Capes year in music

I’m no doomsayer when it comes to music, but 2017 was clearly one of the worst years for any kind of new music releases. Every artist who shouldn’t have put out a bad album at any point in their career managed to make one happen, and any good new artists were far and few between. Only a few artists made it out unscathed. Thankfully, by then, I already had my Discoveries list going by then, so I at least had SOMETHING to write about, instead of convincing myself that LCD Soundsystem’s worst album is worthy of putting in a #1 spot.

But then, right at the end of the year, Glassjaw surprised us all by releasing a new album in the cursed year, sacrificing themselves and saving the entire year of 2018 for music. And thus, it was not shit.

So, there’s not much I can say about 2018′s music in retrospect, but I’m fine with the assessment of “Not Shit”. This is still a discoveries list, rather than a 2018 AOTY list. At least there are a few 2018 albums in this. But anyways, for the first time, this list is going to count down the 20 best discoveries I found this year. Normally I’d list them all out alphabetically, but I found way too many good albums this time around.

That and I just wanted to make a countdown list this year.

Before I start the list, I want to give Glassjaw’s Material Control a shoutout, since it was released too late in the year for it to grow on me, then. It took me a while before I realized that it was an all-around worthy release from the band, though the eps and Worship and Tribute are a lot stronger by comparison. It’s filled with strange tracks, but the strongest of them hold the album up.

Here are the finds/AOTYs for me since I started doing this a couple years ago
2016
Find of the year: Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute
Album of the year - Animal Collective - Painting With

2017
Find of the Year: Portraits of Past - 01010101
Album of the Year: LCD Soundsystem - American Dream

20. American Football - American Football (2016)

American Football’s 1999 album is beloved in the world of emo, though I can’t say it’s one that I share that same love with. Maybe I don’t care enough about indie-emo, 90s or otherwise, but whatever the case, it never stuck with me.

In 2016, American Football released a new album. Despite the negative fan reception, and my lack of interest in their other music, I gave it a shot and ended up thinking it was good listen. It might sound crazy to like this more than their other one, but in my defense, this is the kind of rock album that I end up loving. It’s a mellow, melancholic indie rock type album. One that I don’t think treads too far into the cliche stylings of most modern emo records. Dare I say it sounds more… mature? I usually would never use the word as praise, but in this case, I think it helps the band’s sound that they’re going for. We’re only at #20, though. I like it a lot, but I’m not parading this as something amazing. It’s a bit too samey, with little memorability to it besides their sound.

I’m looking forward to their next album, and going by the reception of their new single, so is everyone else.

19. Jon Hopkins - Singularity (2018)

Jon Hopkins’ last full length, Immunity, was already one of my favorite albums of 2013 when it came out. Long, moving, pulsing electronic tracks that never felt like they were overstaying their lengths. Five years later, Hopkins has basically released Immunity 2. Despite the time gap, it’s not very different from his last album. It uses the same pulsing beats and moving compositions. But is that a bad thing if I thought his last was as good as it is? Perhaps it loses out on the originality points, but I can look at it as an updated version of his sound and style. MORE pretty, MORE digital, MORE long tracks. However I look at it, I’ll accept it. The late 2010s could certainly use some more good electronic albums, anyways.

18. Ted Leo / Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance (2001)

The early 2000s were a very interesting time for indie rock bands. Radiohead’s OK Computer and Kid A were big successes, plus there was the success of later bands like The Strokes and Interpol. So every indie band was either trying to be super artsy, or super catchy.

Ted Leo falls on the catchy side of things. He’s clearly an indie rock act, falling towards fellow groups like The Shins and The New Pornographers. His approach was straightforward. Happy melodic indie rock tracks. He puts his voice out front and center, staying mainly in the high register. He’s pretty solid up there, too, which I find somewhat rare within the realm of indie rock (probably since anyone else then would be accused of ripping off Thom Yorke). There’s no wild experimentation to it. Just a good set of tracks.

17. Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985)

Even by 80s standards, this is one of the most unique poppy rock albums I’ve heard. It rides hard on a proto-indie sound not unlike R.E.M. or the Pixies. It has that familiar sound, but the songs themselves are all over the place. There are lots of odd instrumental jams mixed with silly pop songs, and they’re all around 2 minutes or less. On top of that, their lyrics are complete nonsense. It’s a bundle of fun.

