Album roundup

[credoimprobus]

So seeing as it's practically November now, let's talk POPTIMIST ESSENTIALS. Or in other words put: what albums will it be beneficial to have heard once year-end polling season rolls around again?

(I'm especially keen to hear about any albums that came out between abt midsummer and the end of September, because that time really struck me as a POP BLACK HOLE. Mind, that may well have been because I spent that time period buried up to my ears in obscurist electronic bobbins, rather than an actual lack of Big Albums...)

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Vitalic album's definitely worth a listen if you like chopped-up-vocals and URNK URNK URNK (and who doesn't?); the XX is quite listenable even if I want to give them all a cup of tea and a bourbon biscuit and tell them to cheer up a bit. Also Dizzee Rascal maybe?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I'll semi-vouch for that Vitalic album, but the only song I'm obsessed with from it is "One Above One."

MUST HEAR NOW:

The-Dream - Love vs. Hate
Electrik Red - How to Be a Lady, Vol. 1
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
Shakira - She-Wolf

MIGHT SORTA WANNA HEAR NOW-ISH:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart [enter piratemoggy smackdown in 3...2...]
VV Brown - Travelling Like the Light
Lovers Electric - Whatever You Want (technically an '08 release I think)
UGK - UGK 4 Life
Mariah Carey - Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel
Music Go Music - Expressions (indie ABBA!)

OTHER STUFF:
Pill - 4180 The Prescription Mixtape
New Boyz - Skinny Jeans and A Mic (first ten tracks only)
Miranda Lambert - Revolution
Meg and Dia - Here, Here, and Here
Gorilla Zoe - Don't Feed Da Animals
Ciara - Fantasy Ride
DJ Quik & Kurupt - BlaQKout
Selena Gomez and the Scene - Kiss & Tell
Ryan Leslie - self-titled and Transition
Meanderthals - Desire Lines
Mario - DNA
YACHT - See Mystery Lights

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The-Dream, Quik & Kurupt, Ciara and Lily all seconded.

I've mentioned this a couple of times before but, after The-Dream, my album of the year is Le Disco - TeleMusic Remixed, which djhistory.com put out in the spring. It's a collection of remixes by today's hip young Nu Disco artistes of classic French library music from 1979. It was only a matter of time before some of the original tunes also emerged on CD - and lo and behold the Electunes label duly obliged a couple of weeks ago (http://www.juno.co.uk/products/Spatial-Disco/370288-01/)! If this counts as a new release, then this might in fact now be my LP of the year.

Other goodies (pop division):
Chipmunk - I Am (first half excellent, second half a bit patchy)
Holden - Fantomatisme
Toddla T - Skanky Skanky
The Bird and The Bee - Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future

More great space disco:
Sorceror - Neon Leon
Bernard Fevre - BDDC presents The Strange New World of...
Prins Thomas - Live at Robert Johnson
Faze Action - Stratus Energy

Singer-songwriter gubbins:
Kate Walsh - Light & Dark (two or three stunners, the rest just OK)
Taylor Swift - Fearless

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Ah, haven't heard the Toddla T album. Should remedy this.

Forgot to mention Bird and the Bee because for some reason I thought jeff_worrell posted this to begin with...

Will go to bat for most of the Demi Lovato album Here We Go Again + "Behind Enemy Lines" rereleased on the deluxe version of her first album this year. Some of these albums need editors.

[koganbot]

My country album of the year so far: Ashley Monroe Satisfied, which is streamed in its entirety here. Was set for release in mid 2006, then the record label got cold feet, finally released it online this year.

She's getting even better as she goes on, had an EP recently, and here's her MySpace.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Already voted Ashley onto my '06 list, which sucks since I'd love to vote for it again this year.

Also on the re-release tip, Annie's officially-released Don't Stop is a bit more solid in its current form but they also add a few just-OK songs for pacing without adding any great ones. However, if you get the bonus "EP" or whatever, it includes a lot of good stuff that didn't make the cut -- "Anthonio," "I Know Your Boyfriend Hates Me," a few others I haven't listened to yet.

[richaod.livejournal.com]

Poppier stuff, some of which is fairly obvious:
Tori Amos - Midwinter Graces (horrific album cover, surprisingly good music)
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
A Fine Frenzy - Bomb in a Birdcage
Florence + the Machine - Lungs
Imogen Heap - Ellipse
Paramore - brand new eyes

Metal/otherwise:
Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect (just came out and it's FUCKING AMAZING)
Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
maudlin of the Well - Part the Second
Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind (probably my top pick overall)
Thrice - Beggars
Devin Townsend Project - Ki

Haven't been listening to enough new releases this year... must do something about that.

can we also have

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

an "older albums I missed but just came across this year" footnote?

Re: can we also have

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Here's my list of '08 albums "rediscovered" in '09, in approx. order of awesomeness:

Robin Thicke - Something Else
The-Dream - Love/Hate
Scooter - Jumping All Over the World
Taylor Swift - Fearless
Demi Lovato - Don't Forget
School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
Nicki Minaj - Sucka Free mixtape
Anthony Hamilton - The Point of It All
Willie Nelson - Moments of Forever
Duke Spirit - Neptune

Should probably chip in myself, too

[credoimprobus]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the Fever Ray yet! Other than that, I strongly second (third?) the super-obvious The-Dream and the Ryan Leslie (well, the self titled, anyway; haven't heard Transition yet, though I've got it on preorder). I'll still go to bat for Chrisette Michele's 'Epiphany', too.

A lot of my favourites this year can't exactly count as 'poptimist essentials', but here are a few (with helpful samples!) that I think could go down well with certain sections of the comm:
Few Nolder - New Folder
Clark - Totems Flare
Two Fingers - Two Fingers (no, I'm really never shutting up about this one)

[koganbot]

Haven't heard the Shakira, otherwise I'm endorsing what everyone else is giving multiple endorsements too. I missed the boat on Fearless last year, but those of you who vote in polls and aren't in the U.S. can justify voting it this year because of its British release, and I suppose in the U.S. one can as well since its singles have never stopped coming on this year's radio and there's a just out Deluxe version (which has three amazing tracks out of the six new, though one of the Amazings I'd had as a leak for years and a second is a re-working of a track that's already on the album). The fullness of that album's sound, of Taylor, overwhelm any reticence I'd had last year about the tunes, many of which are coming into their own as melodies anyway. Whether I put it on my list this year depends on how many other strong albums I've got. I've only seven listed so far that I think are vote-worthy, though I'm no longer much of an album hawk. Number seven, by the way, is:

Keri Hilson In A Perfect World

I agree with everyone else's complaints about the dullness or utter lack of Keri's musical personality. (I wouldn't say "utter lack" myself, since her singing has the same controlled precision her looks do, but when I think of how crawling with sex and insinuation Britney's sounded on Keri co-written material, I get frustrated hearing Keri's blankness.)

Also on my list:

Federation & TNT Federation Presents TNT (Timberlee, Natalie Storm & Tifa): Three The Hard Way

Haven't listened in about nine months, to tell you the truth, and being a mixtape it's all over the place in quality, but it has a glorious remake of "Kuff," and the adorable "Heels."

[koganbot]

"Deluxe Edition" is actually "Platinum Edition."

[koganbot]

Er, and I suppose I should note that the Hilson album simply has too many good songs for me not to consider it.

[credoimprobus]

The Hilson is (possibly obviously) technically also on my list, but since I haven't gone back to it in several months I didn't feel entirely comfortable listing it here. I really need to listen to it again!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Two obvious recent big sellers spring to mind, Arctic Monkeys' 'Humbug' and Muse's 'The Resistance'.

Otherwise, I've particularly enjoyed the albums by The Gaslight Anthem, Rodrigo y Gabriela, White Lies, Ladyhawke and Matisyahu.