Category: Music

Top 20 Albums of 2006

King Creosote – KC Rules OK
Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther
Thom Yorke – The Eraser
Saint Jude’s Infirmary – Happy Healthy Lucky Month
Youth Group – Skeleton Jar
Cat Power – The Greatest
Joanna Newsom – Ys
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
M Ward – Post-War
My Latest Novel – Wolves
Scott Walker – The Drift
Stuart A Staples – Leaving Songs
Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops
Espers – II
Califone – Roots & Crowns
TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain
Joan As Policewoman – Real Life
Citay – Citay
Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Grant-Lee Phillips – NineteenEighties

2005 End of Year Round-up (pt 2)

My top 25 albums of 2005 (in descending order)

Funeral – Arcade Fire
One of the most uplifting, life-affirming records I’ve ever heard. Every
track is great. This will be considered an all time classic in 10 years
time.

The Great Destroyer – Low
Louder than ever, but still beyond gorgeous. Lots of classic songs.

I Am A Bird Now – Antony & The Johnsons
Bizarre theme for an album to be about, but it is unflinching in it’s
emotional honesty and intensity. Antony boasts an unique voiice that
works perfectly in his context. The Boy George duet is just exquisite.

Gimme Fiction – Spoon
Fantastic alternative rock with the most unusual and inventive guitar
work I’ve heard in a long time.

Into The Woods – Malcolm Middleton
Bleakly witty, full of self-deprecation. God knows why he still bothers
with Arab Strap – his solo stuff is leagues better.

On My Way To Absence – Damien Jurado
So many great songs. A beautifully sustained mood.

The Repulsion Box – Sons & Daughters
Percussive, driven, almost hypnotic. From somewhere altogether different.

Leaders Of The Free World – Elbow
Incredibly strong album, remarkable mood. You just have to forget that
the songs are about Edith Bowman.

Black Sheep Boy – Okkervil River
Achingly beautiful acoustic music with a couple of less wonderful full
band efforts

Picaresque – The Decemberists
More epic story telling, more mad instrumentation. A really good album.
I have to admit I like Her Majesty more.

In Pursuit Of Your Happiness – Mark Mulcahy
Overlong, too much going on, but when he hits it, by god it’s brilliant.

Tiny Cities – Sun Kil Moon
Covers of Modest Mouse songs by Mark Kozelek. Works amazingly well.

The Back Room – Editors
Strong songs, hugely influenced by Joy Division. Just a bit too
unoriginal to be great, but still great stuff.

Alligator – The National
Catchy intelligent American left-field rock. Several really great songs
– a few very ‘meh’ ones.

Cripple Crow – Devendra Banhart
Half brilliant half annoying. The strong songs are just fantastic,
filled to the brim with humour and great melodies. The annoying stuff is
just too whimsical for it’s own good. God knows what he could produce if
he ever gets it just right.

Pocket Revolution – Deus
Brilliant come back by the Belgians.

Veneer – Jose Gonzalez
Warm acoustic music, kind of reminiscent of a less depressed Mark
Kozelek. Quite beautiful in places. Only discovered this in the last
week of the year – I reckon it could have made the top ten if I’d had
longer with it.

Man-Made – Teenage Fanclub
Another great album by one of my all time favourite bands. Nothing new
here, just strong song-writing and brilliant hooks.

A Certain Trigger – Maximo Park
I’d made a valiant effort to ignore this band altogether this year,
reckoning that they were just another early 80’s post punk rip off
thing. Then the earworm that is ‘Apply Some Pressure’ caught hold of me.

The Witching Hour – Ladytron
Some really great dance/rock crossover stuff. Pity it can’t keep it up
over the whole album

Black Mountain – Black Mountain
An odd take on early 70’s rock. The epics are the best thing about the album

Discover A Lovelier You – Pernice Brothers
Lovely smart pop. Great songs. Just not as good as the last full album.

