LP's of 2012

1 - Grizzly Bear - Shields
Adore this lp.  Saw them perform the new tracks headlining End of the Road in September and found them totally unmemorable, I was left with less excitement about the new lp.  Then I heard it.  It’s a perfect 10 tracks with magnificent arrangements that really drive through it’s heart.  This is the only lp this year that I have found time to play from beginning to end, a quick dip in just does not suffice.  My favourite track changes weekly (currently a tie between A Simple Answer and Sun in your Eyes).  An all-time classic.

2 - Liars - WIXIW
In which Liars finally use electronics in their music with astounding results.  Think Liars/Kraftwerk/Primal Scream/Matthew Dear/LCD Soundsystem with great vocals and songwriting.  A real back to basics approach to sampling has made this record feel fresh and accomplished.  Deserve to be much bigger than they are.

3 - Chromatics - Kill for Love
Have you seen the film Drive?  Maybe do that before you listen to this.  This album creates a warm electronic atmosphere of sparse beats, looped beneath the most beautiful pop songs.  It creates a cinematic landscape that sounds totally immersive.  Listen to this through headphones and prepare to fall in love.

4 - Efterklang - Piramida
Startlingly beautiful Danish pop music, backed by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra.  Like a cold snow-swept landscape in a Henning Mankell novel with warm vocals floating through the air.

5 - Wild Nothing - Nocturne
Glorious indie pop that harks back to the C86 Creation era.

6 - Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Loud, spiky, indie rock, that has been hollered by my daughter and I more than any other lp this year.

7 - First Aid Kit - The Lions Roar
The Swedish sisters second lp really found it’s voice with the help of Connor Oberst and Mike Mogis.  ‘King of the World’ is my track of the year.  The whole family love this one!

8 - Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Only bought this at the end of November and it’s growing on me by the day.  Hardly left the stereo this month.  A startling voice.  Completely addictive.

9 - Beach House - Bloom
They just keep getting better!

10 - Dan Deacon - America
A new artist for me.  Dan Deacon makes an absolutely massive racket with electronic beats from which beautiful pop music surfaces.

11 - Chairlift - Something
12 - DIIV - Oshin
13 - Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
14 - Errors - Have Some Faith in Magic
15 - Holy Other - Held
16 - John Talabot - Fin
17 - Perfume Genius - Put You Back N 2 It
18 - School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
19 - Toy - Toy
20 - Andy Stott - Luxury Problems

Favourite live bands this year were Toy (who just seem to be on fire at the moment), Beach House and Tindersticks were magical at End of the Road, and Grandaddy headlining the same festival gave one of my favourite performances ever, sheer joy!

Where Daft Punk get their samples from...

Love this.

LPs of 2011

1. The Antlers - Burst Apart 
2. How to Dress Well - Love Remains
3. Bright Eyes - The People’s Key
4. Jonathan Wilson - Gentle Spirit
5. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
6. I Break Horses - Hearts
7. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
8. Azari & III - Azari & III 
9. The Horrors - Skying
10. Rustie - Glass Swords 
11. Pete & the Pirates - One Thousand Pictures
12. Title Fight - Shed
13. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
14. Locussolus - Locussolus
15. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
16. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
17. Jeniferever - Silesia
18. Wilco - The Whole Love
19. Death In Vegas - Trans Love Energies
20. SBTRKT - SBTRKT

Special mention to: Other Lives - Tamer Animals, only just bought this due to other recommendations.  If I had longer with it it seems almost certain to be top 5.

LPs of the Decade

The Pitchfork beating LP of the Decade List (Don’t worry about the last 6 months!)

1. Bright Eyes - Lifted or The story in is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground (2002) 
2. Sleepy Jackson - Lovers (2003)
3. At the Drive In - Relationship of Command (2000)
4. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005) 
5. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (2007)
6. Daft Punk - Discovery (2001) 
7. Primal Scream - EXTRMNTR (2000)
8. Beck - Sea Change (2002) 
9. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (2000) 
10. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)
11. The Shins - Chute too Narrow (2003)
12. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed America/Jimmy Eat World (2001)
13. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) 
14. Black Mountain - Black Mountain (2005) 
15. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Lindstrom & Prins Thomas (2005) 
16. White Stripes - Elephant (2003)
17. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002) 
18. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
19. Doves - The Last Broadcast (2002)
20. Death From Above 1979 – You’re a Women, I’m a Machine (2005)
21. Hope of the States - The Lost Riots (2004)
22. M. Craft - Silver & Fire (2006)
23. Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City (2007)
24. Pulp - We Love Life (2001)
25. Royksopp - The Understanding (2005)

LPs 2010

Mark’s Lp’s of 2010 - Unfinished, but never going to get finished now!

1. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz. At first listen you wonder if Sufjan has totally lost the plot as the abstract electronic beats dominate.  The second listen finds the pop hooks deep in your mind.  By the third it all falls together and you mind explodes.  One of the finest lp’s I’ve ever heard.  Only Wilco’s - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has made this kind of impression in such a short time in the last 15 years.
2.  Fang Island - Fang Island.  An album of National Anthems.  Happy Mogwai (thank-you James).  Kind of joyous, happy, chanty punk.  Just a few of the ways I’ve tried to describe this lp to friends this year.  Whatever it is, nothing has put a bigger smile on my face this year.  Nothing sounds quite like Fang Island.
3. The National - High Violet.
4. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest. 
5. Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner. 
6. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today.  
7. Chemical Brothers - Further.  Exactly what Tom and Ed should sound like in 2010.  A nuclear powered, psychedelic trip to places only previously attempted by My Bloody Valentine.
8. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor.  Only got on this late in the year.  A heavy cross between Bruce Springsteen and Bright Eyes.  Themed around the US Civil War and full of historical references but don’t let that take away from the musical brilliance.
9. Neil Young - Le Noise.
10. Robyn - Body Talk.
11. No Age - Everything In Between
12. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
13. Foals - Total Life Forever
14. Pantha du Prince - Black Noise
15. Caribou - Swim
16. Stornoway - Beachcomber’s Windowsill
17. Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme
18. Gayngs - Relayted
19. Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
20. MGMT - Congratulations

LPs of 2009

Mark’s Lp’s of 2009 (Better late then never!)

1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The band did good! Favourites of mine since 1999, this year they finally made their masterpiece and found the adulation they deserve. Poppy, dancey, euphoric, makes me equally happy and proud. Singles and standouts are held together by stunning Love Like a Sunset. Totally ruled Brixton Academy October. One of only two lp’s (see no. 2) this year to be truly, memorably great. Phoenix, Phoenix, Phoenix!
   
2. Royksopp – Junior. Royskopp have produced their masterpiece; starting with the playful Happy Up Here before colliding into The Girl and the Robot, featuring vocals from Robyn. Filtered, dirty, squelchy and smooth this has had my brain pulsating since the summer. This Scandinavian elite is complete when Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife, Fever Ray) lends a guest vocal. As far as electronic music (and crime writing) Scandinavia is producing the finest in the world right now.
   
3. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream. Blissful 80’s influenced pop from the godlike Luke Steel. This feels like the perfect next step after the Sleepy Jackson. Overblown and outrageous with three of the strongest singles of the year. Electronic, with perfect pop sensibilities, like the beach boys rung through a Cut Copy mangle. Shares with Phoenix the quality that makes it equally at home in nightclubs or on a Sunday afternoon.
   
4. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor. A welcome surprise in early December. As uplifting as Arcade Fire and as breathtaking as Fleet Foxes. Energetic, youthful, Americana, which aims to please; this band could go on to truly great things.
   
5. Dark was the Night - Various Artists. The first compilation I’ve ever included in my end of year lists. Curated by the National and including the cream of the alternative US indie scene, this is the strongest double lp I’ve ever bought. All acts are on the top of their game and the tracks are woven together perfectly, somehow never feels like a compilation. This has soundtracked my year.
   
6. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk. Conor Oberst, Jim James, M Ward and Mike Mogis, all on one lp, in outrageously good form, what more could you possibly want?
   
7. Memory Tapes - Seek Magic. Another unexpected highlight, someone else described this as New Order playing Neil Young. Can’t describe it better myself. The guitar line at the end of bicycle is the best minute of music for years.
   
8. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport. In which the previously almost unlistenable F Buttons collided with Lord Andrew Weatherall. The product was the apocalyptical sound of a volcano spewing out beats as it rises through the ocean straight into a London basement party. Play it loud and play the entire 58 mins, this is a complete album of ideas rather than a collection of tracks.
   
9. Saint Etienne - Foxbase Beta (Richard X remix). First a compilation then a remix lp, what has happened to my list this year? One of my all time favourite bands handed over all of the masters of their debut to pop producer and DJ, Richard X (Sugababes, Kelis & Liberty X). This idea did not excite me. When I finally got around to buying it I was amazed, this really is a thing of beauty. Not better than the original, equally as good, just viewed through different shades. If you love Foxbase Alpha, you must own its new baby sibling, the children’s choir at the crescendo of Like the Swallow has to be heard to be believed.
   

10. Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers. Touted as the follow up to the Holy Bible, due to the band using Richey Edwards lyrics which he left behind when he went missing 10 years ago. In reality this is nowhere near as bleak as that masterpiece, but it is an incredible return to form. Loud, intelligent, witty, hooks galore, this is the Manics I fell in love with in 1991.
    
11. The XX - XX
    
12. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
    
13. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
    
14. The Horrors - Primary Colours
    
15. Lindstrom & Christabelle - Real Life is No Cool
    
16. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
    
17. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
    
18. Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
    
19. Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
    
20. Jack Penate - Everything is New
    

Gigs: Neil Young at Hyde Park. Radiohead at Reading. Phoenix at Brixton. Bloc Party at Olympia. Wilco at The Forum. Spiritualized at Royal Festival Hall
Single: Bruce Springsteen - The Wrestler 2010
New Acts: Broken Bells, Hurts, Joy Orbison, Free Energy,
Old Acts with exciting new lp's: Foals, Four Tet, Hot Chip, Beach House & LCD Soundsystem.
Extreme excitement for the return of Daft Punk in Tron! Movie, soundtrack & (tour?)