| Varmints | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 March 2016 | |||
| Genre | Electronic [1] | |||
| Length | 47:26 | |||
| Label | Moshi Moshi | |||
| Anna Meredith chronology | ||||
| ||||
Varmints is the debut studio album by the Scottish composer and electronica musician Anna Meredith, released on 4 March 2016 on Moshi Moshi. The album won Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2016. [2]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10 [3] |
| Metacritic | 84/100 [4] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| DIY |   [5] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 8/10 [6] |
| Loud and Quiet | 8/10 [1] |
| MusicOMH |  [7] |
| Pitchfork | 8.4/10 [8] |
| Q | [9] |
| Spectrum Culture | [10] |
| Uncut | 8/10 [11] |
In a highly positive review for Pitchfork , Laura Snapes awarded Varmints with the website's "Best New Music" label, writing: "[Anna Meredith's] first wholly independent project reveals her to be one of the most innovative minds in modern British music: She wears her obvious theoretical grounding lightly and never lets it obstruct her ecstatic quest for new ideas and deranged stimuli. And Varmints is a knockout, the kind that makes you see cartoon stars." [8]
| Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitchfork | The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2016 | 2016 | — | |
| The Quietus | Albums of the Year 2016 | 2016 | 49 | |
| The Skinny | Top 50 Albums of 2016 | 2016 | 17 | |
| The Wire | Top 50 Releases of 2016 | 2016 | 17 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Nautilus" | 5:30 |
| 2. | "Taken" | 4:50 |
| 3. | "Scrimshaw" | 4:43 |
| 4. | "Something Helpful" | 3:13 |
| 5. | "R-Type" | 4:42 |
| 6. | "Dowager" | 5:22 |
| 7. | "The Vapours" | 6:33 |
| 8. | "Honeyed Words" | 3:17 |
| 9. | "Last Rose" | 3:31 |
| 10. | "Shill" | 2:47 |
| 11. | "Blackfriars" | 2:58 |
Natasha Khan, known professionally as Bat for Lashes, is an English singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. She has released five studio albums: Fur and Gold (2006), Two Suns (2009), The Haunted Man (2012), The Bride (2016), and Lost Girls (2019). She has received three Mercury Prize nominations. Khan is also the vocalist for Sexwitch, a collaboration with the rock band Toy and producer Dan Carey.
Cate Le Bon is a Welsh musician and record producer. She sings in both English and Welsh. She has released six solo studio albums, to date, and is one half of the experimental music duo DRINKS with her partner Tim Presley. Her stage name is a tribute to English musician Simon Le Bon.
Anna Howard Meredith is a Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is a former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA.
Kaputt is the ninth album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. It was released on January 25, 2011 by Merge Records and Dead Oceans Records. The album was leaked towards the end of 2010. The vinyl edition of the album features bonus material on side three written largely by frequent Destroyer collaborator Ted Bois. This material is also included in the European CD version of the album credited as 'The Laziest River'.
American rapper Azealia Banks has released one studio album, two extended plays (EPs), three mixtapes, twenty-six singles and twelve promotional singles. At the age of seventeen in November 2008, Banks adopted the stage name Miss Bank$ and signed to XL Recordings. However, she ended the contract with the label quickly afterwards due to conflicting ideas. In 2009, Banks released several songs onto the internet for free download, including "Gimme a Chance" and "Seventeen". Following her departure from XL Recordings, Banks dropped her stage name, opting to use her legal name, Azealia Banks.
m b v is the third studio album by Irish-English rock band My Bloody Valentine, self-released on 2 February 2013. Produced by the band's vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields, m b v was the band's first full-length release of original material since Loveless (1991), over two decades earlier.
Angel Olsen is an American singer-songwriter from St. Louis, Missouri who lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
Bobby Krlic, known by his stage name The Haxan Cloak, is a British composer, artist, music producer and musician.
Ultimate Care II is the tenth studio album by experimental electronic music duo Matmos, released on February 19, 2016 on Thrill Jockey.
Vroom Vroom is the second extended play by English singer Charli XCX, released on 26 February 2016 by Vroom Vroom Recordings. It features production work from Scottish producer Sophie.
Blood Bitch is the sixth studio album by Norwegian musician Jenny Hval, released on September 30, 2016 on Sacred Bones Records. Co-produced by Hval and Lasse Marhaug, the album was preceded by the singles, "Female Vampire", "Conceptual Romance" and "Period Piece".
Puberty 2 is the fourth studio album by American indie rock singer-songwriter Mitski, released on June 17, 2016, the first release through Dead Oceans. It was produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. Upon its release, Puberty 2 received widespread acclaim from music critics, with many praising Mitski's emotional delivery and lyrically complex themes, which include longing, love, depression, alienation and racial identity. The album was preceded by the lead single "Your Best American Girl" on March 1, 2016, alongside the announcement of the album, and the second single "Happy" on May 3, 2016. A music video for "A Burning Hill" was released on October 11, 2016, followed by a tour covering North American and Europe.
Lodestar is the seventh studio album by the English folk musician Shirley Collins. The album is Collins's first in 38 years, making it one of the longest gaps between studio albums.
Japanese Breakfast is an American indie pop band headed by musician Michelle Zauner. Zauner started the band as a side project in 2013, when she was leading the Philadelphia-based emo group Little Big League. She has said that she named the band after seeing a GIF of Japanese breakfast and deciding that the term would be considered "exotic" to Americans; she also thought it would make others wonder what a Japanese breakfast consists of.
Stranger in the Alps is the debut studio album by American musician Phoebe Bridgers, released by Dead Oceans on September 22, 2017.
Big Joanie is a British punk band formed in London in 2013. Its members are Stephanie Phillips and Estella Adeyeri. Founding drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone left the band in 2023. After a few singles and EPs they released their first album in 2018 with Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz's Daydream Library Series, and have since signed to Kill Rock Stars in the U.S.
Grid of Points is the eleventh studio album by the American musician Liz Harris under the stage name Grouper. It was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, by Kranky.
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides is the debut and only studio album by Scottish recording artist and producer Sophie. It was released on 15 June 2018, through Transgressive, Future Classic and Sophie's own label, MSMSMSM. According to one source, the title may be a variant spelling of the phrase "I love every person's insides". Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides was met with widespread acclaim by critics and received a nomination for the Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. A remix album, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album, was released in July 2019.
Fibs is the second full-length studio album by the British composer and electronica musician Anna Meredith, released on 25 October 2019 on Moshi Moshi. It was nominated for the 2020 Mercury Prize.
Fatigue is the second record by Brooklyn-based experimental musician Taja Cheek, under the moniker of L'Rain. It is her first recording with record label Mexican Summer. Fatigue builds on Cheek's experimental compositional approach, drawing from an eclectic collection of genres and employing field recording elements. Instrumentally, it has help from twenty collaborators, who lend the record clavinet, saxophone, and more.
