Tracks of the Year: Part Two

Time to conclude my little rundown...

5. Bat For Lashes - Pearl's Dream

Though overlooked a little in favour of "Daniel" and "Sleep Alone", "Pearl's Dream" was the quiet gem slap-bang in the middle of Natasha Khan's second album (once again hideously overlooked at the Mercury Prize). It showed all of Ms. Khan's pop credentials while still retaining that alluring mystique that shrouds her work.



4. Passion Pit - The Reeling

Okay, so I was a little dismissive about Passion Pit earlier in the year when the only track I'd really listened to by them was their first single "Sleepyhead". That all changed after I'd been exposed to the fluorescent explosion of joy that was "The Reeling" - the guys from Boston know how to put an infuriatingly catchy pop tune together.



3. Empire of the Sun - We Are The People

It must have been because their album was released in a particularly cold part of the year, but pretty much all of Empire of the Sun's ever-so-slightly bonkers album was enough to thaw the icicles that started forming every day going to and from work. Particularly sunny and heartwarming was "We Are The People". Well, acoustic guitars and dancy synths are enough to brighten anyone's day.



2. The Big Pink - Dominos

Now usually I wouldn't be attracted to slightly odd characters like Robbie and Milo, or slightly yobbish singing as displayed here. Or bad grammar for that matter (yes, for the purposes of this single there is no "e" in "dominos"). So what was so appealing about "Dominos"? Perhaps it's the simple and catchy chorus. Maybe it's that swirly synth sound going on in the background. Or possibly it's just the fact that The Big Pink proved they could do a storming rock tune, far away from "Velvet" or "Stop The World".



1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll

So how did they do it? Somehow the YYYs managed to move into a more synth-pop direction witout losing any of their punk or art-rock credentials.... And the results were amazing. While everyone seems to think that "Zero" is the best track from "It's Blitz!", "Heads Will Roll", in my own humble opinion, shoved all the competition out of the way. The synths jar just enough to give a disconcerting feel, Karen O yelps madly and has never sounded better, Brian Chase provides dancy drums and Nick Zinner strums away at his electric guitar and gives it all that rocky feel. The YYYs have never been boring... but in comparison to this, their back catalogue is about as fascinating as watching paint dry.

Tracks Of The Year: Part One

Ah it's that time of year again when I get to reflect on the good and the bad... well, mostly the good - I don't want to be less merry by thinking about some of the terrible tunes that I've endured in the name of research. I've compiled a list of the ten tracks that have stolen my heart this year - feel free to condemn, agree and possibly scratch your head saying "who?" (but hopefully that won't happen too often!).

10. The xx - Islands

Islands is a very rare thing - a quiet and tender track that is at the same time an exquisite single. The xx managed to turn it into a thing of pure beauty, with loving lyrics, a hushed boy-girl duet, simple melodies, a single plucked electric guitar... the year's best antidote to the dominance of chilly electro-pop.



9. Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

Who would've thought you could rip off "Rebel Rebel", make an unashamedly 80s-style pop single and yet still retain credibility? Well Strokes frontman Casablancas did it - and he did it so well that it was the ultimate grower. If the video below is your first taste of "11th Dimension" then don't let it put you off. In time you will learn to love it just as I did. It took me a whole month to realise that it was actually an amazingly good tune. Who needs The Strokes?



8. Little Dragon - Feather

Similarly to The xx, Little Dragon's "Feather" floats away dreamily into space and refuses to come back to us on dry land. Little Dragon are never in any hurry to actually get on and play their songs, and it takes a while for this wonderfully light tune to kick in. But if you're anything like me you'll fall for its charms after a single play. Enjoy.



7. Metric - Sick Muse

While their latest album "Fantasies" had its flaws, "Sick Muse" stood out as the best single on the album. Here it seemed to all fall into place for Metric, taking the angry noise that dominated their 2006 album "Live It Out" and taming it into just a little under 3 minutes and 20 seconds of rock bliss. And in a world now dominated by electro-pop, that's a big compliment.



6. Phoenix - Lisztomania

It's unfortunate that Phoenix are one of those bands who people seem to think have drifted into obscurity. Despite releasing albums constantly through the last decade, did anyone actually pay attention to anything apart from their first album "United"? "Lisztomania" helped to change all that. Their slightly dodgy, but nevertheless heartwarmingly odd, English, roots in both funky electro and rock plus Thomas Mars's smooth and appealing voice combined to make this, the first single from their really quite brilliant album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix", a standout track.

