Things have been pretty quiet round here lately, owing to all the joys of preparing for Christmas that have (quite rightly) kept me away from the ‘puter. So to atone for having missed a Wednesday Top Five I’ve compiled a bumper Christmas Top Ten for your festive enjoyment:
10. I Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake. I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but whilst I tolerate (and on occasion actively enjoy) the cheesy Crimbo-Pop that always does the rounds at this time of year, I can’t say I think of any of them as being actual music. There are three of them that I do like, however, and this is the first. I’m most definitely not an Emerson, Lake & Palmer fan, but there’s something about the slow crescendo and haunting 12-string of this piece that elevates it above the muck and mire of other “Christmas Classics”.
9. Fairytale of New York by the Pogues (feat. Kirsty MacColl). Yes he’s a genius, and yes by rights this should be at the top of the list. But I’m growing sick-to-death of everyone saying those exact same things without any thought at all. And it’s become the “cool” Christmas song, which automatically diminishes it in my eyes.
8. Everything’s Gonna be Cool this Christmas by Eels. “Baby Jesus; born to rock!” ‘Nuf said…
7. Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk this Christmas) by the Decemberists. Despite being overtly comical and a less-than-subtle lampooning of country music, this one still has a gentle appeal, if only because it has the best title of any Christmas song.
6. On Christmas Day by Spiers & Boden. Here’s a traditional english pastoral number in keeping with the true spirit of Christmas.
5. Ukranian Bell Carol performed by George Winston. I know it’s cheesy American-lite clean piano lounge music, but George Winston’s December album is as much a part of advent at casa EbM as Carols from King’s. The Bell Carol is also christmasy all by itself.
4. Christmas Day by Jim White. Haunting and uplifting in equal measure, this Jim White tune is an absolute gem. It also makes for a welcome change in mood from the rest of the sickeningly upbeat Christmas milieu.
3. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen by Bright Eyes. And here’s another change in mood; Conor’s esoteric delivery makes for a somewhat raucous carol.
2. The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. It seems an awful lot of what makes a “traditional” Christmas is of yank origin: the Coca-Cola-red Father Christmas, overblown light displays, almost all the films, etc. and I have to say most of it comes across as sickly-sweet and overly sentimental. Good ol’ Nat is no exception, but if you’re going to have an American Christmas you may as well do it with style – and that means crooners aplenty.
1. Lonely this Christmas by Mud. This Elvis pastiche never ceases to bring a smile to my face. Glam Rock sucked (fact!) but I’m willing to forgive Mud of all evils on account of this terifically dry and terribly funny Christmas classic.
I get the impression that this one landed in my inbox as a result of my prattling on about how great Ben Folds used to be. In my experience (which is admittedly limited owing to the fact that I live in England, where Folds-fans are comparatively thin on the ground) a shared enthusiasm for Whatever and Ever, Amen is a surefire way to get a free CD off someone. And in such cases what you invariably end up hearing is almost exactly what you’d expect: MOR piano-rock, with occasionally witty, somewhat acerbic lyrics.
LA based band Layabout are no exception. Perhaps lacking the depth and lyrical range of Folds himself, the Suburban Legend EP certainly delivers on an if-you-like-that-you’ll-like-this level, whilst bringing enough new elements to the table to keep things interesting; they’re coming at the formula from a somewhat “lounge” angle, if you get my meaning.
If I’m honest, Layabout are a bit too “smooth” for my tastes. I only like Folds when he displays a bit of biting edginess, and given the evidence here I’d say that Layabout haven’t found that quite yet.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2008’s been a pretty super year for music. And most of it has come from new, emerging talent, too. Seven of the records on my Top 10 Albums of 2008 were debuts. And many of the best songs were by acts that haven’t gotten around to making a full LP yet, and therefore couldn’t qualify for last week’s album list.
There were also a few fantastic songs that appeared on otherwise mediocre records (there’s quite a few of these), or records that I haven’t heard in full or just haven’t been made aware of yet, and I think they deserve to be recognised as the works of greatness that they are. I’ve also taken the executive decision to exclude songs that appear on any of my top 10 albums, on the basis that they’ve already had their just deserts.
