Higger Tor

From Carl's Wark, on Hathersage Moor. A very good walk to end the year - windy enough to blow out the cobwebs and hilly enough to tire the legs. The unplanned diversions and bog-hopping were just a bonus (though I think we'll struggle to convince Katie to come walking with us again in a hurry...!)

Year End Musical Review time. Yes, like the sad man that I am I have produced a Top Ten again this year. In fact, I was going to go the whole hog and countdown day by the day with comments and links and everything but I couldn't really get it together (especially given that it's only really of any interest to me anyway.) Anyway, here it is, such as it is:

1. ‘Party’ by Aldous Harding
From pretty much the point that it arrived in the house (and I went so far as to pre-order it from 4AD to secure my bonus 7”) this was always going to be my Album of the Year. It just took the initial couple of listens, fanboyishly disappointed that it wasn’t another exact same album of weird goth-folk as the previous one, to realise that it was something pretty special. And yet one of the joys of this record is that here is an artist still clearly working out just what it is she’s about – I predict great things…
 
2. ‘Between the Sea and the Sky’ by Lankum
Kind of a post-Godspeed take on traditional Irish Folk, heavy on drones and rage. And on Rough Trade Records; what with the return of Shirley Collins, Lisa Knapp’s album of songs about the May (with its guest appearance by Current 93’s David Tibet, amongst others) and the long-awaited ‘Bright Phoebus’ re-issue, we might finally have the Perfect Storm rising for a proper British Alt-Folk  Movement. Either that or all the really cool stuff will just carry on quietly alongside the hey-nonny-nonny like it always has – just like Country music…
 
3. ‘Prince of Tears’ by Baxter Dury
Slinky, slippery pop music with a pitch black edge. And wonderfully brief, like one of those sub-twenty minute ‘albums’ that Felt released in the Eighties. Initially it almost slipped by too quickly but then there’s something about the insidious beat of opener ‘Miami’ – and the way Baxter taunts “I don’t think you realise how successful I am…!” – that demands that you just hit play all over again…
 
4. ‘Dust’ by Laurel Halo 
Fragmented mutant jazz – its shards stitched uncannily into songs, coalescing into tunes. I seem to have listened to a lot less of the ‘Electronic Stuff’ generally this year – and more that would come under the general heading of ‘old-school indie’ and a somewhat catholic definition of ‘punk rock’ – but this one was a good one, and as ‘Electronic’ as you like…
 
5. ‘Brutalism’ by Idles
Whereas this is a proper contemporary punk album – stuffed with the necessary energy, velocity and humour to offset the rage. I ignored it for ages as ‘Young Peoples Music’ (and popular with Lamacq too, I believe, so not a winning combination) but then I heard the singer on the Radio and he seemed like a nice feller – plus they played the one where he sings “Mary Berry loves Reggae!” so how could I not be smitten…
 
6. ‘Permo’ by Spinning Coin
 
7. ‘English Tapas’ by Sleaford Mods
 
8. ‘Antisocialites’ by Alvvays
 
9. ‘Sugar Kisses’ by the Popguns
 
10. ‘Bitter Music’ by Perc
 
=10. ‘Not Even Happiness’ by Julie Byrne