The Festive 50 - Rebellion, The Death Of The Despot, The Angry World And The Soothing Sounds

I have tried my best to distance this blog from the day to day goings on of my life, despite occasional bitching about tiredness and a couple of months falling off the edge of the world for me due to overwork I think I have done quite well. As I have said before though what I hate about this season in its capitalist tendencies and its foe sentiment I make up for it in my love of reflection of drawing from hindsight and for lists. Writing these hallowed pages has become an important part of my life a necessary break that reminds me that I have another life away from the sweating and swearing of the busy kitchen and my time off is spent if not writing then listening to the music that I then go on to write about. This process has made me value the music I listen too more, it’s a special time when you find something beautiful and let it wash over you in warm healing waves and that feeling is only increased when you can share that feeling with others. I have written many words this year and fall in love with it more with every word I write, I have a friend who is a journalist who doesn’t understand the concept of writing without getting paid, but I am the opposite, writing is a knee jerk reaction to the rest of my life and if it may seem fruitless or even if nobody is listening it matters not for it is the process that really matters.

Another eventful year for the world and for my involvement with it, there has been an anger on the streets of the world, a murderous rage for which the planet has struck back for with its potent and destructive rage. There have been rebellions all over the globe, the people have mobilised and used the force of numbers to topple dictators and despots  to show their devotion to the cause and put their life on the line to defend their beliefs. As humbling as that is, it is still scary to see the might of the Status quo and the force of the twisted governments that long for dominion over the squares full of angry citizens, where is the human spirit when we will open fire on our brothers and former comrades on the orders of a madman in the pursuit of a idiom that has long since been called out as downright insane. In Britain it makes our petty moans and squabbles seem quite petty and the way we conduct ourselves shows us only to be whinging and pathetic, our legitimate complaints get tainted by opportunist thugs or simply buried under piles of bureaucratic bullshit. The power of money taunts us with its threat to go into freefall and accidentally become worthless and our pathetic dependence is illuminated and sets us against old allies as we retreat to our little Island hole and remember the glory days when we were masters of the universe, pathetic really. And the citizens of this world have been struck down with great vengeance  and furious anger as the planet responds to the flies on his back who can’t seem to get along. I am not affiliated to an organised religion but I do believe in a deep spirituality and a power that connects us all and even more connects us to the world we live on, it feeds of the negativity , it is a jealous and a fickle being who thwarts our power when we seem to be getting too cocky, too tumultuous and any time we seem like we feel we are the masters. Tsunami’s and Earthquakes, Hurricanes and floods are devastating to the people involved and my sympathy goes out for the personal loss, but as a species we have to remember our fragility that maybe endless expansion is not the optimum route for becoming the best we can be. A wiser man than me said that maybe the time has come to stop controlling the Earth to fit the needs of the population and to start controlling the population to maintain the survival of the planet.

As it  goes with life I have lost touch with people who were important in my life, my love for them is no less but I can’t have the same relationship with them anymore and that makes me sad. I have of course met plenty of new people this year but unfortunately done this in the frantic pressure cooker situation of work. I have been forced into displaying aspects of my personality that would have the friends I have from time ago scratching their heads and wondering who I was. Though I have been forced to admit some weaknesses I have displayed more skills than flaws and feel it is a year were I have learned much with a humble and open heart.

Musically I have had a fantastic year, being more fastidious with my summarising has lead me to not loose things to the savages of bad memory and have a diary of the year based on the sounds that made it what it was. I might remember a song because it was with me while stuck in a long traffic jam or because playing it at a certain volume irritated the neighbours, the connections to the songs is nearly as important as the songs themselves  and the timing of your listening is as important as the musicians involved if ever a piece of music is going to rise from being good to great to life-changing. There are albums that on first listen disappeared into the background  and have then catapulted themselves into the top ten when I found them again with a different head on my shoulders. All the music here is great but in that festive need for lists and my personal obsessional need for order I have once again formed my Festive 50, a collection of my personal favourites from the year listed alongside a track which either is my favourite or I personally think represents the album well. Of course everything is subjective but that is the joy of life and has made this list a personal joy to produce. There are actually 55 songs allowing for the top 5 to have 2 songs from the album. I hope you enjoy and contact me with any glaring omissions as you see fit. Love to you all and I look forward to speaking with you after I return from my holiday in the year of 2012.