10. After Hours by We Are Scientists. My love of WAS’s first album, With Love and Squalor, seems to be a source of constant and somewhat inexplicable derision amongst my peers. It might be because their latest effort, Brain Thrust Mastery, is such a shallow and vapid beast. Nearly all the songs follow the same theme as this, the lead single, and it’s not enough of a theme to qualify as a concept album either… I really like this song though, and it’s earned it’s place on this list mainly as a result of its high playcount in my iTunes.
9. 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale. Not the best album I’ve heard lately by a long while, Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down is nice on its first listen, but is ultimately proves to be too flimsy to stand up to repeat listening. I guess the immediacy of the songs accounts for their meteoric rise to fame at the start of the summer. Despite the fact that it’s now become ubiquitous and omnipresent thanks to the all the aggressive radio playlisting it received, 5 Years Time has still clung onto at least some of its original charm.
8. I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie. I’m an absolutely massive Death Cab fan and I was so, so, so excited about the release of the Narrow Stairs album back in May. Hearing this song in advance of the records release whipped my excitement to even greater heights. Sadly the rest of the album was a little disappointing. Good, but not as good as it should have been. I’m hoping it will grow on me over time, as Plans did, but this track still sounds lovely.
7. Trip To Bucharest / The Flight Of The Folk Mutants Parts 1&2 by Bellowhead. Bellowhead’s latest album, Matachin, was quite a disappointment; I’d previously only heard them in-the-flesh, and something’s definitely lost in the retelling. This song is the closest they came to capturing their raucous, energetic live performance.
6. Hiphopopotamus vs the Rhymenocerous by Flight of the Conchords. I was loathe to include what is ostensibly a comedy album in last weeks list, so I’ve put FotC in here because they really are superb. Not quite as musically sophisticated as Angles (the Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip album that did make the album top 10 despite being almost a comedy record) and the TV show itself wasn’t all that great, but their irreverent parodies were about the funniest things I heard all year.
5. We Almost Had a Baby by Emmy the Great. I’ve been waiting to be properly impressed by Emmy for a while now. She’s shown an awful lot of promise and potential in the past, and with this song (in my eyes at least) she’s finally come up trumps. The Billy-Bragg-esque guitar line gets things off to a good start, and the cheery, innocent swing juxtaposes sharply with the cutting lyrics.
4. I Love You by Esser. This cheeky lad’s a right character, and no mistake. All his songs are full of sly, subtle wit and this is his best so far. Add a succession of quirky videos into the mix, and we’ve got something that’s sure to be going places.
3. Ides (live on WtOTVS) by frYars [sic]. I’ve heard the recorded version of this song and I must say I didn’t like it much at all. However, this version – despite the shoddy quality of the recording and the mistake he makes towards the end – is infinitely better. Full of charm, wit and just enough violence to keep it exciting.
2. Poke by Frightened Rabbit. By rights the album from which this song comes (The Midnight Organ Fight) should be on my Top Albums post, but alas, I only discovered it this week. To atone for my sins I’m including Poke on this list. It is certainly the stand-out track from the record, and has the best lyrics I’ve heard in absolutely ages. As dirty and aggressive as The National at their best, but with far better scansion.
1. If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It (Toad Sessions) by Broken Records. Everything I’ve heard from Broken Records this year has thoroughly impressed me, but none of it has quite reached the heights of this, my first exposure to them. I’m a big fan of their full-band sound, but this stripped-down three-piece acoustic performance is as close to perfect as it gets. Not only are all the individual parts extremely well crafted, but the whole ensemble gels together perfectly.
One of the unexpected dilemmas presented by this whole music blogging malarkey is thus: do I just write about “new” music? Or can I write about absolutely anything at all? Ultimately, of course, there’s no limit to the nonsense I can spout here, but surely some sort of editorial discipline should be exercised for the sake of readability. So, I propose an ungodly compromise: I’ll limit myself to posting about stuff that’s new to me. Accidental discoveries and recommendations form a far greater part of my current listening time than genuinely new stuff – that’s just how taste works. Plus it can sometimes take a record a little while to be “broken in”. Most of my latest favourite albums have been recommended to me by friends recently, but were actually released ages ago; such as Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers by The National, circa 2003, and Frightened Rabbit‘s The Midnight Organ Fight which I discovered this morning but was released all the way back in April by FatCat Records.
