How about I be me (and you be you)?

Happy International Women’s Day! While I’m sitting in the house waiting for a washing machine man, I thought I’d celebrate one of my very favourite women, and her triumphant new album.

Sinead’s had a bit of an inconsistent back catalogue. For me, Her first two albums were stunning (Lion and the Cobra, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got) as was her fourth, Universal Mother (a personal favourite), her other two original albums were a bit hard to stomach for me, Faith and Courage, aside from a few good tracks was a bit tired I thought, and Theology (original in the sense that they weren’t covers, but interpretations of scriptures…) was nice, but a bit melody-light. Her other three albums were cover albums- which are all brilliant, but difficult to judge against her earlier masterpieces. I think it’s patronising to say that How about I be me (and you be you)? Is a “brilliant return” simply because she hasn’t been anywhere, she’s still been consistently producing music since the late eighties, and even when it wasn’t as strong, it’s always been challenging and worthy of attention, it’s not a “return to form”, it’s just a continuation of the fascinating evolution of a singularly mind-blowing and unique artist.

That said, I do think the new album is my favourite since Universal Mother in 1994, when I first heard it I was eight or nine, and it blew me away. It was a time when it wasn’t very fashionable to be a Sinead fan, especially being raised a Catholic, because people misconstrued her infamous Saturday Night Live pope-picture-ripping as an attack on faith, when it was really a (justified) attack on the Catholic Church in relation to the child abuse scandals that only surfaced fully in the public conscience about twenty years later, proving O'Connor the oracle right. Universal Mother had vitriol and anger (Fire on Babylon, Famine, Red Football), vulnerability and quiet moments (Tiny Grief Song, A Perfect Indian, Thankyou for Hearing Me) and pure poetry (John I Love You), I was staggered by it, and as much as I had been consumed by pop music at the time, I think Sinead was my real introduction to more alternative and challenging music. While How about I be me is not as challenging and nuanced as Universal Mother, it’s polished and it’s fresh and angry and beautiful and new, whilst still sounding utterly ‘Sinead’.

The stand out tracks are Take off your shoes, which is so angry and powerful and Queen of Denmark- a John Grant cover where her straight-laced take on a very witty song sounds as petulant and indignant as anything from Lion and the Cobra: “why don’t you bore the shit out of somebody else”. Reason with me is the most beautiful song, taken from the perspective of a “junkie”, it’s very self-aware (as the whole album is), compassionate and honest. Her cover of Song for the siren is only on the deluxe edition, but is the most gorgeous version of it since This Mortal Coil's.

It’s definitely the best album of the year so far (stiff competition from Perfume Genius, Lana Del Ray and the Cranberries, this year is shaping up to be another good one). If you’re a Sinead virgin, I recommend checking out her first two albums, and this one as priorities, and perhaps the career retrospective ‘She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty’ (the longest album title ever?) which is a collection of demos, covers and live versions and is much better than a generic greatest hits.

Long live Sinead, who is as beautiful as she ever was, contrary to what the self-hating women who write for the Daily Mail think. She’s a massive inspiration and I’m so pleased that the media have stopped banging on about her personal life and are focusing on how brilliant her new body of work is. I was lucky enough to get to see her last year after sixteen years of being a fan, which was the first time I heard most of the material on this album, and she was remarkable, her voice was unfaltering. Hopefully I'll get to see her again soon.

Buy it!

My favourite albums of 2011

Last year I was fairly underwhelmed with the music that was coming out, but thought that Robyn's album was the best.

This year, the music has been miles better, here is me top five, with a few notable runners up afterwards.

5. Lupercalia Patrick Wolf

A bit cheery compared to his earlier efforts, but still very successful, miles better than his last foray into happiness AKA the disaster that was Magic Position.





4. The Rip Tide Beirut


My only complaint about this album is that it's a bit too short, at only nine tracks. It's such a gorgeous album, best tracks are A Candle's Fire, Goshen and Santa Fe.



3. Let England Shake PJ Harvey

Never thought she'd release another album that I loved as much as White Chalk, but alas, she proved me wrong. Really pleased this got all of the credit it deserves.



2. Feel it Break Austra

I love having new bands to get excited about, and Austra is definitely my favourite new music of the year, it's pretty much my ideal type of music, female vocals, dark and maudlin electro pop. It's a stunning album, and the delux edition has a load of extras as well, including a b-side called Trip, which definitely should have made the album.



1. Biophilia Bjork

I'm sure people are bored of hearing me shiting on about how beautiful this album is, I shall direct you to my earlier gushing review of it.



The runner ups include: Collapse into Now R.E.M, EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK Glasvegas, 21 Adele is good if a little overrated, Born this Way Lady Gaga, Wounded Rhymes Lykke Li, In the Pit of the Stomach We Were Promised Jetpacks, Ordinary Alien Boy George, Ceremonials Florence and the Machine, and of course 50 Words for Snow Kate Bush, which I love, but it's not as good as I had hoped, I really don't like Elton John's vocals at all, and her son's singing drives me bonkers, I thought the album would be as good as disc two of Aerial, but for me the concept just falls a bit short, a colleague's review of it made me laugh: 'it's a shame a producer didn't think to say, perhaps you should stop at 35 words?' Misty is one of the stronger songs but does it really have to be 13 minutes long? I appreciate the pace, and the fact that the songs are quite spacious, but it just doesn't work for me. I thought Director's Cut was stronger. Another runner up, is Mount Wittenberg Orca Dirty Projectors, which was technically released in 2010, but came out as a physical release this year, check that out it's wonderful. The new Amy Winehouse release is alright too, obviously not a patch on her two studio albums, but it's worth having.

