Click here to view the embedded video.

I have a horse outside.

–c.

#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”.

#049. Forty Deuce – Nothing to Lose (2005) [spotify]

Forty Deuce - Nothing to Lose

Like many, I loves me some Richie Kotzen. I must confess though, that my favourite stuff is his early period – Fever Dream, Electric Joy, Mother Head’s Family Reunion. The whole thing where he took it down a notch and released (seemingly) about fifty albums that sound pretty much the same, is I’m sure artistically verifying for him and all that, but I can take it or leave it. Everything from 1996′s Wave of Emotion up to 2004′s Get Up just does very little for me, and that’s when I kind of stopped paying attention. (Note: 2009′s Peace Sign is excellent, btw.)

But in 2005 he released this album under the monicker Forty Deuce, and went some way back to his hard rock roots, and the result is superb. Proper hard rocking tunes, verging on heavy, and some frankly incandescent guitar work without ever really labouring the point. “Start It Up”, indeed.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Oh My God”.

#048. Underride – One of Us (2008)

Underride - One of Us

Historically, when you think of Seattle, you initially think of one band. That band is obviously Queensrÿche. (If you said Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or any of the early 90s grungers, go to the back of the class.) But it’s always been a musical melting pot – aside from the 90s grungesplosion, people like Hendrix, Nikki Sixx and Duff McKagan all cut their teeth in Jet City, as well as such nonrock luminaries as Sir Mix-A-Lot, Kenny G, and jazzer Bill Frisell. Scant surprise then when it turns out a top quality rawk band, which it has done with Underride. Not heard of them? I’m not surprised – I caught a mention of them on Sleaze Roxx one day, and took a punt on the album as it was payday, but good thing I did. This is some really energised no-nonsense rock music led by a fan-fucking-tastic singer. Get it if you can find it.

TOP TRACK: #6 “Upstart Coming Up”.

#047. Zero 7 – When It Falls (2004) [spotify]

Zero 7 - When It Falls

Some albums are amazing whenever and wherever you listen to them, but others suit a specific situation, and if there is a better “sunny Saturday afternoon, BBQ in the garden, friends round, couple of drinks, chilling out until sundown” album out there, I’ve yet to hear it.  Beezer.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Home”.

#046. Black Stone Cherry – Black Stone Cherry (2006) [spotify]

Black Stone Cherry - Black Stone Cherry

When I first heard these boys I knew they were going to be something special. This is their self-titled debut album, and it gets right down to business with the chuggy Zeppelin-esque riffage of “Rain Wizard”, and doesn’t let up from there. One thing that hits you immediately is the depth and character of singer/guitarist Chris Robertson’s voice. He sounds like he’s been out there rocking the free world for thirty years or more, but in truth he hasn’t even been alive that long. This band are young, but that doesn’t mean they’re green – the 13 songs on this album are expertly crafted blocks of Southern-fried rock standing somewhere between Black Label Society and Lynyrd Skynyrd in terms of heritage, and by the time the final cut “Rollin’ On” has faded away, you’ll know you’ve been Cherryed.

TOP TRACK: #5 “When the Weight Comes Down”.

#045. American Pearl – American Pearl (2000)

American Pearl - American Pearl

Can’t remember for the life of me how I came across this CD, though thinking about it it was more than likely one of those “customers who bought X also bought Y” thingers on Amazon. Never heard of before or since, Wikipedia offers scant information other than that the band was the brainchild of one Kevin Roentgen, who did some other stuff afterwards. Hmmm. Well, whatever, this is an ace hard rock record – well constructed rock songs, good riffs, tasteful guitar (no huge solos knocking holes in the songs) and nice raw production. Effective – recommended.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Automatic”.

#044. Wheatus – Wheatus (2000) [spotify]

Wheatus - Wheatus

Wheatus, the brainchild of Brendan B Brown, will have first come to the attention of most readers (if at all) with their monster hit single of 2000, “Teenage Dirtbag”, which as well as being a huge MTV smash was also on a hit movie (if the movie “Loser” was a hit, I don’t really know to be honest) soundtrack, and thus found its way into the ears of millions that Summer. My then girlfriend (now wife) quite liked it, and talked me into buying the album one day in Virgin on Oxford Street and it’s been a favourite ever since. Catchy and fun, and not afraid to offend on occasion, few albums in my collection can raise a smile as reliably as this one.

TOP TRACK: #8 “Love Is a Mutt from Hell”.

#043. Alter Bridge – One Day Remains (2004) [spotify]

Alter Bridge - One Day Remains

If you’re anything like me – and I know I am – then you loved the music that Creed were making, but just found the singer Scott Stapp a little bit irritating sometimes. It’s not that he’s a bad singer – he really isn’t, he’s pretty bloody good, but his style just grates with me a little bit sometimes, y’know? So wouldn’t it be cool if you could take the band and make them write stuff roughly 12% heavier, and replace the singer with someone even better? It would be, and the result is called Alter Bridge. Singer Myles Kennedy is so freaking good that it’s almost unfair to compare Stapp to him, inevitable though that is. Anyway, musically here you have Tremonti and co riffing away like their lives depend on it in a variety of dropped tunings and Kennedy wailing over it all like some dark angel of rock, and by god what a record. I shut up, you go listen.

TOP TRACK: #2 “One Day Remains”.

#042. Coldplay – Parachutes (2000) [spotify]

Coldplay - Parachutes

Yeah yeah yeah, I don’t want to hear it. Fashionable as it (still!) is to knock Coldplay and to sneer at Chris Martin, I have always liked their music. “But it’s just pop crap, it’s audio beige, it’s by-the-numbers cranked out faux-pop-rock bullshit” – yawn. Are you finished? Good. Hang on a minute, I think I have 20p somewhere, you can go phone someone who cares.

Now, I used to like Radiohead, but as mentioned before, I only liked them in their early days – Pablo Honey and The Bends, and OK Computer was for me where they started to go off the rails and I stopped being interested. The reason for this? I liked the style of music on those first two albums, and not so much on the latter ones. I admire Radiohead for being adventurous and changing styles, but I just happen not to like the styles they chose as they grew and changed – and this left a musical hole, which Coldplay filled nicely when they came along in 2000 with Parachutes. I think you have here a really well written and delivered pop album, and if you just forget about Chris Martin and his “we’re going to save the world through the use of wristbands” nonsense, you can really enjoy the songs and the instrumentation. Well produced, too.

