I can’t say that it was a positive start to the decade, I’m cold and feel the flu in my bones and see it across the faces of the population trawling through rain and the final remains of exhaust stained snow. The nation searches for a killer and we are reminded that we are a population that will murder strangers, abuse children and generally be foul to one another.
The hangovers of new year are hailed by newsreels as the last decadence as VAT rises and the government tells us this will be an age of austerity - stay indoors and don’t mention 'the event'. The powers that be seem more like liars, hypocrites and turncoats than they ever have and we will feel the pinch in a year where the banks that the public bailed out will yet again hand out bonus's and see if London does not again become a battleground of protest.
England do pull of a colonial victory and retain that tiny trophy to remind us there are still some sports that we invented at which we can compete on the world stage, but when a percentage of the country we defeated is under nine meters of water it is hard to feel like gloating.
But to counterpart the misery there is always the music. That in essence is the core of why I am writing this - that line that is thrown by the sounds in my ears to pull me from the gloom. who knows what will face us as a population this year and personally what trials I will be forced to overcome but I know there will be the tunes to make me ride it out like a defiant warrior poet I hope i can share them and ride the storm together.
Now I must implicate myself in crime in way of an explanation and apology. In a time when the financial misery's of the country seems even to infiltrate the bastions of music and HMV are facing possible closures and hard times ahead I must admit that I do not buy all the music that I listen to and that I will talk about. This fact makes me feel occasional shame especially when i admire the struggle of the music retailer and hope for the sake of my friends and for the good name of one of this country's fine market leaders that Nipper manages to weather the storm and adapt to the market i am in part helping to kill. Does this make me less or more of a music lover I’m not sure, I need this music my emotional state would severely suffer if i did not have access to fountains of new music the internet provides, So as the worlds fattest man takes our taxes to keep himself alive I’m afraid i must take the music I need to feed my addiction.
So if you will forgive and indulge me we have songs to sing and tales to tell.
I remember being very disappointed last year all geed up to document the year in music that the year seemed to start weak and I was let down by some albums that I had high hopes for namely The Gorrilaz and Massive Attack and all I heard on the radio was people blowing smoke up the arse's of the New Young Puritans who had produced an album I struggled to listen to start to finish. This year was the opposite as the first new music I am treated to in this decade is a free online podcast of 'Valhalla Dancehall' by British Sea Power on The Guardian website and I am grinning from ear to ear. The band tempted us with an EP called 'Zeus' at the end of last year and I resisted putting that straight into my 'Festive 50' in anticipation of this album striding across the start of 2011. There is a very D.I.Y ethic evident in the sound of this album with a big echoey sound that the band have been perfecting from album one. There is something here that is so sorely lacking from so much commercial indie and rock these days and that is a genuine emotion that grabs me from the get go and doesn’t let go. Scott Wilkinson has an aching desperation in his voice a breathy anger that makes the subtle yet sharp jabs of the albums lyrics and theme's seem even more poignant and relevant and swoons along wonderfully with the expansive sound of the record. This isn't new territory for this group it’s a stamping declaration of all they are and the sound they have got to offer, it is built out of the necessity in them to make music and forged together in the fires of Valhalla to deliver a combination of sounds all as genuine and vivid as the last. But don’t listen to me - go to 'The Guardian' website and listen for yourself. There's a simple brilliance to this album that I think it will be hard to beat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jan/05/british-sea-power-valhalla-dancehall-exclusive?INTCMP=SRCH.
'The King Is Dead' by The Decemberists now here is an album I have been looking forward to and we see the band have the good sense too not escalate the grandeur of their last album 'The Hazards Of Love’ but to deliver a great folk sound with great lyrics and an upbeat swagger of chords that has you wishing you where swigging and spilling a pint in good company. The opener 'Don't Carry It All' has a great atmosphere that could brighten up the most miserable of morning and as I say sometimes a song gets you when you need it most; whilst mopping out the toilets for the first time of the new year this really helped me through and the album continued and continues to make me smile.
'Showroom Of Compassion' by Cake this band have always been a sort of guilty pleasure, I don’t know why the guilt I mean they are never going to change the scene or break artistic boundaries but they deliver on a pared down funky level with catchy riffs and nice additions of sounds with the horns that make it hard not to see the charm and bop your head to the groove. The singing style may not be to everyone’s taste with the half spoken delivery but the lyrical style has an offbeat kilter of sarcasm which fits the infective sound of the songs.
'Red Barked Tree' by Wire Legends of the punk and post-punk scene return with a stylised and raucous attack of a record. No the original youth of punk is not there but who's to tell older punks what to do and though the sound has received a polish i think it reflects a more modern aesthetic of gritty punk, a band can inspire people then draw from the very bands that they influenced to create a modern record with all the gusto and panache that they ever had in their heyday. For every lull of mellower wistfulness there is a direct scathing attack that brings the album right back to the visceral viciousness we can expect from the elder statesmen of fuck the establishment.
So there we are the first part of the year in sound for me, but please do share, let me know if you have heard anything that is catching your ear or falling at the right time for you to ease you into a new decade. Until next time...
'So raise a glass to turnings of the season,
And watch it as it arcs towards the sun,
And you must bear your neighbours burden within reason
And your labours will be borne when all is done.'
'Don't Carry It All' by The Decemberists from the album 'The King Is Dead'
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