Release Day Eve: January 16th!!! - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

MadhattanJack wrote:

Weeks 1 and 2 are always the slowest weeks of the year for new releases. Nobody wants to compete with all the Christmas music that's still in the stores, and I guess everybody figures nobody wants to buy anything soon after the holidays either... Also, nobody tours during the holidays and bands still want to time their new stuff to come out when they're touring. I'm not sure any of that makes sense in 2026 though. There are bands now who try to take advantage of the lull in releases to try to get more media attention and eyeballs, but it's still fairly unusual.

There's a new Pullman album out today, though. They're from Chicago so you might have heard of them, but it's their first in 25 years, so you might not have. It's not bad if you're into bands like Slint and Unwound, but I wouldn't say it's something to get super-excited about.

Pullman

III (2026)

Poor Pullman. Perhaps you're right, MJ, and Pullman selected this week hoping for a bit less competition before the release rush later this month, BUT they inadvertently ended up going head-to-head against a very similar super group of sorts in Winged Wheel.

A low-key Battle of the Bands between Indie Post-Rock Supergroups tailor-made for us older, geeky indie-rockers! 🤓

So far I've been favoring the Winged Wheel release just because it's more dynamic sounding and reminds me a tad of the quieter & artsier moments of mid-80s Sonic Youth, but Pullman's starting to remind me of Eno's ambient noodlings with Fripp in the '70s. Especially the track "October."

Great rec, MJ. I used to love Rex (I think one of its members is in Pullman) in the '90s. They were amazing live! Both will likely make my year chart (unlike Jenny! 😅)

You (Tap, MJ, or anyone else) have a preference yet? I'm kinda leaning on that Winged Wheel so far, but honestly Pullman's closing the gap with each spin.

No surprise, but Dry Cleaning is my not-so-Secret Love of the week! 🥰

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Repo wrote:

You (Tap, MJ, or anyone else) have a preference yet? I'm kinda leaning on that Winged Wheel so far, but honestly Pullman's closing the gap with each spin.

Oh, it's Winged Wheel, definitely. I mean, the main thing is that the Pullman LP is straight-up ambient post-rock guitar instrumental stuff, whereas the Winged Wheel LP has some vocals and more conventional songs (though it's still basically a post-rock album). But neither of these are pop records by any standard — that's good, but people should know that going in.

Strictly in terms of post-rockishness, The Winged Wheel album starts with a 6-minute instrumental intro piece with a "mild" crescendo, then goes into a tense-sounding kinda-sorta vocal track — not a catchy tune or anything, but it's interesting, and by track 3 we're off to the races, relatively speaking. Whereas, the Pullman album starts with a 2-minute ambient-fuzz intro as track 1, then a 7-minute muted-guitar/ambient instrumental (no crescendo) as track 2, with over 25 seconds of silence at the end, before finally giving us something more conventionally song-like with track 3, which is confusingly titled "Thirteen" — but there's almost a full minute of silence onto the end of that. I happen to get a bit irritated when bands tack large amounts of silence at the ends of tracks, to the point where I'll actually edit that out myself if it's particularly egregious. Long story short, both albums take a while to get started, but the Winged Wheel album actually moves once it gets started, and it doesn't take as many bathroom breaks.

If you're a downloader, over on Bandcamp Pullman wants $10 for 6 tracks, one of which is only 46 seconds, whereas Winged Wheel wants $9 for 9 tracks, so again, you have to give Winged Wheel the edge on basic value proposition. As for the album cover, I'd give the nod to Pullman, but if you're averse to insects, then no.

So even though there isn't enough Whitney Johnson, I gave the Winged Wheel album a 70 rating (and #2 on the 5-item chart), while Pullman only got a 60 at #4. (My overall average is 65, which I guess is stingy by BEA standards.) I don't know where they'll be at the end of the year... almost certainly nowhere near The Top Ten, more like the Bottom Thirty. But it's looking like a pretty slow year for new releases based on what's coming up, so who knows.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

RELEASE DAY EVE: JANUARY 16TH, 2026

I'm going to approach this year as if we get 52 Christmases. Why not! The world is fricken' crazy!!! Who even knows if we'll make it to the real next Christmas!!! The one thing I can still count on is that every Friday bands and artists are going to be dropping NEW STUFF! And that's kind of exciting! My favorite record of all time just could be dropping tomorrow! Who knows?!?! BUT, there's only way to find out, and that's to queue something up at the stoke of midnight.

