Let Down – Glyph’s Disappointing 2015 in Rock
I feel like 2015 started strong but petered out quickly. Looking over my library, relatively little of what I got that came out this year, rock-wise, moved me all that much; some “likes”, not a ton of “LOVES“.
I was sadly pretty disappointed in the latest Deerhunter (Fading Frontier) which IMO had only 2-3 strong songs (though “Breaker”, above, remains absolutely gorgeous).
And when the hell is that Chromatics album actually going to come out?! Still, this song from it got a lot of play from me:
On the bright side, the rock that DID do it for me, was largely created by females – looking this piece over after I drafted it, I realized that only Deerhunter (which has occasionally featured one female player in the past), Built to Spill, Viet Cong, Car Seat Headrest, Torche and Swervedriver are made up exclusively of men; the remaining bands are led or co-led by women.
Hmmm. Maybe “The Ladies Are Trying To Save Rock’s Sorry Ass” would have been a better post title.
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This Torche video (from Restarter) is very NSFW, unless your workplace is run by murderous heavy metal robots:
Dream-poppers Beach House had a very good year with two solid records, and I got a few really nice shoegaze albums from bands old (Swervedriver) and newish (the Russian Pinkshinyultrablast, and the Canucks in No Joy).
The ever-dependable Built to Spill put out Untethered Moon, and while it was appealingly rougher and rawer than usual (the probable result of some lineup changes and the perpetually-restless creativity of leader Doug Martsch), for me it probably will stay in their second-tier, with the caveat that Built to Spill records sometimes sneak up in the rankings years after the fact: a predictable side-effect of the band’s consistent high quality.
I liked the (FKA) Viet Cong record; solid post-punk sounds. Car Seat Headrest made (or compiled) a catchy lo-fi pop/rock record.
A LOT of bands mined 1990’s alt-nation-style music. I can’t say that PJ Harvey or Courtney Love were my favorite vocalists from that period, but it’s nonetheless heartening to see youngsters taking up their acid-tongued mantles:
On the mellower 1990s side, Posse, Chastity Belt and Courtney Barnett (whose rambling lyrics called to mind Liz Phair’s and Stephen Malkmus’ conversational styles) all put out very enjoyable, mostly low-key records.
But without question, the new rock album I played the most this year was Radical Dads’ Universal Coolers – it’s a throwback for sure (to early-’90’s Amerindie), but low-key it’s not, with energy and hooks to spare. It stayed in my car for months.
A good companion album – a bit more professional, perhaps – might be Screaming Females’ Rose Mountain. Love her guitar sound.
Last but not least, Sleater-Kinney came back:
What about y’all? What did you like this year, in any genre?
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The new Calexico and Future Islands are both good. Real good.Report
I’m not a huge Calexico fan, but this has spent a lot of 2015 stuck in my head:
https://youtu.be/tjzxxzBTNmwReport
That Deerhunter song really is pretty great. There have been several rock albums I’ve enjoyed this year, including the Radical Dads and Bully albums, but I can’t say that I’ve really loved any either. A partial list:
Lady Lamb – After
Westkust – Last Forever
Royal Headache – High
Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People
The Early November – Imbue
Small Feet – From Far Enough Away Everything Sounds Like the Ocean
Rey Pila – The Future Sugar (though this might have been better on the electronic list)
Some samples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFBJu7bliZYReport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17leneuvs4EReport
Yeah, the only one I feel like I will still be playing in a year or more is that Radical Dads – I put it back on the other day after writing this and it still rocks. It’s the only one listed above that I fell head-over-heels for; everything else elicited varying degrees of “pretty good”. For whatever reason, I was feeling electronic stuff far more this year.Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31xk1Z96CrIReport
I put an 18-track playlist in the FP sidebar – I’ll try to clean up the wonkiness around it when I get to a real keyboard.Report
Oh, I like that Chastity Belt album too.Report
They gave a weird interview at the Quietus a while back. But I still like the album.Report
I just played a George Benson model, and the thought of listening to anything else seems like sacrilege at the moment.
I’m in love. (smooch)
My current set-up is supposed to get me up to 120 dB with everything all the way up (400W, 4 x 12″).
I might be tempted to see if it would really do it with that little baby.Report
savages have a new album coming out in january
(warning: video is the most 90s thing i’ve seen since 1999)
https://youtu.be/kvvhHT0B5ckReport
Well that is pretty damn awesome.Report
They should have gone whole hog on that video and put the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” janitor in there somewhere.Report
At one point I did get an overwhelming urge to wear flannel, dye my hair, put my earrings back in, and scribble Baudelaire poems on the back of a notebook, but thankfully it passed as quickly as it came.Report
I should have remembered this for the unsolicited gift guide but Low’s “Ones And Sixes” was pretty good.
https://youtu.be/exxRz-iVBlcReport
Ever since I saw this comment, I’ve had “Violence” stuck in my head.
Which is fine, and the actual song feels like it goes on for that long anyway.
https://youtu.be/dvYaC5rZyX4Report
That right there is the definition of “good stuff”.
I’ve been drinking a touch of the grape and listening to the hippie crap I so enjoyed when I was in my late teens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ZCPE6qxUc
I wrote a Wednesday! post about this so many years ago but who has the time?
If you can only listen to one song, listen to this one:
https://youtu.be/-5VQKS35CP8
Yes. It’s the song mentioned in the Wednesday! post.Report
HOLY CRAP THEY HAVE AN UNRELEASED ALBUM
https://youtu.be/1LiyfW5gwMEReport
fwiw beach house was my son’s favorite album this year. it is pretty choice.Report