Best of 2010

The blog may have been quiet but as its the end of year it is time to roll out my top 3 albums of the year.
I am listening to a lot of music of late but its been difficult getting the time to write about it all, end of year and a moments reflection on what has made up the best album means that I need to find the time.
This time last year it was all about Hockey, NOFX and Mumford and Sons. They were floating my boat. The three albums that I thought were the best of the year, you are going to have to be lenient here, they were all released towards the end of 2009 if this were The Grammy’s we wouldn’t have a problem, it isn’t though so we may have.

OK on to the music. The third best album of the year for me was the Mercury prize winning debut by The XX. I think my wife heard a track and knew it was up my street, like Glasvegas and current squeeze, Mona they have a specific sound that seems to be swimming away from whatever the current crop of indie sounds like. The XX’s album doesn’t have big production, or massively clear vocals, but it supplied clarity from the start.
I loved The XX and when I went from car commute to train commute and heard it for the first time on my iPod I bombarded my wife with texts telling her that THIS was the future of pop music. She had heard it all before and reminded me of my past crimes.
Crimes schmimes. This album is an essential album from this year, perfect songwriting, lovely sparse production that makes you at times have to crane an ear to pick up just what the singer is saying and it won the Mercury Music prize, and anything is better than Paul fucking Weller.



Crystalised by The XX

My second favourite album of the year was also nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, and this was also released towards the end of 2009, Biffy Clyro’s fifth studio album, Only Revolutions.
As I write this a Biffy Clyro song sits at number one in the singles chart, their original is at number 25, they are headlining a major festival next year and in Only Revolutions they have a platinum selling album. 2010, well it has been a good year for Biffy Clyro and the overnight success has only took 10 years.
So Only Revolutions, a magnificent polished album that moved away, for me at least, from the confused sound of Puzzle, to return more towards the sound they produced on Vertigo of Bliss, but a more professional developed and finer version.
Many of Horror, the song X factor winner Matt Cardle is cuurently sitting pretty with is one of many stand out tracks on this album and if tomorrows pop idols were looking to cover any of them they could take their pick of the exquisite God and Satan, Mountains or Bubbles.
So many stand out tracks on this album and any song could be a single. We had the pleasure of seeing them twice this year at an enormous festival and a tiny club and both times it was fantastic and to hear the songs that make up this album was a joy and a pleasure.



God and Satan by Biffy Clyro

My favourite album of the year though is the fantastic Revolution by Miranda Lambert. Its an album that just keeps getting played and played. I have to say pretty much solidly for the past 6 months I have listened to nothing but mainstream country music. Brad Paisley without a doubt has been my favourite artist of this year, the album though goes to Miranda.
This isn’t some obscure album though, this is a huge selling album in the states and every track tells you why, clever, funny, beautiful, some tugging at the heartstrings, some kicking you in the balls. Miranda Lambert isn’t Taylor Swift, she is Taylor Swifts crazy aunt.
The stand out track for me on the album is the US country number 1, The House That Built Me. A stunning stunning single, and with Dead Flowers, Airstream Song and Virginia Bluebell she continues in a similar vein musically if not lyrically.



The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert

Miranda Lambert gets down and dirty when she needs to on songs like Somewhere Trouble Don't Go, but she is a girl that likes to keep the mood light, from Only Prettier, to the cover of Time to Get a Gun.
Lambert is the main songwriter but she gets a little help on this album from Blake Shelton her fiancé, Julie Miller, Ashley Monroe and Natalie Hemby. The most surprising addition to the album and least country song on this album is her version of John Prine’s That's the Way That The World Goes 'Round. A song that Lambert definitely makes her own.
All in all, easily my favourite album of the year and one that you really need to hear.



Thats The Way The World Goes Round by Miranda Lambert

Stack O' Cash

After being deep into the Johnny Cash section of my CD albums, its perhaps became apparent that I hold the man in rather high esteem. I would say that I had never heard a Johnny Cash song that I didn’t love completely, but also with the wealth of material that he produced when I do hear something new for the first time, it reminds me why I love his work so much.
If you had to pin me down though, across a career that spans 50 years, what is the best? What releases surpass all of the other wonderful and great songs.
Now the thing with me is that I love it all, I love the hymns, the songs about native Americans, the songs about soldiers, murder, everything. That in mind of everything here is what I consider to be the very best.

Far Side Banks of Jordan

Ah this gorgeous cut from a June Carter Cash album, 1999’s Press On. She was 70 when she recorded that. Resurfacing on Johnny’s Duets album. This, most days, is my absolute favourite. More poignant when you listen to it and know that Johnny died 5 months after June in 2003. A similar tone explored on his cover of Hank Williams’ On The Evening Train. That a journey is coming to an end, but the belief that when it does end, one or the other will be waiting.

