Top 20 Albums of 2018

Well, this is a bit of a weird post. For one thing, it's exceptionally overdue - seriously, who posts their end-of-year albums chart NINE MONTHS into the following year? Well, the reason is pretty complicated. Without going into too much detail, things in my personal life got pretty much as low as they possibly could get; it started toward the end of 2017 and I only recently got over the worst of it. So yeah, posting on this blog was pretty far at the back of my mind. I suppose this also explains the absence of a 2017 list... will I do one? Probably not at this stage. I guess the other thing that's contributed significantly to my lack of motivation to continue to post on this thing as that I don't use it to engage with people as much as I used to. Back in the day, my friends would literally tell me, following a gig, that they looked forward to reading about in the next few days, but now... Anyway, I could go on about this, but I just want to post this to get it out there, so there's some sort of record that I did indeed consider what albums rocked my world in 2018. As awful as my personal life was, one thing stayed the same; no prizes for guessing that was. Anyway, nobody's even reading this, so let's just do it:

20. Dead Letter Circus - Dead Letter Circus (AUS)
19. Joyride - Sunrise Chaser (AUS)
18. A.A.L. (Against All Logic) - 2012-2017 (US)
17. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel (AUS)
16. Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt (UK)
15. DZ Deathrays - Bloody Lovely (AUS)
14. Confidence Man - Confident Music for Confident People (AUS)
13. Ihsahn - Àmr (Norway)
12. Press Club - Late Teens (AUS)
11. Joyce Manor - Million Dollars to Kill Me (USA)
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10. Dead Can Dance - Dionysus (AUS)
9. Sleep - The Sciences (USA)
8. Daniel Avery - Song for Alpha (UK)
7. Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspace (AUS)
6. Tiny Little Houses - Idiot Proverbs (AUS)
5. A Perfect Circle - Eat the Elephant (USA)
4. Luca Brasi - Stay (AUS)
3. Tiny Moving Parts - Swell (USA)
2. Basement - Beside Myself (UK)
1. Pianos Become the Teeth - Wait for Love (USA)

That's it. No honourable mentions or EPs or singles. To be honest, due to it being so overdue, this has been my least thought-out chart. My thought process here was just instinct. Anyway, it's done. Hopefully next year I'll post a more carefully considered, and indeed TIMELY list, but we'll see how I go. Due to aforementioned personal issues, I really haven't been keeping up to date with music that much this year, although that has changed in the last few months.

The very best of 2016! Albums-wise!

Yes, this blog is pretty much non-existent these days, but I figure I might as well post this! Without further ado, the top 20 albums for 2016! It was a pretty ripper year, to be honest!

20. Joyce Manor - Cody (USA)
19. A.B. Original - Reclaim Australia (AUS)
18. Underworld - Barbara, Barbara, we face a shining future (UK)
17. Camp Cope - Camp Cope (AUS)
16. Deftones - Gore (USA)
15. Violent Femmes - We Can Do Anything (USA)
14. James Blake - The Colour in Anything (UK)
13. Violent Soho - WACO (AUS)
12. Balance and Composure - Light We Made (USA)
11. The Peep Tempel - Joy (AUS)
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10. Stockades - Open (AUS)
9. Ceres - Drag it Down on You (AUS)
8. Horror My Friend - Stay In, Do Nothing (AUS)
7. The Drones - Feelin Kinda Free (AUS)
6. David Bowie - Blackstar (UK)
5. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity (AUS)
4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree (AUS)
3. The Avalanches - Wildflower (AUS)
2. PUP - The Dream is Over (CAN)
1. Luca Brasi - If This is All We're Going to Be (AUS)

Yeah, in general I felt the quality of music, at least out of the stuff I listened to, really improved quite a bit over previous years! And as always, it's good to see how many bands made the cut not only from Australia (12), but even from my hometown of Melbourne (6)!