Björk - Biophilia

Firstly, apologies to anyone who follows my twitter feed, or anyone I’ve spoken to in person for the last five months as I’ve been gushing rather incessantly about Björk, which tends to happen in the build up to a release, but usually not quite to this extent. Secondly, if her newest album, which came out on Monday 10th October, is not yet in your life, make it so, as it will change it.

Biophilia has managed to do what I thought was an impossible task, which is topple PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake off the top of my “best album of 2011” list to a respectable second. Not only that, but for me, this has been the most impossibly tense build-up to an album ever. By the time the album came out, I knew all ten of the tracks quite intimately, from the four formal releases and the show at MIF, and Bestival, and the plethora of live footage on youtube, but as a complete album it still managed to surprise and enthral.

When I first heard Moon at MIF I thought it was a fairly twee and childlike song, that was improved by the visuals, I liked it a lot, but it was definitely one of the few growers, which turns out to be one of the most rewarding and luscious tracks on the album, a great opener, the choral arrangements are stunning and the harmonies (particularly on the last “all birthed and happy” line) immense. The video has had a fairly mixed response on youtube, some saying it was a bad choice of song to make a video for, others saying it’s too obvious or looks cheap. I agree with none of those, for me it kind of embodies the entire concept of the album, integrating the visuals that are used live (the moon) the graphics from the apps, and the striking image of Björk that forms the artwork of the front cover. Also, I really like being able to see Björk up close in her videos, her strongest videos in the past are the ones that are almost intrusively close to her and where she’s exposed and real (see cocoon and hidden place). I think it’s worth saying that Björk is brilliant at picking the perfect opener of an album. Lots of people don’t really put much stock in track orders, but I prefer listening to albums than individual songs, so I think it’s really important, would Homogenic have been as epic if it didn’t start with Hunter? Would Medulla have been as jarring and dense if Pleasure Is All Mine didn’t open it?

Thunderbolt was definitely my favourite song live. See this video from Bestival of what an intensely brilliant live experience it was. To see the tesla coil working in the flesh was surreal (at MIF, not so much at Bestival, where it was quite lost on the stage, I didn’t even realise it was there until I saw a video afterwards) I worried the more extreme instruments in this project would seem gimmicky, but the tesla forms a really hypnotic bass line, that at first I thought was lacking from the studio version, and to an extent I still do, although it really kicks in about halfway through, the initial introduction of it is too understated an affair for my liking, it’s literally electrifying when it kicks in live. For me, the lyrics in Thunderbolt are amongst some of her finest, and single-handedly show those who think of this album as some sort of didactic science lesson that at its core it’s a very human album, particular highlights for me: ‘No one imagines the light shock I need/ and I’ll never know/ from who's hands deeply humbled/ dangerous gifts as such to mine come and ‘My romantic gene is dominant/ and it hungers for union’. The choral arrangements again are off the scale, no one does it like Björk. Tesla bass or otherwise, this is my favourite song from the album, and probably enters my favourite songs of all time list. Really looking forward to receiving the manual edition in the post as it will include this live version, which could potentially be the definitive version so far. I’d love to see this as a single with a video, and perhaps a more bass-heavy remix.

Crystalline was the lead single, with a brilliant Gondry video. I prefer the album version to the single version, the way the drum and bass finale fades in is brilliant, and it works so well. It’s worth mentioning that Omar Souleyman’s remix of this track is also brilliant. Cosmogony was another that instantly captivated on a first listen, I was subconsciously already familiar with the melody, as one of the first teasers for the album was this video, which is Wonderbrass playing an alternative arrangement. Again, staggering lyrics: ‘they say, back then our universe/ was a coal-black egg/ until the god inside/ burst out and from its shattered shell/ he made what became the world we know’, I’m really excited at the possibility of the Wonderbrass arrangement with Björk’s vocals, that could be truly epic. Like Crystalline, the album version is different to the single version (the Serban Ghenea mix) and is probably better too.

Dark Matter and Hollow are likely to be some of the most jarring songs of the year, with Dark Matter being a brooding but ultimately beautiful gibberish piece (the choir and organ version included on some releases is my preferred version) and Hollow is quite unlike anything I’ve heard before, sort of sits alongside Ancestors from Medulla in that it’s quite primal and rootsy in the most barbaric sort of way and requires work in order to fully engage in it, but once you can pick out the melody it becomes a brilliant song, the choir repeating the lines ‘trunk of DNA’ and the ‘jewel-after-jewel-after-jewel’ repetition are real high points. I think Virus is an example of Biophilia at its most beautiful, and also, makes me think that aside from the concept and the extremely unconventional time signatures, that Biophilia is essentially a very simplistic album in terms of song structures, this is also another song that reiterates my thoughts that it’s a very human album as well: ‘The perfect match/ you and me/ I adapt, contagious/ you open up, saying welcome’.

