Albums of the Decade: No.5

16 Dec 2009: Hopes and Fears by Keane “I’m getting old and I need something to rely on” Well, if Coldplay are distinctly uncool, I really have gone the whole way with this choice. But guess what? I don’t care. I discovered Keane’s 2004 debut album Hopes and Fears about six months after everybody else, and it’s consistently great. I can count on one hand the number of albums which have as many memorable hooks as this, but which never seem to get boring with repetition. And who’d have thought a rock band not based around guitars, and seemingly so underpowered, could make such an epic sound? There’s no let-up, for sure, and the lack of real variety may be the biggest criticism [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.6

15 Dec 2009: Frank by Amy Winehouse “Cos your dream in life, is to be a footballers wife” Every artist who makes it big seems to be in the middle of a tour when it happens, playing venues which are suddenly too small, to people who bought their tickets without knowing what they’d let themselves in for. That’s how I caught Amy Winehouse live, when she played Cambridge Corn Exchange for the last time. But it was doubly lucky because it wasn’t long after that gig when she really started to go off the rails. Frank was her first album, from 2003, and it launched an extraordinary talent onto the scene who sounded a lot older than just 19. It’s hugely jazz-influenced, but [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.7

14 Dec 2009: Original Pirate Material by The Streets “Grab something to eat: Maccy D’s or KFC” Times 100 Best Albums of the Decade: No.12 NME 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade: No.9 Guardian Albums of the Decade: No.1 Pitchfork Top 200 Albums of the Decade: No.36 Uncut 150 Albums of the Decade: No.43 There are so many reasons why this record should be risible: the jarring Estuary English, the forced messing around in the studio with the lads, the mundane subject material …and yet, and yet, it’s quite brilliant. The Streets’ 2002 debut album was (and is) totally of its time, combining consistently amusing or poignant lyrics with some extraordinarily powerful samples, loops and original music. More than anyone before or since, [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.8

13 Dec 2009: Trouble Over Bridgwater by Half Man Half Biscuit “Late Lunch audience, we’ve got all your addresses!” Was there ever a finer album title in history? And Trouble Over Bridgwater, released in 2000, doesn’t disappoint on the song front either. There are as many obscure pop-cultural references per square inch as in any of the band’s albums, but there are also some great ideas, from the concept of wanting keep a girl “mathematically safe” to ranting about ignorant staff at all-night garages. And more than in any other Half Man Half Biscuit record, there’s a theme of irritation with the music industry. Irk The Purists reminds people that they don’t have to be told what to like; Look Dad No Tunes [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.9

12 Dec 2009: Melody A.M. by Röyksopp “Yeah it’s me. I wanna give you some good frequencies” One of those records which brings back memories of a specific place and time; when we had a one-year-old and it was my turn to do the childcare, one of my favourite things to do was to take him into town in his pushchair, go up to the top floor of Borders, let him fall asleep, and relax looking through some good books on, ooh I don’t know, HTML or something. And guess what? Melody A.M. by Röyksopp always seemed to be playing in that bookstore while I read. Being great background music shouldn’t be a badge of dishonour. Melody A.M. is one of my favourite [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.10

11 Dec 2009: Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends by Coldplay “Oh who would ever want to be king?” Coldplay must be the “band of the decade”, if only because at the start of this decade, they hadn’t even had an album out, and by the end of it, four albums on, they were writing songs about when they used to rule the world. I’ve never understood why Coldplay are so uncool, although I do get the criticism levelled in their direction. But really, what’s wrong with writing stadium rock singalongs? They just took over from Oasis, and appealed to a less macho audience, and who can blame them? Anyway, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends marked [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.11

10 Dec 2009: Tales From Turnpike House by Saint Etienne “Tony leaves the Depot late, seventeen years with the Unigate” Yes, more lush orchestrated sixties-influenced pop. 2002′s Finisterre got Saint Etienne some great reviews, but for me their 2005 follow up Tales From Turnpike House is even better. It has everything a Saint Etienne record should have, a concept of sorts …plus David Essex! What’s not to like? The album is a collection of songs describing characters and stories from a North London tower block, but unlike records by, say, The Streets, all human life is here. It’s probably the most parochially London album I’ve ever heard. It didn’t sell many – Saint Etienne albums never have – but that only conferred on [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.12

9 Dec 2009: Takk by Sigur Rós “Nú vaknar þú, allt virðist vera breytt, ég gægist út, en er svo ekki neitt” I’ve become quite enamoured with music which has been described as “post-rock” over the past few years, from Slint to Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Sigur Rós can probably loosely be classed in that category, although the widespread use of their music on TV has made them possibly too well-known for such a non-mainstream genre. One of many examples of Iceland punching above its weight in the noughties, Sigur Rós came to prominence with their third, fourth and fifth albums, Takk being the middle one of these, in 2005. It was their first for a major label, and their [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.13

