Favourite things I heard in March 2018

Albums.

1. Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves
2. Girl Going Nowhere - Ashley McBryde
3. Language - Starchild and The New Romantic
4. Every Little Thought - Hurry
5. Historian - Lucy Dacus

6. Tearing at the Seams - Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats
7. Cocoa Sugar - Young Fathers
8. Clean - Soccer Mommy
9. United We Swing - Wynton Marsalis Septet
10. May Your Kindness Remain - Courtney Marie Andrews

Songs
1. "Oh, What A World" - Golden Hour - Kacey Musgraves
2. "Call Out My Name" - My Dear Melancholy, - The Weeknd
3. "Livin' Next to Leroy" - Girl Going Nowhere - Ashley McBryde
4. "'Til It's Over" - Single - Anderson .Paak
5. "Get the Fuck Off My Dick" - Single - Vince Staples
6. "Once in My Life" - I'll Be Your Girl -The Decemberists
7. "Language" - Language - Starchild and The New Romantic
8. "Boyfriend" - Castles - Lissie
9. "Eureka" - Single - The Hold Steady
10. "Lost in Japan" - Single - Shawn Mendes

Best music of 2015...so far

We're six months into 2015, and it is already shaping up to be one of the best.years. ever. for music. Classic albums in almost every genre are being released on the regular, and even the quiet weeks present some great music for our pleasure.

There have been so many solid releases in just half-a-year, I don't know how the second half can match it, but there are already signs that it could happen – Kanye! Frank Ocean! Tame Impala! Titus Andronicus! Carly Rae Jepsen! Disclosure!

I didn't think it would be this difficult to narrow down my list of the best albums thus far to 25, but that's a great reflection of the year we've had. Here's hoping the rest of the year keeps the streak alive.

Best albums so far (arranged alphabetically)

1. At.Long.Last.A$AP – A$AP Rocky

Rocky gets woozy and weird, and even sings to great effect on "L$D."

2. Coming Home – Leon Bridges

Click here to read my full review. 

3. Kintsugi – Death Cab for Cutie

Click here to read my full review. 

4. What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World – The Decemberists

Click here to read my full review. 

5. Surf – Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment

Click here to read my full review. 

6. If You're Reading This It's Too Late – Drake

Click here to read my full review. 

7. I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside – Earl Sweatshirt

Easily my favorite album name of the year, if not ever. A lonely, dark and engaging listen. 

8. I Love You, Honeybear – Father John Misty

Click here to read my full review. 

9. Tetsuo & Youth – Lupe Fiasco

Lupe's best album in a long while, it shows his lyrical dexterity and sonic risk-taking. 

10. Goon – Tobias Jesso Jr. 

Click here to read my full review. 

11. To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar

Click here to read my full review. 

12. Strange Trails – Lord Huron

Absolutely lovely apocalyptic folk music, with a serious undercurrent of early rock. 

13. Dreams Worth More than Money – Meek Mill

The most cinematic and escapist hip-hop album of 2015 so far. It also benefits greatly from being buckets of fun.  

14. Wildheart – Miguel

Miguel injects psychedelia into his baby-making soul, and comes up with his most adventurous album yet.  

15. Pageant Material – Kacey Musgraves

Musgraves' second album is quieter than her debut, but no less stellar. Probably the loveliest album of the year. 

16. The Waterfall – My Morning Jacket

Click here to read my full review. 

17. QUARTERBACKS – QUARTERBACKS

Twee-punk done right. An album about love that gets under your skin in 22 minutes flat.

18. Uptown Special – Mark Ronson

My favorite album of the year for night driving. Sounds great with city lights flying by the window. 

19. Ratchet – Shamir

Click here to read my full review. 

20. Summertime '06 – Vince Staples

Click here to read my full review. 

21. Traveler – Chris Stapleton

Could well be the best country album of the year. This guy has a voice that'll just rock you back. 

22. The Epic – Kamasi Washington

The best jazz album I've heard in years. A three-disc monster that fully lives up to the name. 

23. Ivy Tripp – Waxahatchee

Click here to read my full review. 

24. In Colour – Jamie xx

Click here to read my full review. 

25. Second Hand Heart – Dwight Yoakam

Click here to read my full review.

Album of the Week: The Decemberists What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

There's a scene in the bootleg cut of Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous where Patrick Fugit's rock journalist is talking to Billy Crudup's budding rock star about their favorite music. They're riffing about the little details in music that people remember, and Crudup mentions Marvin Gaye's "What'sHappening Brother" and a single "woo" at the end of the second verse – a "woo" that completely hooks the listener.

"That's what you remember. The silly things, the little things," he says. "There's only one, and it makes the song."

For me, there's a similar moment three minutes and thirty-nine seconds into "Lake Song" from The Decemberists' latest, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, where singer Colin Meloy delivers the lines "Set the ghost of your two footprints/That they might haunt me when you're gone." On the word "gone" he adds an extra lilt, a slightly more sing-songy enunciation that gives the word a quiet, but devastating lift. It kills me every time I listen to it, and I've listened to it a lot.

What A Terrible World… is a stunning tapestry of these kinds of moments, and arrives halfway through the first month of 2015 as the year's first great album. It may lack the cohesive structure that made The Crane Wife and The Hazards of Love so interesting, but it's tough to argue when Meloy and company are churning out songs as smart and goddamn pretty as they do here.

The Decemberists' last album The King Is Dead came out four years ago and brought with it the group's biggest commercial success at the time. All of sudden radio stations that would've blanched at playing the band's earlier work were playing songs like "Down By The Water" once every couple hours. The album's success was mostly due to the band's ability to marry its brilliant, erudite lyrics with a little less jagged Neil Young-esque instrumentation.

It felt like after all the new attention The Decemberists needed to step back a spend a little time with themselves before venturing forth again and the time has clearly been well spent. The sound more energized here than most brand new bands.

What A Terrible World… continues to expand the band's sonic palette, whether it’s the George Harrison style guitar work on "Philomena," Nick Drake-like acoustics on "Lake Song" or "Till the Water Is All Long Gone," which sounds like they lifted wholesale the Spanish guitar picking from Van Morrison's "Beside You."

As always with this group, the storytelling and lyrics are really what make the album special.

The album kicks off with the most self-aware song this side of a Taylor Swift hit, "The Singer Addresses His Audience," which features Meloy wryly singing lines like "We know, we know, we belong to ya/We know you grew your arms around us/And the hopes we wouldn't change." Meloy leaves it to the listener to decide if they want to read it as grateful, sarcastic or a mix of both.

On "Till the Water Is All Long Gone" Meloy seems to be channeling lost civilizations and centuries of political strife into a simple ballad about defending one's daughter (it's also the second song to mention coming down from a mountain – a reference to the band's return after several years of quiet? Discuss amongst yourselves.)

The album wraps up with the stellar one-two punch of "12-17-12" and "A Beginning Song." The former title is in reference to the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and tackles the aftermath of an event that reminded the country again (as if there was any need for it) that even our children aren't safe in school. "Oh my God, what a world you have made here," Meloy sings and you can hear his broken heart in the delivery.

"A Beginning Song" ends the album on a more hopeful note by asking the listener what he or she is waiting for, when the time is now to chase one's dreams or goals. It ends with the band chanting the bright light "is all around me." It's gorgeous, and an early contender for best album closer of the year.

If Crowe is right in Almost Famous (and let's face it – he is) then it really is the little things that make music special and The Decemberists are experts at adding little touches for everyone. Like a novel in short stories, they've created a masterclass in the craft with What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. Act accordingly.

What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World is out on Capitol.