50. We Were Promised Jetpacks - 'In The Pit Of The Stomach' – 'Circles & Squares' - I would not say that this list is in stringent order of preference but there is a general flow of favourability however this is just a loud abrasive way to start a list that I couldn’t resist, some of the album veered off for me but for a punchy opener you can’t beat these plucky Scots.
49. Tom Vek - 'Leisure Seizure' - 'A Chore' – I really dig Mr.Vek’s off kilter sound and he did it before alot of people jumped on the bandwagon so I have to favour this plucky little underdog and his gritty natty sounds
48. Wretch 32 - 'Blacks And Whites' – ' Don't Go feat Josh Kumra' - This song has to win my ear worm of the year award getting me rapping in the shower interjected with foe indie boy crooning, the whole album is an interesting development of the grime rap movement mellowing to find better shelf space but still having the edge that makes it what it is.
47. The Streets - 'Computers & Blues' – ‘Puzzled by People – will be sad to see the end of this Mike Skinner project, feel like I have been with him from the beginning and through some dodgy patches but he ends on what he does best witty well delivered pieces of urban poetry.

46. Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - 'Belong' - 'Belong' – name sounds a bit emo but the song packs a punch and I think the album has some real gem moments very of the moment and for that I like it.
45. Katy B - 'On A Mission' - 'Why You Always Here' – Young Katy manages to cover a lot of bases in this album which is why it garnered so much attention and was well deserved of every bit, well crafted and transports you back to memories of heady nights gone before.
44. Keren Ann - '101' - 'My Name Is Trouble' – A beautiful voice put to good use bobbing along next to the warm and inviting organ sounds, so French pop chic and so irresistible.
43. Little Scream - 'The Golden Record' - 'Your Radio' – a mellow talent who doesn’t need the limelight more a subtle place to blend her craft, subtle elusive and brilliant.
43. St.Vincent - 'Strange Mercy' - 'Surgeon' – such a multi faceted album with new sounds coming in all the time, Uber cool and uncompromising bit with strange moments of close tenderness with a dark edge.
41. The Civil Wars - 'Barton Hollow' ' 'Barton Hallow' – Jool’s Holland showed me singing together and I loved it, the album doesn’t capture the intensity in this one song but that alone is enough to escalate them to my heart. Started an argument with the upstairs neighbour for playing this track too loud.
40. Okervil River - 'I Am Very Far' - 'Piratess' – I really liked this album for a short space of time and have not listened to it enough that is an unfortunate shame, it’s one of those ones where many of the tracks where my favourite when the album was in favour and mainly this was best of the best in a cracking little album.
39. The Drums - 'Portamento' - 'Money' – There are bits of this album that I actively dislike, I mean this song is superficial, sappy and tastless but at the same moment its pop genius, instantally catchy and stays with you, alot of death refrencing that cant be all bad.
38. Death Cab For Cutie - 'Codes & Keys' - 'You Are A Tourist' – Maybe the album as a whole is a bit much but get him at his punchy pithy best like in this song and he is brilliant. Great lyrically and head bobbingly addictive
37. Arctic Monkeys - 'Suck It And See' – 'Reckless Serenade' - At first listen I abandonded this as pure folly with ‘Dont sit down cos I’ve moved your chair’ really spoiling the whole thing but maybe its just not what I was expecting and on second and previous listens it sounds like the ohh so cool sound of people growing with age yet still having a dry wit.
36. Foster The People - 'Torches' – 'Pumped Up Kicks' - One hit wonders or just feel good brilliance either way this song got everywhere and never failed to make me feel good especially on the road approaching Blackpool, great day and a perfect accomponyong song.
35. M83 - 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming' – 'Midnight City' – Another earworm that just wouldn’t leave me or plenty of other people alone, just before this album retreats up its own arse it saves itself with some brilliant hooks and some ingenious production.

