rob gordon
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Favourite Albums of 2011
I always find it so hard to actually put these in any sort of order, but I can say that the #1 album was definitely my favourite by a lot. Your favourite albums from the past year will inevitably be different from what's on my list. But as I've said before, that's one of the great things about music - that it all affects each person in different ways. It's for that same reason that I've also refrained from writing any long-winded explanations of why I love these records so much. Though I know it's a rarity in the world of music critique, I really believe that that great albums must be heard rather than analyzed in writing. Indeed, the only long winded writing in this post is the introduction you are (possibly still) reading right now.
I hope you can give these records a listen, as maybe you'll find something that you really love as well. And because I'd rather share the actual music with you than write about it, there are songs from each one of these albums on the quarterly mixes that I regularly post here for free download. Stay tuned for the next mix coming in late March of 2012, and in the meantime keep discovering great new music!
Alright, here's the list...
1. Destroyer - Kaputt
2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
3. The Drums - Portamento
4. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
5. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
6. James Blake - s/t
7. Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital
8. The Horrors - Skying
9. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
10. The Field - Looping State Of Mind
11. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne
12. M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming
13. Neon Indian - Era Extraña
14. Washed Out - Within And Without
15. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs
16. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
17. Toro Y Moi - Underneath The Pine
18. Tuneyards - Whokill
19. Holy Ghost! - s/t
20. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
There are a few other great albums that just barely missed the top 20 cut. In no particular order, here they are...
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Mirror Traffic
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Feist - Metals
WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain
The Strokes - Angles
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - We're New Here
Cat's Eyes - s/t
The Black Keys - El Camino
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
The various singles released by Burial this year
And here are the download links for those mixes...
January-March mix: http://www.mediafire.com/?827uv628k3s3a8y
April-June mix: http://www.mediafire.com/?24w9x9cihojcy16
July-September mix: http://www.mediafire.com/?ckr626tm2agzq4q
October-December mix: http://www.mediafire.com/?8q5tc2erpy8551v
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Best New Albums - Oct-Dec 2011
There are 13 tracks this time around, and I promise that there are no Christmas songs. Here are the artists on the mix: The Field, M83, Feist, The Black Keys, Wooden Shjips, St. Vincent, AA Bondy, The Kooks, Atlas Sound, Factory Floor, Oneohtrix Point Never, Noel Gallagher, and Surfer Blood.
http://www.mediafire.com/?8q5tc2erpy8551v
Enjoy! And as usual, please feel free to share the link with friends.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Best New Albums - July-Sept 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Best New Albums - April-June 2011
Friday, April 08, 2011
Best New Albums - January-March 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Favourite Albums of 2010
1. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
5. !!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?
6. Beach House - Teen Dream
7. Delorean - Subiza
8. Foals - Total Life Forever
9. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
10. The National - High Violet
11. Vampire Weekend - Contra
12. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
13. Black Keys - Brothers
14. The Drums - s/t
15. Broken Bells - s/t
16. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz
17. Jonsi - Go
18. Avi Buffalo - s/t
20. Moonface - Dreamland
I'm sure it's also no secret that I listen to a ton of music; probably too much at times. So there are inevitably always going to be a bunch of other albums that I really loved which narrowly missed inclusion on the list. You'll also find songs from each of these on the aforementioned mixes though, and here they are in no particular order...
Liars - Sisterworld
Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
Spoon - Transference
Gigi - Maintenant
The English Premership - Affects
MGMT - Congratulations
The Walkmen - Lisbon
jj - No. 3
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Twin Shadow - s/t
Sleigh Bells - Treats
The Morning Benders - Big Echo
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea
Stars - The Five Ghosts
Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises
Casiokids - Top Stemning Pa Lokal Bar
Apparatjik - We Are Here
Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Klaxons - Surfing The Void
Wolf Parade - Expo 86
Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago
ceo - White Magic
A couple of quick notes: Support the artists by purchasing the albums you love most, or by seeing them live in concert. And never stop discovering great new music!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Missed Best New Albums from 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Best New Albums: October-December 2010
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Best New Albums: July-September 2010
Monday, July 05, 2010
Best New Albums: April-June 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Best New Albums: January-March 2010
On the topic of good new music... back in early April I put together a mix of songs from my favourite albums of the first quarter of 2010 (January-March). I've given it to a few friends on CD over the past couple months, but I've now also uploaded it here for you to download and check out...
