The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Ten

No need to worry - you won't find Gordon Brown behind our door number 10.

We're calling today a milestone day, a day of round numbers. It's day 10, which means we have the panel's No. 15 albums of the year.

Away we go.

Ali Mason

Slow Club - Yeah So (Moshi Moshi)

Track: When I Go


If Slow Club sound like they should be from Tennessee or Ohio rather than Sheffield, there's something arch about their country-tinged indie pop which marks them out as distinctly British. Opener When I Go ("If we're both not married by twenty-three will you make my year and ask me?") is one of the most heart-warming tracks of the year but, while many have labeled Yeah So as twee, there's as much heartbreak here as love and there's always a joke or a disarming image around the corner to prevent the sweetness turning sickly.

Rory Dollard

The Decembrists - Hazards of Love (Rough Trade)

Track: The Wanting Comes In Waves


An even more ambitious song cycle than their already elevated The Crane Wife album, here Colin Meloy presides over a baroque story of love gone – and going – wrong, featuring a recurring cast of characters, repeated musical refrains and a narrative structure that belongs in a theatre. While many of the songs, the tragic-comic villainry of the Rake Song being a perfect example, stand alone the LP works best when listened to in full, as themes and motifs unfold in their intended order.

Dom Farrell

Soulsavers - Broken (V2)

Track: Death Bells


It’s a very over used word in music reviews, but Broken, the third album from production duo Soulsavers is a truly epic piece of work. It features an all-star cast, headed by the wonderfully gruff vocal talents of Mark Lanegan. A decisive early blow is struck with Death Bells – a snaking, skuzzy slice of menacing rock’n’roll. From there on, a widescreen vision is aimed for and largely recognized. The cover of Gene Clark’s Some Misunderstanding is particularly jaw dropping. Sometimes the towering orchestration can overplay its hand, but when Australian female vocalist Rosa Agostino is introduced in the closing tracks, Broken reaches a glorious finale

Andy Welch

Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (Sony)

Track: West Ryder Silver Bullet


I kind of liked Kasabian’s first album, detested the second but absolutely love West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. That title… It’s so amazingly contrived, inspired by the typically British-sounding, psychedelic album titles of The Kinks and The Small Faces. The songs too. Listen to Thick As Thieves and by the time Tom’s voice comes in you expect him to sing ‘The taxman’s taken all my…’ So why is it so good? Because they never, even for a second, take it too seriously or suspect the listener doesn’t know what’s happening. Kasabian honour their influences, they don’t pretend the ideas are their own. Despite the homage, West Ryder… still has ambition. Detractors like to paint the band as a bunch of knuckle-dragging Stella guzzlers, but with elements of Krautrock, Ennio Morricone film scores and ballsy hip hop beats, there’s so much more to these Leicester lads than that.

Guy Atkinson

Silversun Pickups - Swoon (Warner)

Track: Panic Switch


Yeah, this LA four piece may have had a soft spot for Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins but when they make modern rock music as thrilling and emotionally engaging as this who cares how explicit their influences are? Dreamy, fuzzy and occasionally aggressive guitar sounds drive these songs, but it's Brian Aubert's androgynous vocals that take them into another stratosphere. 'Panic Switch' captures the Silversun Pickups at the top of their game. It's a game I'd quite like to join in with.


Pranam Prabhakar

Beirut - March of the Zapotec (Pompeii Records)

Track: The Shrew


Beirut are great. They are an addiction. Bandleader Zach Condon can play the trumpet and the accordion, and he can speak fluent French. He has a voice as mellifluous as chocolat chaud. And he's barely old enough to buy a pack of gitanes. This would be hugely annoying, were his music not so great.



John Skilbeck

The Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong (In The Red)

Track: Can't Get Over You


The Vivian Girls’ second album, so the rumour mill predicted, would see the Brooklyn three-piece exhibit a more grown-up side to their songwriting. Which was the last thing I wanted to hear. Screw maturity in music. Thankfully the pre-album speculation was wide of the mark. Eight of Everything Goes Wrong’s 13 tracks clocked in at under three minutes, and they mostly delivered what my repeat prescription requested – dose after dose of detached girl-group vocals laid on top of scuzzy guitar tracks and crashing cymbals. Neither of the two tracks which ran over the four-minute mark went close to outstaying their welcome, and instant classics such as Walking Alone At Night and Can’t Get Over You whetted the appetite for album number three.

