New-ish stuff now: Best of 2021!

Now on to more recent stuff - including stuff even those of you closest to me might not have heard me rave about for ages already. Let's dive right in, to the best albums of 2021! After years of cultivating the (excruciatingly) slow buildup it feels weird to go straight to the best, but here they are, along with my select tracks from each album.

Little Simz left little doubt as to who's the boss with her last album.

1. Little Simz - Sometimes I might be introvert. I hope Little Simz needs little introduction at this point. After being one of the best rappers in the game for years, she's now also showing herself as one of the  most exciting, creative and boundary-pushing. Little Simz' fourth album is by far her biggest, boldest, most theatrical, most varied, and most over the top. With all its new avenues explored, and at over an hour's length, it's not without a few tangents I enjoy less than others, but all in all it's a hugely successful experiment. Closer in spirit to both Lemonade and To Pimp A Butterfly than to either of her own previous albums, it's the album that cements Simz' position among hiphop's greats. Oh and also, the music videos for this thing are amazing.

• Introvert
• Standing ovation
• Woman
• Speed

2. Left at London - t.i.a.p.f.y.h. There's something so exhilarating about discovering an artist with entirely their own, unique, uncompromising style. Left at London (l@l), or Seattle's Nat Puff, writes, records, produces and releases her own music, and her full-length debut t.i.a.p.f.y.h (an acronym for two different tracks on the album) is one of those delightful indie pop albums that sound at the same time familiar - full of catchy hooks and well-worn references - and completely new. There's no way it could have been made by anyone else than her. Grimes' Art Angels, Let's Eat Grandma's I'm All Ears and Susanne Sundfør's Ten Love Songs spring to mind, not as similar sounding, but of the same do-everything-yourself-and-do-it-better ethos. These 7 songs have great lyrics, production twists and fun surprises around every corner. It's an album that seems impossible to classify - parts hiphop, folk and experimental electronica, with traces of psych rock and hyperpop - but underneath it all is just the voice of an inspired, ultra creative singer-songwriter. 

• Pills & good advice
• It could be better
• THIS IS A PROTEST FOR YOUR HEART!!!

3. Low - HEY WHAT. I'm almost embarrassed I didn't know about Low before randomly putting on HEY WHAT one fateful day. and even more embarrassing: I still haven't dived deeper into their discography yet; HEY WHAT has held my attention whenever I crave this kind of music. Because this is a particular craving. It is dense, electronic soundscapes, draped over slow, heavy buildups, but with a lightness to the melodies and songwriting. Low use dynamics in a way I've rarely experienced before - so intense yet so dreamy. At times this album feels like a darker, heavier, sparser, more industrial, more experimental, parallel-universe Beach House. Apparently Low are Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk from Duluth, Minnesota. After all the emotional toll and bliss their compositions on HEY WHAT have put me through, I look forward to exploring the rest of their output!

• All night
• More
• I can wait

4. Sega Bodega - Romeo. Irish-Chilean Salvador Navarrete, with the love it or hate it stage name Sega Bodega, is doing to hyperpop what James Blake did to dubstep back in the day: When a new, much-loved genre turns into more and more of a pissing contest, where dudes try to out-glitch or out-bass each other, what's needed is someone to dial back, focus on emotion and beauty, and use the sounds that made the genre popular in the first place to create something gentle, vulnerable and different. Romeo does exactly that, just as James Blake's self titled debut did in 2011. The very modern and PC music-esque production may sound harsh and glitchy at times to the uninitiated listener, but it's never dwelt on for long - the hearts of these songs are tender and touching. The album is loosely themed around an imagined relationship with a being of light, features great guest performances by Arca and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and dwells long enough on ideas to properly explore them, rather than just hyperpopping through. The highlight "Um um" is a heartbreaking homage to the brilliant SOPHIE, visionary electronic music pioneer and close friend of Navarrete's, whose untimely death last year shook the whole world of anyone who knew of her. Its intertangled voices, heavily computerized but deeply human, chanting "I see you in everything, even though you're, even though you're not around", tug at heart strings and tear ducts like little else I've heard lately.

• Um um
• Romeo
• I need nothing from you

5. Odyn v Kanoe - Один в каное (sorry for the romanization). This album is gorgeous. An absolute treasure from Ukraine (one of so many I've had the joy of discovering lately, more on that later here), this album is tranquil, spacious and sparse, but immensely powerful and heart-wrenching, even without any thoughts about what's happening in Ukraine currently. With those thoughts on top though, listening to this music is almost too much to handle, but I believe it's a good act. Despite my limited knowledge (my exploration of Ukrainian music only started with go_A's "Shum" last year), this brooding, bold music feels like it captures something intimately tied to and of the land - not quite in the way that Jan Johansson's Jazz på Svenska does for Sweden, nor the way Sigur Rós' Agætis Byrjun does for Iceland, but perhaps somewhere in between the two. It paints a beautiful, mythical scene in vivid, epic detail - it sends me to a place I can only hope to one day experience for myself, and one whose people for whom I can only hope the present pain and suffering will end as soon as possible. At the heart of the album is the captivating voice of Ira Shvaidak, telling stories in a language I don't know, from a proud culture whose heart is currently being ripped out an torn apart. Let's all do our best to help its healing.

