23.

Steve Gunn - Eyes On The Lines

[Matador]

Steve Gunn’s previous output has always shone a light on his prowess with guitar melodies, but often tended towards a more folk-inflected, rambling sound (in fact one of my favourite of his older songs is the instrumental jaunt “Trailways Ramble,” which was an astute summation of his sound). But with Eyes On The Lines, his first album on Matador, Gunn eschews the thornier, rambunctious elements of his previous sound and launches into a more streamlined and pristinely crafted rock songs.

This is clear straight out of the gate with “Ancient Jules,” where Gunn is singing about always moving forward and trying to find time to stop and take stock. Nevertheless, the airborne guitar lines that intertwine are always pushing the song forward, teasing his wagon towards the golden horizon that seems to be just ahead. In fact, throughout Eyes On The Lines, Gunn provides carefully-studied lyrics, like the wistful melancholy of “Park Bench Smile” or the simplicity of watching neighbourhood cats in “Night Wander.” But the thing that will grab and hold firm to the listener is the guitars. Each song on this album seems to be built out of perfectly contoured guitars – strummed, plucked, whacked – that meld perfectly together into aerodynamic beauties. Even without necessarily always being able to catch Gunn’s lyrics, his guitar melodies spangle and rumble around so precisely and prettily that they create their own hooks and moments of euphoria that just seem to bubble naturally out of their organic foundations. If you’re a fan of the sounds of guitars, guitar melodies, or just good transportative-yet-meditative music, then I cannot recommend Eyes On The Lines highly enough.

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

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