For me it's been an interesting year in terms of music as I've listened to more music that was new to me than ever before, almost 300 albums in fact, but only 30 or so have been from this year.
But most of those 30 were at least pretty good. Here's some of the best that I can remember enough about to write some impressions on:
Joanna Newsom - Divers
It's great. She's great. Shorter than Have One on Me, but far more varied in terms of instrumentation and style. Excellent song-writing, interesting lyrics, melodies, emotion, all the good stuff.
Laurie Anderson - Heart of a Dog
I'd been listening to a couple of her earlier albums when I saw this had come out. Apparently a soundtrack to a movie of hers, it's mostly ambient stuff with a spoken-word narrative. At times quite bizarre, at others very moving, definitely worth a listen if you are into this sort of a thing.
Boduf Songs - Stench of Exist
Like earlier Boduf Songs releases, it's thoroughly dark folk music with whispery vocals. A great soundtrack for middle of the night existential angst or what have you, probably not one for the optimists.
Tamaryn - Cranekiss
The earlier Tamaryn albums were a pretty decent shoegaze affair, but this time they've gone all Cocteau Twins-esque dream pop. I quite like Cocteau Twins, and it's not a poor imitation so I don't really mind. Several really good tracks, but don't expect anything that hasn't been done before.
Ghost - Meliora
I haven't listened to this in a couple of months now, but I immediately had the impression that this is probably the best Ghost album. A heavier direction with harder-hitting riffs than on the last album, but the melodies and hooks are as good as ever.
Arcane - Known/Learned
This was the one proggy metal album I heard this year that stuck as pretty damn good to me. It's probably too long (which I basically think about any double-album), but it's good.
Marika Hackman - We Slept at Last
More good new contemporary folk, well produced.She's an another one who writes about darker subjects with an all-around melancholic tone to the music, which is something I appreciate. A good debut.
Some other pretty decent albums:
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Dark, heavy, brooding, dronier in the first half, mellower on the second. She has a nice voice and I really like the soundscapes and the atmosphere, but after listening I find that most of the material hasn't been particularly memorable. I still like it.
Timbre - Sun & Moon
Pleasant folky stuff, but it's no Joanna Newsom.
Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase
Is good if you like Steven Wilson.
Sun Kil Moon - Universal Themes
Mark has decided to abandon conventional songwriting in favour of rambling about what's happened to him during the last couple of years. With mixed results. As a fan of his music, sure, it's worth listening, even several times, but he's done better music than this.
Barren Earth - On Lonely Towers
I thought this was an another good melodic prog/death metal album from Barren Earth, and a bit different from their first two as well. Reference points to early Amorphis are still there - a couple of ex-members write some of the songs. I'm not super into this type of music currently, but do check, if you are.
I'll do an update after re-listening some albums I listened to earlier in the year, and after checking a few from this thread.
uke:
