It's unavoidable, it just happens. The Coke trucks are ploughing through Pixar snow, the sleigh bells are ringing in the Asda jingle and the "Santa is a ^insert football team here^
#1 - The Gaslight Anthem - Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
A return to proper blues, proper roots, proper riffs...NJ natives The Gaslight Anthem could've come from nowhere else. Steeped in feedback and stewed in its own distortion, "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" resurrects the spirit of Springsteen and flings it head first into the 21st century with a tale of small town loss that the Boss himself would be proud of, if he grew much more hair. Also features a key change of Eurovision proportions, though don't let that put you off.
#2 - Mystery Jets - Young Love
One of the stand out songs of the summer I missed. Even for those of us who left college without hearing "Young Love", the combination of inexperience and longing that those cheap hookups left us with is all too short in the memory. A wonderful track, from a wonderful album, by a wonderful band, who deserve to be heard more widely, though sometimes you feel that would piss their fans off no end.
There really int very much to say about "Flowers And Football Tops" (as youtube assures me it is actually called - not "floors an fitba taps" as I thought) that can't be ascertained from just putting it on and listening for yourself; its raw, its topical and its frank. It stings like a Frankie Boyle punchline and, if you can find it, theres a demo version that's as tortured and powerful as anything else heard this year.
#4 - MGMT - Electric Feel
Probably the most commercially successful entry in this list, and a bloody good thing too; "Electric Feel" is the kind of song that I don't mind dickheads liking - DJs are dickheads and I want to hear this when I'm in a club. It's a compromise of sorts. MGMT's album was the most danceable of the year, and this is its most danceable track; the greatest complement I can pay to it is that when I'm at work I bang on "Oracular Spectacular" and it makes my day go that little bit quicker, which, I'm sure you'll agree, is what its all about.
France's premier folk/indie/Bjork tribute act, The Dø are, as their Facebook group proclaims, "la revélation musicale de l'anneé", and, if that means nothing to you, then I suggest you skip on to the next paragraph because they're probably not your kind of band. They're inconsistent, inaccessible and, as "At Last" proves, occasionally brilliant. The most telling criticism of them is that their songs never appear on French radio, or French TV, and (as far as I could see during my time amongst Les Francais) are generally disliked by the few French who've actually heard them, which, whilst it may not do wonders for their career prospects, is, in my mind, a ringing endorsement.
It should be said straight off the bat that I'm no great fan of electro. I'll walk a mile to avoid an electro night. I once threatened to punch a man who said he was going to play "minimal tech house". However, "Magique" is on permanent Ipod repeat, and it's beyond me why. Quite possibly the most unique, quite probably the most unusual and certainly the catchiest song of the year, I can only recommend that you listen to it yourself and, as you undoubtedly will, back me up. Magick? Les Klaxons? Qui?
#7 - The Just Joans - Bellshill Station
One would think that Glasvegas would top anybody's "Most Scottish Band of the Year 08" poll, but not mine; The Just Joans douse them in Buckie and deep-fry them out of that particular rhetorical device. I'm assured that "Bellshill Station" was released in 2008-but their LP sold out completely, their myspace makes no mention of it, and the only youtube video I can find is a live version, so you'll just have to listen to that and ask for my copy of the mp3 - its well worth it. Roll on the 18th of Dec at the Twisted Wheel.
I'll confess straight away - Sigur Rós are my favourite band. Which was why, on first hearing this, I was not overly impressed. It doesn't sound like Sigur Rós. Where was the ethereality (a word?), the soundscape, the gradual build? However, "Gobbledigook" has grown on me immeasurably, and in doing so, has only further cemented the Rós' position in the Mike Wood pecking order. It's a response, a reply to those who derided our favourite Icelanders for playing safe on previous records; and a superb song in its own right. Also, when ending gigs with it, about ten grand's worth of confetti falls from the roof, and you'll never hear me complain about confetti.
I've tried - at great length - not to gush about Vampire Weekend. Its hard. I've tried to describe them, but again, it difficult to categorise their output; "upper west side Soweto" in the words of the band, "the whitest band in the world" says a fellow blogger (if anyone else knows where I read that, do get in touch...), myself? I've taken to describing them in terms of my first meeting with their music - stood in the pouring rain in Arras, with 40,000 uninterested French people, desperately trying to get them to show some interest in the wonders taking place on stage. Indescribable then, but I feel obliged to try. "Ottoman" itself is probably not their best song. Its merely what I'm loving at the moment. I had the "Bryn" phase, the "Mansard Roof" phase; in fact, pretty much every track on the album has a corresponding phase. Needless to say, I could go on, but I think you get the drift.
#10 - Los Campesinos! - Death To Los Campesinos!
Los Campesinos! are a band I should hate. I hate pretty much everyone else I know who likes them. The lead singer's voice is, by all accounts, hugely irritating. They're hideously uncool, at least in circles where coolness isn't measured by "pin-the-tache-on-Nick-Cave" contests. Yet LC! are infectious, joyous, and, if their Leeds Fest set is anything to go by, riotous. Moshing to a band with violins is not on. Neither is making your own "YOU!ME!DANCING!" banner. Neither then, is liking Los Campesinos! then, as these are the irrational things they inspire in me, and never more than during their stand out track, "Death To Los Campesinos!".
That's it then. It's late. I'm going to bed. Doubtless I'll be back :)