8 Dec 2009: CSI:Ambleside by Half Man Half Biscuit “But then I encounter Primark FM” My love affair with Half Man Half Biscuit started in the late eighties and has never gone away for a moment, but I’ve started to appreciate the genius of Nigel Blackwell’s lyrics far more in the past few years. I’ve no idea what possessed me to start a Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics website, but it’s proved more popular than I’d ever imagined. This band has quietly built a devoted fanbase out there which is far larger than you might imagine. The website’s big breakthrough came with the release of CSI:Ambleside in 2008 – with the help of many regulars, we quickly put up the lyrics to the [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.14

7 Dec 2009: Aerial by Kate Bush “Washing machine, slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy, get that dirty shirty clean” eMusic 100 Best Albums of the Decade: No.92 Uncut 150 Albums of the Decade: No.18 Her first album for over twelve years, 2005′s Aerial is in many respects as good as anything Kate Bush has ever done. She actually did spend that long making the album, on and off, but only because she had a son, and had to fit in the writing and recording around that. People would prefer a more interesting explanation, but that’s just the way it was. The album is alternately beautiful (A Coral Room) and just plain bonkers (Mrs. Bartolozzi), but we wouldn’t want Kate any other way. I must [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.15

6 Dec 2009: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips “Do you realise… that everyone you know, someday, will die?” Times 100 Best Albums of the Decade: No.36 Pitchfork Top 200 Albums of the Decade: No.67 Uncut 150 Albums of the Decade: No.11 This one came out of nowhere for me, some considerable time after its 2002 release. It was the band’s tenth album, f’r'goodnessake, and somehow they’d totally passed me by. That said, I haven’t been that blown away by many of the others which I’ve tracked down since. But Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots? What an oddball – and brilliant – record. The critics loved this at the time, it seems, and rightly so. There are two standout singles, [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.16

5 Dec 2009: On An Island by David Gilmour “Would this do to make it all right?” The last Pink Floyd album was released in 1994, but such was David Gilmour’s influence on the last two Floyd albums that his 2006 solo offering On An Island might as well have been one too, especially as it fleetingly features keyboard player Rick Wright. It’s a very relaxed affair, with plenty of great guitar solos but nothing which would disturb the neighbours. As a bookend to the Pink Floyd story, it has plenty in common with the early seventies stuff like Meddle, and makes the bombast of the last two or three albums with Roger Waters increasingly seem like a temporary aberration in the band’s [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.17

4 Dec 2009: Somewhere Deep In The Night by Swing Out Sister “Where do I go for the rest of my life?” I’ve rediscovered this band only recently, although few others have, it would seem. If you’re thinking they’re another eighties reunion, think again, because Swing Out Sister never went away; it’s almost too cliched to be true, but they’ve spent much of the last 20 years being big in Japan, and at least one of their nine albums was never released anywhere else. But if you’re a fan of lushly orchestrated, sixties influenced pop (and I most certainly am) then it’s worth tracking down what they’ve been up to. My favourite from the noughties is 2001′s Somewhere Deep In The Night, which [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.18

3 Dec 2009: My Secret Is My Silence by Roddy Woomble “And in your illumination is your apology” If you follow the British folk scene at all, even if it’s just through an annual visit to the Cambridge Folk Festival, the lineup on this album is all-star. My Secret Is My Silence, from 2006, was Idlewild vocalist Roddy Woomble’s first solo album, and it’s a lot more folky and somewhat less raucous than his efforts with the band. It features vocals from Kate Rusby and Karine Polwart on five songs each, and was recorded in Rusby’s studio with musicians often associated with her, including John McCusker producing. At the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2006, I just happened to be passing the Mojo tent [...]

Albums of the Decade: No.19

2 Dec 2009: I Trawl The Megahertz by Paddy McAloon “I’ll grow a long and silver beard” When Prefab Sprout released the “lost” 1992 set Let’s Change The World With Music in 2009, Paddy McAloon shuffled out of obscurity, complete with long silver beard, to do some compelling and erudite interviews. He was asked how these old songs sounded to him 17 years on, and replied that all he could hear was “a voice full of hope”. That hope has perhaps never been fulfilled, at least musically. Paddy – and Prefab Sprout – produced relatively little material in that long period, and the 2003 solo work I Trawl The Megahertz just about sums up this last decade for Paddy, who has had serious [...]