10 Japanese Albums That Got Me Through 2022

Somehow Distrans Continuum managed to turn into a repository for end-of-year best album lists, which is very much *not* what I envisaged when it was created. One thing I wanted to do with this post was to write something about the music that really got me through the year, and not just the new releases, like I'm just another unsuspecting tool of the music industry. 

The theme of this list is various Japanese environmental, jazz, folk, neo-classical, and city pop CD albums that I've been buying over the past few years, mainly recorded and released in the 1970s to the 1990s (although many are being re-released). At last count I have over 350 Japanese albums in my physical collection, so it's about time I finally contributed a blog post on some of this excellent music. I'm not including any links but most of these albums can be found on YouTube if readers are curious enough to check them out...

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Takahiko Ishikawa - The Firmament (1993; Environmental/New Age)

For many western fans of Japanese ambient and environmental music from the 80s and 90s, the 'Music For Your Mind Relaxation Music' series is most famous for its first entry, Hiroshi Yoshimura's Wet Land (1993), currently yours for over £1k on Discogs. As good as the aforementioned album is, the big secret of the five album series is Takahiko Ishikawa's The Firmament (although all contributions are admittedly excellent). In less than half an hour, the album takes the listener on exhilarating emotional journey. It is the central triad of tracks that brought me back to this record for repeated listens, starting with the contemplative 'Memories Of A Swing', to the gently rousing 'First Date', and culminating in the life-affirming optimism of 'A Walk Under The Flowing Clouds'. 

Eiji Nakayama - Aya's Samba (1978; Jazz)

Eiji Nakayama is a jazz bassist, and as far as I can tell this is his first studio album. The album is in many respects about the flamboyant six and a half minute opening title track, featuring some nice moments with Kenji Takahashi on sax, but the rest of the record is great too - an excellent choice if an aural energy boost is need.

Yukimasa Takebe - ゆふすげびとのうた (1972; Folk/Acoustic)

Each side of this western-style folky record starts with a downbeat song, but on closer listening most of the tracks have a much more positive vibe: the record twice sucks in the listener through its sadder cuts, and then sets about the task of re-building the mood from the ground up. And boy, does this record get bleak.  Track 7, '春の歌', which I think translates as 'Spring Song', is a deeply-moving and softly-sung cathartic piece of music that chills to the core of the soul. 

Moshiri & Akira Sakata - Kamuychikap (God's Bird) (1991; Fusion)

The music on this album is extremely difficult to categorise: while there are elements of jazz, synthesizers, and sung protest music of the indigenous Ainu people of northern Japan, listening to it (and its excellent companion album from the same year (Yayresu / Disciplining Myself), is almost like a religious experience. From the poignant 'The Silver Rain Is Falling' (track 2), to the urgency of 'The Wind God Is Travelling' (track 3), featuring Akira Sakata's meandering sax, and the mesmerising female vocal led 'Lullaby' (track 4), the central core of the album feels like a rallying call to battle - a sentiment further echoed on 'We Ainus Protest' (track 5). From a historical perspective it seems significant that only six years after this record was released the Ainu people received official legal recognition of their rights to exist as a separate cultural entity with their own distinct traditions.

Shinsuke Honda - Guitar Resort (2000; Acoustic/Ambient)

Guitar Resort is probably not the best Shinsuke Honda album, but I found it to be a particularly effective as an instant remedy to those situations in which one just needs to find some time to be alone and re-centre. Starting with the excellent 'Silent Sea' and 'Listening To Rain', to 'Late Spring', there is plenty of chilled ambient guitar music to be enjoyed on the first half of the record, before the tempo ups a little on 'PureBlue'. The second half of the album lurches jarringly towards more upbeat territory, before settling down on the excellent '春宵' ('Spring Evening') which reprises the dominant theme of the record's first half.

Yumi Arai - Misslim (1974; Pop)

When I first heard this record, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was already familiar with one of the album's standout tracks: 'Wrapped In Kindness' appears on the 1989 Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service [indeed, several other Yumi Arai / Matsutoya tracks also feature in the films of Hayao Miyazaki]. Essentially, this is straightforward feel-good pop record (Yuming's second), but one that demonstrates a wide range of musical styles that are executed to a high standard throughout. 

Tetsuji Hayashi - Back Mirror (1997; City Pop/Light Mellow)

I have to confess I was lured into buying this album by the moody cover art and lead track, 'Rainy Saturday & Coffee Break', but thankfully the gamble paid off. It's impossible to listen to this without romantic yearnings for a coffee on a rainy Saturday morning - as the female backing vocalist points out in English - 'rainy Saturday and coffee, baby, there's a lot for you and me'... Back Mirror was the first album I bought that falls into the western-influenced Japanese bubble-era city pop genre (leaning heavily towards the 'light mellow' end of the spectrum), and despite long hours of research I've been disappointed to discover only a few other albums from the scene as good or consistent as this.

Hiroshi Yoshimura - Static (1988; Neo-classical)

I had to include an album by the late great Hiroshi Yoshimura in this list. Instead of going for one of his more conventional electronic-ambient records, I opted for this collection of piano music, as played by Satsuki Shibano (whom I'm also a big fan of); it was also the first album of his I was able to afford on Discogs some years ago (prices have since tripled). The music itself is pleasant while conveying a consistent undertone of sadness. Perhaps for this reason, my favourite track is the cautiously optimistic and heartwarming 'Afternoon Walk'.

Toshifumi Hinata - Chat D'Ete (1986; Electronic/Neo-classical)

Another album with a strong classical direction, this time by Toshifumi Hinata, whose first four albums from the mid-1980s present strikingly innovative blending of (western) classical, jazz, and electronic music, creating soundscapes often reminiscent of a David Lynch soundtrack. Chat D'Ete is arguably the most eclectic and ambitious of those first four records, with most tracks exuding an effortless sense of Parisian-style coolness. Here the standout track is probably the evocative 'Exotic Woman' (track 6), which is aptly named - perhaps this is the mysterious woman amongst the colonnades on the album cover?

The Milky Way - Summertime Lovesong (1979; City Pop/Light Mellow)

This collaboration between Makoto Matsushita and Kazuo Nobuta (aka The Milky Way) is for me the epitomy of the perfection of the City Pop genre, featuring a combination of effortlessly well-executed western covers alongside some original compositions, with a heavy dosage of laid back bossa nova stylings. The paradoxical dual naivety and sophistication of the music is a joy to behold across all nine tracks, but my personal stand-out is the title track 'Summertime Love Song'. Ultimately this album works as pure escapism, even in the darkest and coldest winter months.

The Distrans Continuum Top 8 Albums of 2021

Fast on the heels of the 2020 list, here comes 2021...

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8. Gas - Der Lange Marsch

A late release in December 2021, I can't help associate this album with a midnight drive to a COVID vaccination centre in the middle of rural Devon just as the first Omicron wave hit the UK (I kept missing turns in the dark, got lost, and eventually I realised I'd been driving without the headlights on). So the album carries extra paranoia-induced quality when I hear it. As for the music, the album is generally understood as a kind of homage to Wolfgang Voigt's extensive past electronic-ambient releases under the Gas moniker, so there's much to like even if it doesn't mark a radical departure from such past works.

7. Low - Hey What

Writing this post a year too late forces me to confront the untimely death of Low member Mimi Parker in November 2022 - RIP Mimi. Hey What presents in many ways a logical continuation from 2018's excellent Double Negative, which was something of a turning point in the Low back catalogue through its extensive use of Bon Iver-style vocal processing. Hey What starts in pretty uncompromising fashion with 'White Horses', bringing back a harder edge sometimes missing on its predecessor.

6. Kings Of Convenience - Peace Or Love

After a rather substantial gap since their last album, 2009's Declaration Of Dependence, I was surprised by how much I warmed to this record. Not a great deal has changed in the duo's music - it's still pretty inoffensive acoustic pop - but seemingly I have a major soft spot for it. Perhaps it is the basic charm of songs like 'Love Is A Lonely Thing' and 'Catholic Country' (featuring Feist sharing vocal duties) on the enkindling of romance that kept me coming back.

5. The Weather Station - Ignorance

Featuring on many critics list in 2021, this album took a while to warm to - in fact for a good while I still preferred 2015's Loyalty to it - but in the end the general quality and lyrical depth of Ignorance won me over.

4. Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner's Mind

If there were any long time readers of this blog, they would not be surprised to see yet another Sufjan Stevens album in my yearly lists. The collaboration is a pleasant homage to popular movies from a few years/decades ago, which presents a fun task in working out the various film references in the songs. More importantly, it's a thoroughly fun and enjoyable pop record, without any of the pervading angst that coloured 2020's The Ascension.

3. James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart

After being blissed up in love on Assume Form (2019), James Blake seemingly returns to more familar emotional territory on Friends That Break Your Heart, dealing with less happy times and more mundane relationship turmoil. While not as universally lauded by critics as some of his other albums (this is Blake at his safest, according to Pitchfork), there's a lot to like here, from the bouncy lurch of 'Coming Back' to the melodic if self-deprecating 'Say What You Will'.

2. Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders - Promises

Another (unexpected) collaboration, and another great loss to music, with jazz legend saxophonist Pharoah Sanders passing away at the age of 81 in September 2022. His 2021 collaboration with Mancunian DJ and producer Sam Shepherd (aka Floating Points), also featuring the London Symphony Orchestra, is a genuine standout record in nine movements, with the sax, electronics and orchestra gently coalescing in exquisite harmony. Supposedly recorded over five years, Promises is an impressively forward-looking monument to Sanders' long career, not to mention future offerings from Floating Points.

1. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - G_d's Pee At State's End!

Finally, a post-2000s Godspeed album that lives up to the highs of their early work, last seen on 2012's excellent Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! As it happens, G_d's Pee At State's End! closely follows the successful structure of the band's 2012 album, with the familiar arrangement of a pair of front stage expansive 20 minute tracks each followed by shorter 5 minute interval pieces. As with Don't Bend! Ascend!, it is the longer tracks that carry the day, with resounding post-apocalyptic guitar instrumentals building out of the radio static, falling away, and rising again, in different (but equally epic) forms. 

The Distrans Continuum Top 5 Albums of 2020

Okay, it's time to resurrect this blog. If all goes to plan, Distrans Continuum will be back up to date with the obligatory album of the year lists in the coming days, plus something a bit more bespoke and hopefully interesting as well...

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So back to 2020. You may well wonder why I've opted to list only my top 5 albums, and not go for a more expansive top 10. As it happens, I planned this post long ago and didn't get around to writing it until now. Looking at my draft list, there were 5 albums that just really stood out, so I'm sticking to that.

5. Fleet Foxes - Shore

As a long-time Fleet Foxes fan, I instantly liked this album when it came out, but after several listens and closer scrutiny it just didn't have the necessary ingredients to propel it further up this list. It's probably not the most essential record they've put out, but it still sits very nicely in their largely excellent back-catalog. As I turned 40 in 2020, I started to have this nagging feeling that liking the Fleet Foxes is the sort of thing I'm expected to do as a forty-something... F**k that, it's still a damn good album.

4. Leo Takami - Felis Catus And Silence

As if to dispel the middle age trope (see above), here's an album from an artist I've been unfamiliar with until this breakthrough release. Felis Catus And Silence is an instrumental record with jazz and ambient influences, but the music is difficult to pin down to a particular genre. Unlike his previous album, 2017's Tree Of Life (which is well-worth tracking down), this record is more compact and thematically unified. With track names like 'Garden Of Joy', 'Children On Their Birthdays', and 'Garden Of Light', the music is more often optimistic and almost celebratory, interspersed with more contemplative ambient cuts. Well worth checking out if you haven't heard of the artist.

3. Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension

The first proper follow-up to Carrie & Lowell, which topped my 2015 list and remains a fixture in my all-time top 10, I greeted The Ascension with no small amount of trepidation back in 2020. This album sounds at face value like a return to the kind of electronic instrumentation preferred on 2010's The Age Of Adz, with the addition of a persistent and deep-seated sense of anxiety that pervades most of the tracks. Clocking in at around 80 minutes, there are skippable stretches, and some tracks can outstay their welcome if the mood isn't right - especially later songs like 'Death Star' and 'Sugar'. But these moments never really detract from the overall quality of the record. Several songs stand up there with the best in Stevens' discography, and while the overall mood of the record chimed all too well with the experience of living in a COVID afflicted world, there are sustained glimpses of transcendence - most notably the title track, amongst others.

2. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud

This one very nearly made the #1 slot... And amazingly Saint Cloud is the first Waxahatchee album to feature on this blog. A lot has been made of the Dylan influences on this album, but at the end of the day the release feels like a major game changer in Katie Crutchfield's output - it's all so much more lyrically direct and cathartic, even more so than the previous Waxahatchee album, 2017's Out In The Storm.

1. The Strokes - The New Abnormal

What a pleasant surprise this was. It was inconceivable, say in 2019, that a *Strokes* album would take my #1 album slot in 2020. With a title that was all too apt to the COVID situation that was to unfold through the year, the music really speaks for itself on The New Abnormal. There's not a dud track on the record, and it keeps on building nicely, doing what the Strokes do best until the end of the last track. With their debut album being massively over-hyped by the music press back in 2001, each subsequent Strokes album seemed destined to fail in some respect, in many instances probably unfairly. I mean, to be honest, in the last 10 years I've probably listened to 2011's Angles a lot more than Is This It. Anyway, The New Abnormal was well worth the wait, and for me, definitely the best Strokes album to date.

