WHAT’S ANOTHER YEAR?
“Well, it’s about 3,000 words”
2009 in review
I used to do a full-page album of the year guide for the Westmeath Examiner group of newspapers and it was a tremendous amount of fun to put together and then see the results on a full broadsheet page every Christmas. The page used to be a nightmare for the production staff to make up, as invariably I would arrive in, a few hours before deadline, with 50 CD and album sleeves for them to scan. But when I got to look at the finished page, it was a marvel. Of the hundreds and thousands of articles I write every year, there are very few that I can look at and be hugely proud of. But year after year, this was one I was immensely proud of.
What pleased me most about annual round-up was going into my old favourite music haunt Heartbeat City and have Gary Baker or Peter Doran tell me from behind the counter that such-and-such an album or so-and-so was selling really well on account of the annual list. My head grew to obscene levels when they would tell me that people would come into the shop with the full page in their hand looking to buy albums off it. I was like the bloke from David Cronenberg’s ‘Scanners’ when a couple of the acts detailed in the festive fifty actually got in touch to pass on their thanks.
Sadly, the days of a newspaper group devoting a full broadsheet to a selection of albums chosen by me are long gone, and from what I hear, Heartbeat City (a much-loved chain of music stores with branches throughout the country) will be gone too. But if I can get my hands on a few PDF’s of years gone by I’ll put them up here.
In terms of what happened this year, Jim Carroll’s annual shitstorm on http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/ always gets the thinking juices flowing as to what was hot – and what was not – in the musical year.
For me, a good few months of my listening year was lost to loads of old classic rock (and much of it Deep Purple related) for a project I’m working on, and then there was an extended (and unexpected) cruise in the krautrock ocean as well as a canoe up the drone canal to contend with; but there was still plenty of ‘new’ music with which to float my boat. The best albums of the year for me were:
SOPHIA – ‘There Are No Goodbyes’ and DAVID KITT – ‘The Nightsaver’
“There are No Goodbyes” is another in a long line of stirring and moving albums from ex-God Machine man Robin Proper-Sheppard. Never one to hide his emotions, his often fraught lyrics are backed on the new LP by some of the most joyous music he and his collective has ever created. The killer title track is one of many almighty pleasures on this superb album. Funnily enough it’s the second Sophia album to top my list in a few years. The brilliant “People Are Like Seasons” from 2004 topped an Examiner poll that year. They really are a fantastic band, worthy of a wider audience. It was nice to see “There Are No Goodbyes” reviewed in this month’s UNCUT (and a four star review at that). Hopefully it’ll help spread the word.
http://www.sophiamusic.net/Meanwhile, Kittser’s excellent electronic foray on ‘The Nightsaver’ is as majestic as any of his previous releases. "A Real Fire" could be the soundtrack that never was to the 1980 Olympics, whilst "Move It On", "Beat a Retreat", "Don't Wake Me Up" are dreamy, delicious pop from a true master and still, half a dozen albums in, one of the most under-rated talents this country has ever produced. Fingers crossed he bags the Choice Award this time around.
Aside from those, I was fond of:
MASTERS OF REALITY – Pine/Cross Dover
Another quality piece of work from the genius that is Chris Goss. A sort of double album, it just rocks from start to finish, but leaves plenty of room for some typically sweet slowies that Goss gives us on each album.
FUCK BUTTONS – Tarot Sport
I wasn’t convinced on their last album that there was anything to them other than white noise, but ‘Tarot Sport’ just blew me away. The Mogwai link is no bad thing, but this sounds unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Can’t wait to see them live later this month.
ENGINEERS - Three Fact Fader
The belated second album from the English trio was well worth the wait. To lump them in with the showgazing scene/tag is to do them a great disservice. This is dreamy guitar pop, with vocal harmonies to die for. Everyone raved about Animal Collective’s ability to sing together, but this beats those American posers hands down.
SOULSAVERS – Broken
Anything, and I mean ANYTHING, with Mark Lanegan on it is gonna be good, and the second album from Soulsavers is no exception to that rule. With some stellar vocal support (Mike Patton, Jason Pierce, The London Community Gospel Choir, Will Oldham, Richard Hawley and Doves' Jimi Goodwin) Lanegan soars to even new heights with this spiritually sound album.
WHITE RAINBOW – New Clouds
A chance discovery, but certainly the best new band I’ve heard all year. It was during a drone period that I stumbled upon this one man band, and I was surprised I didn’t hear them/him sooner. Rich swathes of sound are layered upon each other with the most subtle of percussion helping them reach for the sky where they form something else entirely. New clouds indeed.
