My discoveries per year

[dihansse]

And some albums from 2011:

First an album I already own:

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Let England Shake by PJ Harvey
I have bought this album on Itunes but hadn't listened to it a lot. And the thing is: this album doesn't do a lot for me so I decided to take it off my year chart.

Than an album on my wishlist:

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My Back Is Killing Me Baby by Car Seat Headrest
This is the first real album of Car Seat Headrest (in fact Will Toledo) and I see that many people (including himself) don't like it because it's so lo-fi and the songs sound a bit unfinished. But in fact that's what I like about it. The best song here, Something Soon just sounds very raw and exhiliarating so the bad production even enhances the listening experience. This track reappears on their latest live album of 2023 but that version just sounds very flat. Not all tracks are top but in general this is an album that can rank among the best of the band so it immediately goes to the 25th rank of the year.

As an aside, that 2023 live album (Faces From The Masquerade) was already a while on my playlist but upto now I hadn't listened to it yet. So I thought this was a good occasion. And tbh I didn't really like it. As was true for Something Soon, the best versions of these tracks don't appear on this live album. They all sound a bit too polished and that doesn't them any good.

[dihansse]

These are the albums of 2012 I listened to:

An album I already own/know (around this time mainly bought from Itunes):

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Spooky Action At A Distance by Lotus Plaza
Good album from this artist who is also a Deerhunter member which means that the general sound is not far off the sound of Deerhunter (maybe a bit more shoegaze). Again one of these albums I hadn't heard in a long time and a good one especially White Galactic One hits the right spot. It moves up from the 28th to the 21st rank.


And an album from my wishlist:

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Choice Of Weapon by The Cult (UK)
In fact a good album by the Cult of which the sound sometimes becomes a bit too much always the same but on this album they succeed at keeping it interesting. It immediately enters at the 22nd rank.

[CharlieBarley]

Hi Dihansse,

I just read quickly through the first 3 pages and last 3 pages of this, your thread. Hopefully I will get time soon to have a more thorough read.

It is excellent and fun to read. I like similar albums to yourself. Such as the White Album by Beatles and Aretha Franklin and the Kinks mighty Village Green.

I agree with you on Travis's album The Man Who. It is a mixed bag with moments of genius for me but a few sad songs too. I like some sad songs but Fran Healy gets very sad! Still it's in my Overall chart.

And I agree that Blur's Parklife is great. You can tell they were listening to the Kinks, like you say.

Can you recommend some Belgian and French artists for me to listen to please?

Only ones I know are Vanessa Paradis, Francis Cabrel (well only his sublime album Samedi Soir Sur La Terre) and a little bit of Johnny Hallyday, whom I listened to a while ago as he was such a high selling music artist. His popular songs not albums I heard.

I think I heard some dEUS but I don't remember.
They now go to the top of my list!

[dihansse]

Thx CB, most artists you talk about are French and not Belgian although there is a bit of debate about johny Halliday although I would rather consider him French. The big artist in the French chanson genre who is really Belgian is Jacques Brel in my opinion. He’s the greatest.

More in the rock genre I would indeed certainly recommend dEUS and especially their first albums. If you want something really eclectic Belgian you should go for TC Matic, a mix of everything you can think of but with also really good and special guitar work but I have the impression that I wasn’t able yet to convince anybody on this site. And there’s many others: The Kids (punk), Red Zebra (punk more in the direction of cold wave), the Neon Judgement (industrial new wave), Gore slut (lo-fi), etc etc

[CharlieBarley]

Thanks D I will check those artists out for sure esp dEUS. Plastic Bertrand is Belgian too isn't he? I love Ca Plane Pour Moi. Used to love it when I was a kid. They use that song to advertise Kellogs cereal here in the UK.

[dihansse]

Ca plane pour moi is an excellent track but it’s the only one by Plastic Bertrand and afterwards it turned out he didn’t even sing it himself. So not really worth it to explore him further

[dihansse]

These are the two albums of 2013 I listened to:

First and album I already know/own:

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Mensen Zijn Gemaakt Van Dun Papier by Jonas Winterland
Very subtle music and in Flemish but oh so good: the album goes from the 28th to the 6th rank on my year list.


And an album on my wishlist:

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Internal Sounds by The Sadies
The Sadies and especially also this album are a bit of a mixed bag for me. I like them very much when they go in Luna/Meat Puppets more; I like them much less when they go in country fiddle mode. And this album contains both, so a good but not perfect album which lands at the 58th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

These are two albums of 2014 I listened to:

And album I already own/know:

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Eighteen Hours Of Static by Big Ups
Clearly an album I bought on Itunes and never listened to again because after a second listen this is not really my type of album. It's punk with a lot of shouting but it feels like shouting for the sake of shouting without anything more. There are a few listenable tracks so I will keep this album in my top list but only just because it moves down from the 43rd to the 52nd rank.

An album on my wishlist:

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Everything/Nothing by Hurry (US)
Don't Look Back was one of my favorite albums of 2023 so I wanted to find out more about Hurry and this is their first real album. The thing it sounds great: real pop songs with heavy guitars and most tracks are really good were it not for two of the longest tracks on the albums, Days And Days And Days and Blank (the titles say it all) which are just long and boring with no variation at all. But since the rest is so good this album immediately goes to the 29th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

These are the two albums of 2015 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

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III by The Hickey Underworld
A Belgian band of which I normally wouldn't really much like (too dense) but there are enough good hooks and quirks to make this album likeable. Goes not very far up from the 59th to the 55th rank

Then an album from my wishlist:

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Mansion Songs by Howlin' Rain
I am a big fan of the Alligator Bridge but on this first album they still have to grow. Besides really sensitive songs like Coliseum there are also real throwaway songs like Wild Bush. A mixed bag which lands at the 56th rank.

[dihansse]

Two albums of 2016 I listened to:

An album I already know/own:

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Bait Is For Sissies by Kino Kimino
It seems Sonic Youth was involved in this one, otherwise fairly forceful but not really like SY but good anyway and rises from the 44th to the 39th rank.

An album from my wishlist:

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A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings by Beach Slang
This really feels like an amped up Replacements. The music is heavier and the voice as well but the songs definitely feel like Paul Westerberg's. But the songs sound very good and punkish so nothing wrong with that. The album lands at the 19th rank of the year.