geography of hope

Song for Sunday

2012-01-29T22:35:00.003+11:00

Laurie Anderson – O Superman

Spot the connection?

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: The Big Pink – Hit the Ground (Superman)

Song for Sunday

2012-01-22T21:49:00.000+11:00

The Big Pink – Hit the Ground (Superman)

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Elastica – Connection

Song for Sunday

2012-01-15T23:09:00.000+11:00

Blue Aeroplanes – Jacket Hangs

With my iTunes Christmas and birthday vouchers I finally purchased a copy of The Blue Aeroplanes classic Beatsongs. The vinyl version is hidden away somewhere and I had never got round to buying the CD or downloading it. However, I can confirm that it is as magnificent as remembered and has been getting plenty of stereo time over the last week. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any high-quality videos of songs from the album (not even Boy in the Bubble!) and so you will have to make do with this track from the earlier Swagger.

Band/artist of the week: Lanterns on the Lake
Song of the week: Suede – Animal Nitrate

2011 music by numbers

2012-01-13T23:11:00.000+11:00

According to last year's post my last.fm play count was sitting at 92,378 on the thirteenth day of January 2011. As of today I am up to 137,233 or 44,855 songs played in the last year. Or approximately 863 songs a week or 123 a day. Sounds like quite a lot to me, but given that I tend to have music going all the time at work that I don't have to be in a meeting or on the phone (and often it is on if the meeting isn't in my office) it could be feasible.

Anyway, probably of no interest to anyone but myself, here are the lists for the top 50 artists and songs for 2011.

Artists/bands
1 Mogwai (1,386)

2 The National (1,207)

3 Bruce Springsteen (1,033)

4 British Sea Power (834)

5 Malcolm Middleton (829)

6 R.E.M. (699)

7 Frightened Rabbit (551)

8 Idlewild (541)

9 Sigur Rós (533)

10 Saint Etienne (520)

11 Radiohead (517)

12 Tindersticks (501)

13 All India Radio (453)

14 Glasvegas (438)

15 M83 (428)

16 Big Country (396)

17 The Rural Alberta Advantage (390)

18 U2 (377)

19 Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (361)

20 Burial (356)

21 Manic Street Preachers (325)

22 Holly Throsby (324)

23 Low (306)

24 Lucinda Williams (304)

25 Arcade Fire (300)

26 Placebo (290)

27 Suede (280)

27 Dead Letter Chorus (280)

29 Belle and Sebastian (276)

30 Trembling Blue Stars (265)

31 Art of Fighting (264)

32 David Bowie (263)

33 Tanya Donelly (253)

34 Moby (252)

35 For a Minor Reflection (246)

36 Zomby (244)

37 Runrig (237)

38 Portishead (224)

38 Marillion (224)

40 Gorillaz (223)

41 Dot Allison (221)

41 The Blue Aeroplanes (221)

43 Camera Obscura (214)

44 The Cure (211)

45 ABBA (206)

45 Girls (206)

47 Billy Bragg (197)

48 The Very Best (194)

49 The Breeders (192)

50 Gersey (191)

Tracks

1 Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party (113)

2 Frightened Rabbit – Heads Roll Off (108)

3 Big Country – Chance (106)

4 Mogwai – How to Be a Werewolf (103)

5 The National – Terrible Love (97)

6 Mogwai – Death Rays (88)

7 Mogwai – Rano Pano (81)

8 The House Of Love – I Don't Know Why I Love You (76)

9 The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp (74)

10 On Volcano – Acceleration of Heartbeat (72)

11 Robyn – Be Mine (Ballad Version) (68)

11 British Sea Power – We Are Sound (68)

13 All India Radio – Rippled (66)

14 Bent – So Long Without You (63)

15 Mogwai – Mexican Grand Prix (62)

16 Dot Allison – Message Personnel (56)

17 Phosphorescent – I Don't Care If There's Cursing (54)

18 Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off (52)

18 The Airborne Toxic Event – This Is Nowhere (52)

18 Forest City Lovers – Light You Up (52)

18 British Sea Power – Living Is So Easy (52)

18 Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House (52)

23 Malcolm Middleton – Choir (51)

23 Frightened Rabbit – Fast Blood (51)

25 Holly Throsby – What I Thought Of You (49)

26 Röyksopp – Someone Like Me (48)

27 Mogwai – White Noise (46)

27 Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx – I’ll Take Care Of U (46)

29 The Concretes – Lovin' Kind (45)

29 Fulton Lights – Healing Waters (45)

29 Wye Oak – Civilian (45)

29 British Sea Power – Who's In Control? (45)

33 Mogwai – 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong (44)

33 Mogwai – Letters to the Metro (44)

35 Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat (42)

35 Glasvegas – Euphoria, Take My Hand (42)

35 Lowtide – Underneath Tonight (42)

38 Mogwai – Cody (41)

38 Malcolm Middleton – Love Comes in Waves (41)

40 MGMT – Time To Pretend (40)

40 British Sea Power – Cleaning Out The Rooms (40)

40 For a Minor Reflection – Recite (40)

43 Burial – Distant Lights (39)

43 Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here (39)

43 Cat's Eyes – Not A Friend (39)

46 Beth Orton – Stolen Car (38)

47 Maxïmo Park – Limassol (37)

47 Mogwai – San Pedro (37)

49 Suede – Animal Nitrate (36)

49 Ash – Uncle Pat (36)

Song for Sunday

2012-01-08T09:46:00.000+11:00

Lana Del Rey – Video Games

No band or song of the week because we are hopefully still away camping in the middle of nowhere and completely off-grid, as they say ...

Normal service will be resumed next week.

Who's in Control (2011 in mixtape form)

2012-01-01T21:40:00.000+11:00

As is now traditional, here is the track listing for this year's festive mix-tape:

Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House
khancoban – Until It Takes You Over
Califone – Funeral Singers
Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here
Trembling Blue Stars – Kidney Bingos
All India Radio – Rippled
Radiohead – Codex
M83 – Wait
Mogwai – How to Be a Werewolf
Holly Throsby – What I Thought of You
The Audreys – Don't Change
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lannegan – Trouble
R.E.M. – Oh My Heart
Wild Beasts – Loop the Loop
Glasvegas – The World Is Yours
British Sea Power – Who's In Control
For a Minor Reflection – Recite

Hopefully all copies have arrived at their destinations (apart from one which still needs an up-to-date address) and is being enjoyed worldwide at this very moment. The tracks seemed to sort themselves out pretty quickly, but the sequencing was a bit more troublesome this year and I am still not totally happy with the flow. A few tracks almost made it, but didn't quite fit the overall feel and so got ditched on the way like bizness by the tUnE-yArDs, one of the Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingi tracks, a Bill Wells and Aiden Moffat tune and something off the Zomby album.

The sharp eyed will notice a couple of 2010 tracks and even one each from 2009 and 2008. They were all new to me this year and although they wouldn't normally get included I loved them too much to leave them off.

Looking forward to hearing your favourites and least-liked, and of course let me know if you didn't get a copy and would like one.

Song for Sunday

2012-01-01T21:02:00.000+11:00

Thurston Moore – Benediction

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: How to be a Werewolf – Mogwai

Song for Sunday

2011-12-25T23:02:00.001+11:00

Mercury Rev – Holes

Band/artist of the week: M83
Song of the week: All India Radio – Rippled

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-25T14:55:00.000+11:00

1 Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

In the past, when people have asked me who my favourite band is they would get a long and quite possibly boring disquisition covering a number of candidates for this honour, but also the difficulties of making a definitive judgement due to variations dependant on mood, selection criteria and associated weighting and how much I am trying to impress the person who asked the question.

But from now on I am just going to say Mogwai.

I can still clearly remember my first encounter with their singular genius in the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. They had Ten Rapid on a listening post on the first floor and something about the striking cover design featuring a small square photo of a freeway bridge with railway lines underneath and a large white m drew me to pick up the headphones. About twenty minutes later my then girlfriend eventually found me and insisted that it was time to leave. Unfortunately there was still another thirteen minutes of the album to go, so she ended up leaving on her own. I am not saying this was the main reason, but the relationship ended quite soon after.

Luckily Mogwai have been a lot more understanding and our relationship is still going strong fourteen years later.

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is their seventh album proper (not counting live albums, EPs and compilations) and it is, it has to be said, a triumph. For a band that deliberately limits their sonic palette they still manage to make the most bold and adventurous music.

From the opening delicate arpeggiated guitar of White Noise to the dying chords of You're Lionel Ritchie every single track is a glorious demonstration of their vision and power as a band. White Noise builds from the delicate beginnings to a swirling crescendo, underpinned by some lovely piano and Martin Bulloch's solid drumming.

Mexican Grand Prix is as close to pop as they are going to get with its hazy vocals, shimmering organ riffs and pumping beat. Back to more familiar Mogwai territory for Rano Pano and its monster distorted guitars and driving percussion.

The delicate and beautiful Letters to the Metro opens out onto the joyous and bouncy George Square Thatcher Death Party. The vocals make a reappearance here and although you can't comprehend the lyrics the sentiments are clear from the title. In my alternative world this would be the Christmas number one this year.

How to be a Werewolf takes a while to get going, but when the drums kick in and the warm tender bass line comes to the front of the mix it irresistibly draws you in and, although joined by a bit of searing guitar and crashing cymbals they remain constant under it all, to be revealed again as the rest of the instrumentation fades away at the end.

The final track, You're Lionel Ritchie, references the classic Mogwai template with almost silent quiet passages interspersed by some of the heaviest and lumbering guitar lines, before dying away in a cloud of distorted chords.

Valhalla Dancehall gave this a good run for their money, but for the sheer exuberance and enjoyment the band have for their music, the way they manage to keep refining and honing their sound to push their boundaries and for their singular vision it had to be Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.

Best albums of 2011: competition!

2011-12-24T22:17:00.002+11:00

Numbers ten to two have been unveiled, almost time to reveal what my favourite album of 2011 is, but first it is time for everyone to take a guess what it might be. Anyone that gets it right will be rewarded with a copy of said album, or if (as is highly likely) you happen to already own a copy, any other album of your choice on the list.

And I know you are all waiting to hear what number one is before weighing in with your own personal top tens, but I still want to know what is on everyone else's lists.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-24T22:04:00.000+11:00

2 British Sea Power – Valhalla Dancehall

Over the last five or six years British Sea Power have gradually become one of my favourite bands. I had heard a bit about them earlier than that, but 2005's Open Season was their first album I bought, beguiled by song titles like North Hanging Rock, Victorian Ice and Oh Larsen B combined with a fiercely intelligent indie rock backing.