34. Bombay Bicycle Club - 'A Different Kind Of Fix' – 'How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep' - glad to see the boys have got back on their groove and have got back to where they belong, I see a long future for these boys.
33. Justice - 'Audio, Video, Disco' - 'Newlands' – a brilliant pastiche of the 70’s rock game where it seemed anything was possible, when the duo could have retreated into blowing speakers they have retreated and delivered well thought out music that respects its roots and has a good sense of humour.
32. She & Him - 'A Very She & Him Christmas' - 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' – What’s this doing here you may ask, well I love the simplicity of this release, maybe its the seasons greetings or the Port that has gone to my head but the twee sentiment is delivered in such a smooth rock ‘n’roll way here that I find it irresistible.
31. The Black Keys - 'El Camino' – 'Lonely Boy' - although I feel it lacked the punch of previous albums you just cant deny that these riffs still work and that it is the groove that naturally flows when these two get in a room together
30. Rival Schools - 'Pedals' - '69 Guns' – quite a mellowing of sorts but still some balls out rock fun that I listened too at deafening volumes and fell in love with – cue chest beating
29. Braids - 'Native Speaker' - 'Lammicken' – quietely enchanting in the haunting way that has you transported to a beautiful place inside your own head.
28. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - 'Mirror Traffic' - 'Senator'  -  with guitar mastery a given Malkmus comes back with his charectersistic wit and dry anarchic humour well in place and pops shots at a society with reel rock panache.
27. Fruit Bats - 'Tripper' - 'You're Too Weird’ - I adore the characterisation that this group create that pulls you in to the songs like well told bedtime stories.
26. Kate Bush - 'Directors Cut' - 'Song Of Solomon' – Great vocals with real power and imaginative use of the voice as an instrument, far superior to the odd ode to Christmas later on in the year
25. Clap Your Hands Say Yeahh - 'Hysterical' - 'Idiot' – after thinking this group had split up this album came from nowhere, although I was disappointed with the pace of the music but still very much digging the styling and the detached sense of genius in the room.
24. The Mountain Goats - 'All Eternals Deck' - 'For Charles Bronson' – the simplicity of this album is staggering, the message is bold and the result is awesome.;
23. Ryan Adams - 'Ashes & Fire' - 'Dirty Rain' -   this is a skilfully put together album, some great performances by some outstanding performers and a real back to his routes eye opener for a long time survivor.
22. Beirut - 'The Rip Tide' - 'Santa Fe' – as always a style all of their own which is un-peaceable and breathtaking.
21. PJ Harvey - 'Let England Shake' - The Last Living Rose – clever concept and staggering execution, its what we should be aiming for. True beauty on the stage and a fragility and desperation in her voice that gives the whole album of sense of catharsis as the indie pixie picks through natures tougher question s and comes back with some damningly straight answers.

20. Laura Marling - 'A Creature I Don’t Know' - 'I Was Just A Card – so interesting to watch the shy retiring girl in front of a sea of humans at Glastonbury on the television and see the growing confidence in her music that she must be delighted to see has the fire and the punch to wow a great number of people and still be achingly beautiful.
19. Mogwai - 'Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will' - 'How To Be A Werewolf' – chest beating stuff, I remember having this album on my head phones on a journey on a train and feeling like I could walk through walls, powerful.
18. Girls - 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost' - 'Just A Song' – technically brilliant and so genre spanning it makes your eyes water, really well crafted and intelligent music that comes from a considered and knowledgeable viewpoint, sounds like I am gilding the lily of what is at heart a great album of talented rock.
17. Iron & Wine - 'Kiss Each Other Clean' - 'Me And Lazarus' – I can’t resist this guys voice, its like a warm fire where you feel called in to somewhere safe, there’s a warm inclusion to this release where previously there has been a touch of the southern states despair, the mood suits them
16. Anna Calvi - 'Anna Calvi' - 'Desire' – stylised and powerful this is an independent woman with class and sass all at the same time and along with some vintage guitars great dresses and an impressive set of pipes has turned out some of the best all girl rock of the year.
15. Low - 'C'mon' - 'Witches' – If you like the style you can’t resist it swimmingly unabashed while being massive and seething, clear cut on messages and loaded with style
14. The Joy Formidable - 'The Big Roar' - 'Austere' – real punch and impish fragility, as good as early Smashing pumpkins in my opinion and has me a rare dynamic and a real experimentation in sound have created a great behemoth of an album with beating the steering wheel with my fists every time
13. The War On Drugs - 'Slave Ambient' - ‘Your Love Is Calling My Name’ – This album completely past me by at first glance but when the right time came it buried itself deep into my ear space and made a very comfortable place to dwell in warm vocals and dark moods. sublime production
12. White Denim - 'D' - Anvil Everything – technically so perfect it hurts where as the last album the geinius was fractured there is a continuity and an accessibility that make this album top draw.
11. Destroyer - 'Kaput' - Poor In Love – possibly the least appropriately named band of the year this is a great dynamic and as far as instrumentation is very individual, the lyrics have wit and the music oozes sexy class.

