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User
Reviews 3
Approval 100%
Soundoffs 147
Album Ratings 2986
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Last Active 12-02-14 1:22 pm
Joined 10-01-14
Review Comments 23
| My top 20 LP's of '15
I'm pretty old by Sputnik user standards, and I think in all my years of being a music fan, this was one of the most unpredictable years I can recall, where LP's I expected to be amazing were just ok (Black Wing), songwriters I'd given up on returned with some of their best yet (Sufjan,), amazing bands I'd never heard of showed up to the party unannounced (Frog, Ethereal Shroud), standards retained their crowns (Sleater Kinney, Leviathan), black metal continues to get weirder (Mamaleek), while releasing some of it's strongest orthodox releases in years (MGLA), and a post rock record from a band I had never paid any attention to quietly takes the crown with one of my favorite records of the last decade (We Lost the Sea). This list is based exclusively on how much I listened to the LP, and nothing else. Enjoy! | | 20 |  | Beach House
Thank Your Lucky Stars
An LP that seems to be as strong as Depression Cherry, with all of its gloomy glow of charming sadness and woe-is-me enchantment. The only reason this LP was relegated to the #20 spot is because Depression Cherry hogged the spotlight by beating it to the shelves by a scant couple of months. As time goes on I am sure this LP will equal Depression Cherry in plays, but a real testament to Beach House's songwriting ability to have 2 LP's worth of such strong material! | | 19 |  | Black Wing
...Is Doomed
Have a Nice Life released my LP of the year last year and my further investigations into Mr. Giles other work was all met by my sometimes stunned, but always appreciative, and at minimum, laudable feedback. Black Wing came with some unfairly lofty expectations, and my first few listens were met with a strange uncertainty whether I really liked it or not. Further listens have unearthed a complex yet fragmented LP, that has grown on me nicely and has surreptitiously entered in to the top 20 LP's of the year as I keep coming back to this strangely addictive LP...maybe to figure out what I think I'm missing. | | 18 |  | Deafheaven
New Bermuda
A lot of people seemed to like this better than Sunbather, and even cite it as the band moving in a new direction, but to be honest, it seems like a wholly logical extension of Sunbather to me, which is a-ok considering how much I loved Sunbather. The band still relies on exquisite musicianship, woozy black metal beauty and creative time signatures to once again create an extremely strong LP with polished production that doesn't diminish the visceral power of the bands black metal underbelly! | | 17 |  | Disasterpeace
It Follows
I love all the Death Waltz stuff, and synth-driven horror music in general is pretty easy for me to like, but this LP certainly got quite a bit more play then most of the soundtrack stuff I bought this year (except the Friday the 13th soundtrack's....stellar LP's). An LP best listened to in one sitting, in the dark, after a couple drinks, on the headphones...you'll thank me later. | | 16 |  | frog
Kind of Blah
There hasn't been an LP that has so perfectly touched on the halcyon days of early 90's lo-fi as this one since Duster released their Up Records masterwork. But, this band channels the songwriting prowess of Pollard in his prime, Pavement pre-Wowee Zowee, Barlow's 4 track work, etc. Photograph is THE song of the year, a timeless pop classic that will undoubtedly find its way into the hearts of thousands as it's simply too good a song to not be given its rightful due. Other songs like, Judy Garland are pure abstract-pop gold! But, the LP is also very uneven, with some songs seeming a bit superfluous. Still, an incredible debut LP, and hopefully the harbinger of much greatness to come! | | 15 |  | low
Ones and Sixes
For a band 25 years into their career it's a remarkable achievement to have altered the fundamental core of their songwriting so little over that time yet produce an undeniably diverse canon of work that somehow continues to unfathomably reinvent itself. I live in Minneapolis, so there is a near-and-dear aspect for my frozen brethren, but it's the bands never-ending ability to pen stark, sad songs of arctic beauty and dark lullabies for gentle nightmares that puts yet another of their LP's in one of best-of lists! | | 14 |  | Sannhet