Matt Collins

Port O'Brien - Threadbare (City Slang)

Track: Calm Me Down


You really wouldn't think that Port O'Brien are the sort of band whose music gets used in Dulux Paints adverts in Australia, but then Oz is a strange place. These guys sound more like the inhouse band of some old abandoned shipyard, all sea-faring lament, boy--girl vocals, and battered acoustic guitars. Unusually for a group whose business is the dark side of existence, you can walk away whistling these tunes while trying to connect with whatever emotional source they seem to tap.

SP

Brother Ali - Us (Rhymesayers)

Track: Breakin' Dawn


In a less-than-vintage year for hip hop, albino rapper Brother Ali pulled out one of the best sets by concentrating on simple, uncomplicated loops from start to finish. And like a number of left-wing hip hop talent in 2009, Ali looked East for inspiration with Arabic riffs peppering his fratboy beats on the likes of Breakin' Dawn. On a couple of other tracks, his delivery is perhaps over-earnest, but the defence of various minority groups and rhymes about swine flu make it one of the most satisfying and entertaining records of its kind.

Me

The Avett Brothers - I & Love & You (American)

Track: I & Love & You


After hinting at something special on each of their first three albums, the Avett Brothers have put it all together on their fourth. Of course, teaming up with legendary producer Rick Rubin always helps with these things. From the affecting beauty of the opening title track, to the more rowdy 'The Perfect Space' this offers a full spread of modern Americana with not a duff track among the selection.

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Ali Mason

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More (Island)

Track: I Gave You All



Single Little Lion Man and a reputation for storming live shows set the bar high Sigh No More, which largely lives up to expectations. The basic formula is slow, quiet start...tight harmonies...stomping orgy of strings and drums...end - and that is the major problem. While the album is packed with great tunes, like the lush I Gave You All and the insistent Dust Bowl Dance, it's all a little too polished. A little more chaos could have turned this from a great album into an exceptional one

Rory Dollard

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains (Memphis Industries)

Track: And The Hazy Sea



The good news for all Pavement fans is that the feted lo-fi pioneers are making a long-awaited comeback in 2010. The bad news for Stephen Malkmus et al is that New York five-piece Cymbals Eat Guitar have already started filling that void quite nicely. Their debut comprises of generous helpings of shapeshifting post-punk, jangly melodies and electronica seasoned with a sprinkle of reverb and garnished with feedback. At just nine songs it leaves a taste for more, too.

Dom Farrell

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Summer of Fear (Saddle Creek)

Track: The Sound



Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. He should probably be a cricketer with all those initials. Thankfully he makes wonderful records instead. Summer of Fear is a more polished effort production-wise than his self-titled debut (even more on that later folks), and personally, I find this to be occasionally to its detriment - having fallen in love with the at times ramshakled excellence of the latter record. However, Summer of Fear remains a brilliant example of how this man can craft a song and push it euphorically to a higher level, often with piercingly honest lyrical content. The shades of Tom Petty and early REM that are at play here could perplex followers of his earlier work. Not me. I’m sold.

Andy Welch

Florence & The Machine - Lungs

Track: I'm Not Calling You A Liar (Island)



By the time Lungs was released, Florence Welch had already been given the Critics’ Choice Brit award, appeared on the BBC Sound Of 2009 poll and been featured in every broadsheet and music mag. Somehow, despite the baggage each of those things brings, Lungs manages to live up to expectation with Florence coming over as an eccentric, slightly unhinged posh girl gone wrong, with an unnatural fixation with death, coffins and gothic, doomed romance. Basically, Kate Bush for the Web 2.0 generation. Good surname too...

Guy Atkinson

Metric - Fantasies (Sony)

Track: Collect Call



I've been firmly under the spell of Metric front woman Emily Haines after developing a mild obsession with Broken Social Scene's masterpiece 'You Forgot it in People', on which she plays an integral role. Displaying a swagger and confidence not seen on their previous three LPs, the Canadian four piece finally backed up their art-rock posturing with poppy hooks and soaring choruses designed to melt even the stoniest of hearts. 'Collect Call' is one of the more languid tracks on Fantasies, but showcases Haines' irresistible voice in all of its stripped-back glory.

Pranam Prabhakar

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (Fortuna Pop)

Track: Come Saturday



The Pains should be thanked for making it okay to like indie music again.
This time last year, I recall pundits claiming that indie music is dead. It took a band from Brooklyn, a crowd-surfing gig in Manchester and a remarkably consistent debut record to convince me otherwise.

John Skilbeck

Gossip - Music For Men (Sony)

Track: Men In Love


If Hope Sandoval’s excellent record (see yesterday’s pick) was made with the end of the night in mind, then Gossip’s was quite the opposite. Music For Men was all about getting a party started. Faced with the daunting task of following up their first hit record (which needed a remix to make it such a floor-filler, remember) Beth Ditto and band pretty much hit the mark. Ditto’s voice – surely the most distinct and powerful female vocal around since Corin Tucker packed in Sleater-Kinney – proved versatile as her band ditched their garage-blues rock past and made an unashamedly pop record. Heavy Cross (“It’s a cruel, cruel world to face on your own/A heavy cross to carry alone...”), second track in, set a rigorous standard for the rest of the record to aim for, even if it was a pretty close cousin of Standing in the Way.... But the splendid disco stomper Pop Goes The World was packing plenty of power too, and the celebratory
dancing-at-the-gay-bar romp Men In Love (“...with each other”) showed Ditto at her spirited best.

Matt Collins

Left With Pictures - Beyond Our Means (Organ Grinder Records)

Track: Jubile


London-based Left With Pictures describe themselves as chamber pop, and very apt that is too. The group are classically trained, a fact borne out in their at times classical song structure, piano and string parts, but clearly love a good pop melody. All these songs are infused with a joie de vivre sadly missing from most bands who go to pick up guitars, and they still manage to stay on the right side of novelty. Live, they like to step out from behind their mics, distribute themselves among the crowd, and blast out their harmonies a capella - bonus.

SP

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz (Polydor)

Track: Runaway


Am I the only that couldn’t understand the dissenters when this third full YYYs album came out? Ok, so it did seem perverse to push Nick Zinner’s guitar outbursts into the background - one of the band’s original USPs - but the synths allowed Karen O to truly unleash her inner pop peacock, resulting in some joyous live performances and an album of glorious Blondie-indebted new wave anthems.

Me

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More (Island)

Track: Sigh No More


I'll admit I wasn't convinced by this effort at first, declaring it to be the third best album I'd heard that day. Well, neither of the other two made the list, so something must have worked, right? The rootsy sound of Mumford & Sons should be right up my street, it just seemed to go around the houses to get there. But these are real growers, and who knows, had it had more time it might even have made it higher up the list.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Eight

I've been behind the eight ball trying to get this post up on time. How fitting...

Ali Mason

The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Bella Union)

Track: Ticket Taker


Piggybacking on the success of Fleet Foxes, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin masquerades as a harmony-rich beard-folk album before hitting you with the earthy reality. Charlie Darwin and To Ohio are lovely slices of ethereal Americana, Ticket Taker's down-at-heel charm act as a sort of gateway track, before The Horizon Is A Beltway whacks you round the head with a banjo and invites you to a hoedown. A glorious chameleon of an album which rightly revels in its diversity.

Rory Dollard

Sleeping States - Gardens of the North (Bella Union)

Track: Rings of Saturn


There’s something I don’t fully understand about this album, and therein lies its charm. Markland Starkie’s voice is at once detached and welcoming, while the instrumentation is apparently intentionally vague at times. Still waters run deep though and in even the most straightforward of tracks, like the simple bass throb of Rings of Saturn, there is something deeply affecting.

Dom Farrell

The Dead Weather - Horehound (Sony)

Track: Bone House


Another year and another side project for Jack White. Horehound is given immediacy from the off thanks to the smoldering vocals of The Kills’ Alison Mosshart. The brooding darkness of 60 Feet Tall is a stunning way to open proceedings, and by the time White’s pump organ powerhouse I Cut Like A Buffalo chimes in, The Dead Weather are firing on all cylinders. There are numerous other highlights, and sparse production allows filthy guitar parts, some muscular drums and haunting keys to have a whale of a time throughout.

Andy Welch

Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young (Rough Trade)

Track: 11th Dimension


When The Strokes released Is This It in 2001, they gave British music and style such a monumental kick up the arse the effect is still being felt today. Burning so bright so quickly, it was never going to last and by the time of their second album, it seemed they’d already run out of ideas, and by the time of First Impressions Of Earth, not many people cared. Quite why that record was so bland, when individually they’re capable of music as diverse as Little Joy, Nickel Eye or Albert Hammond Jr’s solo albums, is a head-scratcher. If only it had sounded like Phrazes Of The Young, which swaps the late-Seventies garage punk of the The Strokes’ debut for Eighties synths, drums machines and in 11th Dimension, the odd nod to Van Halen’s Jump. Let’s just hope the rest of the quintet take notice.

Guy Atkinson

Sky Larkin - The Golden Spike (Polydor)

Track: Somersault


There's more than meets the eye with this Leeds trio. Not quite the purveyors of twee that many would have you believe, these guys let rip with a liberal smattering of irresistible melodies and weapons-grade choruses across 12 slices of shimmering indie-pop perfection. Underpinned by scuzzy riffs and plundering drums, there's very little not to love about Sky Larkin.

Pranam Prabhakar

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul (No official release)

Track: No track available

This album is so damn good that you can’t buy it. It features members of The Flaming Lips, The Strokes, The Pixies and David Lynch. But you can't buy it.
The reasons why it's not available are long and too complex for me to go into or fully understand. But there's something quite novel and beautiful about an album being released that no one can listen to, especially in an age where some argue that myspace and itunes have made music so accessible that it is almost disposable.
Good luck finding a copy - it's worth the ride.

John Skilbeck

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Through The Devil Softly (Nettwerk)

Track: For The Rest of Your Life


Sandoval’s voice stops you in your tracks. She whose seductive tones first made hearts melt in the celebrated 1990s dream pop act Mazzy Star reverted to her collaborative project with My Bloody Valentine’s Colm O Ciosoigin 2009. It was the pair’s second album, eight years after the first, and a real treat, not to be rushed; the sort of record best appreciated under dimmed lights, accompanied by a bottle of red. Sandoval’s tender and becalming vocals teasingly slithered beside a minimalist gently plucked guitar soundtrack, designed for post-party comedown listening

Matt Collins

Huw M - Os Mewn Swn (Huw M)

Track - Seddi Gwag


Listening to gently lilting folk or epic soundtrack music sung in a foreign language has a strangely satisfying effect. Freed of the need to analyse everything the singer has to say, the music really takes over, and that's the place Huw M takes me to. With songs sung entirely in Welsh, and so simplistic they sound like his first ever songs, this guy is clearly not going to be troubling the charts any time soon. His ukuleles, acoustic guitars and pop melodies all swim around most pleasantly, even if they do make you sound like you're singing a song you can't remember any of the words to.

SP

Magic Arm - Make Lists Do Something (Switchflicker)

Track: Widths & Heights


Maybe Magic Arm is the latest in a long line of limb-based bands, following in a lineage from Elbow to The Shins? Or maybe Marc Rigelsford could be Manchester’s greatest rustic-sounding folk-and-bleeps multi-instrumentalist working under a pseudonym since Badly Drawn Boy? He’s already won the support of Iron & Wine and Grizzly Bear but forget the comparisons and influences. This is a charming, disarming debut that stands on it’s own two feet, with layers of interesting instrumentation topped by the simplest of vocal hooks. Winner.

Me

AA Bondy - When The Devil's Loose (Fat Possum)

Track: When The Devil's Loose


So sweet are the Americana-sounding of Augeste Arthur Bondy that you're hard pushed to imagine him in his previous guise as the front man of grunge outfit Verbena. But after moving to upstate New York and falling into the same circle as the Felice Brothers (who appear on the album), Bondy reinvented himself as a singer of sweet folk melodies with outstanding results.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Seven

Lucky number seven.

How lucky do you have to be to be our No. 18 albums of the year?

This lucky...

Ali Mason

Noah And The Whale - The First Days Of Spring (Mercury)

Track: Stranger


Charlie Fink makes his pitch for this year's Bon Iver Prize for Stalking Through Popular Music by documenting his break-up with Laura Marling in Noah And The Whale's second album. Just because you have a record deal doesn't mean it's not creepy. It's a world away from happy-clappy 5 Years Time which made them mainstream stars and it's utterly compelling, though it's sheer honesty - particularly on Stranger, an account of a one-night stand written as a confessional - will have you blushing, curling your toes and trying not to catch anybody's eye.

Rory Dollard

Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time (Ark)

Track: Old Man Chicago


Quite apart from looking like the band from Almost Famous, Alberta Cross have plenty going for them. Imagine if Kings of Leon had rehearsed in Levon Helm’s barn rather than a downtown garage and you’ll be somewhere close to the feelgood blues-rock they deal in. Neil Young is a clear influence on Petter Ericsson’s guitar playing and vocal delivery but their British/Scandinavian roots mean their influences are never treated too reverentially.

Dom Farrell

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die (Cooking Vinyl)

Track: Warriors Dance


The past 18 months have been awash with a host of new electro pretenders. Thankfully, the latest generation of techno noodlers seem to have prompted Liam Howlett and co to come back and show them how it’s done – with a serious pair of balls attached. Following on from the hugely underwhelming Always Outnumbers: Never Outgunned and that peculiar single about Rohypnol (belting idea that one chaps), Invaders Must Die is a thrillingly triumphant return to form. The record is a tour de force built upon the three colossal pillars of lead off single Omen, Warrior Dance and Take Me To The Hospital and it allowed the Prodigy to be one of the major success stories of the summer festival circuit. Music that can make tens of thousands of persistent souls in a soggy field go absolutely roller-skating bonkers is always worth taking note of.

Andy Welch

The Temper Trap (Infectious)

Track: Sweet Disposition


When Melbourne band The Temper Trap released their debut album back in June, most of the reviews just said they sounded like Coldplay, U2 and Jeff Buckley. As the album is full of huge songs, guitars dripping in Edge-esque delay and soaring falsetto, courtesy of the band’s star Dougy Mandagi, it’s impossible to deny those comparisons. It is, however, a crime that so many people will have ignored this record because of a few poorly used reference points. Mandagi’s voice is like a force of nature, somehow injecting emotion into the often workaday lyrics, and in Sweet Disposition, Fader, Love Lost and Science Of Fear, they’ve managed to make the much-mocked genre of epic melodic rock sound utterly exciting.

Guy Atkinson

The Antlers - Hospice (Frenchkiss Recordings)

Track: Two


A concept album about the death of a loved one from bone cancer written by a social recluse? Go on then. While the subject matter is of the bleakest nature imaginable and the lyrics almost crumbling under the weight of crippling despair, these songs retain a sense of grandeur and euphoria that almost defies belief. One of the most raw and emotionally affecting albums I've heard. It's only after writing this that I realise the folly of me putting so far down my list.

Pranam Prabhakar

Passion Pit – Manners (Columbia)

Track: Sleepyhead


A record jam-packed with pop pleasures, including this track which somehow manges to use the ‘sped-up vocal technique' quite tastefully. Those of you who live in Manchester may find me listening to this on a mobile phone at the back of a bus.



John Skilbeck

Brilliant Colors – Introducing (Slumberland)

Track: Over There


Ten tracks in 22 minutes! The longest stretching out to 2:45! Waves of choppy guitar distortion and yelping girl vocals! Riot grrrl meets C86 and gets it on! Amazing hooks – check that simple but lethal guitar riff in Over There, and find it repeated in the very next track! If it works once, it works twice!! Another awesome triumph for Slumberland Records (check out the Champagne Socialists and Frankie Rose 7”s on the same label)! Er, revolution, girl style now?

Matt Collins

Adrian Crowley - Season of the Sparks (Chemikal Underground)

Track: Season of the Sparks


Adrian Crowley's trade is homespun heartfelt singer songwriter indie folk tunes. Hardly a recipe for originality, granted, but then not everyone who picks up a guitar could or should be the new Hendrix. The results are equally heartwarming and heartbreaking, and he toys with song structure just enough to steer his ship on the right side of James Blunt.

SP

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)

Track: Fences


The Versailles Strokes make the list by virtue of being one of the only bands to record an album in 2009 without a single duff track. Wolfgang... was one of those glorious guitar pop records that slipped by smooth and sleek, without the lethargy of their second or the repetition of their third. And in the age of mp3 playlists, the unskippable album is something to be treasured.

Me

Patterson Hood - Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs) (ADA)

Track: Murdering Oscar


If I was making a list of my favourite albums of all time, the Drive-By Truckers' 'The Dirty South' would be somewhere near the top (just underneath about 10 or so Neil Young albums). But while the critical commendations have continued to pile in for the Truckers on subsequent releases, I'm not sure they've made a great album since their 2004 masterpiece. The decline seemed to coincide with Jason Isbell leaving the band to go solo (and the quality of his first album certainly showed what they were missing, even if the second failed to back it up). But just when I was beginning to fear that the Drive-By Truckers no longer have it, key songwriter Patterson Hood unleashes a solo album that takes us right back to Dirty South era Truckers. Savour it, just in case it takes another five years for it to happen again.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Six

Thank goodness for the system that lets you set up these posts in advance. I wasn't otherwise going to have the thing done this early on a Sunday. (I'm still asleep right now).

Welcome to Day 6...

Ali Mason

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career (4AD)

Track: French Navy


Note to all bands: never start an album with a song as perfect as French Navy. Not that the rest of My Maudlin Career is bad - it's very, very good. The sweet melodies and echoey production lend a 1950s feel, while Tracyanne Campbell's warm vocals mask a steeliness in the subverted lovesong lyrics ("I'm going on a date tonight to try to fall out of love with you"). None of the great songs - the aching Careless Love ("I don't think we can really be friends but I'll try again") is another highlight - can match the pop perfection of the album's opener, though.


Rory Dollard

Telepathe – Dance Mother (V2)

Track: Chrome’s On It


A wonderfully forward-thinking brand of dance music that relies on big, atmospheric synth-washes and skittery, anaemic percussion. There is something very enjoyable about the clash between that cold, synthetic music and the recurring vocals of Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudis. Their performance is at turns saccharine sweet, glacial and defiant but it always lends a welcome human element to proceedings.


Dom Farrell

Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons - Death Won't Send Me A Letter (Black Seal)

Track: Longer Time At Sea


Death Won’t Send a Letter is a fine collection of songs that sees Cory Chisel take up his place in the linage of American alt-country storytellers. Springsteen is a definite reference point and Longer Time At Sea is loaded with anthemic blue collar swagger. But Chisel is clearly more than the latest Boss clone. So Wrong For Me and Tennessee showcase a gorgeous lightness of touch. And he has one hell of a voice. Death Won’t Send a Letter is an accomplished debut LP and a record brimming with further potential.

Andy Welch

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug (Domino)

Track: Dangerous Animals


Few songwriters seem to have grown and honed their art quite as quickly as Alex Turner has done. From Arctic Monkeys’ heady debut, released less than four years ago, he’s gone from admittedly well-told tales of kebabs and girls drinking tropical Reef to this grizzly collection of songs. Josh Homme’s influence is easy to spot, and it’s not always a good thing. While the funkier elements of the music that shone so brightly before are largely gone, Turner’s wordplay is thankfully as sharp and acerbic as ever, not blunted by fame, money and a move to New York. Let’s be honest, this is the worst Arctic Monkeys album. No, not worst, let’s say ‘least good’ because while it’s not up there with their landmark debut and superior follow-up, it’s still clearly one of the best albums of the year.

Guy Atkinson

Jamie T - Kings & Queens (EMI)

Track: British Intelligence


After originally dismissing Jamie T as Pete Doherty-lite I was thrilled to be proven wrong by his effortlessly tuneful and infectious second album, Kings and Queens. Laced with realism and wry social commentary, the songs rattle along at a breakneck pace as he rallies against state interference, racism and, err, chavs. When he does eventually pause for breath the results are stunning. 'Emily's Heart' and ' Jilly Armeen' showcase his ability to write plaintive love songs, while hinting a bright future for this most English of songwriters.

Pranam Prabhakar

Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand (Vice)

Track: I Saw God


Have you ever put your hands in the pocket of a coat you barely use and found a sweet there that you’d long forgotten? Maybe a lollipop from a curry house that you decided to ‘save for later'. Or perhaps a Foxes glacier mint that now has an attractive coat of dust and fluff.
Have you then proceeded to eat said sweet just to see what will happen?

Take a ride with Black Lips. They're a cheap, dirty, subversive thrill. And much better than Girls Aloud.

John Skilbeck

Annie - Don't Stop (Totally)

Track: I Don't Like Your Band


Possibly my favourite overtly pop star since Kim Wilde was never trusting strangers with her heart, Norwegian artist Annie seems destined to summon critical acclaim from all quarters and reap little in the way of commercial success. Don’t Stop, the follow-up to her classic Anniemal album, continued in the same vein as its predecessor, busting out electropop gems aplenty. Twenty years ago she would have ruled the charts; she still should today. I DJ’d at a club night once, played Annie and the place erupted. A ready-made superstar waiting for her big break, perhaps destined for it never to arrive. Like myself, Annie turned 32 this year. They don’t accept many 32-year-olds beyond pop’s velvet rope. Don’t Stop was the great record Saint Etienne never wrote and Kylie never sang, but which both uberpop icons would have loved to put their name to.

Matt Collins

Why? - Eskimo Snow (Anticon)

Track: Even the Good Wood Gone


The simplest way to describe Why? is via the lazy journalistic comparison method – they are a cross between two other bands, namely hippy indie types The Uglysuit and early 90s novelty noddies They Might Be Giants. In fact, I could swear the lead singer from TMBG has taken his notebook of oddball laugh-out-loud imagery and relieved the Uglysuit’s singer of voal duties. Epic yet hilarious.

SP

Richmond Fontaine - We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River (Decor)

Track: The Boyfriends


It's always achingly familiar territory with Richmond Fontaine - Bukowski and Carver; The Replacements, American Music Club and Ryan Adams - but they plough it so well. Willy Vlautin's novels have evidently sharpened his eye and the stories power the performances on We Used To Think... more than ever before. Boyfriends is the stand-out, a man seduced by a divorcee who takes him home and does it in front of her son, before flipping it to a flashback of the man's own childhood and his succession of mysterious "uncles". The instability of it all only adds to the heartbreak, while the mariachi trumpet finally makes good on the uncomfortable Calexico-stylings of 2007's Thirteen Cities.

Me

Floating Action - Floating Action (Park The Van)

Track: 50 Lashes


Somehow, I was on the verge of leaving this album off the list all together. So blinded was I by my love of 50 Lashes, I'd come up with some crackpot theory that the rest of the album just wasn't that good. This, of course, is utter bunkum. The sound that Seth Kauffman's band produce is hard to nail down, there are just too many styles somehow melded into one unique sound. I'll let 50 Lashes speak for itself. To me, it's one of the songs of the year - just don't make the same mistake I almost did, because there's plenty more going on here besides.