Who says that music is dead? Errm, nobody actually. I was reflecting the other day that this year has produced some great music. Here is a quick random top 10 of tunes from the first 8 months of 2006 (all by different artists) - no doubt you all have other favourites - anything I've criminally neglected?
1. When The Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys (best song from the best album of the last 10 years)
2. Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura (I'm a sucker for indie bands with girl singers. This is a nice upbeat tune)
3. The Youngest Was The Most Loved - Morrissey (There is no such thing in life as normal)
4. Civil Sin - Boy Kill Boy (should be an indie disco favourite - very catchy)
5. Tamacun - Rodrigo Y Gabriela (Expertly played - brilliant live)
6. Raoul - The Automatic (another catchy indie hit)
7. Part Timer - The Young Knives (Opening track from the excellent new album - highly recommended)
8. Juicebox - The Strokes (Great tune. The opening reminds me of the 80s arcade classic 'Spy Hunter'!)
9. Alfie - Lily Allen (Amusing ditty from her terrific album)
10. Broken Boy Soldier - The Raconteurs (Best tune from their (imho) overrated album)
Missing the cut were great tunes from Belle & Sebastian, Seth Lakeman, The Futureheads, Dirty Pretty Things and several others.
Hope the next 4 months are just as good. I'm particularly looking forward to the new Badly Drawn Boy album 'Born in the UK' (out on 16th October).
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1. When The Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys
good song, good band, but I don't think deserving of the NME wank-fest that they have become.
2. Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura
I don't know this particular track, but I agree with your point about indie bands with female singers. having a lot of fun this year getting into bands like talulah gosh, heavenly, the vaselines and the aislers set. also getting into saturday looks good to me, who are ace. more about them later.
3. The Youngest Was The Most Loved - Morrissey
agreed. best track on the new album, though i really like at last i am born too, and that b-side, human being. roll on the next star and garter smiths disco.
4. Civil Sin - Boy Kill Boy
I don't know this one, but they're a decent enough band (enough with the haircuts though, lads). I really like that Susie/Countdown To The Disappointment track, and saw them live supporting Hard FI last year and they were pretty good.
5. Tamacun - Rodrigo Y Gabriela
I must listen to this...
6. Raoul - The Automatic
I've only heard the single, Monster. (As adapted by some FCUM fans - what's that coming out of the bin? Is it a scouser, is it a scouser). IT sounds good, though the mention of them always conjures up REM for me (I think it must be Monster = Monster, Automatic = Automatic for the people, or something).
7. Part Timer - The Young Knives
I must claim ignorance here
8. Juicebox - The Strokes
Yes, very good, there latest single, the name of which escapes me, is also good. Juicebox always reminds me of You're going to need someone on your side by MOz too.
9. Alfie - Lily Allen
Her dad is a twit.
10. Broken Boy Soldier - The Raconteurs
Agreed, album slightly overrated (it has jack white in it, NME were always going to arctic monkey it to some degree). Brendan benson is the motherfucking bomb though. I implore anybody who likes the Raconteurs even just a little bit to seek out BB's records, he's amazing.
As for my musical thoughts, well, the last 12 months seem to have been the most retrospective of my musical life. Been getting into some fairly old and obscure stuff (see namedropped bands above) and of course Billy Bragg and Moz. Can I include the Billy Bragg vol 1 boxset in my tunes-of-the-year please?
I won't bother doing a full on list like you Mike, but some comments
- Dirty Pretty Things - pisses all over babyshambles. You Fucking Love It and GIn and Milk particularly good.
- Saturday Looks Good To Me. I've raved about these before. www.slgtm.cm. A lot like the bands I Mentioned above before. They are good.
- Sufjan Stevens - after being wowed by illinois (and then michigan, and then seven swans) last year, i got avalanches this year and its ace (though illinois is still my favourite). just found out today that he is playing manchester in november. then found out it has sold it (at academy 2 i think). some cnuts are selling tickets for £100 a pair on ebay (i think this is his first uk tour, and he's only playing manchester and london). i hope it gets upgraded to academy 1.
- ooberman - one of my favourite bands of 1999/2000/2001, split in 2004, and then reformed this year. It was intended to make a compilation of rarities and the like, abdn they decided to throw in a few new tracks, but they got carried away and made a whole album, called, er, Carried Away. OOberman are fantastic, i really hope they bung in a tour soon too as I always regretted never going to see them.
- Slits/PiL. Getting into that new wave/dub thing. THe slits cover of Heard It Through the Grapevine fucking rocks (fucking bounces is probably a better description) and i've just picked up PiL's greatest hits and its ace (this is not a love song is fantastic).
- Leonard cohen is good, but only stuff before 1980, as i've found to my chagrin.
- ebay is good for finding cds for about £3 that you wanted to buy in 1996 but didn't bother with as you were only a penniless saturday boy and had to filter out cd purchases.
- frank zappa. had another couple of months heavily getting into him. have had the joy of seeing his son dweezil take a zappa-inspired band out on the road, playing two hours of his dad's music. excellent.
but, it's still not over! some of my most eagerly anticipated music events of 2006 are still outstanding!
- ooberman - the tour, hopefully
- lemonheads have reformed, just bought a ticket to see them in october. i love the lemonheads, they are ace. i saw evan dando on his solo tour, and to be honest, that was a more-or-less lemonheads set (rudderless, a fine tune). looking forward to this.
- ben kweller. also excellent. releases his third album next month, and i'm going to see him tomorrow night at the night and day (a reward for a full day's study), and also in november.
- the rentals - this is the band set up originally as a side project by Matt Sharp of weezer between albums, before he left to do run the rentals full time. they split, he did a solo album, it was ok. the rentals reformed this year, and apparently an album is on the way. they are really good, sort of weezerish, but with moog synthesisers and girly singing. i like them a lot.
- billy bragg - volume 2 of his box set is out in october, i believe.
sorry, not an awful lot of modern stuff mentioned. i feel i'm sort of starting to separate from contemporary NME stuff. My album purchasing has fallen (but that's probably a good thing, as I don't buy anything that sounds hald good anymore). My gig going has fallen dramatically too (by my count, that's belle and sebastian, morrissey x 2, billy bragg, zappa, futureheads, ben kweller x 2, lemonheads = 9 for the year, maybe 10, vs 18 last year).
I am also boycotting NME for about the fourth time in my life. This time though they haven't done any one act that has riled me, apart from being a rag of shit. NME IS SHIT kids, you heard it here first.
That's not a "full on list"?!
Award for the longest comment ever, Mr M! Good work. So, basically you're becoming an old fart, just like the rest of us? That PiL track you mentioned is great. And no, you can't have Billy Bragg - that's cheating.
Best 'old' stuff I've got into this year is early Roxy Music and that Kenickie album you gave me, which is ace (I just can't understand where I was when that came out for me to miss it).
Just found out that Tenacious D are doing a UK tour in December! Yes! (Hurrers can stand outside signing autographs.)
Smaje that is a quality lookalike. Absolute comedy gold.
I'm going to be smiling all day now. Or is that because it's Friday?
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