Sacrifice is one of my favourite tracks, it’s really tender and the final refrain of ‘your generosity will show in the volume of her glow’ is stunning, I love when the flickery Vespertine-esque beat kicks in about half way through the song. I’m disappointed that this is the only Biophilia track that doesn’t feature on the live album, as the live version of this song ends with a choral version of said refrain and the harmonies are enchanting, I have a bootleg version courtesy of @VintageVeevers but I’d love there to be a higher quality live version at some point.

The last two tracks strike me as a more successful attempt at how Volta concluded. In this case Mutual Core, which ends with perhaps the most exciting 40 seconds of beats on the album and then the serene and heart-achingly good Solstice. I always felt that Volta should have ended with Declare Independents which assaults your ears with a barrage of chanty protest, I always found My Juvenile a bit of an anti climax, it always stood out like a sore thumb on the album for me. But on Biophilia, the come down from the (albeit brief) insanity of Mutual Core leads perfectly into the hypnotism of Solstice, which ends the album at its most intimate and raw. Really can’t wait for some Mutual Core remixes, it is a phenomenally good song.

Anyway, Blah blah blah, I didn’t imagine this would be such a long review/rant/verbalorgasm. I read an Independent review t’other day which gave the album 2 stars out of 5, and then an NME review (which was very well written considering the usual trendy tripe they come out with) gave it a 9/10. This made me think it was quite a divisive album with varying levels of success for people, but in fact the majority of reviews are favourable, maybe the Independent writer is just a fool. On the shuttle bus to the ferry on the way back to Bestival I had to butt in to someone’s conversation as I heard him say “the Cure were the highlight, Björk was quite boring” with a rather lengthy rant (as you might be able to imagine) about how people who don’t like Björk or can’t appreciate the pure magic of her work are lazy and unwilling to be challenged by music. While perhaps that was a bit extreme and I don’t really believe it, I do think that Björk is the most important and progressive artist today, and she will be lauded as one of the great innovators and geniuses of our time and Biophilia will be one of her many masterpieces to cement this. To sum up: Biophilia is a FUCKING TRIUMPH.

MIF - Sinead O'Connor and Bjork

So I just need to gush about this weekend. I saw Sinead O'Connor and Bjork who were both performing as part of the Manchester International Festival. Babs (AKA the mothership, my idol, legend etc.) bought me the tickets for my birthday and it was one of the best weekends ever.

Sinead's set was perfect, I was worried it would be Theology heavy, which was her last album that I like, but never really bonded with, but it was so varied and spanned most of her albums, including some of my favourites from Universal Mother, (In this heart and Thank you for hearing me). The new stuff she did is pretty good, it sounds unquestionably Irish, but with reggae beats, so her covers album wasn't superficial and she's obviously heavily influence by the genre. She was quite timid when talking between songs initially, after singing 'No Man's Woman' she said "that's a bit rich really given that I've shagged so many men". I love how much she has embraced motherhood, she spoke about her kids a lot (and not in a sickening way) and she's wearing herself with pride as always, her voice is impeccable and her acapella version of I am stretched on your grave was gorgeous.

BJORK was mind-blowing. Definitely the best gig I've ever been to (before this, the best gig I'd ever been to was when she did the Hammersmith Apollo in 2007). It was such a complete piece of art, the visuals, the atmosphere, the choreography, and especially the fucking astounding music. For me, Biophilia seems like a really organic progression, given that all of her work previously, right back to Debut has been about the discords and harmonies between humans and nature, so this technology/natural world cocktail works beautifully for me. Judging by the new stuff (I think she probably did the whole new album), this will be her best work yet, the most immediately brilliant songs were (and I'm not sure these are the correct titles) Thunderbolt, Mutual Core and (I'm even less sure about this title) Cosmogony? (the one with the chorus about Heaven's bodies or heavenly bodies or something). Before the encore she did one just with those swinging pendulum things called Solstice, which was gorrrrgeous too. It's weird how instantly likeable all the new stuff was because normally I find it difficult to fully get into new stuff until I'm familiar with it. The highlights aside from those new songs were Where is the line, Mouth's Cradle, Sonnets/Unrealities XI (which brought a little tear to my eye) and OF COURSE Unravel, which really surprised me as I've seen her twice previously hoping to hear this as it's my favourite song in the world and she didn't do it, but this time it just crept out of nowhere in the middle of the set, it was heartbreaking, and yes, the tears did flow. I'm so impatient for the new album now, which I believe comes out in the autumn, for those of you who are going to one of the other dates she's doing: JEALOUS. It was life-changingly good.

Yours, a very overwhelmed Sean.

beaaautiful things

Just been clearing out some old stuff from uni, and found a big pile of records I bought when I was in my first and second year (2004-2006ish). I went through a phase of buying them to stick on my wall, I don't have a record player so they're not a great deal of use to me beyond their aesthetics. Luckily, my favourites are all pretty beautiful.