• Хуанхе 
• Y мене немає дому
• Про aвтора

6. Arooj Aftab - Vulture Prince. Another breathtakingly beautiful album, this gem from Pakistani artist Arooj Aftab didn't so much blow me away when I first heard it, as slowly lure me in. It's a gentle, subtle, quite minimal album, but awash with next-level-perfect sounds: harps, strings, light jazzy accompaniment and Aftab's incredible voice singing Indian songs and melodies. The mixing of western jazz with Indian scales and tonalities is so smooth you don't even stop to think about it.

• Mohabbat
• Baghon Main
• Inayaat

7. Lokoy - badminton. The debut solo album by Lasse Lokøy, the bassist of Stavanger's favorite pop punk band Sløtface, shows an exciting and playful musician stand solidly on his own as a singer, songwriter, producer and curator of joyful, summery pop. Full of great collaborations and eclectic Gorillaz-esque mixing of genres, the album is more like window shopping than listening to one artist expressing himself. The local ties feel almost odd, given that I wouldn't have been surprised to hear this music on a hip tastemaker radio station somewhere in California. The songs are mostly breezy and many even a little dumb, but when Lokoy does go for the emotional punch, he really hits - the title track here is one of those perfect little ditties I can play over and over again, where every word and every instrumental flourish just seems like it descended from the heavens.

• badminton
• both eyes
• morning sun

8. Marina - Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. Indie pop provocateur Marina Diamandis (formerly known as Marina and the Diamonds) makes a grand statement on her newest album. The front half is packed full of anthems for the MeToo movement, tearing down the patriarchy, raising climate change awareness, dismantling capitalism and fighting for social justice. The catchiest of melodies pair with the catchiest of catchphrases, and this would all be awfully cheesy if it wasn't done so well. It's protest songs for the dancefloor, and it makes me wish there was more music this fun trying to say something important. The back half of the album is more ballad-heavy and, almost undermining the first half slightly, very focused on love. But it's still beautiful songwriting, showcasing Marina's powerful voice, and just makes me appreciate even more and artist who can do both.

• Man's world
• Venus fly trap
• Flowers

9. Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet. Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden get together as "Lost Girls", for a collaboration pulling Hval's entrancing songs and poetry into dreamy electronic, almost ambient territory. These five tracks are long and sprawling, mixing LCD Soundsystem quality soundscapes with the structural lightness of a next-morning DJ set. Whether it's a stark spoken-word passage or an otherworldly melodic mantra, Hval's voice is high in the mix commanding attention, even over these rich and entrancing compositions. It's a beautiful and delightful album, hopefully the first of many from this duo.

• Love, lovers
• Menneskekollektivet
• Carried by invisible bodies

10. Maybeshewill - No Feeling is Final. UK quartet Maybeshewill reignited my love for proper post rock, but not before they'd officially quit after their 2015 album Fair Youth. So it was with great excitement I read the news of their return, and after a few absolutely lovely singles, including "Refuturing" featuring trumpetist Marcus Joseph, I was again ready to fall prey to the magical, hypnotic allure of epic instrumentals, bombastic buildups and cacophonous climaxes. Maybeshewill don't stray too fall from their winning formula here, but there's enough variation - borrowing orchestral strings, heavy metal guitars, comfortable electronics, Glass-y piano ostinatos, and the occasional environmental destruction message courtesy of dramatic newscasters - that the 50 minutes fly by and leave me wanting more.

• Zarah
• Refuturing
• The last hours

Left at London's t.i.a.p.f.y.h. gets the #2 slot from 2021. Give her a listen, you won't regret it.

And some honorable mentions, for twas a good year:

Iceage - Seek Shelter. The rowdy Copenhagen boys in Iceage are growing up, and the follow-up to 2018's excellent Beyondless is only slightly less captivating. Frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfeldt retains his charismatic sloppiness, and what this offering lacks in punk vigor it more than makes up for with world-weary nuggets of wisdom. 

• Vendetta
• Gold City

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner's Mind. A beautiful collaboration by two angelic indie folk crooners, this album is chock full of jangly guitar, silky falsetto harmonies and atmospheric piano, and was to many Sufjan Stevens old-schoolers the follow-up album to Carrie and Lowell people have been waiting for.

• Reach out
• It's your own body and mind

dltzk - Frailty. Modern music making software has done fantastic things to the bedroom angst of 17-year old. dltzk (pronounced "delete zeke") goes from lo-fi guitar ditties to power emo rock to hyperpop's fully glitched-out electronic chaos multiple times across this album and within songs. Although the 57 minute album grows maybe slightly grating towards the end of its dozenth noisy car crash ("Kodak moment" kind of jumps the shark and renders everything after it a bit muddy), its boundless creativity and disregard for genre conventions results in one of those albums that just makes me happy that it exists and that people do art.

