2026 is the year I will not get triggered by this list. It's taking a lot of nerve... Excellent work, I will say I loved every album I've heard in your top 100 so that's at least good.
Gargantuan piece of work here and perhaps this will give me the motivation I need to finish my own blog post with a comparatively pathetic 40 entries lol. Tons of takes I agree with and only a few I don't (The Oneohtrix Point Never/R Plus Seven slander in particular). Some random thoughts:
-I didn't know there was a new harunemuri release this year and I'm pumped to hear it's exciting. That's going in queue right away.
-I kept having to restrain myself from feeling irritated with ASC for putting out Far Too Much Music this year but Next Time You Fall has been my go-to for the most part. I didn't even know about the new one *sob*
-I had a little jumpscare to see Gaiaphilia on here before I remembered it was your review on a different web site that got me going with it. Tidal tells me it's my most listened to record this year, so sounds like I need to check the other Noriko release.
-Probably my biggest disagreement, low impact as it may be, is that I thought Shigure's EP was the most energized and creative they've felt in years, with Black Sparkle being the only track that felt like them on autopilot (still a great track though). I vibe with that release super hard and it set me off into a "only listens to Shigure" doomloop for a while when it came out lol.
-I can't express enough how good it feels to see another person dump on that Quadeca record. God.
Can't wait to listen to more of what's here, and it was a pleasure reading. Cheers!
I'm another human being and I'm here to say fuck that Quadeca record.
Loads of restorative justice dished out in this top 30 or so for some shameful misses on the collated list.
I have a million agrees/disagrees with takes here (Gabe and 'Lege copping a big stray!) but can't be arsed putting them all together. This is one hell of a puddle
Thanks as always for your thoughts (and hooray for Gaiaphilia)! I should have gone into more detail for Shigure tbh - agreed that it's definitely the most creative their sound has sounded in years (although I loved most of Last Aurorally and thought that packed energy for days), but I didn't connect hard with it on a song-by-song basis. Am hoping it's going to end up as a start point to a new songwriting direction rather than a one-off, it's defs an exciting release from them but I feel they have more to say there
Yeah I can definitely get behind all of that especially the hope for a turning point in their sound. I feel like the effects of the music industry release contracts hit them particularly hard so theoretically an EP should be an opportunity to branch out a little more in preparation for a longer expression. Time will tell!
Absolutely stellar work pulling together 219 releases into something coherent. The tier system really brings out the nuance betwen "admirable failure" and "excellent but not transcendent", which most year-end lists fumble by trying to force everything into a single linear ranking. I'd been sleeping on that Park Jiha record til now (the yanggeum work on "A Story Of Little Birds" is genuinely transcendent), and seeing how deeply theprodution choices shape her seasonal narrative makes me realize how much attention to arrangement gets overlooked in most chamber jazz. The way minimalist builds can convey temporal passage without being heavy-handed about it feels like something more artists could learn from, but rarely try.
List is so good it broke my (old) laptop for a minute or so
Saya Grey, Enji and Park Jiha are all great albums. The Bambara record didn't do anything for me - should maybe give it another chance as I loved Stray. Also glad to see you sort of embrace Ethel Cain :)
Will use the list to look for 2025 gems. Anything specific you'd rec me?
2026 is the year I will not get triggered by this list. It's taking a lot of nerve... Excellent work, I will say I loved every album I've heard in your top 100 so that's at least good.
Gargantuan piece of work here and perhaps this will give me the motivation I need to finish my own blog post with a comparatively pathetic 40 entries lol. Tons of takes I agree with and only a few I don't (The Oneohtrix Point Never/R Plus Seven slander in particular). Some random thoughts:
-I didn't know there was a new harunemuri release this year and I'm pumped to hear it's exciting. That's going in queue right away.
-I kept having to restrain myself from feeling irritated with ASC for putting out Far Too Much Music this year but Next Time You Fall has been my go-to for the most part. I didn't even know about the new one *sob*
-I had a little jumpscare to see Gaiaphilia on here before I remembered it was your review on a different web site that got me going with it. Tidal tells me it's my most listened to record this year, so sounds like I need to check the other Noriko release.
-Probably my biggest disagreement, low impact as it may be, is that I thought Shigure's EP was the most energized and creative they've felt in years, with Black Sparkle being the only track that felt like them on autopilot (still a great track though). I vibe with that release super hard and it set me off into a "only listens to Shigure" doomloop for a while when it came out lol.
-I can't express enough how good it feels to see another person dump on that Quadeca record. God.
Can't wait to listen to more of what's here, and it was a pleasure reading. Cheers!
I'm another human being and I'm here to say fuck that Quadeca record.
Loads of restorative justice dished out in this top 30 or so for some shameful misses on the collated list.
I have a million agrees/disagrees with takes here (Gabe and 'Lege copping a big stray!) but can't be arsed putting them all together. This is one hell of a puddle
Thanks as always for your thoughts (and hooray for Gaiaphilia)! I should have gone into more detail for Shigure tbh - agreed that it's definitely the most creative their sound has sounded in years (although I loved most of Last Aurorally and thought that packed energy for days), but I didn't connect hard with it on a song-by-song basis. Am hoping it's going to end up as a start point to a new songwriting direction rather than a one-off, it's defs an exciting release from them but I feel they have more to say there
Yeah I can definitely get behind all of that especially the hope for a turning point in their sound. I feel like the effects of the music industry release contracts hit them particularly hard so theoretically an EP should be an opportunity to branch out a little more in preparation for a longer expression. Time will tell!
Absolutely stellar work pulling together 219 releases into something coherent. The tier system really brings out the nuance betwen "admirable failure" and "excellent but not transcendent", which most year-end lists fumble by trying to force everything into a single linear ranking. I'd been sleeping on that Park Jiha record til now (the yanggeum work on "A Story Of Little Birds" is genuinely transcendent), and seeing how deeply theprodution choices shape her seasonal narrative makes me realize how much attention to arrangement gets overlooked in most chamber jazz. The way minimalist builds can convey temporal passage without being heavy-handed about it feels like something more artists could learn from, but rarely try.
List is so good it broke my (old) laptop for a minute or so
Saya Grey, Enji and Park Jiha are all great albums. The Bambara record didn't do anything for me - should maybe give it another chance as I loved Stray. Also glad to see you sort of embrace Ethel Cain :)
Will use the list to look for 2025 gems. Anything specific you'd rec me?
For you, hmmm!:
- Jonny Nash definitely
- Ill Considered
- maybe CMAT, quite possibly Rafael Toral
- The Necks if you have the spare hours
- maybe betcover!! as a wildcard
- Sen'nyu, Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles and Courtney Bailey if you haven't already
- Anouar Brahem
- Vapor Drive is record most likely to tempt you into drum and bass, and a good chill time regardless
Thanks! Will be checking these out
Huuuuge list, excellent work taking the time and reviewing all these
Have you heard the latest Yubiori album by any chance? My favorite Japanese rock release from the year probably