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS - Dark Days/Light Years
After the minor stumble that was ‘Hey Venus!’ the Furries returned with one of their all-time best albums. There’s a glam rock stomp permeating throughout this grower of an album, which was unfairly lashed in my favourite magazine, The Word. There simply isn’t a duff track here - “Mountain”, “Inconvenience”, “Inaugural Trams”, “White Socks/Flip Flops” and “Cardiff in the Sun” are just a few of the highlights. Live, they were on fire although I only got to see them at the Indiependence Festival in Cork where they showed every other band how it should be done. Such a shame they didn’t come back to Ireland after that. They would have made the Electric Picnic had they played.
DUCKWORTH LEWIS METHOD – s/t
After an eternity waiting in the wings, with critical plaudits and zero sales, the gentle giant that is Thomas Walsh finally got his chance of the big time with this stunning concept album about cricket. That it reached such a wide audience was in no small part thanks to the presence of Neil Hannon, but even without the Divine Comedy man, you can hear traces of Walshes Pugwash all over this record. I don’t think I’ve heard as good a song as “Sweet Spot” all year, and there are loads more on this album to make you smile. It’s such a good album that you actually forget it’s all about cricket. Surely another Choice Music Award contender.
THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA - The Crimson Wing
A soundtrack from a band made to score. As majestic and as soaring as the birds in the film, this album – the first fully instrumental one from TCO – retains their trademark jazz groove, but still manages to find new ground. No doubt it’ll be the first of many soundtracks from them.
TINARIWEN –Imidiwan:Companions
You don’t need to have a clue what they are singing about to like this. It’s just a masterclass in desert blues from start to finish.
EMERALDS – Emeralds
Similar to the discovery of White Rainbow, Emeralds appeared on a blog one day – thanks http://shockmountain.com/ - and that was that – they were on the stereo non-stop until I needed to hear some words. An instrumental outfit it was the following quote which drew me in: “Prepare for hypnotic and surreal drone music made by one of the best up and coming bands in the scene” and was I glad when I heard them. The Guardian has since raved about them, and all the praise is worthy. Containing just four tracks, it’s an album which reveals new subtleties on each listen. The cover art is cool too. On honeymoon in San Diego earlier this year, an American told me of the famous “green glow” that only a few fishermen ever get to see underneath a breaking wave and here it was, on an album cover. Like the glow, this album is a rare pleasure. Their other album this year – “What Happened” – is equally glorious, but this is the one where they truly found their sound.
RICHARD HAWLEY – Truelove’s Gutter
Even though it’s his fifth album, the best thing to ever come out of Sheffield is as unhurried as ever. His languid style is ever-so gently augmented by a few new bells and whistles on this, but it’s still all about his voice and his heart. Like Robin Proper-Sheppard, he wears it on his sleeve, and the listener is all the better for it. I still haven’t got a bottle of his sauce though...
BILL CALLAHAN – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Bill has one of the finest voices in modern music and his increasing presence in my iTunes library and on my shelves was thanks to Shane Meadows, who stuck a Smog track onto the ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ soundtrack. “...Eagle” is another winner of an album from a man most associate with losing.
DECEMBERISTS – Hazards of Love
A overblown fucking mess of a concept album that reminds me of the glory days of prog, even though it’s about as prog as Bon Jovi.
BEAK> - Beak>
A Neu!-style krautrock album from Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, who resurrected Can in the guise of The Horrors on the “Primary Colours” track ‘Sea Within A Sea’. This time he and two chums went into a studio and laid down 12 impressive improvised work-outs. Some of the tracks are a bit meh, but the majority of it is sublime.
HEAVEN & HELL – The Devil You Know
Accept no substitutes. The all-time greatest vocalist in rock is Ronnie James Dio. Responsible for some truly landmark albums, and some of the greatest moments in the long saga that is Black Sabbath, Ronnie is to hard rock what Sinatra is to crooning, only better. On this unexpected gem he is reunited with the glorious Sabbath nucleus that is Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler on what is a Sabbath album in all but name. Drummer Vinnie Appice joins in to fully reunite the ‘Mob Rules’, ‘Dehumanizer’ and ‘Live Evil’ Sabbath and together they have produced the finest hard rock and metal album of the past few years, never mind 2009. It’s a pity they couldn’t call themselves Black Sabbath as this is more like Sabbath than anything Ozzy has done as a solo artist or Iommi did as Sabbath in the ‘wilderness years’ (i.e. most of the 1990’s). “Bible Black” is a fine single, and although Appice lets the side down with some almost-too-steady drumming, the album is a real grower. Here’s hoping Ronnie gets over his recent stomach cancer scare to record a follow up. Dream groups like this get together too rarely and a world with Dio is quite simply unthinkable.