When I first got into music (1994) Cyndi Lauper and Sinead O'Connor were the artists that excited me most, perhaps odd choices for an eight year old boy, but never mind. They still stand out as two of the best pop singers in the world for me, I've seen Cyndi Lauper live three times now, and get to see Sinead for the first time in July as part of the Manchester International Festival (also get to see Bjork for the third time the following day).













(detail)





I love the artwork for True Colors, particularly the back. The newspaper skirts is one of my favourite things she wore, nice little nod to her first album too in the bottom right hand corner.













She's so bloody beautiful:



I normally like quite abstract and concept-heavy album artwork, but I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got is one of my favourite album covers ever, and it's just her face:





Here's a bit of miscellaneous:







Also, me and the mother went to Durham today (mainly to get my glasses fixed, but alas specsavers was closed). We went to the Oxfam bookshop and she bought me this:



If it's anything as good as the Naked Civil Servant or Englishman in New York then I'm in for a treat.

Let England Shake

Since I’m at work on a Saturday, and the library is not very busy, I thought I’d vent about the issue that is conflicting me so at the moment. I genuinely cannot get enough of PJ Harvey’s new album Let England Shake but every time I allow myself to get excited about it or proclaim to myself that it’s the best album of 2011 so far, I can’t help but feel guilty because of the niggling feeling that the album is drenched too heavy in nationalism. The title itself sounds like it could be the slogan on an EDL poster. I am giving her highness PeeJ the benefit of the doubt, but I’ll highlight some of the lyrics (thanks to alwaysontherun.net – which is a brilliant lyrics website) just to support my claim.

I am also aware that it’s risky to assume that the voice is necessarily the voice of the singer, they’re just songs after all, so she could be assuming a character, or voicing things she doesn’t necessarily whole-heartedly support/believe in. She has in the past ranted at readings of her music being too autobiographical.

“Goddamn' Europeans
Take me back to beautiful England
And the grey, damp filthiness of ages
And battered books
And fog rolling down behind the mountains
And on the graveyards, and dead sea-captains” (From The Last Living Rose)

this song could easily just be about reclaiming a national identity that has been lost, by harking back to romanticised clichés of “battered books” and “fog”, but it definitely seems to be blaming people from Outside of England for this change of identity, and at no point seems to acknowledge that it might be a change for the better?

There is equally as strong a case to argue that the album is essentially anti-war:

“How is our glorious country ploughed
Not by iron ploughs
Our land is ploughed by tanks and feet
Feet, marching” (from The Glorious Land)

“I've seen and done things I want to forget
I've seen soldiers fell like lumps of meat
Blown and shot out beyond belief
Arms and legs were in the trees” (from The Words that Maketh Murder)

“Louis was my dearest friend
Fighting in the Anzac trench
Louis ran forward from the line
I never saw him again”
[...]
“If I was asked I'd tell
The colour of the earth that day
It was dull and browny-red
"The colour of blood", I'd say” (from The Colour of the Earth)

and so on...

But, even if it is anti-war, the tone of it doesn’t seem to suggest our country is at all responsible. I MIGHT be reading too deeply into the lyrics, and might be completely misreading them.

“People throwing dinars at the belly-dancers”
[...]
“He turned to me and then surveyed the scene
Said, “War is here in our beloved city”
(Let it burn, let it burn burn burn)” (from Written on the Forehead)

This Glorious Land opens with a military bugle, that instantly sets my hairs on end given my aversion to anything military.

The whole song ‘England’ unsettles me, it seems like a bitter lovesong to England that is distorted by far-eastern singing and instrumentation. It’s definitely the song that I feel most uncomfortable with.

I think the thing that bothers me is I find it difficult to ever consider soldiers as victims, especially not in recent wars. And as gritty and bleak as this album is at times, it’s also definitely romantic as well though.

I’ve just read several reviews of it online, and I seem to have entirely missed the point of it. A particularly well-written review on the Independent website says: “Polly Harvey offers a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle, not so much a police state as a nation in thrall to military endeavour, however impotent and wasteful that has become. A place paralysed by fascination with past victories, hidebound by the ghosts of an imperial past.” Which makes me feel much better about it, and other reviews seem to agree that it is about mourning a country bloodied by war and imperialism rather than romanticising it or even celebrating it.

It’s just very frustrating that had Morrissey made this exact album, (and at times, the jangly distant guitars sound quite Smiths-esque) he would have been berated for its nationalist undertones (or overtones), even though it’s fairly obvious that as his liberal views are entirely cancelled out by his more right wing views, he has become someone that was considered so political he has become apolitical. Yet I know nothing about PJ Harvey’s politics really, but people are quick to say she’s just a simple west country gal. She is however, reportedly, into hunting, which worries and unsettles me.

UGH maybe I’m being overdramatic, but it’s really halting my enjoyment of the album. That said I do think it’s her strongest yet- even more so than White Chalk which I never thought I’d ever catch myself saying. Maybe I just need to stop thinking and enjoying the bloody music.

Also, I’ve just reread this, and it barely makes sense. Tante pis.

