I Swear it's At Least 7: The Matt Else Story

While compiling this list I was really only able to get 7 albums I TRULY dug this year. I have theories as to why but who cares?  #10-8 are basically fillers and then the real good stuff starts at #7…

10.  Natalie Prass – Self Titled
In my lifelong quest to find the next Amy Winehouse I encountered Ms. Prass.  Produced by Matthew E. White, it’s very much a traditional pop album but with full horn and string arrangements instead of overproduced electronic drum beats and samples.  I liked it well enough to include it in this very top heavy list.

Favorite track: Bird of Prey








9. Matthew E. White – Fresh Blood




At this stage in my life I appreciate and respect anything that is just DIFFERENT and that’s how I felt about this.   Really nice horn and string sections (similar to the Prass album, for obvious reasons), and his vocal delivery will grow on you.  He manages to sound simultaneously at full volume while also whispering.  Very much looking forward to seeing what direction he takes us on for the next one.

Favorite track: Rock & Roll is Cold





8.  Kurt Vile – b’lieve I’m goin down…
This grew on me very much from my initial listen.  The lead single "Pretty Pimpin" is absolutely outstanding in every way and I think I was initially expecting more of THAT.  While the rest of it is not on that level, it’s still really enjoyable.  His guitar riffs kinda clunk along (in a good way), and his vocals are good if unspectacular. Lyrically it’s just plain fun.

Favorite Track: Pretty Pimpin






Now Let’s Get To The Gravy…

7.  Cage The Elephant – Tell Me I’m Pretty
I’ve been lukewarm on all their previous albums up until now. What changed?  Several things.  Lead guitarist left.  Dan Auerbach produced this one.  But most importantly for me I just feel like Matt Schultz vocal delivery went more traditional and away from that sort of half-speaking, half-singing thing he did so much early on. This album is all over the place musically and has all kinds of little quirks and tempo changes and style changes etc…  It’s easily my favorite record they’ve made and I feel like the next one could be BIG.  Bonus points for a great album name and cover.  

Favorite track:  Don’t Mess Around (blatant Black Keys rip off but IDC)



6.  The Sheepdogs – Future Nostalgia
Their second to last album was ingrained in my ears for the better part of a week nonstop.  Words cannot express the obsession I had with Learn & Burn. So of course, like has happened so many times before, the next album was pure hot garbage.  They came almost all the way back with this one.  It’s no Learn & Burn, but they’re back on track.  Ewan Currie sings bitches to sleep in his sleep.

Favorite Track: Really Wanna Be Your Man





5.  Death Cab For Cutie – Kintsugi
I can feel you people judging me; fuck off. Death Cab can put together a powerful greatest hits record, and before their last 2 albums, that’s all they had IMO.  Codes and Keys, released in 2011, was truly excellent, and this one isn’t far off. Forget that they’re post-emo pussies whose posters are plastered all over the walls of every 16 year old girl’s bedroom in America, and listen to this album without bias.  I promise you will enjoy it.  But don’t let anybody know you listened.

Favorite Track:  The Ghosts of Beverly Drive




4.  Mac DeMarco – Another One
I love this dude.  He’s just so silly looking with the gap in his teeth and the weird hats and shit. While his albums all seem to sound redundant, I still enjoy each and every one.  2 is easily my favorite record he’s made, but Salad Days was great too and this is essentially Salad Days part two.  The arpeggio guitar and really underrated solos abound, as usual.  The dude even gives out his address and invites you over coffee at the end.

Favorite Track: Tie - The Way You’d Love Her/No Other Heart




3.  Boy & Bear – Limit of Love
I loved the shit out of this album.  Their first two records were entirely hit or miss but they turned up the tempo for this one and added more guitar and the results were extraordinary.  Lyrically and vocally David Hosking knocks it out of the park.  So now naturally I’ll eagerly await the next album and it’ll either suck ass or they’ll break up.

Favorite Track:  Tie – Walk The Wire/A Thousand Faces

2.  Albert Hammond Jr. – Momentary Masters
GODDAMN.  His first two albums were really cool that I loved the hell out of.  They were obviously very Strokes-y but still incorporated a bunch of different genres and sounds.  Then he made that little EP that for the most part was underwhelming, and I kind of wrote him off.  Then THIS came out and I went back into obsession mode.  This is his hardest, fiercest output to date and he absolutely murders the hell out of it front to back. I’m just as excited for future AHJ stuff as I am for future Strokes stuff.

