National Conference

Last month, I wrote a blog about two great sports-themed LPs that I'd been listening to a lot: The Mountain Goats' Beat the Champ (an album about professional wrestling), and The Baseball Project's 3rd (an album about - surprise, surprise - baseball).

Shortly after that post was published, I received the following recommendation from one Matt Jones on Twitter:

I was intrigued; not only did I have another fun-looking sports album to listen to, it was an album by the bassist from The Mountain Goats (i.e. the man who made even the dullest parts of Tallahassee kind of interesting). Better still, it was FREE!

May Playlist: Blood on the Front Row

I'm off to fabulous Barcelona today for the Primavera Sound festival, so this month's musical digest is going up slightly earlier than usual. There will be no new blog posts while I'm away, although I may fire off the odd update from Spain over on Twitter (I'm @TheAlbumWall).

Anyhow, here to tide you over in my absence are ten of the songs that have run barges through my ear canals over the past few weeks:

1. From Nails to Thumbtacks - The Baseball Project

(from 3rd)
My first blog post of May 2015 compared wrestling with baseball, and 3rd with The Mountain Goats' more recent album about professional wrestling. Wrestling emerged victorious from that comparison, at least in the grit stakes, but this true story of superstar-turned-carjacker Lenny Dykstra demonstrates that America's pastime does have some fairly gritty stories of its own.

Wrestling vs. Baseball

Upon hearing Beat the Champ - the latest album from The Mountain Goats - I was instantly reminded of The Baseball Project, the sport-obsessed supergroup that's made up of R.E.M. alumni and various other alt rock luminaries. To date, The Baseball Project have released three albums' worth of songs about baseball and the stories that have become the sport's legends; with Beat the Champ, John Darnielle has done much the same thing, except with professional wrestling.

2014: Honourable Mentions

Only now, as I revisit all the albums I bought this year, do I realise just how good 2014 has been. True, there have been quite a few albums that didn't live up to my expectations, but many others have met and exceeded those expectations quite wonderfully.

I'll be sharing my Top 10 Albums of 2014 this Friday; in the meantime, I'd like to mention a few marvellous albums that, while not quite good enough to crack my Top 10 list, are still more than worthy of your attention.

I'll start with Mogwai's Rave Tapes, one of the first albums I bought this year and a fine addition to Mogwai's uniformly fine back catalogue. It's not a career best - it's neither as instantly gratifying as Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will nor as rewarding as earlier efforts like Come On Die Young - but songs like Remurdered and Repelish have a dark, brooding sound that's very, very cool. Blues Hour is my personal favourite; Mogwai don't often do lyrics, but when they do, the results are always awesome (see also: Cody, R U Still In 2 It).

2014 - Halfway Report

2014, take a seat. We need to talk.

You've been here for a solid six months now, and in all honesty, I'm not bowled over by the contribution you've made.

Now, don't get me wrong - there's been some great music released since you showed up back in January. I really enjoyed those albums by Real Estate, Stephen Malkmus, The Afghan Whigs, Stanley Brinks, Mogwai, The Hidden Cameras...but as good as those CDs are, I can't say that I've formed a real emotional connection with any of them.

But there's still time to turn things around. Heck, the previous guy did most of his best work in the autumn/winter period - of the five albums that we earmarked in 2013's halfway report, only two went on to make the end-of-year list - so we're not overly concerned about your performance just yet. I'm just giving you a slightly crummy assessment now in the hopes that it will spur you to do even better in the months to come.

And, I have to admit, you have given us a few genuine gems while you've been here. We did a 'Top 5' list for your predecessor this time last year, and so we decided it would only be fair to do the same for you...

The Best Albums of 2014...So Far!

Benji by Sun Kil Moon

This album of songs about the past is this year's Last of the Country Gentlemen, i.e. a sparse sounding album with considerable emotional clout. Jim Wise remains my favourite song of the year to date...

Are We There by Sharon Van Etten
...closely followed by Every Time the Sun Comes Up, the closing track from Sharon Van Etten's latest album. Even if the rest of the album had been a write-off, it would have been worth sitting through for that song alone. Fortunately, the other stuff is pretty amazing as well.

Let's Play Ball!

The Baseball Project are a band about baseball. 3rd, their latest LP, is an album about baseball consisting of eighteen songs about baseball. If you like baseball, you will like this record.