Third album Do You Like Rock Music? continued the trajectory with songs about The Great Skua, Canvey Island and eastern European immigration. The music was still loaded with tuneful, catchy indie rock, reproducing all the best bits of their legendary live shows in the studio, but with a bit more light and shade than on Open Season.

In Valhalla Dancehall they tackle the current state of British politics and society. Released in February the first song Who's in Control sounds eerily prescient about the summer riots, decimation of public services and occupy movement:

Were you not told?
Did you not know?
Everything around you's being sold
Do you not care?
Were you not there?
Everybody else was going spare
What's yours and mine?
Does this escape you all the time?
Sometimes I wish protesting was sexy on a Saturday night

It is also a superbly exhilarating bit of crunching, jump around rock music with a nod to 70s punk like the Clash. Second song, We are Sound, ups the energy even further before winding it back a little on the slow building Georgie Ray. Another furious charge through Stunde Null and Mongk II, before another respite on the sparkling Luna and soothing Baby. Living is so Easy's scathing commentary on rampant consumerism and its corresponding apathy brings us back to the state of British society.

A couple of more abstract songs, one angry burst of sub-two minute punk and we hit the twelve minute epic Once More Now which builds gently for about seven minutes, before collapsing under its own weight and then gently dissipates over the remaining four minutes. Album closer Heavy Water has an elegiac, melancholy feel, but is oddly uplifting with its worries about being on the wrong side. Valhalla Dancehall certainly proves that they should have no worries on that count.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-24T12:03:00.000+11:00

3 M83 – Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

A huge great sprawling double album with everything and the kitchen sink thrown in, made by one man. There are saxophones and slapped basses, walls of synths and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a key-tar in there somewhere. All things I normally hate and the opposite of most of the albums I have loved this year. And he is French. (I am not one to disparage a whole nation, but it is a truism – the French and pop music don't mix. How many great French rock stars or albums can you name?)

However, this is amazing: 22 tracks and not one dud. Quite an achievement. It is so improbable that I keep disbelieving it myself, but every time I put it on I am totally transfixed. I suspect it is a good old-fashioned concept album, only I have no idea what the concept is. The music moves from thumping, big synth-dominated dancefloor fillers to delicate acoustic lullabies and stories about frogs.

The first and last tracks are labelled intro and outro and that seems exactly right. You enter this extraordinary different world, travelling through this incredible imagination, before gently returning to reality. I find it almost impossible to explain why it is so good, so I will just recommend that you get a copy and lose yourself in this alternative world for an hour and a quarter.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-23T00:07:00.000+11:00

4 Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here/Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx – We're New Here

I know, I know I'm New Here was actually released in 2010, but I didn't find it until well into this year. And I can justify including it here by pairing it with his collaboration with Jamie xx We're New Here which was released this year and offers a brilliant counterpoint to the original. I still prefer the original version, but the updated record offers some fascinating different angles on these songs.

I want to make this a special tribute
to a family that contradicts the concepts
heard the rules, but wouldn't accept
and womenfolk raised me and I was full grown
before I knew I came from a broken home

Bookended by On Coming From a Broken Home parts 1 and 2 these two tracks sketch out a wonderfully vivid picture of Scott-Heron's upbringing and the early influences that shaped his life. Part 1 lays out the facts and from there we move straight into the next phase of his life with the ominous Me and the Devil. With a minimal backing of clanking percussion, handclaps and a supremely unsettling, needling synth he takes you right into the head of that young man struggling with and not making the best decisions.

The soothing acoustic guitar of I'm New Here provides a welcome change of perspective and has one of the best lyrics I have heard for a long time, including the wonderful line:

I'm the closest thing I have to a voice of reason

Your Soul and Mine steps back into the darkness again, but like a story that you would tell a child to keep them out of mischief, and there is a sense here that there may be a way out, some way to resist. This is reinforced with the short spoken word interlude about descendants and into the next track I'll Take Care of You. Beginning on a pure string note, backed up with chiming piano chords and its lovely protective promise to look after the unnamed lover or child.

The demons return on Where Did the Night Go and New York is Killing Me, which sound like the descendants of those old Delta Blues songs, with their simple sparse backings and tales of sleepless nights and yearning for the Deep South.

Running sounds like a funeral procession and at this point the hard-won wisdom has been gained, but also knowing that time is running out. Nowhere left to run, running out of time, no point in running for cover. Turning even deeper into the dark The Crutch builds from a lone heartbeat into a swirling, desperate final reckoning.

And then we are back, full circle to his mother and part 2 of On Coming from a Broken Home. Only, as he says:

I came from what they called a broken home
But if they ever really called at our house
they would have known how wrong they were
We were working on our lives and our homes
Dealing with what we had
Not what we didn't have
My life has been guided by women
But because of them I am a man

And you understand that he has made sense of a chaotic and eventful life, gaining true wisdom, resolving and reconciling his past and heritage.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-21T22:39:00.000+11:00

5 Dead Letter Chorus – Yearlings

This was released back in August in the depths of the Australian winter, not that the depths are really that deep (even down at 37°47' S), which is strange because it is one of the sunniest, happiest albums I have heard in a while.

Opening with a delicate acoustic guitar and intertwined male and female vocals Covered by Snow quickly builds into a pounding joyous plea to a potential lover, fading back to almost nothing before winding it all up again. It's the well worn Nirvana quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic, but channeled through this wonderful backing it sounds fresh all over again. Both vocalists – Cameron Potts and Gabrielle Huber – are equally strong and I love the contrast their different voices bring to these songs, sometimes working together other times taking turns.

In Yellow House they share the vocal equally and it is stunning the way various words and phrases bring out one or the other. The acoustic guitars are high in the mix and there is beautifully straightforward electric guitar run in the background that burrows deep into your conscience and has you humming along for hours. Either that or pressing the back button to play it again. Three minutes thirteen seconds of perfection.

There are ups and downs in this set of songs, it would be a bit too sacharine if there wasn't, but their blend of delicate, catchy indie-pop is overwhelmingly upbeat and affirming. There are tinges of folk around the edges and this gives the songs a slightly out of time feel – they don't feel entirely rooted in this second decade of the twenty first century. Not escapist or a retreat from the world of 2011, but a welcome respite from some of its more draining complications.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-20T21:59:00.000+11:00

6 Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – Rrakala

I wrote about Gurrumul's first album back in 2009 when it was on my best of list for that year. That album was breathtaking in its simplicity and beauty. One man, his guitar and the most incredible voice. Songs sung in traditional languages of Arnhem Land, no translation necessary, with the barest of accompaniments.

This is his second album and it follows a similar template to the first. The voice is the same, but the sound is fleshed out a bit with some stately piano lines, brushed drums and understated electric guitar picking. Building slowly on the opening four songs to the catchy and surprisingly up-tempo Ya Yawirriny the album then moves into a more reflective and melancholic phase for the rest of the songs. Although the melodies are just as lovely, they are less stirring and more contemplative. The structures of the songs seem less traditional, building in blocks with repeating phrases and melodies cycling and reappearing later. The eight and a half minute Warwu being the best example of this and, for me, the centrepoint of the album.

As the esteemed Robert Foster notes every addition and overdub that Gurrumul and his producer, Michael Hohnen, resisted only makes the songs sound bigger and increases their power. Hohnen also plays the stand-up bass, almost inaudibly on some tracks, on the album and legend has it that he spent ten years persuading Gurrumul to record that first solo record. If this is true, and presumably he also helped get this one released only two years later, then I am immensely grateful to him. Almost as much as I am to Gurrumul for allowing these songs into my life.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-19T21:44:00.000+11:00

7 All India Radio – The Silent Surf

It seems appropriate that the cover artwork for The Silent Surf features a huge moon hanging above a tropical looking sea, as this is undoubtably late at night music. Whereas Burial is to me the sound of after midnight in London, All India Radio are late into the night on warm Melbourne summer streets, just enough breeze to make having the windows open worth it, the sound of distant sirens and occasional boy-racers.

Their music is languid and rolling, with gentle percussion, warm enveloping guitars and occasional fragments of vocal rolling in from next door's radio. On first listen it sounds simple and delicate, but concentrating a bit harder you notice how much depth there is, how many layers need to be accumulated to create such a beautiful balance between all the different elements. As Dean Wareham once said about Galaxie 500's music, it isn't the notes you play it's the space between them.

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-18T22:40:00.000+11:00

8 Glasvegas – Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\

Since the beginning of time, or at least the music industry, second albums have always been a problem.

First albums sometimes sound completely new and original, crammed with ideas and stories from before the band became stars and set-up sky-high expectations for the next record. A lot of this is down to critics and fans always on the look out for the next big thing, but it also helps that the bands tend to not really know anything about the music industry and just do their own thing without too much record company interference.

The first self-titled Glasvegas album fits this model perfectly. It was a perfect combination of working class Glaswegian stories about absent fathers, social workers and stabbings delivered with soaring vocals and thumping wall of sound that sounded like The Jesus and Mary Chain produced by Phil Spector. I loved it and my favourite song, Polmont on My Mind, made my best of compilation for 2008. Glasvegas made all the best of lists for the year, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and even seemed to sell pretty well. (Later I discovered a download of the demo tapes for the album and amazingly most of them are even better than the final re-recorded versions that made the album. Do a search for 'Glasvegas artist promo' if you don't believe me.)

Following a first album like that is always going to be trouble and what normally happens is that bands in this position start writing songs about how difficult it is to be in a successful band, take too many drugs and start taking the record company's advice seriously. Glasvegas certainly looked like they were following this script with the band decamping to Santa Monica, lead singer James Allen disappearing for five days when he was supposed to appear at the Mercury Music Prize awards, their drummer leaving before writing had even started and super-producer Flood drafted in to oversee the recording.

Given the background it's not surprising that Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\ can't really be described as an un-qualified success. The songs are more vague and ambiguous, less specific and consequently less powerful. The music also ups the bombast and further polishes off the rough edges, losing a bit of the variety and charm in the process. Luckily though they prove the old maxim that you can take the boy out of Glasgow, but you can't take the Glasgow out of the boy. The stories here are more personal and shift the focus more firmly onto James, but they are completely lacking in self-indulgence and the usual rock-star concerns. As the title suggests many there is a lot of pain and heartache here, relationship troubles and shame about sexuality in a young life without many options.