I like it a lot, you may not. You are welcome to your opinion, and so am I.

TOP TRACK: #6 “Trouble”.

#041. Nickelback – Silver Side Up (2001) [spotify]

Nickelback - Silver Side Up

Yeah yeah yeah, I don’t want to hear it. Fashionable as it (still!) is to knock Nickelback and to sneer at their brand of corporate rock, I have always liked a lot of their music.

This was their breakthrough album, despite having two previous albums under their belts, kicked hugely into the public eye on the back of the ultra-success of the mega-single “How You Remind Me”. (By the way, if you’ve only ever heard that song on the radio, you should really hear the album version. It has guitars in it.) Now it’s true that since then, Chad’s cut most of his hair off so he appeals to more girlies, there are four ballads on every album, and three of them are the same songs with different-ish lyrics, and yes, they did that fucking “Rockstar” song. But this album is still excellent, and tracks like “Never Again” and “Too Bad” are undeniably rockmungous.

TOP TRACK: #4 “Too Bad”.

#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”.

#059. Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot (2009) [spotify]

Chickenfoot - Chickenfoot

Did someone say supergroup? A marketing dream. This is how I heard it went…:

“OK, so who are we gonna get on vocals? Um… oh hey, here’s an idea – now that Van Halen have reformed with DLR, Sammy Hagar is definitely free. He rocks, let’s get him! Yeah cool, great idea. Oh and hey, you know they got Eddie’s son on bass, right? I know, fucked. Totally. But that means Michael Anthony is free, and his backing vocals are awesome. Great, so we got a singer and a bassist, from one of the biggest bands in rock! Awesome, great start! OK, what about drummer? Um… fuck, dunno. Oh hey, you know who’s awesomely solid, and sings too, and can handle any shit you throw at him? That guy out of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers! And they’re on a break, right? See if he’s free. He is? Fucking nice! This is going really well. OK, so now we need a guitarist. Um… can’t be just any guitarist, obviously. I mean, we have Van Halen meets Red Hot Chilli Peppers already. Yeah, I know, pinch me! OK, so who do we get on guitar…? Got to be a big name. Not someone who wants to get any lead vocal limelight though, Sammy’s got that covered. OK, so that rules a few out. EVH? No, fuck him, we’ve already got two members of Van Halen, plus he totally jumped the shark a couple years ago. Um… hey, you know what, it would be totally awesome if we could get… nah, he’s too huge. And probably busy. Mind you he did do that Deep Purple thing a few years back. Hmmm. OK, stay with me here. See if you can get Joe Satriani on the phone. Yeah, I know, but try. Just pick up the phone, what we got to lose? Try him now, Stargate is on, and he’s addicted to that show, so he’ll be at home. No, really. It’s like a ritual with him. Always with the Stargate marathons and endless bags of cheesy poofs. I know, drives his wife nuts. Try him, dude, get dialling. He said WHAT? No no, tell me again, I dropped my lite beer. He said…? Wow. Fuck me sideways.”

Allegedly.

Brilliant album too.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Sexy Little Thing”.

#058. The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die (2009) [spotify]

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

This is a long fucking way from “Charly Says”, let me tell you. Srsly. The Prodigy, as ever, don’t fuck about and once the bass buildup and intro riff of track 1, the title track, have gone round a few times a muted voice says “We are… The Prodigy” and then your brain gets kicked in the fucking face. Hard.

From that point on it gets a bit mental. In fact, it kicks off, it what it does. This is a superbly heavy dance album that always sounds 100% like The Prodigy, even though iconic spike-barnetted gurning microphone-botherer Keith Flint’s vocals are only featured on a small number of the tracks (I can’t verify exactly how many right now – 3 or 4 I think). Don’t worry though – this really is proper Prodigy, and most of this album makes Fat of the Land sound like Celine fucking Dion.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Omen”.

#057. Angels & Airwaves – We Don’t Need to Whisper (2006) [spotify]

Angels & Airwaves - We Don't Need to Whisper

I’d never heard of these chaps, until a friend bade me listen to them one evening, following which I was still pretty unimpressed. He assured me it was “great smoking music”, but since I haven’t toked the weed in many years this was not such interesting news to me. A few weeks later I found myself in the house alone, a shade drunk, and casting about for something newish to listen to, and so I popped this album on again and this time it properly hit home. A&A are the brainchild of Blink 182 singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge, and the band came about when Blink 182 went on hiatus in 2005. The music is far more laid back than anything Blink ever did, and the lyrics tend towards the introspective rather than the expectorative, and you know what? It’s bloody great.

TOP TRACK: #10 “Start the Machine”.

#056. Korpiklaani – Karkelo (2009) [spotify]

Korpiklaani - Karkelo

Well folk me sideways, we’re folking again! The lead single from this album – “Vodka” – was one of the gateway tracks that first led me down the folk metal path, and I still challenge any of you to listen to it and not at least raise a smile, perhaps even a shot glass. My folk metal research at the time told me that while many folk metallers have been metal musicians/bands beforehand and then decided to go down a folk-ish road, Korpiklaani did it the other way round. They used to be a full-on folk band called Shaman, but changed the name to Korpiklaani (which means “Forest Clan”, by the way) when they went metal. These guys are Finnish, and that means they drink a lot. No, really. Only two songs on this album are in English, and those are “Vodka” and “Bring Us Pints of Beer (If You Don’t Drink, You Can Leave)”, though two of the Finnish tracks are booze related too: “Juodaan Viinaa” apparently translates to “Let’s Drink Booze”, and the slightly sombre closing track “Kohmelo” means “Hangover”. I happen to have all of Korpiklaani’s albums, and I can assure you that this is not a new development – a quick squizz at the discography reveals such wonders as “Let’s Drink”, “Happy Little Boozer”, “Beer Beer”, “Ryyppäjäiset” (which means “Booze-Up”), and “Wooden Pints”. Much of their stuff is in Finnish, and as with other folk metal bands I have found this to matter not one jot. If you like your metal to be good-natured and jolly throughout, and to contain accordions, Korpiklaani are the band for you.

