No use in life without sound

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017.

#41 : Lotta Sea Lice - Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile

She’s the Aussie singer-songwriter whose bright, witty debut album made her an instant indie star; he’s the goofy Philadelphian who once played guitar with the War on Drugs. Together they make a distinctive, slacker-style pairing on their collaborative record, which brings together Vile and Barnett’s similarly twangy accents on new tracks, covers and each other’s old material.

I haven't minded a bit of Courtney in my time, but I'm not sure I can reference much Kurt - so let's say I'm intrigued by this but no more than that. I'm really not convinced by the title though.

Hmmm - it's like Lou Reed and PJ Harvey made an album together. We've got two talented people who can make nice noises, but don't always choose to do so - I will say I like the guitar work, but I'm not entirely convinced by the rest of it.

Wikipedia tells us they met, then jammed, they decided to go on tour and they released this - and that's it. Critically, it was well received (but Wikipedia decided to run with a negative comment for some reason) and made a load of year-end lists and commercially, we have a whole load of chart action to report with it doing well globally, getting to #36 in Ireland, #11 here. #5 in Australia and the lower reaches of quite a few European charts. I also learned, to my surprise, that Kurt Vile is actually his real name - I just assumed it was a "clever" wordplay on Kurt Weill.

discogs.com tells us you're going to have to spend £5 to get a decent version of this but if you want the yellow vinyl version it's going to set you back £50 - there are also white and clear versions available but they're a bit cheaper. I've got a bit of a soft spot for clear vinyl albums, but I reckon £40 is probably pushing it - particularly for this album which I've got very little interest in revisiting.

#40 : Aromanticism - Moses Sumney

The debut album by this Californian singer is a collection of deconstructed soul music that pours forth from a shattered heart. Evoking the candlelit heartbreak sound of Jeff Buckley and the mournful warmth of vintage soul, Sumney sings of losing the will to love with an exquisite sadness.

Somewhat surprisingly, this is one we've already met as part of the #AOTD list. Ironically, I end that review by saying that "this was a pleasant listen and I suspect further listens would provide further rewards" - and obviously I've never ever even considered going back to it...

...so I gave it another listen and, yeah, it's still pretty decent, if pretty tricky to describe (so I won't even attempt to expand beyond my previous poor efforts).

#39 : Life Without Sound - Cloud Nothings

Cloud Nothings began as an exuberant pop-punk outfit. On their fourth album, their buoyancy is slightly deflated but the genre’s driving riffs and ear-wormy choruses are very much intact. Along with the scuzzy guitars are surprisingly spiritual lyrics about coping with hardship and fear.

I've never heard of this lot except for a brief mention in passing in a "people also listened to" section - from the description above, I've a reasonable amount of hope that I might at least tolerate it.

Yeah, I didn't mind this at all - although teenage me would have lapped it up even more. It's indie with a slightly shoe-gazey sound to it - I was reminded of Silversun Pickups, who are a band I like but always forget to actually listen to. I have to admit the "surprisingly spiritual" lyrics did pass me by though.

Wikipedia does have an entry for the album, but the two sentences are not exactly all that informative - their entry tells me they're still going and up to eight albums now, with their third album, Here And Nowhere Else, having got to #50 in the US charts. Critically, this one was pretty well received and commercially, we have some minor chart action to report here with one week on both the Record Store and Independent album charts - but in Belgium, it got to the dizzy heights of #103 in the "proper" chart.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent CD version for a fiver, but if you want the limited edition green/white coloured vinyl, it's going to set you back £39. I didn't mind this at all though and would be tempted to check some of their other stuff out. 

I can assure you that Courtney and Kurt do not take the round, but it's kinda difficult to split the other two because they're so different - let's give it to Cloud Nothings because if Moses was really all that great I wouldn't have taken five years to listen to it again. 

#44-42 - Three decent albums