Looking Back: Top 10 Albums of 2010

So, 2010, remember that? Those giddy days of snow and Chilean miners and the General Election? Well the depressing start to 2011 (I mean, seriously – Dick King-Smith, Pete Postlethwaite, Gerry Rafferty AND  Mick Karn already?!) has had me casting a wistful eye back on last year and I, like every man and his dog, have compiled my list of the Top 10 albums of 2010. Here it is…

Honourable Mentions –

Firstly, a few albums that seriously impressed but didn’t quite make it into the Top 10, a polite round of applause please for…

Standard Fare – Noyelle Beat,

Meaursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry,

Everybody Was in the French Resistance… Now – Fixin’ The Charts Vol. 1,

The Divine Comedy – Bang Goes The Knighthood and

Antarctica Takes It! – Constellations.

And now onto the Top 10…

10. Kid Canaveral – Shouting At Wildlife (Straight To Video Records)

www.kidcanaveral.co.uk

“Juicy chewy pop-kids to savour” is the ideal way of summing up Kid Canaveral. Too bad I didn’t come up with it myself. Still, Shouting At Wildlife is a great indie-pop record to jump around to and have a big smile about. It gets off to a corking start with Good Morning, followed by You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night and Left and Right and then… actually if I keep doing that you’ll just end up with the album’s tracklisting. Every song has it’s own personality but the album is still tied together by the way it gives a snapshot of the lifestyle of 20-somethings in 21^st Century Britain. More proof that guitar music, if done right, is far from dead.

9. The School – Loveless Unbeliever (Elefant Records)

www.theschoolband.co.uk

At Number 9 it’s an album with Phil Spector’s er.. spectre all over it – Loveless Unbeliever by The School. A wonderful throwback to 1960s girl groups, this album is sweet, bouncy and full of handclaps – i.e. right up my alley. Despite the uber dance-ability of the songs there is a melancholic undercurrent throughout a lot of the album that gives the record far more depth than you might get from it on first listen. The tunes and lead singer Liz’s soft, pretty voice gives the whole record an air of innocence that is ultimately incredibly endearing.

8. Gideon Conn – New Bop Sounds (New Bop Sounds)

 www.myspace.com/gideonconn

Well it took 3 years of patient waiting and the creation of his own record label to release it, but the debut album by Gideon Conn arrived in 2010 and well worth the wait it was too. From the opening seconds, where the groove and the audience are literally introduced to each other, New Bop Sounds makes it clear what it is all about – fun covered fun, coated with fun sauce and chopped fun. The album has a real spring in its step and, whilst later tracks such as I Thought I Knew Love and Inside slow things down a bit, it is the boisterous tracks of the first half such as Eccentric, Yes No Maybe and Mighty Lightning that will really leave their mark on you. Putting the ‘fun’ in ‘indie-dance-funk’ New Bop Sounds is an intricate album of pure class.

7. Wartime Sweethearts – Pancake Orion (Independent Release)

www.myspace.com/wartimesweethearts

A late entry into my Top 10, this album arrived with me mere weeks before the end of 2010 and made an immediate impression, which is why I featured the band in Lend Them Your Ears. That review covers the album in proper depth but suffice to say the conclusion was something along the lines of – this is a brilliant album that does many things and throws them together into an incredibly listenable pot of madness. I want more from this band and I want it now, if not sooner!

(I can't seem to find any embeddable songs or videos from the album but if you go to Wartime Sweethearts' Myspace there are a couple of tracks there)

6. Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Secretly Canadian Records)

www.yeasayer.net

Pysch-folk with a distinctly poppy edge Odd Blood is more synthy, toe tapping fun from brilliant Brooklyn 5-piece Yeasayer. Taking in a wide range of lyrical inspirations including Joe Louis, Miami drug lords, Fox news and kissing a woman on a plane, the album at once feels experimental, yet accessible, which is no mean feat. In equal parts touching and rousing, Odd Blood is a real triumph and came from within a hair’s breadth of making it into the Top 5 of this list.

