2023 Re-view

Some things I liked in 2023....

Four albums of modular perfection from FLC

Hamish Hawk live at Gorilla (and album). By far the most passionate and moving gig I've been to in a long time.

Johnny3snares. Harnessing the fun side of Aphex Twin

Adult DVD. Sandman Mancave was one of my tunes of the year.

This book

Jockstrap LP. An album from 2022, that I didn't get to spend much time with until 2023.

Cope's notes #5. The story of The Modern Antiquarian, complete with a set of new songs inspired by the book.

Teardrop Explodes boxset. A near definitive copendium of familiar, rare and unreleased tracks, spread over 7LPs or 5CDs.

Eno and Eno. Seeing their live at the Acropolis performance at the cinema was wonderful.

SMS reissue.

Ian McNabb channelling his inner Scott Walker on Hamilton Square.

Aphex Twin. Blackbox Life Recorder 21f made a strong case for Song/EP/App of the year.

The (final?) return of OMD

Ultravox's Quartet box set. Another high quality exhaustive box set.

Blur. Making a case for their finest album. 

They've moved on and so should we - there's no point in wanting another Parklife when you can just listen to Parklife.

2022 Re-view

Another year, another huge amount of great music. Top ten? Well heres 12 albums I've loved listening to in 2022, in no particular order. A healthy blend of electonics, guitars, blokes shouting, perfect pop,  great songs and some science lessons.

Yard Act - The Overload

Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band - Dear Scott

Confidence Man - Tilt

Brian Eno - FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE

Arctic Monkeys - The Car

Field Lines Cartographer - Dreamtides

Oliver Sim - Hideous Bastard

Suede - Autofiction

TVAM - High Art Life

The Sound of Science - The Sound of Science

Working Men's Club - Fear Fear

Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Districts Roads Open Spaces

On a different day it would be a different 12 albums.

Oh and here's a photo of some record spines.

2021 Re-View

Here’s my top-ish 20 something albums of the year. In approximate order of favouriteness/most played.

Hamish Hawk - Heavy Elevator

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage

Self Esteem - Prioritise Pleasure

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Interim Report, March 1979

Pye Corner Audio - Entangled Routes

Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Butterfly 3000

Casper Clausen - Better Way

Hannah Peel - Fir Wave

Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra - Stylophonika

Concretism - Teliffusion

Low - Hey What

Jane Weaver - Flock

Snapped Ankles - Forest Of Your Problems

Damon Albarn - The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows

Tindersticks - Distractions

Mogwai - As The Love Continues

W. H. Lung - Vanities

LoneLady - Former Things

James Yorkston - J Wright Presents...

Godspeed You Black Emperor! – G_d's Pee At State's End!

The War On Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore

Jarvis Cocker - Chanson D'Ennui

And here's some more waifs and strays that I appear to have photographed at some point but didn't post. In 2021 it often seemed harder to buy an album on black vinyl than on coloured vinyl.

2020 Sounds

Here's some of what I was listening to in 2020. If we can draw positives from the year, one was the chance to spend time away from the rush and bustle of life and really listen to music.

2019 Re-View

Box sets

There's been more of these added to my collection than any time before.

The jaw dropping In Search of Hades by Tangerine Dream featuring a lot of unreleased live and studio recordings.

OMD's Souvenir set, including a disc of unreleased music.

Warp Records' 30th anniversary WXAXRXP30 10 disc set.

Midge Ure's 3 disc "Soundrack" anthology - some unusual choices for what was included, but at £15 it was worth the price alone for the DVD. 

STUMM 433 - 5 discs of 4'33" cover versions. Not a lot happens.

Brian Eno's Music for Installations vinyl set - I know it was released last year, but I managed to get it at a bargain price this year.

Julian Cope's Autogeddon got a vinyl box set release, featuring the wonderful Paranormal EP on vinyl for the first time.

I got the "Spying Through The Keyhole" and "Clareville Grove" Bowie box sets, but then realised how much I was being fleeced by the record label, so I've decided to stop buying anything Bowie related for the time being. 