My late discovery of this album has really annoyed me, because I’ve only gone and compiled my Top 10 Albums of 2008 early, thus denying this spectacular record its deserved spot. Curses! Don’t I feel silly now…
Coincidentally, this latest Frightened Rabbit album has been the topic of some heated debate on the Song, by Toad site (scroll down to the “comments” bit to see what I’m on about). Many are the detractors that claim the record sounds unforgivably like Snow Patrol. Which is almost true. Sure, there’s epic-indie-high-register-guitar-pedals aplenty, and the voices are somewhat similar, but this records contains lyrics that Snow Patrol would never dare put on a record. It’s a dirty, aggressive and confrontational album, and I love them for it. Poke is my new favourite song by miles.
Get yourselves a copy, if only for the uncommon and well-overdue satisfaction of seeing Bon Iver being knocked for six…
If you read my Top 10 Albums of 2008 post earlier in the week you’ll be aware that Bon Iver’s LP For Emma, Forever Ago was my favourite album of this year. You’ll also know I declined to offer a full review owing to the fact that the record is on pretty much everyone’s end of year lists, and has therefore been just about blogged to death… Being that as a result of that post I’ve been getting loads of traffic looking for Bon-Iver-related stuff, as a good, upstanding citizen I’ve decided to give in and actually write something of worth about the record (and now hopefully there’ll be slightly fewer disappointed people milling about at chez Eaten by Monsters).
Technically speaking, For Emma has no right to be on so many Best of 08 lists as it was released in 2007 by Jagjaguwar. Thankfully for those of us in the free world (a.k.a. east of the Atlantic and west of the Pacific) it wasn’t given a UK release until 4AD squeezed it out this year, so I’m perfectly entitled to claim it as an 08 release.
Upon its release the record received an unprecedented amount of positive press from all over the place. I read most of the monthly and weekly music magazines, and I can’t think of a single less-than-four-star review. Coupled with the actual high quality of the music was the romantic (if somewhat apocryphal) tale of Justin Vernon’s 100 years of solitude (Bon Iver is Vernon’s chosen nom de guerre). The story goes that he holed himself up in a log cabin in the woods for three months, and then preceded to record most of the album all by himself (hence the García Márquez reference) and ate nothing but moose that he’d hunted down himself. I’m not an advocate of full journalistic rigor, and I can’t verify how much of this story’s actually true, but having read a few interviews with the man himself it appears at least the gist of it is accurate.
To be honest I was surprised at the popularity of For Emma. It’s not an easy record to get into, as the conditions have to be just right: owing to the sparse, atmospheric nature of the music you absolutely cannot listen to it in a car, for example, as half the frequency range gets eaten up be engine noise. To be “got” it requires attentive listening in a quiet environment; something I had previously thought to be beyond the casual music fan.
Since the success of the LP, Vernon’s gathered a trusted cadre of musicians around him and has been touring non-stop. You can hear the new “live” sound at the Bon Iver Daytrotter session and judge for yourself if the transition has worked. For myself, I think the result is a mixed bag: obviously extra musicians can add a lot to a song, but the haunting atmosphere of the CD has been mostly lost in translation (with the exception of Creature Fear, included below).
And now it seems there’s another release on the way. I’ve heard a couple of the tracks, and they sound pretty hot; they’re similar enough to For Emma to keep the fans happy, but there seems to be at least a bit of experimentation going on (especialy in the “creative use of auto-tune” department). I’m not 100% sure that they’re official promotional pre-releases though, so I won’t post them until I’m sure I wouldn’t be feeding naughty music piracy. Either way, the Blood Bank EP is due for release soon, and I’m sure we’ll all watch young Justin’s progress with great interest.
Alela’s song The Rifle has been a favorite of the missus’ ever since it was an iTunes Single of the Week back in March, and now it seems there’s an album on the way, entitled To Be Still. In advance of that, she (or at least her new record label, the inimitable Rough Trade) has released White as Diamonds as a preview.