Madder Red

Yeasayer | Myspace Music Videos

5. The Like - Release Me (Geffen Records)

www.myspace.com/thelike

More 1960s girl group throwback now with The Like. More punchy compared to The School’s softer, fuzzier feyness, and both approaches most definitely have their merits. Release Me is broadly a concept album about the aftermath of a break up (First clue is the track 1 being entitled ‘Wishing He Was Dead’…). There is certainly a darker, more vicious streak running through this album than in Loveless Unbeliever that really gets under your skin and compels you to listen. Consistent quality, as well as big catchy singles like He’s Not A Boy, Release Me and Wishing He Was Dead means Release Me demands, and deserves, repeat listens.

4. Bark Bark Disco - Say Hello To Your Mum (Parasol Records)

www.barkbarkdisco.com

The most childishly named album in the top ten and also the cheapest – it is still available free from www.barkbarkdisco.com ! This is fantastic lo-fi indie-pop – catchy and cheeky, bouncy and vibrant and best of all it will put a big fat smile all over your mush. Half-Maltese, half-German, completely awesome Bark Bark Disco and their debut album are utterly wonderful. Amusing lyrics, genuine emotion and charm, there really is nothing to fault about this brilliant debut release from the two-piece.

3. Allo Darlin' - Allo Darlin' (Fortuna Pop Records)
www.allodarlin.com

Another female led indie-pop band, I know, I know. But Allo Darlin's eponymous debut album is just so brilliant that it can't be overlooked - yearning vocals, twinkling melodies, heartfelt lyrics and piles of ukulele - the band have got it all so right and created an indie-pop masterpiece. Sweet without being saccharine, emotional without being overly sentimental, it is a quite wonderful balancing act with sparkling moments of humour (most obvious in tracks such as Kiss Your Lips and Woody Allen).  





2. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
www.sufjan.com

Nearly to the top of the list and we find Sufjan Stevens near inevitably up towards the upper end of this chart. Eschewing his more traditional, if epic, indie soundscapes for a much more electronic sound was a bold move and one that Sufjan Stevens has managed to pull off with aplomb. Maintaining the humanity that always lays at the core of his work, however vast and ambitious, he jams it through synths, drum machines and electronic sound effects but in such a way as to retain the essence that has always made his work so appealing. Singles Too Much and I Walked stand out for their immediacy but, as ever with Sufjan Steven's work, Age of Adz is to be taken as a whole, when it becomes even greater than the sum of its parts.






1. Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring (Wichita Records)
www.loscampesinos.com

And so to the number album of 2010, in my humble opinion. I've never made any secret of my utter adoration of Los Campesinos! - they are one of my favourite bands ever and certainly my favourite band around at the moment (Pulp reformation notwithstanding). This is their 3rd or 2nd album (depending on your classification of We are Beautiful, We Are Doomed) and marks a maturation of their sound. What is remarkable about this is that it never means they lose any of the energy, enthusiasm or excitement that have always made them such an amazing band. The Sea Is A Good Place To Think About The Future is particularly epic and jaw-dropping but every single song on this record has something very special about it - whether it's the pure punch of There Are Listed Buildings or the tragi-comedy of Straight in at 101, Romance is  Boring shows Los Campesinos! taking a bold step and standing up for what they want to do and how they want to evolve. And it works brilliantly - this is intelligent, human, spirited, endearing indie-pop at its finest and, for that reason, is my personal choice as the best album of 2010.

Christmas Music - the Good Kind!

This is being written on a packed train somewhere near Durham as I am whisked away to my hometown of Ipswich to spend a couple of weeks eating and drinking too much with my friends and family. Yes, Christmas is a mere week away and so shops and radio stations are awash with the same old Christmas songs being played ad nauseum until you lose whatever Christmas spirit the credit crunch, Joe McElderry and the general suckiness of humanity had left you with.

