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review of 2010
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We
think it's been a great year for music, so much better than
last year as Bruce Forsyth would say. So our writers have had
their thinking caps on and provided us with a their high points
from 2010:
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Wolfgang Guenther
Top 3 albums of 2009:
1. The National - High Violet
A timeless masterpiece
2. Beach House - Teen Dream
A modern piece of timelessness
3. Bombay Bicycle Club - Flaws
No neo-folk, no weird folk, no anti-folk, no hipster folk, just
contemporary folk by a band that proves a variety of songwriting
skills
Top 3 Singles:
1. The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
Anger, disappointment, resignation, comfort and hope
2. The Drums - Best Friend
Minimal effort, maximal joy. Epic.
3. Gorillaz - Stylo
Pop-music in 2011-13
Favourite Gig 2009
Beach House, 19/8/2010, E-Werk Erlangen, Germany
These mysterious triangles on the stage, these stars, these
lights. The voice! Oh boy, this voice! That really was magic.
Band to Watch for 2011
1. Yuck
The missing link between 2010s lo-fi/shoegaze and future American
Alternative revival.
2. Tina Refsnes
Norwegian-English girl in the footprints of Laura Marling
3. Just Handshakes (We're British)
1986 applied in 2010/11. And brilliant name btw.
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Will Columbine
Top 3 singles:
"Dancing On My Own" - Robyn
"On Melancholy Hill" - Gorillaz
"Crazy For You" - Best Coast
Top 3 Albums:
"Gemini" - Wild Nothing
"Astrocoast" - Surfer Blood
"Sit Down, Man" - Das Racist
Festival:
Truck
Live Show:
Mark Kozelek, Union Chapel
Bands to Watch in 2011
I'll tell you next December! |
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Matt Brown
Top albums of :
1. The National - High Violet
2. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
3. These New Puritans - Hidden
top 3 singles:
1. Tiny Tempah - Pass Out
2. Robyn - Dancing On My Own
3. Janelle Monae - Tightrope
favourite gig:
The Mountain Goats at Brudenell Social Club,Leeds
Festival:
End of the Road in Dorset
3 to watch for 2011:
1. Trophy Wife
2. Odd Future
3. Chapel Club
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Andy
Glynn
Top 3 albums:
Underworld - Barking
A band I never realised I cared much about until this year.
But Barking makes a pretty convincing argument for the uninitiated.
Its one long euphoric headrush of lush synths, waspish beats
and Karl Hyde's patented mystic gibberish. 'Scribble' makes
me want to stand on a hilltop and throw shapes to the sun god.
Simply awe-inspiring.
The Indelicates - Songs for Swinging Lovers
Still the only traditional guitar band in Britain worth a damn.
'...Swinging Lovers' takes the bile and energy of their debut
and applies generous lashings of it to Weimar-era cabaret, Blondie-style
electro pop and, at one point, what sounds like skiffle. Gloriously
pretentious and spiteful, the Indelicates are cleverer than
you and their songs have more 'hairs on the back of your neck
stand up' moments than you've had hot dinners.
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
There are decent musicians and performers, and then there are
stars. When the androgynous, elfin lady with the quiff starts
talking about how shes a time-travelling robot on the run from
the law for daring to love - you should really start listening.
The lovechild of Prince and Grace Jones, with songs that can
appeal just as easily to your average west-coast hip-hop head
as your broadsheet culture-section chinstroker, The ArchAndroid
is eclectic in a way that makes all previous uses of the word
'eclectic' seem pretty trite.
Top 3 singles:
Robyn - Dancing on my ownIt just... so... sad. If you've had
your heart broken its perfect and if not you'll consider going
off and getting your heart broken just so you've got an excuse
to listen to it on repeat while staring into the middle-distance,
muttering and weeping.
Fools Day - Blur
Blur's secret weapon was always the slight, almost-not-there-at-all,
songs that they seemed to be able to pull out of the hat effortlessly,
(End of a Century, You're so Great, Best Days). Fools Day carries
on that tradition. Its that tiny post-credits scene at the end
of the film that lets you know that everything was actually
ok for all the main characters in the end.
65daysofstatic - Tiger Girl
They were probably one of the most exciting bands in the world
anyway, but 2010 was the year 65DOS discovered dance. This is
the sound of 'post-rock' or 'math-rock' or whatever the fuck
its called these days, getting dragged kicking and screaming
out into the sunlight. This song manages to be quite good for
7 minutes, 39 seconds. Then it starts being bloody brilliant.