MASTODON – Crack the Skyee
Old school metal played by loons. A bonkers album, but a fierce and mesmerising one at that.
THE ORB – Baghdad Batteries
IT would be easy to say ‘return to form’ for this, but the truth is The Orb have been releasing some very nice albums over the past few years and this is another one of those.
UNDERWORLD vs THE MISTERONS – Athens
An excellent compilation album, with a long-awaited Underworld/Brian Eno hook up yielding an unexpected beast of a track and not an ambient affair that such a team-up would suggest.
SUN O))) – Monoliths and Dimensions
Like Mastodon this is another out-there album, but in a drone style as opposed to an all-out prog-metal attack.
MOUNTAINS – Choral
Gloomy, but once the clouds clear it’s another stunning album from another well-kept American secret. What pains me about albums like this and great bands like Mountains is how come we never hear of the Irish equivalent of them? Are there any out there? And if there is can you make yourself heard please?
ESPERS – III
A complete shift in direction for Espers on this, their third album. Their first two albums were dark and mysterious pleasures, which occasionally brought you to bright plains, but this is pure log cabin stuff. Smoky and less mysterious maybe, but still excellent.
THE SWELL SEASON – Strict Joy
It was always going to be interesting to see what Glen Hansard would do next after winning the Oscar. Would he bank on the success of the Swell Season (who are packing them in all around the world) and make another album with Marketa Irglova, or would he shift the focus back to The Frames? Well, naturally enough he went for the former, but there are enough touches of the latter running through ‘Strict Joy’ to please everyone who has an interest in either. In fact, there are times when the second Swell Season album proper sounds exactly like The Frames, but these are fleeting glimpses , just enough to keep the acts separate, despite them both sharing the same backing players. All the Frames (with Graham Hopkins on drums this time around) play on this fabulously moving album, and having spent the best part of their lives playing with Hansard and the last few years with Swell Season they are operating in a realm that few acts ever reach. Their playing is simply sublime, and having the boys around him makes Hansard soar to new heights. To put it mildly, he’s not afraid to let go, or let rip. Speaking as a long-standing Frames fan, I have never heard him pour as much into an album as he does to this. With the back story of his break-up with Marketa and the death of his father to draw on, it’s no surprise that he goes deep. For her part, Marketa sounds every bit like a woman looking for something (or someone) new, and her sometimes distant vocals are what truly moves this album into the realm of all-time great Irish albums. If this is a break-up album, I can’t wait to hear where they go with their next one.
PEARL JAM – Backspacer
Solid, unpretentious, fulfilling album from a band it’s hard to call veterans. They’re beginning to turn into Tom Petty (as are the Foo Fighters) but thankfully they’re doing so with all the class of Petty himself, if that makes any sense.
TONY ALLEN – Secret Agent
A groovy grower that makes up for hearing so little of this master sticksman on Damon Albarn’s ‘The Good, The Bad and The Queen’ album.
ARCHIVE – Controlling Crowds
One of the many mysteries surrounding Archive is why so little is known about them here and in the UK. They became critics favourites many years ago as a sort of hybrid drum ‘n’ bass act it was ok to like, but after they recruited ex-Power of Dreams frontman Craig Walker and started chartering a Pink Floyd-style course through out-there genres they sort of disappeared but became huge in France. They have released a couple of great albums to no acclaim here, and this is another one of them. They lost Walker a few years ago, but didn’t lose the menace he brought to the band and this is a brilliantly broody piece of work.
DANGERMOUSE and SPARKLEHORSE (& David Lynch)– Dark Night of the Soul
A mixed bag this, and every now and again you can see why the record company (allegedly) refused to release it, but when you don’t take it as a whole, there are some supremely skilful songs in there. You could buy the beautiful packaging if you liked, and if you are a fan of Lynch it is an essential purchase, but I, like everyone else, relied on the illegal download to get us through this very dark night of the soul.
ADAM FRANKLIN – Spent Bullets
The ex-Swervedriver man has been quietly releasing some wonderful albums over the years, and even a recent enough Swervedriver reunion didn’t get in the way of his singular vision and his focus on crafting intelligent albums that the listener returns to again and again.
ISIS – Wavering Radiant
With Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky on the road, it was left to Isis to produce the post-rock album of the year. As heavy as it gets and then some, you’ll either love this album or hate it. There’s little, if any, middle ground.
THERAPY? – Crooked Timber
They’re still with us! And after a couple of dodgy albums they have found the form that made so many of us kick the shit out of each other in Fibbers all those years ago. A cracking return that will hopefully be backed up by an Irish tour of some sort.
