Tag: Best Of

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Albums of the Year 2025

JOVM turns 16 this year. And for first handful of years, my Best of List was an annual tradition until about 2014 or so. Between 2014 and 2020, it became sporadic and then it stopped. I haven’t done one of these in several years. There was a part of me that wondered if it really mattered much. And then life happened. 

So here we are in 2026. And with the year starting in earnest, let’s check out my best of 2025. 

  1. Big Fish Fyra liter stoft
  2. Tan Cologne Unknown Beyond
  3. Moondaddy Dove Tapes
  4. Sessa Pequena Vertigem de Amor
  5. Preservation Brass & Preservation Hall Jazz Band For Fat Man
  6. Silk Daisys S/T
  7. The Circling Sun Orbits
  8. Gabriel da Rosa Cacofonia
  9. Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
  10. bat zoo The Upward Bird EP
  11. Public Circuit Modern Church
  12. L’Eclair Cloud Drifter
  13. Gloin All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
  14. CIVIC Chrome Dipped
  15. Population II Maintenant Jamais
  16. White Birches A New Reign
  17. Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian Kino EP
  18. Friendship Commanders BEAR 
  19. The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
  20. SHOLTO The Sirens
  21. S.C.A.B. Somebody In New York Loves You!
  22. Pierpont & Hegeleson Of Time
  23. RORO and snapir Colors Left
  24. St. Panther Strange World 
  25. Nation of Language Dance Called Memory
  26. Quad90 S/T
  27. Slumbering Sun Starmony
  28. Tunde Adebimpe Thee Black Boltz 
  29. Quad90 S/T
  30. Die Spitz Something To Consume
  31. debdepan LOVERS & OTHERS EP

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The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

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Best Of by William Ruben Helms

Best of 2021

The first month of 2022 is just about over, and I realized that I needed to do something that I haven’t done in a while, a Best of List for the preceding year. I would have done it earlier, but I fell into a deep funk right before we rang in the New Year. And then I had a major computer fail – the screen on my four-year-old MacBook Pro died. (It was probably the stupidest thing that ever happened, too. So, better late than never, right? 

  1. Absolutely Free – Aftertouch
  2. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings
  3. Low – HEY WHAT
  4. Altin Gün – Yol
  5. Genesis Owusu –Smiling With No Teeth/Genesis Owusu – Smiling with No Teeth
  6. MUNYA – Voyage to Mars
  7. L’Imperatice – Tako Tsubo
  8. L’éclair – Confusions
  9. Yola – Stand For Myself
  10. Lucid Express – S/T 
  11. Lost Horizons – In Quiet Moments
  12. Rowjay –Carnaval de Finesse 2: Les Chronicles d’un Jeune Entrepreneur
  13. The Murlocs – Bittersweet Demons
  14. Orions Belte – Villa Amorini
  15. Balthazar — Sand
  16. Aurus — Chimera
  17. La Femme – Paradigmes
  18. Teke: Teke – Shirushi 
  19. People Museum – I Can Only See The Night 
  20. Spelljammer – Abyssal Trips
  21. Amyl and the Sniffers – Comfort to Me
  22. METZ – Live at the Opera House
  23. Laure Briard – En Voo
  24. New Bleach – Impressions EP
  25. Whispering Sons – Several Others
  26. Sungaze – This Dream
  27. Inov Gnawa — Lila
  28. Psymon Spine – Charismatic Megafauna
  29. Lore City – Participation Mystique
  30. Piroshka – Love Drips & Gathers
  31. Suntiger – Beyond the Frame
  32. Pond — 9

Honorable Mentions

  1. New Candys – Vyvyd
  2. Robert Finley – Sharecropper’s Son
  3. Boogarins – Manchacha Vol. 2 (A Compilation of Boogarins Memories, Dreams, Demos and Outtakes)
  4. Ganser – Just Look At That Sky Remixes
  5. Blessed – iii (Remixes)
Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

 

There’s still some outstanding business with 2017 that I must attend to before I can begin 2018 in earnest and in this case, check out some of what I think were the best singles of the past year. Although the music industry typically slows down during the holidays, I’m looking forward to what 2018 brings musically and creatively — and most importantly for new music that I’ll love and tell you about.

Best Of by William Ruben Helms

 

Best Albums of 2017

 

 

  1. Amber Arcades: Cannonball EP

 

 

 

  1. Fufanu: Sports

 

 

  1. DBFC: Jenks

 

 

  1. Kokoko!: Tokoliana EP

 

  1. Softspot: Clearing

 

 

  1. The Parson Red Heads: Blurred Harmony, Expanded Edition

 

 

  1. Various Artists: DRUG BLVD.

 

 

  1. Statik Selektah: 8

 

 

 

  1. Howard Ivans: Beautiful Tired Bodies

 

 

Hayley Thompson-King: Psychotic Melancholia

       

 

 

  1. Metz: Strange Peace

 

 

 

  1. Mark Lanegan Band: Gargoyle

 

  1. The Afghan Whigs: In Spades

 

 

