Category: Albums of the year

Albums of the Year 2025

2025 was another year that saw the return of bands I did not think I would be writing about again. A new Cardiacs album is always something to praise loudly, and this one in particular is one that very few people though would ever see the light of day. But it’s here, it’s great, and it’s what I’ve listened to more than anything during the second half of this year. I’ve also bought less vinyl, and less new music in general, but as a result have rediscovered a lot of older things by people on this list and other adjacent artists.

I have also not been to a concert that wasn’t streamed on the internet for the 5th year running. Maybe 2026 will be the year that changes.

In all cases the links below are to somewhere you can listen to and/or buy the record in question (Bandcamp or the artist’s own website). For things you can’t buy anymore I’ve linked to a description. All quotes are from the same page as the link unless otherwise mentioned.

Albums

The Bad Fire by Mogwai

The arrival of a new Mogwai album – their eleventh – is cause for great celebration. The album’s title, The Bad Fire, is a working-class Glaswegian term for Hell. It reflects the difficult time that members of the band were going through. New to the studio was American producer John Congleton, known for his work with Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Rós, John Grant and pretty much everyone in between. Congleton’s work can be heard on the album’s three singles. The album opener “God Gets You Back” sounds like Daft Punk being hunted by My Bloody Valentine, while “Fanzine Made Of Flesh” sounds like a victory parade for a baby yeti; and “Lion Rumpus” does actually sound like a lion rumpus. The music of Mogwai is a difficult thing to describe, but an easy thing to experience. At punishing volume, it can annihilate your body, leaving you as little more than a head which should by rights fall helplessly to the ground. Yet the music contains an updraft, a sense of beauty encased in the onslaught. This holds you up, suspended and empowered, reminding you that paradise is your birthright. This is especially true of The Bad Fire. It may have been created in dark conditions, but all that is transcended by the act of four musicians working together here, now, in the moment – the only place where Mogwai exist.

I mentioned this at the end of last year’s list, and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not sure it’s their best album, but it’s certainly up there with them, and it’s something that I have found myself returning to at various points in the year.

Reservoir of Love by Shannon Wright

Shannon Wright is an utterly distinctive songwriter coated in raw, indelible fury. Wright’s songwriting hypnotizes, whether she’s igniting her ravenous guitar, or swirling her remarkable trance-inducing piano, Wright’s intensity draws you in and refuses to let up, therein lies the real beauty of her music.

The quote above was from the Bandcamp blurb from a previous album, but applies very much to this one. This was my first foray into the world of Shannon Wright, but it definitely won’t be my last as I’ve loved everything I’ve heard. Each song could have been recorded 20 years ago or last week, but it’s a timeless quality I love, and an album where the songs just speak for themselves.

End of the Middle by Richard Dawson

The title of Richard Dawson’s new album End of the Middle is a suitably slippery contradiction, one that invites multiple interpretations: Middle-aging? Middle-class? The middle-point of Dawson’s career? The centre of a record? Centrism in general? Polarisation? The possibility of having a balanced discussion about anything? Stuck in the middle with you? Middle England? Middling songwriting?

Another artist who never fails to deliver. I wasn’t sure about this when I heard the concept, but of course when I heard the songs I understood. These are no ordinary kitchen-sink dramas, and whilst it might not be as epic as some of his recent records it is still well worth a few listens. I suspect there are a few people who will start with this, work backwards, and wonder what they have got themselves into, but I think very few of them will stop until they have heard everything this truly unique artist has ever recorded. It might only be my third favourite Richard Dawson record, but it’s still better than most of the rest of this list.

Four Five by Sweet Williams

45 songs to commemorate 45 years of Sweet Williams aka Thomas House. Patchwork quilt or collaged map, this is his weirdest, funniest and darkest record to date.

This was not the Sweet Williams record I expected. Bundled with 2024’s eponymous album was a CD of demos, which claimed to be for his next album. But then instead we get 45 different songs, none of which were on that demo, and all of which contribute to making a record that demands time, but is then time well spent. Not everyone has time for triple albums in 2025, but there are three of them on this list (and a true double), which to be fair I only really made time for by listening to them during the endless dog walks and occasional train commutes that gave this year some structure and meaning.

Crooked Wing by These New Puritans

Crooked Wing is These New Puritans’ long-awaited fifth album—their first in six years. Produced by Bark Psychosis pioneer Graham Sutton and Jack Barnett, and executive produced by George Barnett, it features an unpredictable lineup of collaborators, from Caroline Polachek to veteran jazz bassist Chris Laurence. The cult duo returns with one of 2025’s boldest and most immersive records, shifting from the brutal to the beautiful. Crooked Wing cements TNP’s status as visionaries—defying genre, rejecting convention, and delivering their most moving, powerful work yet.

I feel like These New Puritans are the closest we have today to the musical vibe of late Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis. I’ve been a fan for a while, and have listened to this album a lot this year. It’s shorter than a lot of my other choices, and so fits more easily into the time slots I have to listen to music rather than just hear it. It’s also made me revisit some of their older albums, with Field of Reeds in particular getting a lot of plays this year.

Skylarks by HARESS

Third album from acclaimed Shropshire collective and the much-anticipated follow-up to 2022’s Ghosts. Dark, traditional and magically cosmic sounds from deep within Rural Britain. With 2022’s critically acclaimed album Ghosts, enigmatic Shropshire group HARESS marked out their own place in a growing landscape of artists navigating the worlds of the traditional and the rural in new ways.

“Far above the skylark sings
And beats the air with joyful wings
Till all the sky with music rings
At high noon of the day”

A worthy successor to Ghosts, and one of a number of albums on this list that has almost no lyrics.

We Invented Work For The Common Good by AAA Gripper

AAA Gripper have seemingly dropped out of nowhere but the story goes back. The idea was conjured in the summer of 2023 at the first Wrong Speed Records festival in the town of Glastonbury. Recording hours and hours of bass and drums in deep Somerset then editing it down to a sharp and concise 32 minutes… Wild guitar strafe and precise hyper vocal added. We Invented Work For The Common Good is a deep dive into the world of the working person—how we end up, why we climb onto the conveyor belt and never get off.