10. The Decemberist's - 'The King Is Dead' / 'Long Live The King' – Sonnet – Two for the price of one here as the excellent album is rounded off nicely with a E.P that spreads the wit and storytelling nature of this band across the year. Great characters and imagery create a world of their own that the band have managed to create with every release, each one different and each totally engaging.
9. Bill Callahan - 'Apocalypse' - 'Riding For The Feeling' – this guy has a voice that could make a wolverine purr, lyrically obtuse as ever but not overstated and always leading us on, its the waiting for his lips to curl around the words that has you on the edge of your seat and reaching for the repeat button.
8. Wu Lyf - 'Go Tell Fire To The Mountain' - 'We Bros' – managing to avoid the limelight with only sketchy hand held camera videos appearing on Youtube we have some important groundbreaking and quite threatingly engaging music here
7. Elbow - 'Build A Rocket Boys!' - 'Dear Friends' – all the best bits are Garvey’s stirling turn of phrase his poigniant recollections and observations and his ability to remind us to see what is important in a cavalcade of history smaller is better. achingly sentimental but heartfelt as only a true midlander can be.
6. My Morning Jacket - 'Circuital' - 'First Light' – big change for this well honed outfit as they pack in some crazy good rhythms and horn stabs that turn this band into a big beardy headbanger that don’t let up and has so many angles going for it I will scream its praises down your neck
5. The Vaccines - 'What Did You Expect From The Vaccines' - 'Wetsuit' / 'A Lack Of Understanding' – I cant get enough of this album, pure English punk mixed with a smatter of rock and roll and none stop guitar riffing with great sentiments about growing old and the simple complex things in life – real punk stuff. Winner of the Best Guitar Solo Award for the amazingly simple but ohh so perfect solo in ‘Wreckin Bar Ra Ra Ra’
4. British Sea Power - 'Valhalla Dancehall' - 'Living Is Too Easy' / 'Who's In Control' – the first new album I heard this year and what a cracker from the obtuse this collective have pulled it back to the relevant with pointed attacks true protest songs and odes to the English countryside. It’s as vast as it is small and as big as it sounds. Winner of the turn it up loud song of the year for ‘Who’s In Control’
3. Radiohead - 'King Of Limbs' - 'Morning Mr. Magpie' / 'Lotus Flower' – tight and perfectly formed as you would come to expect for this plethora of geniuses which have expanded their careers organically to become the sleek miserabilists dream with all the lovely bleepy bells and whistles and an understanding of their cross genre appeal that has lead them to be top of their game. Winner of the Best Production award.
2. Youth Lagoon - 'The Year Of Hibernation' - 'Daydream' / 'Montana' – the warm sounds and building rhythms has me hooked, the achingly shy vocals under chest beating drums has me in love and the combination and understated brilliance has me singing this albums praise’s from the highest echelons of this list, check it out boys and girls its beautiful. Winner Of the best newcomer award
1. Bon Iver - 'Bon Iver' - 'Perth' / 'Holocene' – The Only thing I don’t love about this album is that the very limited live shows that Justin and Co are performing on British Soil sold out in minutes and are now too pricey for a fan such as myself. Where do you go when your emotion laden first album becomes an instant classic, well you apparently become a musical tour de force and deliver again with rhythmic genius and a lyrical and vocal style that is totally unique. This album is expansive and at every step displays everything that I love about music production and audio style. achingly beautiful we are transported to a different world where we are left wishing we could stay. Album of the year, need I say more.

Thanks for listening folks and I will speak soon enough, until then look after yourselves, and each other.