Anyone fancy a pint?

TOP TRACK: #1 “Vodka”.

#055. Damien Rice – O (2003) [spotify]

Damien Rice - O

Now then.

Allmusic win the hyperbole award for Charles Spano’s review of O, calling it “nothing less than a work of genius”. Now while we know “genius” to be one of the most overused words in music, Damien Rice’s debut album comes at least very close to deserving it. This could quite easily have been an album of simple acoustic songs, well written with heartbreaking lyrics and heartfelt delivery, and it would have been no less than great. But it’s in the instrumentations and arrangements that O kicks down the front door of your soul and occupies every part of your attention until it’s had its way with you and departs, leaving you lying emotionally spent and broken on the couch, yet also strangely uplifted at the same time.

Yeah. Really. No guff, Chet. This is a hell of an album, and no mistake. The reason it’s not higher in the chart is I just don’t listen to it that often, for the simple reason that I don’t always want to make the emotional investment and have to go through musical rehab afterwards. Though as I say this, I’m humming “Volcano” in my head. Hmmm. Maybe I will give it a listen. I’m not doing anything tomorrow that can’t be cancelled.

TOP TRACK: Very hard to pick, but I’ll go with #3 “The Blower’s Daughter”.

#054. Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords (2008) [spotify]

Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

It’s the album of the TV show, and it contains all the best tunes therein. If you watched series 1 of FotC then you’ll already be acquainted with such wondertunes as “Business Time”, “Robots”, “Mutha’uckas”, “Leggy Blonde” and the utterly awesome Pet Shop Boys homage “Inner City Pressure”. Get it, listen to it, relive Jermaine’s excellent dancing from that bit with the party, get a bit wistful about New Zealand and maybe even think about watching Lord of the Rings again.

It’s business… it’s business time.

Fact Box: I share Jermaine’s birthday.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Inner City Pressure”.

#053. Josh Todd – You Made Me (2003) [spotify]

Josh Todd - You Made Me

It’s no secret, I loves me some Buckcherry. Mmmm! Yum! In fact there’s only one act with more entries in this chart than Buckcherry (not counting this solo effort), and you’ll have to wait until near the end to find out who that is. But back to the illustrated man, Todd. Buckcherry were riding pretty high after their awesome second album Time Bomb in 2001 yet the band broke up not long after. They reformed to great success in 2005, but in between Todd released this solo album, and very different it is in musical style to any of Buckcherry’s stuff. The riffs are heavier, the production is crisper, the overall sound is nearer to Korn and the Deftones than the L.A. strip sound that Buckcherry carried out so well. And Todd’s lyrics are less about getting wasted and partying, and show a more introspective side to a man who clearly either has a lot of issues to purge, or who just watches too much TV. Either way, he’s on absolutely top form here. Superb.

TOP TRACK: #4 “Flowers & Cages”.

#052. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (2004) [spotify]

Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters

I get the feeling I might lose the room with this one, but I am unashamed. I love this album. From the opening bars of “Laura” to the closing piano parts of the excellent “Return To Oz”, it just makes me grin. The big (nay HUGE) single was of course “Take Your Mama”, which is to this day one of best dancey disco tunes made since the 70s, and the audacious and splendid cover of Pink Floyd‘s “Comfortably Numb” proves, if proof be need be, that the whole thing is done with tongue firmly in cheek. Might be best not to think about which cheek perhaps, but there you go. There are a couple of duddos – “Filthy/Gorgeous” and “Music Is The Victim” spring to mind – but overall it’s wonderful. Track 10 “It Can’t Come Quickly Enough” is a particular highlight.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Take Your Mama”.

#051. Peter Gabriel – Up (2002)

Peter Gabriel - Up

The mighty mighty Peter Gabriel continues his minimalistically titled album theme into the 2000s with Up (following 1986′s So and 1992′s Us), and a cracker it is too. Never afraid to experiment or venture into new sonic territory, Gabs gives us a bit of an emotional runaround on this album – from the abrasive opener “Darkness” through the reflective “I Grieve” and “No Way Out” and the frankly beautiful “Sky Blue” to the classic Gabriel-style pop tunes “Growing Up”, “More Than This” and the epic “The Barry Williams Show”, there’s not a bad tune on here and like the earlier albums, I recommend it be consumed as a whole. It’s a musical journey worth taking every now and then.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Sky Blue”.

#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”.

#069. Mötley Crüe – Saints of Los Angeles (2008) [spotify]

Mötley Crüe - Saints of Los Angeles

As previously intimated, 2008 was a hell of a comback year for many of the old rock dinosaurs, and this was a pretty hotly anticipated album right here. The Crüe released Red White & Crüe in 2005, another entry in a frankly annoying list of compilation albums, though this one was notable for the buzz it created with two brand new tracks – “If I Die Tomorrow” and “Sick Love Song” – which are possibly two of the best songs the band have ever made. On the back of this buzz they went off on a huge tour or two, before descending on the studio for their first properly original lineup album* since 1989′s Dr. Feelgood, so you have to ask… is it any good? Well yes it is. There are a couple of lyrical moments that stretch credibility a little (these guys are mostly in their 50s now, remember) but they still have the punch that always kept them out in front of the rest of the leather and hairspray posse, and by god Nikki Sixx can write a rock song. A couple of filler tunes, but not too many, and the good ones are really good.

*Fans will note that 1997′s Generation Swine was original lineup – yes, but many of the songs were written with and for John Corabi when Vince Neil wasn’t in the band, and so they don’t work that well as their voices live in very different registers. Thus it wasn’t properly original lineup, in my eyes.

TOP TRACK: #5 “Saints of Los Angeles”.

#068. Paul Gilbert – Burning Organ (2002)

Paul Gilbert - Burning Organ

This album opens with not really a song, more a mission statement, called “I Like Rock”. Here are the lyrics, in full:

“I like rock. Music will never stop. Gives me electric shock. I like rock. Turn it loud. Want to go scream and shout. Get my emotions out. I like rock. I want to play guitar every day. Yeah, I want to play guitar every day. I like to crank it, crank it all the way, yeah I want to play guitar every day.”