Can we call them a supergroup? Another Wrong Speed Records collaboration that have made a fantastic debut album that is another of those modern classics that very few people outside a very small circle have heard of, let alone heard. If you like guitar music it’s worth a listen, and if you love Joeyfat (see further down for some links to their music) then the two bands share a singer, and a general vibe.

GOLLIWOG by billy woods

GOLLIWOG is billy woods’ first album in two years, preceded by 2023’s Maps. GOLLIWOG is a haunting collection that weaves horror, humor, surrealism and Afropessimism into a cinematic tapestry, aided and abetted by a murderer’s row of producers. African zombies, time traveling trap cars, malevolent ragdolls and a dying Frantz Fanon are just a few of the revelers in woods’ danse macabre. GOLLIWOG is another triumph in the woods oeuvre, as layered and compelling as anything he has ever done.

My hip-hop discovery of the year, and a really inventive piece of music. Hearing this for the first time sent me into his back catalogue, and also into the other things he’s released this year which are also fantastic:

  • gowillog by August Fanon & billy woods
  • Mercy by Armand Hammer & The Alchemist

I know very little about this kind of music, but I want to know more.

Instant Holograms On Metal Film by Stereolab

One of my all time favourite bands, who I never thought would record together again. This picks up where all their other records left off, and just sounds so familiar but also so new at the same time. I’m hopeful that this is the start of something new rather than just a coda.

LSD by Cardiacs

Once again sweet listener it falls upon The Alphabet Business Concern to magnanimously spurn all praise and self-congratulation for bringing into existence yet another wondrous creation such as this splendid recording that you hold in your sweating, clasping hands and indeed, to mete out both thanks and appreciation to some distinguished associates for their help and talents that were so cunningly used in the process to varying degrees and with debatable effect.

Earlier this year I watched a Cardiacs gig from 1988 on the internet. It was a great blast from the past, and I definitely recognised a few people in the chat. The day after I pre-ordered LSD, their new album. I never thought this record would be finished, but now it is. This band are so important to me, and I really thought the story was over when Tim died. But I loved the first single and the album itself was even better; a mix of the old and familiar with a new line up that may even have the potential to make more new music in the future.

It’s probably my album of the year, of the decade so far, and something I think I’ll keep coming back to in the way I do with many of their other albums (some of which have been with me over 30 years).

And lest we forget, our fallen comrades, Tim Smith and Tim Quy, sorely missed.

RUN AWAY WITH A WILD AND A RARE ONE by WAVE GENERATORS

Described as the Fugazi of hip-hop, which is a phrase that is always gong to make me listen, as I like both of these things. This record makes me feel how I felt when I heard the first Rage Against The Machine album, and it’s a perfect mix of genres that ends up being much more than the sum of its’ parts. This is their second album, but both fit easily together on one CD, and this is very much music that should be burned on CD and listened to as a body of work. It won’t take long, and it’s very much worth it.

Yoo II avec Nolan Potter by Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter

Experimental rockers Yoo Doo Right team up with multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Nolan Potter and psychedelic rock trio Population II to record a one-of-a-kind long-player meshing elements from krautrock, free jazz, and noise.

This is definitely head music. I got into Yoo Doo Right at the end of last year, and this record builds on what has gone before but adds a shot of jazz and krautrock from their collaborators. It’s perfect music for doing something else to, but also good to just listen and be.

Unfolding by Jessica Moss

Unfolding is Jessica Moss’s most meditative and plaintive solo album… Layers of violin melody, electroacoustic processing, intermittent voice, and percussion from The Necks drummer Tony Buck yield deeply emotive genre-defying compositions, guided by a spirit of searching and summoning that unfolds in a prevailing atmosphere of incantation and mournful restraint.

Another album with very few words, and something else that I’ve spent a lot of time working to. Definitely something that demands being listened to all in one go, and it’s short enough to do so.

Touch by Tortoise

The Cardiacs and Stereolab albums were a genuine surprise, but this isn’t actually far behind. It’s been a while since Tortoise released an album, and even longer since there was one this good (Probably Standards by my reckoning). I’m not sure this will win them many new fans, but it also won’t lose them any old ones.

Implosion by The Bug vs Ghost Dubs

When Chuck D proclaimed “Bass, how low can you go?” on Public Enemy’s anthemic ‘Bring the Noise,’ maybe he was pre-empting or inciting the 10,000 fathoms-deep, spine-bending basslines and sub-quake tremors of ‘Implosion.’

Implosion is a crushing split album, appropriately released on The Bug’s own PRESSURE label. Mapping out a new form of spectral dub, the sound is deliberately immersive, introverted, and yes, definitely implosive. In pursuit of heavy lids, blurred vision, and merciless bass bin punishment, it’s one part meditation, two parts low-end theory, and essentially a confession of devoted sound system addiction.

I have no other words, but these words do it justice. I’ve listened to this and the Necks album on repeat for most of December so far and after a few listens it all starts to make perfect sense.

Disquiet by The Necks

On Disquiet, The Necks stretch their immersive, shape-shifting sound across three discs and more than three hours of labyrinthine, patient intensity. This is their twentieth studio recording and it marks the 39th year of the band’s existence.

Meticulously recorded and sculpted, the four extended pieces on Disquiet see Tony Buck, Chris Abrahams, and Lloyd Swanton pushing at the outer edges of their collective intuition, building and unraveling hypnotic structures with microscopic focus. Present is the usual arsenal of piano, double bass, and drums, and all the in-between of sounds undefined and sources obscured.

Another musical discovery from last year, delivering a triple album this time (including the longest pieced of music in my collection, at over 70 minutes just for that one track). This has been the album I’ve turned to a lot during the last couple of months of the year, and I’ve somehow found the time to listen to it more times than you would expect for something that’s over 3 hours long and not available on Spotify. It’s probably not the most accessible introduction, but definitely representative of the kind of music they have been making for the last few years. I also think this is a band I could see live, because I think they would suit the kind of venue that I like best (places that don’t feel like they were designed for rock concerts, but that have great acoustics anyway).

