I feel like I can't really start the year until I've top twentied the last one. And what a groovy year for music! I had to leave some of those puppies at the door. 'Let us in' they cried. 'I can't!' I cried, ' there's no room! go next door and try your luck in the top 50!'
20 P J Harvey White Chalk
PJ only just made it. I mean, White chalk is no walk in the park. In fact it's an angst ridden gloom fest sung in a weirdy weirdy high register. No guitars, no comforting rock and roll. She sounds like a teenager who has just lost her parents, siblings and dog in a drowning incident off the coast of Lyme Regis. The persona to go with this album (and PJ Harvey always has one) is a sort of dark inverted Victorian woman/child, who does needlepoint and plays pianoforte, but whose inner life is consumed by thoughts of dead babies, sexual frustration and despair. I still can't listen to the last track (it takes me well past my pain threshhold in every single sense) but I admire the vision, and can see the beauty. If I try hard enough.
19 Iron and Wine The Shepherd's Dog
It's kind of apt that my first encounter with Iron and wine was just when I was getting ready to leave Japan. In true Kiki style I became momentarily obsessed and listened to nothing but Our Endless Numbered Days, Woman King , and In the Reigns (the album he did with Calexico) for the last 3 weeks I was there. I listened to them in Okinawa on my long boat trips out to the islands to swim, and they were the perfect soundtrack to that time; sad, nostalgic, wistful, but strangely uplifting and inspiring. Don't get me wrong, it's the music which evokes all that stuff, because this new album has it all too, I'm just glad I gave them the perfect background to shine on. You can really hear the Calexico influence on this album, which is no bad thing. Oh. And it's lovely.
19 The Bees Octopus
Why so low in the chart? Well, because although it's groovy and charming and accomplished, it ain't as good as the wonderful Free the Bees. I know, it's mean to compare a band to themselves, but them's the breaks.
18 Blonde Redhead 23
More nostalgia, for me at least, as Blonde Redhead speed me De Lorean style back to the 80s - probably the result of the Sonic Youth influence. Guitars. Feedback, ethereal singing, My Bloody Valentine, Tribe, you know the kind of thing. They seem to have finally taken all those influences, sprinkled in a bit of Sigur Ros, and fashioned shoe gazing into something rich and strange. Oh, and that tortured feeling you get from Kazu Makino? -the result of her being trampled by a horse apparently. Ouch.
17 Tegan and Sarah The Con
I really like the way T and S sing- they have a genuinely unique sound. I also like the way they seem to kind of hate each other, (watching them being interviewed together is a hoot, and they live in different cities for God's sake!) The only cloud on the Tegan and Sara horizon is the excessive use of their songs to soundtrack naff love montages from the L word. Check out Youtube, it's horrible. And did you know that the White Stripes have covered one of their songs? Respect.
16 The Horrors Strange House
I find it amazing that the Horrors exist in the world. I find it equally amazing that the famous Chris 'I can't make a video without it getting banned ' Cunningham loved them so much he came out of retirement to make this creepy video. With Samantha Morton to boot! The Horrors remind me of the Birthday party, but don't let that put you off, they have their own unique sort of charm. I would like to see them perform in the ruins of Whitby abbey during Goth weekend. Now that really would be something! Oh, and yes, the video was banned- not for the disturbing images of a manky alien parasite appearing from under Ms Morton's skirt- but for the use of a strobe light. A likely story.
15 The White Stripes Icky Thump
I was totally blown away when I heard the title track of this album on the radio. I mean, it's so out there. It totally says- this is how I want this song to sound, and nothing, but nothing will dilute my vision. It's that faith in his art that makes Jack White so brilliant (and sometimes so fucking awful) he's incapable of dumbing down either way. You can hear the integrity in everything they do, even if it's shit. That's why I love the White Stripes. And those bagpipes are INSPIRED!
14 M.I.A Kala
M.I.A's first album Arular has the curious honour of having the longest stay on my Ipod ever. I loved that album to the very depths of my soul. So I've got to say I was kind of annoyed when I heard this album, although I had an inkling of what was to unfold when I heard the bloody awful 'Bird Flu'. This album took a lot, I mean a lot of work to like. But finally, like it I do. Especially the nearly catchy Paper Planes (An irony indeed for a Clash hater like myself!) Of course she did it all on purpose- testing the faithful- gotta love her for that!
13 The Go! team Proof of Youth
Nobody but nobody sounds like the Go! team. I know that isn't exactly a recommendation- nobody but nobody sounds like George Formby- but I mean it in a good way. They are just mind blowingly groovy. They gain extra points for taking me directly back to my childhood by copying a tune from a really old kid's school program called 'Our World'. Saints alive it nearly stopped my heart!
12 Interpol Our Love to Admire
This is a little bit of an odd choice for me. It's not really the sort of thing I'd ordinarily get into, but It just crept in there somehow. Nice songs, nicely put together. In a sad teenage sort of way. OK that line 'there's no I in threesome' is shocking, but on the whole they are a cool little band.
11 Klaxons Myths of the Near Future
Yup, they are naff, they look weird (in a bad art school wank way), they were uncommonly ungracious at the Mercury awards, they are vain and pretentious, and they appear to be the only band who fit into the completely meaningless musical category of Nu Rave. Somehow though, it all seems to work. And it's a fab album.
10 Bat for Lashes Fur and Gold
There wasn't much to choose between The Klaxons and Bat for lashes, except BFL lost out at the Mercury, so I thought I'd give her a break. And I loved the album. Natasha Khans vocals (much like those on The Bird and the Bee) are this fabulous antidote to our current obsession with big soul diva-y voices (I mean YOU Leona Lewis!) Sometimes something more delicate is called for. And the BMX video just rocks, you know it does. One final thing, I wonder who started with all this glitter paint on the face milarky? Not only did I find Bat for Lashes, The Klaxons and LCD Soundsystem sporting said look, I also see (in Closer magazine- shame on me!) that Kate Moss made everyone wear it at her birthday bash. Curiouser and curiouser.
9 LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
Eek I think this album may be the Nora Jones of Dance music for the 30 something ex-raver generation. Ah Fuck it, stick it on the stereo and pass me a glass of chardonnay and a herb marinaded olive.
8 Justice Cross
Thank the gods for Daft Punk! Without them Dance music might have sunk into a sea of cheesy trance, happy hardcore and dance 'anthems'. Daft Punk gave us another avenue, and Justice have gone right down it, and danced all over it (a bit like Michael Jackson in the Billy Jean video. But cooler.) Words cannot express how much I LOVE this album!
7 The Shins Wincing the night away
The Shins feel like Christmas. Not just the merry bits -but the sad, lovelorn, lonely bits too. I have to stop myself watching their videos as all that monkees-esque wackiness spoils the whole illusion. The Shins win the prize for the most asked about album at work (total strangers asking me what's playing at work is one of my favourite things.) Only the Raising Sand album comes close.
6 The Bird and the Bee The Bird and the Bee
OK on first hearing this album sounds sugary, even insubstantial, but after a few listens, you realise that it 's strangely muscular, just in a different way than you are use to. Quirky funny lyrics, lovely harmonies and beautiful arrangements, it puts me in mind of nothing but itself. Gorgeous!
5 Caribou Andorra
Continuing last year's little love affair with Canadian music is Caribou. Which is really some bloke called Dan Snaith. It sounds uncannily like a fabulous Dr Moreauen cross between The Polyphonic Spree and the Soundtrack of Hair the Musical. It's this huge rich sparkly sound, where every song makes you feel like you are on a log flume. Fabulous build ups, and then big showers of skin- drenching sound. It's restrained and exhilarating at the same time, which is quite the achievement.
4 Radiohead In Rainbows
It's just a really good album. When I have my Ipod on shuffle and I hear the intros to any of the songs I'm like 'ooh that's good, what's that?' and then it all becomes clear when I realise it's them. And Nude really is the best thing they've done for years- perfect like a pearl.
3 Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand
The question is, is this album good enough to make up for the shockingly awful video that is Gone Gone Gone? (Silver mirror balls- Animal shape balloons- Uncomfortable quasi dancing-) Well Yes. I think it's fair to say this one took us all by surprise; A bit like having honey and cheese on toast at the same time. Sounds odd but my it tastes good.
2 Kings of Leon Because of the times
Apparently the Kings of Leon are loads more popular in the UK than the States. Perhaps that's because we are fascinated with the truly unfamiliar backdrop that spawned them- the travelling Preacher father, the childhood spent wandering across the heart of the bible belt, those scary red neck names. Or perhaps it's that really big sound that they have, a bit like U2 but not shit. They totally manage to mix that really manly Kris Kristoffersen/ Johnny Cash Country thing with pure rock and rollio. Listen to King of the Rodeo if you don't believe me. Stand out tracks on the album are Knocked up (Jesus I can practically smell the inbreeding from the back porch) and Fans (which I think is about how much the Followill shag masters enjoy their British fans). So is it finally alright to marry your cousin? I should say so. As long as his name is Waymore.
1 U.N.K.L.E War Stories
And talking of nostalgia (which I was about 9 albums back) this album has this brilliant old 80s goth sound to it which I can hardly explain. Interesting that Ian Astbury is on there, but in songs sounding more like the Cult of old than the Cult of, well, awful. It also has a feel of Death in Vegas, and even a touch of Massive attack. Every song's a classic, and it's shockingly underrated! So go get it now- or I will kill you!