Silent Alarm – Bloc Party
I like three songs on this one, and I like them a lot. I feel like I’m
missing something on the others. Maybe one day it will all fit together.

The Sunset Tree – Mountain Goats

Song cycle about Darnielle’s youth. More polished musically than ever
before. For some reason it’s both too slick and too personal for me to
fall in love with it.

Noah’s Ark – CocoRosie
Quirky as fuck, sometimes beautiful. I waver between thinking it’s
genius and that it’s bollocks.

OK, this is a blog entry that I’ve been trying to get my arse around to doing for ages now. I tried to do it last year as well, but I just couldn’t just quite manage it.
Yes, this is my ‘The best albums of 2004’ entry.
Anyway I finally managed it, so here in reverse order, are my top ten albums of 2004 and why I think they deserve that little accolade.

Ghosts of the Great Highway – Sun Kil Moon

This was the year that I was exposed to a load of new american indie label music through emusic. This where I found this album. It’s a new project from Mark Kozolek, the force behind The Red House Painters. It’s primarily melancholy music, but it’s even more preoccupied with broken relationships than Kozolek’s earlier stuff, with the occassional ruminations on more abstract things.

Good News For People Who Love Bad News – Modest Mouse

Apparently Modest Mouse had something of a chart breakthrough this year with the lead single from this album, Float On, in the US. Of course that didn’t translate over here. As a follow up to the remarkable Moon & Antartica it’s a bit of a disappointment. However taken on it’s own terms it’s a really enjoyable rambling journey through Modest Mouse’s brand of alternative rock.

We Shall All Be Healed – The Mountain Goats

I only discovered The Mountain Goats this year. John Darnielle is a very interesting guy, he writes really interesting lyrics and indeed increasingly writing memorable music. A bit too patchy to be in the same league as prior release Tallahasee it’s still a standout from this year’s releases.

Faded Seaside Glamour – The Delays

I swithered about including this album, as it’s essentially sunny nature seemed out of place at this time of year. So I gave the album a good listen to and you know what? It’s too damned good to be missing from this list. If you have any kind of weakness for good, sharp pop with a bit of a bitter edge then this is the stuff for you.

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

After seeing them support Interpol at the end of 2003, I was pretty certain that 2004 would be Franz Ferdinand’s year. The album is indeed very good, with very few weak points and with a verve and ambition that stands out on the British music scene. However, it’s fallen down a few places in the list in the last couple of months as over-saturation has robbed the music of some of it’s charm.

Milk-Eyed Mender – Joanna Newsom

This shit is strange. A part and apart from the weird folk music of Sufjan Stevens and Devendra Banhart that has appeared on the scene this year. This is the strangest – I mean twisty, girly voice and harp? And her choice of stuff to sing about? It remains really original and something you can listen to again and again

Antics – Interpol

Turn on the Bright Lights was my album of 2002. To such an extent that it took me months to warm up to this follow up. It’s not as of one mood as the first album, but once I got used the less claustrophobic nature of the piece several songs have started to shine.

Bubblegum – The Mark Lanegan Band

Mark Lanegan has one of my favourite voices of all time. Combined with a great band and some of the best material he’s gathered in a while it’s pretty irresistable to me. I do miss some of the psychedelic edge of his work with The Screaming Trees and the sheer hard direct rock of QotSA, this lies somewhere in the middle.

Her Majesty – The Decemberists

This band annoyed the first time I heard them. So affected, so overtly theatrical. Then ‘I was meant for the stage’ and ‘Los Angeles, I’m yours’ wormed their way into my brain and the next thing I know I really love the album.

Carbon Glacier – Laura Veirs

There was no contest this year for album of the year. This had it won after I had listened to it non-stop for a fortnight. It’s such a remarkable leap on from her earlier work. The music is so haunting, her voice is captivating to the extent that I can totally forgive the occasional lyrical annoyance. When the children’s voices appear on Snow Camping I still get goosebumps – even after all this time. That’s how good it is.