pop music or otherwise) through students. It's not always music I follow through on, but I've been given some very interesting recs from students lately.
That's cool. I imagine a fair proportion of us on this site must be musicians of some sort?
I voted 2012, but I've got to say: 2011 was an excellent year, but this site's chart for it is garbage. The Black Keys? Adele? Foo Fighters? What about Exmilitary? XXX? Twin Fantasy? Section.80? All of which are miles better than anything in the top 10 for the year, except maybe Let England Shake. (Also Smile Sessions doesn't count as a 2011 album for obvious reasons)
Actually, this holds true for most of the 2010s. It seems like the closer you get to the current day, the worse the charts get. Which is kinda the opposite of RYM: I find that the older charts on that site are too full of generic hard rock albums, while the newer charts are full of more interesting and diverse albums. On the other hand, BEA has alt-j, Reflektor, The Black Keys, and Random Access Memories in the top 20 of the decade, which pretty much discredits the entire chart. And no way is The Suburbs the best album of the decade, no matter how much I like it.
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