 Favorite Track:  All of them




1. Tame Impala – Currents
I knew this was number 1 the second I was invited to make a top 10 list.  My unabashed love affair with all things Kevin Parker is well known to anybody that knows me.  Innerspeaker was absolutely perfect in every way and Lonerism, while not as good, was still pretty goddamn good.  So then what does this motherfucker do?  He plays to my inner hip hop (I grew up exclusively on 1990’s rap/r&b) and decides to pull the guitars away and make it more “dancey”.  I won’t say this one is better than Innerspeaker but I won’t say it’s worse either.  I haven’t been head over heels in love with an album like I am with this one in quite a while.  Put it in and let the falsetto lay you to sleep.

Favorite Track: 3 way tie - Let It Happen/The Less I Know the Better/Disciples

I Hate Everything Except This, or Dick's Top Ten Albums of 2015, et al.

Wow, another year flew by and we're all gonna be dead soon. My name is Dick and I've resurfaced once again to list my top ten albums of the past year. Pour some terrible bourbon in your new Star Wars coffee mug and join me, won't you?

As always, when I sat down to write this and look back on the albums I dug this year, I had a hard time remembering all the stuff that came out. For some reason, a lot of my favorite 2015 albums feel like they came out forever ago. I double-checked my list from last year to make sure I didn't somehow consider some of them for 2014 as well. I think it was just a top heavy year for me. I got a lot of cool albums early on and they're newness seems so long ago to me now. Lately, I haven't gotten into a lot of new stuff. This is possibly due to me being consumed with my recent cross country move... or everything is just shittier now (probably both).

Before I get to my top ten, here are some honorable mentions. Most of these artists had some cool new songs this year, I just didn't dig the rest of their albums enough to rank them.

Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta - To Pimp A Butterfly

This track's beat is a long overdue return to the g-funk beats of the early 90's. Listen for yourself and let your inner melanin vibrate.

Disasterpeace - Title - It Follows OST

From the soundtrack to the great new horror film It Follows, this track by Disasterpeace hearkens back to the spooky synth laden horror soundtracks by John Carpenter. The rest of the OST is similarly creepy, but with disarmingly pretty sounding moments.

Aphex Twin - diskhat ALL prepared1mixed 13 - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt2 - (EP)

Aphex Twin employs computer controlled robotic parts playing acoustic instruments to create an incredibly unique type of music. For those of you that can't get into overly electronic sounding stuff, this might be a good gateway into this guy's one-of-a-kind sound. Some parts of this track sound like an intensely ominous jazz jam cut up by DJ Shadow.

Ratatat - Cream on Chrome - Magnifique

These guys still have a great hip-hop inspired rhythm accompanied by their signature surging lead guitar riffage. This track summarizes everything to like about this instrumental duo.

Without further procrastination, the top ten albums that made life bearable in 2015:


10. Girlpool - Before the World Was Big

Double female vocals! Take that, IronFish! I got into this young femme-punk duo a year or two ago and was excited to see this short 10 track album drop. I had already loved the one song, "Chinatown", and was pleased to hear this album continue their style of sparse, intertwining guitar and bass lines accompanied by harshly honest vocals. I actually like the rougher harmonies on the earlier single version of "Chinatown" better though.




9. Destroyer - Poison Season

I really fell in love with this guy's sound on 2011's Kaputt. While I didn't love it as much as that album, this is something of a return to that lushly eclectic style. The song "Dream Lover" recalls a raucous Bruce Springsteen band performance.




8. Wilco - Star Wars

Has Disney's team of lawyers descended upon Wilco's headquarters in Chicago yet? I was pleasantly surprised to see a new Wilco offering this year. I saw them at a festival in May and their performance rejuvenated my interest in them. The album wasn't a letdown, still not a return to their once lofty heights of YHF and A Ghost is Born, but more excitement for me here than their previous two albums.




7. Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands

If IronFish accomplished one thing this year, it's getting me into his favorite band. I hate to give people the satisfaction of liking their recommendations! Prick. The title track is an instant classic that even the squarest Dad could love. The album contains a number of sneaky great lyrics and instrumental parts that indicate a great studio work ethic. They could use a little more roughness around the edges to make the pretty parts sparkle even brighter, but that's just me being a curmudgeon.