Going forward, I'll most likely put together another mix like this for each subsequent quarter of the year. In fact, I already have a lot of the songs picked for the April to June mix. I'll just need to see what good music comes out in June and then put it all together. Expect to see a download link for that posted here sometime in early July.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Favourite Albums of 2009
Here's a list of my ten favourite albums of the past year:
1. The Horrors - Primary Colours
2. Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
3. Handsome Furs - Face Control
4. The xx - xx
5. jj - jj No. 2
6. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
7. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
8. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
9. Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
10. Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
I could go on an on about how great all of these albums are and why, but it's always better if you hear some of the music for yourself. So here's a link to download a mix with two tracks from each album... http://www.mediafire.com/?m4mnyjt1yhi
Also, here are a bunch more great albums from 2009 that I really liked...
Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Mew - No More Stories Are Told Today...
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
The Juan MacLean - The Future Will Come
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Peter Doherty - Grace/Wastelands
The Rakes - Klang
Maximo Park - Quicken The Heart
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young
The Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control
A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
Air - Love 2
Julian Plenti - ...Is Skyscraper
Crystal Antlers - Tentacles
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
I've also put together another sampler with one song from each of the above albums. And in addition to those 21 songs, the second mix continues with 15 excellent songs from albums which I though were merely alright overall; or songs which were only released as one-off singles.
You can download the entire 'best-of-the-rest' mix here:
Part 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?wqz4wozjzdn
Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?4zmkyntujdn
This may (or may not) be my last 'best albums of the year' post on this blog, so I wanted to make it a good one with lots of music for you to download. Enjoy! And please support great music - get a turntable and buy the albums you love on vinyl, and try to see the bands live in concert!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Favourite albums from the second half of '08
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Favourite albums from the first half of '08
One new development though, is that the London Underground is hosting a new weekly event called Shake Appeal. It happens every Tuesday night and so far it has been great. Myself and Johnny Law are the DJ's, and we're still featuring super-cheap import beer specials. You can find more information here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8379827061
Also, lately a lot of people have been asking me for a list of my favourite new albums. So, here's the stuff from the first half of 2008 that I've enjoyed most, in no particular order...
Beck - Modern Guilt
Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha
The Black Keys - Attack & Release
Albert Hammond, Jr. - ¿Cómo Te Llama?
Vampire Weekend - s/t
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Foals - Antidotes
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Sun Kil Moon - April
R.E.M. - Accelerate
The Futureheads - This Is Not The World
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
Crystal Castles - s/t
No Age - Nouns
Check them out if you haven't done so already.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
New DJ night on Tuesdays
Anyway, the idea of the night is to play all the best rock and electronic music that's big in the UK right now - whether it's from London, New York, Montreal, Stockholm, Tokyo, wherever. If you can dance to it, we'll play it! And, although the focus will be on newer music, we'll also throw in some great stuff from the past... garage rock from the 60's, to glam rock and punk from the 70's, to 80's new wave, to 90's Brit pop.
There will also be music videos, concerts and films playing all night on the LCD TV's. And, we'll have weekly LP, CD and DVD giveaways courtesy of Grooves.
As for drink specials, they're great... $4 all night for import tallboy cans, and those sweet Grolsch swingtop bottles. If you're not into the import beer, it's only $3 for domestic bottles and bar shots too. And if you get hungry, they also have a kitchen.
Come out for the launch party, and check it out... http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20693310460. Giveaways for the launch will be LP and CD copies of the new Radiohead album, 'In Rainbows'.
Also, you can find more info on the night here.