Revisionist
Such a rad blackened post-rock LP in that it actually rocks! This is driving, ferocious, talented post-rock that sounds familiar, but yet sounds like nobody else in the overcrowded post-rock field. In many ways it reminds me of, 'A Sun Never Sets' era Neurosis on 45 RPM's, which is in itself worthy of purchasing this LP. Another Flenser Records winner! | | 13 |  | Ethereal Shroud
They Became the Falling Ash
I adore funeral doooooooooooooom, but there hasn't been a funeral band that's really affected me in a while ( I did like the Bell Witch LP this year, but didn't love it). Ethereal Shroud are one of the absolute best funeral bands I've heard since Nortt, Moss or Skepticism. But unlike any of those bands, Ethereal Shroud lay out some strangely captivating melodies throughout their glacially-paced sonic nightmares. The production is perfectly muddy, with a daunting, fiendish, icy atmosphere that is ideally apt for the bands slow-motion screams and discomfiting black metal anguish. | | 12 |  | Suis La Lune
Distance/Closure
Along with country-mates Sed Non Satiata, Suis La Lune are playing the most exciting brand of post-hardcore in the world right now. Their post-rock guitar heroics, the throat-rending vocal shrapnel and the complexity of their emotionally unstable songs is exactly what post-hardcore should be about. Everything is hanging-by-a-thread, terse, pensive and cathartic. This is the kind of dark energy funneled by the original 'emo' bands who so effectively gave life to this genre many-a-moon ago like; Saetia, Indian Summer and Portraits of Past, etc.! | | 11 |  | Il'Ithil
Ia'Winde
From the man behind drone-doom stalwarts Wolvserpent, Pussygutt and the Morricone-inflected weirdness of Aelter, comes another of his dark, Boise-based projects, but this time it's an outstanding black metal release harkening back to the golden age of the genre. The songs are long, hypnotic, wintry and resemble the 1st wave Norwegian bands, but there is a static fuzziness to the LP, giving it a nicely individual feel. This LP has gotten very little attention, which surprises me based upon the incredible quality of the songwriting on this undervalued '15 black metal gem! | | 10 |  | Beach House
Depression Cherry
With 2 LP's released so close to each other, I thought of including both in one review, but I only really digested Depression Cherry...which tasted amazing. Their rainy-day take on organ-driven melancholy 60's influenced indie-isms is second-to-none, and not since the Clientele has being sad seemed so stoically desirable. All of their LP's are worth getting, but this and 'Devotion,' are my two favorites! | | 9 |  | Leviathan
Scar Sighted
Wrest has been at it for a long time now, and his oeuvre is astonishingly strong with an extremely diverse amount of material across his Leviathan / Lurker of Chalice monikers. His creative take on maddening black metal has incorporated a plethora of styles over the years, and here on Scar Sighted it's an astounding amalgam of 20 years of his work. Leaning more towards his stunning work with Lurker of Chalice, this LP is an atmospheric work of genius, creating shadows of madhouse bedlam in its screeing black metal atonality! | | 8 |  | Locrian
Infinite Dissolution
Locrian's vision of shamanistic drones, decaying soundscapes and blackened amplifier hiss has always been challenging, sometimes wonderfully alienating (like Tim Hecker), but on their newest LP the band employs a much more narrative approach, constructing what most people would describe as tangible 'songs,' as opposed to deconstructed doom-drone. Not to say the LP is full of 3 minute pop songs, no, it's still an epic brew of twisted noise, inharmonic entropy and suffocating static, but here it's delivered with a structure previously missing in the band's work. Some will hate this direction, others will welcome it, but I found this to be a spellbinding LP from start to finish. | | 7 |  | Chelsea Wolfe
Abyss
