I’ve enjoyed some great music this year. Here’s my top ten and other favourites ….
Intense, driving rock-pop from the Glasgow band accurately described as “every great Scottish band rolled into one”. The black humour of James Allan’s lyrics put them in a class of their own.
Favourite track: It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry
That someone my age is still producing fresh and relevant music like this is astonishing. As good as anything he’s done since the breakup of The Jam, 22 Dreams distills every influence Weller has drawn on in his illustrious career from Motown to Folk via psycadelia. All this and the epic Weller At The BBC CD/DVD set too. A vintage year for Weller fans.
Favourite track: Have You Made Up Your Mind
3. Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
Another vintage rocker still doing remarkable work. I came late in life to the Cave canon and am working my way steadily through his back catalogue in which Dig will proudly take its place. The Sunday Times called it “a snarling, feral, self-deprecating, libidinous, hilarious work of genius”. Couldn’t have put it better.
Favourite track: We Call Upon The Author
The Eighties polished off and given a V8 thrust by Las Vegas’ finest. An extraordinary third album that’s part Bowie, part Roxy and part Pet Shop Boys but thrilling throughout.
Favourite track: Forget About What I Said
To have as much talent as Adele has at 19 is frightening. Her “heartbroken soul” owes much to the greats and Alison Moyet but is none the worse for that. One of the most impressive debuts of the year.
Favourite track: Cold Shoulder
Great soulful songs and a voice to die for. The cute Welsh lass is going to go far.
Favourite track: Delayed Devotion
Swedish pop is going through a golden era and Lykke Li Zachrison is one of the brightest new stars. Hypnotically eccentric performer of infectious and refreshingly unusual pop/dance music.
Favourite track: I’m Good, I’m Gone
The Rilo Kiley lead singer delivered a killer follow-up to her Rabbit Fur Coat that swings effortlessly from country to soul and gospel via the White Stripes. Wonderful from start to finish.
Favourite track: Acid Tongue
I’ve not been a huge Coldplay fan in the past but this was a terrific collection of well-polished, if unthreatening, pop that seemed to get better every time I listened to it. And the iPod doesn’t lie: the title track was the most-played track of the year on our family car stereo. The deluxe edition released in December with Prospekt’s March only added to the lustre.
Favourite track: Viva La Vida
10. For Emma, Forever Ago (Bon Iver)
This would probably have ranked higher had I listened to it earlier in the year. Am only now just discovering why so many critics love this beautiful and haunting album, recorded deep in the Wisconsin woods one winter by a depressed Justin Vernon with a guitar. Favourite track (so far): Skinny Love.
Best Greatest Hits Compilation:
The Sound of the Smiths (The Smiths) – How mighty were Manchester’s finest. This definitive hits collection, curated by Morrissey and Johnny Marr, still has the capacity to awe more than 20 years later. Incredible to think they were only together barely four years. Do yourself a favour and download the deluxe 48-track version with extra live tracks, extended 12-inch mixes of How Soon Is Now and This Charming Man and video. Favourite track: How Soon Is Now.
Also in heavy iPod rotation this year:
- Accelerate (REM) – Best album they’ve made in ages.
- A Mad and Faithful Telling (Devotchka) – Devotchka are from Denver but their intriguing sound is akin to The Pogues getting drunk with a mariachi band in Budapest.
- Anywhere I Lay My Hat (Scarlett Johansson) – No she’s not a great singer but then neither is Tom Waits whose wonderful songs were covered on this album that owed its hypnotic quality to the richly textured production of Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio).
- Do You Like Rock Music (British Sea Power) – epic, sweeping pop-rock from Cumbria’s finest
- Electric Arguments (The Fireman) – Paul McCartney? With Youth at the controls? Surprisingly, it works well – his most original stuff in years.
- Fire Songs (Watson Twins) – Jenny Lewis’s backup singers step conifdently into the limelight. Just Like Heaven was the best Cure cover of the year.
- Off With Their Heads (Kaiser Chiefs) – third solid album of great songs from the Leeds band
- The Jasmine Flower (Heather Nova) – lovely collection of acoustic songs from Bermuda’s own
- Lay it down (Al Green) – almost touches the heights of his 70s heyday
- Momofuku (Elvis Costello) – Elvis and the boys return to the snappy format of past glories
- Seventh Tree (Goldfrapp) – a dreamy change of pace, perfect for the summer
- Stop, Drop and Roll! (Foxboro Hot Tubs)- brilliant, knockout rock and roll from Green Day and friends. Some side project!
- The Age of The Understatement (The Last Shadow Puppets) – another impressive side project as Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and The Rascals’ Miles Kane wallow in some gloriously lush 60s-70s arrangements.
- The Stand Ins (Okkervil River) – if this had been, as intended, the second half of 2007’s The Stage Names, what an album THAT would have been.
- Evil Urges (My Morning Jacket) – a very cool 70s retro mix of country-rock, soul, soft-rock and more.
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