And of course, there were a few albums that were certainly good in their own right, but just not top 20 good! They must be mentioned, and here they are being mentioned honourably:
Against Me! - Shape Shift With Me
Anohni - Hopelessness
Bastille - Wild World
Conrad Keely - Original Machines
DJ Shadow - The Mountain Will Fall
Future of the Left - The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left
I Am Duckeye - Songs from the Gunt
Ihsahn - Arktis.
Jeff Rosenstock - Worry.
Kingfisha - Offered it Up
Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost
Opeth - Sorceress
Orb - Birth
Pixies - Head Carrier
Pity Sex - White Hot Moon
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Slowly Slowly - Chamomile
The Bennies - Wisdom Machine
The Cat Empire - Rising With the Sun
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation
The Nation Blue - Black
The Nation Blue - Blue
The Sinking Teeth - Songs from the Bottom of the Lake
Totally Unicorn - Dream Life
Twelve Foot Ninja - Outlier

And now for the EPs!
5. Private Function - Six Smokin' Songs
4. Max Quinn - Carpool Tunnel Syndrome
3. No Haven - Colours of Nothing
2. Nine Inch Nails - Not the Actual Events
1. Massive Attack - Ritual Spirit

2015's finest in albums!

This is so bloody overdue, so let's get straight to it! Iiiiiit's... the top twenty albums of 2015! Yes, 20! 2014 was, in my opinion, a slightly less exciting than usual year for new music, but 2015 more than made up for it with some absolute corkers, and once again, Neeso's end of year chart has been extended to accommodate all the radness! So, without further ado:

20. Dumbsaint - Panorama, in ten pieces (Australia)
19. The Basics - The Age of Entitlement (Australia)
18. The Black Dog - Neither/Neither (UK)
17. Purity Ring - Another Eternity (Canada)
16. Squarepusher - Damogen Furies (UK)
15. Bjork - Vulnicura (Iceland)
14. Batpiss - Biomass (Australia)
13. White Fang - Chunks (USA)
12. Jamie xx - In Colour (UK)
11. The Meanies - It's Not Me, It's You (Australia)
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10. Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon (Australia)
9. The Sidekicks - Runners in the Nerved World (USA)
8. Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (UK)
7. Faith No More - Sol Invictus (USA)
6. The Chemical Brothers - Born in the Echoes (UK)
5. High Tension - Bully (Australia)
4. Battles - La Di Da Di (USA)
3. Royal Headache - High (Australia)
2. Clowns - Bad Blood (Australia)
1. Leftfield - Alternative Light Source (UK)

Yeah, what can I say? It was a bloody good year!As always, we can have a look over this chart and see that local music was again extremely strong! The top five in particular features three very strong albums from bands who were now onto their second long-player. They managed to capitalise on very strong starts and come out with even stronger products! And all up, the countdown featured EIGHT Aussie artists. Hang on, is that as much as usual? Still a good showing nonetheless. Meanwhile, we had six UK artists, four from the US of A, and one apiece from Canada and Iceland!

But you can't fit everything in the top 20, and heeeeeere are some honourable mentions!
Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh
Boy & Bear - Limit of Love
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
Cosmic Psychos - Cum the Raw Prawn
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Dallas Frasca - Love Army
Fat Freddy's Drop - Bays
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
FIDLAR - Too
Floating Points - Elaenia
HEALTH - Death Magic
Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Quarters!
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Paper Mache Dream Balloon
King Parrot - Dead Set
Kurt Vile - b'lieve I'm going down
Making - Highlife
Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
Pond - Man, It Feels Like Space Again
Refused - Freedom
Silversun Pickups - Better Nature
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Sunn O))) - Kannon
Tame Impala - Currents
Tangled Thoughts of Leaving - Yield to Despair
Tesseract - Polaris
The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
The World at a Glance - ...Will Travel
TTTDC - Acronym
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper

The Best of 2014! In recorded form...

Well, again this is quite an overdue post, due to me really not having the motivation to keep this blog up-to-date anymore, but the top 10 is always an important one, so here it is! Yes, it's a top 10 this time. I dunno, 2014 did have obvious highlights, but for me, ten albums seemed to do it, with the quality dropping off enough after those releases to make the others not really worthy of inclusion. It's a shame! But ah well, here's the ten big ones:

10. Antemasque - Antemasque (USA)
9. Luca Brasi - By a Thread (Australia)
8. La Dispute - Rooms of the House (USA)
7. Swans - To Be Kind (USA)
6. Owen Pallett - In Conflict (Canada)
5. Ceres - I Don't Want to Be Anywhere But Here (Australia)
4. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - I'm In Your Mind Fuzz (Australia)
3. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues (USA)
2. Aphex Twin - Syro (UK)
1. The Smith Street Band - Throw Me in the River (Australia)

So as always, a bit of a geographical breakdown - four Aussies (including the all-important numero uno), four from the good ol' US of A, one Canadian (and a bloody talented one at that), and of course, that oddball electronica genius from Cornwall.