6. Mac DeMarco - Another One

This fella was at the festival I attended in May, but I wasn't in to him at the time and passed him up. I dug his overalls though. I got some of his albums on a whim and ended up playing this one over and over. His ironic crooning and offhand poppy riffs was briefly the soundtrack to my Florida summer. This is the album where he gives out his address at the end. I'm kinda in his neighborhood now. Maybe I'll swing by.




5. Built to Spill - Untethered Moon

I saw them again in May. They still got it. Dug brought in some new guys. They still got it. Laziness? I still got it. Just listen to this. They continue to make magic. If you don't like them, don't tell me. The intro to "Some Other Song" reminds me of Rush. Disagree? Mark-ass trick.




4. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free

This gentleman took the #10 spot on my 2013 list with his album Southeastern. I had only been listening to it for a few weeks at that point. If I had more time with it, I definitely would've charted it higher, in retrospect. It's become one of my favorite albums of all time. Something More Than Free doesn't quite reach those heights for me. But, like Southeastern, this album is growing on me the longer I let it marinate in my ear holes. Possibly the last bastion of non-embarrassing country music and one of the best songwriters going today.




3. Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down...

I was pretty friggin' jazzed to have a new Kurt Vile album come out this year and I was not disappointed. The prolific songwriter continues to dive deeper into his own style of shambolic, hazy, idiosyncratic rock. Some of the songs on this album are odd as hell, but I love 'em. This is one artist I have yet to see live. That needs to be rectified. Potential New Year's resolution?




2. Tame Impala - Currents

Kevin Parker and his Aussie cronies just keep getting better. They headlined the festival I attended in May and destroyed thousands of young minds on a hot Atlanta night. My buddy Jake's medulla oblongata liquefied and oozed from his pores. Tame Impala did that to him. It was horrendously good. Food tastes bland now. The world is monochrome. That said, I was initially put off by the less psych-rock, more dance-groove sound of Currents. In retrospect, I'm the dumbest motherfucker that ever double-clicked on an MP3 file.




1. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

I'm as shocked as you are that the Fleet Foxes were good for something. Thank Satan for giving us the swarthy hip-swiveling dancing of Josh Tillman. He won me over with his previous album Fear Fun and this album just confirmed it for me. That said, this album is definitely more of a grower than a show-er, knowatI'msayin', Uncle Phil? The songs pay great dividends with repeated listens. His wry, sarcastic wit can make you crack up mid-song. Jonathan Wilson studio-Jesus reputation is well-deserved, as well. The instrumention swells and hangs back at the perfect times throughout. Tillman and Wilson even managed to convey FJM's signature sarcasm with ironically overdone orchestral arrangements punctuating each sardonic line.

In case you're on the outside looking in on this one, just let me say that the problem is with you. Your ears and/or brain and/or heart and/or soul are messed up. Get your shit together. Your genitals have become withered and useless. Do not attempt to listen to the band that got you off in college. The emperor HAS new clothes and they're fucking dope. The dude looks great in his tailored silks and fine accouterments and what not. Figure your stuff out and get back to me. Take your vitamins, say your prayers, take your dog for a jog, meditate on Jay Bennett's dreadlocks and their lack of place in this world or any conceivable afterlife. Your New Year's resolution is to stop resisting this sonic penis and let your soul cum. Sorry, Moms.

Father John Misty - 'Bored In The USA' Live On David Letterman from Bella Union on Vimeo.

Hobo Keith 2015: X to get to V

10. Built To Spill – Untethered Moon (April 18)
This one was an IronFish suggestion (surprise). While I’ve enjoyed Built To Spill’s music in the past and dig a few of their albums, I would never call myself a big fan. However, I am a fan of Doug Martsch’s voice and guitar playing, which this album has in spades. There’s something about that combo that just goes so damn well together. The song “Living Zoo” does things to me that shouldn’t be acceptable now that I’m married.  This album loses points for its terrible album cover.

9. Circa Waves – Young Chasers (March 30)
This album is the perfect distillation of The Strokes and Vampire Weekend. One of the rare albums I found out about by hearing a song on the radio. It was EQX so in my defense it was at least an independent radio station…. The album bursts with fun youthful energy and big hooks, which is seemingly harder and harder for me to find these days. The music reminds me of drinking and partying as a teenager, how can I argue with that?






