Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys

It says a lot to me about my life. Lovely – watch

Yuck – Yuck

A big fizzy scuzzball of fun. Play loud – watch

Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Can do no wrong. Did no wrong – watch

Destroyer – Kaputt

Looking forward to looking back? Give this a listen – watch

The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

Kurt Vile gets more press, but The War on Drugs are where it’s at – watch

My Secret Seven

Top picks from my playlist this year:

The Black Keys – El Camino
Punchier and pithier and more hook-y than Brothers. Git it! – watch
Boris – Attention Please
Beguiling dream-pop and shoegaze from the prolific Japanese metallers – watch and download ‘Hope’
The Horrors – Skying
The sound of my record collection on one CD? What’s not to like? – watch
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Warm and welcoming – watch and download ‘Holocene’
Cornershop – Cornershop and the Double ‘O’ Groove Of..
Brilliant. Brimful of Bubbley Kaur – watch
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
Indeed I am, and this is the soundtrack – watch and download ‘The Copper Top’
Dum Dum Girls – He Gets Me High EP
If this was vinyl, I’d have worn it flat. Pure pop for ‘now’ people – watch

I Could Listen To This Song All Day

Yuck – Get Away – watch

The Old Stuff

You’ve already heard my thoughts on the Rolling Stones Some Girls re-issue. I’ve been listening a lot to the 20th anniversary edition of Screamadelica, and the Drive-By Truckers compilation Ugly Buildings, Whores & Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998-2009. Blueprint – The Best of 808 State takes me back to the good old days, and I bought so many re-issues from the Why Pink Floyd? campaign, I got a free t-shirt.

The Toppermost Of The Poppermost

Gotye (feat. Kimbra) – Somebody I Used To Know – watch and download a remix

The ‘Didn’t They Do Well’ Award for Old Folks In Rock

David Newton & Thee Mighty Angels, for the Paint The Town EP – watch

A Band To Watch

2:54

The Boys Next Door

Ghost Wave – Ghost Wave EP – watch

Best Dressed Sleeve

Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will – a brilliant view of New York by Antony Crook.

See you in 2012, folks.

There are videos of the actual evening on YouTube, but this is one from the same tour – it’s the best and has a properly reverential audience (take note, hipsters).

Any road up, it’s been a good year for a bunch of old lags who probably should have packed it in in 1978, how ever much I love ‘em. The Rolling Stones’ Some Girls reissue double CD, its attendant Live In Texas DVD plus the Brussels Affair 1973 digital package rank very highly in the long list of ‘new’ old music I’ve been playing lately.

My Best of the Year will be up here very early January. I’ve got some cool stuff to write about before that, though. Stay tuned.

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Ubiquitous. Brilliant. – watch

Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone

One of the best blues and soul albums of the year? One of the best albums, full stop. Made with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis’ music goes straight to the heart. – watch

The Futureheads – The Chaos

A blistering high energy indie pop record chock full of great guitar tunes. Sunderland accents still intact. – watch

The Fall – Your Future Our Clutter

Mark E. Smith, Mrs. Smith and another great Fall line-up crank out one of the year’s most essential albums. Wonderful and frightening. – watch – read

Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks

“The kind of widescreen blue-sky cinematic rock music that only a Scottish band can produce.” is what I said earlier in the year. I should add a superlative or two to that sentence. – watch

After the jump, more great music from 2010..

My Secret Seven

Top picks from my playlist this year:

Caribou – Swim
Submerge yourself in a liquid sound – watch
Street Chant – Means
Auckland’s spunkiest – watch
Surf City – Kudos
A really Clean band – play
Warpaint – The Fool
Cool, atmospheric and effortless – watch
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Young Aussie psych-rockers blast off – watch
The Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
Retro-rock never sounded so much fun – watch
The School Of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire
Dream pop, chill out – watch

I Could Listen To This Song All Day

The Besnard Lakes – And This Is What We Call Progress – watch

Achievement of the Year

If you’d been through what Edwyn Collins has been through, you’d maybe settle for the quiet life. But to return to music, and put out an album as good as Losing Sleep.. remarkable – watch

The Old Stuff

You’ve already heard my thoughts on the Suede retrospective and the fabulous re-issue of David Bowie’s Station To Station. A double disc of Otis Redding – Live On The Sunset Strip and the 30 year anniversary edition of The Jam’s Sound Affects were also essential listening.

The Toppermost Of The Poppermost

I’m Not In Love by Crystal Castles (featuring The Cure’s Robert Smith) tickled my earlobes time and time again. And it’s free – download

The ‘Didn’t They Do Well’ Award for Old Folks In Rock

Paul Weller, for Wake Up The Nation and some prodigious gigging.