• search party
• your clothes
• movies for guys

black midi - Cavalcade. I did fall for the absolutely-never-heard-it-before jazzy weirdness of UK trio black midi's debut album Schlagenheim, perhaps especially the off-the-wall crazy performances of hit single "bmbmbm". Follow-up Cavalcade is definitely the better and more cohesive album of the two, showcasing a band in total control of their own creative whims. While frontman Geordie Greep's absurd lyrics and vocal performances are the first thing that jump out to most casual listeners, Morgan Simpson's drumming is quickly revealed as the ace up the band's sleeve. 

• John L
• Slow
• Dethroned

Squid - Bright Green Field. black midi's fellow breakouts from the vibrant scene around London's The Windmill, Squid, also released their amazing debut album last year. If you like your progressive-jazz-math-rock with a little less progressive-jazz-math and a bit more catchy indie rock in it, maybe opt for this one. Not that it isn't also some of the most leftfield and creative stuff out there. Finally, as a spoiler for an upcoming blog post, scenefellows Black Country, New Road also debuted in 2021 with For The First Time, although I haven't played that one nearly as much as their breathtaking new album Ants From Up There.

• Boy Racers
• Narrator

Hindsight is 2020

Yoo, as my punny title indicates, here are my top albums of 2020. Just to get this backlog out of the way, they'll be in the same rapid-fire format as 2019's list. Enjoy!

Bored Charli creating how i'm feeling now was honestly the best thing corona had to offer.

1. Charli XCX - how i'm feeling now. Charli invented the lockdown album. Chock full of melodies and toplines that would make Lady Gaga jealous, with lyrics written with fans over Instagram lives, and incredible production by hyperpop godfather A. G. Cook, how i'm feeling now perfectly captured what we were all feeling, and soundtracked basically every day of my 2020.
• detonate
• visions
• pink diamond
• forever
2. Black Dresses - Peaceful as Hell. This is the most aggressive peaceful album ever. Noise pop virtuosos Black Dresses cross industrial, bubblegum pop and metal with flick-of-the-wrist ease on this beautiful, touching testament to the power of friendship. It belongs to the story that the band called it quits shortly after the release of Peaceful as Hell due to anti-transgender online harassment following their newfound micro-fame. Luckily Devi and Rook are back at it releasing more amazing music, in a vein that no one else quite seems able to capture.
• CREEP U
• DAMAGE SUPPRESSOR
• BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
3. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters. The sound of a different sort of isolation. Keeping the world waiting for eight years, this is what it sounds like when musical genius Fiona Apple holes up in her house, decides she doesn't need to make anyone happy anymore, and records the album she wants to make with only the help of her dog, her sister, and the sounds of the walls of her house and her mind.
• Cosmonauts
• I want you to love me
• Shameika
4. Cezinando - Et Godt Stup i et Grunt Vann. I completely fell for the beautiful wordsmithing, great production and stark and emotionally vulnerable performances on this mini-album. Easily Norway's best at his game, pushing the boundaries for what a rap artist can be.
• Hore og Madonna
• Krokodilletårer
• Spiderman
5. Perfume Genius - Set my Heart on Fire Immediately. Mike Hadreas' least painful album yet, and possibly his most enjoyable. The quality of the singles is through the roof.
1. Nothing at all
2. Your body changes everything
3. Describe
4. On the floor
6. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension. It wasn't a given that this album would exist. That Sufjan had another Magnum Opus in him. But he did. It's his most divisive yet, but the highlights reach the same stratospheric heights as before, and the flow state of especially the album's third quarter is heavenly.
• The Ascension
• Make me an offer I cannot refuse
• Sugar
7. Dorian Electra - My Agenda. An absolute power demonstration from the iconic destroyer of every societal norm. It's heavier, more frantic and more chaotic than Flamboyant, but with the same characteristic provocativeness, and one of the cleverest albums to follow 1000 gecs in spirit rather than in sound.
• Gentlemen / M'Lady [yes I'll count them as one]
• Sorry bro (I love you)
• Ram it down
8. The Strokes - The New Abnormal. After lead single "At the door" my door was wide open welcoming the return of the indie kings. For the first time in very very long, they did what they had to do, and they did it well.
• At the door
• Ode to the Mets
• The adults are talking
9. Adrianne Lenker - songs. A stops you in your tracks type acoustic singer-songwriter album. Reaches, no, consistently dwells, at emotional heights that few others can touch.
• anything
• forwards beckon rebound
• zombie girl
10. Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind. Continuing the seamless transition from their noise/industrial /ambient roots, Yves Tumor incorporates troubled songwriting and glam rock riffs into a vivid collage.
• Kerosene!
• Gospel for a new century

Black Dresses' Peaceful as Hell takes 2020's second slot. Thankfully it's back on Spotify now that the band can handle the limelight!