If It Proves To Be His Will That I Am First To Cross
And Somehow I've A Feeling It Will Be
When It Comes Your Turn To Travel Likewise Don't Feel Lost
For I Will Be The First One That You'll See

And I'll Be Waiting On The Far Side Banks Of Jordan
I'll Be Sitting Drawing Pictures In The Sand
And When I See You Coming I Will Rise Up With A Shout
And Come Running Through The Shallow Water Reaching For Your Hand

As I said all the more poignant that John would follow June so swiftly.



Delia’s Gone

Delias Gone was from Johnny’s American period, when his career it seemed was in a bit of a lull, American signed him and opened up a new creative period and indeed gave him to a whole new fanbase. This was a period that spawned his take on Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, his cover of Soundgardens Rusty Cage and amongst a rich vein of covers and originals was this track, Delia’s Gone. Delia’s Gone was the track that made me think that this period Cash wasn’t so bad after all, it was not until this track that I fell for this period Johnny. I was suspicious of Rick Rubin and his motives, I still am to a degree, more so with Neil Diamond, is he really a fan? I don’t know. But Delia’s Gone, it’s a simple acoustic number originally released on 1962’s The Sound Of Johnny Cash but the version I love is the version that appeared on 1994 American Recordings. Its just a stunning and simple song, beautiful.



The Beast In Me

The Beast In Me also appeared on the American Recordings album, this is a song written by Johnny Cash’s son in law Nick Lowe. Lowe released it on his Impossible Bird album and I can’t comment on the original yet, as of today I haven’t heard it. I suspect that will change pretty soon. Johnny’s version is a menacing song though, one that doesn’t threaten with words, but with a glance or peering over glasses. It’s a song that sends shivers up your spine truly, and a million miles from A Boy Named Sue, but a bedfellow for the other tracks on the American Recordings album written by people such as Glenn Danzig and Tom Waits. This is as light as it will get. The Beast In Me is perfection though, its amongst his very best, easily.



Peace In The Valley

I have this thing for June Carter Cash’s voice, she really has the most beautiful angelic voice you will ever hear, from her time as a youngster right up until her later years prior to her death, no ones voice is like June Carter’s and no voice betters it. On Peace In The Valley, like all of the spiritual songs June contributed to her voice on is just so important to the whole feel and sound of the song. She transcends backing vocalist and makes herself integral to the whole piece. Peace In the Valley as a song by itself is amazing, add June Carters vocals to that mix and its difficult to beat.



Jackson

Which brings us neatly to Jackson. If ever there was a song that associated June and Johnny as a couple then it has to be Jackson. To my mind their most famous song, barring Ring Of Fire. Opening a song with the line, “We got married in a fever”, it just paints the urgency of the start of the relationship so well, and to enforce that “hotter than a peppered sprout”, but then it tells of the fire in the relationship going out. Jackson will show them delights, but sadly not with each other.
This isn’t a Johnny Cash song, Jerry Lieber wrote it, but Cash truly made it is own, the plethora, the many many covers that have been made of it, really are a cover of Cash and not I suspect of the version that appeared on co-writer, Billy Edd Wheeler’s album.
Jackson delights me everytime I hear it, be it by Johnny Cash, be it by Brakes, be it The Pleasure Barons, all versions are fantastic, but it is Johnny and June singing this song together which is by far the best.



I Still Miss Someone

Ah I Still Miss Someone, a Cash penned song composed in collaboration with Roy Cash, Johnny Cash’s nephew. Roy Cash is also the father of Carey Cash, President Obama’s pastor. As for his contribution to this song, Roy Cash that is, I don’t know, he gets a writing credit so I assume he had some input and not hopefully, change a word, claim a third.
I Still Miss Someone is up there as my favourite of Johnny’s romantic songs and it’s a beauty I return to a lot, foisting it on my uninterested wife whenever possible, I suspect I could play it to her today and she would claim that she has never heard it. I Still Miss Someone should be a bona fide classic but I think its not particularly well known. It is beautiful though, a gorgeous song that has been covered numerous times, as is the case again with this, it is the Cash version that surpasses all others.



Girl From The North Country

Ah Girl From The North Country. This is a song that appeared on the Dylan album, Nashville Skyline, the best Dylan album by a considerable chalk and the version that appeared on that album sees Dylan and Cash duet on this song. They also duetted on I Still Miss Someone during those sessions, whereas this track benefits from Cash’s gravelly vocals, I Still Miss Someone loses something with the addition of Dylan. That all said this is a fine Dylan track that gives and gives, it oddly reminds me, for reasons I cannot fathom, of Lambchops, The Man Who Loved Beer. I have no clue why. This song though is beautiful in every aspect, Dylan lets us in and lets us know about this girl, confides in us. Dylan is astonishingly honest in this song and I don’t think he betters it.
It has been covered many many times but the version for me is the one that he performed with Cash. Stunning.




(I'm Proud) The Baby is Mine

When my good lady has had a little too much wine, this song always springs to mind, (I'm Proud) The Baby is Mine tell us listeners of a lady, who perhaps may not be quite as classy as other women, but heck JR is proud she is his. I adore this song, I love everything about it, it tells you something about love, about how its easy to love someone demure and dignified, but when that gal is flat on her ass, that’s real love. Maybe not but for some reason I hold this song in extremely high regard. I have it as a bonus track on the incredible Orange Blossom Special, another reason why that album is so great.