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2019

A bit late this year, but here it is, the Distrans Continuum pick of albums from 2019...

10. Floating Points - Crush

First on the list is a new discovery for me, a project of Mancunian Sam Shepherd. While sounding a bit fragmentary on first listen, this electronic music features a nice kaleidoscope blend of textures, sounds and great ideas. I've enjoyed this immensely, as well as discovering the rest of the artist's discography.

9. New Pornographers - In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights

It's been a while since a New Pornographers record made my top ten, but it hasn't stopped me religiously buying their music ever since their excellent 2000 debut, Mass Romantic, was released. If 2017's Whiteout Conditions was a return to form, In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights kicks their special brand of guitar-based power-pop up another notch again. There are plenty of tracks on this album that live with the Canadian supergroup's best, like 'Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile' and 'Opening Ceremony'.

8. James Blake - Assume Form

After his previously inconsistent and sometimes overly bleak records, Assume Form is a real breath of fresh air. James is evidently blissed up with new romance, which is explored from a variety of directions on the record's constituent tracks.

7. Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs

Following 2015's excellent On Your Own Love Again, Quiet Signs was one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of 2019. What a different record this is. Whereas its predecessor was more of a collection of songs, Quiet Signs is more of a coherent and unified experience, with individual tracks fading into one another. More of a grower perhaps, but also a confident step forward in the career of promising singer-songwriter.

6. Gareth Quinn Redmond - Laistigh Den Ghleo

I came across this album bundled with the re-issue of Satoshi Ashikawa's ambient masterpiece, Still Way (1982), by WRWTFWW Records. On this record, Redmond develops some of the motif elements on Still Way to create a beautiful album that is so much more than a mere companion piece. Well worth checking out.

5. Ladytron - Ladytron

Well, I didn't see this one coming. Ladytron seemed to be losing their creative edge on their last album, Gravity The Seducer (2011), which I loved for its style if not its execution. 2019's self-titled release is a seriously strong comeback album, improving substantially on the artist's original output, while retaining their signature sonic identity.

4. Holly Herndon - Proto

Much has been made of the use of the artificial intelligence 'Spawn' that features on this album, but for me this is a distraction. In essence, this is a super follow-up to the excellent Platform (2015), adding (amongst other things) choral interjections that take several of the tracks to new levels of weird climax.

3. Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano - Serenitatem

Largely thanks to the impact of Visible Cloaks' album Reassemblage (2017), I have spent significant sums of money over the last few years tracking down obscure Japanese ambient, electronic, environmental, and new age music from the 1980s and early 90s. So naturally, the prospect of getting hold of a collaboration of Visible Cloaks with Japanese electronic/ambient maestro Yoshio Ojima and pianist extraordinaire Satsuki Shibano was going to be very exciting indeed. While it does live up to my expectations, I concede that many will find this obscure and perhaps somewhat cerebral. Still, a highly rewarding purchase if you can find the right moment/setting to listen to it in...

2. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Hardly a stranger to top 10s in 2019, but this record really blew me away. I hadn't heard of Weyes Blood before, but as a consequence I now own their full back catalog... Tracks like 'Andromeda' and 'Everyday' are simply timeless, and the rest of the album is pretty strong too.

1. FKA Twigs - Magdalene

Perhaps another predictable choice, but Magdalene is hands-down the record that left the most indelible mark on me in 2019. While its impact was less immediate than say, Titanic Rising, Magdalene recieved most plays in the longer run. I liked her debut well enough, but there's far more depth, maturity and sophistication on this album than 2014's LP1 - I hope we don't have to wait another four years for the next one.

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2018

Must do something about the infrequency of posts on this blog... First step, get the obligatory top 10 albums of the year post out of the way. Hardly incitement to read the rest of the blog, you may be thinking. Well, indeed. I have to confess my musical explorations have been focused elsewhere in 2018 - and I hope to make a post about that soon enough.

Anyway, 2018. Before getting into the top 10, it's fair to say that my lack of attention to new releases has laid bare my default buying habits - indie rock by artists in their heyday 10-20 years ago. Okay, it's not that homogeneous, but it's also fair to say that I've not been massively inspired by 2018 either. A number of critically acclaimed records don't make the cut here because they left me cold - even by artists I normally love, like Julia Holter (too experimental, too much hard work), Kamasi Washington (too samey, too long), Kurt Vile (see Kamasi Washington) and Oneohtrix Point Never (just not up to past high standards).