Julian Cope

Although there's been nothing to rival any of his numerous imperial phases, there's still plenty to please the fans. This year has not been kind on the the wallet: the difficult Dope 10" and album, the mess with your head brilliance of the ultra rare Dope on Acid album, the wonderful "wasn't this suppossed to be a Dope album too?" that was John Balance Enters Valhalla, the Antequera poem set to music, a (mostly) Barrowlands gig from 1995, an Autogeddon vinyl box set and the remarkable audio recollection and remix of The Teardrop Explodes that was Cope's Notes #1.

Lou Reed

Special mention due getting the overlooked Ecstasy and The Raven albums finally pressed on vinyl.

Some of my album highlights from 2019

The debut album by International Teachers of Pop. I've realised that I have a lot of music by Dean Honer and I do like the idea of a band who base their tours around term times as their lead singer is a teacher.

Kosmischer Laufer's fourth album is on a par with their previous efforts. Is it really music written and commissioned in the 70s/80s by the GDR to support their olympic athletes with their training? Probably not, but the story is too good to ignore. Anyway, it presses all the right Kosmische and Motorik buttons.

Suddenly Everyone Explodes by Plastic Mermaids. New to me and a Flaming Lips / Arcade Fire inspired debut that shows a lot of promise. A great band to see live too.

Nylonandjuno by Jason Lytle. There's always been an added warmth to Grandaddy's music courtesy of a heavy dose of analog synths driving alongside the traditional guitars, bass and drums. So this album by their main man perhaps isn't that much of a surprise. 8 instrumental pieces, featuring a Juno synth and nylon string guitar and nothing more.

i,i by Bon Iver. There's so much sonically going on with this album that you really have to trust your hi-fi is doing the right thing as it sounds unlike anything else out there. The packaging is stunning, making it feel like you've bought a limited edition deluxe version when that's just how all copies are.

Incidental Music by WH Lung is such a confident debut album and there's nothing incidental about the music at all. Musically this has a lot in common with Hookworms last album (before their unfortunate demise).

For All Mankind by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno. The extra disc with the reissue of Apollo is one of Eno's finest ambient albums in it's own right.

Most listened to albums on Spotify were The Utopia Strong (I got the album on vinyl shortly after taking the above photos) and Dissident by Glok - the electronic solo project  Beby Andyll of Ride/Hurricane #1/Oasis. You don't have to be a fan of any of those bands to like it.

Tune of the year

Teenage Birdsong by Four Tet. Simple, but brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Gigs

Some highlights - OMD starting their "best of" gig with Stanlow, Midge Ure playing Ultravox B-Side Passionate Reply, shaking hands with Wayne Coyne whilst he was sitting on a rainbow unicorn, chatting with Steve Davis about my t-shirt and his"dodgy" autograph from 1981 at the mesmerising Utopia Strong gig, being warned by Michael Rother not to leave my beer too close to his effects pedals and taking to Damo Suzuki whist he started into the distance. It must have been a good year for gigs when the biggest disappointment was Kraftwerk at Blue Dot.

2017 Re-view

I've loved some of these releases from 2017.

Favourites? It will change I'm sure, but particular mention should go to the following:

Four Tet - New Energy

Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology

LCD Soundsystem - American Dream

Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band - Adiós Señor Pussycat

First Swords - Compassion

Warm Digits - Wireless World

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana

The XX - I See You

2016 - A Belated Review

In 2016 I bought some records.

Music 2015

An incomplete selection of my favourites from 2015

Sixteen albums from 2014

In no particular order...

Aphex Twin - Syro

Not quite the outstanding album that many people would have you believe, but even a pretty good Aphex album will have more jaw dropping moments than many artist's entire career. Check out track 2 (or XMAS_EVET10 (thanaton3 mix) if you want to be picky and use song titles) as an example.

St Vincent - St Vincent
The critics favourite of the year it seems. And who am I to argue? 'tis good.

Manic Street Preachers - Futurology
I was a bit underwhelmed by Rewind The Film, but this is great - a Manics album that might appeal to non-Manics fans. Any album that might have the word "motorik" in its reviews is always worth checking out.

