I think there's some pretty decent stuff on Narrow Stairs. The album as a whole isn't very good, but I have no problem with "Bixby Canyon Bridge", "I Will Posess Your Heart", "No Sunlight", and "Long Division". I'm not sorry I bought it.

!!!

Martha Wainright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
Pop Project - Stars of Stage and Screen
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Kurt Vile - Constant Hitmaker
Esperanza - Esperanza Spalding
Kurt Weisman - Spiritual Sci-Fi
Nomo - Ghost Rock

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

seems that people in US didnt pay attention(their loss).
in uk also -with a few exceptions- it didnt make it high in end of the year lists.
on the other hand i see it high in almost every list of other eurpopean countries.
some people think that its even better than the Arctic monkeys albums.i think its a great effort with some classic tunes.definitely one of the most underrated releases of the year.

Robert Forster -- "The Evangelist".

I'm really surprised by the lack of recognition for this superb album on the boards. To my ear, this is as quietly touching, intelligent and mature as the Bon Iver album, with a similar haunted quality of pervasive isolation and loss.

In this case, the immediate "loss" is Forster's great Go-Betweens' writing partner, Grant McLennan earlier in the year, and three of the album's best tracks were co-written with McLennan before he died. "Demon Days" in particular is a stunning evocation of lost love. Of course, the subject is lost romantic love, but one can't help listening to it and sensing how it is permeated by the loss of McLennan's friendship too. The album opener "If It Rains" sets the overall elegiac tone of sadness and nostaligia.

But the album as a whole is not a downer -- it is informed as much by the joy of things that came with the McLennan-Forster friendship as it is by the loss of a friend. And the stark emotions that motivated the songs have also resulted in a stripped-down melodicism that is as lovely as anything Forster has ever written. Highly recommended and sadly underappreciated.

I would very specifically point to two albums that jump out at me as easy calls here. They are:

PSY/opsogist - Suffused With Static
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent

It is really bizarre and surreal to me that these didn't get more recognition than they did. Two undeniably fantastic albums!

quote:

Originally posted by goathouse's jolliness:
I would very specifically point to two albums that jump out at me as easy calls here. They are:

PSY/opsogist - Suffused With Static
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent

It is really bizarre and surreal to me that these didn't get more recognition than they did. Two undeniably fantastic albums!

Btw I've heard some demos of PSY's new stuff and it's sick. I think Mining the Valleys is my favorite by him though.

This could be said about any metal album, really, but:

Akimbo - Jersey Shores

rocks. hard.

and it's about shark attacks. You can't beat that.

I will definitely agree with ezatl that Lugubrum's Albino De Congo is massively overrated whether you talk to indie kids or metal heads (thanks ezatl).

Gift Culture - Terraforming (thanks twinkie)

All the Aidan Baker released this year (including Aidan Baker, Leah Buckareff & Nadja's Trinity "split")

Claro Intelecto's Metanarrative

Aids Wolf's Cities of Glass (one of two releases by them I actually like.. the other is the Athletic Automation split)

Dev/Null's Necrobestial Sadobreaks (well, underrated until you talk to ppl who listen to hardcore dance)

The An Albatross Family Album (which just got a 'fork review, didn't look at it though :/)

Autechre's Quaristice

Forteresse - Les Hivers De Notre Epoque

Capsule's Blue

the new Black Pus

Sunken Foal - Fallen Arches

Bruno Pronsato's Why Can't We Be Like Us?

Dub Trio - Another Sound Is Dying

Elf Power - In a Cave

Dutchess and the Duke

Igorrr - Moisissure (thanks again Twinkie)

Naked on the Vague - Blood Pressure Sessions

The (Fallen) Black Deer - Requiem

Ital Tek - Cyclical

Prurient - And, Still Wanting

Porn/Merzbow - ...And the Devil Makes Three (the first thing involving Merzbow I've enjoyed)

Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner

Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep

The Great Northwest - The Widespread Region of the Northwest

All 3 of the Xrin Arms albums

Wrnlrd's 2 albums

Has anybody else heard of the Swedish group Fredrik? They released their debut last year called Na Na Ni and, while it is kind of dull in places, it is, on the whole, a beautiful record and worth looking into. Both "Black Fur" and "1986" are terrific songs.

I didn't really like the new Prurient. I do agree that "Jim" by Jamie Lidell was underrated, as was "The Stand-Ins" by Okkervil River, "Black Sea" by Fennesz (not helped by being released late in the year), "Fordlandia" by Johann Johannson, and even Titus Andronicus. Oh well.

Fordlandia is a remarkable album. Would have made my top 25 for sure if I had heard it.

quote:

Originally posted by BContrat:
I didn't really like the new Prurient. I do agree that "Jim" by Jamie Lidell was underrated, as was "The Stand-Ins" by Okkervil River, "Black Sea" by Fennesz (not helped by being released late in the year), "Fordlandia" by Johann Johannson, and even Titus Andronicus. Oh well.

Jim: yes.

The Stand-Ins: are you kidding?

quote:

Originally posted by laughingstock:
Has anybody else heard of the Swedish group Fredrik? They released their debut last year called Na Na Ni and, while it is kind of dull in places, it is, on the whole, a beautiful record and worth looking into. Both "Black Fur" and "1986" are terrific songs.