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10. Papa M - A Broke Moon Rises

The second recent-ish album from David Pajo after 2016's brief and surprising comeback, Highway Songs. A Broke Moon Rises sees Pajo return to the familiar chilled out instrumental acoustic territory of older classics like 1999's Live From A Shark Cage, and the end result is a delight that appears to have been overlooked by a lot of critics.

9. Kelly Moran - Ultraviolet

Okay, so I wasn't entirely on autopilot in my 2018 album explorations. Kelly Moran was a new discovery for me, and on hearing this I quickly snapped up her preceding album, Bloodroot (2017). The attraction here is Moran's unique sound obtained from her custom-modified piano, which is perhaps best showcased on the track 'Helix'. I'm not sure this album completely fulfils Moran's potential, but it is certainly one of my standout listens of 2018.

8. Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You For Today

This one was a bit of a surprise entry. I'd almost written off Death Cab after their decent-ish but ultimately underwhelming 2015 release, Kintsugi. Despite it's insipid cover and title, Thank You For Today is a much needed shot in the arm for these beloved indie rock veterans - great production, lyrics and a consistent all-round listen.

7. Belle & Sebastian - How To Solve Our Human Problems

Less of a surprise, but very much in the veteran indie theme of this top 10. Although not really a proper album, this collection of 3 EPs is a nice addition to Belle & Sebastian's already extensive discography. True, there's nothing much new here, just a really strong collection of songs without the slightly artificial disco styling of their last album, Girls In Peacetime Like To Dance (2015).

6. Jlin - Autobiography

Time for something a little different to break things up. Autobiography is the third full-length album from electronic 'footwork' artist Jlin, and is her most satisfying album to date. Perhaps the key difference here is that the music was composed to accompany a dance performance arranged by Wayne McGregor. Whatever the reason, this album is consistently compelling, with many well-executed twists and turns. Looking forward to the next proper album.

5. Beach House - 7

Another great album from Beach House? Not exactly. Yes, I've included it in my top 10. There are plenty of stand-out songs here, such as early highlight 'Lemon Glow'. At the same time, despite a tweaked sound, I think this album may mark the start of peak Beach House for me. Perhaps the track listing didn't quite flow as well as on their previous albums, or maybe I've just heard too much Beach House. Either way, this is their first album in a long time that hasn't felt like a truly essential listen, despite its evident qualities.

4. Low - Double Negative

Let's file this one under refreshing change of direction. Not that one was necessarily needed - their previous album Ones And Sixes just made my top 10 for 2015. It's not quite the Low meets Bon Iver transformation that some critics billed the album as, but nonetheless this is invigorating and enchanting in ways Low have rarely been before, if ever.

3. Frankie Cosmos - Vessel

I  don't get the relative lack of attention Frankie Cosmos gets. Okay, the music tends to review well enough, but somehow her albums seem to disappear when it comes to too many end of year lists. This is another superb pop gem that follows hot on the heels of the similarly excellent Next Thing, my #2 pick for 2016. As ever, many of the tracks here are fleeting in their brevity. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword, leaving the listener lamenting their shortness, but encouraging repeated listening...

2. Tim Hecker - Konoyo

Another refreshing change of direction, this time a little more subtle from ambient-electronic instrumentalist Tim Hecker. On Konoyo, recorded in Japan, Hecker seemingly adds his own spin on recent Western rediscovery of Japanese environmental-ambient fourth world music from the 1980s and 90s, in a style that is reminiscent of the excellent 2017 album Reassemblage by Visible Cloaks. While many agree that Hecker's first four albums are frustratingly difficult to separate in their excellence, his later releases have been a bit more divisive. Konoyo makes a strong claim to being Hecker's best release of the last 10 years.

1. Melody's Echo Chamber - Bon Voyage

What a pleasant surprise this album turned out to be - a clear #1 by some distance. While I loved Melody's self-titled 2012 debut album, it also had its flaws, most notably petering out just over the halfway mark. Bon Voyage is a shorter listen, at 7 tracks and over 33 minutes, but this time there is no let up. There are frequent changes of pace, often within tracks, which pay-off more often than not, producing an exhilarating listen, perhaps best exemplified by the track 'Desert Horse'. Hopefully it won't be another 6 years before the next album...