Do you really need to know more? It’s Paul Gilbert at his bombastic best with his tongue in his cheek as always, with 13 great pop/rock tunes including a Donna Summer cover, riffing his way across the desert of shred and never coming up short.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Bliss”.

#067. Whitesnake – Good to Be Bad (2008) [spotify]

Whitesnake - Good to Be Bad

Here’s what I had to say about this one back in December 2008, in a post entitled 2008 in Rock:

Did someone say Whitesnake? Cripes. When you look at the history of Whitesnake from a guitarist’s perspective, it reads like a who’s who of hard rock. Micky Moody, Bernie Marsden, John Sykes, Adrian Vandenburg, Steve fucking Vai for Pete’s sake, Vivian Campbell, Warren DeMartini, and more. So who’re the current string-manglers? Oh, no-one special. You know. Just Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich.

And I tell you another thing – this is a brilliant album. I’d say it tops Slip of the Tongue in many ways. Coverdale seems to just get better with age (just like cheese, and you know where there’s Whitesnake, there’s cheese!), and the 11 songs on this record are all masterfully constructed globs of molten rock that you just can’t deny. Stupendous!

TOP TRACK: #2 “Can You Hear The Wind Blow”.

#066. Transmission OK – The Sky, the Stars and the Great Beyond (2000)

Transmission OK - The Sky, the Stars and the Great Beyond

Back in the early days when I was learning to play guitar, it was the heyday of the Shrapnel shredders, many of whom graduated to being a lot more than just speed merchants – Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine, Paul Gilbert, Richie Kotzen and more – and it was quite usual to buy an issue of Guitar World and open the front cover to find either a double page Ibanez or Dimarzio advert, or a spread by Shrapnel advertising all the CDs they were currently punting. But if you bought the other magazine Guitar for the Practicing Musician, you’d often find a full page advert somewhere in it for an album by a little known guitarist with a funky name and cool hair. That guy was Blues Saraceno, and the album was Never Look Back (the magazine apparently funded and released the album). I bought it on tape, and was wowed, and still to this day I’ve never heard anyone who sounds like Blues on guitar. So when I heard that he’d replaced Richie Kotzen in Poison, I thought “Oh, cool.” Then when I heard the album they were recording had been shelved and the band was on indefinite hiatus, I though “Oh, crap.” So then when I heard that Blues had put a new band together and released an album much more focussed on songs than wailing, and he was also doing lead vocals, I thought “Oh, excellent.”

I’ll forgive you if you’ve never heard of Transmission OK, really I will. This is the only album they recorded, and while it apparently served as a springboard into the world of production for Blues, as a commercial entity I don’t think it ever troubled any charts. Nonetheless, I reckon it’s great. One thing though – don’t go out there and track this down at great expense if you’re wanting wail and shred. The first guitar solo on this album is on track 5, and it’s 4 bars long. Tasty, if brief.

TOP TRACK: #1 “Swimming”.

#065. DoubleDrive – Blue in the Face (2003) [spotify]

DoubleDrive - Blue in the Face

This splendid album was reviewed last year, on the 1st of Rocktober.

TOP TRACK: #1 “11:59″.

#064. Hardcore Superstar - Beg For It (2009) [spotify]

Hardcore Superstar - Beg For It

A second entry in the top 100 for these boys, and a cracker it is too. Original guitarist Thomas Silver left the band (apparently because he had “lost his fire and inspiration“  though Wikipedia doesn’t make it clear whether that is his wording or the band’s…) just after the recording of the previous album Dreamin’ In A Casket, prompting the band to temporarily steal Vic Zino from fellow Swede-rockers Crazy Lixx to cover six-string duties for the rest of the tour. He signed up for the vacant role, and this is the first album to feature him on das axe, and it does sound like the whole band has had a shot in the arm (and probably a shot of vodka). Top stuff this – consistent pounding rockers from start to finish, and I reckon their best album yet.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Into Debauchery”.

#063. The Killers – Hot Fuss (2004) [spotify]

The Killers - Hot Fuss

GASP! That’s not ROCK!

It kind of is, you know. But it’s like British indie-rock, sort of thing. In fact The Killers have been described as “the best British band to come out of Las Vegas”, so UK-influenced was their sound when they popped up in 2004 with this brilliant debut. At the time, I ignored them utterly, only having ears for the resurgent rawk bands like Skid Row that were coming back out of the woodwork and the newer bands that were championing the cause of tattoos, leather and whiskey like Buckcherry and Backyard Babies. It was their second album that really grabbed me, but I went back and checked out Hot Fuss, and testified. There are some brilliant tunes on here, quite apart from the massive singles “Somebody Told Me” and “Mr. Brightside” – personally I think the opener “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” is pick of the bunch, and the wonderfully grimy Doors-esque “Andy You’re A Star” is another highlight. Whatever you may think of Brandon Flowers and co., this album made a big hefty footprint on the pop scene in 2004, and the follow-up Sam’s Town was utterly epic, more on which later. Shame the third album Day & Age was such bollocks, really.

TOP TRACK: #1 “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine”.

#062. DragonForce – Inhuman Rampage (2006) [spotify]

DragonForce - Inhuman Rampage

Reviewed last year on the 21st of Rocktober.

TOP TRACK: #1 “Through the Fire and Flames”.

#061. Garbage – Beautiful Garbage (2001) [spotify]

Garbage - Beautiful Garbage

I know you – you’re a smart, independent, intelligent woman, and you like Garbage. Just like me. No wait…

Anyway, I kind of liked Garbage from hearing a couple of singles (most likely “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains”) off the first album, and was properly impressed by the followup Version 2.0. This though, is to my mind, their best work. The punchy opener “Shut Your Mouth” and the splendid lead single “Androgyny” kick things off in style, then the Bond-theme-esque “Can’t Cry These Tears” heads off in a different direction altogether. This album actually reminds me of some of Muse‘s less histrionic stuff, and that’s meant as a very high compliment. Other highlights include “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)”, “Breaking Up The Girl” and “Untouchable”. This is a superb album from start to end, always melodic and interesting, and infused throughout with Shirley Manson’s huge charm and occasional sneer. This is not chick rock, this is just bloody good music.

