#^d 2015-11-23 #^h Music Week

Music: Current count 25829 [25787] rated (+42), 399 [420] unrated (-21).

Total was goosed early in the week by finding some more bookkeeping omissions. A more accurate rated count is probably a bit over 30 (indeed, there are 33 new ratings below, although I haven't double checked to make sure that's right either). I threw away Tuesday cooking, and lost Friday afternoon to a doctor thing. Otherwise I worked pretty hard.

I'm late posting this on Monday because I've dusted off last year's EOY List Aggregate scripts and started to accumulate data for 2015. Thus far I have nine lists counted (see the Legend for a full list and links to the source lists; beware that I have only made the most cursory of corrections to the text there and will have to clean it up later). Seven of the first nine lists are from the UK, and five of those are from record stores (each, by the way, running 100 records deep: Drift, Fopp, Piccadilly, Resident Music, Rough Trade). We also have the two big glossy UK rock mags (Mojo, Uncut), and two more specialized US mags (metal-oriented Decibel and Americana-focused American Songwriter). The very early returns looks like this:

  1. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop Music) {27} [A-]
  2. Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (Domino) {27} [B]
  3. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty) {24} [***]
  4. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (Sub Pop) {18} [B]
  5. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope) {17} [A-]
  6. Tame Impala: Currents (Caroline) {15} [*]
  7. Ryley Walker: Primrose Green (Dead Oceans) {15} [**]
  8. Bjork: Vulnicura (One Little Indian) {13} [B-]
  9. Sleaford Mods: Key Markets (Harbinger Sound) {13} [A-]
  10. Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin Down (Matador) {13}
  11. Low: Ones and Sixes (Sub Pop) {12}
  12. Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (World Circuit) {12} [A-]
  13. Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (Sub Pop) {12} [*]
  14. New Order: Music Complete (Mute) {11} [A-]
  15. Kamasi Washington: The Epic (Brainfeeder) {11} [**]
  16. Jamie XX: In Colour (XL/Young Turks) {11} [***]
  17. John Grant: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure (Bella Union/Partisan) {10}
  18. Natalie Prass: Natalie Prass (Sony) {10} [*]
  19. Songhoy Blues: Music in Exile (Atlantic) {10} [A-]
  20. Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free (Southeastern) {9} [*]
  21. LoneLady: Hinterland (Warp) {9} [***]
  22. Jim O'Rourke: Simple Songs (Drag City) {9}
  23. Wilco: Star Wars (dBpm) {9} [***]
  24. Ezra Furman: Perpetual Motion People (Bella Union) {8} [A-]
  25. Public Service Broadcasting: The Race for Space (Test Card) {8}
  26. Thee Oh Sees: Mutilator Defeated at Last (Castle Face) {8}
  27. Algiers: Algiers (Matador) {7}
  28. Beach House: Depression Cherry (Sub Pop) {7} [*]
  29. Deerhunter: Fading Frontier (4AD) {7} [***]
  30. Tobias Jesso Jr: Goon (True Panther Sounds) {7} [**]
  31. Joanna Newsom: Divers (Drag City) {7}
  32. Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Multi-Love (Jagjaguwar) {7}
  33. Matthew E White: Fresh Blood (Domino) {7}
  34. Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color (ATO) {6} [*]
  35. BadBadNotGood/Ghostface Killah: Sour Soul (Lex) {6} [A-]
  36. Blur: The Magic Whip (Parlophone/Warner) {6} [**]
  37. Leon Bridges: Coming Home (Columbia) {6} [*]
  38. Gaz Coombes: Matador (Hot Fruit) {6} [*]
  39. Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Constellation) {6} [B-]
  40. Gwenno: Y Dydd Olaf (Heavenly) {6}
  41. Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe: I Declare Nothing (A) {6}
  42. Max Richter: From Sleep (Deutsche Grammophon) {6}
  43. Wolf Alice: My Love Is Cool (Dirty Hit) {6}
  44. Young Fathers: White Men Are Black Men Too (Big Dada) {6} [**]

I've fiddled with the formula a bit this year to provide extra points for higher placement (5 for 1, 4 for 2-5, 3 for 6-10, 2 for 11-20, 1 for > 20), and I figure I'll use that consistently for all top-tier lists (all so far count as such). Holter currently tops 3 lists (Mojo, Piccadilly, Uncut), Stevens 1 (Drift), Bjork 1 (Rough Trade), Public Service Broadcasting 1 (Fopp), Algiers 1 (Resident). The top records from American Songwriter (Chris Stapleton) and Decibel (Horrendous) don't appear on any other lists. Barnett ranks no higher than 3 on any list but appears on 8 of 9, 7 in the top 10, the other 12th. The probable favorite, Kendrick Lamar, also appears on 8 lists, but only twice in the top 10 (2 on Mojo, 2 on Uncut). The list with neither Barnett nor Lamar is Decibel's, which only has two albums that also appear on other lists: Deafheaven (2), Killing Joke (1).

Last year I wound up collecting data from 676 lists. I don't expect to come close to that this year, but still it's safe to say that returns are less than 1% in. Also that some identifiable skews are present -- e.g., Sleaford Mods won't finish ahead of Sleater-Kinney once the US lists take over. I've included my grades in brackets for reference. I'm rather surprised to see this top-40 (actually 44) has 8 records (18.2%) I've rated A- (and only 2 B-, and none lower) -- usually I disagree more, often finding no correlation at all between my grades and other people's lists. I currently have 30 of these 44 albums rated, so 68.2% (which includes some things today that will show up in next week's report).

Rhapsody Streamnotes came out on Wednesday, so some of today's list managed to sneak into that file (like the Ivo Peelmans). I should be closing in on my 2015 prospect list, filling out the last slots in my 2015 jazz and non-jazz lists, but surprisingly two of my A- records this week date from 2012-13: one is the Wreckless Eric/Amy Rigby album that eluded me in the past, but which I found now while looking for Eric's new album; the other is by a Bakersfield CA jazz group with a new record, but I noticed an older one, checked it out, and liked it better. Group name is: Invisible Astro Healing Rhythm Quartet.

New records rated this week:

Old music rated this week:

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week: