Domenica 15 Gen 2012, 16:21

1) Patrick Wolf Lupercalia
Very well polished new one from Patrick with some of his most commercial sounding songs but still retaining his quirkiness. ‘Time of My Life’ is a fantastic track – lovely strings and really infectious. ‘The City’ is also a great little pop song. He had a little rant at the Roundhouse gig that people keep referring to the sax contributions as being an 80s throwback – whether it is or not I like it. The album has at least five really strong pop songs which you can envisage as being long standing classics in his future sets.
2) Wild Beasts Smother
I think on balance this is even better than Two Dancers. Love ‘Lion’s Share’, ‘Reach A Bit Further’ and ‘Bed Of Nails’ with the former two really striking a great balance between the two vocalists. Grows with every listen.
3) St Vincent Strange Mercy
Takes a while to sink in but this is really great. Lots of unexpected twists and turns and good use of pauses. Not a bad track on the album but favourites include the title track, ‘Cheerleader’, ‘Champagne Year’ and ‘Neutered Fruit’.
4) The Dears Degeneration Street
This one didn't get the recognition it should have as its one of, if not the, best of their albums. 'Thrones' is a superb song. 'Blood' ,' 'Unsung' and 'Lamentation' are other highlights.
5) David McAlmont Live At Leicester Square Theatre
Live CD with songs from across David's career as well as new covers. The McAlmont and Butler songs (joined by Butler) are great but highlights are the lovely 'Snow' and 'Lose My Faith'. Real shame that songs from his eponymous album or his Bassey covers didn't make the cut but overall really good.
6) The Soft Close-Ups In Retrospect
Not strictly a new album but a collection of 7 tracks issued by the band and therefore effectively as close as they’ll get to an album release this year. Some lovely stuff from the clever and amusing 'Ditch the Theory' through to the very melancholic ‘Uneven Pavements’ and ‘Some Sick Day’. 7 really strong tracks.
7) Brett Anderson Black Rainbows
The reforming of Suede has lead to a change in Brett’s solo stuff more towards the Suede sound than the ballads/acoustic sound of his solo albums. I think this is probably his best solo album by far (and better than most latter Suede albums). Some really strong tracks including ‘Crash About To Happen’, ‘Thin Men Dancing’ and ‘I Count The Times’.
8) The Blow Monkeys Staring At The Sun
Loved the Blow Monkeys in the late 80s and it is good to have them back with new stuff which is pretty strong. 'Steppin Down' is a great track - as good as their 80s best. 2 of the tracks are former solo tracks of Dr Robert which have been beefed up. 'The Killing Breeze' 'One of us is lying' and the beautiful 'Face in the Rock' are very strong. Some nice strings.
9) Sarah Nixey Brave Tin Soldiers
Much less electronic than her debut solo album which I really liked. This is more subtle and allowing greater focus on her voice. The title track, 'Gathering Shadows' being particularly good. 'Love Gets Dangerous' most reflects the previous album.
10) Florence + The Machine Ceremonials
Really like this - some lovely strings. ‘No Light, No Light’ is a really great song – one of my favourites of the year. Love ‘Breaking Down’ as well which reminds me of Bryan Ferry. Whilst ‘What the Water gave me’ didn’t strike me at first it has grown on me. Other highlights include ‘Seven Dials’ and ‘Only If For A Night’.
11) White Lies Ritual
This isn’t a patch on their debut album which did make it difficult to put this in perspective and put me off it for a few months. ‘Bigger than Us’ is very strong. Favourites include ‘Is Love’ ‘Streetlights’ and ‘Bad Love.’
12) British Sea Power Valhalla Dancehall
Don’t think its as a good as ‘Do You like Rock Music?’ but some good tracks including ‘Living Is So Easy’, ‘Observe The Skies’ ’Who’s In Control’
13) Kate Bush 50 Words For Snow
Great to have Kate back and of course you couldn’t expect another ‘Hounds of Love’ but sparse piano pieces are fine with me. Haven’t fully given this the time it needs so it may have ranked higher. Could do without Elton John’s contribution and whilst people seem to rave about the title track and Stephen Fry’s contribution I must admit as tend to skip that track as a novelty in an otherwise beautiful album.
