August 18th, 2010 §
Remember this…?
#050. Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams (2005) [spotify]
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
If you like acoustic-y singer-songwriter-y stuff, then odds are you like Jack Johnson. If you don’t, feel free to skip ahead to #49 where there is rawk and stuff. This is still one of the favoured “Sunny afternoon chillout” albums at Murray Mansions, and has been since it came out. It’s my belief (though I haven’t checked it) that Johnson was, like David Gray before him, churning away for ages before one particular major release catapulted him up the charts, at least in this country. Certainly it was this, his third release, that brought him to my attention, and it immediately became part of the soundtrack to Summer 2005 with classics like “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing”, “Better Together” and “Staple It Together”. Always puts a smile on the dial. 
TOP TRACK: #7 “Staple It Together”.
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April 13th, 2010 §
Halfway, you say? Might get to number 1 by June then!
#060. Foo Fighters – In Your Honor (2005) [spotify]
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
Who ordered Grohl? Honestly, there’s loads of it to go around. Practically drowning in Grohl, we are. Grohl, anyone? Go on, it’s tasty!
One of the hardest working men in rock, the guy who used to be “the drummer in Nirvana” has certainly stepped out from under that massive shadow. His ties to acts like Tenacious D, Queens of the Stone Age and recent supergroup Them Crooked Vultures aside, just the work he’s put into Foo Fighters alone speaks volumes. This album is a bit of a departure from previous in that it’s a game of two halves – one disc of 10 rock tracks and one disc of 10 mellower acoustic tracks, but unlike the somewhat patchy predecessor One By One, they got it right here. It’s literally all good.
Fact Box: Dave likes his coffee fresh. For reals.
TOP TRACK: #3 “Best of You”.
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March 24th, 2010 §
Underlay underlay!
#070. Backyard Babies – Stockholm Syndrome (2003) [spotify]
Backyard Babies - Stockholm Syndrome
When I think of Swedish rock, this is who I think of. While I wasn’t really a fan of their first two albums Diesel & Power and Total 13, it was their awesome 2001 release Making Enemies is Good that really grabbed me – more on which later. This followup from 2003 does feature one really irritating (to me, anyway) song in “Pigs for Swine”, but that is far outweighed by awesome rockers like “Minus Celsius”, “Song for the Outcast”, “Year By Year”, and the splendid “Friends”. This is gritty hard rock done properly and you should be listening to it right now. SO WHY AREN’T YOU?
TOP TRACK: #2 “Minus Celsius”.
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March 10th, 2010 §
I’m actually playing a gig! Last year the first line-up of Thunderhead played exactly one (1) gigs, and promptly exploded.
This year we are back with a new line-up (in actual fact it’s the line-up that used to be Panik Attakk), and this coming Saturday we will play as many gigs in one day as we did all last year. Yes! One!
We’re opening for Hastings stalwarts of old, The Lost Boys, at Phoenix Arts Centre in Hastings. We’re first on of three bands, and we’ll be kicking off around 8:30pm.
Should you be in the area and wish to come along, get advance tickets here and find the venue here.
It has literally been a long time since I rock and rolled, and I for one intend to have a fucking blast.
Get on it,
–c.
March 8th, 2010 §
Quelle heure et-il?
#080. Racer X – Getting Heavier (2002)
Racer X - Getting Heavier
If you’re anything like me – and I know I am – then you first became aware of Paul Gilbert‘s pyrotechnic (such a cliché to use that word in this context, but when it comes to Pablo it really is appropriate) guitar playing during the Mr. Big era, circa 1990 or so. At the time, reaching into his back catalogue and dipping into the older Racer X albums was a bit of a painful experience, to be honest. Dude – so not cool. But in 1998 they got back together and stuck their tongues properly into their cheeks, releasing the awesome Technical Difficulties in 1999, followed by the if anything more amazing Superheroes in 2000. But I’m featuring Getting Heavier here, purely because I personally like it more, and hey! It’s still MY chart! Fab tracks like “Go-GG-Go”, “Lucifer’s Hammer”, “Dr. X” and the track which named my podcast “Bucket of Rocks” are not only shredmungous, but will also put a smile on your face. Get thee behind me, po-faced widdlers!
TOP TRACK: #6 “Heaven in ’74″.
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February 17th, 2010 §
Mucho splendido?
#090. Eluveitie – Spirit (2006) [spotify]
Eluveitie - Spirit
So, what do you get if you take poundingly heavy metal, add penny whistles and hurdy-gurdys, and sing over it in an extinct language? Eluveitie, that’s what! Yes, it’s more folk metal – this time hailing from Switzerland (the German-speaking bit, I think) and singing/screaming largely in Gaulish. Bloody excellent fun, this is.
TOP TRACK: #3 “Your Gaulish War”.
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February 9th, 2010 §
So. Away we go. My top 100 albums of the last decade.
Some of them I already reviewed in Rocktober, some of them will get a decent review, some just a couple of lines. Note also that unlike Rocktober, this chart takes in all genres – at least the ones that I listen to, which as mentioned before, is not really what you’d call a broad church of music.
Also, it’s a very rough list, position-wise. Any entry could easily move at least 10 positions or so in either direction depending on what day of the week it is, how much sleep I got the night before, how many drinks I’ve had etc. And it’s my list, my opinion, my party and I’ll scream and cry and kick and scratch if I want to. You may cry out in dismay “What, no (Duffy/Megadeth/Dizzee Rascal/Paolo Nutini/whoever)??? Again, it’s my list. You no likee, you get your own. (Anyway I still haven’t heard Megadeth’s “Endgame”…)
That is how it is, it could never be otherwise.
#100. David Bowie – Heathen (2002) [spotify]
David Bowie - Heathen
Is it cold in space, Bowie? Do you have just one spacesuit, Bowie, or do you have a few ch-ch-ch-changes?
Say what you like about Bowie – go on, say it – but you have to admit he doesn’t just churn out the same old stuff over and over. According to his Wikipedia page this 2002 release falls into his current “neoclassicist” era. I have no idea what they mean by that, but it sounds good. This is (as WP also points out) a very atmospheric album, with a dark melancholic almost ambient vibe running through it. Ideal for driving wistfully through the night along the A66 over the Pennines in February fog.
Do they smoke grass in space, Bowie? Or do you smoke Astroturf?
TOP TRACK: #5 “Afraid”.
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February 4th, 2010 §
Some time back, perhaps December or so, I happened across a link to NME magazine’s top 100 albums of the decade, spanning release dates from January 2000 to December 2009. Unsurprisingly if you know me, I found little to cheer about in this list. My taste in music is not what you would call particularly NME-friendly. But seeing it made me start to think about what my top 100 albums would be from that period. The earlier years were when hard rock started to re-emerge from it’s dormant post-grunge state, and though unbeknownst to me at the time, the mid-00s bore a whole new genre – one that has since captured my imagination in a way that no genre has before – Folk Metal.
I don’t claim to have a wide musical taste. No, really. It’s about 60% hard rock, 25% metal (folk and otherwise), 5% acoustic, 5% ambient/chillout, and 5% classical, according to a recent poll I just took of myself.
So I have spent the last 6 weeks or so compiling my own list. And you know what? I’m going to post it, 10 at a time, with very tiny reviews. Why? It’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.
Only 6 albums appear on both my list and NME’s, and those are:
- Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
- Green Day – American Idiot
- Muse – Absolution
- The Coral – The Coral
- Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf
- Radiohead – In Rainbows
But where do they appear? And what do I think of them? And what will be in the top 10? Well the answers to all these questions and less are on their way soon for whoever gives a monkey’s.
–c.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_metal
