2015 mid year review
 

While I'm not gonna go into a full on list (that's for the end of the year), here's some of the best albums (I know I've missed a tonne, but don't fear, they'll all be in my end of year list) out there that you may or may not have spun yet:

never young beach- YASHINOKI HOUSE
A beautiful surf rock/indie album by newcomers never young beach. Not a dud track to be found on this one and the guitar work is sublime.

parapunte- Primitive
This is a great, great release and will no doubt be in the top 10 of this year. Amazing vocals floating on a shoegazey dream pop ocean of perfect melodies. Best of all, it's free to download!

Roisin Murphy- Hairless Trees
Roisins official third album is a challenging but rewarding listen. Long songs that all have their own movements and stories to tell, complex, intriguing listening. And oh yeah, Roisin Murphy purring her way through it all.

Reina and the Blue Valentines- Lady or Girl?
If you like Pizzicato 5, Kinoco Hotel or Maron Hamada you will probably want to pick this one up. Reina Nosa's first band project, it's classic pop punch!

Seiko Oomori and the Pink Tokarev- Tokarev
It probably goes without saying that this album is on my list. See the Oomori thread to read more about it. Simply put, it rawks.

Hanae- Joukyou Shokyou
Hanae's sophomore album is tenfold better than her debut. And that's saying A LOT. Sexy, short, and easy to listen to over and over. It's the best pop album I've come across so far this year.

I got the new Hanae and Daoko albums together and listened to them back to back. If I had to choose, I would definitely dump the new Hanae in favor of Daoko. Much better IMO. I don't know, maybe I need to listen to the new Hanae more, but it didn't click with me the way Daoko did.

I always forget Australia is a month ahead of the US :lol:

Anyway, yeah, the parapunte sound is heavenly. Primitive is on the agenda next trip I take.

I'll have to give never young beach a listen!

Really want to love the parapunte, but the production is so painfully poor. "Amazing vocals floating on a shoegazey dream pop ocean"? More like submerged in a murky dreampop lake. Like looking at Monet's Water Lilies through welding goggles.

I find it too hard to agree with you. I think it sounds really beautiful. Hard to fault something like this knowing their restrictions too, its hardly professionally studio recorded or anything, yet they have really done wonders with what they have. And the leap from their demo to album is quite massive. I dunno, I just think its near perfect album haha. You are listening to 'primitive' and not their first release right?

Parupunte

Sounds warm and wonderful to me!

You said you can download the Parupunte release for free? Could you link to that? I couldn't find it.