A Retail Monolith - Capitalism's Birthday

A retail monolith spreading its spiny capitalist fingers across the boggy English fields on which it sits, laying plastic parking places, lurid yellow Lego resting pads for the corralled cattle who come to spend their hard earned pennies. There is only one long endless entrance snaking along paths of parked automobiles they glare at you with their sleek German badges or there cavernous roving rear ends, hemming you in to an obtuse angle so as you feel so oppressed you must leap on the nearest outlet for pent up frustration and spend. It smells of Shit, as you approach the parade passing Prada’s and Fred Perry’s, you bolster for position with the Burberry identi-kit couple of well healed country folk, against the women patting her prize puppy into a purpose fit hand bag and against the surly youths who sulk in mock boredom at the tedium of the now. But pervading over it all is a dank sewerage smell wafting into your air, rinsing of rushed council applications and unsellable land well buried in imported soil to mask the creosote dumps and the treatment flow. But the smell oozes from their well clad pores as if the very cash in their pockets was rotting away so quickly they must pass it off for £600 trousers or the smell of the decay would become too much. But they pass off their rotting cash to provide them with a passing comfort and when the resentment comes these possessions too will start to fade and the stench will return. You see it on the faces of the older ones; it’s become a habit yet without the thrill, like the candy shop you always wanted as a child but with ill-fitting dentures and a worrying blood sugar level. You stop to feel pity for them and think maybe you could grab one while they are young, give them some advice and show them a road that doesn’t end in a purpose built house on a corporate owned village build with a wilful despair in your heart and the stench of regret festering in their gut. But you have no time for regret, you have shopping to do....

You see I wanted to write a nice piece all about the love of music as we approach the end of the year and the rounding up process begins but more than family or Children or charity and good will to all mankind this is a season of pure greed of commerce and of everything that makes me feel nauseous and disgusted. Forced back to the retail outlet from which I had purchased a new suit, to have them remove the security tag they had mistakenly left attached was a eye opener of what rebuilding this country’s economy would really mean, the cold hard front of more money being spent on cards forcing money and power back into the pockets of the banks that were only last year squabbling at our doors for acts of charity.

The system has all the bells and whistles, it has the designer jackets and handbags we have been conditioned to desire and with their sale the cyclic movement of cash that is forever pushing power upwards and throwing down mindless trinkets to leave smiles on our conned faces.  Nothing has any real value, it is all set, it is all created in our minds and the minds of those who look at us, it is all pretence and a mockery of any true integrity. There is no other option, all the ways of opting out have been labelled, sub categorised and vilified in benign and childish ways. There is no true form of pure expressionism any more, everything has been designed and is equally fake as the garnished glare of a retail stores which beckon us in like monsters with spend-lust. Only in your own heart will you know your ideals because nobody will ever believe your attempts to stand against anything and it would make precious little difference if they did. We are born into the game and we will be judged no matter what we do, saying you don’t care if your judged doesn’t work either for them it only goads them more. Retreat into yourself, make your own games have your own rules and win your own private victories and maybe even then we are only fooling ourselves , but it’s all we have to stand against the monolith that begs us to want it. And don’t let the season drag you further into a fit of wanton desire because Santa’s laughter mocks the poor and we have the ability to give gifts greater than money can buy. I guess that is why I have tended towards retreating into myself because in a small circle when you are more in control of the invading parameters we can have a better handle on our successes and failures, we can measure our growth on our own terms and can seek validation from the smallest of things. I have had small victories this year that would seem completely inconsequential to most everybody else but for me they are deeply more rewarding than actually being able to afford the suit that might at a passing glance look like one that Ryan Gosling wore. Validating your life against somebody else’s brings nothing but heartache and sadness, so driving home from a hard day at work with the stereo blotting out the buzz of other peoples foibles and misfortunes I can bask in the personal feelings of triumph and progression that mean something to me. I can meet the eye of someone who loves me and not need to spell out every detail of my accomplishments because they can see that look in my eye that I know I have worth. I’m a lucky man and I think that a lot more people could inherit this luck if they started looking in the right place to find it and then the lucky masses would no longer smell the rot and could move on unhindered and unchained through their beautiful lives.

I’m spending long hours re-listening to the best of this year’s music, formulating my favourites and deciding where I think the most artistic merit has been displayed, it is a complicated procedure but I have to say that the process of reviewing  and this writing has become a very welcome part of my existence. Remembering what you love and sharing it with others is one of those great and free gifts I spoke of earlier and getting things off your chest, be it only to the cold glare of Microsoft Word is a coping mechanism that could be a lifesaver. Precious little in the way of new music this late in the year except a surprise pops up from some usually big hitters.

