Category: 2015NE

28: Roots Manuva: Bleeds

~ Lex Leeson ~ Leave a comment

If you were going to compile a list of the greatest ever organic cottage cheeses it might be a good test of your debating skills to argue the case for Roots Manuva’s inclusion. It would certainly be a more worthwhile endeavour than collating a list of the greatest ever British rappers, as Roots would splay open-legged as he lay on top of that list with such ease that it’s actually rather embarrassing to even consider. Stop thinking about it! Stop it! Not that Rodney Smith’s eighth (or is it ninth?) album sees him kicking back to reflect in the glory, in fact it’s by some distance his most disturbed (though never disturbing) and bleak album to date. He’s always been hip-hop’s greatest curmudgeon, but ‘Bleeds’ sees him occasionally furious but always deeply crestfallen at the state of Cameron’s Britain, from corporate greed to the poor being continually shat upon. It’s his most weighty social commentary, though the gritty and enraged lyrics are often onset by some of the most beautiful productions he’s ever been involved in. He mainly does away with any frivolity that may have once formed a big part of his identity but the results are deeply affecting. It’s another album I wish I’d been able to spend more time with, but it already sounds like it deserves to placed alongside the very best works of his career.

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‘Fun’ Fact: Roots Manuva is the 52’664th most ‘popular’ person on famousbirthdays.com

Ooooooh, weighty lyrics with gorgeous music, gimme some of that: ‘Don’t Breath Out‘ is probably the best example

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29: Miguel: Wildheart

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

Remember when I said there had been at least two brilliant Prince albums released this year? You don’t?? It was in the actual Prince review! There really is no point creating these marvellous interlocking segues if you’re just not going to pay attention! No, don’t go back and look for it, it was really only that one sentence and it doesn’t really bear the effort. Well anyway: I said it, and this is one of them. Although the comparisons are inevitable Miguel is one of the faces of an enthralling new strand of R’n’B that has blossomed recently, a strand that never takes its eyes off its influences but still crafts music that represent new creative highs for the entire genre. I’m generally heterosexual and generally male, yet after listening to ‘Wildheart’ sultrily and explicitly dry hump my ear for 46 minutes I still became pregnant more than a dozen times and tweeted Miguel so many naked pictures I’m actually due in court a week next Tuesday. If he concentrated more on the brash and provocative modern rethinks of ‘Dirty Mind’ rather than AOR nonsense like ‘face the sun (sic)’ then he could get amazing.

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‘Fun’ Fact: Miguel was born the day before Wayne Rooney and both their lives and personalities have proceeded down remarkably similar paths.

Pfff, sounds a bit gay to me mate: If you don’t finish listening to ‘the valley (sigh, sic again, Miguel hates his capitals)’ with a deep yearning to at least spend a night in Miguel’s bed then you’re only lying to yourself

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30: Joanna Newsom: Divers

~ Lex Leeson ~ Leave a comment

No! No! No! I need more time! I need more time! Can’t we put the end of 2015 back a few months this year? I’m sure if we did list in June 2016 rather than November/December this year I would spend far more time drowned inside this album and feel far more qualified to speak of how magnificent it is. And it will be magnificent, I’m certain, once I’ve listened to it maybe a dozen more times, once I’ve picked through the dozens of layers that obviously lie here, at the moment unfortunately I can only legitimately call it ‘very, very, very, very good’. While her last album was a ridiculous 3CDs of intense work that not one person alive had time for, ‘Divers’ is a far more dynamic attempt, rather than any massive revolution in sound it merely attempts to condense all the many disparate and intriguing strands of her musical career so far into a brisk 56 minutes (‘brisk’ by Newsom standards: it takes her 3 hours to brush her teeth and do her first morning dump). I’m in no position to talk though: talk to me in 12 months and this will be my favourite album of 2015.

joanna newsom

‘Fun’ Fact: You’ve probably got ideas of the type of family Joanna grew up in. Well, they forbade her from watching TV or listening to the radio so you’re right: that type.