Goat - Commune
Like their debut album, but different.

Spoon - They Want My Soul
Loved by the critics, bought by a small handful of people.

Brian Eno & Karl Hyde -Someday World/High Life
A collaboration that spawned two great albums. The melody heavy Someday World was quickly followed up by the more experimental robo-afrobeat High Life. Both are worth checking out.

The War on Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Artists that came up in conversation whilist listening to this: The Waterboys, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, The Cars, Don Henley, Arcade Fire, The Eagles, early 80s Rod Stewart, and A-Ha. A great album for playing spot the reference point.

Tweedy - Sukierae
In the absence of a new Wilco album, I guess 20 wonderful new songs by Jeff Tweedy and his son will have to do.

Jack White - Lazaretto
As long as it's the vinyl version, obviously.

Wildest Dreams - Wildest Dreams
DJ Harvey's latest exploration into west coast psych rock.

The Phantom Band - Strange Friend
I was supposed to go and see the Phantom Band at the Deaf Institute in June, but managed to write off my car on the way there whilst listening to this album.

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
Mr Tembo made me smile a lot. The best song about an elephant ever?

Todd Terje - It's Album Time
By far the best party album of 2014

Mogwai - Rave Tapes
More like "post rave comedown tapes".

Caribou - Our Love
Dan Snaith will always be Manitoba to me. Regardless of the name he's still churning out some great music.

Electric Youth - Innerworld
Lush, gorgeous dream pop.

Hungover Albums 2013

So here it is, the moment you've all not been waiting for. In the absence of a Hungover radio show, here's some albums that either featured on the show or would've done if Chorlton FM was still on air - some albums that I really like, including some that I will no doubt have forgot about in a couple of years. You might like some of them too.

Public Service Broadcasting - Inform-Educate-Entertain
The much anticipated (by me) debut album. Having already heard half the album through previous singles, I was thinking "hang on, I want something new", but given that ROYGBIV, Spitfire, Everest and Signal 30 were all astonishing singles, it would be foolish to miss them off. The other tracks couldn't quite live up to these standards, but then not much can.

Warm Digits - Interchange

This

Steve Mason - Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time
Fantastic ambitious album finally realising the potential of the Beta Band over an entire album. I thought Boys Outside was a great album, but this is even better!

Arctic Monkeys - AM
Despite what the NME claim, this isn't their best-ever album and bringing in an R'n'B influence isn't all that radical - after all, R'n'B artists have been doing it for years. But it is still a fantastic forward thinking alternative rock album. The closing track "I Wanna Be Yours" does sound like a Flight of the Conchords song though.

Joe Gideon and the Shark - Freakish
A band I fell in love with by chance (The Deltics supported them back in 2009 or whenever) - lovely people, awesome live band. Finally a second album comes out, complete with more of Gideon's black comedic tales of self loathing and loves lost and found - and this time The Shark gets to sing two songs.

Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2
Soul Jazz release a second volume of...err...Krautrock. Covering the well known (Faust, Tangerine Dream, Can) and the lesser known (Electric Sandwich anyone? ) it's an equal to volume one and even introduced me to some new (old) music.

Cavern of Anti-Matter - Blood-Drums
The blink and you'll miss it release featuring Stereolab's Tim Gane. Like an instrumental Stereolab album with more Krautrock and less farfisa organs. A few hundred copies were pressed. On vinyl only.

The Flaming Lips - The Terror
The lush production of "Yoshimi..." and "At War With the Mystice" seems a long long time ago now. A dark, chilling album with some great tunes buried inside somewhere.

David Bowie - The Next Day
A promising debut album.

Ian McNabb - Eclectic Warrior

Boots has continued to write some great tunes, but here he's found a band in Cold Shoulder, who come on like a psych rock Crazy Horse, that can do the songs justice. Highlight for me (and arguably my favourite track of the year) is the astonishing nine minute opus Memory Be Good To Me, Memory Come Back To Me.