‘El Camino’ by The Black Keys  There is no doubting that this Ohio duo have the blues, it courses through them with chest beating power but from basement recordings to rubber factories to major motion picture soundtracks and superstar DJ producers the band have come a long way from their grass roots raw blues power. This duo are really the last great survivors of the, ‘The’ bands era who were heralded as revitalising rock music, The Strokes were cool The White Stripes were intense and mysterious but the Keys had always exuded a natural talent for shredding riffs and telling blues the way it should be told, straight down the line, no holds barred. With this album I can’t help thinking they have polished away their edge, the riffs are still there  and there is still a swagger to the sound but it seems to be more glitzy disco than spit and growl blues bar. With their last album ‘Brothers’ the bar was raised pretty high and although I’m sure there are enough tunes on this offering to keep the ad agencies happy I’m feel like fans might see a watered down version of ‘Brothers’, ‘Step-Brothers’ maybe. Working with Dangermouse as a producer we could have expected to see some more beat driven tunes like with the side project Blackroc but instead there is just a polish but then again DJ Dangermouse has his Gnarls Barkley side as well as his Grey Album. Very listenable but will have you reaching for the back catalogue and not regretting that you did.

And with a chill in the air there are of course some festive musical treats other than The evil that is ‘The Buble Christmas Album’ or maybe the caustic foulness of ‘Jesus – A Baby With A Beard’ by Kunt & The Gang, some actual records with actual humans.

‘50 Words For Snow’ by Kate Bush In some ways this could be seen as more of a landscape painting than a musical release, a festive frosty fantasy in a twisted tone poem. As a true treasure of the British quirkiness her love for Christmas has been on public display before with her song ‘December Will Be Magic Again’ but now she turns a whole album to the season and singing a love story for snowmen and icicles. Sometimes the actual listening can be more oddball than snowball and lyrically veering off into abject weirdness can only be excused because it’s Kate Bush for god’s sake, in a time when wearing a dress made of meat can garner hails of being “cutting edge” we have here someone telling us much more than she was ‘Born this way’ she is telling a quirky tale of her personal love for a magical time.  Personally I do feel there is too much ethereal and not enough sexy but Ms.Bush has been busy this year and with her album this year ‘Director’s Cut’ she shows us her raunchy side allowing this album to be a snowy field of pure musical exploration by a English gem.

Across the pond we have a slightly more Candy-cane celebration as we don the obligatory Christmas jumper gather round the fire and listen in to a sing-along might be like if you just so happen to be a Hollywood movie star and your musician friends just popped by for egg-nog and a third album release,

‘A Very She & Him Christmas’ by She & Him The dear Americans do have a tendency to pour sugar over things so the already saccharine season might be worrying in their hands but these are no ordinary Americans. Not Surprising that these two impish beings would choose to put out a Christmas album as it was Zooey Deschanel’s singing in the film ‘Elf’ that brought her to the attention of Mr.Ward and with two albums under their belts this duo gave a well honed partnership that suits the season. Festive songs can be vomit worthy and all twinkling lights and Rudolph or they can be whiskey drinking piano side smoothness and this certainly fits into the latter category. The bastardisation of genre’s  continues as Buble massacres jazz but here we see a fine handling of festive cheer, jazz vocal and a real style that is as cool as it is rejoicing.  There is a strong sense of not taking themselves too seriously in this partnership Zooey never wanted to find fame for her songs but Mr.Ward thought she was too much of a talent to be left unheard and they obviously like working together in what I can only assume is a comfortable arrangement with little pressure and a lot of enjoyment. Trying to not be totally clichéd and cynical this Christmas I will be drinking whiskey and crooning along to this little Christmas gift.

That’s all for now folks, I will now retreat into rhetoric as I hobble together my festive 50 and attempt to nail holes into the year and make plans for renovations in the next.  I’m worn down and tired and already sick to the back teeth of Turkey but I have a lot of great albums to look back on that as always have been my constant companions. So until next week, keep warm and have fun, eat mince pies and be merry keep an open heart and open ears.