The album starts with Bladerunner-esque synth lines and a voice intoning the title Pain Pain Never Again in French before James' voice arrives with the English version, building slowly into a menacing deluge before kicking straight into the anthemic The World is Yours. There are plenty more big anthems and even a power ballad – Whatever Hurts You Through the Night – that could stand in for Take My Breath Away in the proposed Top Gun sequel. Penultimate track Lot's Sometimes is the cathartic big finale, but subverted by placing the low-key Change as the album's last track. The one track that probably wouldn't sound out of place on the first album, this is an emotive pledge to turn his life around from a young man being released from prison to his mum. James' mum contributes a spoken reply which ends with her advising that 'before you change for me, change for you'.

Song for Sunday

2011-12-18T09:26:00.003+11:00

Destroyer – Savage Night at the Opera

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: British Sea Power – Remember Me

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-17T22:48:00.000+11:00

9 Holly Throsby – Team

It seems that there is only room for one female singer-songwriter in my affections at any one time. Last year it was Laura Marling, but even though she released another excellent album this year my affections have been stolen by Holly Throsby.

Not to be confused with that other antipodean songstress called Holly, this Holly specialises slightly off-beam songs about relationships and their associated trials. The lyrics are always interesting and her backing is generally exquisite: simple guitar and piano lines filled out with delicate touches of strings, cello, double bass, drums and vocals that are looped and layered.

In the album opener What I Thought of You she is looking back on a relationship and wondering how different things look in hindsight. A couple of kids piano chords start things off, with a quick scratch of cello before the guitar riff starts, setting the scene perfectly for the this bittersweet recollection.

The absolutely gorgeous strings and a slightly breathy vocal delivery on It's Only Need cover up a desperately sad brush-off to an unwanted partner, while Here is My Co-pilot is more up-tempo and seems to be recounted from a more positive perspective. The vocal layering looping around the background is particularly effective here and builds to a lovely gentle crescendo.

The remainder of the album is more low-key compared to the superlative start and the later tracks dip in intensity a bit, but still offer up plenty of charms if you are paying attention. Also highly recommended is the singer-songwriter supergroup album – Seeker Lover Keeper – which Throsby recorded with Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann.

Oh, and we've got a washing line exactly like that in our back garden ...

Best albums of 2011

2011-12-16T09:41:00.003+11:00

10 Wild Beasts – Smother

This record snuck up on me and I am still not completely sure what it is that I like so much. It's also one of those albums that I find it hard to recall what individual songs are called and which tracks are the ones I really like. Not that the songs sound the same, but more that there is a definite feel to the whole album which pulls you in and seems to induce a lack of caring about such trivia.

Initially I found the vocals just a bit too mannered, but was won over by the combination of disconcerting and outlandish lyrics with the wonderfully lush, laid back musical backing.

Our love, Frankenstein in nature and design, like the Shelleys on their very first time, when our bodies become electrified, together we bring this creature alive ...

The music reminds me a bit of The Blue Nile at their luxuriant and velvety best, but without the chilly digital constructions. Wild Beasts are more louche dive bar than shiny, spotless cocktail bar. Happily, they also look like a fantastic live band and do a great job of recreating the sound and feel of the album. (Have a look at their performance from the Other Voices festival if you need any convincing. Before watching, however, I feel I have to warn you to view with caution if you are of a nervous fashion disposition. Oxblood leather jacket with polo neck, that's all I am going to say ...)

Best albums of 2011: the near misses

2011-12-15T23:00:00.000+11:00

Only ten days to Christmas and I still haven't started on the best of lists. If I've calculated correctly we can still fit the top ten album rundown in before falling asleep after Christmas lunch, but I'd better get organised ...

Just to heighten the anticipation here are three favourites that just missed out on the final ten. Looking forward to hearing all your lists and, as last year, there will be prizes for anyone that can guess the number one. No clues, but it is probably a lot easier to guess than last year's choice.

Trembling Blue Stars – Correspondence EP
It is only called an EP, but at over thirty minutes it would have been an LP in olden days. The Trembling Blue Stars were another band that I thought had probably split up ages ago and now, apparently, after this record they have. First track, The Light Outside, starts with about six minutes of swirling static and interference which almost coalesces into the sort of love-lorn, minor key track that is their stock-in-trade before dissolving into the background mist again. It is an oddly wonderful effect and every time I hear it is like overhearing a beautiful gem of an unknown song on someone else's radio that leaves you with the knowledge that you've heard something magical, but without being able to say what it was or anything about why it was so special. The rest of the songs are more traditional Trembling Blue Stars, but all demonstrate why Bobby Wratten is one of the most brilliant British song writers of the last twenty years and I still can't fathom why he is so cruelly overlooked. There is also a fantastic cover version of Wire's Kidney Bingos which on its own is worth the price of the whole album; all shimmering guitars and stunning male/female harmonies.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong
A big old blast of early 90s shoegazey indie-rock repurposed for 2011? Not everyone's cup of tea admittedly, but for someone who still listens to those old Ride records regularly this will do nicely. As far as I can tell these guys weren't even in primary school in 1990, but they have obviously been paying attention and this is a near perfect slice of noise-pop. Bet it goes down a storm at all the indie discos, if such things still exist.

R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
They could easily have been in the top 10 (and not just because I am feeling all sentimental about them splitting up), but they had to spoil it by including a couple of howlers like Mine Smell Like Honey and Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter. There are about five tracks on this album that remind you of the days when they were not only the most interesting band in the world, but also one of the most successful. Überlin and Oh My Heart are probably the two best songs they have recorded since Automatic for the People so I shouldn't complain too much, but if they had released a record with ten tracks as good, then they really could have retired as the best band in the world.

Song for Sunday

2011-12-11T22:41:00.001+11:00

Saint Etienne – Heart Failed in the Back of a Taxi

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here

Ghost libraries

2011-12-09T10:25:00.001+11:00

Lovely short piece about ebooks in the November 3 London Review of Books (I am only currently one issue behind in my reading, which for me is pretty good going, but anyway you don't read the LRB for its topicality ...) by James Meek. It is only short and you can read it in full on their website, but some choice quotes below.

Once there were private libraries; then there were public libraries; now there is the ghost library, where poltergeistic fellow readers may not only be reading the same book as you at any moment but actually underlining the page of the book you are reading seconds before you get to it. They may be next door; they may be in Kamchatka; they may be anywhere, so long as they have Kindle and wifi.

The lightness of the ebook medium, literally and figuratively, holds a terrible allure and an insidious threat to the heavily booked-up among us. How many marriages, seemingly held firm by the impossibility of moving several hundredweight of vinyl or CDs out of a family-sized home, have already foundered post the digitisation of music? How many more will break if apparently inseparable and immovable matrimonial libraries become something that anyone can walk out with in their pocket?

The last paragraph is particularly lovely, but I will let you read that for yourselves.

Song for Sunday

2011-12-04T22:59:00.001+11:00

Lanterns on the Lake – Keep on Trying

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: The National – Terrible Love

Song for Sunday

2011-11-27T22:43:00.001+11:00

The Audreys – Don't Change a Thing

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: The House of Love – I Don't Know Why I Love You

Song for Sunday

2011-11-20T22:59:00.001+11:00

My Bloody Valentine – Sometimes

It is twenty years this month since Loveless was released and I would still say it is probably my favourite album ever. Certainly one of my essential Desert Island Discs. Twenty years ago I was living in Durham and although I don't think I actually got a copy until sometime in 1992 (probably prompted by the review in Select magazine) I do remember being told to switch it off many times by friends and neighbours not convinced of its genius. The stories about the album are legendary (how it almost bankrupted Alan McGee's Creation Records and if it hadn't been for Oasis it probably would have gone under) and the band never made another album despite signing for Island Records for a large sum of money.

The only time I got to see them play live was the legendary Rollercoaster tour a few months later with Dinosaur Jr, Blur and The Jesus and Mary Chain at the Glasgow SECC. Blur were just about to take off and most of the cool kids were there for them. The Jesus and Mary Chain were slightly over the hill and the less said about Dinosaur Jr the better. I am sure that not everyone would agree, but basically My Bloody Valentine ripped them all to shreds. They were second or third on the bill and it was like standing behind one of Concorde's engines when the pilot opens up the afterburners. To this day it the loudest concert (loudest anything!) I have been to and it was a thrilling, petrifying, bowel churning, glorious forty-five minutes (twenty of which they spent playing the same chord). Most people thought it was the ideal time to risk the SECC's bar, I thought it was awesome.

The anniversary seems to have gone by pretty much unnoticed, apart from a nice article by Scott McDonald here. But that's okay, give it another twenty years and I am sure everyone else will finally be convinced of its greatness.

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Portishead – It's a Fire

Song for Sunday

2011-11-13T21:55:00.001+11:00

M83 - Midnight City

Band/artist of the week: M83
Song of the week: Bruce Springsteen – You're Missing

Song for Sunday

2011-11-06T22:01:00.001+11:00

Little Birdy – Stay Wild

Band/artist of the week: Holly Throsby
Song of the week: Low – Anon

Song for Sunday

2011-10-30T23:45:00.001+11:00

Califone – Funeral Singers

Band/artist of the week: Dead Letter Chorus
Song of the week: MGMT – Time to Pretend

Song for Sunday

2011-10-23T22:29:00.002+11:00

The Grates – Sweet Dreams

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: For a Minor Reflection – Impulse

Song for Sunday

2011-10-16T12:56:00.002+11:00

Laura Marling – Sophia

Band/artist of the week: Dead Letter Chorus
Song of the week: Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House

Song for Sunday

2011-10-09T20:02:00.001+11:00

Dead Letter Chorus – Yellow House

Bank from our early spring holiday in the sun to a chilly and dreary Melbourne (I have a cold already!), so in need of a bright blast of summery, poppy, catchy escapism. Dead Letter Chorus don't disappoint and I would be surprised if you aren't humming the nonsense chorus for the next week. It certainly worked in our house today – the rest of the family came back from the Lion King all singing Hakuna Matata in unison. A couple of plays of this soon knocked that on the head ...

