MUS11C Alphabet

This will be the final entry for 2011. I hope you have enjoyed what was a slight test run into musical commentary by me, I know I have, and I shall try to continue with more vigour in the new year.

The rules for this list were as follows. I had to choose 26 songs, one for each letter of the alphabet, to represent the best offerings of the year. To make this easier for myself (and to stop it getting cluttered with the same artists) there was only allowed to be one song per artist. This meant some hard choices had to be made for the good of the alphabet and showcasing my favourite bands. Not all the best songs this year are here, but pretty much everyone who made them are represented somewhere. 'The's don't count.

Unfortunately, due to a failing on my part, I could not find anything worthy of mention for letters Q, U and X. Therefore these have been replaced with numerical entries. Any valid suggestions for songs will be considered, if there are any. Before I type myself into making this seem even more pointless, I will commence.

All Nite - Rustie
Battery Kinsie - Fleet Foxes
Cruel - St. Vincent
Desire - Anna Calvi
East Harlem - Beirut
Face In The Crowd - Cat's Eyes
Gangsta - tUnE-yArDs
Heartbeat - Childish Gambino
I Don't Want Love - The Antlers
Jam For Jerry - Holy Ghost!
Kaputt - Destroyer
The Look - Metronomy
Midnight City - M83
Need You Now - Cut Copy
On 'n' On - Justice
Polish Girl - Neon Indian
93 Million Miles - Africa Hitech (Q substitute)
Run The World (Girls) [Kaskade Club Remix] - Beyonce
Second Song - TV On The Radio
Two Cousins - Slow Club
3 Hours - Emika (U substitute)
Visitor - Hercules And Love Affair
The Words That Maketh Murder - PJ Harvey
50 Words For Snow - Kate Bush (X substitute)
Yeah - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Zil - Three Trapped Tigers

There. Done. That was a really hard list to put together, apart from some letters (T, V, Y and Z) but especially for others (B, C, H, L, S). Try and listen to them all, and the rest that those bands have to offer.

Have a good Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, or National Tree Planting Day, if you are that way inclined. I can't be bothered to do Spotify links for all of these right now, maybe later (probably not later). Sorry.

MUS11C - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming M83 October
More French electronic music from October making it into my list here. I do like to be diverse but I just couldn't help myself.

Electronic, epic, ethereal, exciting and a lot of other 'e' words (including elongated) could be used to describe more magical melodies from M83. The criticism made by many that it is too long is not massively far off but there are longer albums out there and, while it takes a considerable amount of time to listen to, it is worth it. It is, however, fair to say that the album would almost be as good if it was half as long. Also, Raconte-Moi Une Histoire really annoys me. But that is down to my anti kids-just-talking-on-a-track sensibilities.

Back to praising now. This has all the hallmarks of the typical slow burning, elegant music that was so prevalent in previous releases but it is also the most upbeat. Try Midnight City, Reunion and Steve McQueen, among others, if you want to bounce around and Soon, My Friend and My Tears Are Becoming A Sea for the usual drawn out notes and a cascading atmosphere.

In my opinion, this sees M83 peaking. Bands rarely make albums this magnificent and keep on going. But if we are going to witness a plateau, or a continuing climb, then I couldn't be happier.

MUS11C - Let England Shake

Let England Shake PJ Harvey February
I won't go into too much detail with this one. It would be pointless. There is absolutely nothing else to say about this album as almost every adjective and perspective has been exhausted since its release. Everyone loves it. This is understandable. However, to not mention it at all as one of my albums of the year would simply be an insult to my music taste.

In my opinion, it has been overrated by a lot of people. Even so, it is still brilliant.

Nightwish - Imaginaerum (Album) review

Does anyone remember when those monsters from Finland won Eurovision and everyone was like "wtf man? How did that happen?" Well I'll tell you how it happened.. Finnish metal is bloody awesome, that's how.
Full disclosure - I am saying this after listening to one album that I have found. But I don't particularly like metal as a genre. I have tried to, but it has definitely been the hardest genre for me to enjoy. When I have liked some, it has been softer than most offerings (see recent Absu and Mastodon albums for reference) and somewhat dismissed by real metal fans as pandering to populist sensibilities. But this one is different.

It would be impossible to class this as heavy or death metal (two adjectives I believe to mean the hardcore versions of metal) but it has been lauded by respected metal publications and online communities as "epic" and "one of the greatest pieces of music of all time".

I would describe it as a super-duper collection of incredible orchestral and guitar thrash-y sounds that has astounded me with its eclectic and deep sound. Throughout there is a sense that you are listening a Tim Burton film that has been completely overwhelmed by its soundtrack, an opinion I have found to be shared by many others across the blogosphere. Perhaps, it is when it gets too obviously soundtrack-y that it is at its weakest (Scaretale) but then there are times when that element brings instrumental tracks ever so close to perfection (Imaginaerum (the title track)).

There is plenty of the loud growling (Ghost River) that typifies vast swathes of the genre and while it could be expected to clash with the sheer abundance of beautiful, and sometimes Gaelic sounding, strings it combines excellently. Then again, for large parts they do tend to leave each other alone. Absurd lyrical nonsense also rears its hilarious head (I Want My Tears Back, Last Ride of the Day) but English is not their first language, so let's give them a break.

I would recommend this album to anyone who listens to any kind of music - before sitting them down and forcing them to listen to every song even if they didn't like it. And then do the same with the entire instrumental version of the album.

Verdict: A bold, suprising and late contender for one of the albums of the year. Get it.

MUS11C - Audio, Video, Disco

Audio, Video, Disco Justice October
Continuing the sort-of-house popular emergence that they helped to start with their first outing, which also launched such artists as Hercules and Love Affair, Digitalism and Goose, Justice returned triumphantly this year with their second album.

Their command of thunderous pounding and magnificent build ups makes this the top contender for funnest album of the year. It starts with Horsepower, an ambitious instrumental track that Gustav Holst would be proud of, and continues with unstoppable velocity. Crammed with plenty of camp greatness with On 'n' On and Ohio and the irrepressible awesomeness of Civilization and Audio, Video, Disco.

Some fans of the debut can, are, have been and will be disappointed with this effort and this is somewhat understandable. It is not quite as good and sees them straying down a path slightly less distinct and noticeably less intelligent but taken on its own it is a superb effort. And, like I said before, it is so. Much. Fun.

MUS11C - The English Riviera

The English Riviera - Metronomy April
When Pip Paine came out in 2006 it was a pretty forgettable debut. A few catchy tunes but the only ones that really stood out were the ones that got slightly irritating after a few replays. Then Nights Out arrived two years later and the band took a big step. It had bags of character with some frantic and infectious electronic sounds. With this year's submission the band have calmed down slightly and grown up a lot.

When I say they have calmed down this has not been at the expense of some very energetic beats. For example, I am finding it slightly difficult to type whilst listening to The Bay which is the stand out track on an album of stand out tracks.

Each song is distinct yet they blend seamlessly into each other as it progresses. There are more upbeat treats with Corinne and The Look combined with more mellow thrills like Everything Goes My Way and She Wants.

This is a band who have massively fleshed out their sound, with an evolution more exciting than any other (with, perhaps, the exception of The Horrors). Can't wait for the next leap forward.

The Straight Lines vs Tiger Please vs Cuba Cuba @ Clwb Ifor Bach

For something advertised as a "head to head festive headliner special" there was no head to head, one Christmas cover and plenty of confusion over who was the headliner... and it wasn't that special.

The Straight Lines started the evening's entertainment with a solid performance of standard Americanised rock. They were mostly uncomplicated with their guitar heavy arrangements and massively clichéd lyricing. 

A pretty standard opener, they marched through a mixture of unnoticeable tracks like Antics and livelier efforts with Loose Change and All My Friends Have Joined the Army getting better when the music was more complicated but not having the skill to continue like that for very long, using the lead singer's vocals to command the melody far too often. 

It says something that I spent a significant amount of time staring at them purely for the sake of avoiding looking at the oddly behaving couple standing far too close to me. But I'll come back to that in a bit. 

The atmosphere of the set waned and suffered at the hands of boring not-quite-banter and a, possibly misheard, joke about AIDs. The less said about the cover of Last Christmas, the better.

Cuba Cuba were the second act to come on although an argument could easily be made for them being the effective headliners. It was the only act to fully fill the venue and it was easy to see why. The posh school boy looking group had a knack for gathering popular influences together in a charming way with Snow Patrol, Friendly Fires and Everything Everything all cropping up at points. 

I realise now that this is starting to sound slightly positive but I should tell you now, their showing was far from excellent. For a start, the lead guitarist turned out to be one half of the aforementioned couple that made me feel horrendously awkward and while they started strong, with catchy keyboards and jumpy guitar hooks they took a dive towards pretentious and dreadful about halfway through. Their collection of sounds and influences was so calculated and slotted together it made them feel completely void of originality and unlikeable. The Wild West themed We Rode reached levels of I'm-going-to-the-toilet-now awfulness and by the end I was lamenting my association with any fellow gig goers who were able to sing along. 

Ultimately, what turned the night into a worthwhile excursion were the surprise choice for actual headliner, Tiger Please. Despite continuing the trend of lacking originality, a reduced audience and U2-esque twinkly guitar rifts, the final band emitted a definite presence and sincerity that was absent before their arrival. Excellent drumming and the inclusion of a violin for the majority of their songs had me sold throughout. The lead singer had a powerful voice, channelling Dave Grohl for the first half before delving into folk rock storytelling reminiscent of the Decemberists with hints of Fleet Foxes and that very brief, long forgotten, period when Embrace were making quite good rock songs. 

The entire performance was organic, engrossing and much bigger than the small venue it occupied. A band I would definitely consider revisiting in the future and one I will recommend to others. 

Verdict: An average night saved by an genuinely excellent closer. 

Lights - Siberia (Album) review

Siberia is the first release of Lights, a Canadian 'synth-pop' lady, that I have listened to having missed 'The Listening' from 2009. With this in mind, I could be forgiven for being surprised with the first few seconds of the album's title track and opener.
This surprise subsides about 30 seconds later when what follows is something that sounds a bit like a female Owl City with some token dubstep that doesn't fit. At all.

Comparisons with artists such as Owl City and Hurts are inevitable as she explores similar, slightly unfortunate territory. The album is full of songs like 'Toes', one of the single releases. They are heavy on both pop and synth but the two elements don't ever gel and her X Factor-y voice starts to grate a couple of songs in.

"It seems we fear our own tears more than we fear tear gas" is typical of the kind of lyrics that threaten considerable cringing so it is advisable that you don't focus too much on them.

It is not completely void of okay-ish tracks. 'Suspension' has a slight charm to it but 'Flux and Flow' is ruined by more awful rapping by a man called Shad (also responsible for the drivel quoted above). She seems to be aiming for the realm of the pop guilty pleasure but flops somewhere closer to Katy Perry than Robyn's excellent 'Body Talk' which she occasionally tries (and fails miserably) to plagiarise. By far the best track is the 9 minute long voiceless finale 'Day One' but that is mostly because she has stopped squeaking away.

Verdict: Barely passable.

The Tainting of 2011

Taking a brief hiatus from talking about my favourite albums to discuss some of the things which let us, as a music listening collective, down this year.

The Mercury Prize is always a good place to start for this kind of thing. We didn't see the same kind of fiasco this year as we have on occasions where the Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons or the xx came out victorious and this was good. And it was even a nice surprise that Adele didn't win. But Man Alive should have won.

The atrociously named Beady Eye and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds emerged to emphatically remind me why I was so happy at the break up of Oasis.

Bon Iver came back promising to make amends for the onslaught of sickening covers of Skinny Love, people correcting my pronunciation of the name and everyone treating For Emma as if it was the fucking Mumford and Sons. Amends were not made. Bon Iver (the album) is alright, its not great though. At best it's interesting and at worst it's mind numbingly dull.

Coldplay seemed to become the biggest band in the world with some pretty standard live performances and a stubbornly average album. And Radiohead made an album of practically static.

Both Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Feist released albums which were simply reiterations of previous work and we all forgot to tell The Drums to stop making music.

Watch the Throne and Ceremonials share the award for most overrated albums for being so preposterously blown out of proportion and just being mentioned at all, respectively.

By far the biggest disappointment, however, was the Guillemots, my formerly favourite band, with Walk the River. A wretched, suicidally abhorrent bucket of faffy bile.

MUS11C - Anna Calvi

Anna Calvi Anna Calvi January
Anna Calvi, the lady herself, is an expert guitar player. So it is no surprise that this element is what underpins one of the strongest debut albums released in a while. In songs like 'Devil' and the opening 'Rider to the Sea' it almost seems like she is enjoying an intense romantic affair with the instrument.

 But this is not an overtly guitar based album. While it stands out above everything else in some areas it spends most of the album in the background, subtly directing the songs and there are moments where you will listen to it without realising that is what it is, given her ability to persuade to play a cacophony of alien sounds.  During these times it is her sultry, powerful voice that commands your attention and the exquisite drumming that underpins songs like 'Desire' and 'Suzanne and I' regularly steals the show.

What has been created here is an album with a dark and mysterious theme with its whispers, whooshing and ghostly backing you will feel helpless against her, a siren pulling you into the black depths.

MUS11C - The Rip Tide

The Rip Tide Beirut August

'The Rip Tide' is an album that seemed rather neglected this year despite its potential for
widespread  appeal. It is an incredibly easy listen and with a short running time just over half an hour it is the perfect album to waste some time getting lost in on a hungover Sunday morning.

It has soft melodies, sweeping trumpets and blocked-nose vocals that blend together like different colours of plasticine. This is the album for people who can't quite love Sufjan Stevens.

Although, that is rather unfair. 'The Rip Tide' more than holds its own and fully justifies its place my list as each song reaches its own unique beauty before effortlessly floating into the next. It would, however, be fair to say that the majority of the album feels like a depressed brass band wandering through a poor Italian village but this is broken up, spectacularly, by songs like the album's glorious flagship 'Santa Fe'. 

MUS11C - Strange Mercy

Strange Mercy - St. Vincent September

Since becoming a latecomer to St. Vincent and her second album 'Actor' in 2010 (it had come out a year earlier) I have spent the last two years coming to terms with my feelings for Annie Clark. What started with a quiet crush listening to 'Laughing with a Mouth of Blood' all last year developed into full blown infatuation after the summertime release of the video for 'Cruel' and falling hopelessly in love after seeing her perform the best live show I saw this year in November. 

Strange Mercy has been seen by many as a breakaway from the difficult (but not in a bad way, think Dirty Projectors) feel of 'Actor' and while this is true there is still an abundance of fractured beats embedded in a more natural flow. Like the album art some tracks seem like a desperate, stifled scream while others are seductive and reassuring.

With incredible guitar work and enchanting vocals Annie Clark comes across as someone who knows how good she is at making music and is having a lot of fun pouring her heart out.

MUS11C - Helplessness Blues

Hello intrepid web explorer/friend of mine. Welcome to the inaugural post on my new (and soon to be infrequently updated) blog. For my first, I thought I would address the end of 2011 and my favourite albums of the year (in no particular order).

I will continue with this one album at a time. This is both for pacing reasons, and also I haven't decided on all of them yet.

Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes May
2008's self titled debut was a terrific effort by these folk masters and it was with great confidence in their continued success that I approached this year's offering. I was, in no way, disappointed.

The album pays homage to its predecessor and the 'Sun Giant' EP while somehow surpassing both with a richer sound. It is, in short, utterly captivating and despite being a relatively early entry it remains as played and talked about on a level on par with other impressive entries in the last few months.

Robin Pecknold's voice echoes with assured folky wisdom, power and grace on tracks such as the titular 'Helplessness Blues' and 'The Shrine/An Argument' while the instrumental wizardry of 'the Cascades' commands your full attention. When you do find a track that doesn't quite impress like 'Sim Sala Bim' it is immediately followed by the thumping 'Battery Kinzie' and all is forgiven.