For this week, I've got my ears & heart set on the ...

Consistently Consistent

Valentine (2026) by Courtney Marie Andrews

Courtney Marie Andrews may just be the best under the radar singer-songwriter of the past ten years! She's released FOUR great albums over that time - I cannot even name a favorite because they're all so consistently consistent - and tomorrow's Valentine release will hopefully bring that tally up to FIVE.

What January 16th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on?!

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Repo wrote:

I'm going to approach this year as if we get 52 Christmases. Why not! The world is fricken' crazy!!!

Errr, it won't be long before we're getting 30 or more new releases per week, so there's going to have to be some "judicious pruning," I should think.

Quote:

What January 16th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on?!

The Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore album ("Tragic Magic") sounds nice (at least the two tracks they're letting us hear in advance), which is to be expected. Especially if you like harps. They Might Be Giants have a new record out but it's just a 4-song EP... Sleaford Mods have a new album — I'm not a big fan of theirs, but maybe this one will change my mind. (Okay, it probably won't.)

Honestly, the album I'm most interested in is a "new discovery" of sorts — Slather on the Honey by Clothesline From Hell (they're actually from Toronto). Right now they're letting us hear four tracks (out of eight) and the first one is a bit too conventional-emo-hop for me, but I like the other three well enough that I'll at least check out the whole thing once it's all there.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

MadhattanJack wrote:

Errr, it won't be long before we're getting 30 or more new releases per week, so there's going to have to be some "judicious pruning," I should think.

Oh totally! I personally will try to pick just one (or two) to really geek out about.

MadhattanJack wrote:

Errr, it won't be long before we're getting 30 or more new releases per week, so there's going to have to be some "judicious pruning," I should think.

Quote:

What January 16th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on?!

The Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore album ("Tragic Magic") sounds nice (at least the two tracks they're letting us hear in advance), which is to be expected. Especially if you like harps. They Might Be Giants have a new record out but it's just a 4-song EP... Sleaford Mods have a new album — I'm not a big fan of theirs, but maybe this one will change my mind. (Okay, it probably won't.)

Honestly, the album I'm most interested in is a "new discovery" of sorts — Slather on the Honey by Clothesline From Hell (they're actually from Toronto). Right now they're letting us hear four tracks (out of eight) and the first one is a bit too conventional-emo-hop for me, but I like the other three well enough that I'll at least check out the whole thing once it's all there.

What's emo-hop? Might have to check that out.

I'll definitely check out that Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore album. I really like both of theirs solo stuff. Is this their first time working together?

Btw, I checked out Winged Wheel's sophomore album - Big Hotel - as well. It's pretty awesome! Right up there with their latest but a very different sound. More in the psychedelic/space rock/krautrock vein.

I just recently discovered the Sleaford Mods. I checked out Divide & Exit from 2014. I think it's Punk AF!!! \m/ I feel like they're a low-brow Dry Cleaning actually! I guess they're pretty divisive. Personally, I love their energy on that one album.

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Repo wrote:

What's emo-hop? Might have to check that out.

Maybe I just made it up? The beat is sort of hip-hoppish, the guitars/vocals are more emo-ish, to me anyway. (Not that I'm a good judge of what belongs in those genres.)

Quote:

I'll definitely check out that Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore album. I really like both of theirs solo stuff. Is this their first time working together?