But fortunately not all Christmas songs make you want to give up on living, there are in fact some rather good alternative ones. So what makes an ‘alternative’ Christmas song? As far as I can see they fall into a few categories –

Songs about things going wrong at Christmas

Examples include I Won’t Be Home For Christmas by Blink-182, a heart-warming tale of a gentleman being driven somewhat insane by Christmas carollers and setting about them with a baseball bat. Which is actually fairly reasonable behaviour in a lot of people’s opinions. Also in this category is Seasick Steve’s Xmas Prison Blues which, as the name suggests, describes the experience of being locked up and experiencing the festivities behind bars. The Kinks are responsible for probably the finest example of this category with Father Christmas. In the song Ray Davies talks of the experience of being mugged by middle class kids when dressed as old St Nick. Well, we’ve all been there. Finally, Billy Idol tells a tale of a drunken father yelling at the needle-moulting symbol of goodwill in the living room in Yellin’ at the Christmas Tree.

Songs about relationships going sour at Christmas

The classic format for an alternative Christmas song, most notably of course in Fairytale of New York by the Pogues featuring Kirsty McCall. Whilst this is the one track on this list that is famous and played everywhere by everyone at this time of year it still deserves recognition for its sheer quality and the pure nastiness of the second verse. Other angry Christmas face offs include the bizarre combination of The Hives and Cyndi Lauper in A Christmas Duel and It’s Christmas (and I Hate You) by Josh Weller and Paloma Faith.  Merry lines from these songs include “I bought no gift this year and I slept with your sister” and the slightly predictable “You’re a ho ho ho”. Christmas TV by Slow Club takes a different route, focussing on a relationship that is falling apart rather than imploding. This is a beautiful and touching song of how one person misses another and wants them there at Christmas despite all the bad things that have happened. But not all Christmas songs about relationships are entirely negative – as witnessed by The Ramones’ conciliatory Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight).

Sweet but not Saccharine

There are also some very positive alternative Christmas songs such as The Magic of Christmas which was released this year to raise money for the RSPCA. Featuring indiepop stars such as Slow Club, Los Campesinos!, Sky Larkin and Copy Haho in hideous jumpers and Santa hats singing about how everything is awesome at Christmas the track brings a smile even to the face of the cynic. Sufjan Stevens has a whole album of excellent Christmas songs in the form of the 5-disc collection Songs for Christmas. The stand out track though is Come On Let’s All Boogie To the Elf Dance! where he sings about all the things going on around his house and neighbourhood as Christmas draws near before concluding with a rendition of Away in a Manger.

Miscellaneous

Finally there are those Christmas songs that defy categorisation. For example the somewhat bizarre Christmas at the Zoo by The Flaming Lips in which Wayne Coyne goes all PETA and attempts to free the animals at the zoo on Christmas Eve only to find them less than keen to vacate their cages. Kidnap the Sandy Claws is probably the best track from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and tells of the evil Ooogie-Boogie’s henchmen making plans to capture Father Christmas and hand him over to their devious master. The Raveonettes’ The Christmas Song is a mixture of happy and sad as the protagonist sings of not being able to spend December 25^th with a lover as the Christmas lights come on. Mew’s beautiful, Sigur Ros style She Came Home for Christmas which tells of uneasy feelings and emotions being dredged up by a woman’s return home for the holiday season. The ambiguity in the haunting vocal makes this far more difficult to categorise than it is to recommend.

So there you have it, a list of rather ace Christmas music that will give you some alternative listening over the holidays. What's more they're all handily compiled in a Spotify playlist which is located right here - Alternative Xmas Playlist

I hope you enjoy it and have a merry Christmas!

Top 10 Albums of 00's

Yes, yes, I know everyone is doing these end of decade lists right now but I thought I'd weigh in anyways. So below are my personal Top Ten albums released between January 1st 2000 and today (December 4th 2009). Note these are not what I consider the most influential or most technically skillful or most ambitious, forward thinking albums but the ones that I would choose if I were only ever allowed to listen to 10 albums from this decade until I die. My personal favourites basically. So, without any further ado...