Chelsea Wolfe has rapidly become one of my all-time favorite artists over the last several years, and here she releases here best LP since Apokalypsis. Her brand of gothic doom-folk is augmented on this LP by unhinging industrial atmospherics, crepitating anxiousness, and an almost sepulcher Hope Sandoval delivery to some of her vocals. This is a mature work for sure, but one not afraid to take risks, and like all of her previous work, often relies on little else besides her capacity to create moods with her Stygian voice, which she does better than anyone playing music right now! | | 6 |  | Sleater-Kinney
No Cities to Love
I had high expectations for this LP, and was not let down one bit by this razor-sharp LP of cracking hooks and crushing choruses. Arguably the greatest band of the last 20 years, and this LP further solidifies that argument. Time will tell where it will critically fall in their canon, but as far as 2015 went, this record was played a ton. Oddly it was one of those LP's that took a while to get going for me, and it wasn't until almost June that I finally 'got it,' but when I did it became the pre-going-out drinks LP of '15...which is a very good thing! | | 5 |  | Mamaleek
Via Dolorosa
4 LP's in, and on there newest LP, the mercurial, Via Dolorosa, Mamaleek move even further beyond easy categorizations, and into a miasma of black metal meets Henry Mancini what-the-fuck-isms. Trying to describe this is near-impossible, but its like deranged 80's industrial pop meets blackened post-apocalyptic jazz music. A deeply unique, post-modern black metal masterpiece....being disturbed never felt so film noir-cool. | | 4 |  | Mgla
Exercises in Futility
Yet another LP from a band I was only partially fond of until this LP. I had Groza, and thought it was ok, but based upon really strong reviews I capitulated and purchased this new LP and am extremely happy I did! This is relatively orthodox black metal, which is a sound I've grown tired of for the most part, but this is just too fucking good, and totally reinvigorates my interest in traditional black metal. The songwriting is undeniably catchy...yes, catchy...in a black metal Emperor-type way of course, not in a finger-snapping, toe-tapping type way, but in a dark, unnerving, sepulchral way. | | 3 |  | King Dude
Songs Of Flesh & Blood - In The Key Of Light
King Dude plays a Nick Cave influenced style of spectral, hymnal folk, but where the ghostly storytelling of Mr. Cave veers into Faulkner-esque gothic horrors of repentance and salvation, King Dude is more focused on unrepentant devotion to sin and dark Americana all told through his unsettling Roy Orbison-meets-Mark Lanegan croon. It's religious music for the damned! | | 2 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Carrie and Lowell
This was another completely unexpected LP of '15, and an artist I had all but become indifferent to post 'Seven Swans,' but upon urgings from friends I picked it up somewhat grudgingly and then proceeded to listen to it over and over and over. A mesmerizing, touching, gorgeously detailed LP of candid indie-folk pared down to the gently haunting presence of primarily just Sujfan and his guitar, which is when I feel his songwriting is at its best. It's nice to be surprised and this was an extremely welcome comeback! | | 1 |  | We Lost the Sea
Departure Songs
If anyone would have told me that my LP of the year for '15 would be by We Lost the Sea, a band I had only heard of in passing, I would have squinted my eyes incredulously, and moved on...but, We Lost the Sea's, Departure Songs was absolutely my most listened to LP of the year. A beautifully thematic post rock LP that breaks little ground within a genre frustratingly on autopilot over the last few years doesn't seem like an immediate winner, but like Mogwai's, 'C'mon Die Young' (best LP title ever btw), this LP is a filmic masterstroke of post-rock, replete with stunning moments ethereal of slow-core, cathartic crescendos, affecting sound-bites and an underlying tale of tragic melancholy and inspired heroism deftly woven into the LP's solemn tapestry of post-rock grandeur. A future cornerstone of the genre! | |
Sniff
12.14.15 | Remember when France and Sweden weren't the same countries. Great times huh? | zakalwe
12.14.15 | I keep meaning to check out 6. All I hear is good things and it's right up me alley but I dunno. Sleater-Kinney. Shit name. | DarkNoctus
01.07.16 | thanks for the 13 slot! [: | ashcrash9
01.07.16 | Solid list. Makes a good read, too. |
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