Mix CD #50 - Top Albums Of 2019

So here we are, at the end of not just another year but another decade. Golly gosh and all that. 
As usual, my final blog of the year is a countdown of my favourite albums of the year, from forty all the way down to my favourite. 

It's been a strange year for music in some ways, there seems to have been an absolute ton of it for a start. Normally I'm whittling down from a couple hundred of albums but this year has been twice that. I found it quite hard to place most of them after the first ten-fifteen and I'll admit some of them have been placed so the tracklisting scans a little better. 
There's also been a lot of comeback albums recorded after a lengthy break released this year. I thought The Wildhearts was a lengthy gap as there are ten years between albums but there's several with even bigger gaps. I think there's four artists where's it's been the best part of three decades since their last!

Several of these albums have some really beautiful artwork that my dinky little images don't fully convey so I recommend having a proper nosey at a decent sized image of them, in particular, Flora Greysteel, Lonely Robot, Gloryhammer, Stonefield and Moron Police have especially nice ones. 

I've included a Spotify playlist as well as the download as with previous years. It's about the only blog where every artist will be on there. It's something I'd like to do every time but there ends up being so many omissions that it's just not worth doing. 

There's a few noticeable omissions from this list, and I'm not talking big names like Tool, Opeth, Rammstein etc. I liked those albums, I just liked these ones more. There's a couple of albums that I would absolutely have included if not for the following reasons:

Ginger Wildheart - Headzapoppin
The latest solo album from The Wildhearts mainman is apparently brilliant and one of his best. I say apparently as I haven't heard even a single song from it. The album is out digitally but not physically and I think it's on my Christmas list. This would have been right up at the top no doubt.

Janus Stark - Angel In The Flames
Gizz Butt (from The Prodigy)'s band that last released an album in 2000, the brilliant Great Adventure Cigar. They've reformed and have just released this new album. I've bought it but the CD hasn't arrived yet so I've not heard it. I'm sure it's very good.

Toehider - Concerning Lix & Fairs And Other Cooked Stories
This album was only sent to a certain tier of his Patreon supporters and it's not commercially available so I didn't feel it was eligible. On top of that, most of the songs will be on his new album ( currently titled I Like It but that might change) that WILL be commercially available next year. Look for it in my Top Five next December as it's brilliant.

Finally, you may have noticed this is blog number fifty which I'm taking as a huge achievement. I never thought I'd still be going with it and, truth be told, I was planning on packing it in if I got this far, especially when all the algorithms changed and I went from blogs getting over a thousand views to being lucky if I break a hundred. 
Still, I'm still enjoying compiling them and some of you still seem to enjoy reading them so I'll carry on for now. I've already got the next three blogs pretty much all planned out so I'll crack on with the next one shortly.

I guess that's everything. Have a great December and I'll see you all in the new year! Oh and if you haven't joined the Facebook page then please do! 

Cheers
Luke
x

Download 40-21 HERE
Download 20-1 HERE
Listen to the Spotify playlist HERE

You can find the running order right down at the bottom of the blog so as to avoid spoilers.

Mix CD #41 - Top Albums Of 2018

Happy December folks!

For a true Music Nerd, December is a special, treasured time of year, nothing to do with either Jesus, Santa or family, oh no. December, the final Month of the year, is the time when we finally get to wave aloft our carefully crafted AOTY lists in a pompous statement of "The Music I Like Is Superior To The Music You Like" belligerence.

So then, here's my own pompous, belligerent list for you to coo appreciatively at. For a year that started out slow, it picked up pace considerably and there ended up being an absolute ton of albums this year. So much so that I had to extend my usual Top 20 to a Top 40 and there was still a lot of albums I was sad to see knocked out of the list. I could have easily done a Top 60 but you'd have got bored scrolling long before halfway.
It's been a particularly good year for Extreme Metal with more albums of that ilk than ever before appearing in my list, pretty high too. I don't know if it's just been a really good year for super heavy stuff or if my personal tastes have just changed a bit? 

For the first time this blog is a double and, as such, I've split it up into two halves so that it's easier to download.
I've also included a Spotify playlist for those that want it. I had to make a couple of minor changes due to availability but nothing that's going to ruin your day.

Like previous years, I've hidden the tracklisting of the mix(es) at the end to avoid spoilers, such as they are. 
The albums are below in reverse order, I hope there's some you agree with and/or some you'll want to check out afterwards.

I guess that's enough waffle, so long for 2018 and I'll hopefully see you all in January! 

