Leadbelly -Easy Rider

Does it offend you, yeah? - You have no idea what you're getting yourself in to

In case you didn't already know, at the top of all blogspot pages ( this blogging site ) there is a tab that says "next blog" which apparently takes you to the next blog in a randomly organised list of all the blogs on the blogspot domain. Initially, and somewhat naively, i thought that all the blogs were arranged like rows of houses, so that my neighbouring blog would always be my neighbouring blog, so it was with some trepidation that i clicked on the "next blog" tab for the first time. I mean what if my neighbour was a white supremacist site, or cat murders of the world site, or worse still another album a day site? I have sinced realised that there is no "neighbourhood" in blogland and that clicking on the tab merely takes you to a random blog that changes each time you click. but the first time i clicked this is what came up. The ever reliable translation service Babel fish tells me that the name of the site in English is "Thickly without stupid on discovery route: One year New Zealand and other liquor ideas". From the pictures it appears to be a blog based on the travels of a young german girl who was living in NZ and is now travelling throughout the US..even without knowing what she is talking about it is completely fascinating and i'm a relying on my learned father to translate what is happening so i can fully understand this adventure. Anyway, it's a pity their is no neighbourhood in blogland because "Thickly without stupid" seems to be a very apt slogan for our street.

Aril Brikha - Deeparture

The Beatles - Let it Be

The Beatles - Abbey Road

The Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles - Help

The Beatles - A hard days night

Wolf & Cub - Science & Sorcery

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Ah, the concept album, when's the last time you heard a really good one? Radiohead's OK Computer Sufjan's C'mon hear the Illinois Arcade Fire Funeral and Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral are the few i can think off from the last 10 years (and i refuse to acknowledge that Green Day's American Idiot is a concept album) I did a search for best concept album of all time and came up with Rolling Stone's list of the top 14 which i will make my way through over the next few months. Anyway as far as this one goes it's a beauty. It's got a folky medieval minstral vibe with some tea party style middle eastern sorcery and some queen crashing guitars mixed in. It's one of the few albums i've heard that follows a narrative the whole way through without straying too far from the imagery and artistry. The fact that some of the songs stand alone as great tracks is a big help too. Hazards of Love 1, Wont want for love and Hazards of love 2 are standouts. A truly great release for the fulfilling of the concept, and the quality of the songs that do it.

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Handsome Furs - Plague Park

Chicane - Far from the maddening crowd

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever ago

brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant,

Johnny Cash - The man comes around

This was an interesting cash album to pick i know, as it is an album of covers, but as i looked through cash' back catalogue ( of over 90 odd releases ) I realised that perhaps the "best of" triple CD of his i own( borrowed/stole ) was as much Johnny as i could take so thought i would give this one a go. Another reason is that i heard the cover of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt" recently and was absolutely blown away. ( yes, i realise it was released 7 years ago ) There is something about the frailty of Cash's voice, something honest, something that conveys pain, sorrow and hurt so eloquently. I'm not going to bother going into a history of all the pain in Johnny's life that gave him this colourful voice as i am not knowledgable enough and could not do it justice ( for a brief rundown try here ) or try steve turner's biography for a complete and precise account of his life. The covers on this album span many genres, as well at the NIN track, there's sting's murder ballad 'hung my head', depeche modes 'personal jesus', beatles 'in my life' and american classics 'we'll meet again', 'desperado' and 'bridge over troubled water'. As good a voice as Cash' is, it's also the arrangements of the songs that make this album extra special, with great acoustic reworkings of all the songs and some guests vocals from Nick Cave, Fiona Apple and Don Henley.

Bryan Ferry - Boys & Girls

Guilty pleasure number 2. I like Bryan Ferry. And who couldn't after listening to this brilliant first solo effort. Sure it's basically just ( previous release from former band Roxy Music ) Avalon rehashed, and sure most of the songs are just meandering empty vessels, but that's what i like about it so much. Not since Kokomo have i wanted so much to be lazing back on a Caribbean beach wearing a sarong and drinking out of a coconut. That's how this album makes me feel. It's relaxing, adult contemporary. Opener "sensation" could be ( and probably was ) the opening song in an 80's john hughes movie, "Slave to love" is hands down one of the best songs ever written, "don't stop the dance" is cheesy bowie style synth pop, "windswept" is an even cheesier, flamenco/spanish moody slow dancer, "valentine" is all rocky/rasta/funk, and title track and closer "boys and girls" is airy art rock goodness. couple all this with Ferry's brilliant voice and Mark Knopfler on guitar and you have a classic. well for me at least. And Dad, if you're thinking of putting on your "Best of Bryan Ferry" CD to reminisce, don't bother. I stole it many year ago.