The Distrans Continuum Top 10 Albums of 2017

Okay, this post comes a little late. Nevertheless, we're just about still in the first quarter of 2018, so a respectable period of time has passed for a proper retrospective on 2017. One of the reasons the post is so late is that I'm a bit old fashioned, and wanted to wait for the physical releases of one or two records, especially Fever Ray's Plunge. As it happens, that album didn't make the cut, but in the meantime I've had long enough to firm up a definitive top 10.

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10. Kamasi Washington - Harmony Of Difference

Kicking off the top 10, I'm cheating a little bit by including an EP. Still, this is such a good record, and clocking in at over 30 minutes is worthy of inclusion alongside full-blooded album releases. Harmony Of Difference comes hot on the heels of Washington's superb 3CD 2015 album The Epic, and the shift towards a more concise musical statement is both refreshing and rewarding. The EP better captures the emotion and euphoria of Kamasi Washington live, right from the get go on opener 'Desire'.

9. The Shins - Heartworms

While it's been five years since the last Shins album, Heartworms is a welcome return to form from James Mercer. While the sound is denser, and seems less effortless and airy than the classic Shins albums of the early 2000s, this is definitely one of the better comebacks of 2017.

8. Broken Social Scene - Hug Of Thunder

Another comeback album, an even longer hiatus - the last BSS album being released in 2010 (the excellent Forgiveness Rock Record). Although it fades somewhat in the second half, Hug Of Thunder sounds just as urgent as their classic You Forgot It In People (2002). The title track is a sublime slice of indie rock - as are many others here.

7. Toro Y Moi - Boo Boo

The most underrated album of 2017? Boo Boo must be a contender. While Toro Y Moi's previous albums have glittered while flattering to deceive, Boo Boo really delivers with his most consistent and compelling album yet. Unjustly perhaps, the record seems to have passed beneath the radar of many 2017 best album lists. Not only are there some great pop tracks here, but there's a new depth of emotion that really comes to the fore in some of the instrumentals.

6. Fleet Foxes - Crack Up

Another comeback album, and one that many were eagerly anticipating. While it doesn't take the easy route that the band could have opted for by reproducing the formula of their previous albums and EPs, Crack Up fulfills the promise of those releases, and challenges the listener to boot. Most importantly, it still sounds unquestionably like the Fleet Foxes of old.

5. Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now

I have a special affinity for the music of Jens Lekman. While most consider his best album to be 2007's Night Falls Over Kortedala, for me it will always be 2012's break-up record, I Know What Love Isn't - every single track seemed to evoke some deeply-felt aspect of the divorce I was going through at the time of its release. Life Will See You Now occupies something of the territory between those two aforementioned releases - at once fun, witty and contemplative.

4. Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Illusions

Another comeback album, and this one is yet again a serious contender for the best release in the band's back catalogue. As with Broken Social Scene, the keyword with this album is urgency. While many past DMST albums tended to meander around in jazzy and spacey instrumental rock, Stubborn Persistent Illusions drifts closer to the sounds of mainstream post-rock (if not a contradiction in terms), with resoundingly euphoric results.

3. Slowdive - Slowdive

Okay, this is the last comeback album on the list, but boy, what a good one, and what a wait. Slowdive's self-titled album comes a full 22 years after 1995's Pygmalion, disproving the notion of the slow decline after an initial burst of creative and innovative releases. I'll be frank, while I love Souvlaki, Slowdive is the better album. This is as good as any dream-pop the likes of Beach House have made in the last 10 years.

2. Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner and James McAlister - Planetarium

Something of a divisive release, this album is long, sprawling, illogically ordered, and messy. At the same time, it is utterly gorgeous, and defies all its faults to demand listen after listen. There are many high points here ('Jupiter', 'Venus', 'Pluto' and 'Saturn' are just a few), and while the longer instrumental tracks may put some people off, I found their presence vital to do justice to the celestial theme of the music. Well worth coming back to if it didn't click straight away.

1. Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

Wow. I've long been a fan of electronic ambient music, but this album not only blew me away, it also opened my mind to a new world of obscure electronic albums from 1980s Japan (future blog posts to follow on this subject). Like a lot of minimalist ambient music, getting the most out of this requires careful selection of context and mood, so in a sense, it is harder to compare directly with the other music on this list. Aside from the music itself, another major reason it is number one is the impact it has had on my music buying and listening in the last year or so. After delving into some of the music that inspired this album, it was pleasing to hear, among other things, echoes of Japanese maestro Yoshio Ojima, an artist I would have probably never encountered without hearing Reassemblage.