Sadly it seems she succumbed to the need to slap unnecessary bass and drums all over her sparse, countryish tunes. I guess that’s one of the pitfalls of signing to a large label: you get given some actual money to make a recording, and feel that you need to deliver something more “expansive” to warrant the expense…
Thankfully she’s done a Daytrotter session sans drums etc, and it sounds much better, and much more in keeping with her style. I’ve included the Daytrotter version of The Rifle below, along with the promotional copy of White as Diamonds, but to get a true feel for what she’s capable of you should definately peruse the Daytrotter tracks. You can get her previous self/tiny-label releases from her wesite, and I’m guessing the new record’ll be all over the shops when it gets released…
I know this is almost a whole month premature, but there’s all sorts of reasons for getting my list out early. December is the time when everyone begins to take stock of the year’s achievements and gets all nostalgic about the blue remembered hills of the past twelve months, so there’s a more receptive audience for this kind of post. Plus, when January comes around it’ll be time to look forward to the bright and promising future, so nostalgia is officially banned. It’s also nearly Christmas and lists like this one are an easy way to decide on presents for people. The guys at Hype Machine are compiling their Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008, so I have to publish my list before the fifteenth for it to be eligible, and December is traditionally a rubbish month for music anyway. As a result of the (100% guaranteed to be horrendous) Christmas No. 1 Battle, if a label releases an “alternative” record in December it’s because they’re 100% sure it will flop. So hopefully there won’t be any great records that miss out on their deserved place on this list.
2008’s been an exceedingly good year for music, and compiling this list was a tough, tough process. Thankfully I’m the kind of person who takes perverse pleasure in attributing arbitrary relative values to songs and fitting them into a meritocracy (as evidenced by the weekly Top Fives). It must be noted that a lot of my favourite music from 2008 didn’t come from an actual album, so I will be writing a Top 10 Songs of 2008 post probably nearer to the actual end of the year.
So here it is – the moment we’ve all been waiting for since January:
10. Alas I Cannot Swim by Laura Marling. Back in December last year it seemed as if this girl was all set to be the “big thing” of ’08. What with her impressive WtOTVS appearance, guest BV slots with Noah and the Whale and The Mystery Jets (both of whom released goodish albums this year too), and her song Night Terror being an iTunes Single of the Week, world domination seemed to be a certainty. She did okay, but sadly not well enough to live up to the hype. Alas I Cannot Swim is a super album, but lacked the necessary lyrical oomph to push it further up this list; there were some great songs on it, but too many of the tracks sounded like “filler”. Her next album, I’m sure, will be something really special.
9. When the Haar Rolls In by James Yorkston. This album has almost exactly the same texture as his past few records, but when you sound this good consistency is no bad thing. Every time he releases a new CD there’s loads of press chatter about how this’ll-be-the-one-that-breaks-him-into-the-mainstream, but his records always seems to slip under the radar, which is a darned shame.
8. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend. A rarity in that it was lauded by both the music press and the popular press, this little record did rather well for itself in the early part of the year. It’s stuffed full of great songs, but the most enjoyable part of it is that the listening experience changes over time. After repeated listening the songs that initially grabbed your attention now seem somewhat flat and predictable, and it’s other songs from the record that grow into true favourites.
7. The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow. I guess this is the only properly Radio 1 friendly record on this list, and as a rule I normally try to steer clear of all the populist nonsense that those peddlers of filth and payola try to ram down our throats. Sadly I was sucked in, but not really with any regret, as this album is quite deserving of all the accolades that have been heaped upon it. It contains no great songs as such, but the sheer quality of the production (all done by the band themselves) more than takes the load.
6. Poor Man’s Heaven by Seth Lakeman. Seized upon by the Radio 2 folky brigade following his Mercury nomination for Kitty Jay, Lakeman had been threatening to become successful for ages, but was held back by the sorely disappointing Freedom Fields (his second album, and the first to be made since he came into the public eye). Poor Man’s Heaven is by no means Lakeman’s magnum opus (I believe his best work is still to come), he has finally delivered on all the potential he displayed in his first album. Bad news for agoraphobes, however, as Lakeman is only truly in his element when seen live, when the songs are injected with far more energy and passion than he is capable of delivering in the studio.