R. Seilog - Doppler
From a spellbinding set at The Green Man festival to this promising mini LP.

OMD - English Electric
Aren't old bands who have reformed supposed to put out albums that trade on the band's 'classic' sound and former glories? I guess that's exactly what you've got here, but those former glories here include the career suicide Dazzle Ships album, so we get a new release featuring spoken word announcements, women counting up to ten and some bloke saying "I want a future so bright that it burns my eyes". Oh, and some tunes too.

Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork
It's just so good to have them back.

Julian Cope - Revolutionary Suicide
Steadily turning into our greatest living historian, how can his poppiest album in years contain a stunning 15 minute dirge called The Armenian Genocide? We also get They Were On Hard Drugs, which takes us on an alternative tour of how the ancients lived whilst the title track has the most Cope-like key change ever.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
Do I need to repeat what I've already said?

Euros Childs - Situation Comedy
Darker and funnier than an episode of Terry and June.

Oh/Ex/Oh - Extant
Released in late December 2012 but I'm letting this one sneak in as I didn't hear it until 2013. The Boards of Canada album was very good, but this stood out for me as one of the great electronic albums of the year.

Hookworms - Pearl Mystic

Deep fried space rock from Yorkshire

2012 Re-View

So here it is - the best music things of 2012.

Best song:
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - Spitfire

Of course.
I've already raved about this - it's one of those rare songs that I can listen to on repeat. Six months on, I still get a buzz whenever I hear the intro.

Best song title:
Scott Walker - SDSS141E+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)
Clocking in at just shy of 22 minutes, the track almost outdoes the title when it comes to incomprehensibility. Sublime, ridiculous, pretentious, hilarious, impenetrable but totally compelling. Not quite "Make It Easy On Yourself" then.

Best album:

Field Music - Plumb

Or is it Dexys - One Day I'm Going To Soar?
Or maybe The 2 Bears' Be Strong?
Both strong contenders, but I'll go for Field Music - because of it's brevity, I can listen to it repeatedly SO many more times.

A great "alternative rock" album:
Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
What I love about Dirty Projectors is how essential everything is. Every sound, note, hit of a snare drum, have a purpose, each adding something unique - there's nothing superfluous here and no generic guitars strumming with a bass playing the root note. Oh, and the songs are pretty good too, which helps.

A great "alternative electronic rock" album:
Fuxa - Electric Sound of Summer
A Christmas present, so there's still plenty to discover with this as I've only had it for just over a week. Post/space rock and electronica, featuring three brilliant cover versions - Our Lips are Sealed, Some Things Last a Long Time and Cheree (which they have stretched out to 10 minutes). In fact the Suicide references stretch further than covering Cheree, with another track being named "Marty Suicide" and the sound on many tracks coming across a bit like Suicide collaborating with Lali Puna - that is if Suicide were a bit happier and enjoyed spending summer afternoons lying in a field listening to the birds singing.

Five great gigs
So much great live music. Here's five examples.
Grandaddy (Ritz)
Public Service Broadcasting (Soup Kitchen)
Pulp (Motorpoint Arena)
Dexys (Green Man Festival)
tUnE-yArDs (Green Man Festival)

Some great album covers:

Three Ambient Records:

It was quite refreshing to find the man who is to blame/thank for the whole genre showing the kids how it should be done. Brian Eno's Lux is one of the most beautiful things he's released in a long time. It sounds even more special now I have it on "180g DMM mastered double vinyl". Honest.

Daniel Lopatin is steadily becoming one of my favourite 21st century artists, with three brilliant albums released over the last couple of years. After Ford and Lopatin's homage to the 80s (1980s and 2080s) that was Channel Pressure, and Oneohtrix Point Never's sublime Replica, we now get a collaboration with Tim Hecker on the Instrumental Tourist album, which might be called ambient, but a thoroughly modern and forward thinking ambient.

Oh and Julian Cope released Woden, which was originally recorded in 1998 but left in the vault. He describes it as "one 72-minute ambulent meditation upon Warden Hill & Avebury". After a difficult opening section, it transforms into a beautiful and absorbing three-note melody accompanied by the distant sound of church bells. Or is it the sound of distant church bells?

