2022: Top 5 New Discoveries

(5 favorite albums from 2020 or prior that I discovered this year)

5. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll

 

4AD Records, 09/1988

Ahh, a Cocteau Twins record. Early this year, I found myself planning a trip to the wilds of Southern Utah, and falling down a wikipedia rabbit hole, I discovered that the Cocteau Twins named an album after someplace I was visiting. So, with a very valid excuse, I tracked down this album and bought it as a soundtrack to a very fun road trip. 

I can't say enough good things about this classic Cocteau Twins album. Pretty melodies, alien words, silly song titles like "A Kissed-out Red Floatboat", and "For Phoebe Still a Baby". I need to pick up more classic Cocteau Twins, and this time I don't need a roadtrip as an excuse.

 

4. Codeine - Barely Real

   

Sub Pop Records, 11/1992

This is my year for Codeine. I was unaware this brilliant 6-song EP even existed. This has some powerful tunes. It may even be my favorite Codeine release. (don't hold me to that, I love them all)

3. Cat Power - Speaking for Trees

   

Matador Records

CD/DVD released 10/2004 

So, I remember when this came out. I remember reading reviews of it, and it sounded boring: One long (loooooooong) static shot of Chan Marshall playing outdoors. Nothing else.

I stumbled into this on Youtube, looking for something to listen to during my workday. I loved it. I realized that the visual isn't the point. This is great music. And the music is only half of it. The music is overwhelmed by the sound of high summer-- the insects and the wind. 

 This is from the same era of the one and only time I saw Cat Power live. She cycles through some of her songs, some covers, and mashes some covers and some of her songs together. She plays the same series of songs over as many as 3 or 4 times.

There's also a second audio CD with an 18 minute version of Willie, which got cut down to song-length for her next album The Greatest.

This is a fun listen, and this is peak Cat Power.

2. Verse en Coma - Rialto

 

Robotic Empire, 2008

It took me one listen through one song to order this EP. (It's available on 10"/CD on Bandcamp for a reasonable price). This is driving, intense, lyrical music. Many of the songs reference the Olympic Peninsula in the lyrics (which is my favorite place in the world). Soaring choruses, driving guitars. I love this so very much.

So these guys were apparently also in City of Caterpillar. I checked out their stuff this year and also liked it, but maybe not quite as much as I love this Verse en Coma record.

  1. Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom

 

Slash/Warner Bros Records, 09/1994

It strikes me as odd that I've gone so long without hearing this album. I own "Irresistible Bliss", their 1996 follow up. I was just under the mistaken impression that I only needed one Soul Coughing album in my life. This album is the epitome of cool. Most of the time I don't even know what's going on with all the samples/upright bass/jazz drumming/nonsense words, but I know it's cooler than I'll ever be. My good friend David has been a Soul Coughing freak for years, yet somehow I let this one slip until now. That has been corrected.