Aaaaaaah! We’re running out of time here! Just recommend a song you feel best represents the album, quick! Aaaaaaah! Erm, er, I guess ‘Divers‘ is halfway through and, erm, it’s the title track and everything

31: My Morning Jacket: Waterfall

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, My Morning Jacket are as reliably satisfying as microwave popcorn, and it’s equally perplexing to me why they aren’t as universally adored. Like microwave popcorn, they’re surely impossible to dislike (surely??) and their seventh album isn’t significantly less of a towering achievement than any of the six that preceded it (and significantly better than one or two of them). It kicks off with the gorgeous ‘Believe (Nobody Knows)‘- an absolutely scientifically proven perfect album opener- and never really lets up. It’s hard to think of a significantly more pleasurable way to spend 48 minutes (apart from having sex, like, almost a hundred times), my only gripe is that these beautiful songs somehow fail to truly stick with you like old microwave popcorn kernels lodged between your teeth.

‘Fun’ Fact: From Louisville, Kentucky yet as far as I’m aware have never once called themselves ‘The Louisville Lips’. What’s wrong with them?

I was just talking to my mate Sean last night yeah, and he was wondering ‘What’s the best pop song ever about broken bones piercing the skin?’ I’ve told you that you should stay away from that Sean, he seems to talk only in bizarre non sequiturs that turn out to be extremely relevant much later. Anyway ‘Compound Fracture‘ deserves at least to be included in the discussion.

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32: Blur: The Magic Whip

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

Blur’s first album for 12 years (and first with Graham Coxon for 16) is far better than it has any real right to be, only really veering off into the embarrassingly crude approximation you might have feared it’d turn out like when they attempt to ape the music they made while at the height of their mid-90s relevance (you’ll be glad to hear Danny Dyer isn’t called upon to perform Phil Daniels duties). It can occasionally veer too clumsily between the sombre moroseness more associated with Albarn’s solo records and more throwaway attempts at flippancy, but mainly it’s clear the band still retain an uncanny ability to craft beautiful music.

‘Fun’ Fact: Alex James was once in the catastrophic yet mercifully short-lived ‘super group’ Me Me Me. He should never be allowed to forget that

If the band are about to attempt to break into the Chinese market, do you think they should push ‘My Terracotta Heart‘ as their main single? Oh no, I think ‘Pyongyang‘ is far more suited.

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34: Charli XCX: Sucker

~ Lex Leeson ~ 7 Comments

It’s strange to think that Charli XCX’s complete omnipresence is a relatively recent thing, her reign of pop terror only really starting when Icona Pop’s version of her penned song ‘I Love It‘ was at first cheerfully agreeable and then irritatingly inescapable a couple of years ago. It peaked this summer when Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy‘ was such a bewilderingly huge hit that the OCC erected a 12 foot tall bronze statue of a big steaming dump in recognition of its success. Perhaps it’s just the confidence she performs with, obviously convinced that she was a star years before any record sales backed her up, maybe it’s just comes naturally to singers from Sweden, as you mistakenly believe she is. ‘Sucker’ deals only in extremes: everything on it is either outrageously brilliant (the wondrous twisted doo-wop of the album’s closer) or unforgivably awful (‘London Queen‘ may well be the lowest point in recorded music up to this point) but whatever the results Charli is obviously more interested in bending accepted pop culture to her whims rather than conforming to it, and pop is all the luckier for it.

‘Fun’ Fact: If ‘Boom Clap‘ really was the sound of your heart it’d be a serious medical issue

Meh, I’ve heard that ‘Boom Clap‘ song a lot but I’m not really a fan: Then you’re obviously a cretin who’s just lying to himself.

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35: Miley Cyrus: Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz

~ Lex Leeson ~ 5 Comments

OK, now this is just nuts. Nuts in a different way to Holly Herndon perhaps, but absolutely no less nuts. These 23 (!) self-released songs made with help from Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne (who last released a decent album when Miley was 9 years old) has been called a vanity project by some, chiefly because it absolutely is one. But why is that a bad thing? Why don’t more pop stars strive to create something like this? Why doesn’t Leona Lewis self-release something as bonkers as a tender song about her pet goldfish being eaten as sushi which ends with her breaking down crying? Would Nick Jonah even consider releasing something as downright bizarre as ‘Milky Milky Milk‘? Why is such staunch anti-commercialism lauded in others but absolutely chided in Miley? And ‘…Dead Petz’ is frequently amazing and far more weighted toward cosmic beauty than the clunky attempts at controversy exhibited in ‘single’ ‘Dooo It‘. Yes, it’s predictably waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, and Miley is often trying fae too hard, but it’s largely a success and ensures Cyrus remains one of our most entertainingly insane pop stars.