Drone Pop:
I'm talking about Circles by Moon Duo, a Wooden Shjips side project (for one member anyway) that takes the sound of Wooden Shjips / Spaceman 3 and blends it with tunes that border on pop. Fantastic stuff.

And talking of side projects...
Tame Impala or Pond? Well, they both released great albums, with TI getting (most of) the accolades. Lonerism was the more consistent, but Beard, Wives, Denim contained Moth Wings - a psych rock masterpiece. A tough one to call.

Hot Chip or The 2 Bears?
Both will put a massive grin on your face. In Our Heads sounds like Hot Chip (understandably), whilst Be Strong is the perfect soundtrack for anyone pining for some post-house, Ian Dury-esque pop...and anyone who is in need of a Bear Hug.

Reissue of the year:

In agreement with 99% of all music publications, it has to be Can's The Lost Tapes. Archive material from 1968-1977 and previously unreleased, this is probably the most remarkable thing I've heard in years. So good, in fact, that I bought it twice.

Oh, how they spoil us:
After a six year gap, Mouse on Mars return with not one, but two shiny new albums of their unique glitchy electronica in a collision with techno, krautrock and hip-hop. One for the head (Parastophics) that you can dance to, which took years to complete, and one for the feet (Wow) that you can admire for it's cleverness, which was thrown together over a few months. Both great.

Best Format:
Barry Adamson - Brighton Rockers. Released as a playable postcard. That's right, a postcard that you can play.

And here's some more albums I've loved this year:

Barry Adamson - I Will Set You Free
Spritualized - Sweet Heart, Sweet Light
Euros Childs - Summer Special
Neil Young - Psychedelic Pill
Pye Corner Audio - Sleep Games
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Hallelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Four Tet - Pink
Daphni - Jiaolong
Toy - Toy
Squarepusher - Ufabulum
The Flaming Lips With Heady Fwends

Anyway, you get the point...

2012 - Half time

When did 6-monthly music reviews become acceptable? What was wrong with end of year charts? Everyone seems to be publishing a "best of the year...so far" list at the moment - damn the internet, blogging and people's obsession with having an opinion.

Anyway, I WILL NOT MISS OUT ON THIS, so I've made a non-definitive rundown of some good to great albums of the last 6 months, based on what I've heard and what mood I'm in right now.

I feel sorry for the July-December albums - when do they get a chart of their own?

So...

Where have you been?
Dexys - One Day I'm Going to Soar
To come back with possibly the best album of the year (so far) and of your career after 27 years is some feat.
Ultravox - Brilliant
This would make a great 9 track album. It's 12 tracks long. It may be patchy, but when it's good, it's very very VERY good.

Music that brings a smile to my face...
The 2 Bears - Be Strong
This has really given Hot Chip something to think about. It's just waiting for a summer to soundtrack
Orbital - Wonky
Especially for the 'arms in the air' final track. Reassuringly Orbitalesque.

So old it's new...
Can - The Lost Tapes
"but this is all old music, so it doesn't really count". It's old music that hasn't been released before, so it DOES count. It's my list.

New kids on the block...
Okay, so they're not technically new bands, but this is the first music I've heard by them. But well done to you if you heard of them before me.
Dead Mellotron - Glitter
I've only just bought this, so I may revise my opinion if I'm bored of it in 6 months time, but this post-shoegaze music sounds pretty good so far. It's released on Sonic Cathedral records and comes on clearish vinyl in a lovely glitter sleeve.
Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim
As a great DJ recently said: coming from the Flaming Lips school of Psychedelic Rock.
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - The War Room
Not an album, but an EP that is so good I couldn't leave it out. See my earlier blog and the rest of the internet for more details.

More ideas than most bands manage in a lifetime...
Field Music - Plumb
Along with Dexys, a contender for best album of the year. It really has to be listened to in one sitting - not in a pretentious "ooh there's a concept to this album" way, more because some of the tracks sound like three songs in one, so it's hard to tell when a new song really does begin. Also, special mention for their Actually, Nearly 7" of Pet Shop Boys Covers.