When It’s Springtime In Alaska

This is a song that not only popped up a considerable amount when I was listening to Johnny Cash as part of my commute CD journey, but it’s a song that my iPod and its randomness seems to settle on at least once in fifty times. I don’t mind this as I consider this to be one of the most special Cash songs he ever committed to tape. The bonus is that it features the perfect vocals of June Carter Cash. Again this is another track from Orange Blossom special.
The tale, as is often the case of someone wronging Big Ed and suffering the consequences.

I was as innocent as I could be
I didn't know Lil was big Ed's wife to be
He took out his knife and he gave it a throw
When it's springtime in Alaska I'll be six feet below

Folsom Prison Blues

Folsom Prison Blues, from Cash’s Sun Records period and as spitting and as angry as you will get, bitterness, jealousy and very nearly hate. That’s what prison will do to a man. Cash said of the line, “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die”, "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind." That sums up the whole tone of the song, but that line, perhaps is Johnny Cash defining line. Amazing. An amazing song.




Were You There When They Crucified My Lord

Finally to this, today, its his best work, today. It’s a traditional song, a hymn that owes a debt to June Carter, her vocals on this surpass anything at all I have heard and this song just keeps on improving, it is a career highlight for them both and the point where June's vocals come in makes you think, music really doesn’t get any better than that.

Best Of The Year?

So the year ends and with the year ending and this being a music blog it is time to look back on the best albums of the year.
Last year if memory serves me I found very little new music much cop, and I think its a similar tale this year, but not particularly out and out bad, music it seems in 2009 is in a better state than it was in 2008, but only marginally.

A band that I did enjoy in 2009, both live and on CD was the second album by Portland band, Hockey, Mind Chaos. I do not like this eighties sound that so many artists are adopting, the eighties were a musical desert and it isn't something that I need to revisit, but Hockey take the best bits of that decade and open a party 7, both live and recorded. On Mind Chaos they prove that the single Song Away wasn't a fluke and produce a remarkably good album. Its new wave with elements of mental as anything, that sounds an awful combination but if any track appeared on the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop it wouldnt seem out of place. Please dont let that put you off.



Song Away by Hockey

Another favourite album was NOFX's Coaster. Their 11th album and one of their strongest, varying between the knock about fun that they are known for on Creeping Out Sara, to more considered and darker material on My Orphan Year. It is perhaps my favourite album of the year all told and re-affirmed my love for all things NOFX, where as there has been a recent glut of Johnny Cash albums on my morning commute, when I get to the N's it is a huge NOFX section. This album though is text book NOFX and thats how I like it.



My Orphan Year by NOFX

Finally Sign No More by Mumford and Sons, a post by Kev made me investigate this album and after much malignment by the current Mrs D it turned out to be an album that soundtracked my work, as the commute was took up by the commute CD's. The Mumford and Sons album reminded me in parts of The Mystery Jets, in part of Arcade Fire but all in all a sound of their own, marvellous stuff.



Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons

1986 - A Year in Music

As I scrolled through the music of '86 on the internet I noticed an album by Emerson, Lake and ...........Powell. Now, I'm no progist, and know nothing about such super-group noodling, but even I've heard of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, or ELP. But Powell? It turns out it was Cozy Powell, him of Rainbow and others. Imagine if this had become a trend. We'd have Crosby, Stills and Nas (hippie rap), Crosby, Stills, Nash and Run (hippie hip hop), Talking Sheds (David Byrne teams up with Rick Witter for Britpop with a twist), The Head Kennedy's (Motorhead vs US Punks in noise fest stand-off) or maybe Huey Lewis and the Muse (It's Hip to be in a Supermassive Black Square Hole). I think I've killed that one.

So, 1986. Notable for me for two conjoined reasons, the first being my attending the Glastonbury festival for the first and only time (seem to remember Microdisney being very impressive, and Billy Bragg being outstanding), and the second being Maradonna's Hand of God against England, the very same weekend. My girlfriend of the time bought the AC/DC single listed below, and I remember going through quite a big Howlin Wolf phase about the same time. Sadly, he had no big hit singles that year. I was quite taken by The Mission, who we seemed to go and see almost every weekend. The PIL album 'Album' (with contributions from Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Bill Laswell, Ryuichi Sakamoto) was probably my favourite album of ther year, oh and Howlin Wolf London Sessions, but that had been released in 1971. While I loathed Peter Gabriel at the time, I now love the drippy In Your Eyes, but prefer the Jeffrey Gaines version.

AC/DC - You Shook me All Night Long
Big Black - Kerosene
Big Country - Look Away
Run DMC - It's Tricky
Paul Simon - Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
REM - Fall on Me
Public Image Ltd - Rise

Steve Earle - My Old Friend the Blues
The Stranglers - Always the Sun
The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down
Talk Talk - Give it Up

The Commodores - Nightshift
The Mission - Wasteland

1985 - A Year in Music

I left school in 1985. That summer I was the only teenager in Europe who didn't see Live Aid. We were camping in the south of France and I couldn't even get it on the radio. I seem to remember reading a Frederick Forsyth thriller instead and not being too thrilled. I watched the whole thing on video when I got home, and wondered who George Thorogood was on the US one.