TOP TRACK: #7 “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)”.

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.

#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″.

#079. Andy Timmons – That Was Then, This Is Now (2002)

Andy Timmons - That Was Then, This Is Now

Andy Timmons was, in slightly more denim-and-hairspray days, the guitarist for early ’90s poodle metal poseurs Danger Danger, who at the time I loved (and who kept on going even after Andy left and the record companies gave up and the fans got old and the genre had a heart attack and everyone stopped caring… srsly, they’re still at it!) and who put out one of the absolute albums of my youth, Screw It! (exclamation mark as part of given title, not my hyperbole). This is an instrumental guitar rock album that stands alongside anything Satriani or Vai ever put out, and beats many of them hands down for sheer listenability. One thing that sticks out to the ears of a guitarist is Andy’s awesome proficiency at the homage – there are several on this album (“Beautiful, Strange” to Joe Satriani, “I Remember Stevie” to SRV, “Electric Gypsy” to Hendrix, even a vocal tribute to George Harrison in “Slips Away”) and while each one is recognisably “in the style of”, they still all sound like Andy underneath. Beezer.

TOP TRACK: #1 “Super 70s”.

#078. Goldie Lookin’ Chain – Greatest Hits (2004) [spotify]*

Goldie Lookin' Chain - Greatest Hits

A lot of people will have become aware of Welsh rappers Goldie Lookin Chain when this – their first major label release – came out in 2004 along with the accompanying first single “Half Man Half Machine”, though I was lucky enough to have been introduced to them a year or two previously thanks to a colleague, Mr Matt Firth, who had been to uni in Newport and was well versed in the ways of the safe clarts from the ‘Port. The first major release being called Greatest Hits is reference to the fact that it’s largely a compilation of tracks from their previous 6 independently produced albums, and while it was great fun at the time, it was perhaps obvious that mainstream success for the Chain would be shortlived, being largely a novelty act to all but the devoted hardcore fans (similarly to labelmates The Darkness, actually). Anyway, while I personally find most of the Chain’s output hilarious (provided I’m in the right mood), the earlier stuff can be pretty hit and miss, so this is probably the best way to get your Chain on if you haven’t already. On the other hand, if you knows it, and you’re safe as fuck, get ‘em all, clart. It’s the only way you’ll find such gems as “Ice T”, “The Alchemist”, “Delivery Driver” and “Taxi (Enter the Dragon)”. Innit.

Tidy.

TOP TRACK: #6 “Soap Bar”.

*Spotify lists this album under its US release title, Straight Outta Newport.

#077. Hardcore Superstar - Hardcore Superstar (2005) [spotify]

Hardcore Superstar - Hardcore Superstar

I discovered these guys from Gothenburg, Sweden (what do they put in the water over there? Oh wait, it’s probably vodka, isn’t it…) in about 2003 or so, and while their earlier albums were definitely energetic, they were a bit patchy and inconsistent. They took a year or so break after the third one (my least favourite, titled No Regrets) and came back suitably refreshed in 2005 with this eponymous slab of granite-hard rock that put them right back on the map. There’s some amazing rock music coming out of Sweden in the last 10 years, and these guys are awesome. Do not miss.

TOP TRACK: #5 “We Don’t Celebrate Sundays”.

#076. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (2009) [spotify]

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Some time in the Autumn I was flicking channels and settled on a Glasto highlights show. Often easy watching, sometimes really enjoyable, definitely more pleasant than mudbathing for 3 days. Anyway, in between the interminable interchangeable indie outfits, the coverage cut to a backstage paddock in which 6 or 7 guys with horns and such were knocking out some fabulous tunes. They turned out to be the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, and this is their self-titled major label debut album, and it’s bloody wonderful. Splendid street-jazz from Chicago, this always puts a grin on my dial.

TOP TRACK: #4 “Ballicki Bone”.

#075. L.A. Guns – Waking the Dead (2002)

L.A. Guns - Waking the Dead

L.A. Guns have become a joke as far as I can tell these days. In fact, they’ve become two jokes, since there are now two warring factions – or rather two bands touring under the same name; one with the original singer Phil Lewis, and one with the original guitarist, Tracii Guns. This all came about when Guns left to form Brides of Destruction with Nikki Sixx (more on them in a moment), and so the rest of the band replaced him with the dubiously monickered Stacey Blades, leaving Guns deeply in the shit when Sixx quit the Brides (Sixx is one of the best songwriters in hard rock history. Tracii Guns is… um… well he can play a riff or two…), prompting Guns to say “Um, fine, well fuck you then I’ll start my OWN band called L.A. Guns!” Should you need more info on that, wikipedia can hook you up as always. This, however, was the last album to feature Guns on guitar, and despite what I just said about Tracii, the songs on this one are bloody good. A damn sight better than the *shite* followup Tales From the Strip, which was of course the first to feature his replacement, so I guess Tracii must be doing something right. (Just make sure you skip the second Brides album… it’s awful…)

Whatever. Forget all that crap, and listen to Waking the Dead. It’s great.

TOP TRACK: #9 “Lost in the City of Angels”.

#074. Muse – The Resistance (2009) [spotify]

Muse - The Resistance

I loves me some Muse, yessir! Oh yes. So effusive was I upon plugging this CD into my computer that I was temporarily dubbed a “dribbling Muse fanboy”, and rightly so. However, unlike their previous albums, this deepest of loves turned out to be mere infatuation, and the reason for this is that I only love the first half of the album. There, I said it. The first three tracks are just awesome, the fourth and fifth are also great, then it starts to go a little wobbly for me. Of course, the final three tracks form a symphony in their own right, something which not many bands would attempt in this day and age, and Bellamy & Co. should be applauded for their audacity if nothing else. Other criticisms levelled at the trio from Devon range from “I can’t stand his voice” to “That just sounds like Queen/Radiohead/the Doctor Who theme”. Balls. Muse are in the driving seat of British rock (maybe Radiohead are in the passenger seat, fiddling with the air-con) and if they wear their influences on their sleeves, who cares? They also fucking *own* live.

