In the almost five years that I’ve had this Addicted to Vinyl thing, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten around to posting a “best of” list. Part of that comes down to how the musical listening habits (for a lot of folks) have shifted to files and streaming services. Certainly, there’s the convenience of carrying eight billion albums around in your pocket (or accessing those same albums via the cloud, whether it is Amazon Cloud Player – my personal choice, or the streaming services like MOG, Rdio, etc.), but the trade-off of that, at least for me, is that albums get lost.
You get access to so many albums in the course of the year, that the amount of music becomes overwhelming – a point which I was recently discussing with my pals Jeff Giles and Scott Malchus of Popdose.
What I’ve been doing the past few years is putting a note for each album that I listen to, into a Google document, which is a pretty good system to track what comes out during a particular year, as long as I remember to do it each time (and as you might guess, I don’t always remember to do that).
Working off of that list, here are some of the many albums that caught my ear this year (for the most part, I left out reissues, live albums, box sets, etc.). As much as I see people gripe each year about the lack of good music coming out, I find that in each of those same years, I happily have to disagree with them. This year was no exception.
Presented in no particular order…
Ben Folds Five – The Sound of the Life of the Mind
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuI-4l63reY”]
Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxxENkDqZbs”]
Brendan Benson – What Kind of World
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMuyJI2cVSw”]
Squackett (Chris Squire and Steve Hackett) – A Life Within a Day
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h2strSgVqY”]
Heart – Fanatic (new album) and Strange Euphoria (box set)
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIoxpJtMe0E”]
Jets Overhead – Boredom & Joy
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHUOMR02-oE”]
Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2KNqxwt4Qg”]
Mary Chapin-Carpenter – Ashes & Roses
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed8Vy3POObE”]
Flying Colors – Flying Colors
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8fZxUGWrPI”]
Counting Crows – Underwater Sunshine
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMSg6566AlI”]
Rick Springfield – Songs for the End of the World
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3p05LhEJek”]
Nada Surf – The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10oh5Knqixo”]
Jim Ryser – Lubricate My Mojo
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfuC2PZJ6NI”]
Scout – All Those Relays
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glxVIvsyC18″]
Steve Poltz – Noineen Noiny Noin
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfyK71HfEco”]
Rush – Clockwork Angels
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClbE019cLNI”]
Scars on 45 – Scars on 45
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXndFmaZkwQ”]
Robert Cray – Nothin’ But Love
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c8flRxTzM8″]
Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFnKxjSF30Y”]
Bonnie Raitt – Slipstream
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOoPYADCNxc”]
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Last of a Dyin’ Breed
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugyXWh9zbFA”]
Joe Walsh – Analog Man
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEoWaP4skv8″]
There’s a few of my favorites…and a big chunk of additional albums that I heard and enjoyed this year can be found below.
Cheers!
Allo Darlin’ – Europe
Arkells – Michigan Left
Big Wreck – Albatross
Jack Blades – Rock and Roll Ride
Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory
Corrosion of Conformity – Corrosion of Conformity
Cowboy Junkies – Wilderness
Cranberries – Roses
Cuff The Duke – Morning Comes
Steve Hackett – Genesis Revisited II
Susanna Hoffs – Someday
Bruce Hornsby – Red Hook Summer (original soundtrack)
Emily Hurd – Any Given Day
Jimi Jamison – Never Too Late
B.B. King – Live at Royal Albert Hall
Keith Moody – Dreaming Out Loud
Bob Mould – Silver Age
Our Lady Peace – Curve
Pet Shop Boys – Elysium
Re-Machined – A Tribute to Deep Purple’s Machine Head
Rosavelt – The Last 10 Days
Soul Asylum – Delayed Reaction
Neil Young – Psychedelic Pill
Jenny Owen Youngs – An Unwavering Band of Light
ZZ Top – La Futura