Ouch....my brain hurts...
The Flaming Lips - Heady Fwends
Reigning in the sonic experimentation of Embryonic for this round up of collaborative recordings they've made over the last year. When I say "reigning in", this is the Flaming Lips and it's all relative.

Like an old friend, someone you can rely on...
Julian Cope - Psychedelic Revolution
This would be an even better album if he didn't swear so much so I could listen to it when my daughter is about.
Barry Adamson - I Will Set You Free 
Gone are the days of making soundtracks for imaginary films (he makes his own films now and then soundtracks them). Here is an album of 21st Century Soul.
Spiritualized - Sweet Heart, Sweet Light
Exactly what you would expect from Spiritualized - i.e. like the Velvet Underground in space.

If only they were signed to Warp Records...
Mouse on Mars - Parastrophies
...then they'd get the credit and reverence that they deserve. Another astonisingly unique album from MOM.

Someone who is signed to Warp Records...
Squarepusher - Infabulum
Do you know Squarepusher? If so, you'll like this.

The "It surprised me too" album...

The Maccabees - Given To The Wild
Apparently they were "Landfill Indie" a few years ago, now they are sounding like Arcade Fire jamming with Foals. Brian Eno should produce them.

The lost blog... 2011 - 21 albums

I found this unfinished and neglected blog post saved as a draft. In the spirit of bands releasing warts'n'all archive recordings of previously unreleased material, here is the blog as I found it - no remastering, editing or remixing has taken place...

Originally written December 2011:

A non-definitive list of recommended albums from 2011. I've deliberately omitted PJ Harvey from the list because you're probably sick of everyone telling you how good the album is.

Anyway, here it is, in alphabetical order as usual. Maybe you'll like some of them...

Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
AM go "pop"? Their best album yet? A return to form? (answers: "not quite", "possibly" and "no, they never lost it - Humbug was a great album"). Whatever the critics might have said, this is certainly more accessible than previous efforts and the influence of Richard Hawley and the 60s is apparent on a number of these tracks.

Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
or "Hot Sauce Committee with a slightly amended tracklisting". This covers pretty much all bases for the Beastie Boys, from the punk-hop of "Lee Majors Comes Again" to the classic BB sound of "Make Some Noise", via the smoker's delight that is "Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament".

Bibio – Mind Bokeh
Bibio makes "lovely" music don't you think? Even when he's doing his best Phil Lynott impression on "Take Off Your Shirt". Get the limited edition packaging, get your cameras out and make your own Bokeh. Eh?

James Blake – James Blake
Seen as a disappointment by those who thought it was uncool for James Blake to be good looking and to start singing on his records. The rest of it thought it was a beautiful, bold, sparse effort. And as for the bass when I saw him live at the Green Man Festival....

Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Adding a couple of layers of keyboards and effects to his sound was a brave move, but it works - I guess that's what happens when you hang out with Kanye West for too long. "Beth/Rest" in particular is stunning, sounding like the sort of tune you'd listen late on a summers evening.

Euros Childs – Ends
The seventh solo album in 6 years from Euros was a stripped back affair, featuring just vocals and piano on the majority of tracks. He's reigned in his "messing about as if no one is going to hear the results" approach to songwriting to put together his second fully coherent set of tunes of the year.

Julian Cope – The JEHOVAHCOAT Demos
A set of (previously) unreleased material from the Autogeddon era. Mostly instrumental, this could have easily fallen into his classic "Rite" series of albums - sounding like a threeway fight between Funkadelic, Can and Hawkwind.

Destroyer – Kaputt
Those lazy comparisons with Sade from some corners of the music press didn't really do anyone any favours did they? I can't imagine many Sade fans liking this album. Yeah, it's got saxophones on it and it sounds "a bit 80s", but it's probably got more in common with Leonard Cohen's classic "I'm Your Man" than Diamond Life. Here's what I said about it earlier this year: Destroyer - Kaputt

Baxter Dury – Happy Soup
Sounding more and more like his dad, this is a collection of three minute new wave pop nuggets.