Cheers,
Luke
x

You can download Part 1 HERE
You can download Part 2 HERE

You can listen on Spotify HERE

Mix CD #33 - Top Albums Of 2017

Hello and welcome to the first Sapphire Bullets blog of 2018! 
It's weird that we've reached 2018 already, it barely seems like any time at all that now was when the future was in dystopian, Post-Apocalyptical Sci-fi's. Sadly the future is very underwhelming and 12 year old me wouldn't be at all pleased. Back To The Future II was set nearly 3 years ago now and, where we're going, we most certainly still need roads.

Hopefully, reading this blog will assuage the pain of not having a flying car that runs on vegetables somewhat. As you can see it's a roundup of my favourite albums, in order from 20 down to 1 (there's actually 22 tracks not 20 but why will become evident should you read on). Much like last year, there's been an absolute ton of fantastic music and there were quite a few albums that I hated not to include. I'll bung some honourable mentions down at the bottom.

With it being more of a chart this time the format is slightly different. I don't want to post the track listing of the mix first and ruin your sweet anticipation of what's come where so, instead, I'll post it after the last entry along with the download link. I've also included a Spotify link for the first time if that's of use to you.

So yeah, here's my top 20 albums of 2017. Enjoy!

Mix CD #19 - Top Albums Of 2016: Part Two

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a good Christmas and all that. Now it's time to suffer some misery and yearn for the pay day that can't possibly still be over a fortnight away. By, January isn't half shit.

So yeah, if you're poor and sad like me then perhaps the second blog featuring tracks from albums that I liked last year will offer some sweet respite? It'll pass an hour or so for you if nothing else.

The first blog can be read HERE if you haven't already seen it and want to.

I've got a few themed blogs planned for the coming year, I was toying with the idea of a Profanity strewn mix and also one with songs of a depression/suicide theme. I should probably do something a little more cheerful too. I'll also likely be doing more mixes of Cover versions, B-sides and Rarities and Band Best Ofs. One thing I've not done yet is a genre specific blog so I might look into that too.

There's plenty to come over the next year then, in fact, the next mix will only be a week or so away hopefully, there's no specific theme for that one but I've about settled on the tracklisting for it. IT'll be the 20th Blog, a milestone!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one.

Cheers,
Luke

Tracklisting
Katatonia - Old Heart Falls
Leo Moracchioli - Royals
CJ Wildheart - Light It Up
Periphery - Motormouth
The Divine Comedy - How Can You Leave Me On My Own
Devin Townsend  - Gump
Twin Atlantic - The Chaser
Muncie Girls - Gas Mark 4
Drama Club Rejects - Idiot Brigade
Metallica - Spit Out The Bone
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Ignite - Alive
Hey! Hello! - Kids
Beyond The Black - Heaven In Hell
Prong - Without Words
The Baseballs - Never Ever
The Dowling Poole - When She Knows, She Knows
She Loves Pablo - Inheritance (To The Desert Jackals)
Megadeth - Bullet To The Brain
The Prettiots - Me And Little Andy

You can download the mix HERE and read more about each album below. Ta!

Mix CD #18 - Top Albums Of 2016: Part One

2016 has certainly been a game of two halves, a double edged sword, two sides of the same coin blah blah blah. On the one hand there's been an incredulous amount of well loved celebrities and musicians bowing out with no encore but on the other there's been an absolute deluge of quality albums released this year. So much so that album that might normally sit comfortably in my top 20 haven't even made the top 40.

For that reason I figured I would do two AOTY mixes this year and get to feature some albums that I think people will like but that haven't made the Top 20. Rather than have them in order of preference I just shuffled the 40 songs,split them into two playlists and fiddled about with it to make two posts for the blog. This being the first.

If you want to know what my actual Top 20 albums, in order, are then there's another blog over at All The Time I Was Listening To My Own Wall Of Sound HERE

The Mix Tracklisting
Scott Sorry - 'Til All The Pieces Fit
Devil Gone Public - Chillin', Killin'
Haken - Red Giant
Love Zombies - Favourite Song
Mina Caputo - Upturned Faces
NOFX - I Don't Like Me Anymore
Helion Prime - Life Will Find A Way
Scattered Hamlet - Green Bastard
Miracle Of Sound - Friends
Waste Pipes - Little Devils Scratched My Ears
Knives Out! - Mysterious Ways
Half Man Half Biscuit - Lark Descending
Vinyl Cape - Barren Orchard
Josh Woodward - Perfect
Dunsmuir - Orb Of Empire
Korn - Take Me
Frightened Rabbit - A Lick Of Paint
Volbeat - Seal The Deal
Savages - Evil
Darkend - Clavicula Salomanis

You can download the mix HERE
Once it's uploaded you'll be able to go read Part Two HERE
As always you can read the blurb about the various albums below.
Cheers,
Luke