Every year the overrated album rises to new heights and every year I put the smack down. Let's proceed:
1. Jamie XX In Colour:
as if the music made by his band (The XX) wasn’t overhyped enough, Jamie now has gone solo and critics have fallen for his lo/fi atmospherics again. To be fair, this is better than anything the band has ever done though. I’ll tune in when he gets serious about lyrics.
2. Tame Impala Currents:
Pitchfork’s reviewer compared it to Loveless and Kid A---nigga please, this isn’t even better than their last album!
3. Kurt Vile B’lieve I’m Going Down…:
dunno Kurt, might be time to rejoin The War On Drugs.
4. Jason Isbell Something More Than Free:
well-received, with only Pitchfork going out of its way to be mean, but Isbell’s album has punched above its weight because of his soulful voice—no other reason can explain why critics loved it so much.
5. Sleater-Kinney No Cities To Love:
good to have you back ladies, now let’s really have an album’s worth of grrl hits next time.
6. Natalie Prass Natalie Prass:
I honestly feel she benefitted by putting this out early in the year, hence all the praise.
7. Future DS2:
a one-trip lyricist who only occasionally finds the right groove.
8. Carly Rae Jepson Emotion:
nice but others do this pop game better.
9. Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear:
finding his inner virginal queer is all good and done but it wasn’t that earth-shattering.
10. Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit And Think…:
in many regards this is not justifiable but then again, the album is half pop gems and half um, well, not pop gems. Barnett has to learn to maintain her dynamism right throughout her albums instead of fizzing out of ideas half way through.