You Heartbreaker, You by Jehnny Beth

Talking of concerts, Jhenny Beth played at the last two I went to (the 2020 6 Music festival, and a warm up show the night before). This record builds on her solo debut, and is nothing like her collaboration with Bobby Gillespie (which I also love). I suspect these songs sound amazing live, and she’s definitely another artist I would consider going back to concerts for.

Mr. Luck And Ms. Doom by The Delines

Country soul from Portland, Oregon. The Delines return with their new album featuring Amy Boone’s vocals, Cory Gray’s keyboards and trumpet, and Willy Vlautin’s storytelling songs about characters on the margins—featuring tales of people struggling with their pasts, bad luck, and the search for redemption.

I’ve loved them since their debut, and this latest release doesn’t disappoint. I didn’t buy many things on vinyl this year, but this was one I pre-ordered without too much thought as music like this just sounds better that way.

Wasteland by Jim Ghedi

On his new album Wasteland, Jim Ghedi has created something huge. Intense, brooding, bold, at times apocalyptic, and remarkably vast. A profoundly bold sonic statement that is some of the most rich, far-reaching and ambitious work that Ghedi has created to date – pushing the boundaries of what folk music can be in 2025. Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

This was something I found on one of Bandcamp’s lists of new music, and it immediately made me want to check out his other work (which is different, but also great). It’s folk music, but also something that sounds like it could be made in any year where it was possible to record music, and a good few years before. I think we need songs like these at the moment.

Twilight Override by Jeff Tweedy

Another triple album, and a collection of songs that stands up to the last few Wilco albums, but also sounds like it was a lot more fun to make. This is what I’ve been listening to when I just want to experience great songs, sung well.

That’s What the Music Is For by The Apartments

Another album that celebrates the simple art of songwriting. I will definitely explore their large back catalogue soon.

Singles and EPs

Reissues and compilations

The Rest

Albums of the year 2024

2024 is a year I will not forget in a hurry, and has definitely seen a change to the way I buy and consume music. It’s been less about vinyl, more about CDs, and has also seen a shift to rediscovering old favourites rather than hunting down new music every week. Some of this is likely to do with the fact that a few very old favourites have released great music this year, but maybe it’s also just down to the fact that as I get older my musical taste has just settled. There is still a lot of new music here though, and quite a few artists I’d not heard of a year ago as I continue to discover some of the newer punk/hardcore releases that sit nicely beside artists I was listening to decades ago.

Last year was the year of loud and angry music, and this year started off the same way. But after the first few months of the year I found a lot of comfort in music without words, which has always been a thing for me, but never more so than now. I think this is reflected in some of my choices, but also by the fact that most of what I played that was not from this year was largely wordless as well. The Post Rock Classics playlist that started off as a minidisc 24 years ago is now a Spotify playlist that still soundtracks most of my working days, and I spent a portion of the summer tracking down Godspeed and Mogwai CDs on Ebay to try and complete collections that were started around the same time.

Here is my list for 2024, starting with my top 20 which are in no particular order apart from maybe the first 2:

Albums

In all cases the links below are to somewhere you can listen to and/or buy the record in question (Bandcamp or the artist’s own website). For things you can’t buy anymore I’ve linked to a description. All quotes are from the same page as the link.

Songs of a Lost World by The Cure

This record came out at a time when I was definitely grieving, but also about to give a talk at a conference about the last time I was grieving. It hits that emotional resonance perfectly, but I think I would still love it if I had been in a happier place at the time. Themes of growing older and being older permeate, and I think this is the perfect record for people who have followed the band over the last 40 years.

I keep trying to compare it to other Cure albums, and the best that I can do is that it’s a bit like the best parts of Disintegration and Bloodflowers. There isn’t a bad song on it, and I think it’s something I’ll come back to for many years in the way that I still do with Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography decades later.

Seeing the live stream of the launch concert reminded me how important this band were to me when I was growing up, and how much time I have spent listening to their music. I think this lineup is probably the best ever; although it’s not too different to who was on the stage in 1989 when I last saw them play live.

Everyone looks older, but they still sound great, and I think these new these songs definitely stand the test of time. I remain hopeful that the rumours of at least one more album before they retire are true.

“NO​ ​TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28​,​340 DEAD” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

THE PLAIN TRUTH==
we drifted through it, arguing.
every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom.
we sat down together and wrote it in one room,
and then sat down in a different room, recording.
NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?
and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.
the sun setting above beds of ash
while we sat together, arguing.
the old world order barely pretended to care.
this new century will be crueler still.
war is coming.
don’t give up.
pick a side.
hang on.
love.
GY!BE

Another band that have been very important to me over the years, from buying their second album at the start of the century, to subscribing to the Constellation Records Bandcamp earlier this year because the amount of new music they were playing at concerts made it seem like an album was imminent. I love everything they have made, and this one doesn’t disappoint at all. I listen to a lot of this type of music when I’m working, and this is one that I have been coming back to over and over again. It’s also made me dip back into their back catalogue, and discover a load of other great records by related artists that I missed the first time around.

Cutouts by The Smile

I missed their first two records, but picked this up on a whim after hearing a couple of songs on Spotify. They don’t sound that much like Radiohead (the band 2/3 of them are also in), but it does tap into a lot of different types of music that I really like, and is basically just a collection of great songs played very well. Sometimes that’s exactly what I want, and this is one album that works as well shuffled with a load of other things as it does on its own.

The New Sound by Geordie Greep

I didn’t really discover Black Midi until just before they imploded, but after hearing the lead track from this I was definitely looking forward to hearing more of Geordie Greep’s first solo offering. It reminds me in places of the great crooners (Sinatra, Scott Walker, David Sylvian and David Bowie), and I very much look forward to what he does next.

A few words from the artist on this one:

“Music can be so much more than learning to play the same as everybody else. It can be anything you want. With recording The New Sound, it was the first time I have had no one to answer to. Being in a band (black midi), we often have this ‘we can do everything’ feeling, but you are also kind of limited in that approach, and sometimes it’s good to do something else, to let go of things.”

Absolute Elsewhere by Blood Incantation

Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. At roughly 45 minutes, the two compositions that make up this album are as confounding as they are engaging in their scope, melding the 70’s prog leanings of Tangerine Dream (whose Thorsten Quaesching appears on „The Stargate [Tablet II]”) with the deathly intent of Morbid Angel. Absolute Elsewhere, which takes its title from the mid-70’s prog collective (best known as a celestial stopover for King Crimson drummer, Bill Bruford), Blood Incantation are leaving the notion of genre behind and writing a new language for extreme music itself.

I didn’t realise ambient death metal was a thing until I heard this. Now I want to hear more ambient death metal. I don’t feel qualified to write much about this music because it’s not something I feel like I have any background or expertise in, but I love it, and I’ve listened to it a lot during the second half of this year.

Delights of my Life by Eric Chenaux Trio

Chenaux’s tunes have the uncanny ability to sound like jazz standards; songs you feel you’ve heard before, though certainly never quite like this. Yet these are of course all originals, compositionally and interpretively, bent through an inimitable avant/out-music lens. Delights Of My Life conveys warm familiarity, shot through with the exuberantly experimental subversion and playful, even mischievous, iconoclasm that continues to mark Chenaux as defiantly, virtuosically, and genially one-of-kind.

My discovery of the year, not so much this particular record, but a rich back catalogue that I have been familiarising myself with over the last few months. I got this as part of my Constellation subscription, although it doesn’t have much in common with most other artists on the label, tapping instead into the world of the crooners, but also of jazz instrumentalists. I really like the combination of clean vocals and minimalistic, but complex, instrumentation, and don’t think I’ve heard anything else quite like this before.

This album as good a place to start as any, but I suspect this is an artist I’ll keep coming back to, and definitely a name I’ll be looking out for on lists of upcoming records and live performances.

“NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” by WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN

WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (WAWBARC) is the new quartet of Mat Ball (Big Brave), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jonathan Downs and Patch One (both Ada). On “NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses. Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: “We’re honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside,” says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas.

Another Constellation release, and one that acts as an interesting counterpoint to the Godspeed record.

Red Will by Joy Dimmers

One of the few records I’ve bought on vinyl this year, and a definite highlight from the Wrong Speed Records catalogue. For me this hits the same kind of vibe as All Structures Align, who have probably been my favourite band of the last couple of years. I also agree with the label that this is likely to become a cult classic at some point.

Dead Centre by Reigns

Four years in the making, DEAD CENTRE is both a mindbending horror novel by musician TIM FARTHING (Hey Colossus, Henry Blacker, PJ Harvey) and the seventh album by enigmatic electronic duo REIGNS. The hardback book comes complete with a CD soundtrack and is illustrated by the author.

Dead Centre by Tim Farthing is one of my favourite books of this year. The fact that it comes packaged with the new Reigns album is a nice bonus. Does the album act as a soundtrack to the book? Or is the book an attempt to add some context to the music? I don’t know, but it may be a bit of both. I love this band, and whilst an almost wholly instrumental album might not be for everyone, it’s something I keep coming back to, even without the book to keep it company.

Optimistic Sizing by Objections

Another Wrong Speed release, and another instant classic. I loved the 7″ single from last year, and this picks up where that left off. Hopefully we will be hearing more from them next year.

Ensoulment by The The

This band have been important to me for as long as music has, but I was not expecting this album to ever be made, let alone for it to be so good. It stands up to the 80s classics, and like all good The The records soundtracks the times we are living in now, but also quite likely shows us some glimpses of what the future may be like if the world continues the current direction of travel.

As with The Cure, I am hopeful there is more music to come, but if there isn’t then this is a very strong swansong.

Friar Tuck by Julian Cope

And so the adventures of Robin H. Hood continue! The Prince of Fried has brung forth 12 brand new humdingers: all hummable and lyrically compelling and replete with wah-acoustic guitars and beautiful orchestrations of Mellotron 400 from Liverpool’s Blondest. So inhale the garage fuzz dub of ‘R in the Hood’; the mantric powerdrive of ‘Four Jehovahs in a Volvo Estate’; the sentimental Pete Burns lamentations of ‘In Spungent Mansions’… and who could resist the affectionate micro-trolling of ‘Will Sergeant’s Blues’?

Someone else I have listened to since before I was an adult. He’s releasing albums quite frequently again, and this is one of the better recent ones. I buy them on CD as soon as they come out to prevent more gaps in my collection, and is one that I bought without listening to any of it first (which is of course how we always used to buy albums before streaming was a thing).

Darning Woman by Anastasia Coope

The feeling that Anastasia Coope’s music transmits seems to emanate from a precipice beyond the material world, like a void or memory pressing up against the veil. It’s exacting and enveloping, but unmoored in space and time: ghostly, spectral, far-out folk. Darning Woman, her debut album, feels like a dispatch from another past. Akin to lullabies or nursery rhymes, its minimal folk instrumentation contorts into something staccato and strange led by Coope’s expressive, stratified vocals.

Short, weird, and otherworldly. I liked this as soon as I heard it on Spotify, and kept coming back to it.

Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons

One of the most beautiful records of the year, from someone who has never made a musical wrong move. This is one of those timeless albums that is just ten very good songs, five per side, lasting around 45 minutes. That’s how albums used to be when I was first getting into music, and I think this is the kind of thing I would have loved even then. This is the record that should have won this year’s Mercury Music Prize, and one that I think I will keep coming back to.

Forgiveness is Yours by Fat White Family

Fat White Family are back with the most sophisticated, vital and flamboyant creation of their career. The cult south-London band’s resplendent fourth album Forgiveness Is Yours, like everything they’ve done, has pushed them to the limits not only of their creative talent, but of their health, their sanity, their very existence.

Sounds like hyperbole, but I think the description matches the record quite well. These songs kept cropping up on Spotify, but were nothing like I expected the band to sound. Once I started actually playing it as an album it clicked for me, and I think there are parts of this that wouldn’t sound out of place on the radio, but also some great spoken word/experimental tracks that I love even more.

Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

I had a huge Nick Cave rediscovery last year, and this record came out at exactly the right time for me. He’s not made any bad records, but I think for me this is a highlight of his later years (not quite up there with Ghosteen, but as good as anything else from this century), and one that I think I will keep coming back to in the same way I do to Tender Prey and Let Love In.

Critterland by Willi Carlisle

For folk singer Willi Carlisle, singing is healing. And by singing together, he believes we can begin to reckon with the inevitability of human suffering and grow in love. On his latest album, Critterland, Carlisle invites audiences to join him: “If we allow ourselves to sing together, there’s a release of sadness, maybe even a communal one. And so for me personally, singing, like the literal act of thinking through suffering, is really freeing,” he says.

I had a tough start to 2024, and these songs helped a lot. It’s nothing like anything else on this list, but was always going to be on this list from the first time I heard it.

Katabasis into the Abaton / Abstieg in die Traumkammer by Grendel’s Sister

I love how this album is in two languages; the German that the band speak, and the English that allows me to better understand these fantastic and very unusual songs. It’s one of the few debuts on this year’s list, and I will definitely be listening out for what they do next.

Rack by The Jesus Lizard

Another totally unexpected comeback record, and one that sounds like it could have been made at any time during their history. The Jesus Lizard still rock, and this may be their best album ever. All of their albums have one-world titles, and there are still a lot of words they have not used yet, so hopefully this is the start of something rather than the end.

From the Heights of our Pastureland by Yoo Doo Right

Whilst writing this third opus, Yoo Doo Right drew inspiration from patience, the commodification of art, AI and algorithmic music/art, as well as musical influences ranging from Wes Montgomery and Sergei Rachmaninoff all the way to Neurosis and Russian Circles, wanting to create something to sit and grow with, celebrating the saving grace and driving force of unconditional love for all living things.

A very recent discovery, but one that nicely compliments a lot of the other Post Rock I’ve been listening to this year. I definitely want to check out their other records in 2025, and this is easily what I have listened to the most whilst writing this list.

I think they could easily become one of my favourite bands if they keep releasing records like this.

Other stuff

Live albums, reissues, and things that were definitely available in some format before this year.

The rest

Other things I’ve listened to this year that I enjoyed.

Something for next year

Albums of the year 2023

These are the records that have been the soundtrack to my 2023. If 2022 was a bad year for the world, then 2023 was more of the same, with a side-dose of personal horror. I did the exact same job for a whole year for the first time in a while, but everything around me seemed more chaotic, with ill health and general disruption not too far away. I suspect my musical choices have been influenced by that, although it certainly hasn’t been consciously.

I’m sitting writing this on a wet and blustery evening in the Isle of Wight (for the second year running). I think the amount of time I’ve spent here over the last two years has definitely influenced some of my choices, but only in a good way. There is some music that just makes more sense in a rural location, and many of these records are definitely not particularly influenced by cities or suburbia. But also this is a list that pays a lot more homage to louder and faster music than previous years. There are less melodically beautiful records (especially outside the top 25), and more that channel the anger that so many people feel towards the world and some of the people in it.

Albums

In all cases the links below are to somewhere you can listen to and/or buy the record in question (Bandcamp or the artist’s own website). For things you can’t buy anymore I’ve linked to a description.

Singles

All of these are either one long song, or a 7″.

Other stuff

Live albums, reissues, and things that were definitely available in some format before this year.

The rest

Other things I’ve listened to this year that I enjoyed.

Albums of the year 2022

These are the records that have been the soundtrack to my 2022. It’s been a good year for music, but a bad year for the world. There have been positive changes in my personal and professional life, but otherwise this is likely to be a year that is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

I’m sitting writing this on a wet and blustery evening in the Isle of Wight. I think the amount of time I’ve spent here this year has definitely influenced some of my choices, but only in a good way. There is some music that just makes more sense in a rural location, and many of these records are definitely not particularly influenced by cities or suburbia, so probably have a slightly different feel to my previous lists.

Albums

In all cases the links below are to somewhere you can listen to and/or buy the record in question (Bandcamp or the artist’s own website). For things you can’t buy anymore I’ve linked to a description.

Singles

All of these are either one long song, or a 7″ with at least three songs. They are all also part of my Quietus subscription or very limited edition pressings, so there are some things here that people can’t actually go and listen to, which is a shame as they are all great.

Albums of the year 2021

What can I say about 2021 that has not already been said? It has been another very challenging year; both for the world in general but also for the world of music. I have not experienced live music at all this year, but made up for it by buying a lot of records (and tried to buy them directly from the artists where possible, because people need to make a living). Music has always been very important to me, but never more so than now. These are the records that made this year better, or at least acted as a soundtrack to the bad bits.

Top 20

In all cases the links below are to somewhere you can listen to and/or buy the record in question (Bandcamp, Rough Trade or the artist’s own website).

Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark

This is a record I never expected to be made, and it’s been a real treat to listen to. It might even be my favourite Arab Strap record now. If you’ve not heard them before then you’re in for a treat; if you’ve not heard them for ages then you won’t be disappointed.

Black Country, New Road – For the First Time

February saw the very welcome arrival of For The First Time by Black Country, New Road. I had already played a lot of these songs to death, but getting them all in one place was exactly what I needed to shed some truth and light on the cold winter days. I think this is probably my record of the year, and it was always going to take something really special to dislodge it. It also came with a badge (more records should come with badges).

Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth – Utopian Ashes

I’ve loved this record since the first time I heard it. It’s got the emotional vibe of The National’s Trouble Will Find Me, but also reminds me a lot of the Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan records. One I think I will keep coming back to. Some of these songs are uncomfortable, but it’s because they stir the emotions in the way that all good songs should. For a record released in 2021 it sounds remarkably timeless.

Desire Marea – Desire

I am not even sure how to describe this record, but it’s right up there with anything else released this year. If you’re in the Rough Trade Club you will know this, for everyone else it may be a new treat.

Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

April bought with it the excellent New Long Leg by Dry Cleaning. It reminds me a bit of a cross between The Blue Aeroplanes and Arab Strap, but with female vocals. If that sounds intriguing then you should definitely give it a listen. The songs on the bonus CD are very good as well.

Edward Ka-Spel – Prints of Darkness

Edward Ka-Spel has released a lot of music this year. This one is probably the highlight (although I love them all, and they are all in my long-list). If you are not already bought into the Legendary Pink Dots ecosystem then this is as good a place as any to start, although it is one of the few records from this year’s batch that isn’t pay-what-you-want.

Field Music – Flat White Moon

Field Music never fail to deliver, and this record is no exception. Once more they manage to create a sound that is unmistakeably them, and that is very difficult to describe or assign a genre to. If you know their work then you know what I mean. If you don’t then this is as good a place as any to start.

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra – Promises

This is the soundtrack to many hours of work this year, and a record I don’t think I’ll ever tire of. It’s not a combination I would have expected to make a record, but it works really well and hits the same emotional resonance as Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock.

For Those I Love – For Those I Love

A really unique record that builds well on the mixtape from last year (which would have been in my list if I had discovered it in time). I’m not sure I’m brave enough to try and match this to a genre, but if you take a leap of faith then you may find yourself spending many hours with this record.

Gazelle Twin & NYX – Deep England

I’m not sure how to describe this record by Gazelle Twin & NYX, but I’ve played it a lot this year, and it’s definitely a contender. I would really love to hear this live in a candlelit church; it’s the kind of music that would work so well in that kind of environment.

Geese – Projector

A last minute entry that I have largely listened to as I am compiling this list. I discovered Geese via a Rough Trade 7″ single, and was very happy to receive this earlier this month. It is definitely a grower, but one that will stay with me well into 2022.

Jane Weaver – Flock

Many people may not have heard of Jane Weaver, but this record is a joyous pop masterpiece that I think anyone who appreciates good music would enjoy. This is what pop music should sound like in 2021.

Maximo Park – Nature Always Wins

I was going to say that this is surprisingly good, but it’s not really a surprise any more. Definitely their strongest record for a while, and one that I keep coming back to.

Mogwai – As the Love Continues

Mogwai are a really important band for me, and have been one of the main soundtracks of my year of working from home. I often listen to them when I’m working. The tracks with obvious vocals are when I take a break and just listen to the words for a few minutes. Richie Sacramento is my “take a break” track, and it’s amusing that it is also one of my most played songs of this year (maybe I took too many breaks?).

At the time I said “I think if this gets to number 1 tomorrow then it’s the first time since Kid A that something that completely represents my musical taste at the time does that.” It did get to number one, and it was a very satisfying feeling.

Penfriend – Exotic Monsters

I used to be the kind of person who thought that title tracks should go at the end (I blame Robert Smith for this). Here we have a title track that belongs at the start, followed by a collection of songs that I’ve been lucky enough to hear as they have been evolving, and also now they have been released.

One of the many things I love about Penfriend is the quality of the things I get through the post. Coloured vinyl, postcards, badges, stickers; all the things I loved about collecting records as a teenager. This record really is the complete package, and highlights some of the brilliant work Laura has been doing over the last couple of years (along with the podcast, the YouTube channel and everything else).

Richard Dawson & Circle – Henki

Richard Dawson does it again. A fantastic and flawless concept album that I love more each time I listen to it. It snuck into the list right at the end of the year, but it’s something I suspect will be listened to a lot during the first few months of 2022.

Snapped Ankles – Forest of Your Problems

One step on from their last record. I love it. I also really wish I could see them play live again, because my first experience was absolutely mind-blowing.

Squid – Bright Green Field

May’s Rough Trade album of the month was Bright Green Field by Squid. A new name for me, but one that reminds me a little of Black Country, New Road and a lot of other things that I really like. It’s not an easy first listen, but it soon makes itself indispensable and is another one that was always going to feature on my end of year list.

The Stranglers – Dark Matters

I did not expect this record to be so good, and it’s a fitting tribute to Dave Greenfield who we lost this year. I think it’s probably their best since their heyday.

Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend

Maybe a predictable choice, but I do really love this record, and I think it will stand the test of time. This sounds the way I expect number one records in 2021 to sound like.

Everything Else

Albums of the year 2020

2020 has been a strange year. We all know that. Live music hasn’t really been a thing since March, and so many more people get to listen to music throughout the day thanks to working from home being much more common than it was before March. I think both of these things have probably influenced my list of favourite albums this year, and so I’m going to split it into two lists – one of traditional albums that are best listened to in sequence, and one of the music that soundtracked my working days during those rare few moments when I was not in Zoom or Teams meetings.

Looking down the lists I can see I’ve very much been influenced by the live music I did get to encounter this year (at the 6 Music Festival mainly), and also by the 130+ listening parties I did since live music dried up in March (which I wrote about here and here). I do hope I’ll be able to experience live music again next year, but I also very much hope that listening parties are still something that artists see as a valuable way of connecting with their fans.

In all cases the links below are to somewhere you can listen to and/or buy the record in question (Bandcamp or the artist’s own website). There’s a lot of music here, but hopefully some of it will appeal to someone.

First off we have my list of albums. It’s quite an angry list but I think that’s a fair comment on this year:

And then the list of compilations, soundtracks, live albums, instrumentals and other things that kept me soothed during this turbulant year:

Albums of the Year 2019

I realised this week that I have a single blog post for all my other Album of the year lists, and would probably regret doing 2019 in sections at some point. This blog post addresses this issue, and also has undergone some light editing to preserve the narrative.

I’ve been compiling a list of my favourite records of each year for a decade or more. This year I’ve listened to music slightly differently; with monthly Spotify playlists on shuffle during train journeys and walks, but otherwise by putting a record on my record player and listening to the songs in the order they were sequenced. These are my top 10, starting with something that came out during a surprisingly warm February.

Ex:Re – Ex:Re

Ex:Re is the solo project of Elena Tonra (from Daughter), and this record is touched by heartbreak, but also by the realisation that you sometimes need to pick the pieces of other people out of your skin before you can start to heal. It’s sparse and beautiful, and one of the most emotionally raw collections of songs I’ve heard this year.

The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All the Time

The second selection from my list of my favourite records from 2019 takes me back to the very start of the year.

Anyone who has known me for a while will know that The Twilight Sad are one of my favourite bands, and that their music often soundtracks the winter months for me. This year they delivered an excellent new record in January, which got me in the right head space for a couple of weeks of sub-zero cycling and an extremely challenging month at work (but it’s good to get the worst month out of the way at the start of the year, right?).

Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising

Part 3 of my list of my favourite records from 2019.

At this point I realise there are very few cheery records on this year’s list. This one is probably the most uplifting musically, although lyrically it deals with climate change, and the growing sense that if we don’t do something to avert the climate catastrophe then it doesn’t really matter what else we do because we are underwater. This one is a grower, and nothing like what I usually listen to, but it’s one I keep coming back to.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen

I said previously that there are very few cheery records on this list, and this one doesn’t help. It is however one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard (this year or any other year), and it’s a million miles away from where Nick Cave started all those years ago (check out Release the Bats by The Birthday Party for something a lot angrier). This reminds me of one of those books where you just have to read it all in one go. Partly to find out what happened and partly because it deserves your full attention until you have consumed it completely. I would be surprised if there is an album of the year list that doesn’t include this record; it really is that good.

Kate Tempest – The Book of Traps & Lessons

This is a record that definitely needs to be listened to in the order it is sequenced. It’s also probably my favourite record by an artist who is responsible for at least one of my favourite records already (2016’s Let Them Eat Chaos). Kate Tempest is a writer who also performs, and The Book of Traps & Lessons is a single long poem put to music that demands to be listened to in one go. The music is much sparser than anything she has done before, but it allows the words to take centre stage as they should do. This record has probably provoked the most extreme emotional reaction of anything I’ve listened to this year, and I suspect I’ll listen to it for many years to come.

Belle & Sebastian – Days of the Bagnold Summer

This next record takes me back to September. I spent about half of September in Japan, and as a result couldn’t buy this record until it had been out a couple of weeks. It was my soundtrack to that trip though (thanks to Spotify), and also to the desolate weather and subsequent mood crash that followed my return to the UK. Many people will know that Belle & Sebastian are one of my favourite bands, and this record serves as a great introduction to them, from the re-recordings of two old favourites to the newer songs that may themselves become old favourites in the years to come. They managed to provide at least two of my favourite songs of last year (Cornflakes and Best Friend) and in This Letter and Safety Valve they have added two more songs that just seemed to perfectly sum up how I was feeling at the time I first listened to them. They have made better records, but for now this one will do nicely.

The Delines – The Imperial

My seventh record of the year is from January, when 2019 was only a few days old. I loved the soulful gin-soaked vibe of the first Delines record (Colfax), and this one picks up very much where the last one left off. It’s very much an album of stories, with clear narratives, believable characters (with names – which reminds me a bit of The Hold Steady), and songs that sound like they could have been written at any time since the early 70s. This isn’t a fashionable record, and I suspect it won’t be in many end of year lists, but it’s one that is well worth giving a chance to if you are interested in well-written songs performed to perfection.

Cigarettes After Sex – Cry

My 8th record of the year is much newer than most of the rest, but definitely deserves a place on this list. The first Cigarettes After Sex record was on my list in 2017, and I was wondering what direction they would go in next. The answer is very much that they are going in exactly the same direction, but are much closer to getting there. It’s very much still all about crooning falsetto, shimmering guitars, and lyrics that don’t look like anything special when written down, but which still manage to blend perfectly with the music; but if anything there are even more great songs this time around. This record sound-tracked most of November and December for me, and if the year started in November it would easily be my record of the year.

Durand Jones & The Indications – American Love Call

This is a record that I got as part of my Rough Trade Club membership, and I don’t think I would have given it a chance otherwise. From the cover I had it pegged as retro American soul, and while that’s not too far off the mark there is something about this record that transcends genre and just transports me to America in the sunshine instead (not bad considering I’ve only ever been to America in December). Both vocalists can really sing, there isn’t a bad song on the record, and it has very quickly become the record I put on if I just want to feel better about myself and the world for a little while.

William Doyle – Your Wilderness Revisited

For my 10th selection I’m going to pick something that I’ve only owned for a few days, but which I’ve loved since the first time I’ve heard it. William Doyle used to record as East India Youth, but this record is very different than anything that has gone before, and swaps electronic music for something more organic and breathable. It still does a fair bit of genre-switching, but is on the whole a collection of excellent songs with clever and thoughtful lyrics. Words are important to me, and these words are perfect.

The Best of the Rest

There is more though (there always is), and there are some records that I’ve really enjoyed but I don’t really have anything to say about. These are the rest:

  • She Makes War – And Peace
  • DIIV – Deceiver
  • Lost Crowns – Every Night Something Happens
  • Fontaines DC – Dogrel
  • Pip Blom – Boat
  • Mark Kozelek and Petra Haden – Joey Always Smiled
  • Sudan Archives – Athena
  • FKA Twigs – Magdalene
  • Maps – Colours. Reflect. Time. loss.
  • The National – I Am Easy to Find
  • Angel Olsen – All Mirrors
  • Viagra Boys – Street Worms
  • Big Thief – UFOF
  • Big Thief – Two Hands
  • Richard Dawson 2020
  • Kim Gordon – No Home Record
  • Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie
  • The Comet is Coming – Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
  • Snapped Ankles – Stunning Luxury
  • Julia Jacklin – Crushing

Albums of the year 2018

2018 has been a strange year in so many ways. I always said that I would try and buy less music this year, and instead, spend more time with the music I did buy. This has very much happened, but there is also very little on this list that wasn’t chosen by someone else (either as part of the Rough Trade club, or as a birthday/Christmas gift). That said, I love all of these records, and I think they represent an accurate summary of my journey through 2018.