Honorable mentions

• Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways. A masterclass from the 80 year old wielding his voice and his pen as the sharpest possible weapons. 
• Murder most foul
• Black rider
• I contain multitudes
• Moses Sumney - Græ. A fascinating artist whose only fault on this double album is wanting a bit too much. Can't wait for Moses' next step, and till I finally get to see him live (another March 2020 cancellation!).
• Me in 20 years
• Neither/nor
• Conveyor
• Run the Jewels - RTJ4. Killer Mike and El-P are simply incapable of missing. It's both fun and deadly serious.
• a few words for the firing squad (radiation)
• goonies vs. E.T.
• JU$T
• Hatari - Neyslutrans. Høh! Long-awaited debut album from Iceland's favorite anti-capitalist industrial BDSM techno metal performance project of 2019 Eurovision fame. They're slightly scraping the bottom of a not too deep barrel making this a full-length, but all the iconic essentials are here plus a decent handful of new bangers.
• Klámstrákur
• Klefi / Samed
• Hatrið mun sigra
• Fleet Foxes - Shore. Just Robin Pecknold quietly perfecting his craft. While lacking the universal appeal of Fleet Foxes' early days, or the grand ambition of Crack-Up, it's hard to deny the pure beauty and craftsmanship on display on Shore. I shore appreciate it more after hanging out with Robin on his School of song!
• Can I believe you
• Jara
• Sunblind
• Poppy - I Disagree. Following the fraught Grimes collab "Play destroy", 2019's terrifying Choke EP, and the glam rock tAtU cover "All the things she said", Poppy's fascinating transition from enigmatic bubblegum popper to disembodied satanist is complete. This record has no business being as good as it is.
• Concrete
• Anything like me
• Don't go outside

Please don't stop the music

Here we are again, three years, one pandemic, a handful of wars, hundreds of species extinctions, 8 ppm of atmospheric CO₂, and tons of great music later.

Why does the music matter? Well, even though I haven't kept up writing about it, I wouldn't have gotten through lockdowns and feelings of the world ending without it. I've danced alone in my bedroom for days on end, sung at the top of my lungs during foggy forest hikes, and played piano and guitar until my fingers bled. I've connected with strangers on the internet over release livestreams, streamed my favorite artists playing acoustically for their fans or fundraising from their living rooms, and discovered entire exciting new genres and spheres of music online. In intermittent gaps of 'normalcy', I've experienced how profoundly I've missed the existence of live music, what a powerful experience it is to have music wash over you in a crowd of people sharing brainwaves. Artists lost their livelihoods, clubs and venues shut down, and 'corona relief funds' made their way to the small, prominent tip of the iceberg of musicians, leaving every aspiring new face, every newly started exciting project, every leftfield idea to flounder before ever getting afloat. Lest we forget, I'm here to remind you that music and the unbridled creativity of musicians are more important than ever for maintaining and furthering our collective humanity.

OK, with that opening bla-bla manifesto out of the way, what's with the return of this blog? What will be happening on here? Well, I won't promise too much, but first I'll start by summing up the years in music that I've missed with some makeshift top-lists. I won't have time or willpower to write about all of them - maybe I will pop out a review every now and again if I'm particularly inspired - but they kind of need to exist for continuity's sake. Next, I intend to keep more of a continuous, low-effort style of updates on what's coming out, what I'm listening to, what I'm experiencing. This seems better than "saving" any writings until a busy year-end phase, lowers the bar for "how good" whatever I'm writing about has to be, and just overall seems more sustainable of a format.

So, without further ado, here are my top albums of 2019. Take note that I took the liberty to grant it the power of hindsight - I had a half-finished list kicking around from the end of the year, but it had some glaring omissions and some not technically necessary entries, so I've edited it somewhat. Some you may have heard so much about that they're old news already, some you may have liked but forgotten about already, and some you may have never caught on to in the first place. These are all for you!

Oh, and before I forget, the never-posted and long-anticipated top slot of 2018's list was Jenalle Monaé - Dirty Computer. I had this album on number one for so long that I didn't really know what to say about it any more. I could give it the first place spot just for the lyrics on "Django Jane", "Americans", "Pynk" and "I like that" alone. I could give it the first place spot just for the accompanying 48 minute Dirty Computer "emotion picture", an incredibly epic full-album music video. Rather than me trying to finish (and you reading) my review for this album, why don't you just watch that. It still holds up! And we're still waiting for more music from the inimitable Ms. Monaé.

