[tps_title]Ryan Gibbs’ Top Midyear Picks in Music [/tps_title]
Albums
- Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope)
Obvious? Probably. It’s hard to listen to these songs as standalone tracks because they work so well together. You know, like an album or something. Standout tracks: “Wesley’s Theory,” “King Kunta,” “The Blacker the Berry.”
- Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop/Milk! Records)
Kendrick and Courtney Barnett are a closer 1-2 than you might think. I love To Pimp a Butterfly as an album experience to be taken as a whole, but I like the songs on Sometimes I Sit as stand-alone songs more. At times, It’s hard to listen to some of the songs on To Pimp a Butterfly without the other songs surrounding it, and the music itself demands and deserves your full attention. Barnett? Her record is just fun. Barnett is a brilliant and often wryly funny lyrical talent, weaving often riveting stories of the mundane that effortlessly mesh with her natural skill as a guitar player. Of special note is “Depreston,” a song about house-hunting in depressing Melbourne suburbs that is probably one of the very best songs of the decade so far. One of the most fully-formed debut full lengths I’ve heard in years. Standout tracks: “Pedestrian at Best,” “Depreston,” “Dead Fox.”
- Blur, The Magic Whip (Warner)
You know, I was worried for a second. I was worried that my favorite band would put out an uninspired comeback record with maybe one or two good songs and rest just on standby. As you may remember from my review a few months back, this did not happen, and I couldn’t be happier. Standout tracks: “Lonesome Street,” “Ong Ong,” “I Broadcast.”
- Hop Along, Painted Shut (Saddle Creek)
Hop Along’s third album marks them as one of the country’s best guitar bands. Frances Quinlan’s devastating voice, lyricism, and gift for vocal melody are the heart of the record, and Hop Along itself is a well-tuned machine on the record’s ten tracks. The band’s first two records undeservedly flew under the radar, but Painted Shut is so good that it couldn’t be ignored (and it hasn’t!). I once said on Facebook that Painted Shut was “exactly what I needed and all I really need period from indie guitar music in 2015.” Admittedly that was hyperbolic, but this record had an impact on me that few others in the genre have this year. Absolutely enthralling. Standout tracks: “The Knock,” “Waitress,” “Powerful Man.”
- Makeshift Shelters, Something So Personal (Broken World Media)
I’ve been pretty vocal about how much I’ve adored this record over the course of the year. Music critic Brad Nelson brought it up on Twitter and I loved it so much that I wound up buying it off their Bandcamp within the hour. I was hooked. Pop punk, emo and their related genres often get the short end of the stick respect-wise, but there’s so much good stuff coming out the genres right now–particularly from Connecticut’s Broken World Media label–and it’s especially unfortunate that this smart, instantly catchy set of songs didn’t get the love it’s deserved. Sadly, the band recently announced that they had broken up, a shame since there’s so much potential on the terrific Something So Personal; the album sounds like a band that was just getting started to show off what they could do. Standout tracks: “Opposite Directions,” “Lighter Fluid,” “Grayest Places.”
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Songs
- Courtney Barnett, “Depreston” (Mom + Pop)
- American Wrestlers, “I Can Do No Wrong” (Fat Possum)
- Speedy Ortiz, “The Graduates” (Carpark)
- Blur, “Lonesome Street” (Warner)
- Screaming Females, “Triumph” (Don Giovanni Records)
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