5. Falling off the Lavender Bridge by Lightspeed Champion. Another act that showed great promise early in the year, Lightspeed Champion, a.k.a. Dev Hynes (né Test Icicles) was the darling of the music press (particularly the NME) when he released a series of free-to-download EPs from his website. The album proper was produced in Omaha by Mike Mogis (of Bright Eyes fame) who is a god in my eyes, so I was sure I was going to love it. Despite, or maybe because of, all this expectation, on first listening I was left a little wanting. The standout songs (of which there are quite a few) seemed to be quite sparse on the ground. After about a week of repeat listening, however, the album began to coalesce into a definite set; that is, the songs worked as an album, and I’d strongly recommend that this record be listened to from start to finish.
4. A Larum by Johnny Flynn (& the Sussex Wit). Full of all the Shakespearean, archaic turns of phrase that one would expect from a dedicated thespian (Flynn is a regular touring actor and fell into music almost by accident) this album was released in a blaze of absolutely no publicity at all. Many of the songs had been kicking around on mp3 blogs for a while before the record was released (the Sussex Wit was dropped from the moniker for the official release, but the band playing on the record is still the same group of players). As a result you can get almost the whole record for free, which has obviously harmed the CD’s sales as I imagine readers of music blogs would be Johnny’s core fan base.
3. Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues by Meursault. I reviewed this record quite recently, so I shan’t blather on about it too much here. Needless to say it’s pretty damn super, and your lives will all be enhanced greatly by its presence in your life.
2. Angles by Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip. This record puts me completely out of my comfort zone. British Hip-Hop (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) has never been my first choice of listening material, but I stumbled across the Thou Shalt Always Kill single a year or so ago, and loved it so much that when this album came out I bought it straight away. If I’m honest I was expecting little more than a mildly diverting comedy record, but Angles is so much more than that. Engaging and effecting in equal measure, this is a rare album that delivers on virtually every front.
1. For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver. This one will be on everyone’s end of year lists, but deservedly so, as it’s the best album I’ve heard in ages. All the hype and praise still hasn’t spoilt the listening experience, which is a danger with universally loved records. As a result of its success there’s not all that much left for me to say about it, other than that if you haven’t heard it yet then you really should.
On of the things I miss about analogue radio is the accidental discoveries I would make whilst cooking with the radio on. Being a child of the digital age – and having long since banished any non-digital devices from my flat – I have pretty much everything I want pretty much whenever I want it. This causes problems, as I’m literally spoilt for choice, but it does have plenty of benefits.
First amongst these bountiful benefits is the marvelous BBC iPlayer. I’ve always struggled to watch or listen to any program at the same time each week, and now I don’t have to bother at all. Hurrah for On Demand!
Now I can finally catch up on back issues of the excellent Discovering Music series that I would occasionally catch on Radio 3. Often presented by the inimitable Charles Hazlewood (whom I suspect shares a stylist with Richard Hammond), the program dissects a piece of classical music, playing crucial extracts and discussing the work, before playing the piece in its entirety.
This week it’s Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 (the Military) that’s under the knife, with the help of the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Hazlewood himself. The 8th of Haydn’s 12 London Symphonies, the Military was Haydn’s first with a 60 piece orchestra (before coming to London, he’d only had access to 40 piece orchestras). This episode is available from the iPlayer here until Sunday, but being as the series is designed as an educational aid there’s also an archive of past episodes here.
Discovering Music is public service broadcasting at its best. Many people umm and err about the benefits of analysing music in this fashion, but I’m of the opinion that increased knowledge increases appreciation. A full understanding of what tricks and techniques Bach uses in his Goldberg Variations, for example, can only add to the sense of awe with which everyone should hold the composer.
I get the impression that this one landed in my inbox as a result of my prattling on about how great Ben Folds used to be. In my experience (which is admittedly limited owing to the fact that I live in England, where Folds-fans are comparatively thin on the ground) a shared enthusiasm for Whatever and Ever, Amen is a surefire way to get a free CD off someone. And in such cases what you invariably end up hearing is almost exactly what you’d expect: MOR piano-rock, with occasionally witty, somewhat acerbic lyrics.
10. After Hours by We Are Scientists. My love of WAS’s first album, With Love and Squalor, seems to be a source of constant and somewhat inexplicable derision amongst my peers. It might be because their latest effort, Brain Thrust Mastery, is such a shallow and vapid beast. Nearly all the songs follow the same theme as this, the lead single, and it’s not enough of a theme to qualify as a concept album either… I really like this song though, and it’s earned it’s place on this list mainly as a result of its high playcount in my iTunes. 
