Albums Of The Decade

It's taken me a while to round up my thoughts, but spurred on by being asked my favourite British albums of the last decade - and thus realising all my favourites were not applicable. Here are some thoughts:

Listen to all my albums of the decade on a Spotify playlist here

YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT

Wilco (2002)

Never has an album encapsulated me from first listen as much as this. Again, the love is possibly heighetened by the "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" documentary, but there are so many tunes that mean so much on this album

Listen to 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' on Spotify here

PLEASE BELIEVE IT

The Party Of Helicopters (2003)

Odd choice, but POH are simply the best live band I ever saw, and my love for this album is near unrivalled. Just ask anyone I subjected it to while on the road with Forward Russia.

Listen to 'Please Believe It' on Spotify here

THE TEXAS-JERUSALEM CROSSROADS

Lift To Experience (2001)

Such scope and vision, my heart lifts and sags with every crescendo and swell of Josh T Pearson's voice

Listen to 'The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads' on Spotify here

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE

Low (2001)

The perfect Low record. Which is pretty perfect really

Listen to clips of 'Things We Lost In The Fire' on Last.fm here

Download tracks from 'Things We Lost In The Fire' from the Kranky website here

THE MEADOWLANDS

The Wrens (2003)

Existing as if from nowhere, it's a mish-mash of indie slants that shouldn't works, yet does, better than you can imagine

Listen to 'The Meadowlands' on Spotify here

YOU FORGOT IT IN PEOPLE

Broken Social Scene (2002)

A blueprint for pretty much every great band of the last x number of year. Pretty much. Unrivalled

Listen to 'You Forgot It In People' on Spotify here

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO.

Songs: Ohia (2003)

Hard, but tips the Molina scale for me, if just for "Hold On Magnolia" and "John Henry Broke My Heart"

Listen to 'Magnolia Electric Co.' on Spotify here

DESPERATE YOUTH, BLOOD THIRSTY BABES

Tv On The Radio (2004)

Again, how do you weigh up 3 TVOTR albums, but this album as a statement of intent

Listen to 'Depserate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes' on Spotify here

SET YOURSELF ON FIRE

Stars (2004)

The other side of the Broken Social Scene coin, a wistful explosion of sugar coated morose pop midget gems

Listen to 'Set Youself On Fire' on Spotify here

Soundtrack to this post: M83

Spotifriday (On Monday)

I meant to do this with the posts on my favourites of 2009, and then before the weekend - and then I got prodded by a few friends, so here we are - a selection of Spotify playlist links to keep you entertained over the festive periods:

Albums Of 2009

Tracks Of 2009

and finally, here is the link to a playlist with stuff I'm listening to at the moment. This will change over time, possibly bite me on the arse, and be forgotten about at somepoints. But for now it might make some interesting listening

whiskas playlist (Dec '09)

Soundtrack to this post: Jay-Z, Olfar, Maccabees

Albums Of 2009

Here's the second part of my year in lists - my favourite albums of the year.

This should probably come with a few proviso's

I feel guilty for not including Merriweather Post Pavillion (Animal Collective) and Veckatimest (Grizzly Bear) but I'm just not that in to you

I feel like I should have listened to Tarot Sports (Fuck Buttons) and These Four Walls (We Were Promised Jetpacks) more

In a few weeks, Beast Rest Forth Mouth (Bear In Heaven) would probably chart a lot higher

1. Röyksopp – Junior

Royksopp feels like an odd choice, but it is an album that really has so muched. Prompted to listen by collaborations with Fever Ray and Lykke Li amongst others, it seems to do master the duo's famous electro sound, and with some awesome contributions create some dark, dance-pop masterpieces

Listen to 'Junior' on Spotify here

2. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

It was hard to work out how to place Josephine, another great album from Jason Molina, but without perhaps as much of a focal point as some previous albums, and a slightly more 'blissed out' feeling. Upon consideration, it's still better than pretty much anything else this year

Listen to 'Josephine' on Spotify here

3. The XX - XX

XX is certainly the hipsters record of choice - they were everywhere in Berlin earlier this year. It's rare an album and band create such an atmosphere on a record, and this album does more than that, backed up with some haunting gems with a unique (I said it) mix of sounds

Listen to 'XX' on Spotify here

4. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

From breathless start to finish, the size of tunes on this album is massive, with a beatiful interlude in the middle with the atmospheric two-parter Love Like A Sunset. Grammy nominated it as always seems a shame they haven't been able to breakthrough quite so much in the UK - Phoenix are the indie-pop band we need

Listen to 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' on Spotify here

5. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

The first of two Spencer Krug contributions, despite this album being very much a side project affair, and suffering from the potentially schizophrenic contributions of numerous writes, this is a quirky Canadian indie at it's best, and filled a whole in my world for a while

Listen to 'Enemy Mine' on Spotify here

6. Rock Plaza Central - ...At The Moment Of Most Needing, Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone

Rock Plaza Central's follow up to 2006's 'We Are Not Horses' would've been hard matched to improve on that, and 'At The Moment' takes a more laid back approach, further away from the psycadelic imagery of it's predecessor. In the process it gains a level of subdued beautiful to revel in

Listen to '...At The Moment Of Most Needing' on Spotify here

7. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Truely there is like no other as Dirty Projectors' immense vocal acrobatic harmony's. Sometimes distracting, always enticing, the melody's really are like no other

Listen to 'Bitte Orca' on Spotify here

8. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer, Spencer Krug's true sole side project, was a veritable mix sounds and songs, that grew with every listen and utterly bombastic live

Listen to 'Dragonslayer' on Spotify here

9. Kong - Snake Magnet

First delivered to me in 2007 by the hands of Biffy Clyro (I plugged them as a Band For 2008), it took a while getting released, but it's riffs are the size of massive bollocks only these screams could emanate from

Listen to Kong on Myspace here

10. School Of Seven Bells - Alpinism

Strictly released in late 2008, before a re-release this year - one of the most intense live bands I saw this year, the sonics and songs make me warm and fuzzy inside

Listen to 'Alpinism' on Spotify here

...and the best of the rest:

11. Tegan & Sara - Sainthood / 12. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers / 13. Fanfarlo - Reservoir / 14. Grammatics - Grammatics / 15. Sometree - Yonder / 16. Editors - In This Light And On This Evening / 17. Sonic Youth - The Eternal / 18. Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth / 19. Blue Roses - Blue Roses / 20. Riceboy Sleeps - Jonsi & Alex / 21. Micachu & The Shapes - Jewellery / 22. Monsters Of Folk - Monsters Of Folk / 23. Karen O & The Kids - Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack / 24. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread / 25. Fever Ray - Fever Ray

And, finally, looking at my forever interesting Last.FM stats, my actual most listened to albums released in 2009, are the following:

1. The XX - XX

2. School Of Seven Bells - Alpinism

3. Rock Plaza Central - ...At The Moment Of Most Needing

4. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

5. Röyksopp – Junior

6. Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

7. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

8. Grammatics - Grammatics

9. Sometree - Yonder

10. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

With a little note to say that Kong's 'Snake Magnet' would be at #8 in the last fm list, had I not recieved it in 2007!

Soundtrack to this post: Bear In Heaven

O, Josephine!

Much has been professed of my love for Magnolia Electric Co. on this blog over the last year or two. Last September, I was lucky enough to tempt main man Jason Molina to the Brudenell to perform a solo show, and with new album Josephine complete, the whole band are turning up this year - on Friday 4th September

The press continue to fawn over Mr Molina - check out the title cut from the new album, followed by some gushing praise (click to enlarge)

Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine (taken from the album Josephine)

Magnolia Electric Co. - Little Sad Eyes (taken from the album Josephine)

Magnolia Electric Co. at Secretly Canadian

Soundtrack to this post: Yonderboy, Riceboy Sleeps

Sometree

The first time I saw SOMETREE was about 8 years ago, supporting The Appleseed Cast at The Josephs Well - in the heady days when Bright Eyes, Cave In and the like were regular visitors. The gig stuck with me for a long time - it was one of those gigs where a seed was sewn, and over the following years I invested greatly in the bands back catalogue.

Sometree are a German 4 piece, and have not played over here too often. Sonically, they share a lot with The Appleseed Cast, with some wistful vocals and destructive guitar salvos. Here are some choice cuts from their career:

Sometree - Notion (taken from Moleskine)

Sometree - Lilth (taken from Sold Heart To The One)

Sometree - Hands & Arrows (taken from Bending The Willow)

In recent times we've become friends, culminating in Dance To The Radio releasing the lead single from their last album 'Bending The Willow' and the band supporting Forward Russia on tour in the UK 2008.

At the end of the month, they're previewing their new album (their 5th) at an intimate show at a Berlin theatre - I'm absolutely delighted to have been invited by the band to go over, and more than a bit dissapointed that I'm unable to go. Having just supported Snow Patrol on a number of days, the prospective scope of the new material is obvious, and it's now been of a few years gestation. I'm very excited to hear it, whenever I manage to eventually do so

Soundtrack to this post: Magnolia Electric Co

Hold On Magnolia 2009