For what it’s worth, here is Breezeblog’s annual list of my favourite music from the past year. There was so much great music this year, I had a hard time settling on the top ten – and as always there’s tons of music I just never got to hear. Enjoy – and let me know some of the good stuff I missed.
To hear a playlist of some of the best tracks from this list, click here
1. The Arch Android (Suites II and III) – Janelle Monáe
Can’t say that I’m usually partial to albums about time-travelling androids but then there has never been an album quite like this stunning debut from Janelle Monae. The pint-sized Monae, whose towering hairdo is almost as tall as she is, is an electrifying performer on stage and in video and one of the most exciting talents to emerge in years. ArchAndroid, the follow up to her 2008 EP, Metropolis, which introduced ArchAndroid’s heroine freedom fighter Cindi Mayweather, was an extraordinary genre-defying production that swung effortlessly from hip hop to classical via funk, jazz and punk. There are excellent standout tracks – Tightrope, Faster and Dance Or Die, for example – but this is one album that needs to be listened to in its entirety. Seven months after its release I’m still listening to it and hearing something different every time. I hope she’s around for a long time its tough to see how she could ever equal, let alone surpass this.
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