My discoveries per year

[dihansse]

I'm coming closer to the present: here is 2010 with two albums I listened to:

An album I already own:

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Everything In Between by No Age
As a rock fan, I have never been a fan of the beginning of the years 2000 but gradually near the end of the first decade; a few new good bands were stirring up and No Age was certainly one of them and this third album of theirs was one of their best. The album is just filled with great energetic punk songs (although not as punky as their two other albums). Only a pity that there four absolutely filler tracks (you can't even call them interludes because they all are around 2 minutes long) which drags down my average score for this album considerably (albums like these make me want to review my scoring system but it's like democracy: I can't think of anything which would fill that gap). Anyway: a great album which moves up from the 50th to the 21st rank of the year.

An album of my wishlist:

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Turning On by Cloud Nothings
Their second album would be much better, but this first which is in fact a compilation of their earlier EP's sounds lo-fi, unfinished and especially is full with punk clichés without good songs. They would get better but not yet here.

[dihansse]

These are the two albums I listened to from 2011:

An album I already own:

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Moody, Standard And Poor by Obits
just a good punkrock album, nothing less, nothing more and still increases from the 33rd to the 28th rank.


An album on my wishlist:

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Carrion Crawler/The Dream by Thee Oh Sees
It seems this album was originally to be intented to be released as two separate EP's and that it was finally decided to release it as one album. And in my opinion you can hear it. While the first 5 tracks are wonders of psychopunk (especially Contraption/Soul Desert is great), the second part is just lazy psych where the first track The Dream is still OK (but by no means the best track of the album), the other four tracks are really not that good. So a mixed bag but still ok for the 36th rank.

[dihansse]

Two album of 2012 I listened to:

An album I already own:

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Between The Times And The Tides by Lee Ranaldo
On this album you can feel that next to Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, also Lee Ranaldo was an important contributor to the Sonic Youth sound. The first track could even have been a track of one of the better SY albums. The next tracks are much calmer than what he did in his former band but to me this is just fine because it all works: good songs, good guitar work and I really like the way he delivers his songs. And it climbs from the 9th to the 4th rank of the year.

An album on my wishlist:

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The Russian Wilds by Howlin' Rain
The Alligator Bride was one of my favorite albums of 2018 so I want to discover the albums that preceded it. But the thing is that while the 2018 album has a lot of references to the seventies, it is still a very original 2010's album anyway which is totally not the case for this one. It is just completely the seventies all over and they seem to inherit especially the bad things from that decade not the least of one being the endless noodling. In fact the album starts very good with one of the longest tracks and is a good song with nice guitar parts. But then things start to go wrong and especially boring. The playing is not bad but there's nothing really interesting going on. So I'm sorry but this album doesn't make it to my year chart.

[dihansse]

Two albums of 2013:

An album I already own:

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Oh, Mayhem! by Bettie Serveert
The fantastic voice of Carol Van Dijk stands out on any album but otherwise this one is fairly weak. Not that it doesn't contains any good songs but compared to they top in the nineties this is not their best. Still goes from the 52nd to the 47th rank.

An album on my wishlist:

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Fuzz by Fuzz
Another side project from Ty Segall and here there is nothing contemporary about the band or the album because it's completely steeped in the years around 1970 with the fuzz guitar of Blue Cheer and the bass sound of Black Sabbath. But the album is excellent and it immediately goes to the 10th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

Here are some albums from 2014:

An album I already own:

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Stockholm by Chrissie Hynde
Her voice still sounds good and so are the songs on these albums so what could you ask more: goes from the 36th to the 34th rank.

An album on my wishlist:

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Behind The Sun by Motorpsycho
The first track on this album are not very spectacular but then comes the Hell suite parts 4 to 6 (the other three were on the previous album) and the flow of this suite is absolutely amazing. And what's more: the remaining tracks are also just fine including part 7 of the Hell suite. So all in all a good Motorpsycho album and about the only prog band I really love. Ok for the 45th rank.

[dihansse]

These are two album of 2015:

An album I already own:
Viet Cong by Viet Cong (sorry can't seem to link to this album):
just a good punk album and goes from the 46th to the 36th rank.

An album from my wishlist:
Silver Bullets by The Chills (same problem)
Their new album of this year is just ok but this first come-back album after a long hiatus is just perfect. Good old jangly kiwirock accompanied by the great and very recognisable voice of Martin Philips. This band is really able to release some great albums, a pity they don't succeed in this on every album, but here they do. Immediately enters at the 14th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

These are two album of 2016 I listened to:

An album I already own:

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Headache by Male Bonding
I fairly liked Male Bonding and especially their very good debut Nothing Hurts and I had already listened already to this one but it seems not very well. This album is not just good, it's absolutely amazing. Sometimes there are references to Sonic Youth but this is just very energetic punk delivered in an angry but in the end very charming way. This is already very clear in the first track, Wrench but it just goes on track after track. I'll answer the question Pitchfork puts forward in their review (only with a score of 6.: a heartfelt yes and it's rank rises from the 9th to the 4th.

An album on my wishlist:

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Distance Inbetween by The Coral
Overall not a bad album but there's not track that makes my heart pump faster (only Miss Fortune is somewhat but only somewhat better) so finally a no.

[dihansse]

And here's already 2017 with two albums:

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Flat Worms by Flat Worms
Another one of those good energetic punky albums which remains firmly at the 7th rank of the year.

An album on my wishlist:

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A Hairshirt Of Purpose by Pile
This bond makes a trademark out of out-of-tune singing and playing especially on the slower tracks but in most cases it works. Not the best album in the world but nevertheless a fine addition to my year chart at the 70th rank.

[dihansse]

2018 is the last year I'll cover for round 6 with two albums I listened to:

An album I already know:

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Fall Protection by The Silence Kit
A bit of Cure, a bit of emo and overall fine songs so remains firmly at the 34th rank of the year.

An album on my wishlist:

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Goat Girl by Goat Girl
19 tracks in 40 minutes is maybe a bit too much and in fact it is. Overall the album doesn't sound bad and this all girls band have something of Courtney Barnett but not here great songwriting. There's nothing that really caught my attention here so finally a no.

[dihansse]

So starting round 7 and in 1968. I'll introduce something special about this round when I come to it (somewhere in a later year).

But still the same features as in the former rounds:

re-listening to an album I already own/know:

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White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground
The velvets at their heaviest and most experimental. The heavy parts are at the start (the title track) and at the end: the very long ultimale drug song Sister Ray which has some really heavy droning parts never heard before that time. But the track still holds and continues to be very interesting all over its 17 plus minutes. But there is some very stupid filler as well like the spoken word The Gift. Overall it remains a classic however and moves from the 11th to the 8th rank

And an album on my wishlist:

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Undead by Ten Years After
This is a live album but it contains all previously not recored songs by Ten Years After so it's a fitting addition to my year chart. Especially because it contains two tracks which are absolute killers: I'm Going Home which is to me the absolute jazzy blues classic and (At The) Woodchopper's Ball which to me is the ultimate bluesy jazz classic. I just love both these tracks which are both long and mesmerizing. The other tracks are more classic blues tracks and some of them are even a tiny bit boring but overall this album is also a classic which ends up at the 2nd rank of the year.