So, here it is, 2019's list - with choice picks from each album:

1. (Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar. Just an absolute gem of an album where Alex turns up the production quality but sacrifices none of the intimacy and poignancy of his lo-fi days. It's one I dance to, cry to, and keep coming back to to this day. Also his live show in February 2020 was my last one before, you know, the thing, so maybe I'm biased.
• Southern sky
• Cow
• Gretel
• In my arms
2. 100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs. The inimitable, genre-defining, boundary-crossing album that started it all. The hate has been piled on, but so has the love. With an Igorrr-level pace and density of new ideas, these 23 minutes are all you need... except I can't wait for 10000 gecs to drop any day now.
• xXXi_wud_nvrstøp_ÜXXx
• 745 sticky
• money machine
3. Caroline Polachek - Pang. This one really grew on me. Incredible vocal performances, great production, and amazing songwriting, spanning from tear-jerkers to absolute bangers. Alternative pop at its best.
• Door
• Look at me now
• So hot you're hurting my feelings
4. Brad Mehldau - Finding Gabriel. My favorite jazz album of the last few years. Mehldau's piano playing is second to none, but here he incorporates choirs and electronics that really elevate it to a spiritual level.
• St. Mark is howling in the city of night
• O Ephraim
• The Garden
5. James Blake - Assume Form. An underrated album in my opinion - easily my favorite of his. It's varied but focused, exciting but familiar, hitting the sweet spot every time.
• I'll come too
• Where's the catch?
• Into the red
6. Thom Yorke - Anima. Mesmerizing, powerful, it creates a whole world of its own in an entirely unique soundscape. More similar to Atoms for Peace's Amok than Thom's other solo work, he gave it his all here and it shows.
• Twist
• Impossible knots
• Dawn chorus
7. The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery. I had tickets to see these guys live in Zurich literally the weekend that everything shut down in March 2020. I hope I get the chance again some day, because damn, they can play the roof off a room. Instead I've been crazy-dancing to their stuff at home for the last two years.
• Blood of the past 
• Summon the fire
• Super zodiac
8. Yann Tiersen - All. Epic, cinematic music from the famous film composer who here uses the tiny languages Breton and Faroese to create a sense of community, belonging and hope. Uplifting, beautiful and grand.
• Erc'h
• Pell
• Tempelhof
9. Little Simz - GREY Area. The record that catapulted my new favorite rapper into fame. She topped herself both before and after, but this one remains absolutely iconic.
• Venom
• Offence
• Flowers
10. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell! Career highpoint for a defining voice in the last decade's pop scene. She's less pop here than ever. The long dreamy sequences are just otherworldly.
• Venice bitch
• hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it
• The greatest

And some unranked honorable mentions:

• Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising.
• Movies
• Something to believe
• Dorian Electra - Flamboyant
• Flamboyant
• Career boy
• Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride
• Harmony hall
• Married in a gold rush
• Tool - Fear Inoculum (yes the interludes are terrible, skip them)
• Pneuma
• 7empest
• Brittany Howard - Jaime
• 13th century metal
• Stay high
• Karpe - SAS Plus / SAS Pussy
• It's all one song! But if I'm choosing some, maybe the ones with Isah.

2. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

How can pummelling drums, disorienting guitar blasts and a guy shrieking and howling like he's seen the devil himself give birth to a troll sound so breathtakingly beautiful? Contrast, it's all about the contrasts. Life is about contrasts, man. On Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, Deafheaven pair beautiful post-rocky, shoegazey, flowery indie guitar jams with balls to the wall black metal, to stunning effect.

Gut feeling says this is awful. Repeated trials say the same, although there are
some brief outliers saying it's kinda cool.

Deafheaven's third album is their quietest album yet - if you measure it in averages. The black metal parts aren't quieter than on Sunbather or New Bermuda, but there's more of the quiet parts. It's getting close to 50:50. Which some think is way too quiet, but Deafheaven have never been ones to bother with what other people think, especially not the metalheads with whom you might think they identify. No, Deafheaven have been completely denounced by quite a lot of the black metal scene, for their shameless flirting with indie rock or their pink floral album covers or whatnot. Instead they've amassed not only a considerable following of converts from those groups, but also reached out to a big new circle of fans: those who didn't think black metal was for them. I'm certainly in the latter group. I've definitely started venturing more in to black metal after playing New Bermuda quite a lot back in 2015, which is cool I guess, but it's not so much that it's opened my eyes to this new scene, it's more that I can't find anything I like anywhere near as much. Deafheaven do their own thing, and it's black metal done right. Black metal made beautiful.

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love breathes in and out. The loud and the quiet, the aggressive and the peaceful, they complement each other - after too much of one you yearn for some of the other. Yes, the quiet bits aren't amazing or groundbreaking in and of themselves. Taken in isolation, "Near" is a pretty darn boring song, but I've never once skipped it. It's that the relief is just that much bigger when the first full death metal attack hits two and a half minutes in to "Glint". I've been craving it so badly, it's like I've been holding my breath under water, finally surfacing ecstatically, like I actually would have died if I had to stay under any longer. Incredible. Similarly, "Honeycomb" and "Canary yellow" are intense, exhilarating, like amazing high-speed rollercoasters, with dizzying heights, terrifying loops and drops, jerks and yanks that threaten to through you off. I'm loving the ride, but I'm also intensely glad when it's over. "Honeycomb"'s beautiful outro arrives just at the right time.

Deafheaven have a pretty cool relationship with fans.

Besides the quiet indie rock stuff, what really puts metalheads off Deafheaven is that they mix the vocals ultra low. What, you mean the growling? Yup, sometimes you barely notice it. Wait, what?! Yup, that's right, those disgusting, super dark vocals that most black metal bands like to parade front and center to show off how tough and badass they are, Deafheaven just puts them as a layer of texture, completely secondary to the epic guitar riffage going down on top. On Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, they're lower than ever. It's like a middle finger to metal tropes. So there's that, for those of you who might think you're "into some metal, but not if it's growling", I totally urge you to give this a try. These are hardly vocals, it's basically instrumental music.

Deafheaven are also damn good live. I saw them at Pstereo a couple years ago, an it was amazing. I endured seeing maybe a quarter song by The Lumineers I think it was (some Mumford&Sons-y folk pop nightmare) which was where my friends were, but then I fucked that shit and went to the neighboring stage, where these guys were playing. And it was so delightful. The real deal. Brutally honest. Really, the blacker the black metal the better, as long as you've got ear plugs. Bring it on. Having that shit blast all over you is quite an experience. And singer George Clarke is actually pretty charismatic, I mean, for sounding like nails scraping on a wall (c.f. the devil's trollspawn thing). He, like, dances and gets people excited. But the best part was maybe afterwards. They all came down to the fence and shook fans' hands and hugged and signed and chatted for like ages. Goddamn.

Best tracks: "Honeycomb", "Worthless animal", "Glint", and "Canary yellow" too but I've played that one so damn much.

3. Amen Dunes - Freedom

What a thrill it is when music stops you in your tracks. When it just goes 'put down what you're doing and pay attention'. I can't remember how I first came across the music of Damon McMahon aka. Amen Dunes, where I was or what I was doing, but I do remember the reaction I had: A pleasant, gentle guitar-based intro slid into the background of whatever I was concentrating on, but when he started singing I became aware of how high my eyebrows were. They just stuck at that elevated position. When I caught myself it would kind of turn into a self-questioning frown, like 'what am I actually hearing?', but then he would sing another line and the frown would disappear and I would go back to that disbelieving surprised look. I still don't know which song this was I first heard, it could have been just about any one of them. Now I've been listening to Freedom for almost a year, and it's only grown on me.

That voice is amazing. He does that intense ultra-vibrato thing that I only know from a handful of other singers, such as Anohni, or my friend Jenny. And it's probably not coincidental that those two had this same effect on me. Please, if you know of any singers in this cross-section of voices that you get if you combine Amen Dunes, Anohni and Jenny Marlene Nettum, let me know.

Not much to say about this cover. The little stuff up on top is part of it.
The most important is the portrait, though. The long curls are gone

With Amen Dunes' Freedom, I came for the voice but I stayed for the songs. McMahon isn't just an incredible singer, he also writes hella good songs. What's more, Freedom sounds tremendously beautiful. It's guitar based, but with an endless variety of guitar tones, some tasteful piano and harmonica and, and plenty of atmospherics and loose song structures sending the thoughts in the direction of The War on Drugs. The production is perfect, it's timeless and lovely, and it captures all the sentiments that the songs do and amplifying them. It's both soothing and cathartic. (I'm not sure that those are opposites.) And I'm not sure what the songs are supposed to be about a lot of the time, but I have a pretty strong feeling that writing (and performing) them is both soothing and cathartic for Mr. McMahon. Going through the lyrics, the album reads as a life-reckoning. From his skipping school and growing up with a disapproving father, to dealing with Jewish heritage, and a mother who is diagnosed with cancer, McMahon does a lot of thinking, some figuring out, via more than a bit of pain, as he repeatedly sings.

OK, let's just go straight to the highlights. And they're all vocal performances. He gets so intense. He uses his voice to build up even the gentlest melody as if it was going through countless modulations, even the quietest song as if there was a symphony orchestra behind him. "Blue rose" is quite astounding all the way through, but like the phrase from 1:30 is pretty unique. How does he do those "now"s? "Skipping school"'s meandering second half sounds free-styled, but like at 3:25, when he goes from a deep croon on "yeah I've been goOoOoOoOod" to howling "See them go! Get out and go!", that's not random. Neither are the "I-I-I-I" stutters a few phrases later. It's all painstakingly, lovingly crafted. Another through and through stunner is "Miki Dora". About a famous surfer whose career and fame fell after he was convicted for financial fraud, McMahon's ruthless take on men's proud psyche is one of my favorites on the album. Again the melody starts deep, but when he reaches for those high notes from 1:50, singing "Sipping on my beer", I think that fragile vibrato is the least masculine way I've ever heard the word "beer" sung. And then there's "Believe", a six-minute piece of timeless classic rock where I think the instrumental is almost as impressive as the vocals.

 

There's been a lot of weird shit on this year's list. So if you've fallen off the wagon - I don't blame you. Hell, I would have fallen off this mess of a wagon. But if you did, jump back on it for this one, because I can basically guarantee that each and every one of you beautiful people are going to fall for this album. It's the In Rainbows of this list - so pretty, so solid, so good it's completely un-unlikable.