And for the honourable mentions, yes there were a few!
A Lonely Crowd - Transients
Actress - Ghettoville
Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else
Fucked Up - Glass Boys
Jack White - Lazaretto
Killer Be Killed - Killer Be Killed
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Oddments
Mac Demarco - Salad Days
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Mogwai - Rave Tapes
Morning Glory – War Psalms
Mushroom Giant – Painted Mantra
OFF! – Wasted Years
Opiuo - Meraki
Pink Floyd - The Endless River
Plastikman - EX
Real Estate – Atlas
Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
Saskwatch – Nose Dive
sleepmakeswaves – Love of Cartography
Sunn O))) & Ulver - Terrestrials
Swans – To Be Kind
Sydonia – Reality Kicks
The Algorithm – Octopus4
The Beards - The Beard Album
The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
Tim McMillan - Wolves of Stunz
Tycho – Awake

And now for the short-form things that are known as EPs!
5. The Occupants - Hindsight
4. The Basics - The Lucky Country
3. Sirak - Heavy Flow
2. Maximum Wolf - Maximum Wolf
1. The Bennies - Heavy Disco

The Best of 2013 - Albums/Other recorded things!

Alright, this is well overdue, so let's just fucking get to it. I did originally post a top 20 on Facebook back in December last year, but since then there have been a few albums that have caught my ear, and I've had to revise the chart somewhat with three new entries - namely albums from Bastille, Violent Soho, and The Bennies. This meant that the original positions 20-18 have been bumped out. They were, from 20-18; Biffy Clyro - Opposites,  Bonobo - The North Borders and The Bronx - The Bronx IV. Sorry guys! But without further ado:

20. Deafheaven - Sunbather (USA) 
19. Sigur Ros - Kveikur (Iceland) 
18. High Tension - Death Beat (Australia) 
17. The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer (USA) 
16. The Cat Empire - Steal the Light (Australia) 
15. Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) (UK)
14. Bastille - Bad Blood (UK) 
13. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away (Australia) 
12. Holden - The Inheritors (UK)
11. Violent Soho - Hungry Ghost (Australia)
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10. The Bennies - Rainbows in Space (Australia) 
9. The Drones - I See Seaweed (Australia) 
8. Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork (USA) 
7. My Bloody Valentine - mbv (Ireland) 
6. Jon Hopkins - Immunity (UK) 
5. Clowns - I'm Not Right (Australia) 
4. Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks (USA) 
3. James Blake - Overgrown (UK) 
2. Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus (UK) 
1. Karnivool - Asymmetry (Australia)

So, that's that. We got there in the end! I think part of the reason it took so long is that last year, I found myself consuming a lot more new music than I usually do - which can only be a good thing. And you can certainly tell by the list of honourable mentions! Oh, and since I've made it a bit of a tradition each year to comment on how much of the chart was local content, I should say that eight out of the top 20 were Australian acts, which certainly isn't as much as previous years. And four of those were in the top 10. I dunno what it was about that year! Anyway, those honourable mentions: (perhaps a top THIRTY is in order next year!)