‘Fun’ Fact: If I had a baby girl next year by the time I was Wayne Coyne’s age she’d be Miley’s and people would think it a bit weird how I hung about with her so much

What the hell am I going to sing in my X Factor audition tomorrow?! ‘Twinkle Song‘ will break the judges’ hearts, even if the lyrics are absolute nonsense

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36: Holly Herndon: Platform

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

Aye…?

This is 2015’s most challenging and cerebral attempt at music. I’m not even sure this is music, perhaps Holly just showed a group of foxes crayon drawings of burning clowns and recorded their calls of distress and confusion. When you first play the album it’ll sound like nothing you’ve ever heard before, and make the most of that hearing because the next time you stick it on it’ll sound completely different again: new sounds will screech at you, new convulsing rhythms will suddenly creep into your sweaty nightmares. That’s if you ever get to a second listen of course, this is the album released in 2015 most likely to leave you a quivering wreck in the corner of the room as you offer people the most disgusting sexual favours in exchange for just one listen of the latest Stereophonics album. Herndon refuses to make her music simple or even digestible, and the spoken word snippets are just a whole other level of disturbing. Much like Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Inherent Vice’ you just know there’s a lot to get your teeth into here, though it’s such a dense tome you’re not sure if you’ll ever have the time.

‘Fun’ Fact: ‘Inherent Vice’ was released more than a year ago, yet I’m still using it like it’s some sort of topical culturally reference

Don’t you think all those samples of voices and machinery looped and looped until they’re driven into unrecognisable insignificance is some sort of meta commentary on the art of electronic music making itself? Mate, I’ve no idea, my head hurts if I’m being honest, at least ‘Morning Sun‘ is the least crazy thing on here

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37: Marina and the Diamonds: Froot

~ Lex Leeson ~ 6 Comments

Marina Diamandis (that’s far too cool a real name!) has been an absolute master of pop music (pop mistress? That sounds far too perverse, I’m certainly not doing a Google image search) for more than five years now, although her last album ‘Electra Heart’ was a well-meaning yet ultimately failed attempt to create a character commenting on female portrayals in pop culture and society. On ‘Froot’ (maybe 2015’s best album title) she compensates for that artificial miss-step by taking her music to often starkly emotional places without ever losing her knack for crafting an absolute-stone-solid-mother-fucking-gold pop chorus. You worry that she may have thrown the bubbles out with the baby water sometimes by reigning in some of her more bonkers tendencies that once made her so engrossing, the record’s a little more reserved than her absolute best. The wait for that one perfect record I’m convinced she’s capable of goes on a little longer.

‘Fun’ Fact: Marina is plump and ripe, she’s pinker than shepherd’s delight, sweet like honeysuckle late at night

I like my music to be just a little bonkers: You’d love ‘I’m A Ruin‘ then

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38: Richard Hawley: Hollow Meadows

~ Lex Leeson ~ Leave a comment

Aaaaaaww, no there’s absolutely no problems here is there? Hawley maintains his not inconsiderable track record of producing songs that would sound out of place neither on a Nick Cave album nor a Radio 2 day time playlist. This may be the album on this list your Dad is most likely to own but that doesn’t mean it’s not 11 tracks of melodic perfection coated in achingly gorgeous arrangements, and it’s all as unbearably smooth as the 8 pounds of pomade he slicks into his hair every morning.

‘Fun’ Fact: Despite being 48, Hawley is still a little younger than you think

I saw Hawley going into WH Smiths once. Actually, that was in Great Yarmouth so I’m not entirely convinced it was him… Regardless, what song would you recommend to remind me of that momentous time? ‘Heart of Oak‘

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