Michael Stipe likes it too! Woaaohaahaoa

16. Sunny Day Real Estate - Sunny Day Real Estate (1995)

Speaking of bundles of fun, here’s a bright pink album that
is very sad because it’s an emo album.

Who knows, maybe I’m a bigger fan of indie emo than I thought. SDRE is definitely one of the better bands I’ve heard from the genre (though they’re also one of the most acclaimed). Their self-titled isn’t as loved as Diary or their third album, but to me, it’s just as good. The songwriting is on point and the drumming is solid. Their sound is a well-balanced mixed of emo and indie rock, using the strong points of each genre without picking up the weaker tropes that usually come with them.

15. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (2018)

When I heard Sunbather for the first time in 2013, I knew this band was something special. Their songwriting was very fluid and their sound was so well-rounded. Surprisingly, even five years after their massively popular album, no other metal albums have come close to matching their raw, atmospheric sound. Sure, a few bands have tried to progress with their style, but even though OCHL might be the band’s weakest album so far, Deafheaven is still on top.

It’s a bit of a strange album, I admit. The band is finally shaking up their formula past the Dream House “roaring opening into post-rock jam ending”. Instead, they’re starting to take different powerful sections, mixed with quieter sections, and are cutting and pasting them into different spots. So, soundwise, it’s not very different than before, but structurally, it’s much different. I just have to empty out some of the ‘filler’ tracks, as the beefy 10+ minute tracks are good enough to stand on their own.

14. Chicane - Behind the Sun (2000)

When I dig for electronic albums, I tend to try and find the more relaxed, atmospheric types. Behind the Sun is exactly that. It also happens to be a dance record, but it’s an ambient and peaceful one. A little bit of trance thrown in there, too. Though, unlike other trance albums, there’s a lot of variety between their tracks. They use different singers, have differing song lengths, and the sound doesn’t stay the same, either. For being just around an hour, it doesn’t wear out quickly.

13. KaW - Synthsations / Urban Comatose (2003 / 2006)

Placing this is somewhat tricky. It’s not a very significant set of tracks, but I do have an appreciation for it after hearing many of the songs in the rhythm games In the Groove 1 and 2. You could call it nostalgia, but songs like Take Me Back (the song played during name entry) will never get old for me. While there are plenty of ITG songs that I don’t care for, most of the best or most memorable ones come from these albums. Synthsations is the better of the two, if only by a little bit, but they both have lots of good, bubbly electronic tracks on them.

12. Low - Things We Lost in the Fire (2001)

Some years into Low’s slow and sad discography, Kranky records and Steve Albini combined to release this. Usually when you think of Albini, you think YEAH LOUD 90S ROCK MUSIC, but this album is completely unlike that. Though, if all you knew about this album is that Low released it, then you won’t be tricked by what this album offers. At the very least, it’s ‘catchier’ than what the band would normally be putting out (Dinosaur Act, for an easy example).

As you’d expect, it has some solid songs on it. Not much more to ask for. The only problem I have with it is that it gets less interesting the longer the tracklist goes on. But who knows, maybe it just hasn’t grown on me enough, yet. Regardless, had I liked the rest of the album as much as the start of it, this could easily have been much higher in the list.

11. R.E.M. - Green (1988)

I’ve been a huge fan of R.E.M. for a while, now, but there’s still some albums in their discography that I haven’t given a listen until recently. Hell, I still haven’t heard all of Out of Time. But here’s Green. It’s the first R.E.M. album not released on the IRS label. Which, for those who aren’t also R.E.M. fans, is where most of their best work came out on.

Green is not nearly as strong as the IRS albums in comparison, but that competition is a bit unfair. Green is still a good album with good songs on it. While you do get songs like Stand (one of the most annoying pop songs they ever released), there are songs like The Wrong Child and Hairshirt to balance it out. It’s an odd mix, one I’ve heard described as “half bubblegum pop and half art ballads”. The slow songs are just as solid as the poppy ones. Orange Crush is standout hit from this.

I’ve also heard this album described as ‘Fables 2′ (see their third album), and I’d say it’s pretty accurate. A wild mix of moods, from ‘Super Quirky Pop’ to ‘Bleak Dirge of Death’. Definitely the broadest variety pack of the band that you’ll find.

“Hairshirt is awesome!” - Chris Ott, 2016

10. Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy (1973)

As a side note, I had to make the album art monochrome, otherwise tumblr’s epic new horny detector thinks this is nsfw. But with all those sexy, slick guitar solos, can you blame them? But, As much as I wanted to force some random tumblr person go through my list, I’d rather not delay the release of this thing any longer than need be.