Best Dressed Sleeve

Roots Manuva meets Wrongtom – Duppy Writer, illustrated by Tony McDermott, the man responsible for much of reggae label Greensleeves’ classic cover art. Good record, too.

See you in 2011, folks.

A double CD featuring two tremendous guitarists, the flamboyance of Brett Anderson, and thirty five (count ‘em) brilliant tunes.

Stay tuned for the best of 2010′s new music.

Top Ten:
Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years
The Phantom Band –  Checkmate Savage
The Big Pink – A Brief History Of Love
The Drones – Havilah
Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
The XX – XX
Tinariwen – Imidiwan
Leader Cheetah – The Sunspot Letters
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

Bubbling Under:
Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Primary Colours
Blue Roses – Blue Roses
Karen O And The Kids – Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack
Wilco – The Album

The Toppermost Of The Poppermost: Florence + The Machine – You’ve Got The Love (XX Remix)

The ‘Didn’t They Do Well’ Award For Old Folks In Rock: Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers

I Could Listen To This Song All Day: The Hazey Janes – Losing Speed

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time: – Johnny Marr joins The Cribs

Check em all out, if you haven’t already. Here’s SFA..

** Except perhaps Australia. Where those 2008 albums originated. Ahem.

So I’m splitting my Best Of The Year review in two: the new music list will be out early in 2010, but here’s the vintage stuff I was happy to discover (and re-discover) in 2009.

I’ve already talked about The Jayhawks’ Music From The North Country anthology – unfortunately for my bank balance, there were many more re-issues of an equally good standard. Ah, well..

REM’s Reckoning -  25 years old this year, a serious contender for my top ten albums that influenced my musical taste (yep, I realise I have to complete that series of articles.. two to go), great to hear it again in pristine remastered glory.
The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms – skittery, geeky new wave from New Jersey that sounds just as otherworldly now as it did in 1980.
Radiohead’s mighty Kid A –  better than it was in 2000. One of the albums of the decade, though I wouldn’t have said that when I bought it originally. The ultimate grower.
Nirvana – Live At Reading – all the Nirvana you need. Definitive.
Disc 4 of the Big Star box set Keep An Eye On The Sky – the band play to a disinterested audience, classic songs fly out over the heads of the crowd and connect with us, a quarter of a century later.
Muddy Waters – Authorised Bootleg – an essential live document of the legendary bluesman to put alongside his best.

And some bands felt the need to spruce up their whole catalogue - some guys from Liverpool and einige Jungs aus Düsseldorf were particularly good at that.

But maybe the best of them all was a compilation called Can You Dig It? – Music & Politics in Black Action Films 1968-75 – creative funky soul scoring some of the most remarkable movies. Just read the names on the cover: Isaac Hayes, Bobby Womack, Quincy Jones, Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, and many more.  Damn!

Have a great Christmas and I’ll be back early in the New Year with my new music picks from 2009. Here’s Curtis..

So, all my old friends out there with Eagles and Tom Petty albums on the shelf, pop out to your local emporium and grab ‘Music From The North Country’.

Check it out here (UK) or here (US) .. you know it makes sense.

No frills this year, no ‘Ones To Watch’ or all of that lark – truly, I wouldn’t know. When I find someone I’ll let you know right away. What got on my wick this year? Two things worth mentioning. Pacific Ocean Blue – what’s that all about? In fact, let’s not hold back – all things Wilson related. Classics? No. Don’t get it, never will.

And to the umpteen British indie bands who seem to be content with their lot – god knows why – either get to work and produce something worth listening to or pack it in, because a bunch of old blokes and their mate made you look a bit irrelevant this year. And that can’t be a good thing.

Top Ten:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Paul Weller – 22 Dreams
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion
Lightspeed Champion – Under The Lavender Bridge
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age Of The Understatement
Mercury Rev – Snowflake Midnight
Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now, Youngster!/We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
A.A. Bondy – American Hearts

Bubbling Under:
The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
The Black Angels – Directions To See A Ghost

I Could Listen To This Song All Day: Hayes Carll – She Left Me For Jesus

The Toppermost Of The Poppermost: Duffy – Warwick Avenue

The ‘Didn’t They Do Well’ Award For Old Folks In Rock: Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul. Nice one.

Play It One More Time (Remastered Oldies & Re-issues):
David Bowie – Live Santa Monica 72
Neil Young – Sugar Mountain Live At Canterbury House 1968
New Order remasters