I never really saw the attraction of the Jesus and Mary Chain, and got heartily sick of the NME going on about them. Listening now I quite like it, although it's hardly the musical earthquake it was always painted as.

There are several songs in the list below that I bought, and they got the heavy heavy rotation that only a 15 year old can survive. She Sells Sanctuary blew my mind when I heard it first, and Eldritch and Hussey condemned me to a couple of years of black drainpipe trousers with the ultimate goth template of First and Last and Always. Spear of Destiny also dominated my listening for 12 months, as did going to see them anywhere I could (usually Hanley). The Pogues and The Waterboys opened my eyes to bang-yerself-on-the-head-pissed-up folk, and big expansive 6 minute epic angry folk, respectively.

Notice the rap/rock crossover of Timezone pre-dating Aerosmith and Run DMC by quite some time. It was recorded in a day, and it was very nearly the bloke out of Def Leppard instead of John Lydon. Hmmm.

Aerosmith - Let the Music Do the Talking
Billy Bragg - Between the Wars
Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town

Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
Killing Joke - A Love Like Blood
Kirsty Maccoll – A New England
Lone Justice - Ways to be Wicked

Pete Townsend - Face the Face
REM – Can’t Get There from Here
Spear of Destiny - Once in Her Lifetime
Suzanne Vega - Small Blue Thing
The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary

Tom Waits – Downtown Train
The Pogues - Dirty Old Town
The Sisters of Mercy – First and Last and Always
The Smiths – How Soon is Now (yes I know, the re-release)
The Waterboys - Don't Bang the Drum
Timezone - World Destruction

The Times - 100 Best Pop Albums of the Decade

The Times have jumped in with their list of albums of the decade, and not to be outdone by any other end of the decade list, they have spread theirs over a top 100. Annoyingly, they have also spread the list over 15 bloody pages. Some t'internet boffin at that paper should be poked in the eye with the corner of a broken CD case, preferably Kid A by Radiohead, which is their number one 'pop album'. Click here to see it from number one backwards, or here if you have an empty void in your life.

1984 - A Year in Music

1984 - one of those balmy happy-go-lucky Thatcher years, where all was well with the world, apart from the miners strike, the IRA bombing in Brighton, Reegan winning another election, and John Hurt having his face chewed by a rat. In contrast to this misery if you turned on the radio you could hear Agadoo, Wake me Up Before You Go Go, Karma Chameleon and other such classics. The first Band Aid single came out (Live Aid was the following year), and Frankie finally made it to number one with Relax. Rather like 1982 it was a bumper year for quality songs, although Peter is going to moan about the Cockatoo Twins being included (but secretly love Van Halen).

Blue Nile – Tinseltown in the Rain

Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy
Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark
China Crisis – Wishful Thinking
Cocteau Twins – Lorelei
Echo and The Bunnymen – Seven Seas
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes
Husker Du – Something I Learned Today
Killing Joke – Eighties (poor quality video clip, but they sound great)

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Forest Fire
Meat Puppets – Lake of Fire
Mighty Wah – Come Back
REM – Pretty Persuasion
Spear of Destiny – Liberator

The Cult – Spiritwalker
The Smiths – Reel Around the Fountain
The Stranglers – Skin Deep
Van Halen - Panama

1983 - A Year in Music

I was looking for a nice way in to this 1983 post, but I couldn't find one. When I looked through the news of the year it was so depressing (Thatcher wins by landslide) that I thought I should just focus on the music. I have a very distinct memory of hearing 68 Guns by The Alarm for the first time. It was either on or walking past Morecambe pier which, just like The Alarm, no longer exists. The similarities don't end there either, as 68 Guns and the seaside town are both blustery and full of wind, and even though they have passed their peak there is a certain faded grandeur and pomp in both, that appeals a great deal to me.

The Alarm - 68 Guns

Aztec Camera - Oblivious
Big Country - Fields of Fire
Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue
Eurythmics - Love is a Stranger
Grand Master Flash - White Lines
Heaven 17 - Temptation
Icicle Works - Whisper to a Scream

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
REM - Radio Free Europe
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Pride and Joy
The Beat - Can't Get Used to Losing You
The Lotus Eaters - First Picture of You

The Mighty Wah! - The Story of the Blues (might be 1982?)
The Rolling Stones - Undercover of the Night
Violent Femmes - Add it Up

1982 - A Year in Music

In 1982 a single really was a single. They sold by the bucket load and a monster hit was a destroy all in its wake kind of a hit. Eye of the Tiger 5 million sold (I pity the fool!). Do you Really Want to Hurt Me 6.4 million and so on.

There was only two places to hear your music; Radio 1 and Top of the Pops. After being exposed to Simon Bates, Mike Read, Dave Lee Travis and Steve Wright it's a wonder I have any interest in music at all. The Top 40 run down on a Sunday night was a major highlight of the week. Some bright spark in BBC scheduling in the early 1980's followed up the chart show with Alexis Korner, thank God, and I inadvertently ended up listening to the blues.

It's almost an embarrassment of riches to choose from for my singles of the year, although this is tempered by number ones from The Goombay Dance Band, Tight Fit, Shakin Stevens and Renee and Renato. My choice for single of the year would be Aint No Pleasin You by Chas and Dave, which I think is magnificent, even though they are Spurs fans. Fittingly, this is their Top of the Pops performance, introduced by the above mentioned tit, Simon Bates.

So here's the full list, with vids of the highlights.

Chas & Dave – Aint No Pleasin You

Fat Larry’s Band – Zoom

Africa Bambaataa – Planet Rock

Blancmange – Living on the Ceiling

Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy

Bruce Springsteen – Atlantic City


Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Jackie Wilson Said

Duran Duran – The Chauffeur

George Thorogood – Bad to the Bone

Grandmaster Flash – The Message

Joe Jackson – Stepping Out

John Cougar Mellencamp – Jack and Dianne

Robert Wyatt – Shipbuilding

Stevie Nicks – Edge of 17 (which passed me by in 1982 but was introduced to me via the glory of School of Rock).


The Alarm – Marching On

The Associates – Party Fears Two

Willie Nelson – Always on my Mind

The Independent Catches Up with I Taught Myself How to Grow Old!

By the end of play yesterday we managed to have two posts in response to NME's rotten Best of the Decade album list, with our lists being equally as subjective and daft (Tenacious D, Green Day). Today The Independent has caught up with us in the shape of Andy Gill's response with You Call These The Best Albums of the Decade? Obviously, he is responding to the NME rather than us, as our rallying cry is 'Even our wives don't read it'. His inclusion of Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine was heartening.

Over at Pitchfork they like a good list, with Top album lists for the different years and decades, albeit a bit left of centre and indie leaning. The Top 200 Albums of the 2000's is worth a look, but spoils the fun by having Radiohead's Kid A in the top spot.

Paste Magazine actually has a 'List of the Day', which can only be a good thing, and has their 50 Best Albums of the Decade which was posted earlier this month. Bit of a surprise number one with Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.

Uncut magazine has a Best Album of the Decade, and puts The White Stripes 2001 White Blood Cells as top dog. I did notice that they are advertising their new Wild Mercury Sound music blog as 'rash' and 'ill - thought out', which is clearly an attempt to crowd both myself and Peter out of our corner of t'internet blogosphere. It takes a lot of work to look as rash as we do.

The Community Boards at the consistently annoying Drowned in Sound (In photos - Lilly Allen at the Academy, Sheffield, for example) have a debate based on NPR's The Decades 50 Most Important Recordings. They are so important that you can download a PDF file of the full list. I had no idea that Beyonce (number 5) was quite that important, although it is nice to see some Spanish language in there in the shape of Juanes and Shakira. Their number one is On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams, which means nothing to me whatsoever, probably as it is a classical piece. It won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in music, and was originally commissioned as a tribute to those lost on September 11th.

The Best Albums of the Noughties

This morning I received an email from a chap (once) called Fog, who sent me a link to the NME's Best Albums of the Noughties, as mentioned in The Guardian. I forwarded this on to co-blogger Peter, who, in his own words, pounced upon it 'like a fat boy at a buffet' (see his post below). Now, being a fat boy myself, and fond of a good buffet (preferably an Argentinian breakfast buffet) this seemed like an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Of course the NME's list is for skinny white boys with stylishly feathered locks, not a chubby baldy man like myself (or Peter - no offence). So, from the fat perspective, here are my 00's best albums. It looks like Neil Young hasn't made a decent album in ten years and I aint got the blues no more .....

2001
Rufus Wainwright - Poses


2002
Foo Fighters – One by One
Audioslave – Audioslave
Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
Maná - Revolución de Amor
Los Lobos - Good Morning Aztlán


2003
Molotov - Dance and Dense Denso
The Frames – Set List


2004
Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose
Ray LaMontagne – Trouble
Green Day – American Idiot
The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Origin Vo1. 1


2005
The Boxer Rebellion – Exits

2006
Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Jerry Lee Lewis – Last Man Standing

2007
Mavis Staples – We’ll Never Turn Back
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

2008
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

2009
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Is This It? NME's Best Albums of the Noughties.

The NME like lists, as do Kev and I. I dislike the NME though so I got this list from The Guardian. This latest in an ever ongoing list of lists tells us of the 50 best albums of the noughties. 2000-2009.
First of all this is the NME, that’s an apology by the way, but basically its going to be NME favoured bands, and why not, if I wanted Def Leppard to be in there I would buy Classic Rock. You get the gist.