Final word: an album of two halves, Terry. Not their best work, but still better than a lot of current bands by a mile or six.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Undisclosed Desires”.

#073. Turisas – The Varangian Way (2007) [spotify]

Turisas - The Varangian Way

Recently described by a folk metal novice friend of mine as “utterly stupendous”, I would heartily recommend this as a “gateway” album if you have any interest in trying out the genre at all. Uncompromising, epic, harsh, and above all concept, The Varangian Way is Viking/Battle metal at its very best (with slight Pirate tendencies). Go on, whack this on, and tell me that by the time you get to “Miklagard Overture” you don’t want to go on a river tour of Scandinavia and northern Europe. Possibly wearing armour.

Go on. I dare you.

TOP TRACK: #1 “To Holmgard and Beyond”. (Yes, really.)

#072. Brides Of Destruction – Here Come the Brides (2003)

Brides Of Destruction - Here Come the Brides

So, yeah. As mentioned earlier, here we have one of the best songwriters in rock, Mötley Crüe‘s Nikki Sixx, along with famed guitarist from L.A. Guns, Tracii Guns, together to form a new band and kick out some jams. I recall getting this album just after it came out, and it almost welded itself into my CD player. 9 hard and fast songs that get in, get the job done, and are zipping themselves up and halfway down the fire escape before you know what happened. Trust me though – just lay back and enjoy it. It’s good for you. This is one of the best straight-up rock CDs in my not-inconsiderable vault.

But as previously mentioned, avoid – repeat, AVOID – the followup album Runaway Brides. Few things have disappointed me more. Think how you felt when you walked out of The Phantom Menace for the first time. Yes, that bad.

TOP TRACK: #2 “I Don’t Care”.

#071. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Soundtrack (2002) [spotify]

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Soundtrack

Just beautiful. I not review, you listen.

TOP TRACK: All of it.

#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”.

#089. Chris Cornell – Carry On (2007) [spotify]

Chris Cornell - Carry On

He has one of the best voices in rock today, as mentioned previously, and does a pretty fine job when not backed up by Audioslave or Soundgarden. This album came to my attention initially because of the utterly superb Bond-theme “You Know My Name”, and it’s very good indeed. He can totally do it live too, as discovered at Hard Rock Calling one summer in Hyde Park.

TOP TRACK: #8 “Billie Jean”. I know it’s a cover, but it’s brilliantly done. You’ve never heard Billie Jean like this, trust me.

#088. Lynch Mob – Smoke and Mirrors (2009)

Lynch Mob - Smoke and Mirrors

As previously mentioned, 2008 saw new albums from some of the biggest (and oldest) dinosaurs of rock – Whitesnake (Good To Be Bad), Mötley Crüe (Saints of Los Angeles), Extreme (Saudades de Rock), AC/DC (Black Ice), Metallica (Death Magnetic), The Quireboys (Homewreckers & Heartbreakers), Guns N’ Roses (Chinese Democracy for fuck’s sake!) – but the trend continued in 2009 with new material from Alice in Chains (Blue Gives Way to Black), Megadeth (Endgame), Danger Danger (Revolve), Winger (Karma), and lookee lookee here, it’s Lynch Mob, with Smoke and Mirrors. Here old leathery Lynch is reunited with the original singer from Wicked Sensation, Oni Logan, and in fact the first track “21st Century Man” sounds like a reprise of that storming title track from back in 1990. This is a cracking rock album, and it’s awesome to hear that they’re still doing it like this, and doing it this well. Rock on.

TOP TRACK: #4 “My Kind of Healer”.

#087. Logan Wilson – Geography (2006)

Logan Wilson - Geography

Full disclosure: Logan is a friend of mine, and I played in bands with him for large parts of my 20s. He was always the most natural musician of my social circle, his primary instrument at the time being fretless bass, though he was always strumming an acoustic and writing songs since I knew him. Skipping forward from the avant-garde-prog-pop-rock originals bands and pub covers outfits of the mid-90s, we find him taking centre stage with guitar in hand and a superbly soulful voice, carving out a radio-friendly niche in the singer-songwriter mould of today, and putting down some bloody wonderful songs. For my money his best tune ever was “Who Cares?” from his first CD Monsters from the Id, but overall Geography is a more mature record with great production, and I wish him every success with it. Keep it tight, brother.

(Fun fact: when Little Monkeys, the rawk band I was in around 2005, supported L.A. Guns in London, Ian the bassist was out of the country so Logan filled in for him – left of stage here in “TRAGIC WASTER” t-shirt.)

TOP TRACK: #11 “Day Has Become”.

#086. Anthrax – We’ve Come for You All (2003) [spotify]

Anthrax - We've Come for You All

Well, fuck me backwards if it isn’t Anthrax. Back in the heyday of the big 4, I spent all my time listening to Guns N’ Roses and Steve Vai, and had little time for anything even vaguely thrashesque, but it was in fact Anthrax that changed that when they released Sound of White Noise in 1993, their first album with singer John Bush, and the first therefore not to have that 80s squeal-y vocal sound that so typified much of early thrash music. Bush’s more down-and-gutteral vocal style fitted in nicely in landscape that at the time was dominated by the mighty Pantera, with Phil Anselmo’s new-found brutal style and Dimebag’s (RIP) insane riffs setting the bar for heavy metal worldwide. I wasn’t much impressed with the follow-up, Stomp 442, and after that I lost track of Anthrax until recent years when I picked up a copy of We’ve Come For You All, and it blew my head clean off. This is proper punishing stuff like it should be – check out “Nobody Knows Anything”, and fucking testify.

TOP TRACK: #5 “Safe Home”.

#085. John 5 – The Devil Knows My Name (2007)

John 5 - The Devil Knows My Name

What do you get when Marilyn Manson‘s (now Rob Zombie‘s) guitarist takes instrumental metal, industrial music and bluegrass, stuffs them in a blender , and adds one of the world’s worst album covers? Vertigo, that’s what. Pretty mental. What do you get when he does it again, a year later? Songs for Sanity, that’s what. Also pretty mental, but with a less shit cover, better production, and some even harder riffs. What do you get when he does it some more two years after that? The Devil Knows My Name, that’s what. By this time he’s really got his act together – where the first album lacked a bit in terms of hooks and memorable melodies (something pretty important when there are no words to focus on), the second album made up for it, and this third album is better again by another order of magnitude. The good Dr. 5 still injects bluegrass and country into some of the songs, but there’s more focus on good song structure here, and when he wants to get menacing, he really does it with style. The cover doesn’t suck too hard either.