Update

Just informing everyone that I've updated the playlist for the radio (link on sidebar), and it includes:

Asobi Seksu - Strawberries
Basement Jaxx- Cish Cash (featuring Siouxsie Sioux)
Bat For Lashes - Two Planets
Beck - Gamma Ray
Bjork - Declare Independence
Black Kids - Hit The Heartbrakes
Cajun Dance Party - The Firework
Chairlift - Make Your Mind Up
Charlotte Hatherley - Alexander
CSS -Off The Hook
Depeche Mode - Perfect
Editors - All Sparks
Empire of the Sun - Standing on the Shore
Roisin Murphy - You Know Me Better
New Young Pony Club - The Get Go
Friendly Fires - In The Hospital
Frou Frou - Flicks
Goldfrapp - Road to Somewhere
Grace Jones - Love You To Life
Hot Chip - Careful
Howling Bells - Treasure Hunt
Imogen Heap - Headlock
Kate Bush - Wow
Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning
LCD Soundsystem - Two
Lykke Li - Little Bit
MIA - Hussel (featuring Afrikan Boy)
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World
Martina Topley Bird - Razor Tongue
Metric - Sick Muse
MGMT - Of Moons, Birds and Monsters
Muse - Hyper Music
Neon Neon - Belfast
Passion Pit - The Reeling
Phoenix - 1901
Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home A Heartache
Royksopp - Vision One
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities In Dust
The Cribs - We Share The Same Skies
The Gossip - Love Long Distance
The Horrors - Who Can Say
The Raconteurs - Consoler of the Lonely
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dragon Queen
Yeasayer - Forgiveness

Ecowatch: Radiohead @ Reading

I stayed up too late watching the Arctic Monkeys the night before and then decided it would be a good idea to stay up late again watching a set from a band I never really cared for that much (okay, Just is a good song - I like that one when it isn't being ruined with Mark Ronson and his all-too-eager brass section). I am talking about Radiohead - their music washes over me very easily. Although I can see why people love them so much.

This is beside the point of this post though. At some point during the set, I think it must have been during "Karma Police", I realised that for all his ravings about being eco-friendly, Thom Yorke doesn't have the most eco-friendly stage set-up. The picture above doesn't do justice to what the stage was really like - they did have video screens but I was more concerned about the programmable crystal lights and spotlights that were turned on throughout the whole thing.

However, they could be environmentally friendly lights. On the other hand, to power these things on solar energy alone would be a hassle in this lovely British weather. And I don't see them playing wind-up guitars. I doubt anyone would want to look that silly. Since Thom has an aversion to touring, perhaps he can afford to have a blow-out show every now and then.

I just thought I'd bring this up since it seemed rather odd and contradictory at the time - now I think that it was a good show, despite this moral/ecological problem.

The End Is Nigh

Noel Gallagher has quit Oasis! Hurrah! Okay, I know there'll be thousands of people across the country, and possibly the globe, who will mourn the loss of who is considered to be an icon of Britpop from the band who came to outlive the genre. But not me. Personally, this couldn't have come soon enough!

Enough gloating though, let's analyse Noel's statement of why he left the band and try and get through the enigma code:

"The details are not important and of too great a number to list": Doesn't this just scream "I just couldn't be bothered any more"? Surely the man would have the decency and respect to turn around to his fans and at least generally highlight some of the reasons why? You know, apart from the whole violence thing which isn't too hard to believe anyway.

"To get me cape and seek pastures new": Any statement like this should be somewhat heartfelt and surely not be comedic. If the reasons are that serious then surely a level of sincerity should be employed during this statement? No, Noel has decided to revert to the grammatically-incorrect vernacular and make a joke of the whole thing. Cape? Who does he think he is, Superman?

"I'd like to say sorry to the good people of V Festival.... it was nothing to do with me": deflecting the blame in this sort of situation is very childish and immature (okay they mean the same thing but I wanted to make the point twice). The suggestion is that it's something to do with Liam but if Noel is blameless, how did he end up in this situation and why is he personally apologizing, and not saying that the whole band at the time were regretful? As the old saying goes, there is no smoke without a fire. Or some cigarette ash.

"It's been a f***** pleasure": Oh dear, what an end. I'm far from being a prude but some things are just a no-no and swearing when you're ending this kind of supposedly serious statement is one of them. Dear me Noel - I do hope the family life and football team will enable you to get some manners or public speaking skills! Actually, don't count on that. Maybe the swearing is meant to be irony and he hated the whole Oasis experience? Somehow I doubt that's entirely true.

This essentially marks the day when Oasis fall apart and mercifully never make any more songs. No-one would ever truly accept an Oasis without Noel or a replacement for him either. But this is probably just as well. Even the songs of their heyday were drawn-out, screechy indulgences. Their best song "Wonderwall" is spoilt by Liam's gravelly, nasally voice. From then it only went downhill. I leave you with the disaster that is "Champagne Supernova". I suppose this was meant to be the point in their career where they went a bit psychedelic like their heroes The Beatles (they always wanted to be them) but instead of turning into a classic, it ended up as a self-indulgent splat on the face of their career. Awful lyrics, it lasts too long and it has one of the most implausible chord changes ever - what more could you not want?