My favourite albums of 2010

I attempted to draw up a list of my favourite albums of 2010, but realised it had been a fairly poor year for music because I couldn’t manage a top ten, I could manage a top three. This might be my own fault, as I have spent the vast majority of the year listening to Fever Ray’s album (from 2009), which I got into a little later than everyone else.

3. ‘Tomorrow, in a year’ The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock



An electro- opera about Charles Darwin, sounds a bit niche (and is) and is fairly hard to listen to initially but once you can start picking out the melodies it becomes easier on the ear. My favourite review of this said: “as a continuous hour and half movement that mercilessly evokes the sheer, fuckoff, awful, inhuman immensity of the natural world, it bloody well works.”

Best songs: Annie’s Box, Colouring of pigeons, The height of summer (that said the album works much better a whole rather than as individual songs).

2. ‘Swanlights’ Antony and the Johnsons



I think this is their most solid and mature album yet, bit more challenging than their last three, but a little more rewarding too. The version of Thank you for your love that he did on Jools Holland was infinitely better than the album version, musically and lyrically (he modified the lyric to say ‘I am the enemy/ the enemy of the earth,/ I don’t know how/ how to stop giving birth’), so my only complaint would be that the album version of that wasn’t - for me- the definitive version.

Best songs: The spirit was gone, Ghost, Salt Silver Oxygen, Christina’s farm.

1. ‘Body talk’ Robyn



Robyn is easily the best thing in pop right now. The trio of albums worked well as far as I’m concerned, I enjoyed the consistent output- it could have failed miserably but didn’t, because the quality of the music was always very high. It’s astounding that someone could produce so many brilliant songs in one year. This review of the lead single ‘Dancing on my own’ in the Guardian is amazing.

Best songs: Love kills, Call your girlfriend, Time machine, We dance to the beat, Indestructible, None of Dem (with Röyksopp) and Dancing on my own.

Honourable mentions: ‘Grey Oceans’ CocoRosie, ‘Memphis Blues’ Cyndi Lauper, ‘Senior’ Röyksopp, ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ Hole, ‘The Family Jewels’ Marina and the Diamonds.

Albums I'm looking forward to in 2011: Adele, R.E.M, PJ Harvey, Nelly Furtado, Hercules and Love Affair, Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, and have a healthy and happy 2011!

a cautionary tale of cancellations, common courtesy and imogen heap

First time I saw Imogen Heap was in 2006 at the Carling Academy in Newcastle with my mother. We both loved it, but Babs didn’t like standing up the whole time, so for Christmas this year I thought it would be nice to book us some tickets to see her at the Sage in seats. So I did, and that should have been tonight. HOWEVER, we get there at about half seven, see on the sign that she’s due to be on at 21.05, with the first support act starting at 8. It got to twenty past eight and they still hadn’t let anyone in, and then Imogen announces over the loudspeaker that she has to cancel due to sore throat and that we can either queue up for a refund, or hang around for a “Q and A session” with her.

Fair enough, a sore throat means she can’t sing. I don’t dispute that much. HOWEVER, according to twitter, she’s had this sore throat since at least friday – so it’s no surprise to her. So with a little foresight and common courtesy she could have very easily cancelled in advance (especially given that the majority of her fan base are twitterholics it would have taken little more than a tweet at 4 or 5 o’clock) rather than waiting until 50 minutes after the tickets told you to be there (convenient really- plenty of time for people to buy merchandise and drinks from the bar).

Maybe I will get a refund for the £35 for the tickets, but not the £5 booking fee, or indeed the £57 train tickets from London, or the fiver my mother put on the car-park. Definitely won't get the 2 days of my annual leave I used back.

Very annoyed.

She says on Twitter that she’ll introduce the support acts, who will still play, and that “I think they are worth the £15 alone” – perhaps they are, but the tickets were £17.50 and I definitely wouldn’t have travelled up from London especially to see two bands that I’ve never heard of.

Just not good enough, we’re not grammy award winners. £35 is a lot of money!

I've seen her three times, and she is easily in my top five favourite live performers, but after tonight's flippant regard for her fans it will definitely be a long time before I listen to her again.

On the way out we overheard someone say: "I've never been to a cancelled gig before" his friend replied with: "it's hardly a momentous occasion" ... my sentiments exactly.

best albums of the 2000s

I notice these 2000s retrospectives lists are everywhere at the moment so I thought I would compile my own. I should really be packing up my things as I need to move out of my flat on Monday- but of course I'll leave that to the last minute. At least this way I can see there is a product to my procrastination.

The way I did this was to go through my itunes and list all of the best albums, then I whittled it down to a shortlist of 50, then I wrote each one on a slip of paper and arranged them all across my bed and painstakingly put them in an order. I'm not even joking.

I decided not to justify my reasons, because it's my list. The reason for all of them is "because it's my list and I like it", that said- I did write a little note with some of them.

If you know me then there will be no surprises in this list. If you don't, then there still won't be, because you don't know me.