8. Best Coast – California Nights (May 1)

I hadn’t listened to this much after it first came out since I was initially let down by it and wasn’t going to include it on my list. Funny thing happened though when I played it the other day and ended up enjoying it (and least marginally more than originally). I pretty much have to accept at this point Best Coast caught lightning in a bottle with their debut album and the rest are going to be varying degrees of shit. One thing this album does have going for it is a lot of the music sounds like radio 90’s alternative which is something I can generally get behind, even if just for nostalgia sake.








7. Langhorne Slim & The Law – The Spirit Moves (August 7)
This guy went to college with my buddy Krahula and I remember drinking with him in the green room at a show when he was just starting out. He put on a good performance that night and I have always followed his career with mild interest. He generally puts out albums that are half great and half mediocre. I’m happy to say this one is uniformly awesome throughout. Taking his signature low key country folk style and incorporating a bit of a soul vibe for this album is an excellent touch. With a great voice and lyrical style to boot this album is doing it for me. The 4 or so bonus tracks are also worth checking out. Great stuff.




6. Blitzen Trapper – All Across This Land (October 2)
Blitzen Trapper is a band that is consistently good with every album they put out. It’s weird though because I never find myself wanting to go back and listen to a certain song by itself on their albums. It feels like the entire album is one long song depicting whatever their stylistic detour at the given moment is. Solid stuff though as usual, especially since they seem to be at home most when they are tapping into the rustic country/southern rock that they do on All Across This Land.








5. Pearl Charles – Pearl Charles (EP) (July 28)
Taylor made for Hobo Keith. Female singer with a strong voice with music that sounds like it’s from the 1960’s mixed with some country influence. Now I’m just patiently waiting for a full length album.











4. Ryan Adams - 1989 (September 21)
I’ve never been much for the Ryan Adams bandwagon, but Shaffer sold me on this album. Everyone knows this story behind this right? It’s a song for song cover of the Taylor Swift album 1989. Not to mention, it’s one of the most depressing albums I have ever heard (recorded as some kind of therapy after his divorce) its stark quality really gives the melodies a chance to shine. It completely transforms the Taylor Swift album and gives it a strong Springsteen quality which is hard for me to argue with.







3. Springsteen – The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (December 4)
Speaking of Springsteen, The River is one of his best albums. Unfortunately, being that it’s a double album there’s a lot of filler that comes with it ("Cadillac Ranch", I’m looking in your direction) but it’s balanced by some of his all time best songs and performances. This box set collection contains a remastered version of the double disc album, a legit release of the aborted original single album version (that includes a different track listing with alternate versions of the songs on the official album and unreleased songs) in much better sound quality than the previous bootleg I had. THEN a whole other disc of outtakes roughly half of which were released on Springsteen’s Tracks box set from the 90s (which rounded up outtakes from his entire career) but the other half were never before heard. Not to mention a new DVD documentary about the making of the album and a 2 disc DVD of a River era live concert from 1980. Wow. Every other musician could take a master class from Springsteen’s box sets and learn how to round up and properly present a recording time period for a specific album.




2. Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966 (November 6)
How can I even review this? It’s everything Dylan recorded in 1965 and 1966 at the peak of his powers, straight up transforming popular music and turning it on its head. Maybe if I heard the 2 disc best of, this would be in the #1 spot on my list but I’m talking about the 18 disc version here. Overkill? Yup. But just knowing this exists makes me happy and there’s so much to dig out of here that’s worth your time. It’s a fun archeological experiment. Who cares if they had to release this for some legal loophole? The fans are better off for it.






1. Wavves – V (October 2)
As far as listenability goes, I may have played this more than anything else on this list. It’s a short, concise album (just over 30 minutes) and gets to the point. In may not be the “best” album I heard this year, but it’s the one I’ve enjoyed the most. Wavves has always been a band I liked, but usually only a small handful of songs per album. This one does it for me all the way through. It’s like they sanded down some of their rougher edges and gave their music a more approachable feel. This has almost more of a pop punk vibe then their early 90s sub pop worship. It sounds like if Blink 182 grew up listening to Nirvana rather than some shitty punk band. His lyrics sometimes can get whiny but most of the time it sounds like he’s insulting his girlfriend Bethany aka Best Coast for being a bitch so I can get behind that.
Bonus points for the amazing album cover too.