65daysofstatic - Wild Light
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Balance and Composure - The Things We Think We're Missing
Batpiss - Nuclear Winter
Biffy Clyro - Opposites
Bonobo - The North Borders
Boy & Bear - Harlequin Dream
Carcass - Surgical Steel
Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Daniel Avery - Drone Logic
Dead Letter Circus - The Catalyst Fire
Dick Diver - Calendar Days
Factory Floor - Factory Floor
Fat Freddy's Drop - Blackbird
Future of the Left - How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident
How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion
I Am Duckeye - Husband
Kadavar - Abra Kadavar
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Eyes Like the Sky
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Float Along - Fill Your Lungs
Kurt Vile - Wakin' On a Pretty Daze
Lorde - Pure Heroine
Melbourne Ska Orchestra - Melbourne Ska Orchestra
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group - Woman Gives Birth to Tomato!
Palms (US) - Palms
Pantha Du Prince & the Bell Laboratory - Elements of Light
Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
Pond - Hobo Rocket
Russian Circles - Memorial
Sepultura - The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart
Tesseract - Altered State
The Bronx - The Bronx (IV)
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
The Ocean - Pelagial
This Town Needs Guns - 13.0.0.0.0
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Wil Wagner - Laika

And the top five EPs! As usual, local content dominated this category!
5. The Bennies - Better Off Dread
4. On Sierra - Music to Crack Safes To
3. Sheriff - Roughhouse Hymns
2. Stockades - Stockades
1. The Smith Street Band - Don't Fuck With Our Dreams 

Top five songs of 2012:
5. Violent Soho - Covered in Chrome
4. Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal
3. Clowns - Eat a Gun
2. The Bennies - Party Smashers
1. Karnivool - We Are

Best live release: Dead Can Dance - In Concert

Top 10 gigs of 2012

Another well overdue post, so again, no reviews for now, just straight into it! (If country is not mentioned, band is Australian.)

10. Flight of the Conchords (New Zealand) at Rod Laver Arena, 15th July. With support from Arj Barker (USA).
9. Shellac (USA) at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 19th/20th October. With support from My Disco (19th) and Blacklevel Embassy (20th).
8. Karnivool at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 5th-7th July. With support from Redcoats and sleepmakeswaves.
7. The Tea Party (Canada) at Palais Theatre, 14th July. With support from Georgia Fair.
6. The Darkness (UK) at Palace Theatre, 8th May. With support from Baptism of Uzi.
5. Battles (USA) at Forum Theatre, 28th January. With support from Witch Hats and Other Places.
4. Refused (Sweden) at Palace Theatre, 16th November. With support from Outright.
3. Radiohead (UK) at Rod Laver Arena, 17th November. With support from Connan Mockasin.
2. At the Drive-In (USA) as part of Splendour in the Grass, at Belongil Fields, Byron Bay, 27th-29th July. Other higlight acts also included Dirty Three, Jack White and The Smashing Pumpkins.
1. Roger Waters (UK) - The Wall Live, at Rod Laver Arena, 8th February. No support.

Honourable mentions from headlining, non-festival gigs, in chronological order only:

• Devin Townsend Project (Canada), Meshuggah (Sweden), and dredg (USA) at Forum Theatre, 29th February. What a bill! Courtesy - of course - of the ever-reliable Soundwave Touring.
• Aphex Twin (UK) at Palace Theatre, 6th March. 
• Humans, Sheriff, The Sinking Teeth and Lubbock Lights/Seasuns at Gasometer, 19th April.
• Fu Manchu (USA) and Black Cobra (USA) at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 6th May.
• Dead Letter Circus, Fair to Midland (USA) and Twelve Foot Ninja at Ferntree Gully Hotel, 17th May.
• The Butterfly Effect at Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom, 8th June. With support from The Khyber Belt and The Siren Tower.The final show with their singer of ten years, Clint Boge. A very emotional and special evening for all!
• Trial Kennedy at Corner Hotel, 23rd June. With support from Ikarii, The Pretty Littles and My Echo.
  This was the final show of Trial Kennedy's farewell tour, and again, another one that pulled on the heartstrings a little!
• The xx (UK) at Forum Theatre, 18th July. With support from Flume.
• Jack White (USA) at Festival Hall, 25th July. With support from Lanie Lane.
• The Black Keys (USA) at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, 31st October. With support from Royal Headache.
• Sub Atari Knives (EP launch) at Evelyn Hotel, 9th November.
• My Left Boot (album launch) at Cherry Bar, 22nd December. With support from King of the North and Sheriff.

