Music Time

Thursday December 20, 2007

This is a brief review of some of my favouite music from the last year, a year when I found myself downloading just as much music as I bought in the shops. My favourite two albums of the year however were both hard copies, Back to Black by Amy Winehouse and Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys. I’ve come late to the music of the Arctic Monkeys, and Gordon Brown was already declaring that he liked them before I’d even heard any of their songs. But FWN has become one of my most played albums lately, and I think Flourescent Adolescent is a brilliant little pop song, up there with Up the Junction and Lady Madonna.

The Arctic Monkeys

The good: The Arctic Monkeys

2007 was the year I feared the worst for myself. Waking up in the middle of the night panicking that I had become mainstream with my musical tastes. There’s no denying it, Amy Winehouse and the Artctic Monkeys are now both musical mainstream. I even quite like James Blunt. So I was relieved to find that I really, really like The Young Knives and their album Voices of Animals and Men. This was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize but lost out to The Klaxons. I haven’t heard The Klaxons album, so I can’t comment, but it must be pretty good to be judged better than The Young Knives. They’re a weird bunch, I can’t deny that, although not by Mercury standards. And any band from the excellently named Ashby de la Zouch who have a band member called House of Lords gets the thumbs up from me.

The Young Knives

The mad: The Young Knives

In the last year I also continued to keep a close watch on Damon Albarn, and his The Good The Bad and The Queen project was a masterpiece. His old mucker (or should that be mocker?) Graham Coxon released a criminally ignored EP together with Paul Weller called This Old Town. Other favourites were Thirst for Romance by Cherry Ghost and Yours Truly, Angry Mob by The Kaiser Chiefs. However, I may have saved the best till last. Although I only bought it yesterday, An End Has a Start by Editors is already shaping up to be something special. if you like dark, serious, emotional stuff then this is it.

Editors

The scary: Editors

My favourite bands aren’t the most photogenic. I’m glad of that.

And at last I’ve found a job where they let us listen to music in our quieter moments. Until next year, happy listening…

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Christmas Playlist

Saturday November 24, 2007

I’ve recently been playing around with Last FM and have added a widget to my sidebar. Not quite music while you work, but cetainly music while you blog. The other evening I added 15 new songs to my playlist; all with a Christmas theme. But it’s already changing. I’m not sure if I can take another four weeks of Do They Know It’s Christmas? and the irony of including Shakin’ Stevens is going to wear off.

So I think my list will slowly become more alternative. It’s already going that way already. I’ve added Wires by Athlete (it mentions Christmas in the lyrics) and Mad World by Gary Jules, a Christmas Number One from a few years back. Any other suggestions for alternative Christmas songs?

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Music Time

Wednesday December 27, 2006

The time of the season continues to mean lists, and here’s another one. So without further hesitation, here is a list of my favourite albums of 2006. Yes, I know that a couple of them came out last year, but I’m behind on my listening. And this is almost my last list of 2006.

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Stiff

Saturday September 16, 2006

No, this isn’t a prediction of how I will be feeling after the half marathon tomorrow. It’s a post about the whole evening of programmes I watched last night celebrating Stiff records.

I realised just how good Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Dr Feelgood were. Highlights:

Backstage film of Ian Dury tearing down a corridor into Costello and barking “out the way Elvis!”

Strange onstage dancing from the artist Humphrey Ocean.

Stiff tour bus stories. Apparently Costello passed out after drinking too much and The Damned set light to his trousers. “That woke him up”, laughed Captain Sensible.

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Unfinished Books, Dylan and Barrett

Tuesday September 12, 2006

So many books have been left unfinished this year. Still in my rucksack or gathering dust around the house are:

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