TOP TRACK: #2 “The Werewolf of Westeria”.

#084. Underworld – Oblivion with Bells (2007) [spotify]

Underworld - Oblivion with Bells

Drive boy, dog boy, dirty numb angel boy. Lager, lager, lager, lager, shouting. Tina lives in Berlin, her voice so seldom on my machine.

These phrases and more will have meaning for you only if you are an Underworld fan, and particularly if you’ve seen them live. I saw them live and liked it so much, I went back and saw them again three months later. Cool fact: when you go see Underworld live, you can buy a live CD of the gig you were just at, on your way out. This is mental, and awesome. The ravers from Romford were touring to support this, their latest (5th proper) studio album, and it’s another blinder. I wasn’t that keen on A Hundred Days Off, I felt it was a bit flat when compared to the previous – amazing – Beaucoup Fish, but this is a return to form in my opinion. And in my onion. Especially in my onion.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Beautiful Burnout”.

#083. Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf (2002) [spotify]

Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

Good ole Josh Homme (to rhyme with Mommy, apparently) is proper rock royalty these days, having spearheaded supergroups Eagles of Death Metal and now Them Crooked Vultures, but I reckon he’s still best known as the helmsman for QotSA, and this was their best record by some way. (Rated R is fine and all, but this kicks it’s arse round the car park.) Aside from the ultra-mega-superhit “No One Knows”, standouts are “First It Giveth”, “Go With the Flow”, “Another Love Song” and “Do It Again”. Hell, it’s all good.

TOP TRACK: #2 “No One Knows”, obviously.

#082. Blind Guardian – A Twist in the Myth (2006) [spotify]

Blind Guardian - A Twist in the Myth

Not so much Folk Metal as Fantasy Metal, Blind Guardian hail from Germany and are big on concepts. Musically you could call it power metal, I suppose. It’s not speed and it’s not death – the enormous layered vocal sounds here have much more in common with Queen than Slayer, and the guitar melodies tend towards the epic rather than the shocking. I love this stuff – I’m realising lately that I’m a sucker for a good story. This is really the kind of thing that Iron Maiden were always doing, only a bit heavier and a bit quicker.

This album was also covered back in Rocktober.

TOP TRACK: #6 “Another Stranger Me”.

#081. Mattias “IA” Eklundh – Freak Guitar: The Road Less Traveled (2004)

Mattias "IA" Eklundh - Freak Guitar: The Road Less Traveled

Would you like some harmonics with that? Listening to Mattias Eklundh for the first time was one of those jaw-to-the-floor moments in guitar, where you genuinely go “How is he doing that? How would you even begin to replicate it? Are we sure that’s a normal guitar?” He’s perhaps best known for his band Freak Kitchen, but he has released two bewildering solo albums, of which this is the latter. To give you an idea of the lengths he goes to to achieve some of the weird and wonderful sounds populating these discs, he is one of the world’s leading proponents in vibrator guitar, and he even had a no-string guitar made for him by Caparison. It had a metal contact plate in the middle where the pickups normally go, and he would hang it over his shoulders and play the middle of the guitar with both hands, tabla-styley. This album really does have something for everyone, careering wildly as it does from soulful laid-back acoustic melodies (“Father”, “The Woman in Seat 27A”) to hyper-mental cover tunes (“Smoke on the Water”, “Fletch Theme”) via hard-to-listen-to experimental music (“Difficult Person Music”) and odd sound canvasses (“Toxic Donald”, “Toxic Mickey”) and also some blindingly good conventional instrumental guitar pieces, like the title track and the sublime “Print This”. The inlay booklet is a blast too.

TOP TRACK: #1 “The Road Less Traveled”.

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”.

#099. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)

Radiohead - In Rainbows

How much did you pay for it?

Oxfordshire miserablists Radiohead famously released this, their 7th studio album, as a digital download for which the purchaser could set his or her own price. I’m an on-and-off Radiohead listener, having fallen out with them a bit on and after OK Computer, and having pretty much given them a miss ever since, but I applauded the idea so much that I went straight to the site and bought it for £5. Of course, the files were encoded at only 160kbps, so I think that was a pretty fair price.

How many people entered £0.00? Fucking loads, apparently. Did the experiment prove anything meaningful about the music industry and the dedication of true fans? Maybe. Was it an amazingly successful PR boost for the band and the album? Hell yes.

I like this album, though. You can take everything from Kid A up to Hail to the Thief and shove them up your arse as far as I’m concerned, but I find In Rainbows to be a lot more accessible. This is likely not the view of the proper Radiohead fan, I realise, but I never said I was one. To my mind the best thing they ever did was The Bends, and I would have liked more like that – but that’s not what Radiohead do, and all credit to them for that. Artistic integrity FTW.

TOP TRACK: #4 “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”.

#098. Daft Punk – Discovery (2001) [spotify]

Daft Punk - Discovery

Pamplemousse! Ananas! Jacques Cousteau! Haw haw hawww BAGUETTE!

I was only vaguely aware of the French technopop duo known as Daft Punk up until 2001, when this album popped out of nowhere and stormed up the UK charts and onto the radio and dance floors with the big single “One More Time”. I was moderately intrigued, and my then-girlfriend (now-fiancée) liked it enough to buy it. I recall this fact making me very happy during the summer of 2001 when I was working on-site at NTL in Hook, nr Basingstoke, since its cheery pop-synth stylings were the perfect antidote to the drudgery of the job I was on at the time. Well, so was croquet on the hotel lawn drinking mai-tais on the company bill, but Discovery certainly helped.

Bibliotheque!

TOP TRACK: #4 “Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger”.

#097. Larry Carlton – Sapphire Blue (2003) [spotify]

Larry Carlton - Sapphire Blue

Mmmm… Jazz.