Favorite gig:
Janelle Monae - Manchester Academy 2
...and the girl can dance too (shit painter mind).
Festival of 2010
Didn't go to any festivals in 2010. I'm not a peasant.
3 to watch for 2011:
Prinzhorn Dance School - Shouty!
Hotpants Romance - Also quite shouty!
Nicola Roberts - Probably not all that shouty, but still the
dark heart of Girls Aloud. Prophecy says she will return in
2011 to slay GaGa and save pop.
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Moker
Top 3 albums of 2009:
Lots and lots to choose from but my personal top three probably
looks like this:
1) Four Tet - There Is Love In You
2) Oh No Ono - Eggs
3) School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
Top 3 singles 2009:
Ok, instead of being all alternative and hip with this list,
I'm gonna be a bit commercial so I don't repeat myself (also
because I can't really think of any alternative/indie/dance
singles). However I did genuinely love these songs, even if
one of them is bloody Kylie who is normally ultra irksome:
1) No Tears To Cry - Paul Wellar
2) Cee Lo Green - Fuck/Forget You
3) All The Lovers - Kylie Minogue
Best Live Show:
I went to see Irish math metallers Bats this year who were touring
small venues off the back of their 2009 album. They were amazing.
I also went to see post-doom mongers Anathema who have a loyal
following and every gig they do is fantastic. Finally God Is
An Astronaut at the Islington Academy was pretty spectacular.
For a post rock band they were utterly exciting.
Best Festival:
I have avoided festivals for the past few years after I realising
I didn’t like shitting in a glorified bucket, sleeping rough
or listening to Fake Plastic Trees. Again. Bah humbug.
Three to Watch in 2011:
Well, all I can base this on is hearing some excellent unsigned
or small indie bands and thinking 'blimey, they're great'. So
look out for:
1) Strange Birds
2) Seapony
3) Superhumanoids
And perhaps a special mention to ex-Cherbourg singer Andrew
Davie who's starting to release his solo work.
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Eloise Quince
Top 3 albums of 2009:
Foals – ‘Total Life Forever’
Mystery Jets – ‘Serotonin’
Villagers – ‘Becoming A Jackal’
Top 3 singles:
The Count and Sinden ft. Mystery Jets – ‘After Dark’
Egyptian Hip Hop – ‘Rad Pitt’
Everything Everything – ‘My Kz Yr Bf’
best live show
Jamie T and the Pacemakers, 24th June, Lincoln Engine Shed.
Jamie T’s warm up show for Glastonbury. Fainting, dancing, sweating,
bruising and a whole crowd sing-a-long to ‘If You Got The Money’
in key and in time. Phenomenal.
best festival
Underage - Great atmosphere, great acts and so much more than
just music. Almost a little world of its own. Fantastic to enjoy
music and not get covered in beer/piss. Instead it was warm
Diet Coke, but you can’t have it all.
Band to watch for 2011:
IS TROPICAL - Deliciously mysterious electronica.
Gold Future Joy Machine - Big band = big sound. Feisty, yet
soothing.
Youth - Same distant mathcore time signatures of Foals, but
much more melancholy.
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Thom Curtis
Top 3 albums:
The aforementioned Black Sands by Bonobo is
certainly a contender for best album of the year. The quality
of this guy's albums is so consistently brilliant, and this
new release is impeccable. The beautiful string-led Prelude
slithers effortlessly into Kiara, one of a few upbeat tracks
on the album. And from then, Kong, Eyesdown, El Toro and Black
Sands make this a fantastic album. Post-party chill-out at its
best. Yes.
Next up is the simply fantastic Gorilla Manor by Local
Natives – an album whose greatness is only emphasised
by flawless live performances. Folky indie with awesome guitar
licks and gorgeous vocal harmonies – sometimes incorporating
all four band members. My top picks are Wide Eyes, Airplanes,
Sun Hands, Shape Shifter, Camera Talk, and Warning Sign. You
may notice that is a majority of the album – which just goes
to show how incredible this album is. And all the songs work
so well together, there's a nice theme which runs through all
the songs – and factor which, after all, makes an album an album
instead of just a collection of songs.