14) Luke Haines 9½ Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970s & Early '80s
Well Luke would certainly win most unusual concept album of the year with this one. I'm a big fan his last 2 CDs - '21st Century Man' and 'Off My Rocker' and I thought the concept alone would make it hard for this to better them and that’s proved easily true. Nevertheless it is entertaining but hard to compare with other albums as I doubt I’ll listen to it as much. Highlights include ‘Big Daddy Got A Casio VL-Tone’ and ‘Gorgeous George’.
15) Marianne Faithfull Horses And High Heels
Marianne’s extremely distinctive voice can work extremely well on certain songs but on others I just think it doesn’t work. On this album it works very well on ‘Why Did We have to Part?’ ,‘That’s How Empires Fall’, ‘Prussian Love’ , ‘Eternity’ and on my album highlight ‘Love Song.’ Songs like ‘Gee baby’ do nothing for me. The cover of ‘Goin’ Back’ is a nice try but really you’d just want to listen to Dusty. ‘Past Present and Future’ has always been a quirky song no matter who tries it.
16) Will Young Echoes
Not sure I ever envisaged a Will Young album being in my top 20 as but bought this on the strength of the rather good ‘Jealousy’ single which had quite a Pet Shop Boys feel (aside from the title) and was pleasantly surprised by the rest of the album. ‘Silent Valentine’ is lovely, ‘Hearts On Fire’, ‘Come On’ and ‘Good Things’ are good little pop songs. ‘Safe from Harm’ is almost ‘Smalltown Boy’.
17) Elbow Build a Rocket Boys!
Never really got into Elbow before but really like tracks like ‘The Birds’ ‘Lippy Kids’ and ‘With Love’.
18) Butcher Boy Helping Hands
Third album from the Scottish band which unfortunately doesn’t fully recapture the remarkable quality of their debut but is nevertheless more lovely, melancholic, string-heavy and lyrically-strong indie. Single ‘Imperial’ and ‘Russian Dolls’ move the album away from completely fey indie overload. Whilst it’s a beautiful and clearly lovingly prepared album I do end up returning to the debut.
19) Nico Muhly Seeing Is Believing
Always hard to rank a classical album in relation to pop and indie records however I've given this a fair few plays this year. His opera was a slight disappointment this year but I do enjoy this.
20) Seafieldroad Seafieldroad
Second album from the off shoot of Swimmer One continues the piano ballad approach although I don’t think it’s a strong as the debut. Highlights include ‘The Coastal Path’ and wonderfully named ‘What Became of Pinky and Honker’.
21) Beirut The Rip Tide
Still for me not matching the quality of the Flying Club Cup but has some nice tracks including ‘Santa Fe’, ‘East Harlem’ and I particularly like the title track.
22) Bright Eyes The People’s Key
Could do without some of the lengthy samples but some good tracks especially ‘Shell Games’ ‘Jejune Stars’ ‘Ladder Song’ and ‘One for you, one for me’. Some tracks are a bit of a undistinguished mush.
23) The Human League Credo
Nice to have them back with new stuff as I did like their last album ‘Secrets’ but unfortunately I don’t think this compares. Phil Oakey always did write some awful lyrics alongside the classics and there are some real duff ones here. Lead single ‘Night People’ took a while to get used to as its almost a parody of early Human League (musically and lyrically) - I still can’t make my mind up about whether it’s awful or genius.
24) Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues
Really love the title track and ‘Montezuma.
25) Stephin Merritt Obscurities
An album of various tracks from his different bands in advance of a new Magnetic Fields album early in 2012. As it’s an album of bits and pieces you do get the impression you’ve heard many before - indeed some are alternative versions of released songs. As usual a real mix of styles. Highlights include ‘The Song From Venus’ – lovely slow waltz benefitting from his most lugubrious vocals and the early Soft Cell sounding ‘Rats in the Garage Of The Western World’ and the delightfully jaundiced ‘When You’re Young And In Love’.

Other things to highlight – David Ford’s Austerity Measures EP is rather good and his book came with a CD ‘I Choose This..’ The Suede reissues were good little packages as was The Smiths Complete boxset.