Our album reviewers reflect on the year in music ...
TINY RUINS
Brightly Painted One
Dunedin punters fortunate enough to catch Hollie Fullbrook on her past two visits to the snug Taste Merchants venue will testify to the transformational qualities of her music. For that moment, all superfluous thoughts are suspended as Fullbrook becomes your companion and guide, walking you through her neatly crafted songs. This second album falls millimetres short of capturing the meditative intimacy of a Tiny Ruins live set but that's as close as is humanly possible and is therefore more than good enough.
SUN KIL MOON
Benji
This sixth full-length release from Mark Kozelek's long-time Sun Kil Moon project shouldn't be as appealing as it is, a middle-aged man's reflections on mortality, referencing the modes of death of family members, friends and hometown characters not being the most inviting of prospects. But Kozelek's baldly direct tales of sad and sometimes bizarre demise are so grounded in his honest response to loss that it's impossible to dismiss the album as exploitative miserabilism. Instead, the outpouring is somehow uplifting.
SHARON VAN ETTEN
Are We There
Brooklyn-based, New Jersey-born Sharon Van Etten is capable of delivering a song of such emotional weight it sucks the air out of the room, and Your Love Is Killing Me from this, her fourth album, is such a song. It doesn't stand alone, making Are We There an uncomfortable ride for those of a fragile disposition, but it's impossible to ignore Van Etten's spirited battle to escape the vortex. If you remain unconvinced that the world needs another singer working out her problems in public, buy a ticket to Van Etten's March 2015 Dunedin show and reserve judgement in the meantime.
MASTODON
Once More 'Round the Sun
After the massive achievement of Crack The Skye, the Atlanta foursome's follow-up really felt like a collection of stripped back B-sides. So, when Once More 'Round the Sun dropped, it was really refreshing to hear that in so many respects this was a perfect marriage of both prog and foot-to-the-floor, skull-crushing rock. With an even bigger input from drummer Brann Dailor on vocals, Mastodon is not only the most diverse and skilfully gifted metal act out there, it totally owns the best tunes.
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
Hypnotic Eye
What some critics might lump in with their biggest surprise would actually do a disservice to the great band that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were ... and still are. Petty's fine Southern drawl has not been hampered by the years and with one of the world's greatest unsung guitarists in Mike Campbell slinging only those notes that needed hearing, Hypnotic Eye comprises infectious groove-laden rock, underpinned by Petty's peculiar brand of dystopia.
AFGHAN WHIGS
Do to the Beast
Seemingly, everything Greg Dulli touches sounds damn fine. From the Twilight Singers to the brilliance of his collaborations with Mark Lanegan, Dulli will best be known by those of us fortunate to see him in his heyday, as the commander and chief of the Afghan Whigs. So, was resurrecting his pilot ship after a 14-year hiatus worth it? Yes. With only one other original member in bassist John Curly present, there was still an uncanny Whigs-sound resonating like the bittersweet follow-up to the soul-infused 1965. Full of lust, swagger and dread, Do to the Beast was, hopefully, the start of a brand-new chapter for the Whigs.
JACK WHITE
Lazaretto
Jack White's response to his divorce, Lazaretto might have offered the occasional contemplative and angry moment, particularly on tracks Would You Fight For My Love? and Entitlement but, overall, this was an album of celebratory mood (albeit slightly unhinged celebratory mood). Aided by two backing bands, one all-male, the other all-female, White roamed from funk to dirty blues (of course) to stripped-back country-folk and places in between, his visceral guitar only bettered by a soulful wail and wild production touches that lifted his tunes into the stratosphere.
JOE HENRY
Invisible Hour
Producer, musician, songwriter and, on the evidence of his 13th album, a sublime poet of the heart, Joe Henry might have spent just four days recording Invisible Hour, yet the result was an unhurried, sometimes beautiful reflection on the ebb and flow of marriage. Though previous recordings have bloomed with jazz-noir instrumental flourishes, Henry relied on a small clutch of musicians to provide a pared-back sonic palette; acoustic guitar was pushed high in the mix but not at the expense of his expert lyricism. Deep rumination has rarely sounded so good.
FLIP GRATER
Pigalle
New Zealand indie-folk troubadour Flip Grater followed up her 2010 Tui-nominated third studio album, While I'm Awake I'm At War, with one that was even better. Combining admirable compositional restraint with gritty, ambient film noir textures and more than a dash of French-influenced lilt, Pigalle saw Grater pushing her voice high in the mix, a move that, in tandem with her sonic playfulness, lifted her sometimes introspective songs well beyond the melancholic as she roamed a Parisian twilight inhabited by ghosts and glamour (Hide and Seek), soared above Americana-style deserts (Exit Sign, Hymns) and brought it on home with the soaring, longing To The Devil.
John Hayden
KASABIAN
48:13
Kasabian's lairy exterior has always betrayed a fierce intelligence (Club Foot was dedicated to Czech student Jan Palach, who burned himself to death in protest after the Soviet invasion in 1968), and 48:13 revealed more than a whiff of the avant-garde for the Leicester rockers. Alongside the traditional psych-pop of Clouds and Bumblebee's stadium-filler stomp sat minimalist electronic burbles (Explodes), kaleidoscopic interludes (Shiva, Mortis) and on the delirious centrepiece Treat, a thrilling blend of funk, hip-hop, acid house and the band's trademark psychedelic tapestries, suggesting a giant leap forward for boisterous lad rock.
METRONOMY
Love Letters
In an era dominated by EDM, precocious twerkers and scratchy guitar bands, Love Letters was a breath of fresh air. Recorded at the all-analogue Toe Rag studios and taking its cues from the dreamy baroque pop of Love and Belle and Sebastian's coy outsiderdom, Joseph Mount and company imbued their fourth album with archaic delights including a plethora of ''shoop-doop-doop-ah'' backing vocals and wonky sax solos. Yet this was more than a twee throwback , with Mount's pinpoint observations on fatherhood (Monstrous) and love's magical mysteries (The Most Immaculate Haircut) lending the lush arrangements an easy everyman charm.
THE ROOTS
And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
No-one does downbeat existentialism like Philadelphia's finest alt-rap troupe. Their 11th release - a taut concept album - tapped into the pulse of a tortured America populated by downtrodden characters whose bleak outlook was offset by minor piano chords (When the People Cheer), the menacing strings of The Coming, and the hissing snares of The Dark. The choice of samples, too, whether Nina Simone's Theme from Middle of the Night or Mary Lou Williams' apocalyptic The Devil not only revealed a reverence for canonical artists, but leant a gravitas carried by no other rap release this year.