Finally, Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up by
Oceansize. I got into this band way too late – I had
fallen in love with their debut Effloresce and got stuck there,
when the prospect of a fourth album loomed. Whilst I liked a
bunch of tracks from Everyone Into Position, I found Frames
a very difficult album indeed and was subsequently intrigued
as to what the new album would present – especially as front-man
Mike Vennart had been closely involved with Biffy's live performances
throughout the year. And the album doesn't disappoint, it's
got high octane mental songs, and it's got softer ones. All
in all, it's a real winner. My personal favourite is Oscar Acceptance
Speech which was omitted from the set-list during the Autumn
tour, but such is life.
Top 3 singles:
Firstly Eyesdown by Bonobo, a chilled track
with a mesmerising gentle bass wob-wobbing away. The lead vocal
is provided by featuring artist Andreya Triana, whose solo album
this year Lost Where I Belong is a real treat to the ears –
simply stunning if you dig incredible up-and-coming female vocalists.
In this Bonobo track, she's on top form and the song is a real
winner – and one of many from the album Black Sands which is
incredible from start to finish.
Next up is Bubbles by Biffy Clyro – which
I cannot deny is a cracking song, even if I have my own reservations
about the band recently. Whilst the album Only Revolutions was
released in 2009, Bubbles was released in 2010. It's no That
Golden Rule but it pisses all over that Many of Horror nonsense
or that God And Satan waffle.
Finally, Call Out by Feeder. Since Feeder's
drummer topped himself after the incredible Echo Park, the band
never really recovered – and sure enough, the number of great
tracks on each subsequent album was getting smaller and smaller.
There was some great tracks coming up in every release but the
overall package just wasn't there. Whilst the singles collection
offered fans a hope with the new tracks Shatter and Lost and
Found being fantastic, the following albums only had one, maybe
two stand-out tracks on them. Call Out is the energetic masterpiece
that claims top spot on the latest album Renegades. It's got
some balls, something the band had lacked over the past three
or four albums – and I hope with all my heart that Feeder write
some more songs about things worth getting energetic over, and
not some dead guy that used to drum with them.
Favorite gig 2009:
Radiohead at Reading Festival. For a few hours afterwards I
felt like someone had slipped me some Class As. My heart was
beating faster than Napalm Death's bass drum. It was probably
finally getting to see "Paranoid Android" that pushed
me over the edge. If festival sets don't count as gigs, then
Billy Talent at Southampton Guildhall. I'd seen them 6 times
previously, and the Guildhall in Southampton is a dreadful vanue
for sound. But somehow it was the best time I've ever seen them.
It isn't just their music that has evolved and matured. They're
a real treat to see at their own shows.
Best Festival
Well, I only went to two this year – Reading and Glastonbury.
Reading 2009 had disappointed me, and the orgasmic performances
of Manchester Orchestra and Radiohead didn't do enough to raise
my spirits. In comparison, 2010 was a blast and I really enjoyed
myself. Although the line-up remains to be fairly good every
year, whilst I get older, the kids seem to get younger. And
I understand, I started attending when I was 16 but... it's
just kidfest5000. So, Glastonbury wins my best
festival award. Don't go thinking it only got it because I don't
like the Reading kids though – it's the biggest music festival
in the world, and its line up is incredible and diverse and,
faultless. Maybe Glastonbury shouldn't be included in such a
thing as this. Maybe it's above that, while all the other festivals
fight for the honour of being nearly as good as it.
Best Live Show
Muse at Wembley Stadium, London, September 11th. Muse
have been my favourite band for a long time, discovered during
the glorious Origin of Symmetry era and then watched as they
slowly but surely fell apart. Well no, not really but, I miss
the old days. There's no denying the sound has changed – and
I always have mixed feelings about it, changing my opinions
on things. It's still good, but misses the underlying grungey
edge of the old stuff. That said, I do realise that I am no
longer a teenager and there might be other emotional ties with
the older stuff. But anyway, I digress. While they've gone a
bit mainstream, they can still write some great songs. And fuck
me sideways – they are just getting better and better live.
This show at Wembley was phenomenal, not to mention getting
to see Biffy Clyro, White Lies and I Am Arrows in support. With
Bliss back in the set-list, and the rock epic Citizen Erased
rattling me to the core, there was never any doubt that this
wasn't going to be the best gig of the year. |
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Shane Blanchard
Top 3 albums:
Crystals Castles - Crystal Castles 2
Chickenhawk - Modern Bodies
Performance - Red Brick Heart
Top 3 singles:
The Guilty Hands - Razor
South Central - Demons
The Twilight Sad - The Wrong Car
Favorite gig:
Future of the Left @The Cockpit, Leeds
Bands to watch:
The Good Natured
We Are Enfant Terrible
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