Another indulgent end of year blog I'm afraid; I've got a few ideas for storage blogs for next year but at the moment, I'm still doing my 'best of…'
I've bought more music this year than I have done for many years; maybe it's guilt catching up with me after a few years when I downloaded an awful lot or maybe that this is just a bumper year for good music and there is more that I'm willing to pay for. From John Tavener's 'The Protecting Veil' to Fleet Foxes debut to Kylie's 'X' (which I know was last year); I seem to have pretty much all bases covered this year.
Jools Holland's 'Later…' has as always been a fantastic show to find new music and to rediscover old favourites; if you can manage to get hold of copies of his shows, I can strongly recommend that you do as he has a wonderfully catholic taste in music.
The stand-out album this year by miles is The Last Shadow Puppets 'Age of Understatement'; this Scott Walker/early Bowie influenced album seals Alex Turner's position as the song-writing giant of his generation. He manages to eclipse the two previous Artic Monkeys' albums with this collaboration with Miles Kane; a fine achievement for someone so young. The production at times is completely over the top and breathless but who cares; it just leaves you with a smile and who can ask for more?
And talking about smiles, how the hell did the next band ever happen? How did a preppie-looking band from NYC end up creating a Soukous-tinged album which just makes you grin. Should never have happened and it certainly shouldn't have worked! But hey, Vampire Weekend's eponymous debut is just the thing to lighten up the bus-ride to work.
Elbow's 'Seldom Seen Kid' deserves to be on the list for the beginning to 'Grounds for Divorce' alone but the whole album is equally good. A well-deserved Mercury award for one of most-underated British bands around.
But there's so much other good stuff around from the guilty pleasure of Katy Perry's 'I Kissed A Girl', The Streets' 'Everything is Borrowed', Kings of Leon's 'Only By the Night' (oh the joys of explaining what he is singing about to 7 year old…Sex on Fire indeed), Seasick Steve's 'I Started Out With Nothing' and even a good Oasis album.
And much, much more…..