The Field - Looping State of Mind
Is this as good as 2009's "Yesterday and Today"? I've not listened to it enough yet, but the early signs are promising...

Ford and Lopatin – Channel Pressure
I remember being laughed at for buying the first Zoot Woman album in 2001 - it (and me) being seen as taking irony a step too far with that whole 80s sound. But that album now seems so ahead of it's time with 80's sound. Anyway, this album doesn't really sound like Zoot Woman other than the dreamy vocals

Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost!
Didn't really have a lot to say about this at the time, other than I liked it. This review seems to sum it up... Holy Ghost

Jonny – Jonny
Euros Childs (Gorky's Zygotic Mynci) and Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub). Sadly their ode to Gloria Estefan didn't make it onto the album

Junior Boys – It’s All True

Low – C’Mon

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
The great forgotton album of 2011? I don't think I've seen this in any "best of the year" lists yet, which is a massive oversight because this is one of Mogwai's finest yet. "limited" copies included the stunningly beautiful 23-minute "Music for a forgotten future".

Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
What he said: Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica

Peaking Lights – 936
The aural equivalent of a half forgotten memory of a summer spent listing to a radio station playing dub, post punk and Saint Etienne.

Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo
Sounds just as you would expect from Gruff Rhys.

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk – Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk
After the disappointing (to me) "Goodbye" album, it was nice to find Mr Schnauss returning to his classic Slowdive vs OMD sound.

Soft Metals - Soft Metals
I wish this had been the new Human League album, rather than the it-has-it's-moments-but-note-enough-of-them album they did release.

Suuns – Zeroes QC

Wilco – The Whole Love
Containing some of their poppiest tunes since "Summerteeth" and most out there moments since "A Ghost Is Born"

Wooden Shjips - West
More of the same, but different. There's a grand total of two chords on this album - both of 'em good uns.

2010 Recommended. Part One

Okay, so it's December and most of the planet have their "best of"s out already - a million and one opinions to sort through... But, wait, I'm still buying and hearing new things - I won't know what my best of albums for 2010 are until some point in 2011 at the earliest. I heard Propaganda by Sparks for the first time the other day, so it looks like I've not even finalised by best of 1974 yet.

Anyway, rather than wait another 36 years to do my 2010 retrospective, here's a selection of some of the best albums I've heard so far - hopefully Santa will bring me some more surprises, so there may be a “part 2” at a later date; or maybe not.

21 Albums in alphabetical order - of course.

Warning: Some of the descriptions might not make immediate sense.

The List:

Anoraak - Wherever the Sun Sets

Cats and Cats and Cats – I Wish I Had an Atlas

Drums of Death – Generation Hexed

Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Field Music – Field Music (Measure)

Four Tet – There is Love In You

Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner

Gonjasufi – A Sufi and a Killer

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

Grinderman - Grinderman 2

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

Steve Mason - Boys Outside

Neu! - Neu! 86

OMD - History of Modern

Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

Perfume Genius - Learning

The Phantom Band - The Wants

PVT – Church With No Magic

Tame Impala – Inner Speaker

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

And in more detail...

Anoraak – Wherever the Sun Sets

I’m assuming that these guys are French, given that this is an impeccable selection of Phoenix/Air-esque electronic pop tunes teleported from the mid 80s.

Cats and Cats and Cats – I Wish I Had an Atlas

I saw this lot, high on fizzy pop (them, not me - I was on my way from the Cider Bus), playing on a bandstand in the market place at Glastonbury in 2007 when they must have been about 12 years old. Three years later and they release an album, sounding like a bunch of sea shanties merged with math-rock and punk.

Drums of Death – Generation Hexed

Described on the album's sticker as "Rave horns and love songs". That’s all you need to know.

Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Warning: listening to this on headphones will make you feel detached from reality. I was listening to this on the bus home tonight and nearly missed my stop.