50. Supernature by Goldfrapp
best track: Ride on a white horse

49.Ys by Joanna Newsom
best track: Emily

48. Seventh Tree by Goldfrapp
best track: Clowns

47. Hopes and Fears by Keane
best track: She has no time/ Bedshaped
I know it’s deemed as inexcusably uncool to like Keane, but I’m proudly waving my flag of love for their first album. It was definitely brilliant, and was at its best during it’s quieter moments.

46. Hotel by Moby
best track: Spiders/ Home
Again, another uncool choice- but it’s a really beautiful album, and I think his work on the whole sits alone really in terms of style.

45. Shine by Cyndi Lauper
best track: Waters edge
Not a great Cyndi album, but still worthy of its place. I think the production is what ruins this, the whole thing feels a bit cheap and tinny.

44. Folklore by Nelly Furtardo
best track: Forca/ Explode
I think most anti-pop people would be pleasantly surprised at this album. It's really raw and quite rootsy, and seems a bit more faithful to itself than her other albums, which aren't very good at all.

43. Amarantine by Enya
best track: Less than a pearl

42. Super Extra Gravity by the Cardigans
best track: Losing a friend/ Don’t blame your daughter

41. Bring Ya 2 the Brink by Cyndi Lauper
best track: Into the nightlife/ Echo/ Rain on me
Again, not really a great Cyndi album, but has some really good high points- and can definitely be appreciated as a full album when one is in the right mood.

40. Want One and Want Two by Rufus Wainwright
best track: Oh what a world

39. Kala by MIA
best track: paperplanes/ boyz/ jimmy

38. Music for Men by Gossip
best track: Eighth wonder of the world

37. Safe Inside the Day by Baby Dee
best track: title track/ You’ll find your footing

36. Hercules and Love Affair (self titled)
best track: You belong/ Blind

35. 19 by Adele
best track: Tired
I tried to avoid liking her for as long as possible, but I fell for her charm. Her voice is beautiful and the album is quite mellow and retro. I like.

34. Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode
best track: Pain that I’m used to/ Nothing’s impossible

33. The Fame by Lady Gaga
best track: Paparazzi

32. This City Draws Maps by the Rosie Taylor Project
best track: The sun on my right/ good café on George Street/ The water’s edge
Perhaps this is a bit of a biased choice, but it was a great summer album for me this year and I find it extremely easy to listen to.

31. She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty by Sinead O’Connor
best track: Emma’s song
I’m definitely cheating by including this as it’s not a studio album, but rather a career retrospective with a live disc and a disc of b-sides, early demos and covers. But it’s really brilliant, the best thing she released since Universal Mother in 1994.

30. A Woman a Man Walked By by PJ Harvey and John Parish
best track: April

29. Robyn (self titled)
best track: With every heartbeat/ Who’s that girl/ Handle me

28. Silent Shout by the Knife
best track: Forest families/ Marble house

27. Takk by Sigur Ros
best track: Gong/ Glosoli/ Saeglopur



26. Meds by Placebo
best track: Follow the cops back home

25. Lycanthropy by Patrick Wolf
best track: To the lighthouse

24. Fur and Gold by Bat for Lashes
best track: Horse and I

23. Volta by Bjork
best track: Dull Flame of Desire/ Wanderlust/ Earth Intruders/ Vertebrae by vertebrae
I surprised myself here- I thought I would have placed this higher, but it doesn’t begin to compare with some of her earlier efforts.

22. Crying Light by Antony and the Johnsons
best track: Aeon

21. Yes, Virginia by Dresden Dolls
best track: Sex Changes/ Delilah

20. Back to Black by Amy Winehouse
best track: Back to black
Really obvious choice, but that’s because it’s an ingenious album that absolutely everyone seems to love.

19. Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap
best track: Headlock/ Hide and seek/ The moment I said it

18. Two Suns by Bat for Lashes
best track: Moon and moon/ Glass

17. Soviet Kitsch by Regina Spektor
best track: Us/ The flowers/ Ode to divorce

16. The Bachelor by Patrick Wolf
best track: The sun is often out/ Damaris/ Theseus

15. Laundry Service by Shakira
best track: Eyes like yours
A very underrated pop album. It stands leagues above much of the more successful pop albums these days. Genuinely has its own sound and the lyrics are top notch.

14. You are the Quarry by Morrissey
best track: Irish Blood, English Heart/ I like you/ All the lazy dykes

13. Howling Bells (self titled)
best track: Low happening

12. The adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn by CocoRosie
best track: Werewolf/ Animals

11. Confessions on the Dancefloor by Madonna
best track: Forbidden love/ Sorry/ Future lover
Easily the strongest of Madonna’s 2000s albums, really infectious dancefloor music, without being too camp and it has yet to be surpassed for its type I think. Almost as good as Ray of Light. But not.


Top Ten

10. Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey
best track: Life is a pigsty

9. I am a Bird Now by Antony and the Johnsons
best track: Bird Gurhl/ For today I am a boy

8. Details by Frou Frou
best track: Let go/ Psychobabble

7. Around the Sun by REM
best track: Worst joke ever/ Electron blue/ Around the sun
For some reason I can’t stop going back to this album, even though most think it’s one of their weakest. I think it’s really ethereal and epic but quite atmospheric too. It’s infinitely better than Accelerate, that was so formulaic it felt like something an REM tribute band would produce.