No, but up until now it's been Mary appearing on Julianna's stuff more than the other way 'round. And I only know this because, well, I looked it up on Discogs, but also Mary Lattimore is part of the "Slowdive orbit" — she had Rachel Goswell do guest vocals on her Goodbye, Hotel Arkada album, and Neil Halstead produced her Silver Ladders LP back in 2020. I guess that's what they were doing during the pandemic... It's still harp music though, so I can't pretend I'm an aficionado or anything.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

MadhattanJack wrote:

Quote:

I'll definitely check out that Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore album. I really like both of theirs solo stuff. Is this their first time working together?

No, but up until now it's been Mary appearing on Julianna's stuff more than the other way 'round. And I only know this because, well, I looked it up on Discogs, but also Mary Lattimore is part of the "Slowdive orbit" — she had Rachel Goswell do guest vocals on her Goodbye, Hotel Arkada album, and Neil Halstead produced her Silver Ladders LP back in 2020. I guess that's what they were doing during the pandemic... It's still harp music though, so I can't pretend I'm an aficionado or anything.

Oh wow! this...

Silver Ladders (2020) by Mary Lattimore

... album is amazing! I think A LOT of Slowdive fans would dig this. Sounds far more like an ambient Slowdive album - honestly not that far removed from Halsted's Mojave 3 stuff, really - than "harp music"! This is NOT your granddad's harp music! 😅

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Repo wrote:

... album is amazing! I think A LOT of Slowdive fans would dig this. Sounds far more like an ambient Slowdive album - honestly not that far removed from Halsted's Mojave 3 stuff, really - than "harp music"! This is NOT your granddad's harp music! 😅

Unfortunately, all of my grandparents had died long before Mary Lattimore or Joanna Newsom were even born, much less started recording. Maybe they would have been appalled by the "new harp wave," which as we all know later gave way to "harpcore" and finally "post-pluck," but who knows if they even considered it a separate genre at all back in their day.

And while I don't mean to be a contrarian (it just comes naturally for me), Slowdive only made the one ambient record, which is about to be outranked here by the most recent one — which only needs about 50 more points to take the #4 spot. So while Slowdive fans do tend to have a fine talent for music appreciation, that doesn't mean they're aficionados either.

Tap

to resume download

Gender: Female

Age: 40

Thanks for the tip on the Andrews album, added that to my list! And yeah that Lattimore / Barwick seems like it'll be good. Here's a few that might be of interest

Cindytalk - That We Must Pass Through This Life
https://lineimprint.bandcamp.com/album/that-we-must-pass-through-this-life

Christopher Hoffman - REX
https://christopherhoffman.bandcamp.com/album/rex

Lia Kohl - Music for Union Station
https://liakohl.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-union-station

MIRA新伝統 - Mythoplaxy
https://infinitemachine.bandcamp.com/album/mythoplaxy

THE THUNKS (Harnik/Brandlmayr/Kern) - Swarm Patterns
https://trostrecords.bandcamp.com/album/swarm-patterns

Xiu Xiu - Xiu Mutha Fuckin' Xiu: Vol. 1
https://xiuxiu.bandcamp.com/album/xiu-mutha-fuckin-xiu-vol-1

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Repo wrote:

RELEASE DAY EVE: JANUARY 16TH, 2026

I'm going to approach this year as if we get 52 Christmases. Why not! The world is fricken' crazy!!! Who even knows if we'll make it to the real next Christmas!!! The one thing I can still count on is that every Friday bands and artists are going to be dropping NEW STUFF! And that's kind of exciting! My favorite record of all time just could be dropping tomorrow! Who knows?!?! BUT, there's only way to find out, and that's to queue something up at the stoke of midnight.

For this week, I've got my ears & heart set on the ...

Consistently Consistent

Valentine (2026) by Courtney Marie Andrews

Courtney Marie Andrews may just be the best under the radar singer-songwriter of the past ten years! She's released FOUR great albums over that time - I cannot even name a favorite because they're all so consistently consistent - and tomorrow's Valentine release will hopefully bring that tally up to FIVE.

What January 16th, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on?!

I love CMA. Great artist. Added to my Wishlist. Thanks for the heads up. I think that this thread is going to me really useful. Thanks for setting it up