9. 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale. Not the best album I’ve heard lately by a long while, Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down is nice on its first listen, but is ultimately proves to be too flimsy to stand up to repeat listening. I guess the immediacy of the songs accounts for their meteoric rise to fame at the start of the summer. Despite the fact that it’s now become ubiquitous and omnipresent thanks to the all the aggressive radio playlisting it received, 5 Years Time has still clung onto at least some of its original charm. 
8. I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie. I’m an absolutely massive Death Cab fan and I was so, so, so excited about the release of the Narrow Stairs album back in May. Hearing this song in advance of the records release whipped my excitement to even greater heights. Sadly the rest of the album was a little disappointing. Good, but not as good as it should have been. I’m hoping it will grow on me over time, as Plans did, but this track still sounds lovely. 
7. Trip To Bucharest / The Flight Of The Folk Mutants Parts 1&2 by Bellowhead. Bellowhead’s latest album, Matachin, was quite a disappointment; I’d previously only heard them in-the-flesh, and something’s definitely lost in the retelling. This song is the closest they came to capturing their raucous, energetic live performance. 
6. Hiphopopotamus vs the Rhymenocerous by Flight of the Conchords. I was loathe to include what is ostensibly a comedy album in last weeks list, so I’ve put FotC in here because they really are superb. Not quite as musically sophisticated as Angles (the Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip album that did make the album top 10 despite being almost a comedy record) and the TV show itself wasn’t all that great, but their irreverent parodies were about the funniest things I heard all year. 
5. We Almost Had a Baby by Emmy the Great. I’ve been waiting to be properly impressed by Emmy for a while now. She’s shown an awful lot of promise and potential in the past, and with this song (in my eyes at least) she’s finally come up trumps. The Billy-Bragg-esque guitar line gets things off to a good start, and the cheery, innocent swing juxtaposes sharply with the cutting lyrics. 
4. I Love You by Esser. This cheeky lad’s a right character, and no mistake. All his songs are full of sly, subtle wit and this is his best so far. Add a succession of quirky videos into the mix, and we’ve got something that’s sure to be going places. 
3. Ides (live on WtOTVS) by frYars [sic]. I’ve heard the recorded version of this song and I must say I didn’t like it much at all. However, this version – despite the shoddy quality of the recording and the mistake he makes towards the end – is infinitely better. Full of charm, wit and just enough violence to keep it exciting. 
2. Poke by Frightened Rabbit. By rights the album from which this song comes (The Midnight Organ Fight) should be on my Top Albums post, but alas, I only discovered it this week. To atone for my sins I’m including Poke on this list. It is certainly the stand-out track from the record, and has the best lyrics I’ve heard in absolutely ages. As dirty and aggressive as The National at their best, but with far better scansion. 
1. If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It (Toad Sessions) by Broken Records. Everything I’ve heard from Broken Records this year has thoroughly impressed me, but none of it has quite reached the heights of this, my first exposure to them. I’m a big fan of their full-band sound, but this stripped-down three-piece acoustic performance is as close to perfect as it gets. Not only are all the individual parts extremely well crafted, but the whole ensemble gels together perfectly. 
One of the unexpected dilemmas presented by this whole music blogging malarkey is thus: do I just write about “new” music? Or can I write about absolutely anything at all? Ultimately, of course, there’s no limit to the nonsense I can spout here, but surely some sort of editorial discipline should be exercised for the sake of readability. So, I propose an ungodly compromise: I’ll limit myself to posting about stuff that’s new to me. Accidental discoveries and recommendations form a far greater part of my current listening time than genuinely new stuff – that’s just how taste works. Plus it can sometimes take a record a little while to be “broken in”. Most of my latest favourite albums have been recommended to me by friends recently, but were actually released ages ago; such as Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers by The National, circa 2003, and 
If you read my 
Alela’s song The Rifle has been a favorite of the missus’ ever since it was an iTunes Single of the Week back in March, and now it seems there’s an album on the way, entitled To Be Still. In advance of that, she (or at least her new record label, the inimitable 
Eaten by Monsters 