  1. Alexander F: S/T LP

 

 

  1. The Horrors: V

 

 

  1. Pissed Jeans: Why Love Now

 

Supergombo: Explorations

       

 

 

  1. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Flying Microtonal Banana

 

 

  1. Cajsa Siik: Domino

 

 

  1. Wax Idols: American Tragic (Reissue)

 

 

 

  1. Tinariwen: Elwan

 

 

Tamikrest: Kidal

 

 

  1. Various Artists: Synthesize the Soul: Astro-Atlantic Hypnotic From the Cape Verde Islands

 

  1. Here Lies Man: S/T LP

 

 

  1. Second Still: S/T LP

 

 

 

True Moon: S/T LP

 

ACES: Stranger EP

 

  1. Ultrviolence: Forty Knives EP

 

 

Various Artists: Brown Acid: The Fourth Trip

 

 

Wolkoff: Who Wouldn’t Fail EP

 

 

 

  1. Goldfrapp: Silver Eye

 

 

  1. The Dream Eaters: We Are a Curse

 

 

Ward White: As Consolation 

 

Honorable Mentions

 

  1. Shabazz Palaces: Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star

 

 

Shabazz Palaces: Quarzarz Vs. The Jealous Machines

 

 

  1. ADULT.: Detroit House Guests

 

 

  1. Janka Nabay and The Bubu Gang: Build Music

 

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

With the close of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, countless bloggers and others have spent the past few weeks retrospectively looking back at the previous year. Now yesterday, I had posted what I thought were some of the best albums of 2016 — and continuing on with that vein, I wanted to share what I thought were the best singles of 2016 with a Spotify playlist. Check it out below.

 

Spotify Playlist by William Ruben Helms

The Joy of Violent Movement’s Best Albums of 2016

 Earlier this year, I had a lengthy bit of correspondence with a British publicist, who I’ve worked with for some time – and as you can imagine, once you’ve worked with someone for a while, the lines between friendship and your professional working relationship can become a bit blurred. But in any case, this colleague had asked how I was doing and at the time my response was: “If there was one word to describe my 37th trip around the sun, I’d say it would be this – embittering.” In that email exchange, I had gone on to describe how I had been dealing with several different, complicated situations in which politics, race and other sociopolitical issues of our era had come up and impacted my personal and professional life in messy and heartbreaking ways. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site since I started it almost 7 years ago or follow me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, that music has held a profound role in my life, informing both my intellectual and emotional life. And while some things have been difficult, I can still say that I’ve been particularly blessed. After all, the fact that music can hold the same vital connection that it did when I was 3, 13 or 25 as it does when I’m 37, suggests that somehow I’ve been doing something right. With our lives becoming more urgent, more politically charged than ever, I personally find myself turning towards art and music to gain a further understanding of my life, my inner world and my place in a ugly and cruel world – and frequently a world that seems to hate difference, uniqueness, thoughtfulness, etc.

Sadly, over the past couple of years, this site’s Best of List has kind of languished although I had desperately wanted to post something about my favorite albums of the year; however, there have been years in which I had been incredibly overwhelmed – to the point of not having enough time to actually sit down and write. And while some friends and other associates have bemoaned the death of the music industry without realizing that over the past year, there’s been some challenging and interesting music that’s been released; that there’s been collaborations that would have never happened 30 years ago happening right this minute, and in the case of this year, there have been an incredible array of releases that I’ve been absolutely been obsessed with in a variety of ways. Check out what were the best albums this year, below.

 

Hannah Williams and The Affirmations Late Nights and Heartbreaks

Plague Vendor BLOODSWEAT

Beacon Escapements

David Bowie Blackstar

Cinemechanica S/T LP

Exploded View  S/T LP

A Tribe Called Quest We Got It From Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service

Run the Jewels Run The Jewels 3

Clipping Splendor and Misery

Kishi Bashi Sonderlust

The Veldt The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur

Marta Ren and The Groovelets Stop Look Listen

Goat Requiem

Magic Trick Other Man’s Blues

Drakkar Nowhere S/T LP

La Sera Queens EP

Preoccupations S/T LP

The Deltahorse Transatlantic

Anna Rose Strays in the Cut EP

Super Hi-Fi Super Hi-Fi Plays Nirvana

Beninghove’s Hangman Zohove: Beninghove’s Hangmen Play Led Zeppelin

Shana Falana Here Comes the Wave

 

Honorable Mentions

Wolkoff Without Shame

Milemarker Overseas

La Femme Mystère

Arbor Labor Union I Hear You

The Shondes Brighton

My Gold Mask Anxious Utopia

Alma Afrobeat Ensemble It’s Time

Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra Bade Zile

Siama Matuzungidi Rivers – from the Congo to the Mississippi

Bad Sports Living with Secrets

San Lazaro La Despedida

 

Check out JOVM’s top ten albums on Spotify:

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Best 50+ Singles of 2015

After a two year hiatus, in which life was just way too busy, and I never got a chance to compile it, the JOVM Best Singles List returns. Out of the countless singles I’ve listened […]