Band/artist of the week: Malcolm Middleton
Song of the week: Malcolm Middleton – Total Belief

Song for Sunday

2011-10-02T15:17:00.000+11:00

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Bats in the Attic

Song for Sunday

2011-09-25T15:44:00.000+10:00

R.E.M. – World Leader Pretend (live on the Green Tour 1989)

So, farewell R.E.M., one of the greatest independent rock bands of all time splitting up after 30 years. To be honest my overriding feelings were nostalgia for a time around when this was recorded rather than grief that there wouldn't ever be anymore new music from them. My interest levels have waned since Bill Berry left the band in 1997 and, although I have always been interested to hear what the latest record sounds like, there hasn't been anything that matches up what they produced in late 80s and early 90s. Ironically their last album Collapse into Now was probably the best thing they had done for a decade, with a few songs that would probably sneak into an all time top 30. The time I saw them at the Glasgow Barrowlands on the Green World Tour is still probably the best concert I have ever been to and that will always be how I'll remember them. Anyway, enjoy the retirement guys and thanks.

Band/artist of the week: Mogwaiwww.mogwai.co.uk
Song of the week: New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

Song for Sunday

2011-09-18T21:34:00.000+10:00

Sigur Rós – Festival (Live)

It has been a while since we had any Sigur Rós on the blog. New live album is on the way and this reminds me that I should get their Heima DVD out of the cupboard again for another viewing.

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai

Song of the week: Mogwai – Mexican Grand Prix

Song for Sunday

2011-09-11T22:48:00.001+10:00

Buffalo Tom – Wiser

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Trembling Blur Stars – Kidney Bingos

Song for Sunday

2011-09-04T22:55:00.000+10:00

Ernest Ellis and the Panamas – Great Sky

Band/artist of the week: Zomby
Song of the week: Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party

Song for Sunday

2011-08-28T22:26:00.000+10:00

Gemma Hayes – Back of My Hand

Band/artist of the week: Zomby
Song of the week: Zomby – Vanquish

Song for Sunday

2011-08-21T23:52:00.000+10:00

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Ffunny Ffrends

Band/artist of the week: Glasvegas
Song of the week: Glasvegas – Daddy's Gone (live)

Song for Sunday

2011-08-14T22:36:00.000+10:00

Glasvegas – Shine Like Stars

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Bent – So Long Without You

Song for Sunday

2011-08-07T23:19:00.000+10:00

Jordie Lane – Not From Round Here

Band/artist of the week: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Song of the week: The Streets – Empty Cans

Cadel's suitcase of courage*

2011-08-01T22:32:00.003+10:00

Well I was wrong about Contador and wrong about the Schlecks, but at least I was pretty close with Cadel. It was probably the most exciting Tour that I can recall – wide-open and tremendously exciting right from the first stage.

Cadel winning was more of a relief than anything else. I did wonder if he would always be one of those riders remembered for the almosts, what-ifs and second placings rather than the big win he deserved. It seems a bit unfair to say that about someone who has won the World Championships and perhaps that day in Mendrisio did mark the turning point in his career. After that he certainly seemed less awkward and more confident about his own talents, happier and willing to take risks.

The win hasn't been as big a deal in Australia as I thought it would be. Obviously it will make a big difference to Australian cycling, but in this sport obsessed society it is unlikely to change much in our sporting landscape. Personally I'm quite happy about that. I don't want the big commercial channels muscling in on the coverage and cocking it all up like they do with the Olympics. Everyone who has watched the Tour over at least a few years knows what a huge achievement it is and how hard it is to win the greatest annual sporting event in the world.

My green jersey predictions weren't too bad. I got the winner and no-one could deny that Thor had a great Tour. I would be surprised if Rojas figured in anyone's predictions for the sprinter's prize but he put up a great fight even though he couldn't compete with Cavendish's all out speed.

My top two maillot à pois predictions failed to fire and I was happy to see Sanchez take the top spot. He is a great climber and worthy winner of this jersey. Finally, hats off, as they say, to 'little' Thomas Voeckler and his superb tenure in the yellow jersey. Unfortunately I think that's the last time the big teams will ever let him get in a breakaway, however, with a bit more investment in the team and bit of good luck he could well be a genuine contender for the yellow jersey in Paris next year. After Cadel, of course.

*Thanks to Paul Sherwin for this bon mot from the Alpe d'Huez stage

Song for Sunday

2011-07-31T22:22:00.000+10:00

Morning After Youth – Lived

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Ash – Uncle Pat

Song for Sunday

2011-07-24T21:40:00.001+10:00

Fulton Lights – Staring Out the Window

Band/artist of the week: R.E.M.
Song of the week: Lucinda Williams – Still I Long for Your Kiss

Song for Sunday

2011-07-17T22:28:00.000+10:00

R.E.M. – ÜBerlin

Band/artist of the week: Lucinda Williams
Song of the week: Lucinda Williams – Still I Long for Your Kiss

Song for Sunday

2011-07-10T20:21:00.001+10:00

Little Scout – We Are Walking Out

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Mogwai – Death Rays

Song for Sunday

2011-07-03T22:56:00.000+10:00

The Swell Season – Drive All Night

Band/artist of the week: Malcolm Middleton
Song of the week: All India Radio – Rippled

Tour de France 2011

2011-07-01T22:56:00.000+10:00

Another second place for Cadel? I think so, but whether that will still be the case on August 3 that's another question. Contador is certainly the favourite – no-one could touch him in the Giro and you cannot imagine anyone putting much time into him in the mountains or in the time trials. It will be interesting to see how much a very hard Giro did take out of him and whether he is completely recovered, but his winning margin was so great that even with the superior field at the Tour there doesn't look like anyone who could realistically knock him off the top spot.

Cadel looks much improved this year and I think he can really challenge Contador. His team is much stronger and winning the World Championships seems to have given him a much needed psychological boost. It will be interesting to see if he can attack in the mountains, but with good team and individual time trials it may not matter.

It would be great to see Wiggins and Sky get on the podium. They have a really strong team and I think will surprise a lot of people this year. I am worried that Bradley may have peaked slightly too early and think that he will lose a bit of time in the third week, but hopefully that should still be enough to hold onto third place.

Gesink and Roche are both a bit of a long shot, but I think that they are both riding well and ready to step-up to highest levels. I am so impressed with Roche that he even made the cut in my Tour de France fantasy team.

But there is one big name that we haven't mentioned yet: what about Andy Schleck? His form seems to be off this year and unless he has been doing some serious bluffing I don't think he will be one of the contenders this year. It is possible that he may ride himself into form over the three weeks, but I would bet that his brother Fränk finishes higher than him this year.

This will be the year that everything goes to plan for Mark Cavendish and I am looking forward to seeing him take the green jersey in Paris for the first time.

And my favourite jersey – the maillot à pois – will again be the consolation prize for a plucky unheralded Frenchman. This year I think it will be Jean Gadret's turn, followed closely by last year's winner Anthony Chartreau.

Yellow

1 Alberto Contador
2 Cadel Evans
3 Bradley Wiggins
4 Robert Gesink
5 Nicolas Roche

Green
1 Mark Cavendish
2 Thor Hushovd
3 Tom Boonen

Mountains
1 Jean Gadret
2 Anthony Charteau
3 Samuel Sanchez

Song for Sunday

2011-06-26T22:53:00.000+10:00

House of Love – Shine On

Band/artist of the week: Malcolm Middleton
Song of the week: The National – Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks

Song for Sunday

2011-06-19T22:24:00.000+10:00

And now the Big Man. Very saddened to hear that Clarence Clemons died yesterday. Always the perfect foil to Bruce on stage, those songs will never sound the same again.

Band/artist of the week: All India Radio
Song of the week: All India Radio – Rippled

Song for Sunday

2011-06-12T22:32:00.000+10:00

Streamer Bendy – Away from home

Band/artist of the week: All India Radio
Song of the week: Malcolm Middleton – Choir

Song for Sunday

2011-06-05T19:13:00.000+10:00

Bill Wells and Aiden Moffat – The Copper Top

Band/artist of the week: All India Radio
Song of the week: All India Radio – Rippled

Song for Sunday

2011-05-29T21:16:00.001+10:00

Gil Scott-Heron – I'm New Here

I came to Gil Scott-Heron pretty late. I had heard plenty of his earlier work, but never paid enough attention for it to really sink in. It was only with last year's I'm New Here album that I realised what I had been missing. That album and his recent collaboration with Jamie xx were met with a welcome resurgence in interest and seemed to suggest an exciting and productive new chapter in his 'colourful' life ...

Unfortunately it wasn't to be and as news of his death filtered through yesterday my sadness was tempered by a selfish joy at finding out lots more than I already knew about his life and work, and hearing all the heart-felt tributes and stories from other artists and fans. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai

Song of the week: All India Radio – Rippled

Song for Sunday

2011-05-22T16:53:00.000+10:00

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Into My Arms

For some reason this song has been in my head lots this week. Maybe because it makes a good lullaby, provided you don't listen to the lyrics too much ...

Band/artist of the week: Bruce Springsteen
Song of the week: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Into My Arms

Song for Sunday

2011-05-16T22:17:00.000+10:00

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – Wiyathul

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: R.E.M. – I Remember California

Song for Sunday

2011-05-10T20:43:00.001+10:00

All India Radio – Rippled

Apologies for the late posting. I forgot on Sunday and by last night Blogger was broken. Anyway, this is well worth the wait. Enjoy!

Band/artist of the week: Bruce Springsteen
Song of the week: Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark

Song for Sunday

2011-05-01T21:04:00.000+10:00

AC Acoustics – Stunt Girl

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: tUnE-yArDs – Bizness

Song for Sunday

2011-04-24T21:00:00.000+10:00

Amaya Laucirica – Sleeping in Your Shadow

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Lowtide – Underneath Tonight

Song for Sunday

2011-04-17T17:23:00.000+10:00

Holly Throsby – What I Thought of You

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Amadou & Mariam – M'bifé

Song for Sunday

2011-04-10T21:12:00.000+10:00

Art of Fighting – Free You

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Ash – Uncle Pat

Song for Sunday

2011-04-03T22:01:00.001+10:00

Mogwai – How to Be a Werewolf (in Thirty Century Man)

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party

Spot the theme anyone?

Romanno Bridge

2011-04-03T21:57:00.000+10:00

Sometimes I am up for a bit of heavy-duty non-fiction, experimental novels or multi-layered literary fiction with fractured timelines. Sometimes though, all I am looking for is a cracking yarn.

Andrew Greig's Romanno Bridge certainly doesn't disappoint on that front. Reprising his characters from The Return of John MacNab a few years on he entangles them in a far more dangerous and brutal adventure. John MacNab had a very genteel sense of British fair-play compared with Romanno Bridge ...