10. THE ARCTIC MONKEYS - WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT'S WHAT I'M NOT (2006)

An absolute sensation when it came out in 2006, its release getting pushed forward a week due to the high demand that had built up since the first demos had made their way onto the internet in 2004. The record did not disappoint and promptly became the fastest selling debut album in UK history. It's not hard to see why - the tunes and guitar riffs often grab you round the throat and demand your attention and Alex Turner has a wonderful talent for turning the most mundane, normal events into poetic, witty stories. Whether it be a drunken taxi ride, seeing an awful band in a small venue or eyeing up a girl on the dancefloor The Arctic Monkeys frontman can turn it into a 2-3 minute experience from the frontline of youth culture at the time. Whilst the band have produced two excellent albums since this they have yet to top it.

Stand Out Track: Fake Tales of San Francisco


9. DAN LE SAC VS. SCROOBIUS PIP - ANGLES (2008)

An album that managed to dispel two popular myths about hip-hop - firstly that it's all about guns, bitches and bling and secondly that Americans do it best. With a delivery that is as much spoken word as rap and backed up with some brilliant manipulation of beats by Dan Le Sac this duo turned UK hip-hop on its head. Whilst most people would have been drawn to Angles by the #30 hit and Zane Lowe favourite Thou Shalt Always Kill the album has incredible depth. This depth is most obvious on the darker tracks such as Tommy C and, most of all, the self-harm inspired Magician's Assistant - a track which literally had me standing there with my mouth open when I first heard it. But these guys also know how to have fun as the bouncy Beat That My Heart Skipped and Fixed (which samples Dizzee Rascal's Fix Up Look Sharp) amply prove.

Stand Out Track: Magician's Assistant

8. JEFFREY LEWIS - THE LAST TIME I DID ACID I WENT INSANE AND OTHER FAVOURITES (2001)

 

The debut album of singer-songwriter and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis was an excellent example of the anti-folk movement that was growing in New York at the time. Although overshadowed by his friends The Moldy Peaches and their self-titled debut album released in the same year Lewis' neurotic, self-analysing songs of heartbreak and bad luck provide a more compelling view of the human condition. The intimate, lo-fi style of his songs provide the perfect backing to showcase his touching and sometimes brutally honest lyrics. If it were not for a couple of weak links (in the form of Amanda is a Scalape and The Man With The Golden Arm) this album could've been much higher in the list. Luckily these tracks are outnumbered by quality songs such as the perky Life, the garage rock style Another Girl and the beautifully gentle Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song.

Stand Out Track: The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song

7. VAMPIRE WEEKEND - VAMPIRE WEEKEND (2008)

A debut album of such confidence and assurance it was hard to believe Vampire Weekend had been together little over 18 months when they made it. The fusion of classical music with African popular music was so different from everything that was around at the time that you couldn't help but sit up and listen and A-Punk quickly established itself as one of the biggest anthems of 2008. The rest of the album backed up the promise of that single with a group of songs all definitely by Vampire Weekend but all distinctly different. From the loping The Kids Don't Stand A Chance to the sweeping I Stand Corrected and the punchy, aforementioned A-Punk this album did many different things and did them very very well.

Stand Out Track: A-Punk

6. DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS - PLEASE DESCRIBE YOURSELF (2004)

An album that proved a great name was not all Dogs Die In Hot Cars had going for them. A fun, bouncy sideways look at mid 2000's Britain Please Describe Yourself was based around urgent drums and a fantastic interplay between the band's two guitars and single keyboard and topped with Craig Macintosh's Andy Partridge-style vocals. With songs that commented on obsession with celebrity culture, alternative health fads and CCTV Please Describe Yourself  was very much of its time but nevertheless still has the power today to raise a smile and make you want to dance like a loon.

Stand Out Track: Pasttimes & Lifestyles

5. BLOC PARTY - SILENT ALARM (2005)

 

Coming in 2005, Silent Alarm offered a new take on indie music - suddenly it could be expansive, political and genre-bending. From start to finish the album is an intense, riveting combination of Kele Okereke's terse, urgent vocals, synths and lyrics of alienation and anger. From anthems you can jump and sing along to (like Helicopter) to political commentaries on George Bush Jr.'s actions in the Middle East and views on black people (like err... Helicopter) Silent Alarm offers energy by the bucketful. All 13 tracks on this album are top notch and the range of topics tackled with such skill and encased in such high quality music is quite breath-taking. Like the Arctic Monkeys Bloc Party have followed their debut with some fantastic albums that come close but never quite beat their first.


Stand Out Track: Helicopter

4. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (2008)

The second album from Los Campesinos! showed a more mature sound than their debut Hold On Now, Youngster... even though it was released a mere 33 weeks later. This increase in maturity fortunately did not equate to a loss of  the energy, enthusiasm and romanticism that made their debut album so impressive and caused it to teeter on the edge of this particular top 10 run-down. The most noticeable thing about Los Campesinos! has always been their lyricism and this album continues and improves upon this tradition, particularly on the violin-laden title track. These original, sometimes bizarre, sometimes touching lyrics are set against a somewhat frenzied backdrop of guitar, drums, glockenspiel and violin to tremendous effect, creating an album that speaks of the young people on the fringes of mainstream society.

Stand Out Track: Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1

3. JJ72 - JJ72 (2000)

                                                 

The oldest album in the top 10, JJ72 is a truly underrated piece of indie-rock genius. It is an album that is packed with emotion and anguish without ever becoming a cliche and what made this achievement even more remarkable was the youth of the three band members - all were just 20 when they recorded this. All the songs within have a real sense of atmosphere and pack a powerful emotional punch, frequently teamed with immense string sections. This is a record that just has that indescribable mystery element that sends shivers through you and has the power to stop you in your tracks.

Stand Out Track: Not Like You

2. KIMYA DAWSON - HIDDEN VAGENDA (2004)

The most striking thing about Kimya Dawson's 4th solo album is the incredible intimacy of it. Whilst this has always been a feature of her songwriting since leaving the Moldy Peaches it is taken to the Nth degree on Hidden Vagenda. Songs deal with the death of loved ones, her brother's battle for custody of his child and her mother's health problems as well as broader topics such as consumerism, capitalism and domestic abuse. Whilst this is a particularly dark album, which can be discomforting at times due to the very personal nature of it, Hidden Vagenda does have more positive notes and you never doubt that Kimya will come out of the experiences stronger. All in all, this is an album that offers an unparalled insight into a performer's life whilst still commenting on emotions and situations that nearly all people will experience. For being both incredibly intimate and yet universal Hidden Vagenda came very close to being my number 1 choice for album of the decade.

Stand Out Track: I Will Never Forget

And so finally we come to the number 1 - my favourite album of the last ten years. It's...

1. SUFJAN STEVENS - COME ON FEEL THE ILLINOISE (2005)

This is a quite remarkable record that ranks as one of the greatest albums ever, let alone of this decade. It is an epic, orchestral piece of beautiful indie music that superbly compliments Steven's quavering, delicate voice. One of the best qualities of the record is that it is a proper album which should be listened to start to finish, rather than a collection of songs. Whilst individual tracks such as Chicago (used in Little Miss Sunshine), The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! and the tragic, haunting John Wayne Gacy Jr. are absolutely excellent it is when the album comes together as a whole it becomes truly remarkable. There really aren't enough superlatives in the language to describe this album, all I can do is recommend that you buy this album (available for £9 or less in most places), sit down and listen to it. You will not be at all disappointed.

So there you go - the top ten albums, in my opinion, of the 00s. Here are some random facts about the list -

• 2008 was the year with the most albums in the list (3) while 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2009 didn't have any.
• 5 of the acts were from the UK, 4 came from the USA and 1 was from Ireland.
• There are 26 males and 6 females in the list (although the split in the top 4 is only 7:5).
  
• 3 of the acts are solo artists whilst 7 are bands.

Thus concludes my first blog post. Hopefully I'll be updating this at least once a week.


Take care,


Chris