Field Music – Field Music (Measure)

XTC meets Fleetwood Mac is one of a thousand comparisons I could make. A hugely ambitious, sprawling album.

Four Tet – There is Love In You

A disappointment and two dimensional on first listen. But repeated listening on headphones (or just loud) made me realise there’s actually at least four dimensions to this album.

Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner

Subtle, late-night acoustic electronica for you to dance/sit/lie down to (delete depending on your mood). Lovely.

Gonjasufi – A Sufi and a Killer

I can't find the words to summarise this album, so here's one of the songs...“Kowboyz and Indians, Kowboyz and Indians, Kowboyz and Indian’s. Real Kowboyz and real Indians. Mm mmm , m m m mmmm, mm mm , m m m mmmm” etc.

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

Do I need to say anything about this? Another masterclass in the art of the album. Cartoon facade no longer necessary.

Grinderman - Grinderman 2

More psychedelic than their previous album, but Nick Cave is still one of those rare artists who gets the balance right between humour and darkness – “my baby calls me the loch ness monster, two great big humps and then I’m gone”. Listen to the last track - "Bellringer Blues" upside down for full effect.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

Their last couple of albums had 2 or 3 songs that would subtly worm their melodies into your brain. This one has loads of them. Addictive. I’d also recommend the joint live album they’ve just released with LCD Soundsystem. Their set is brilliant; LCD’s is pretty good too (although slightly out of tune)

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

Possibly the weakest of LCD Soundsystem’s studio albums (this one only meriting a mere 8/10) is still head and shoulders above most other music. As usual there are a couple of best-song-of-the-year singles on it: Drunk Girls, which sounds more like David Bowie doing a cover of "White Light White Heat" than David Bowie's actual cover version of "White Light White Heat" from 1973 and, one of those upliftingly melancholic dance tunes that James Murphy does so well, I Can Change.

Steve Mason - Boys Outside

Always one for including everything but the kitchen sink in his songs (The Beta Band did, after all, use pots and pans as percussion instruments), this is much more stripped back, letting the lovely melancholic songs shine through. The Richard X production does seem to have involved setting the graphics equaliser halfway between the “hall” and “bathroom” though.

Neu! - Neu! 86

OK, so it was recorded in 1986, but it’s never been released with this tracklisting or mix before, so I’m classing it as new (Neu). It fits in quite neatly with a many of the modern bands who try and bring the Neu template into the 3-4 minute pop tune (See: The Black Neon, Fujiya & Miyagi etc).

OMD - History of Modern

Speaking of Neu-esque... About 2 songs longer than it needs to be, but still an excellent return by OMD – each song using previous OMD eras as a template. Being one of the first bands to bring the Neu! thing into the pop song (and charts) way back in the 80s, they deserve your respect - it wasn't all bad dancing. If you don’t have enough time or patience, at least listen to New Holy Ground and The Right Side.

Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

Electronica? Ambient house? Psychedelic electro-acoustic soundscapes?! Or just lovely?!

Perfume Genius - Learning

Lo-fi piano and vocals. Includes the best song ever about a schoolboy’s close friendship with his male teacher who introduces him to Joy Division before topping himself.

The Phantom Band - The Wants

Providers of last year’s best album. Providers of this year’s best album. This is how 21^stcentury rock should sound - a towering monolith of a record; very eclectic (doo wop anyone?), but totally modern. Guitars, anologue synths, melodicas, beards, Kraut grooves and a VL-Tone. Oh and the best tunes of the year. A very “Tim” sort of album.

PVT – Church With No Magic

Previously called Pivot (“PIVOT!”) until they faced a lawsuit from the letters I and O. Like Battles with an alternative-rock record collection.

Tame Impala – Inner Speaker

Blissed out psychedelic rock – if the Beatles had recorded Revolver in 2010 with the Flaming Lips and Oasis had never existed.

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Described by most reviewers as Yeasayer “going pop”, by which they mean “it sounds a bit 80s and has better production than their last album”. To me, it’s what “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” would have sounded like if Eno/Byrne had given each track a chorus or two.