OK, number one, surprisingly was the debut by The Strokes, Is This It. The one with the lady’s bum on it. I like that album sleeve. Its nice. Its not a bad album as well. We had been playing the demo’s of it for a long time prior to its release, and then when it was released, it was pretty good but there was the element of, is this it? If this is the best album of the noughties, is the response, is this it? No it isn’t it, its good, but its not quite right.



Hard To Explain by The Strokes from Is This It

10 years of albums condensed into a list of 50 and the best of that list is The Strokes debut? At this point I refer myself back to my opening comments. Of that list though what should take its place? I do rate a large selection of the top 10 quite highly, oddly enough. I think a large selection are better than The Strokes, Libertines debut being a perfect example (however did The Strokes begat The Libertines???), Arctic Monkeys debut, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Fever To Tell and The Street’s debut and undoubtedly Arcade Fire’s genius Funeral. Obviously just in the ten there is some head scratching pile of shite Primal Scream’s xtrmntr, (Ld f bllcks more like) being the one that leaps out.



Wake Up By Arcade Fire from Funeral

The album that I rate the best of the noughties though isn’t on that list, the one that I rate as the second best of the noughties is on that list but is way down at number 31. The best is of course the eponymous debut by Tenacious D. Its time for a review will come, at the rate my commute CD’s are taking me, some time at the back end of 2019. The second best, and the NME’s 31st best of the noughties is Bright Eyes I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, an album, according to the NME, worse than Klaxons’ Myths of the Near Future, really?



At The Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes from I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

Taste is a personal thing though, hence no mention of Tenacious D, and after all this list was put together by bands, label owners and producers, so would not expect to see The D propping it up. What we do learn about popstars taste though, they like mainstream indie. The care little for pop, be it crafted and shiney, not much for folk, for jazz, for easy listening, for dance, hip hop or RnB, world music has passed them by and gabba techno no longer floats their boat. For innovation, for forward thinking music, for being groundbreaking, for the future? In the main, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you white boys with guitars.

1. The Strokes - Is This It
2. The Libertines - Up the Bracket
3. Primal Scream - xtrmntr
4. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
6. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
8. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
9. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
10. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Full list

1981 - A Year in Music

If you look at the Wikipedia page for 1981, under the heading of 'Events' it lists notable points in history for that year; Ronald Reegan became president of the USA, Rupert Murdoch bought The Times, Muhammad Ali entered the ring for the final time, and so on. But right there in April, somewhere between Bobby Sands winning a by-election and Mitterrand becoming president of France, is this

The rock band Yes splits up (regrouping in 1983).

Now, I'm all for music finding its rightful place in the priorities of life list, but surely, surely, this doesn't merit the words devoted to it. As if this wasn't bad enough, the bastards re-formed two years later, and it's that little bracket at the end which is like salt in the wound.

My top picks for the music of the year is a mixture of those that obviously registered with me at the time (The Specials, Stray Cats, Altered Images) due probably to Top of the Pops performances, and also songs and artists that I found I liked many years later (Randy Crawford, Mission of Burma, Colin Hay from Men at Work). I remember finding Under Your Thumb quite unnerving. Then again, most things were unnerving as I was 12.

On with the list then.

Altered Images - I Could be Happy

Bauhaus - The Passion of Lovers

Godley and Creme - Under Your Thumb

Hazel O'Connor - Will You

Human League - Love Action

Men at Work - Overkill

Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach for My Revolver

The Ramones - The KKK Took my Baby Away

Randy Crawford - You Might Need Somebody

Siouxsie and The Banshees - Spellbound

Soft Cell - Bedsitter

Teardrop Explodes - Reward

The Specials - Ghost Town

The Stray Cats - Runaway Boys

1980 - A Year in Music

Don't you just love the 80's? No? Well, you've got a point. If you were to ask my wife what the 80's meant for her she'd have to say something along the lines of learning to walk and leaving the nappies behind. For me the 80's immediately conjures up mental images of TV news footage of many a grim going on; hunger strikes, the Falklands war, Handsworth and Brixton riots, unemployment, the miner's strike, CND and so on. It's not a pretty picture, and for a lot of the 80's, growing up in a fairly depressed midlands new town (not that I was economically affected), not a pretty picture is about as well as I can put it. A couple of the upsides that spring to mind are the Sony Walkman and post punk, a great combination.

So, get off your BMX, hitch up yer leg warmers, and have a look at my top picks for the year 1980, the year John Lennon got shot.

UB40 - King
Echo & The Bunnymen - Villiers Terrace
Bob Marley - Redemption Song
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Geno
Dolly Parton - 9 to 5

Hot Chocolate - Emma
John Martyn - Sweet Little Mystery
Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster
The Ruts - Staring at the Rude Boys
The Specials - Do Nothing
Willie Nelson - On the Road Again

The Who - You Better You Bet
Neil Diamond - America
AC/DC - Have a Drink On Me
Wah! Heat - Better Scream

A Year in Music - 1979

For reasons known only to myself (and other closet list makers) I have been putting together compilations based on particular years. This started in a round about way when, after a string of random songs on the ipod of more or less the same age, and with no hobbies or interests or friends to speak of, I decided to group some music by year, just for the sheer edge-of-seat, surf the internet / burn a cd crazy wildness of the thing.

As a starting point I chose 1979. Don't ask me why. The lists, of course, only consist of things I would listen to. There are ridiculous omissions, whole genres ignored, but they are true to the year they purport to be. Some years seem ridiculous in the amount of decent music released, while others are dusty barren tumbleweed strewn wastelands (1986 springs to mind).

My starting year, or year zero, is 1979, and there are far too many decent songs to choose from. It was year zero for Britain also, as Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister on May 4th, and nothing was ever the same again.

So, my 1979 top picks, interspersed with a couple of vids are

London Calling - The Clash
ELO - Don't Bring Me Down
AC/DC - If You Want Blood
Amii Stewart - Knock on Wood
The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Elvis Costello - Accidents will Happen
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him
Joy Division - She's Lost Control
Eddie Grant - Livin' on the Front Line

Madness - The Prince
Motorhead - Overkill
Rainbow - All Night Long
The Beat - Rankin Full Stop
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight
The Cure - Killing an Arab
The Jam - Eton Rifles
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
XTC - Making plans for Nigel

The 50 Greatest Songs In The World Ever Part...oh you get the gist

Kev is right about the lists, I make them all the time, if not physically then mentally. I am drawn to lists often skirting over the rest of a written word to the list. Lists are good. H Allen Smith said “The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for lists.” H Allen knew his stuff.
Yesterday I gave you the 54 songs I felt were the best ever written, they were at least to me in 2001. Today in 2009 the songs that would still make it into a top 50 are below, with songs that I believe are the best ever written padding the list out. Sadly Mo-ho-bish-opi didn’t make the cut.



Nobody Love You When You're Down And Out by John Lennon

These did.

The Next Episode by Dr Dre
Don’t Falter by Mint Royale Featuring Lauren Laverne
Being Boring by The Pet Shop Boys
Come On My Selector by Squarepusher
Jerusalem by Billy Bragg
Back together by Babybird
Here I Go Again by Country Joe and The Fish
Gentle on my Mind by Dean Martin
Teenage Kicks by The Undertones
Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
The Killing Of Georgie Parts 1 and 2 by Rod Stewart
I Am I Said by Neil Diamond
The King Of Carrot Flowers Parts 2 and 3 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Since You Been Gone By Rainbow
It’s Lulu by The Boo Radleys
Heroin by The Velvet Underground
He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
No Distance Left To Run by Blur
Stood On Gold by Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
Yasmin The Light by Explosions In The Sky
Someone To Watch Over Me by Frank Sinatra
Frank Mills by Hair OST
Everything’s Falling Apart by Hefner
Where is my Mind by Pixies
Nobody Loves You When You Are Down And Out by John Lennon
I Do by Weezer
My Man A Sweet Man by Millie Jackson



One Man Guy by Rufus Wainwright

These are the new entries.


Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
Disney girls by The Beach Boys
Little Democracies by Darren Hayman
Heartbreaker by The Rolling Stones
One Man Guy by Rufus Wainwright
Since You Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson
Takes Her Place by Mary Prankster
The Far Side Banks Of Jordan by Johnny Cash
The Beast In Me by Johnny Cash
Scavenger Type by NOFX
Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown) by Tenacious D
Queequeg by The Evangenitals
Off you by The Breeders
The Snake by Al Wilson
Down by the Seaside by Led Zeppelin
Tongue by Antony Harding
Books About UFO’s by Husker Du
About You Now by The Sugarbabes
At the Chime of a City Clock by Nick Drake
What Do I Do Now by Sleeper
Avant Garde Music by Ballboy
This Is Just A Modern Rock Song by Belle And Sebastian



What Do I Do Now By Sleeper

Nothing from this year, or last by the look of it, so that’s my new updated 50, must get them onto CD for the car.

Top 50 Greatest Songs in the World Ever Vol.II

I know it, Peter knows it, and we feel no shame. We are list-makers. We make lists. My name is Kevin and I am a list-maker. If you Google 'People who make lists' one of the results is on a business website called Hello My Name is Scott. Scott lists 43 Reasons to Make Lists For Everything, my favourite of which is

'Listing sifts through the bullshit. It gives people the guts, the meat, the good stuff, the essence and the cliff notes of your idea. Which is good, because most readers don’t have time (or care) to read anything else'.

Of course, we'd be happy to have readers of any kind, whether they read our lists or not. Hell, we'd encourage stalkers.

Anyway, Peter's 2001 list was a ragbag of both mainstream and leftfield indieness talent, made more interesting by surprise choices like Millie Jackson, and a lack of Journey. I realised when tapping in mine that there is almost nothing new, very little from the last five or even ten years, which doesn't mean that there is a lack of good music these days, it just means I haven't heard it. Songs sometimes take years to percolate in your head, or ferment. Some go mouldy and you have to discard them (often causing excessive earwax, so I'm told). It's rare, in my case anyway, for a song to go instantly shooting into the subconscious top 50 and stay there. I sat down and wrote this list off the top of my head easily, although if you asked me tomorrow it would probably have the same artists but different songs. It's odd how very little I listened to that was contemporary at the time, didn't make the cut.