6. Glasvegas (self titled)
best track: Daddy’s gone/ Flowers and football tops/ Go square go
Beautiful album that on paper I shouldn’t really like. It’s flawless musically, lyrically and vocally. It’s pretty much the soundtrack to the phrase “it’s grim up north” but far less clichéd

5. Medulla by Bjork



best track: can’t pick one.
A mammoth musical feat. As far as conceptual albums go- this is pretty much the best. It flows like one long orgasmic sigh, it’s haunting and untouchable, but also entirely listenable and accessible.

4. White Chalk by PJ Harvey


best track: White Chalk/ Silence/ Grow grow grow
Peej outdid herself with this one.

3. Aerial by Kate Bush



best track: from disc one A coral room, disc two is practically just one song
I refer particularly to disc two, which absolutely blows me away still to listen to. It’s so slick and complete, how someone could sit down to produce such a solid and inspired piece of continual music is beyond me.

2. Melankton by Kate Havnevik


best track: Nowhere warm/ New day
A random find through myspace, and when I eventually bought the album, I couldn’t believe it wasn’t more well known, it’s in the same vein as Imogen Heap and Bjork, but really nothing like either, much more accessible. It’s absolutely charming.

1. Vespertine by Bjork


best track: Unison/ Undo/ Pagan poetry/ Cocoon/ Hidden Place/ Harm of will
This is musical perfection as far as I’m concerned. It’s whispery and tiny, but lush and huge at the same time. It’s so mellow without being timid and it’s fierce without compromising the sound. I just love it from start to finish and pretty much can’t gush enough about it. Definitely Bjork’s most solid work ever, including Homogenic, which, if I could include it on this list (which I can’t as it was made in 1997) I would put between Medulla and Volta- if you’re interested.

Definitely need to start packing now. Feel free to discuss, argue or curse me for omitting your favourite album :o)

love love x

I'm throwing my arms around MORRISSEY

Friday 22nd of May marked the birthdays of two gay icons and utter legends. Harvey Milk, had he been alive, would have turned 79. Morrissey, who is thankfully living, turned 50, and I was there to wish him a good one… albeit from up in the circle at the Manchester Apollo in amongst a sold out sea of aggressive skin-heads, middle-aged couples, gays and 30-something heterosexual guys satisfying their man-crushes.

It was a funny old evening, that hadn’t originally meant to have included me. I should have been sat alone in my flat feeling sorry for myself for having no money to do anything, but a friend at work gave me her tickets due to her and her boyfriend not being well enough to make it. Obviously I’m sad for them… but very pleased for me. So after some panicked plan changing and train arranging, I was there, with my friend Louise.

I bought a delicious t-shirt, it’s black with Morrissey holding a beautiful smiling baby- from the cover of Years of Refusal. Louise and I were standing by the circle bar having a drink and I spotted Jo Brand. This is very unlike me, as I have the worst eye-sight in the world- evidently my celebrity-spotting skills are better than my normal-things-seeing skills. We decided to approach her and ask for a photograph. She was lovely! And very happy to get a picture with us. She told me I looked “great” which was nice to hear, she also laughed at my joke! The woman who was “kindly” taking our picture was bloody useless, and was taking ages to do it, and then a member of Apollo staff came and offered to take the picture for her, thinking she was with us, the woman kept explaining that she wasn’t going to be in the picture- but he kept insisting until Jo Brand said “she’s not with these!” I turned to her and said “some people can be too helpful” she laughed and then said “you’re right, people really CAN be too helpful”. So with Jo Brand’s seal of comic approval, we made our way to our seats, in what was, as ever, the most unusually mixed bunch of fans you’re ever likely to have under one roof.



The set list was as follows:

This Charming Man

Irish Blood, English Heart
Black Cloud
How Soon Is Now?

All You Need Is Me

How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?

Girlfriend In A Coma

I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris

Let Me Kiss You

Ask

Something Is Squeezing My Skull

One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?

The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores

I Keep Mine Hidden

When Last I Spoke To Carol

Best Friend On The Payroll

Sorry Doesn't Help

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

The Loop

I'm OK By Myself

Encore:

First Of The Gang To Die

The backdrop of the stage was a topless soldier, flexing his muscles, with the word REFUSAL emblazoned across his chest- as homoerotic as ever. The lighting was amazing throughout, and much like with the Ringleaders tour- there was a big gong behind the drummer Matt Walker.



I loved the set, but I would have liked to see more of his early solo stuff (Viva Hate/ Vauxhall and I /Kill Uncle… well- a boy can dream!) I think this gig proved that Years of Refusal was definitely written with the stage rather than the CD player in mind. The strongest tracks on the new album are definitely Throwing My Arms Around Paris, I’m Okay by Myself, When Last I Spoke to Carol and Something is Squeezing my Skull (and also It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore).

When referring to the newest single (Something is squeezing my skull) he said: "You would need a miner's helmet and a degree in anthropology to find it in the shops" once again highlighting how absurdly poorly his singles do in the charts despite him having such a huge following. I BUY THEM- in multiple formats! why doesn't everyone else?