I’m not a gigantic jazzer, as many will attest, but in 2003 a few fellow members of UKMG announced that they were to descend upon the trés trendy Jazz Café in Camden for a gig by this very chap, Larry Carlton. Having scant little better to do, I toddled along and was thoroughly wossname. So much so, I bought the album, and it… well, I was going to say it rocks, but clearly it doesn’t. It jazzes.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Night Sweats”.

#096. John Foxx & Harold Budd – Drift Music/Translucence (2003) [spotify]

John Foxx & Harold Budd - Drift Music/Translucence

Mmmm… Ambient.

My affinity for ambient music began when one day back at Dare someone put Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports on the office stereo. This was a pretty high pressure manic caffeinated advertising environment, but the calming effect of the ambient repetitions proved entrancing in just the right way for me to concentrate on what I was doing at the time. Further investigations led me to Harold Budd, and this double album collaboration with John Foxx is one of the best in my collection.

TOP TRACK: It’s ambient, so it all kind of merges together. S’all good.

#095. Orphaned Land – Mabool (The Story of the Three Sons of Seven) (2005) [spotify]

Orphaned Land - Mabool (The Story of the Three Sons of Seven)

Mmmm… Eastern.

So, we come to the first showing in the 100 of my recent infatuation with Folk Metal. Orphaned Land are variously labelled (metal bands must be pigeonholed, you know) as Folk Metal, Oriental Metal, Progressive Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal… the truth is they’re all of these things together. What they definitely are is an Israeli heavy metal band with Middle-Eastern and Jewish/Arabic influences, as Wikipedia helpfully tells us.

Also it’s a concept album – about religion! Hooray! I reckon though, that folk metal is one of the genres that can really do concept albums. The folk element usually comes across in storytelling, and so expanding the story across 12 tracks rather than trying to get it all across in just one is something that works, as long as it’s done well.

I tell you this – it’s rarely done as well as it is here. This is a corker from start to finish.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Ocean Land (The Revelation)”.

#094. Audioslave – Audioslave (2002) [spotify]

Audioslave - Audioslave

I was never a huge Soundgarden or RATM fan, but the idea of them merging was definitely intriguing, and you have to admit that Chris Cornell has one of the best voices in rock today. Tom Morello has always been an intriguing player too, but on some of the tracks on this album I find him just bloody annoying. When the time comes for a break in “Bring Em Back Alive”, any other player would have probably reached for a laid back solo in a minor-ish scale with some flurries of notes in the gaps of the monster groove going down underneath, but ole Tom seems to have thought “What would be the most annoying sound I can make for 20 seconds?” Hey, I know it’s his thing to use off the wall effects and sounds, and often I love his stuff, but honestly there are some bits on this album I could really have done without. The songs rock though.

TOP TRACK: #5 “Like A Stone”.

#093. Joe Satriani – Is There Love in Space? (2004) [spotify]

Joe Satriani - Is There Love in Space?

There was a time when any Joe Satriani record would have been in the top of any chart I compiled. Back in the day, he and that Vai chap were to me the only true music and even the mighty hard rock was secondary to the protracted widdlegasms of the fast fingered ones from Long Island. But that time is long past, and nowadays I find it a bit of a stretch to sit through a whole album of this stuff. That said, this album was to my mind the last really good one Satch knocked out, and that’s despite the two vocal tracks on there (he’s since jacked the singing in properly, and this is fairly widely agreed to be a good thing). There’s some genuinely catchy stuff on here – “Hands In The Air” and “If I Could Fly” leap to mind – and you very rarely get the sensation of fingers flailing to fill the gaps, something which marred a few tracks on the predecessor Strange Beautiful Music. Pretty nifty, if not for everyone.

TOP TRACK: #6 “If I Could Fly”. (Yes, the song that he accused Coldplay of ripping off… Adrian has more about that…)

#092. Yogi – Any Raw Flesh? (2001)

Yogi - Any Raw Flesh?

Sean Farley has nowadays dropped his nom de plume Yogi and is gigging with a band under the monicker Half Zaftig, though most recently he recorded a song every week for the whole of 2009. That’s pretty awesome. I haven’t heard any of it, but damn, that is pretty awesome. Anyway, his first solo album was this one, and it’s fabulous in a kind of dark Zappa-esque way. Actually parts of it remind me of Mike Keneally and occasionally of that Vai fella again. S’quirky, and s’good.

TOP TRACK: #2 “My Love For Lois Is Real”.

#091. Powerman 5000 – Transform (2003) [spotify]

Powerman 5000 - Transform

I have very little time for most of the bands slapped with the nu-metal label, but Powerman 5000 stand out to me as having a little more to say than those floppy cocks Limp Bizkit (srsly), and to actually be a bloody good band. Also this album is more punky than the predecessor Tonight The Stars Revolt!, and is a little easier to get into as well. Fun.

TOP TRACK: #2 “Theme to a Fake Revolution”.

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.

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

In about 2000 or so, my then girlfriend (now fiancée) moved to London a few months behind me in order to go to South Bank University. She was in halls, and occasionally – despite the smallest single bed in the world – I would go and stay over. She had a little micro stereo bought special to take away to uni, and one of the CDs we would frequently play on it was David Gray’s White Ladder, an album which I still unashamedly love to this day. I always remember a quote which was affixed to the case from some reviewer said something like: “…an album that makes you feel better simply by knowing it exists.”

I’ve always felt that was certainly true of White Ladder, but that feeling is totally eclipsed by the peace and warmth exuded by Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More. This is an absolutely exquisite album from start to finish, and every single note gives me the feeling that I’m sitting round a pub fireplace somewhere in the Cotswolds surrounded by my nearest and dearest, feeling utterly loved and at peace with all the world. From the opening title track to the closing refrains of “After The Storm” there’s not a note out of place, and I challenge even the meanest-spirited of you to listen to songs like “Roll Away Your Stone”, “Winter Winds” and the epic “Dust Bowl Dance” and not feel uplifted. This is without question my album of 2009. (The only question there is whether The Last Vegas tie for the #1 spot…)

If you don’t like this, you don’t like music, and you have no soul.
–c.