Ah, please do your best not to hurt the screen. But if you're an Oasis fan and have found this entire post insulting and/or ignorant to the fact that Oasis are actually a really great band (tongue in cheek, tongue in cheek) then by all means enjoy:

The Bandwagon: The Easiest Way To Scrape Your Knees

Today the Observer Review has published an article by Hermione Hoby about the Arctic Monkeys live in Brixton. Now, I hope I am not the only one who thinks that Hermione is trying to jump on the bandwagon as I cannot imagine her ever listening intently to the music of the Monkeys day after day or singing along like the crowd did at the gig itself. The whole review felt like a point-scorer after her stint in the comments section about how (young) women still need feminism (of course we do, dear, we don't need to be told that).

First mistake: claiming that the whole of their third album was recorded and produced by Josh Homme in the American desert. Er, no, actually only about 2/3 of the album was - this is a simple mistake to make of course. Well actually it isn't. Listening to the Sheffield four-piece work their way through the majority of the album in their Reading set last night, it's obvious that while some songs have benefited from Homme's Americanised, yet more nuanced approach, some songs still contain the raw energy and thrashing style of the previous albums, suggesting even to somebody who didn't know about Homme's involvement that there was more than one engineer/producer on the project.

Which brings me nicely to mistake number two: Hoby suggests that every song contains the thrashing style that made the Monkeys famous in the first place. Poor Hoby has shot herself in the foot. Like last night, the Monkeys started their Brixton set with "My Propeller", a dark and heavy song bursting at the seams with double entendres, metaphors and sexual innuendo. The slow build up leads nicely into the first single from "Humbug", "Crying Lightning". Even that doesn't have the Monkeys' 'signature sound' or at least, it is shoved in the background to leave Turner to get on with his singing rather than having his lyrics drowned out by noise. Old songs were in rather short supply, and if the Monkeys showed the same semi-apathy for their old hits as they did at Reading last night then surely there is no reason to suggest to people that they haven't moved on.

Third mistake: the hair. Oh, who really gives a monkeys (no pun intended) about the fact that Alex Turner has grown his hair? Trying to say that his longer hair shows a progression into manhood out of adolescence is even worse! It's childish and pretentious at the same time like giggling at someone's locks in the schoolyard just because it's different to yours or looks "silly" or "rubbish". Get over it. If the hair must be talked about, attribute it to the fact that Turner has so obviously cast off the shackles of his working-class roots and (possibly) been bullied by his it-girl beau Alexa Chung into looking less like a chav and more like a proper rock star. Okay, it's probably more like that it was Alexa and not Alex denying where he comes from - he doesn't seem like the type.

Please please please Hermione! Stick to what you know; actually, what is that exactly?

Fantasies

In 2006, Metric released "Live It Out", a fast, furious and stressed-out album that exposed their views on things like modern life and the war (on possibly their best song, "Monster Hospital") and frontwoman and keyboard-player Emily Haines adopted a more unconventional singing style, sometimes screaming, sometimes cooing and then warping her voice in the most strangest of manners to represent anguish and desperation. Three years down the line, and one solo project for Haines, Metric have released "Fantasies", a much more structured and adult effort.

Of course, that doesn't mean I prefer "Live It Out". Both albums can top each other in different ways, and here Metric are taking slight advantage of the rise of electro but subverting it slightly and moulding it to their own liking. "Twilight Galaxy" and "Front Row" provide the mellowest moments of the album and allow Haines to truly take the lead, making use of her synth-playing expertise and the experience she gained in making her low-key solo album.

Oh, and then we get stabbing, attention-grabbing guitars straight after, reminiscent of their last album. But unlike on "Live It Out" you're left with more room to breathe in each song - perhaps with the exception of album closer "Stadium Love" which continues their love of not ending albums on a dull note. Indeed, "Stadium Love" is the most hectic song and with its long fade-out, disruptive fuzz and an urgent beat, it's also one of the album's most uplifting songs (for some reason, this album is dark without trying deliberately to be like the night; it's all in the little things that you don't notice after just one play).

"Gimme Sympathy" plays on the old question of "would you rather be the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" I was sort of surprised that this was chosen to be a single but maybe they're trying to reach a new audience with this strategy. "Sick Muse" is a twisted love song hidden behind lyrics about silly people, rejecting money, wanting to be the best and having a mental illness. Nice.

If there's one downside to this album it's that opener "Help I'm Alive" is one minute too long. It has one verse, one bridge and one chorus, each with a different key and a different tone. After four and a half minutes this gets a bit wearing and you get the feeling that the triumphant ending piece should have been taped on just after that bit with the crazy descending penny-whistle noise. Then it would have been better. But that's just personal opinion.

Still, this is a great effort - even my dad likes it so it must have something good going for it. Favourite song? "Satellite Mind". But since they didn't have that on YouTube, I'll let you go with "Sick Muse" instead: