Editor's Note: After 10 years of submitting top 10 lists,
frequent contributors are going back and picking out the albums that they still
love.
1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away (2013)
2. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss (2017)
More magick to bless/curse us invoked by the Witch of the
Sacramento River.
3. Jozef Van Wissem & SQÜRL - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
(2014)
The soundtrack to a film but also the soundtrack to many
nights of me falling asleep in the dead center of a hardwood floor, beneath red
Christmas lights, and with a bully full of whatever.
4. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us (2012)
This is another album that reminds me of simpler times (and
I'm not talking about the delicious bargain Trader Joes beer). I saw a animated
version of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Winchester Drive- In theater (gone
since the mid eightees to make way for now failed dot com startup box
buildings). There were these mice and they sang and listening to this, I am
right back there, in the way way back of the stationwagon, drinking hot
chocolate and having no idea about the dangers of pit bulls, avian bird flu or
any sense of responsibility.
5. Mohammad - Som Sakrifis (2013)
6. Fartbarf - Dirty Power (2014)
Get away from that Moog, you damn dirty apes! No, seriously,
you really need to see these guys live (or, at the very least, look up live
footage on Youtube). You'll be so glad you did and your world will be changed
and better for it...
7. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Saman (2014)
Please let me die beneath Hildur's icy fists.
8. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2016)
"You've always been the caretaker. I should know, sir."
Know this: The Caretaker creates imagined soundtracks for the ballroom in The
Shining. It's spooky and lovely.
9. Perfume Genius - No Shape (2017)
This record makes me see another reality in which I'm not a
content man, married for 20+ years to my "soulmate". In that other
reality, I'd have a heart/soul rending crush that clearly would never pan out
and I'd pine and cry while listening to this album.
9a. The Budos Band - Burnt Offering (2014)
This just makes me want to get all of my bros together and
have a sweaty, tequila driven, tighty whitey dance party until the sun comes
up. Then, in the light of a new day, we go to the sea and kill a turtle and
roast its flesh black over a pallet fire. What happens next must never be
spoken of...
10. Bohren & der Club of Gore - Piano Nights (2014)
Lynchian Doom Jazz.
