Better late than never for me
My list is somewhat provisional given there's a few 2018 releases I'm still very keen to hear, but this is what I've got so far (alphabetical order):
A Forest Of Stars - Grave Mounds & Grave Mistakes
Belle & Sebastian - How To Solve Our Human Problems
Brian Eno - Music For Installations
Daniel Bachman - The Morning Star
Dub Surgeon - Lost Future
Dylan Carlson - Conquistador
Erland Cooper - Solan Goose
Erland Cooper & William Doyle - Murmurations
Grouper - Grid Of Points
Hannah Peel - Particles In Space
Harmony Rockets - Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos
Heart Of Snake - Heart Of Snake
Ivar Bjornson & Einar Selvijk - Hugsjá
Jenny Hval - The Long Sleep E.P / Lost Girls - Feeling
Julia Holter - Aviary
KGD - Peaking
Kode9 & Burial - FabricLive 100
R.E.M. - Live At The BBC
Sleep - The Sciences
Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt
Stuart A. Staples - Arrythmia
Urthona - Destruction Rules
I still need to get and/or digest albums by Alice Coltrane, Alexander Tucker, Bruce Springsteen, Helena Hauff, Kamasi Washington, Pendant, Skee Mask, Sons Of Kemet, Sophie, U.S. Girls, Yves Tumour and probably plenty more
Special mentions must go to Dylan Carlson's latest doom-country epic, Erland Cooper's ambient birdlife meditations, Harmony Rockets' pastoral psych, Heart Of Snake's doom-folk, KGD's astonishing analogue drones and Urthona's genuinely beautiful take on Sunn O)))-esque drone metal. Stuart A. Staples' solo album is a joy to behold - three lyrical songs that rival Tindersticks at their finest, then one 30-minute long instrumental for an art installation that plays like an extended tribute to Miles Davis' "In A Silent Way".
Oh yes, Spiritualized released an album too
Long story short (and I really didn't think I'd be saying this six months ago), "And Nothing Hurt" is definitely my album of the year. It continues the "classic" songwriting direction Jason has set himself on (a direction I've often wished he'd abandon) but finally he's combined it with some of the classic Spz tropes I adore. They're nothing major taken individually, but the subtle burblings and drones and tremeloes underpinning this album make it the best thing he's done since LICD at least. Most of all, J's finally brought back those magnificent keyboard/synth tones that made Kate Radley such an integral part of early Spz, and also added new sounds to the mix as well.
The analogue synths on Let's Dance, On The Sunshine & The Morning After add so much to the songs, and the latter two feature such unusual (for Spz) chord changes I still can't help but smile when I hear them four months later (I love the Stereolab-esque tones and Electric Mainline-like meandering guitar line in OTS in particular).
For once, even the moments of excess (
40 bars for the instrumental break in Damaged!!!) and occasionally clunky lyrics (
Feel like I'm living/feel like I'm alive is particularly gauche) don't bother me. Maybe I've reached that age and stage of life, but the lovelorn resignation in some of the songs (The Prize and Sail On Through in particular) feels like a suckerpunch to the gut even though my personal life contains nothing of the sort, and although it might sound silly, I can't listen to the album without wanting to give J a massive hug.
Ultimately, ANH represents the strongest set of songs he's recorded in nearly twenty years, and the album sounded epic at the Hammersmith Apollo - that run-through plus an amazing back catalogue set plus the best sound I've experienced at a concert in years made it my definite gig of the year. So well done Jason, and thank you for the music