And some festival highlights:

• Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (UK) closing the Green Stage at Big Day Out, 29th January.
• System of a Down/Slipknot (USA) back to back to close the main stages at Soundwave, 2nd March. Runner-up goes to a killer set from Mastodon (USA).
• Golden Plains, 10th/11th March - nothing in particular stands out, just a great weekend at the Sup' as always.
• Okera, Mushroom Giant and A Lonely Crowd, as part of the all-round excellence of Progfest, 8th September at the Espy.
• Cup My Balls at the Tote, 6th November (surprise surprise, Melbourne Cup Day). Some of Melbourne's finest underground rockers including Sun God Replica, Harmony, Batpiss and Sheriff gathered to give Melbourne music fans an alternative to uhh, that horse race thing.
• Fuck Buttons, Sigur Ros and Ben Folds Five, stand-out acts at another fantastic edition of Harvest, 10th November.
• Primal Scream, Turbonegro, Itch-E & Scratch-E, Saskwatch... yep, Meredith Music Festival was fantastic as always! (7th-9th December).

Festival of the year goes to... Meredith, of course. Harvest a runner-up again. It's going to be hard to break that formula!
Best live Australian act: Karnivool
Runner-up: Sheriff, Sub Atari Knives

The best of (the best of) 2012 - albums/physical product wise!

This, my friends, is well overdue. So I'll just get down to it! Presenting first, the top TWENTY albums of 2012. Yes, I personally felt that 2012 delivered so many goddamn good albums that it warranted extending a top 10 into a top 20, just to fit the awesomeness in! And even so, there are still some more that didn't quite make the cut that should've! Anyway, due to this being so late, I'm going to add reviews at such a time when I can be bothered, which might not actually happen ever. Who knows? Anyway, let's get cracking.

20. The Beards - Having a Beard is the New Not Having a Beard (Australia)
19. Redcoats - Redcoats (Australia)
18. Dead Can Dance - Anastasis (Australia/UK)
17. Future of the Left - The Plot Against Common Sense (UK)
16. Adrift for Days - Come Midnight... (Australia)
15. Jack White - Blunderbuss (USA)
14. The xx - Coexist (UK)
13. The Siren Tower - A History of Houses (Australia)
12. OFF! - OFF! (USA)
11. Maximum Wolf - Spacescapes (Australia)

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10. Breaking Orbit - The Time Traveller (Australia)
9. Okera - A Beautiful Dystopia (Australia)
8. Dirty Three - Toward the Low Sun (Australia)
7. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Australia)
6. Saskwatch - Leave it All Behind (Australia)
5. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (Australia)
4. Alcest - Les Voyages de l'Âme (France)
3. Twelve Foot Ninja - Silent Machine (Australia)
2. Swans - The Seer (USA)
1.Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light (UK)

Whew. What a quality year it was; like I said, there was so much good music that it just seemed like a top ten wouldn't cut it, in terms of fitting everything in. Something that's definitely notable about this year, like it was in 2010, is that bands from Australia made some fucking great albums! And it's a complete coincidence too; I don't favour a band any more (or less) just because they come from my home country, but it turns out that a LOT of the best albums released were from Australian bands. Thirteen out of the top twenty albums were from homegrown bands, and even more impressively, SEVEN of the top ten were Australian acts. Local music is good music! Anyway, so now we turn our attention to the best five EPs of the year... they were...

5. Birds of Tokyo - This Fire
4. High Tension - High Tension
3. Maximum Wolf - ii
2. Sheriff - Sheriff
1. Sub Atari Knives - Sub Atari Knives

These always seem to be local acts, don't they? I think it's something to do with the size of the acts - the bigger overseas acts are less likely to release music in the shortened form once they've established themselves, and tend to focus on producing actual albums. Whereas the local acts represented here (with one slight exception) are in a pretty early stage of their career, and at this point it seems to be better to just give everyone a quick taste of where they're at and what they're about, rather than put all their time and effort into making an album when most people in the music community aren't even aware they exist yet. Anyway, that's just my take on things! It's great to see once again that local talent ruled this countdown!

The year's top five songs:
5. Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
4. Saskwatch - Your Love
3. Twelve Foot Ninja - Coming for You
2. Spiritualized - Hey Jane
1. Swans - The Seer

And the final award for best live release... a definite no-contest here!
The Chemical Brothers - Don't Think