Na Na Ni was on my list. It's a great little album.

quote:

Originally posted by BContrat:
I didn't really like the new Prurient.

The "new" Prurient? I can think of at least 3 releases since And, Still Wanting (Arrowhead, Cocaine Death, and Ghosts of Niagra). Discogs shows around 11....

Just an FYI..

quote:

Originally posted by jack(gl)ass:
I will definitely agree with ezatl that Lugubrum's Albino De Congo is massively overrated whether you talk to indie kids or metal heads (thanks ezatl).

Gift Culture - Terraforming (thanks twinkie)

All the Aidan Baker released this year (including Aidan Baker, Leah Buckareff & Nadja's Trinity "split")

Claro Intelecto's Metanarrative

Aids Wolf's Cities of Glass (one of two releases by them I actually like.. the other is the Athletic Automation split)

Dev/Null's Necrobestial Sadobreaks (well, underrated until you talk to ppl who listen to hardcore dance)

The An Albatross Family Album (which just got a 'fork review, didn't look at it though :/)

Autechre's Quaristice

Forteresse - Les Hivers De Notre Epoque

Capsule's Blue

the new Black Pus

Sunken Foal - Fallen Arches

Bruno Pronsato's Why Can't We Be Like Us?

Dub Trio - Another Sound Is Dying

Elf Power - In a Cave

Dutchess and the Duke

Igorrr - Moisissure (thanks again Twinkie)

Naked on the Vague - Blood Pressure Sessions

The (Fallen) Black Deer - Requiem

Ital Tek - Cyclical

Prurient - And, Still Wanting

Porn/Merzbow - ...And the Devil Makes Three (the first thing involving Merzbow I've enjoyed)

Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner

Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep

The Great Northwest - The Widespread Region of the Northwest

All 3 of the Xrin Arms albums

Wrnlrd's 2 albums

I like seeing this sort of post. I reminds me of my idealistic youth. Could you please explain the appeal of Capsule? It's a mini-suite of little songy dongies -- I get that much. That's unique, but is that the hook? What am I looking for here that justifies "underrated" status-orama?

Capsule is a punk band. The short songs are actually the opposite of unique.. it's pretty typical. But what isn't typical about Capsule is the amount of melody their able to subtly put in their songs underneath walls of distortion (essentially what I think No Age should sound like but don't have the balls to).

Sunken Foal's Fallen Arches is easily one of the most gorgeous albums I've ever heard, and that's not an exaggeration. Bedroom folk? Idm? Ambient? Acoustic Jazz? Downtempo? I never expected to hear this from Planet Mu.

I'd say everything about Sparks screams criminally underrated (throughout their entire 30+ year career).

Dub Trio combine Ipecac's signature metalcore/experimental/mathy sound with Dub reggae production. Seems like it should've been done long ago (and no, I'm not talking to you Bad Brains).

Xrin Arms makes hip-hop albums for jazz heads... filtered through depressive, black, dark noise. Did you ever think obscure soul gems from a crate digging session would ever make your ears bleed?

There's 5 mini explanations of why I think these albums should be more widely heard. And each of these has passed my typical test: whether or not my girlfriend tells me to turn it off (or put on headphones). If she can handle it, I'd say most of you might be able to find one thing on here that you had never heard but might be right up your alley.

If you'd like to know anything about any of these bands, just ask.

Thanks for the descriptions, JGlass.

I guess I wasn't thinking of Capsule as punk -- it sounded more like some form of metal when I listened to it.

quote:

Originally posted by jack(gl)ass:


Gift Culture - Terraforming (thanks twinkie)

Thanks, jack(gl)ass - as I said to Twinkle, it really means a lot to me that I made your list - thanks for listening!

Have you heard Temple at Dawn yet? I was curious what you thought of the two albums, people really seem to like one or the other, but are rather polarized about it :^)

Catching up with some less heralded 2008 releases lately...these have surprised me as being much stronger than I anticipated...

Parc Avenue - Plants and Animals...would be top ten for me if I could redo year-end list.

Life, Death, Love & Freedom - John Mellencamp...The Cougar is the type of aging second/third tier mainstream artist most posters on this board (or pitchfork for that matter) won't give the time of day, but the open track and final five song stretch on this album are absolutely fantastic...not enough to make the album as a whole great...but it's best moments are as good as just about anything released by any artist this year...Rolling Stone wasn't completely off their rockers putting this in their top ten for the year.

quote:

Parc Avenue - Plants and Animals...would be top ten for me if I could redo year-end list.

Life, Death, Love & Freedom - John Mellencamp...The Cougar is the type of aging second/third tier mainstream artist most posters on this board (or pitchfork for that matter) won't give the time of day, but the open track and final five song stretch on this album are absolutely fantastic...not enough to make the album as a whole great...but it's best moments are as good as just about anything released by any artist this year...Rolling Stone wasn't completely off their rockers putting this in their top ten for the year.

Although it didn't make my top 20, Park Avenue was great, it's too bad it didn't see better acclaim around here.

As for Mellencamp...I liked the first few songs off the record a lot, but the middle section of the album seemed to sag quite a bit...and the last few songs were just unlistenable for me.