The January Long List

So, the next step in my experiment is to identify a list of music to listen to in January 2011.  This really isn’t going to be difficult as a list has been bubbling under since well before Christmas.  At the moment it’s a fairly long list – a long list I need to whittle down to just five (or maybe six – the rules are not that prescriptive) candidates for my album of the month.

This post heralds the full list of hopefuls, possibles and downright eternal optimists that are fighting it out to be included in my January short list.

I’m sure you’re wondering how I get to hear the albums in the first place:  any way I can!  In practice this means if it’s not on Spotify, the band’s / artist’s My Space page or streamed somewhere ahead of release (Pitchfork, the guardian music blog or wherever) it’s not that likely to make the shortlist. After all, one of the rules is that the album must be heard in full, more than once, in order to stand a chance of becoming album of the month. That way some albums qualify themselves out up front. And we can’t break the rules, can we!

I’ve also been asked how an album first catches my eye (or should that be ear????).  Again multiple ways, including hearing a track on the radio say on Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone / Freakier Zone (BBC 6Music), via a music mag review (Mojo, Shindig, Word, and  Wire primarily), recommendations from friends,  other blogs (more of those later), and a whole host of other sources too numerous to mention….

So, without further ado, welcome to the January 2011 long list (Artist – Album Title):

Salem	King Night
Wire	Red Barked Tree
Deerhoof	Vs Evil
Khan	Space Shanty
The Mothers of Invention	Freak Out
Oneohtrix Point Never	Returnal
P.J. Harvey	Let England Shake
Lords of Falconry	Lords of Falconry
Moebius	Blue Moon (Soundtrack)
Various Artists	Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude
Mugstar	Lime
Cluster	Cluster ‘71
The National	High Violet

A couple of bands, namely Cults and Creep, look interesting but I can find no evidence of albums from either yet so they’ll have to wait for some other month.

Next post….the shortlist and how it came to be so short.