  • Shame – Songs of Praise
  • Nils Frahm – All Melody
  • Belle & Sebastian – How to Solve our Human Problems
  • The Shacks – Haze
  • Daniel Blumberg – Minus
  • LUMP – LUMP
  • Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth
  • Father John Misty – God’s Favourite Customer
  • Here Lies Man – You Will Know Nothing
  • Bodega – Endless Scroll
  • Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage
  • She Makes War – Brace for Impact
  • IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance.
  • Adrianne Lenker – abyskiss
  • Paul Smith – Diagrams
  • John Grant – Love is Magic
  • Smashing Pumpkins – Shiny and Oh So Bright (volume 1)
  • Audiobooks – Now! (in a minute)
  • Labaich – The Sound of Music
  • AMOR – Sinking into a Miracle

Albums of the year 2017

I probably listened to less new music this year than any year in the last decade, although I definitely listened to each new record more, which was very much my intention at the start of the year. I also reverted to buying physical copies of music wherever possible (either on vinyl or on CD), which lead to me setting up my old stereo in my study and only really listening to digital music through Spotify or when I was on the move.

Did this change the sort of music I listened to? I don’t think so, but I definitely found myself exploring the back catalogues of several of the artists responsible for the records below in a way I probably wouldn’t have in previous years, and I think that might have lead to the list being slightly more biased towards established artists I already owned music by than new discoveries and more diverse genres.

The list I’ve come up with for this year (in alphabetical order) is:

Aldous Harding – Party
Belle & Sebastian – How to Solve Our Human Problems (part 1)
The Big Moon – Love in the 4th Dimension
Big Thief – Capacity
Bjork – Utopia
British Sea Power – Let the Dancers Inherit the Party
Cigarettes After Sex – Cigarettes After Sex
Colter Wall – Colter Wall
Conor Oberst – Salutations
Destroyer – Ken
The Fall – New Facts Emerge
Father John Misty – Pure Comedy
Here Lies Man – Here Lies Man
Idles – Brutalism
The Indelicates – Juniverbrecher
Lorde – Melodrama
Los Campesinos! – Sick Scenes
Lost Horizons – Ojala
Mac DeMarco – This Old Dog
Mark Eitzel – Hey Mr Ferryman
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – Adios Señor Pussycat
The National – Sleep Well Beast
The New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions
Richard Dawson – Peasant
Ryan Adams – Prisoner
Slowdive – Slowdive
Sun Kil Moon – Common as Light and Love are Red Valleys of Blood
This is the Kit – Moonshine Freeze
The Unthanks – Diversions vol. 4 : The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake
The Wedding Present – George Best 30
Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – Neuk Wight Delhi All-stars

Albums of the year 2016

As always, I’ve listened to a lot of new music this year. It’s been my second year of collecting vinyl, and my second (and last) year of blogging about my monthly discoveries (2017 is likely to be a little too busy to commit to that for another year). This year I’ve split my choices into three categories – my top 10 albums by how many times I’ve played them, my top 10 vinyl purchases, and a selection of other things I’ve listened to this year that I really like.

Top 10 from Last.fm

I’ve used last.fm to track my listening habits for the past 10 years. Whilst it doesn’t track anything I listen to on vinyl (or in fact CD), it does cover everything I’ve listened to on my computer, my phone and my iPad, on a variety of different music players. The following albums are my top 5 based on that criteria, although it should be noted that I also own the Unloved album on vinyl so there is a chance I’ve actually listened to it more than anything else this year.

She Makes War – Direction of Travel
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
Shearwater – Jet Plane and Oxbow
Unloved – Guilty of Love
Tortoise – The Catastrophist
PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack
Jesu & Sun Kil Moon – Jesu/Sun Kil Moon
Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – Everything Sacred
The Wedding Present – Going Going

What strikes me about this list is that there are a lot of familiar names there, and I’ve listened to (and written about) most of these artists a lot in the past. The two new names on this list are She Wakes War (my favourite record of the year, and one that reminds me a lot of Trouble Will Find Me by The National in both subject matter and my general emotional response to it) and Unloved (one of several “supergroup” records in my list this year, and one that I keep coming back to).

10 more that I’ve played a lot on vinyl

I started collecting vinyl again two years ago, and these are the ten records from 2016 that I keep coming back to (along with the Unloved album which I’ve already mentioned). It’s interesting to note that only one of these (Black Mountain’s IV) is a double album, and I’m now fairly sure that having something spread across more than one record does limit how much I listen to it.

Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression
Minor Victories – Minor Victories
Angel Olsen – My Woman
Black Mountain – IV
Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve – The Soft Bounce
Pixies – Head Carrier
Wild Beasts – Boy King
D.D Dumbo – Utopia Defeated
RM Hubbert – Telling The Trees
The Magnetic North – Prospect of Skelmersdale

This list probably owes a lot to the fact that I get sent one record a month by Rough Trade, and definitely features more newer artists, and debut records. I loved the idea of Minor Victories before I even heard the record (and hearing it didn’t change that), and I really didn’t expect another good Iggy Pop record (and certainly not one that good). There isn’t really a filler track on any of these, and all come highly recommended.

My favourite records of the year (that I’ve not already mentioned)

This is very much the best of the rest, and also a few things I’ve not played that often, but would still say are my favourite records of the year.

Brian Eno – The Ship
BadBadNotGood – IV
Conor Oberst – Ruminations
Bon Ivor – 22, A Million
Charlie Hilton – Palana
Moby and the Void Pacific Choir – These Systems Are Failing
Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial
Kate Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos
Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
Banks – The Alter
Melanie De Biasio – Blackened Cities
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
Okkervil River – Away
James Blake – The Colour in Anything
Steve Mason – Meet the Humans
Knifeworld – Bottled out of Eden
Blixa Bargeld & Teho Teardo – Nerissimo
Shirley Collins – Lodestar
Cate Le Bon – Crab Day
Riley Walker – Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
Childish Gambino – “Awaken My Love”
Anderson .Paak – Malibu
Anohni – Hopelessness
DJ Shadow – The Mountain Will Fall
Wire – Nocturnal Koreans

This last list is much more diverse, with a lot of rap and R’n’B, a little jazz, and a fair few things that defy classification. I think it’s a fair representation of my listening habits over the last year though.