This is the third time I’ve seen him now, and easily the best. The fact that it was a homecoming gig, and on his 50th birthday pretty much made it THE Morrissey gig to be at, and it was a bizarre and happy twist of fate that I ended up there. He was in rare high spirits and was utterly charming. I adore him more than ever now.

One thing that really baffles me about Morrissey fans and also those who mock him, is that so many people don’t get him at all… the skinheads who love him, think he is a figure of working-class Britain who thinks “England for the English”- but it’s clearly not the case. He thinks that England has a very different identity to that which it once had, which can’t be argued- but he is not racist, and his past words on immigration were clearly very ill advised and not thought out properly. He is not fiercely patriotic, he hates that those who are different are victims, which is clear from the lyrics in Asian Rut and Bengali in Platforms amongst others- he thinks the union jack is no longer something to be proud of. It really winds me up when people misread him and see him as some vile national front figure. I also find it funny that a big group of burly baldies that clearly idolised him were looking at me with disgust and making homophobic comments… clearly they have never paid ANY attention to Morrissey’s pretty candid lyrics. This really makes me laugh that they are worshipping someone who so openly has embraced gay/trans culture and aren’t bright enough to realise it.



In honour of my amazing mood and total Morrissey Mania, I thought I would compile a list of my favourite Morrissey and Smiths songs. In no particular order.

Morrissey
Jack the ripper
Mute witness
Life is a pigsty
Everyday is like Sunday
Now my heart is full
Alsatian cousin
The world is full of crashing bores
First of the gang
Asian rut
National Front disco
November spawned a monster
The lazy sunbathers
Spring-heeled Jim
Late night, Maudlin Street
Margaret on the guillotine
Irish blood, English heart
Will never marry
Such a little thing

The Smiths
Please, please, please let me get what I want
The headmaster ritual
I want the one I can’t have
That joke isn’t funny anymore
Meat is murder
I know it’s over
The queen is dead
Reel around the fountain
Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me
Shoplifters of the world unite
Asleep
Half a person

Love love x

bat for lashes

I went to see Bat for Lashes last night at the Leeds Met Union, which is a venue I really like (I've seen Imogen Heap and Gossip there too). They were amazing, though I really can't warm to Natasha Khan at all, she seems so arrogant and insincere. That said, she's got a beautiful voice and I loved the gig. The set was fairly short, just shy of 40 minutes or so, and was mostly the new album, with a few from Fur and Gold. I love how different the two albums sound, the first one was quite folksy, but the new one is so epic and "mystical", some of the tracks could be on the soundtrack to some really cheesy 80s fantasy film like Dark Crystal or somethin. Really oddly she didn't do Prescilla, which was quite disappointing and also very suprising. I don't think they're big enough yet to be choosing to miss out their most well known songs. The encore was Moon and Moon from the new album.

Also, Louise bought me one of their t-shirts for my birthday- which is beautiful. Sorry about the myspace-esque picture, it's purely to illustrate the delicious t-shirt. I do love a bit of swan, mauled or otherwise.





definitely check out their new album "Two Suns" if you have yet to. It's stunning, joint with PJ Harvey's "A woman a man walked by" as best of 2009 so far.

love love x

dull flame of (insert translation here)

At the moment I'm a little all-consumed with love poetry, entirely out of necessity (don't ask).

As Bjork's Dull Flame of Desire is almost my all time favourite love song, and potentially my all time favourite song (Unravel is probably the best love song and my favourite song though) I set out to see if the original poem it is from, by Russian poet Tyutchev, is longer than the song, or if there are any different translations floating around. It turns out there are.

The translation Bjork uses is as follows:

I love your eyes, my dear
Their splendid, sparkling fire
When suddenly you raise them so
To cast a swift embracing glance
Like lightning flashing in the sky
But there's a charm that is greater still
When my love's eyes are lowered
When all is fired by passion's kiss
And through the downcast lashes
I see the dull flame of desire

So yeah, it's beautiful, but I've come across a translation by Frank Jude, which can be found here (as well as translations of all of his poems, this one is poem 123) which I also adore, it's funny how different the two versions are, both pretty beautiful, and I really like elements from both. Not sure that there is one that I prefer more than the other.

I love your eyes, dear,
their fiery-playful games,
their sudden upward glances
slowly looking all around like lightning-flames.

There's a more potent spell:
eyes lower.
A mouth hungers.
Lids almost close.
Sullen arousal glows.

UGH. actually, I've changed my mind, the second one is definitely more beautiful. And look at poem 122, which that follows:

There's not a spark of feeling in your eyes.
When you speak, your words are lies
and there's no soul in you.
Stand fast, my heart, right to the end:
godless, creation has to fend,
so praying's pointless too.

Obviously not a love poem, but thematically, it's interesting that this should preceed such a stunning poem that is based around beautiful eyes. Also interesting the word "spark" which appears, which isn't present in this translation of 123, but is in the version that Bjork used "splendid sparkling fire". Very interesting indeed. I'll have a shop around, see if there are any other good translations of it!

love love x