REM - Accelerate

M.I.A - Kala

The Panics - Sleeps like a curse

Clap your hands say yeah - Some loud thunder

It's very rare that i have to turn off a song because the sound is so distorted and grating that my ears start to hurt. I'm used to distortion and grating. The fact that i have sat through many mogwai concerts is testement to this. The first song of this album though just does my head in. I dont know what they were thinking. I guarantee that no person of sound mind could have sat down and listened to that track and said. "yes, that's good, lets put it on the album. track 1, title track". Then again producer Dave Fridmann, responsible for many Flaming Lips releases, isn't of sound mind. And there are many 'Lips-esque moments on this record with frenzied barrages of sound invading every corner of tracks such as "Arm and Hammer". At some points it's like listening to David Byrne on acid, on acid. It's hard to like a lot of this album, probably because of the fact that it is so busy. Standouts "yankee go home" and "Satan said dance" are good but not good enough to carry this over the line.

Yo La Tengo - I can hear the heart beating as one

She Wants Revenge - She Wants Revenge

the album was a lastfm recommendation. "if you like interpol you'll like...." which normally doesn't mean much. It's usually just a wild stab in the dark based on lose genre associations of acts. "If you like Echo and the Bunnymen, you'll like...Creed" but in this instance if you weren't concentrating and clicked on one of their songs you'd swear that you were still listening to interpol.
Vocalist Justin Warfield has a ridiculously similar vocal to Paul Banks, albeit without the range, nor the nuance or tonal exaggeration that Banks possesses. The music shares similarities, especially in the opener Red Flags and LOng nights, but as the album progresses, the increased use of electronic beats and instruments starts to open the gap between these two acts and allows SWR their own identity. I much prefer interpol, the songs of SWR don't grab me the same way, they seem without energy, perhaps more in keeping with the early 80's sound of their hero's The Cure or the pure dissassociation of Warfields other vocal comparison - Joy Division's Ian Curtis. It keeps the album dark and moody, which is obvioulsy their aim but it also makes each song sound too similar too lifeless, and means that nothing stands out amongst the melancholy.

Jayhawks - Smile

Josh Ritter - Hello Starling

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatmans Call

New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom

Donavon Frankenreiter - Move by yourself

Lamb - Lamb

An album that i'm familiar with from years gone past, but downloaded with some trepidation as i know it contains one of my favourite songs of the past and that the rest of the album surely could not live up to that. Gorecki is one of those songs that calls up good memories and reminds you of a time in your past that inspired you, it may have been a time of trouble, or confusion but there was also a feeling of hope or change in the air, and at the time this song epitomised that feeling. It's hard to say why, it's a simple tune, a simple lyric, perhaps even cliched and way too grown up for the young voice of singer lou rhodes. But it was a stand out of its time and a stand out on this album. It's a familiar trip-hop formula, live and electronic beats, mashed up, with samples and tape loops, creating a backbeat to which a vocal track and simple melody are added. The only other tracks of note are the opener Lusty and the Portishead inspired Transfattyacid the rest just kill time until Gorecki comes and blows you away.

The Gossip - Music for Men

Decoder Ring - They Blind the Stars, And the Wild Team

Holy Freaking Shit! this album is good. it's a friggin work of art. to be absorbed not listened to. Much like their amazing Somersault Soundtrack this is an epic journey through a musical universe of distorted caressed guitars, strings, piano and percussion, of soaring highs and intimate lows, of exhilarating crescendos and torturously beautiful lulls. Decoder ring are Australias answer to Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and Explosions in the sky all rolled into one. Sorry for waxing lyrically about this but, i'm just so excited by this album that i'm ready to burst. This really just makes every other album i've listened to this year seem like a giant dog turd in comparison. I'm speechless. I am without speech

Dead Weather - Horehound

My apologies to Florence but i think i may have been too hasty naming 'Dog day' the "best 1st song from a debut album in 2009". Because if that award was given tomorrow then the opener off this album '60 Feet Tall' would win hands down. Not that you could really call this a debut in the full sense of the word. The Dead Weather are made up of none other than Jack White ( from a little band called the white stripes )Dean Ferita ( from another small band you may of heard of; Queens of the stone age ) Jack Lawrence ( from White's other side project 'The racontuers/sabotuers' ) and led by The Kills lead singer Alison Mosshart. Hardly a lack of experience there. But technically this is the first release from this band so i guess you have to call it a debut. There's always some trepidation with a collaboration like this, particularly as this is Jack White's second side project, there is a chance that the meeting of minds and ideas wont work to produce anything coherent or different from the norm, The opener i referred to is a bluesy rocker that puts such fears to rest. The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to that first track but there are other good moments that makes it worth the while.