Starting out with a suicide deep in Rothiemurchus Forest the plot plunges headlong into ancient secret societies and the search for the real(?) Stone of Destiny, racing all over Scotland with diversions to London, Canada and Norway.

Often with this type of story the reader has to allow the author a bit of leeway to get beyond some of the more far-fetched elements, but even so there can't be any holes in the plot or characters with defects or who aren't believable. Some of the characters do seem to turn-up in exactly the right place at the right time and I had heard comments from some who felt that Kirsty could only ever exist in a male novelist's head. There are elements of her that are almost too good to be true, but it was never a problem for me. I wanted to believe, so it all felt real.

Of course everything works out all right by the end and the good guys prevail. Even so he keeps you on your toes right up to the last pages and the ending avoids any whiff of sentimentality. It just feels right, and sometimes that is exactly what you need from a book.

Song for Sunday

2011-03-27T23:31:00.000+11:00

Interpol – NYC

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: George Square Thatcher Death Party

Song for Sunday

2011-03-20T11:03:00.000+11:00

The Triffids – Wide Open Road

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: On Volcano – Acceleration of Heartbeat

Song for Sunday

2011-03-13T22:08:00.001+11:00

Je ne suis pas très drogue – The Limiñanas

Band/artist of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage
Song of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp

Song for Sunday

2011-03-06T21:23:00.005+11:00

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp

New album (with this song on it) out this week!

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party

Song for Sunday

2011-02-27T17:20:00.010+11:00

Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx – NY is Killing Me

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party

Alex's Adventures in Numberland

2011-02-22T22:16:00.002+11:00

Last time I looked Alex Bellos was The Guardian's correspondent in Brazil and his one published book was a wonderfully idiosyncratic and entertaining look at Brazilian football (or futebol as the Brazilians would say) which actually turned out to be a pretty good historical and sociological primer for the whole country. Read along with Peter Robb's A Death in Brazil there probably isn't much more that you need to know about this most intriguing (at least to me) country.

So, getting back to the point, I was mildly surprised to find out last year that he had written a book about mathematics called Alex's Adventures in Numberland. However, it turns out he has a degree in philosophy and mathematics (they didn't mention that in the blurb on the football book!) and a boundless enthusiasm for seeking out the quirky and fascinating amongst the numbers and equations.

Starting out with Munduruku people living deep in the Brazilian Amazon who still lead a hunter-gatherer existence and have no words for numbers greater than five. Mainly because, as Alex demonstrates, they don't have any need for them. And even these five numbers aren't a precise match for the quantities one to five translating more correctly into one, two, threeish, fourish and a handful. This leads into a fascinating discussion on how children learn to count and understand numbers. Studying young children and isolated indigenous peoples gives a fascinating insight into innate mathematical intuition compared against taught concepts. (The numerical equivalent of Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct.)

From there we move through number systems, numerology, Vedic mathematics, Pi, algebra, number games, the golden ratio, probability, statistics and on to infinity (the concept not the size of the book ...). He has a journalist's eye for an interesting story and the writing is always clear and intelligent, even when he gets into some fairly high level concepts. Pleasingly, the text is also accompanied by plenty of well-drawn diagrams, illustrations and photos which help with the explanations and let you see what mathematicians really look like. There are also plenty of equations, but what did you expect? It is about maths after all.

Along the way he tracks down some fascinating characters, some well known, most not. For example Wayne Gould, a retired judge from New Zealand who found a Sudoku book in a Tokyo bookshop and although he couldn't read any of the instructions he managed to work out how to solve the puzzle. He then spent six years writing a computer program to generate Sudokus and went on to sell the idea to newspapers in the USA and UK sparking a craze which now has over 100 million regular players. I had always presumed that Sudoku was an ancient Japanese puzzle which was just popularised recently in the West, but it turns out to have been invented by Maki Kaji, a Japanese puzzle-maker who refined a puzzle that he had seen in an American puzzle magazine which had in turn been created by Howard Garns, a retired architect from Indiana.

At 450 pages he covers a lot of ground, but it flys past and I was very sad to see it finish, although my head was hurting a bit by the end. By the last chapter we are up to non-Euclidean geometry, hyperbolic crochet, Georg Cantor's 'set theory' and the Hilbert Hotel. Luckily he also has an excellent blog where he updates some of the stories that appear in the book and any other interesting mathematics that he finds.

Borders, REDGroup and Australian bookselling

2011-02-20T21:44:00.003+11:00

In November 2009 I started a post entitled Is Borders evil? so as you may guess the news that they had placed themselves into voluntary administration on Thursday didn't cause too much heartache around here. As a chain-bookshop ex-employee I do feel sorry for the shopfloor staff who now face irate customers with impossible demands and the likely loss of their jobs.

I came to the conclusion that they probably weren't inherently evil as much as incompetently nefarious, so I never did publish the post, but charging well above RRP on about 90% of your stock did seem like a strange strategy for a bookshop looking for customer loyalty and longevity. The half-empty shelves, poor stock selection and lack of key backlist titles over the last few years also seemed to point to some problems with management and strategy.

Around this time the government was also looking into the parallel importation laws and book pricing in general, so there was plenty of media coverage about the disparity between book prices in Australia and those in the USA and UK, but bizarrely there was no coverage anywhere about one of the major book retailing chains over-pricing the vast majority of their stock.

It wasn't always like that, however, when Borders first opened in Carlton in early 2003 it was a well stocked and pleasant spot to browse. I still never bought much there, but occasionally one of their discounted bestsellers like William Gibson's Pattern Recognition or something more esoteric not stocked elsewhere would persuade me to get the credit card out.

Unfortunately in 2007 the Borders US group started getting into difficulties and the UK and Asia Pacific parts of the business were put up for sale. The Australia/NZ side was bought in June 2008 by the REDGroup who are in turn owned by Pacific Equity Partners (PEP), a private equity firm who clearly weren't buying because of a love of literature. The REDGroup already owned the Angus and Robertson chain in Australia and the Whitcoulls chain in New Zealand, so it was fairly obvious that PEP thought they could merge Borders into the existing business, streamline back office functions, maximise profit and sell it on as soon as they could get a good price. (The financial background is explained well in an article in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald by Michael Evans.)

Straight away you could see the change in the shops: backlist wasn't replaced, shelves got empty, prices went up across the board and non-book products became more and more prominent. I am probably not the average book-buyer, but it wasn't long before I stopped buying anything from them and quickly realised that it wasn't even worth going in to the stores as it would just annoy me.

Not as annoyed, however, as I was when it was revealed soon after the announcement that Border's chairman Steven Cain had written to the government blaming them for the chain's failure because of the overseas internet shopping GST loophole and parallel importation laws. Sure, internet booksellers will have taken a some of Borders market, but the parallel importation laws have very little to do with the problems the REDGroup encountered. For their management to try to shift the blame from their failings to others over two issues which they were well aware of and should have had strategies for dealing with is pathetic in the extreme. It is also telling that Dymocks and other, smaller independent chains, like the ever excellent Readings, can survive in the current climate when they are dealing with exactly the same issues, albeit far more successfully.

Most of the articles about the collapse have made much of the impact of overseas online booksellers like Amazon and Book Depository (some even going so far as to predict that this is the beginning of the end for all shops!) who are undoubtably grabbing a bigger and bigger share of the market in Australia and many have pointed out that the widespread take-up of ebooks will squeeze the bricks-and-mortar bookshops further. Personally, I think that big and bland chains will struggle as more of their custom goes online, but am optimistic that smaller and more customer-focused shops should still be able to thrive. Their role will change slightly as all the bestsellers go digital, but provided they focus on the things that on-line and ebooks can't provide like author events, discussion groups and great customer service then I think they will be all right. Of course they may need a bit of help from the publishers in all of this, but that is another story which can wait for now.

There is bound to plenty more coverage over the coming weeks and the whole industry will be watching intently to see what happens. In the meantime, if you want to know more here are some of the best sources and stories:
John Birmingham – Borders' demise: why the book chains are doomed
Bookseller + Publisher blog – Things we keep repeating
Bookseller + Publisher blog – Round-up of stories on REDGroup entering voluntary administration
And my favourite, Ross Honeywill – How Mark Rubbo killed Borders books

Song for Sunday

2011-02-20T20:33:00.002+11:00

The Delgados – No Danger

I can't help but feel vaguely cheated that I haven't seen this before. It isn't surprising that it didn't make it onto CD:UK, but surely there must have been other music shows on UK TV that would have shown something of such total and utter genius? I can highly recommend American Trilogy as well, which seems to feature the Banana Splits on a day trip to Manchester Velodrome.

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Mogwai – George Square Thatcher Death Party

Song for Sunday

2011-02-13T21:58:00.004+11:00

Young Galaxy – We Have Everything

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: On Volcano – Acceleration of Heartbeat

Song for Sunday

2011-02-06T21:32:00.008+11:00

Mogwai – Rano Pano

Fantastic! I hope you are all getting excited about the new album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will out a week on Monday. The perfect Valentine gift for the significant other in your life. Trust me ...

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: On Volcano – Acceleration of Heartbeat

(Song of the week is also completely brilliant and you can download a copy completely free from here.)

Books of 2010

2011-01-31T22:01:00.003+11:00

Complete list is in the sidebar way down somewhere on the right. 39 was quite a long way short of my stated goal of one a week. I started well, but quickly tailed off with a too-late surge in the last three months, as you can see from the chart below. This year I am going to aim for 52 again, but suspect that anticipated lack of sleep from late May onwards may make it hard to achieve again.

More worrying, however, as the following graph clearly illustrates is the gap between books read and books acquired. Luckily most of my 2010 Christmas books actually arrived in January, otherwise the gap would have been even more alarming.

Top ten is below, with statistics underneath. Apparent again is a heavy bias towards fiction, male authors and books published in the last three years.

