Robert Wyatt - Shleep
So there I was, trying to donate some time to doing something worthwhile when I thought I'd have a quick youtube spree, which entailed listening to Robert Wyatt's awesometastic version of Shipbuilding. Apart from that song, all I knew of Wyatt was that he seemed like a pretty down to earth and genuine kinda guy judging by his contributions to a documentary I saw about the Canterbury scene a year or two ago.
Anyway, I thought I'd go about fixing that by getting this and Old Rottenhat (which I'm yet to listen to). Needless to say, I'm really impressed by what I've heard. It's one of those albums that labels don't really do any just to, but having jazzy rhythms and quirky proggy time signatures held together by a voice as remarkable as Wyatt's makes for quite the listening experience.
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope To the Sky
And as for this, I've had a month, only decided to give a first listen about an hour and a half ago, and I've already got through it end-to-end twice. Maybe I like it so much as I don't really know my way around a lot of older Swans material (yet), but I think this might just about end up being my pick for album of the year. Pretty seamless stuff when all's said and done. Oh, and the last verse of the whole album is one of the best song endings I've ever heard.