THE JUAN MACLEAN – The Future Will Come
Second, stylish album from the DFA alumni, and just as good as “Less Than Human”. Whilst there was little new ground broken, there was still plenty to get excited about.
NEIL YOUNG - Fork in the Road
Another cranky but thoroughly enjoyable NY album. His shows were great this summer too, and his Glastonbury appearance was one of the best things on the telly in years. Long may he reign, although he could do with reducing the price of his Archives set(s).
*Biggest disappointments of the year
THEM CROOKED VULTURES – S/T.
As if the last pair of QOTSA albums weren’t bad enough; Josh Homme has delivered his third turd in a row. You would have imagined that with such talent in the studio some magic would have been produced. But no, all we got was an imitation QOTSA B-sides album; and a really poor, uninspired one at that. Homme really needs to reform Kyuss...
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – Merriweather Post Pavillion
This shower of harmony-loving Beach Boys fans became the darlings of practically every indie journalist this year and I still, for the life of me, cannot fathom why. Despite the really cool cover art, this is a complete and utter pile of unlistenable wank. A big load of tuneless dirges sang by a load of chancers in thrall to Brian Wilson.
*COMPILATION CORNER
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind Volumes 1 and 2 from Amorphous Androgynous are both huge big WOWs! Both of them are incredible, all-over-the-shop trips that are well worth taking. They were great in the Body & Soul area at Electric Picnic this year too. Hopefully the much-mooted Noel G hook-up will materialise as their 22-minute Oasis “remix” is ace
Also liked “Beyond The Wizards Sleeve - Re-Animations, Vol. 1” and “Dirty Edits Volumes 1 and 2” though all three of those are probably years old.
And for some reason this year, quite a few of the free CD's on WORD, UNCUT and MOJO have were astonishingly good, especially a couple of label samplers.
*GIGS OF THE YEAR
The Gutter Twins (Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli) in Dublin and Galway were both brilliant nights of music. The Dublin show was a bit tricky as both of them were in a bad mood, so the Galway show shading it in terms of, er, artist participation. I must review it in full some day, it was a funny night. AC/DC at the o2 was just a dream come true. As metal as it gets. You just can’t beat a metal crowd, and this gig was further proof of my theory.
The Specials were tremendous at the Olympia despite being in the cheap seats and being less-than-excited about them at Oxegen. Faith No More were also fantastic at the Olympia and James at the Academy was just so, so good. I cried during “Sound” and to this day I have never heard such a sing-along for an encore as the whole venue singing a bit of “Sometimes.” The biggest surprise of that intimate July show was that the material from “Hey Ma” sounded excellent. It’s not the easiest of James albums to warm to, but it blazed at The Academy. Mogwai also rocked at the same venue, although I could only afford to go to one of their three shows there. Still, I was lucky enough to go to the one where they played “My Father The King” in full. Nice.
Sadly, there were very few Irish bands to get excited about. As ever I watched dozens of them at The Stables in Mullingar but can only remember (or recommend) a handful. R.S.A.G. was great as was Mick Flannery. I went to him dreading it, but he was quite good it has to be said, and speaking to him afterwards it transpires that he is a total gent.
At the festivals, the double whammy of Nine Inch Nails and Janes Addiction at an otherwise miserable Oxegen took some beating. Blur were worth the wait on the Friday and their dedication to Jo Dolan was very moving and was a lovely touch. Nothing was worth the rain on the Saturday, not even Doves and Nick Cave. Deirdre and I left during Elbow in the late afternoon. No matter how old you are or what your levels of inebriation are, there is nothing worse than standing in the pisses of rain at a festival.
Chic, David Kitt (x2), Explosions in the Sky, Duckworth Lewis Method, Jape and the Tulla Ceili Band (of all people) were some of the few things worth remembering from EP. Truth be told, I enjoyed the Mindfield area more than anything on offer elsewhere. Without question, it was the worst EP yet, with a terrible line-up, plenty of acts on the wrong stages (none more so than Lisa Hannigan on the Main Stage and Flaming Lips in the Electric Arena tent), and a general “if you stage it they will come” mentality that did it, and the punters, a total disservice. It’s a tremendous festival but it really needs a good kick up the hole next year.
It lashed rain at Indiependence in Cork, where The Aftermath and The Blizzards played solid sets. Both bands surprised me on the day in fact. Also playing was a mountain of third-rate Irish bands, most of whom I watched through gritted teeth. Delorentos were good, but the rest of them can forget about it. Despite arriving on stage an hour late, headliners Super Furry Animals at were a class apart. Such a shame they didn’t play elsewhere in Ireland this year as “Dark Days/Light Years” is one of their finest albums.