Top 10

1 Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann

2 Waterlog – Roger Deakin

3 The Magnetic North – Sarah Wheeler

4 A Lie About My Father – John Burnside

5 Started Early, Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson

6 Zeitoun – Dave Eggers

7 Zero History – William Gibson

8 The Stars in the Bright Sky – Alan Warner

9 The Broken Shore – Peter Temple

10 Men in Space – Tom McCarthy

Statistics

Fiction: 29 titles

Non-fiction: 10 titles

Number of authors: 39

Male authors: 32

Female authors: 7

Books published in 2010: 11
Books published in 2009: 13
Books published in 2008: 6
Books published in 2007: 4
Books published in 2006: 3
Books published in 2005: 1
Books published 2000-04: 1
Books published 1990-99: 0
Books published 1980-89: 0
Books published before 1980: 0

Song for Sunday

2011-01-30T22:25:00.000+11:00

House of Love – Shine On

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don't Haunt this Place

Song for Sunday

2011-01-23T17:42:00.001+11:00

Best Coast – Boyfriend

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: British Sea Power – Living is so Easy

Song for Sunday

2011-01-16T19:11:00.001+11:00

Broadcast – Winter Now

Very sad to hear about the death of Trish Keenan from pneumonia. Broadcast were always one of those bands that I felt I should like more than I actually did. Their left-field, wilfully experimental side always seemed to pound the tuneful, bewitching pop side into submission. But there were always enough moments when the two sides combined into something magical to make me give them another chance whenever a new record came out.

There is a lovely remembrance here, along with some more clips of their finer moments.

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: British Sea Power – Living is so Easy

2010 music by numbers

2011-01-13T21:24:00.000+11:00

Probably of interest to absolutely no-one but me, but according to last.fm these are the top 50 bands/artists and tracks I listened to last year. I can't remember exactly, but I think my total plays stood at around 60,000 at the beginning of last year. As 2011 started it was sitting at 92,378, which would mean about 30,000 tracks for the year or roughly 500 a week.

You can see the up-to-date charts here, if you are so inclined, and feel free to paste your own lists into the comments or even better befriend me on last.fm so I can have a look myself!

Artists/bands
1 The National (1,581)
2 Bruce Springsteen (718)
3 Mogwai (711)
4 Frightened Rabbit (630)
5 Saint Etienne (547)
6 Idlewild (506)
7 Sigur Rós (503)
8 Malcolm Middleton (485)
9 Arcade Fire (483)
10 Radiohead (482)
11 R.E.M. (446)
12 Tindersticks (416)
13 Efterklang (404)
14 We Were Promised Jetpacks (360)
15 U2 (347)
16 Girls (342)
17 Venice is Sinking (339)
18 Manic Street Preachers (310)
19 Belle and Sebastian (307)
20 Rose Elinor Dougall (298)
21 Hello Saferide (297)
22 The Very Best (295)
23 The xx (288)
24 Low (276)
25 British Sea Power (275)
26 Tanya Donelly (272)
27 Burial (270)
28 Moby (264)
28 Lucinda Williams (264)
30 The Rural Alberta Advantage (259)
31 Runrig (245)
32 Billy Bragg (237)
33 Big Country (235)
34 Phantogram (230)
35 Suede (226)
36 Bob Mould (225)
36 Marillion (225)
38 Art of Fighting (224)
39 Placebo (219)
40 Amadou & Mariam (218)
41 Portishead (213)
42 David Bowie (206)
43 For a Minor Reflection (203)
44 Glasvegas (198)
45 Little Birdy (196)
46 The Cure (195)
47 Interpol (193)
48 Black Box Recorder (188)
49 Camera Obscura (186)
50 Gersey (182)

Tracks

1 The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio (131)
2 Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore – Something, Somewhere, Sometime (89)
3 Venice is Sinking – Compass (80)
4 The National – Afraid of Everyone (79)
5 Rose Elinor Dougall – Find Me Out (78)
6 We Were Promised Jetpacks – Conductor (72)
7 Girls – Morning Light (71)
8 Hello Saferide – Anna (70)
9 The Soft Pack – C'mon (69)
10 Phosphorescent – The Mermaid Parade (68)
10 Efterklang – Alike (68)
12 Sambassadeur – Stranded (64)
13 Venice is Sinking – Falls City (63)
14 Basia Bulat – Go On (60)
14 The Concretes – Good Evening (60)
16 The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don't Haunt This Place (58)
17 Amadou & Mariam – Sénégal fast food (56)
18 Black Box Recorder – Seasons in the Sun (53)
18 Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River – Goodbye Sweet Dreams (53)
20 Land of Talk – Some Are Lakes (Radio Mix) (52)
20 Casiokids – Grønt lys i alle ledd (52)
20 The Very Best – You Got The Love (Florence - The XX Remix) (52)
23 Phantogram – When I'm Small (51)
24 Laura Marling – Alpha Shallows (50)
24 Land of Talk – May You Never (50)
26 Tracey Thorn – Why Does The Wind? (Radio Edit) (49)
27 Taken by Trees – Anna (48)
27 Apollo Ghosts – Library Card Amulet (48)
27 The New Pornographers – Your Hands (Together) (48)
30 Love Is All – Repetition (47)
30 Clogs – Last Song (47)
32 Fulton Lights – Healing Waters (46)
32 The National – Anyone's Ghost (46)
34 The National – England (45)
35 Wild Beasts – This Is Our Lot (43)
35 Rose Elinor Dougall – Carry On (43)
37 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Hysteric (42)
37 Wye Oak – I Hope You Die (42)
37 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – FFunny Ffrends (42)
40 The National – Slow Show (41)
40 Frightened Rabbit – Fast Blood (41)
40 The National – Little Faith (41)
43 The National – Conversation 16 (40)
44 The xx – Crystalised (39)
45 Frightened Rabbit – Head Rolls Off (38)
45 The Dø – At Last (38)
45 We Were Promised Jetpacks – Keeping Warm (38)
45 For a Minor Reflection – Dansi Dans (38)
45 The National – Terrible Love (38)
50 We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices (37)

Song for Sunday

2011-01-09T22:34:00.005+11:00

Tame Impala – Lucidity

Band/artist of the week: Malcolm Middleton
Song of the week: The Breeders – Buffy Main Title Theme

The Mermaid Parade (2010 as a mix-tape)

2011-01-08T22:43:00.001+11:00

Hopefully copies should be arriving around now, so it must be time for the track listing of 2010s best-of CD. Seemed to be a fairly easy selection to make this year, although I did start out with a list of about 40 tracks. Not quite as many completely new bands as last year, but still a majority were unheard before the start of the year.

The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
Rose Elinor Dougall – Carry On
Metric – Sick Muse
Bettie Serveert – The Pharmacy
The Concretes – Good Evening
British Sea Power – Living Is So Easy
Three Mile Pilot – Still Alive
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don't Haunt This Place
Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore – Something, Somewhere, Sometime
The Soft Pack – C'mon
Kathleen Edwards – In State
Blitzen Trapper – Heaven and Earth
Stornoway – I Saw You Blink
Laura Marling – Rambling Man
Phosphorescent – The Mermaid Parade
Sambassadeur – Stranded
Darkstar – Deadness
For a Minor Reflection – Fjara

Let me know in the comments what your favourites are, which ones you can't stand and anything else that you think should have been on the list. If you would like a copy all you need to do is ask nicely ...

Song for Sunday

2011-01-02T16:30:00.000+11:00

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Say No to Love

Gone camping

2010-12-27T12:26:00.000+11:00

With apologies to David Shrigley and thanks to K&D.

Song for Sunday

2010-12-26T17:06:00.001+11:00

Wild Nothing – Live in Dreams

Band/artist of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage
Song of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don't Haunt This Place

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-25T14:55:00.003+11:00

1 For a Minor Reflection – Höldum í átt að óreiðu

Hailing from Iceland it is inevitable that For a Minor Reflection will get compared to Sigur Rós. There are plenty of similarities – the beautiful quiet passages which build-up into a wonderful rush of melody and rhythm. Like a more melodic and approachable Mogwai, there are no vocals and this means that you get totally immersed in the music without any words to distract you.

The roaring and rumbling guitars are there, but often counterpointed by sparkling piano runs and strings to produce a remarkably mature and self-assured sound for a bunch of twenty-year-olds. The album opens on a far-off drone which gradually resolves itself into a whirling guitar riff and constantly crashing cymbals, fading back for a moment into a howl of feedback and then careering off back into all out guitar and cymbal overload. One of the best opening tracks I've heard for a long time.

They follow this up with the short, spare and surprisingly gentle Fjara with its beautiful piano base and cello over the top. Flóð then starts out deceptively quietly with some more piano and gentle guitar, later joined by the drums which drive it into more menacing terrain. It is like being caught in a violent storm on summers day.

Dansi Dans is whimsical and poppy in a very Icelandic leftfield way and it seems slightly out of place sandwiched between Flóð and the similarly powerful Andlega Veðurtepptir.

Tómarúm is another delicate piano interlude before we reach Sjáumst Í Virginíu which is the magnificent fourteen and half minute centrepiece of the album. Again it builds from a simple and sparse beginning into a flurry of guitars, drums and piano, before receding back again and then once more intensifying back towards the final crescendo. The music is constantly shifting, but gradually and imperceptibly: like watching the light fade on a landscape at the end of the day.

Next track Átta is what Sigur Rós would sound like if the were a punk band. A Moll returns to the earlier template of quiet start building to a raucous and glorious zenith. Finally he album closes with the almost pastoral Séð til Lands with what sounds like slide guitar over the squeaking of a cart wheel.

The only downside is that you'll probably be hearing all these songs on nature documentaries for the next few years, but at least you'll be able to tell everyone who the music is by, even if you can't tell them what any of the tracks are called.

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-24T23:21:00.000+11:00

2 Darkstar – North

With its cover image of what looks like an abandoned steel works, you can only assume that the North of the title is the post-industrial wastelands of the north of England. Released on the hyperdub label – famous for Burial and other dubstep pioneers – it has less in common with their labelmates than it does with recent Radiohead and Low-era Bowie.

Composed on drum machines and synthesisers the music is chilly, stripped back and totally synthetic. The stark beats and basic melodies produce a haunting atmosphere and convey depth of emotion from the simplest-sounding elements. Oddly though I find this a wonderfully uplifting and beautiful listen – like agnostic hymns to a better future.

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-24T19:36:00.002+11:00

3 The National – High Violet

Some people may be surprised that this isn't higher up (me included, probably). Don't get me wrong, I love this album and think it is an amazing set of songs. It's just that there are two others which I think that I've loved even more this year.

First off, just so you know, I am going to try and not use the word masterpiece at all in this post. I have a feeling this album will turn out to be just that, but given how often that word is bandied about in reviews I am going to try and let history make that judgment.