Best tracks: "Blue rose", "Believe", "Miki Dora", "Freedom"

4. Gåte - Svevn

Some people think folk music is uninteresting. In the one negative review I've read of folk-rockers Gåte's new album Svevn (for more on that, stay tuned), VG's journalist criticized the songwriting, claiming that the reliance on old folk tunes is "unimaginative", and that "Norwegian cultural heritage is not necessarily a good thing", that "while searching for their fairy tales, many of the stories Asbjørnsen & Moe came across were rude stories for men's magazines" and that "many of our songs are just melodies for drunken parties". It's a surprising read, but reflects the longstanding attitude helds towards folk music by the cultural "elites". But it's also a giant misstep, placing these songs in the past. They may not be what we consider high culture today, but on average, a song that has been passed down for hundreds of years will obviously have more staying power than whatever is popular at the moment. So criticizing Gåte for using boring source material is... well, I'm not surprised his voice is a lonely one.

When they started up in the early 2000's Gåte's hard-hitting combination of traditional Norwegian folk music and modern rock quickly won over fans of both genres and those that lieth betwixt. After releasing the now classic albums Jygri in 2002 and Iselilja in 2004, they went on a hiatus. Singer Gunnhild Sundli was only 14 when they started, and by age 19 she needed a break from leading a wildly popular rock band. I was a bit young to be on board the Gåte train the first time around, so I've always grown up just knowing about them, that they were popular and probably quite good. But they returned last year, first with the promising comeback EP Attersyn, and next with the album in question here, Svevn. It's a triumph, to say the least.

Not an amazing cover, but this is basically their aesthetic these days. She wears
that crown and a white dress at concerts. The logo has grown on me.

For longtime fans, the most pressing question is obviously whether the 'magic' is intact, 14 years later. As a first-time listener that's hard for me to judge, but maybe that's a good thing. What I can tell you is that this album is the absolute shit. They do what I suspected they've always been doing - combining Norwegian folk songs full of violin shredding and near-yodeled vocals, with the rock from branches such as prog, heavy, goth and emo. There's some Nightwish here, there's some Jesus Christ Superstar, and only some growling is missing before they touch on Enslaved. All of it sounds killer. Much of it is thanks to Gunnhild Sundli's stunning vocals. Listening to the old Gåte-albums, though, the first thing I realize is how much she's progressed as a vocalist. Her pipes have always been amazing, but now there's rock solid technique as well. She does the archaic language justice throughout - always taking care to pronounce every messy old-nynorsk consonant.

It's also fun to notice how 2018 Svevn actually sounds, despite its traditional folk tunes and its early 2000s roots. Where Jygri and Iselilja are strongly colored by the nu-metal wave of the turn of the millenium, Svevn only revives this is in a fun, mildly retro way, and a much broader pallette is heard instead, with both beats and electronic effects that sound subtly modern. The stripped-down ballad "Tonen" builds up with masterful production and strange industrial embellishments that highlight Gunnhild's beautiful vocals. "Tonen" leads straight in to the 8-minute epic "Åsmund Frægdegjæva", a medieval poem given the grandest of grand rock makeovers, complete with mirror-shattering modulations and prog breakdowns that have grown on me considerably since the first time around, where it was admittedly a bit exhausting. The other of the two longer songs on the album is the title track, an equally epic affair but in a much more subdued way, trading grandiosity for an ominous 7/8 ostinato and super cool drumming, making it a late-album highlight.

Gåte's Sveinung Sundli, Gunnhild Sundli and Magnus Børmark live in Oslo 2018.

Gåte are a great band with a great concept, but there was never any doubt that Gunnhild Sundli was their ace card - and now even more so than before. Seeing them live in November, guitarist Magnus Børmark jumped around wildly on stage despite doing his best to imitate Jonny Greenwood's guitar playing, and Sveinung Sundli provided plenty of exhilarating violin shredding, but Gunnhild completely stole the show even when she isn't singing. Highly pregnant and dressed in ice queen white, her sheer presence builds up the songs more than the entire rest of the band. The show on their home turf in Trondheim was a victory lap and a concert I will remember for a long time, combining the old and new in their catalogue seamlessly, chilling and thrilling with every song. Gåte returned just in time: When Gunnhild was ready.

Best tracks: "Kom no Disjka", "Tonen", "Svevn", "Bannlyst"

5. Jeremy Dutcher - Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa

Cultural extinction is pretty hard to deal with. Cultures evolve. They gather mutations as they are passed down over generations, some parts morph, become something new, good parts stay and become reinforced. Over centuries and millenia an endless diversity of human cultures have arisen and disappeared. But similarly to the ongoing mass-extinction of the globe's biological diversity, traditional cultures are also currently experiencing extinction at about a billion times the natural background rate (I haven't got the exact numbers). Modern culture spreads, tempts, engulfs the traditional ones quicker than the village elder can say "what's a TV?". People urbanize, centralize, depopulate. Some cultures actively oppress, forbid, censor other cultures. Inevitably, any or all these forces can eventually lead to the extinction of a culture. A language is never spoken again. Traditions are forgotten. And a body of music is lost forever.

