Happy New Year everyone! On Monday, I'll be looking ahead to some of the releases I'm excited to hear in 2016; for now, let's take a moment to look back on the year we've just left behind. Here's a quick countdown of The Album Wall's Most-Read Blog Posts of 2015...
10) 10 Questions for ESKA
A brief Q&A with Mercury-nominated musician Eska Mtungwazi.
9) Dimed Out
A preview of The Most Lamentable Tragedy by Titus Andronicus, written a couple of months before its release (spoiler: the album is every bit as excellent as I hoped it would be).
8) Review: Wasting Away and Wondering
Thoughts on the fab third album from Cardiff pop troupe The School.
7) Day-Glo Dreams & The Art of Depressing Me
What makes a truly depressing album? In this blog, I suggest that Helen Love may well have a better idea than the moody likes of Thom Yorke et al.
6) Abstract Heart
My review of Zervas & Pepper's latest LP.
5) Revisiting Little Kix
Is Mansun's much-maligned third album really as bad as some fans would have you believe?
4) 10 Questions for Trembling Bells
The genre-juggling folk-rockers offer up some insight on their latest album, The Sovereign Self.
3) Under the Western Freeway
My first blog post of 2015 revisited Grandaddy's full-length debut and found it to be, well, something of a downer. Who would have thought?!
2) Mogwai Albums from Worst to Best
Mogwai celebrated their 20th anniversary this month - here's your ultimate guide to their 8 studio albums.
1) Björk Battles the Leakers
In my most-read post of 2015, I examined the fallout that ensued when Vulnicura, the new Björk album, was leaked online months in advance of its scheduled release date.
Hope you've all enjoyed reading The Album Wall over the past 12 months - I can't wait to hear what sort of sounds 2016 will serve up!
A blog about albums and music and stuff.
Showing posts with label the school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the school. Show all posts
Friday, January 1, 2016
Monday, December 14, 2015
Top 20 Songs of 2015 (Part 1)
It's that time of year again! Time to take stock, to look back, to make a big list of the year's best music and put it all into some sort of order. Here's a rough schedule for The Album Wall's End of Year Week 2015:
- Today: Top 20 Songs of the Year (20-11)
- Wednesday: Top 20 Songs of the Year (10-1)
- Friday: Top 10 Albums of the Year
It's been a heck of a year, musically speaking, and we've got a lot to get through between now and Black Friday, so let's jump right in. Here's the first half of my 'Songs of 2016' list:
20) Wish Upon a Bar by Frog
(from Kind of Blah)
Verbose, slow-building indie rock? Slurry wordplay on a Disney classic? The sense - implied by the warm, glowing sound and made explicit by the second verse - that all of this is happening around Christmastime? It's like this song was made for me.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
September Playlist: Come What May
Blimey, another month over - this place will be filled with Christmas music before long!
In the meantime, here are 10 of the tracks that have been tickling my fancy over the last 30 days. Click here for last month's playlist.
In the meantime, here are 10 of the tracks that have been tickling my fancy over the last 30 days. Click here for last month's playlist.
1. Grown-Ups - The Burning Hell
(from People)
I spent roughly 700 words analysing this album's closing track last week. Today, I'd like to draw your attention to the equally ace opening track - from the awesome first line ("You were a Nazi hunter...") to the wistfully ambiguous ending ("By the time you read this..."), Grown-Ups is the perfect representation of what it's like to not be a kid any more.
I spent roughly 700 words analysing this album's closing track last week. Today, I'd like to draw your attention to the equally ace opening track - from the awesome first line ("You were a Nazi hunter...") to the wistfully ambiguous ending ("By the time you read this..."), Grown-Ups is the perfect representation of what it's like to not be a kid any more.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Review: Wasting Away and Wondering by The School
The great thing about pop music is its ability to elevate simple, ordinary statements like "I love you" or "I'll see you soon" to the level of poetry, of high art, of grand drama. There's a perfect example of this on The School's new LP, Wasting Away and Wondering; the album's fifth track, Don't Worry Baby (I Don't Love You Any More), doesn't venture much further than the nine words that make up its title, and yet it somehow manages to wring gallons of tragedy and melancholy from the subject of breaking up:
A subject so well-worn and oft-explored that it shouldn't really have any emotional impact whatsoever at this point.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Looking Forward to the Rest of 2015
This whole week has been dedicated to The Album Wall's 2015 Halftime Report. I've already shared my favourite songs and albums of the year so far; now it's time to look to the future.
Here are five albums (not including the Iron Maiden album and the potential Tindersticks album that I discussed last week) that I'm looking forward to hearing in the latter months of 2015:
The Most Lamentable Tragedy by Titus Andronicus
Out July 28
If there's one band I from whom I really, really want to hear a five-act, multi-disc rock opera, it's Titus Andronicus. They already proved their ability to make untedious long albums with The Monitor, and early signs suggest that they'll be able to do the pretentious concept album thing (lot's of fun) without actually making over-pretentious music (less fun). Case in point: lead single Dimed Out, a body-blow of a punk rock song that's probably more enjoyable than anything that's ever been tagged 'rock opera' in the past.
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