Just like R.E.M. in 1989, they are at the peak of their powers and probably the best band in the world right now. The songs are beautifully crafted, but they still manage to keep the spontaneity and take risks with the songs. You can hear some of the bands processes in action, their quest for perfection at work in each small part of every song. No amount of work and effort will make a bad song good, but what The National do makes goods songs into brilliant ones.

The themes are similar to the ones that Springsteen deals with on Darkness on the Edge of Town – the responsibilities of adulthood and the compromises that they entail – but The National's protagonists are white-collar, internet-era, city-living thirty- and forty-somethings grappling with the demands of parenthood and working in offices. That may sound dull and worthy, but when Matt Berninger's wonderfully off-beat and allegorical lyrics are combined with music like this it is anything but.

It seems unfair to single out any particular songs because they are all wonderful (apart from maybe Lemonworld which grates slightly, but that may just be because it makes me think of U2 and their big lemon tour or whatever it was) and there is just too much good stuff to highlight it all. So let's just take one at random, something like the tucked away Conversation 16 with its menacing oboe (I think) riff and its refrain of 'I was afraid that I'd eat your brains ...' How could you not love it?

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-23T23:48:00.006+11:00

4 Phosphorescent – Here's To Taking It Easy

The Mermaid Parade is like a maritime version of Mardi Gras. Held on Coney Island every year on the Saturday nearest the beginning of Summer it is, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia, 'well-known for extraordinary marine costumes, and for the occasional partial nudity.' I had never heard of it until I read an article about Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson being the parade's King and Queen this year. It sounds like a blast.

About a week later I was listening to the iPod on shuffle and up popped a song which I didn't recognise, but it which was very definitely about the same event: 'Oh, but I didn't make it to the airport today / I wound up walking out by the ocean today / there were naked women dancing in the Mermaid Parade.' It was a beautifully yearning, melancholy waltz through the singer's calamitous love-life, which manages to create a whole history from a few beguilingly sketched incidents. Straight away I was intrigued. The track was by a band called Phosphorescent, which it turned out was really just a front for solo artist Matthew Houck. I also discovered that I had another track off the album – the tongue-in-cheek (I presume) It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama), which I had listened to a couple of times and decided that I didn't like.

And that was almost that. Although I love The Mermaid Parade I presumed that it was a one-off and had pretty much decided that it wasn't worth investigating the rest of the album. How wrong can you be? It turns out that It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama) is the exception and the rest of the album is as spectacularly good as The Mermaid Parade.

Houck's voice is instantly recognisable, bruised, world-weary and able to convey a depth of emotion with the slightest intonation. The album title is apt, because the music is mostly easy-going, deep-south rock'n'roll. There are jaunty numbers like Heaven, Sitting Down and I Don't Care if There is Cursing and darker, country and gospel tinged tracks like Los Angeles and Hej, Me I'm Light but all of the songs have a timeless, effortless grace.

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-22T22:32:00.002+11:00

5 Mogwai – Special Moves

'How're you doing? We're Mogwai from Glasgow, Scotland.

It's nice to be here.'

So starts eleven minutes forty-three seconds of the most glorious racket I guarantee you will hear for a long time. They sound so polite in the introduction: like a shy schoolboy chatting to his grandmother's best friend. Just you wait though. The build-up takes about five minutes during which they gradually get into a ferocious groove of drums and bass, with shards of guitar slashing and spinning over the top. Gradually fading back down again until you are left with the most delicate drum beat, a tiny throb of bass and the most exquisite wisps of guitar. About three and a half minutes later you are just adjusting the volume, so that you can catch all the subtleties, when everything explodes back into action destroying your speakers and necessitating a change of underwear. I can't count how many times I've listened to Mogwai Fear Satan, but it has caught me out every single bleeding time. And I still love it.

This is the fourth track into a recording made in Brooklyn (hence the Glasgow, Scotland) in April 2009. With some understated thank-yous they slip into a stunningly beautiful version of Cody, the only song with recognisable vocals in the whole concert, which feels a million times more exceptional because of the scouring and pummelling you've just been through. Imagine what the audience felt like ...

They build things up with the next three tracks, but not quite to the same levels as before, and then confound expectations with a surprisingly lovely version of 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong. The only other words from the stage – thanks for coming – and straight into the last two songs. Like Herod ends with a blizzard of feedback that makes you think it has to be the last song, but in fact resolves itself into a frantic and positively snappy Glasgow Megasnake which then ends as if lightning has just blown out the electrics. Special moves all right ...

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-21T21:06:00.002+11:00

6 Rose Elinor Dougall – Without Why

Eleven sparky, quirky pop songs. In a world of X Factor and sausage factory, manufactured pop music it is great to find an album like this can even still exist.

I don't know much about her previous existence as one-third of The Pipettes and came to the single Find Me Out with no real expectations. It is a lovely melancholy, string-driven tune and the way she sings 'my cerebral faculties overloaded' would charm the hardest heart. The rest of the album is mostly more up-tempo, but the lyrics are always intelligent and interesting and she has a gift for matching them with catchy tunes and an idiosyncratic range of instrumentation.

Occasionally it can get a bit polite and not spontaneous enough, but it is undoubtably a well crafted bunch of pop songs which makes you happier to have heard them. And sometimes that's enough, more than enough.

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-20T23:01:00.003+11:00

7 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Arcade Fire's first album Funeral was, as the name suggests, mainly about death. But it wasn't about fear of dying, it was about dealing with the death of close friends and family and how the flipside of grief is joy at still being alive. It was also about childhood memories and the myths and legends that everyone creates and carries with them from this time.

Neon Bible was far more angry, raging about all the injustices in the world and much of it seems to be about the fears and paranoia of parenthood. I remember when it first came out, listening to it just after an apocalyptic Melbourne heat-wave which was full of bushfires, power cuts and the fury of the Australian landscape. Needless to say, it seemed to make perfect sense and I enjoyed it immensely at the time, but unsurprisingly it isn't really an album that I return to much. It is just too histrionic and off-kilter to be a satisfying and enjoyable listen.

Third album The Suburbs takes us back to childhood again, but this time it seems to be a very specific teenage period between about 13 or 14 and leaving home, unlike the stories on Funeral which come from an earlier and younger, more innocent time. It is beautifully done, looking back with a genuine, but clear sighted fondness for this phase in life, without being nostalgic. The balance between the music and the lyrics is perfect, and as a recreation of a specific time and place you would be hard pushed to come up with any better examples in any musical genre.

The two standout tracks for me, which have presumably already attained modern classic status – Half Life I and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) – are surprisingly reminiscent of my two favourite songs on Funeral – Wake Up and In the Backseat – appearing at similar points in the track listing and showcasing all the best facets of their craft. It would have been higher up in my list, but for the fact they try to cram too much in and consequently the quality control slips up and lets a couple of howlers like Rococo and Month of May through.

Anyway, no matter where you grew up (small town not the suburbs for me), it will bring back all those wonderful teenage memories and show how reassuringly universal the experience is.

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-19T23:30:00.001+11:00

8 Efterklang – Magic Chairs

I have always had a soft spot for Scandinavian pop and rock. I believe it can be traced back to Abba's The Album in 1977, but over the years it has encompassed a variety of bands, styles and genres (almost everything apart from Norwegian death metal). Most recently it has been The Concretes, Hello Saferide, Sambassadeur, Casiokids, Slaraffenland, The Shout out Louds and now Efterklang. And that's without even counting all the Icelandic nut jobs.

Efterklang are Danish, but seem to sing mostly in English, and they make a wonderfully bizarre mix of post-rock, electronica and chamber pop (not sure if that is a real genre or possibly I just made it up). There are trumpets, strings, gentle ebbs and flows, and moments of whimsy, drama and urgency. A bit serious at times, but never overthought or emotionless. It is hard to find any other band to compare them to and I guess that is a major part of their charm. For Magic Chairs, their third album, they signed to 4AD which is probably the most helpful piece of information I can give to explain what they sound like.

The album starts with Modern Drift – rolling piano high notes, a bit of cello, the drums kick and then fade out. This repeats for a couple of times before everything locks into a lolloping groove, powered along by strings and a chugging trumpet. Alike is more restrained, but with a joyous refrain of 'and it made us feel alike,' which I always mis-hear as 'and it made us feel alive' and some wonderfully improbable wooo-oo-hoos. It's probably my favourite track on the album.

I was Playing Drums runs on a stuttering, sliding bass riff that underpins an eerie story about machines, monsters and faded polaroids. Then sliding into Raincoats and onwards through another seven tracks to end up with the easy going The Dream in Which I Flee it is an album of lush, stately, fascinating music that keeps revealing its treasures and surprises over many listens.

Song for Sunday

2010-12-19T22:23:00.000+11:00

Circle Pit – Another Trick

Band/artist of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage
Song of the week: Laura Marling – Rambling Man

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-18T22:18:00.000+11:00

9 Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can

I know, I know: now we are a day behind and I will have to slot two entries into one day. Blame work and a more enjoyable Christmas party than expected ...

There seems to have been a lot of folk music around this year. Normally I wouldn't notice, especially from this far away in the antipodes, and would be unlikely to care. Mostly I react to folk music with an instinctive suspicion, but then actually quite enjoy a very small proportion of what I am reluctantly exposed to. Usually it just isn't noisy or tuneful enough for me, but every so often I find something or, in this case, someone that torpedos all those preconceptions.

Laura Marling seems to have suffered a bit of a backlash in a lot of the end-of-year best-ofs, mainly I suspect because people are embarrassed by how much they hyped her at the beginning of the year. The funny thing is that it is a brilliant album and outstanding by the standards of any genre. Her songwriting is fantastic and, more unexpected for me, the melody and arrangements are wonderful with piano, strings and full on rhythm section on some tracks.

The faintly sinister and foreboding Alpha Shallows ('the grey in this city is too much to bear and I believe we are meant to be seen and not to be understood ... and I want to be held by those arms') was my hook into the album, followed by the plaintive voice and soaring chorus on Rambling Man ('oh give me to the rambling man, let it always be known that I was who I am'), and on through the beautiful Goodbye England (Covered in Snow) into the enticing depths surrounding.

And the best bit? The louder you play it, the better it gets.

Top 10 albums of 2010

2010-12-16T22:36:00.001+11:00

10 Bruce Springsteen – The Promise

A bunch of discarded songs from a 1978 album: how could this be one of the best albums of the year 32 years later? I did have to wrestle a bit with my principles before including this in the list – normally re-issues, best-ofs, live albums, etc. are discounted immediately. However, technically this is a new release studio album, albeit of material recorded so long ago that colour TV hadn't been invented (in Scotland anyway). But then I decided, it's my list and who's going to argue?