Anyways, It’s not very often I get to put an album from the 70s into a list like this. I listen to plenty of 70s albums, as well, but it’s not often that I land on one that sticks with me through the rest of the year. I listened to a bunch of Steely Dan this year, and while Can’t Buy a Thrill and Aja were pretty solid, it was this album that stood out by far. The jazz-rock jamming is at its strongest on this. It’s really special, and it doesn’t detract from the pop songwriting, either. A pretty rare combination for any era.

9. Sweet Trip - You Will Never Know Why (2009)

For the longest time, people have slowly been finding out about the obscure mix of IDM and shoegaze that is Velocity Design Comfort. To the point where it’s not very obscure to people who crawl around /mu/ and RYM. But, as it turns out, they have another album after it… Only in the last couple of years have more listeners found out it’s also worth listening to. Me included. I can sort of understand why people might be put off from giving this a shot. The idea of this album having less experimentation makes you think the music is going to lose its magic. Plus, the album art isn’t wild and colorful either, making it a lot less eyecatching. If the cover is this dull, then surely, the music would be too, right?

However, this cute black and white cover is hiding a very strong indie-shoegaze album underneath it. Their songwriting is just as good, if not better than VDC, which was already pretty damn good to begin with. The increased clarity with their sound did wonders for this, as well.

Maybe their growing new audience might inspire them to make something new… I can hope, right?

8. Between the Buried and Me - Alaska / Automata (2005/2018)

I’ve been listening to a lot of BTBAM this year. They’re one of those bands with a lot of great albums under their belt. They’re a unique metal group, especially by prog metal’s samey standards. On top of that, there’s a whole lot of variety between the albums in their discography. In general though, the band has two flavors: hardcore and prog.

Automata is much different from all the BTBAM albums I’ve heard so far. For starters, it was released in two halves, though that doesn’t affect the album feel of it when put together. It has more variety in it than pretty much any of their other ones. Most of my favorite aspects of the band are packed in it. They have some adventurous prog tracks, a couple bangers, too. No matter what they go for, it gets played skillfully and sounds interesting. And so, that all being said, Automata is my pick for AOTY 2018. Three new albums (technically four) in my discoveries list isn’t too bad!

Being closer to the beginning of the band’s discography, Alaska falls more on the hardcore side of things. It’s one of their first albums where their love of prog is starting to become obvious. It’s also their first album that’s solid most of the way through, where the band really gets into their groove. Some of their most popular songs are on it as well (Selkies, for example).

7. Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants / Beaucoup Fish (1996/1999)

I’ve always known that Underworld existed as an electronic group, but I never knew what kind of music they made until I gave these albums a shot. I was happily surprised by the result. Underworld nails the same niche that LCD Soundsystem would later pick up in the 2000s. Long, building, thumping tracks. This falls more on the electronic side of things compared to LCD’s indie sound, but they’re no less interesting. Though LCD is far better on the vocal front, Underworld have the instrumentals nailed down better than anyone else could.

Beaucoup is the more atmospheric of the two, Second Toughest is more raver style. Both are just about equally as good as each other, though I lean towards Beaucoup.

6. Jamiroquai - Emergency on Planet Earth / Travelling Without Moving (1993/1996)

Go figure, the one time I include a funk album on any of these lists, and it has to be fronted by a British white guy who wears crazy hats that give him SPIRITUAL POWER. I kid, though. Jay Kay’s great, especially at somehow sounding like a black woman when he sings (it was my first guess before I found out who the actual singer was).

In all fairness to the genre of funk, this is off in its own little world of futuristic disco-inspired jams, where the band rocks out as good as any other group. The basslines are slick and Jay’s vocals are on point. The songs change chords wildly, as if they’re some sort of jazz group. Leads to some interesting ‘pop’ songs, be it 4 or 8 minutes long. They’re quite the unique group, and I don’t regret getting into them.

5. Astronaut Wife - Flying Saucer (2003)

This one is apparently so obscure that I had to look this album up on various sources just to figure out what year this was actually released in. It’s a chilled out pop album, and for the first and only time on this list, it features female singing exclusively.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon this group after finding them on a random ‘listen to these new songs!’ compilation also released in the early 2000s. The group’s bubbly ambient pop style stood out to me, and the rest of the songs on this album didn’t disappoint. I loved the digital vibes of the vocals, especially when it comes to harmonizing. The whole album was very well-balanced when it came to sound. Unfortunately, their work ends here. Abandoned forever in the void, waiting for the next person to discover them… Maybe I should find more music produced by the guy who did this.

4. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm (2009)

I am not a Dinosaur Jr. fan. I really like You’re Living All Over Me, and Bug is pretty good, too. But everybody likes those albums, so that’s not surprising. After Bug, there are pretty much no albums of theirs that I care about even slightly.
Until I got to this one.

It’s tucked in their discography pretty deep. It’s a whole 5 albums and 20 years after Bug. And it’s also behind two newer albums of theirs. So you’d think if you didn’t care about that much of their output, and you found most of it boring, there’d be no way you’d ever stumble upon a random album of theirs that just so happens to be great. Well, here it is.

Farm is one of the few albums where they change their approach to songwriting and sound entirely, while keeping the alt rock/indie rock style they’ve stuck to. They got in a groove, and nailed it for over an hour. The songs tend to be jammy and last as long as they want. There’s great long songs and short ones on this. I don’t think I’ll be revisiting their other albums any time soon, but I’m glad I stumbled upon this one before I gave up on them.

3. Cave In - Antenna (2003)

Cave In is a band I discovered a few years ago by hearing their most hyped album, Jupiter. They are a band that’s hard to describe, despite how simple their sound seems on this album. They’re not quite metal or even post-metal, not hardcore, not quite space rock, so maybe they’re alternative rock? Hard rock? Whatever it is, Antenna’s their most accessible version of it. It’s much more hook driven than any of their previous material, and it’s great, too. It’s just over an hour, so it’s impressive that they managed to have little to no weak tracks on it. Though I miss their songwriting style of tracks like Big Riff, they try to replicate that monumental feeling with a massive chorus.

There’s very little experimenting on this album, but they still keep it interesting. Hell, I think I like it more than Jupiter.

2. Bark Psychosis - Codename: Dustsucker (2004)

This is not nearly what one would expect from picking up a post-rock album from 2004. It doesn’t fall into the tropes of any style of post-rock, really. This is the band’s second and final album, released 10 years after their first. Hex (their 94 album) is the more acclaimed of the two, but Dustsucker is really something special. It’s not just good, but it’s something that I’ll always want to go back and listen to at some point in the future.

Being a mix of slowcore and post-rock, it’s pretty bleak sounding. Yet still very attractive, decorated with a variety of tones and experimental sounds. It feels like my favorite album to listen to last year (Tortoise - TNT), but with more purpose to it. Does that make this better? Maybe in some ways, but there’s no denying that this album is something special.

1. Antarctica - 23:03 / 81:03 (1998, 1999)

There was no doubt that I wanted Antarctica to be #1 on this list… but there’s one problem. 81:03 is already on last year’s list! Of course, the first time I listened to it was right before I published my 2017 list. So, I had to shift the rules just a bit to fit it on here, because not having the album I’ve been listening to over and over again in 2018 on this list just felt wrong. And sure, Tortoise’s TNT could have been #1 for 2017, had I thrown the ‘had to be discovered in 2017′ rule out the window, but I discovered TNT years beforehand. So this one is fair enough. And I’m making the rules, here, anyways, so IT’S HERE NOW.

Regardless, I heard 23:03 for the first time this year, but enough about the little things. Antarctica came from the equally short-lived emo band Christie Front Drive. CFD was a bit experimental, but had very few songs that were notable. Antarctica, on the other hand, decided to come up with a style of their own. It’s one that fits their songwriting style far better. Both of these albums are filled with epic tracks (quite a few around 8 minutes) and a large variety of styles within their own sound. They borrow elements from shoegaze, synthpop, and indie rock, and toss it all into a sound that I haven’t heard any other band go for.

Their instrumentals can range from very peaceful to very emotional. Their EP falls more on the emotional sad side of things, like some kind of Super Emo that rose from the ashes of Christie Front Drive. 81:03 is more of a mix of feelings, but every sound you could ever want from the group shows up, here.

Unfortunately, these two releases are their entire discography. As amazing as they are, it ends here. After Eric Richter left the group, the band became full-on synth pop as Ova Looven. They released 58:34 and it sucked. Eric went on to form and break up 18 different emo bands. But whatever, I’ll take this hour and a half of great music. I sure got a lot of hours from it, this year.

Find of the Year: Antarctica - 23:03 / 81:03
New Album of the Year - Between the Buried and Me - Automata