I almost put The Lost Songs of St. Kilda on my 2016 list. It's a gentle, haunting album based on songs that were recorded on a £3 microphone at a Scottish old folk's home. Trevor Morrison sat at the piano and played some tunes he had learned as a kid from his aging piano teacher during the war. His piano teacher was one of the last people who lived on St. Kilda, a small archipelago in the Outer Hebrides, which was depopulated in 1930. So these centuries old songs hadn't been heard anywhere outside of Mr. Morrison's head for about 60 years, when they by a bonkers stroke of luck were committed to tape by a quick-thinking nursing home volunteer. The story really resonates with me. They say you can hear the mist, the isolation, the rugged cliffs in the tunes. I don't know if it's just that I have the narrative in my head, but I hear it anyway.

Well, if you think that's a tear-jerker, try Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. This is an album of contemporary classical rearrangements of Wolastoqiyik indian traditional songs. Jeremy Dutcher is an operatic tenor, and for his debut album he chose to record a fading piece of his cultural heritage. A language with less than 100 remaining speakers, Wolastoqey has a rich body of songs that was dying out with the current generation. So when Jeremy, a young Wolastoq indian, went to the Canadian Museum of History and came across a collection of wax cylinder recordings of tribe members singing, playing and dancing to traditional tunes, he couldn't stand the thought of the recordings fading away in the museum cellar, and spent hours listening to and transcribing the songs. Despite many damaged recordings of songs now lost forever, Dutcher found a handful of still-audible recordings, and used his classical training (and some creative freedom) to create a collection of Wolastoqiyik songs for the twentieth century and beyond.

This is one amazing album cover. Probably the only album cover of this millenium to feature
wax cylinders. Check out Brightly Off-Colored Discophile's analysis, too. 

The fate of the wolastoqiyik echoes struggles faced by indigenous peoples all across America (and the rest of the world), and Dutcher provides a voice for all of them. For centuries following colonialization, practicing their culture and speaking their language was punishable by law. For Dutcher's mother growing up as well. Although the legal situation is less hideous today, it's a meager solace considering that so little of these cultures remains that they're perfectly capable of dying out on their own. Unless something extraordinary happens. Which is why it's pretty badass that Dutcher opens his album with "Mehcinut", which I've come to understand means "death chant". Wolastoqiyik culture has long been dying, but "Mehcinut"'s triumphant climax may be its rebirth.

I love how Dutcher incorporates the original recordings throughout the album, both at the beginning, middle and end of songs. Not only does it illustrate how tricky his creative journey has been - the songs sound rough, atonal, not at all fitting smoothly into a 4/4 time signature or the modern 12-tone scale of Dutcher's piano - but we also hear how scratchy and fragile they are, literally vanishing before our ears. There's even a segment where we hear damaged, inaudible recordings, and Dutcher or a museum technician saying "number 14, broken". When we in the next second hear "number 15", followed by the song that Dutcher turns into the majestic "Sakomawit", it illustrates just how enormous the difference between existence and non-existence is for this culture.

Besides the emotional punch, this album is really a unique musical journey as well. It's amazing to hear all the elements of classical music (ignoring the slightly off-putting modern drumkit) supporting vocals sung in such a different language. Italian, French and English opera all have different sounds to them, but they ain't got nothin on Wolastoqey. I'm not sure how well it works with the crazy diphthongs and phrases ending in awkward q's and k's, but if it weren't for this album I would never even have pondered the question. And Dutcher's vocal performance is, almost in spite, wonderfully confident and convincing. (For some insane language porn, check out how effortlessly he pronounces the album title - do it repeatedly, while reading the title. It's almost as satisfying as this gem.) His voice is spine-chillingly good, whether it's lifting songs like "Essuwonike" and "Sakomawit" to stunning climaxes, or capturing rhythmic chanting on "Nipuwoltin" and "Ultestakon". This album won the Polaris Music Prize - a big fucking deal - and it's for its contents, not its cover.

I think I've gone on westernsplaining this thing long enough. I don't even understand this shit, so why am I even talking about it? As Brightly Off-Colored Discophile puts it, this ain't my party. It's completely irrelevant to the Wolastoqiyik how I rank their songs on my albums of the year list, and this album is for them, not for me. But still, I'm loving it. If extinction is hard to deal with, witnessing a rebirth of such a scope warms my soul to the core. It's like watching those near-extinct Arctic foxes raise excited young pups in the Scandinavian mountains. Here's hoping for less extinction and more rebirths in the future

Best tracks: "Mehcinut", "Essuwonike" and "Sakomawit", because of those huge, Disney widescreen feels. If that's your jam, head that-a-way.