You may know some of the story, but I'm going to recount it again anyway. After Born to Run was released in 1975 Springsteen became embroiled in a dispute with his manager, which meant that he could write and record, but not release any new material. The dispute went on for three years and by the time it was resolved Springsteen had shifted a long way from the 26-year-old 'future of rock and roll' hailed after the release of Born to Run.

Darkness on the Edge of Town, the 10-track album he chose to release as its follow-up reflected this and, although it was critically acclaimed, in commercial terms it was bit of disaster. For many fans (myself included), though it is the high-point of Springsteen's career. The 10 songs have a strength and purity that would never be recaptured and it perfectly embodies his artistic vision. As Springsteen put it himself, it was 'a reckoning with the adult world.' It was 'rebellious adult music' that tussled with the realisation that 'life is no longer wide open. Adult life is a life of compromise. And there are some essential things you don't want to compromise. And it's working those things out. There's a part of life you can never compromise with, or you lose yourself.'

The recording sessions for Darkness were paradoxically once of the most creative periods of Springsteen's career and the songs just seemed to keep coming. Some of these unused tracks were given to other artists – Patti Smith got Because the Night, her biggest hit, and the Pointer Sisters got Fire – others were reused and repurposed by Springsteen himself and many of the melodies, lyrics and phrases here have turned up on The River and later albums.

Some of the songs just didn't fit with the mood on Darkness, some would have fitted perfectly. Many have since become live favourites and some achieved near mythical status, traded on bootlegs between die-hard fans. It is fascinating to get a chance to hear all these songs at last and to get an insight into how Darkness was put together, but what is most surprising is how well this works as an album on its own terms. There is a lot more variation in style and subject matter than you would expect from hearing what was released and this has been carefully considered in constructing a running order that means you forget the roots of these songs and get lost in the story that the album tells.

The one track that appears on both Darkness on the Edge of Town and The Promise is Racing in the Street. Possibly the quintessential Springsteen song of cars and girls and fading dreams it perfectly encapsulates the reckoning with the adult world and the battles between youthful freedoms and adult responsibilities that is such a feature many of Springsteen's songs. The version on The Promise is a slightly more bombastic and epic, the original version more weary and less certain, but no less devastating in its final reckoning:

Tonight my baby and me,

we're going to ride to the sea

and wash these sins off our hands
Tonight, tonight the highways bright,
out of our way mister you best keep,
because summer's here and the time is right
for racing in the street ...

Best Albums of 2010: Not actually from 2010

2010-12-15T23:09:00.000+11:00

Metric – Fantasies

I first heard the song Twilight Galaxy early last year and it was on a couple of playlists that I used to whittle down my favourite tunes of the year. It didn't make the final cut, being a bit downbeat and one-dimensional, but a few months ago I found the album in our local library (rock'n'roll!) and was sufficiently intrigued to pop it into the pile along with the kids books, Futurama comics and quilting titles. It turns out Twilight Galaxy isn't really that representative of the rest of the album which is mostly infectiously catchy, polished, indie-electro-pop with female vocals. A bit like MGMT fronted by a skinny Holly Valance i.e. quite hard to resist.

Phantogram – Eyelid Movies

Phantogram mine a similar seam to Metric, but come at it from a more leftfield, less polished, trip-hoppy direction. When I'm Small was on the stereo a lot last year and it did end up making it on to my 2009 best of, but for some reason I wasn't sure if the rest of the album would live up to its scratchy, languorous yearnings. Of course it doesn't, but even so it has plenty more tricks up its sleeve. From the slowed down dancefloor moves of Mouthful of Diamonds through the Portisheadesque As Far As I Can See to the gentle, piano fade out of 10,000 Claps it is an album that burrows into your brain and reveals new treasures on every listen.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns

One of my favourite finds of 2010, The Rural Alberta Advantage are a trio who, as their name suggests, grew-up in rural Alberta. Hometowns would have been well up the list in my top 10 albums of the year if it wasn't disqualified on age. But by any measure it is a great album – the 12 tracks rip past in an unusually hasty 42 minutes, leaving you pining for more as it ends. The beautiful, cello-driven melancholia of Don't Haunt this Place first caught my attention, but pretty much every track is a gem. There are acoustic foot-stomping numbers, punky lo-fi like The Dethbridge in Lethbridge and lots of unfeasibly catchy stories of small hometowns, heartbreaks and getting out for the city.

We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls

Not sure why it took me so long to catch on to These Four Walls, but it was about two weeks too late for the 2009 best albums list. Which is a shame because it certainly would have aced it if I had been a little bit more on the ball. I don't know how they have managed it, but twenty-something years too late they have written the soundtrack to my teenage years. Obviously not the soundtrack I listened to at that time, but pretty much exactly what growing up in small town Scotland sounded like in my head. Joyous, scared, petrified, confused, uncertain, frustrated, hopeful: it is all there and it is pure genius (as I would probably have said at the time).

Best albums of 2010: Just missed the top 10

2010-12-14T23:37:00.003+11:00

Here we are again, almost the end of another year and time to rundown the best albums (in GoH's humble opinion) of 2010. But first! As a special bonus (and to heighten the already uncontrollable excitement) I thought it would be fun to start off today with some of the albums that just missed out on the top 10. Tomorrow we'll do my favourite albums that were actually released last year, but if I had heard them earlier would probably have made the 2009 list. And then once that's out of the way we can start on Thursday with number 10 on the list, counting down one a day after that to arrive at the number 1 album at precisely 2.55pm on Christmas Day. (Although the time zones will muck it all up, that is of course the time that Top of the Pops traditionally reveal their number 1 single of the year. Do they still do that? Does Top of the Pops still exist?)

So, anyway, in no particular order here are five albums that just missed out on the top 10 albums of 2010.

Malcolm Middleton – Long, Dark Night
Malcolm Middleton – Live in Zurich!

I have to admit these haven't actually arrived yet. I think Malcolm has been snowed in or too busy watching X Factor or something to send them. Anyway, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I have listened to them both on his bandcamp page and can confidently guarantee that this will be the best full-band and solo live album package released in 2010 by any 36-year-old Scottish bloke who used to be half of a critically acclaimed but under appreciated indie duo. Or as it says on the cover of Long, Dark Night, 'Scotland's second favourite arch-miserablist.'

If that intrigues you click one of the links above and have a listen. If you are quick and order your own copy before the 25th you might even get a Christmas card from the great man himself.

Venice is Sinking – Sand and Lines

Recorded live to two microphones over five days this sounds like a band out of time, some sort of AM transmission lost in the ether from anytime over the last forty years. There is a laid-back, deep-south feel that sounds like a stately afternoon wedding reception; full of faded glamour with a wistful longing for glory days long gone. In short it is beautiful and wonderfully affecting set of songs that transport you to a different place and era, and one which you may not want to leave.

The Morning Benders – Big Echo

In the tradition of hazy west-coast American surfer pop – full of sunny hooks, big choruses and a loping easy-going rhythm backbone. It's one of those joyous albums that you put on and immediately feel better about the world. There are some downbeat and melancholy tracks lurking towards the end, but they are lovely as well and provide to balance and anchor that stop it from floating away over the sea depicted in the sunny beach scene on the cover.

Manic Street Preachers – Postcards from a Young Man

An Everything Must Go to Journal for a Plague Lover's Holy Bible? It isn't surprising that everyone has made the comparison, but it isn't quite that simple. Everything Must Go had a desperate, cathartic, need to find an escape from the gravitational pull of Richey. Postcards from a Young Man is far more at ease with their history and, although this means that it doesn't have the dizzying highs of Everything Must Go, it does sound like a band having a lot of fun, oozing confidence and happy to be still writing and playing these songs. The politics and social commentary is all present and correct, but I have always found their moody Welsh Manics versus the world works so much better when it is combined with a belting chorus and soaring string section ...

Frightened Rabbit – Winter of Mixed Drinks

It is definitely a step forwards from Midnight Organ Fight – the tendency to schoolboy, yucky lyrics are toned down, the music is more sophisticated and there is a lot more happening in these songs. There are plenty of moments of pure beauty and joy, but mostly the tempo has dropped a notch and their new-found maturity has definitely meant the loss of some of their charm. When I do put it on, I remember how good it is, but not having standout tracks like a Fast Blood or a Heads Roll Off it probably doesn't get as many plays as it should. I am not doing a very good job of selling it, but have a listen to Nothing Like You, Living in Colour or the heart-wrenching Yes, I Would if you need convincing.

Song for Sunday

2010-12-12T23:06:00.000+11:00

Darkstar – Gold

Band/artist of the week: For a Minor Reflection
Song of the week: For a Minor Reflection – Fjara

Child 44

2010-12-12T23:04:00.000+11:00

A serial killer is on the loose in the 1950s Soviet Union, but the authorities don't want to know. Individual police forces pin the crimes on marginalised outsiders – the mentally ill, homosexuals – or cover them up as accidents and there is no coordination between different jurisdictions. By-the-book cop falls out of favour with his superiors and gets exiled from his privileged position in Moscow to the wastelands of a factory town hundreds of kilometres to the east. Unsurprisingly he is the only person to connect the murders and, fighting against the system, he manages to unravel the crimes and find the killer.

I am being a bit unfair: there are lots of interesting aspects to the story. For example, the way the police's function is to protect the interests of the state apparatus without any pretense of protecting its citizens and the problem of reconciling the existence of crime within in a theoretically just and equitable society.

Unfortunately, too much time has been spent thinking through the twists and turns of the story, and not enough time spent on the writing. The suffering and hardship (of which there is plenty ...) doesn't feel real and the awful events don't connect emotionally. It reads like he wrote it as the screenplay for a movie. The plot and the action is all there, but the characters are lacking in depth and personality, as if waiting for the actors to add this dimension to the story.

Song for Sunday

2010-12-05T20:57:00.000+11:00

British Sea Power – Living is so Easy

Band/artist of the week: Metric
Song of the week: Nerf Herder – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme

Song for Sunday

2010-11-28T23:03:00.000+11:00

Metric – Sick Muse

Band/artist of the week: Darkstar
Song of the week: Darkstar – Gold

Song for Sunday

2010-11-21T12:39:00.000+11:00

The Love Language – Heart to Tell

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don't Haunt this Place