10.

Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch

[Sacred Bones]

Jenny Hval quickly rose to becoming one of my favourite artists in the world between her great 2013 album Innocence is Kinky and last year’s Apocalypse, girl. So I was slightly wary when it was announced she’d be releasing another album barely more than a year later, but as soon as I heard lead single “Female Vampire,” with it big, blocky beats, swaying trance-like gait, imbued with hazy horns, I knew we were in for a treat.

“A treat” is an understatement: Blood Bitch is Hval’s finest, most ambitious and most complete album to date. Across its 10 tracks it unfolds like a drop of blood blooming in water: gruesome-yet-beautiful, perfectly graceful yet unpredictable, dark and yet hopeful, and most of all totally captivating from start to finish. The singles like the aforementioned “Female Vampire,” and the utterly devastating beauty of the free-floating “Conceptual Romance” are obvious stand outs, but the album plays as one long piece. Even tracks like “In The Red,” which features little more than Hval panting into a mic as she runs away from something, or “The Plague,” which is a strange sound collage full of screams and wails, or “Untamed Region,” the stripped back tundra-like ambienty mid-piece, all add up to a collective that is like a perfectly ugly sculpture that you fall in love with without realising. There are so many tracks I haven’t yet named which I also love.

I left most of my thoughts about this album in my piece for The 405, for which I got to speak to Jenny Hval about the creation of Blood Bitch. So I’ll leave you to continue reading that over there.

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Below you can see my top 50 albums of the year list.

[Click on the album art at the top to download the album]

50| Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS
49| Thee Oh Sees - A Weird Exits
48| Daughter - Not To Disappear
47| The Avalanches - Wildflower
46| Beyonce - Lemonade
45| Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
44| Gold Panda - Good Luck and Do Your Best
43| James Blake - The Colour In Anything
42| Lambchop - FLOTUS
41| Ty Segall - Emotional Mugger
40| Nothing - Tired Of Tomorrow
39| Camp Cope - Camp Cope
38| Cymbals Eat Guitars - Pretty Years
37| Aphex Twin - Cheetah EP
36| Mary Lattimore - At The Dam
35| Woods - City Sun Eater In The River Of Light
34| White Lung - Paradise
33| Solange - A Seat At The Table
32| Wild Beasts - Boy King
31| Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
30| Marissa Nadler - Strangers
29| Weyes Blood - Front Row Seat To Earth
28| Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
27| Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.
26| Whitney - Light Upon The Lake
25| Kedr Livanskiy - January Sun
24| Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing
23| Steve Gunn - Eyes On The Lines
22| Pantha du Prince - The Triad
21| Cass McCombs - Mangy Love
20| Cavern of Anti-Matter - void beats/invocation trex
19| Olga Bell - Tempo
18| Chairlift - Moth
17| Mitski - Puberty 2
16| Anderson .Paak - Malibu
15| Underworld - Barbara, Barbara we face a shining future
14| Xenia Rubinos - Black Terry Cat
13| Savages - Adore Life
12| DIIV - Is The Is Are
11| Frank Ocean - Blonde
10| Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch
09| MONEY - Suicide Songs
08| Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
07| A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service
06| Nicolas Jaar - Sirens
05| Angel Olsen - My Woman
04| Parquet Courts - Human Performance
03| Preoccupations - Preoccupations
02| ANOHNI - Hopelessness
01| Blood Orange - Freetown Sound