It’s that time of year again to try and break down this years favourites into some kind of order, truth be told the #1 choice was the easiest I’ve had to make in recent years, separating #2 through #5 was a little more difficult – they are all great albums, stylistically very different but all have outstanding songs, from #6 onwards the degree of separation reduces and to be honest if I sat down with the final list next week the order could shift significantly, in the tradition of never doing it exactly the same way year-on-year this time around I’ve gone for a more straight forward chart and the number 33 seemed an appropriate choice given the top ten all found their way into my collection on vinyl (no doubt this influenced the final choices). Having already seen a number of fellow bloggers best of’s it evident there are some big name Americana acts missing from the Beat Surrender run down, as ever too much music and not enough time.
1. Jason Isbell – Southeastern
2. Camera Obscura – Desire Lines
3. Danny & The Champions of the World – Stay True
4. Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
5. Caitlin Rose – The Stand In
6. Lindi Ortega – Tin Star
7. Holly Williams – The Highway
8. Sturgill Simpson = High Top Mountain
9. My Darling Clementine – The Reconciliation
10. Austin Lucas – Stay Reckless
11. Frank Turner – Tape Deck Heart
12. Chris T-T & The Hoodrats – The Bear
13. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
14. John Moreland – In the Throes
15. Frankie & The Heartstrings – The Days Run Away
16. Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo – Dear River
17. Star Anna – Go To Hell
“For Anyone” by Star Anna (official music video) from Coalter Digital on Vimeo.
18. Thee Spivs – The Crowds & The Sounds
19. Doc Feldman & the LD50 – Sundowning At The Station
20. Israel Nash Gripka – Rain Plans
21. Shona Tucker – A Tell All
22. The Lucky Strikes – The Exile & The Sea
23. Laura Cantrell – No Way Here From There
24. Possessed by Paul James -There Will Be Nights When I’m Lonely
25. Amanda Shires – Down Fell The Doves
26. Frightened Rabbit – Pedestrian Verse
27. MG Boulter – The Water Or The Wave
28 Annie Keating – For Keeps
29. The Handsome Family – Wilderness
30. Paper Aeroplanes – Little Letters
31. Wynntown Marshalls – The Long Haul
32. Slaid Cleaves – Still Fighting The War
33. Lloyd Cole – Standards