So here they are in no particular order.

1. Angel from Montgomery - Bonnie Raitt & John Prine
2. I'm in a Dancing Mood - Delroy Wilson
3. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
4. Mama - Jarabe de Palo
5. Whole Lotta Rosie (Live) - AC/DC
6. Dr. Feelgood - Aretha Franklin
7. Buenos Hermanos - Ibrahim Ferrrer
8. Tupelo Honey - Wayne Toups
9. Viking - Los Lobos
10. Once in her Lifetime - Spear of Destiny
11. The Patriot Game (Live) - The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
12. The Weight - The Band
13. You Better Not Look Down - BB. King
14. It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Puressence
15. Old Man - Neil Young
16. Train Kept a Rollin' - Aerosmith
17. Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones
18. Liquidator - Harry J. Allstars
19. Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On (live) - Jerry Lee Lewis
20. House Rent Boogie - John Lee Hooker
21. Tell Mama - Etta James
22. Rags to Riches - Tony Bennet
23. Dancefloors - My Morning Jacket
24. My Morning Song - The Black Crowes
25. Substitute - The Who
26. A Quick One While He's Away - The Who
27. 5.15 - The Who
28. Sunny Sailor Boy - Luka Bloom
29. Pick a Bale of Cotton - Leadbelly
30. Cancion Mixteca - Ry Cooder, David Lindley, Harry Dean Stanton

31. Right About Now - Ron Sexsmith

32. City of Chicago - Christy Moore

33. Don't Want to Know - John Martyn

34. Pretty Thing - Bo Diddley
35. I am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses

36. Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen

37. Rankin Full Stop - The Beat

38. Shame and Scandal - Peter Tosh

39. Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals
40. Shelter - Ray LaMontagne

41. See a Little Light - Bob Mould

42. Here We Kum - Molotov

43. New Rose - The Damned

44. I Want to Take you Higher - Sly & The Family Stone

45. 537 C.U.B.A. - Orishas

46. I Hung My Head - Johnny Cash

47. Milk Cow Blues - Elvis Presley

48. Invalid Litter Department - At the Drive In

49. Mumbai Theme Tune - A.R. Rahman

50. No Regrets - Walker Brothers

The Greatest songs In The world Ever....in 2001

A respite this morning, it should have been a self made Ballboy compilation called New Balls Please but my CD player didn’t want me to listen to it. Instead I have referred in the past to a triple CD set I made myself of my favourite songs ever. The discs were compiled in 2001 and looking back now it is rather evident. Some of those songs no longer feature in my favourite ever, some artists have different songs which I adore more than others. There are 54 songs in total, listed below, in 2001 those songs were my very favourite, tomorrow I will update the list to reflect my tastes now, but for now, you get a list.


Born Slippy by Underworld
The Next Episode by Dr Dre
Don’t Falter by Mint Royale Featuring Lauren Laverne
Being Boring by The Pet Shop Boys
Come On My Selector by Squarepusher
Television, The Drug Of The Nation by disposable Heroes of Hiphoprasy
Whole Lotta Love by James Taylor Quartet
Jerusalem by Billy Bragg
Back together by Babybird
Convenience by Bob
Cannonball by The Breeders
Take The Skinheads Bowling by Campervan Beethoven
Here I Go Again by Country Joe and The Fish
Rich and Strange by Cud
Gentle on my Mind by Dean Martin
All You Need Is Love by Elvis Costello
Yesterday Once More by The Carpenters
Where Is My Mind by Pixies
Teenage Kicks by The Undertones
Touch Me I’m Sick by Mudhoney
Mr E’s Beautiful Blues by Eels
New Tricks by Mary Prankster
The Man Who Loved Beer by Lambchop
This Is What She’s Like by Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
Say It Ain’t So by Julianna Hatfield
Name (For Nameless Things) by Mo-ho-bish-opi
The Killing Of Georgie Parts 1 and 2 by Rod Stewart
I Am I Said by Neil Diamond
The King Of Carrot Flowers Parts 2 and 3 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Since You Been Gone By Rainbow
Homophobic Asshole by The Senseless Things
The Flaming Lips by Spearmint
It’s Lulu by The Boo Radleys
Heavenly Pop Hit by The Chills
Heroin by The Velvet Underground
Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys
He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
No Distance Left To Run by Blur
Stood On Gold by Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
Yasmin The Light by Explosions In The Sky
Someone To Watch Over Me by Frank Sinatra
Frank Mills by Hair OST
Everything’s Falling Apart by Hefner
Superman by Cinerama
Wild Horses by The Sundays
Nobody Loves You When You Are Down And Out by John Lennon
I Do by Weezer
Since I Left You by The Avalanches
Autobahn by Kraftwerk
Ladyfingers by Luscious Jackson
My Man A Sweet Man by Millie Jackson