Off Topic With Ashley

Owen suggested the other night that I should blog more about music, because everything else I blog about is shit. Realising that Owen is right and that Owen had a good suggestion, I decided to write this blog post for Owen who — let’s face it — is an infallibly authoritative source on what’s shit^*.

I’m not sure why I bother with this any more, because my musical tastes have diverged significantly enough from the stuff they play on TripleJ anyway, but here’s the songs I picked for the hottest 100 this year.

• Mando Diao – Fire
• Decemberists, The – The Rake’s Song
• Gomez – Airstream Driver
• White Rabbits – Percussion Gun
• IAMX – The Great Shipwreck Of Life
• Eels – That Look You Give That Guy
• Grizzly Bear – Fine For Now
• Kasabian – Fire
• Phoenix – Lisztomania
• Them Crooked Vultures – New Fang?

IAMX and Gomez were both greatly anticipated albums, the latter of which I listened to far too much when I finally got it. Kasabian was another entry I’m sick to death of now, but I can still appreciate why I find these songs so damn attractive. Pop music at its greatest.

That Look You Give That Guy was a surprising entry, and a very cute track that makes you want to tear your heart out and throw it at someone. Grizzly Bear and Mando Diao were also lovely surprises that cropped up through the course of the year, although  I sold out my Grizzly Bear vote to Fine For Now because it was the only option without havint to manually enter it. I would probably have preferred Southern Point

Them Crooked Vultures are just ridiculously good, but I think I’m playing them to death as well. It’s not difficult to do either, they’ve got together and perfectly executed this pop album that makes you shit awe and bleed saccharine from your ears. It’s really impossible to describe how wonderful it is unless you listen to it, and appreciate it for the guitar driven ridiculousness of it all.

The Decemberists album was also more of a whole experience rather than a single item. As always they came out with a crushingly beautiful story that brings shivers and a tear dare you let it, and though it’s not the kind of music you can really blast up loud while you do the vacuuming, it’s certainly powerful enough to score a place in my favourites of the year.

White Rabbits and Phoenix are both token gestures because I like the artists, not those songs in particular.

Some more music which I would consider amongst the best this year but not played on TripleJ includessss…

• Locksley, with Be In Love. Their previous album was a bit “meh” but had two token tracks. This one shits all over it with indie rock goodness and love.
• Kamera and Apoptygma Berzerk I clump into the one artist considering how similar they (don’t really) sound. Crazy synths and a hint of ’80s revival, Nick actually introduced me to Apoptygma toward the beginning of the year.
• The Working Title have a really unnerving album, Bone Island which also ranks very near the top of the list. Hijackers is crazy, quadruply so if you both listen and watch the animation on their website at the same time².
• Danger Mouse and Sparkle Horse also produced a really neato concept album Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul with some massive names including Jason Lytle of Grandaddy (who’s incidentally whored his vocals out everywhere and released his own album this year, I love it,) Julian Casablancas of The Strokes (who’s also released a solo album,) James Mercer of The Shins,  Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals (who also released a splendidly quirky album that I’ve been enjoying greatly,) and others. The very unfortunate thing is that this album never got released due to unspecified legal reasons. It was released to Bittorrent instead.
• I also enjoyed in no particular order: The Films, Norfolk, Stuck In The Sound, Dananananaykroyd, Datarock, Wilco, Starlight Mints, Cornershop, Imogen Heap, Chevelle, Yo La Tengo, and Porcupine Tree.

^* Yeah, it’s my blog and I’ll write what I like, so ner.

² This denotes entire albums that are giving me the shivers right now.