No, not mine, that’s a secret for a little while longer. Well, at least until I figure out which five they are at least, which might take another week or so. No, this is yours. For those of us sleeping off hangovers from Thursday’s drinking, and preparing to give ourselves whole new ones tonight, I think this might be the perfect diversion: simply list, in order, your five favourite albums of the year.
I am not sure how to score this, frankly. I could either award five points for a number one, four for a two and so on, or just add up each mention as a single vote like I did with the songs of the year – what do you think? Perhaps when you add your answers you could give me a steer on how to score it – one mention, one vote or sliding scale.
As this week’s five songs, I have picked one from each of last year’s top five albums, but I feel obliged to point out that Timber Timbre was actually re-released this year on a UK label (the brilliant Full Time Hobby), so is very much eligible for this year’s vote. And if I were to nudge you in any one direction that would probably be it. It’s a fucking incredible album, and would be very highly placed in my own list this year had I not already included it last year.
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Okay, so today we start our lists. I have made my own list of my top twenty albums of the year, but in all honesty I am still struggling to pare down my Festive Fifty to, er, fifty. At the moment it’s more like a Festive three hundred and seventy six, which won’t do at all. It is, as my father (and W.C. Fields) used to say, no use to man nor beast.
This is your chance, however, to put your five favourite songs of the year into the comments, and we’ll see who the readers of Song, by Toad have been loving the most over the course of the year.
And for those of you preparing for the Weekend of Alcoholic Annihilation next week, you might be interested to hear about something just a little bit classier happening tomorrow night, to which my pal Pete Harvey has asked me to give a quick plug. And he’s a nice chap, so why not. Besides I still nurture an intellectual inferiority complex about classical music which presumably stems from my traumatic childhood.
Saturday 11th December 2010, 7.30pm at the Canongate Kirk – Macmillan: Seven Last Words from the Cross & Byrd: Motets.
The Rose Street Ensemble with the Calton Consort – Conductor: Jason Orringe.
The Facebook event is here if you would like to investigate further, and a nice handy Google Maps link here. And no, I doubt it’s that Jason Orange. And no, of course he’s never heard that joke before.
So, we are all doing our five favourite songs of the year vote this week. Last year I was quite bad about adding it up, but this year I promise to keep a running total (at least, of everything with more than one vote, anyway). I can’t add mine because obviously I don’t want to jump the gun on my own Festive Fifty, but I thought I might revisit my top five songs from last year, and then sit back and do my sums while you let me know what has been exciting you the most in 2010.
Looking back at my top five from last year, I do notice a couple of Song, by Toad Records bands in there, and that is one thing which will be different this year: I am banning Song, by Toad Records bands from any of my lists. It was fair enough to include them when we hadn’t released that much, but we’ve had a very busy year and so there would be a definite danger of the label swamping the list this year, and besides, I could hardly put one of our bands’ debut albums in the top five while another barely scraped the top ten, now could it?
So just take it as read that I love our bands the most and that if it weren’t for this ban, everyone else would be scrapping over tenth place at best. So anyway, ladies and gentlemen, nerds and nerdettes, your votes please…
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Not only do I have a cold, and that invincible drowsiness which comes with it, but being self fucking employed I can’t even have a bloody skive! God dammit! I feel like Kevin the Teenager from the Fast Show, it’s just so unfaaaaair!
Anyhow, to explain myself, yes that really is an armoured dinosaur up there at the top of the page. I did a Google image search for ‘heavy cold’ and apart from a bewildering array of machetes, that image featured quite prominently. And it’s an armoured fucking dinosaur for goodness’ sake! More such mental (and rather cool) illustrations can be found on the site whence I pinched it.
I remember a lot of friends of mine at school were very keen on their fantasy RPGs, but I never really got into it myself. And, a little like being a music obsessive, I suppose it can come across as a bit sad and nerdy from the outside. But whenever I walk past Forbidden Planet on the Royal Mile, particularly on a Winter evening when it’s cold and rainy outside and warm and light inside, and all the fantasy fans are in there with their figurines and dice and cards and whatever other accoutrements they have, then it really does look like a very sociable and very enjoyable thing to be doing. I guess I just got nabbed by records instead.
So, as Winter slowly approaches, coughs and sneezes abound and the Scottish night becomes dramatically longer, why not pretend it’s not cold and shitey outside, delurk for a change and chip in five silly answer to five silly questions on here, and then blether away talking shite with other skivers and slackers for the rest of the afternoon.
1. Name your armoured dinosaur.
2. Pick one crucial feature an armoured dinosaur must have in order to be truly fearsome.
3. What is its secret Achilles Heel?
4. You know those really cool half and half animals in fantasy stories? Which two would you mix?
5. Do you actually like fantasy stories or films or whatever, or do you just find it childish nonsense?
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This wasn’t particularly supposed to be all fuzzy and noisy, and in actual fact is probably isn’t, except for in bits. I have been listening to the Male Bonding album a lot this week, and then the split single from Thee Ludds and The No-Brainers dropped into my inbox, and then I became fascinated by the splendid mess that is I’llfinishyrfinish and suddenly I realised I had a podcast which was pretty much all over the place.
So I decided to embrace it, go for it and just appreciate the noise. There is some acoustic fuzz too, and a song by Grandaddy who can be fuzzy but often aren’t, but in general if you like your music to be played on a tape recorder down the back of the sofa in the next room, you should like this.
Oh, and we have the new Walkmen track and the new Cotton Jones one and all sorts. Aren’t we clever. Actually, who the fuck am I calling ‘we’, anyway?
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01. The Walkmen – Stranded (02.20)
02. Grandaddy – Fuck the Valley Fudge (09.02)
03. Male Bonding – Your Contact (16.19)
04. Navigator – Headless Horseman (The Microphones cover) (19.44)
05. Grizzly Prospector – Oh! Grizzly Me (Slow) (Live) (21.06)
06. Cotton Jones – Glorylight and Christie (24.09)
07. The Sound of the Ladies – The 40s Never Died (27.35)
08. Thee Ludds – I’m a Moron (34.42)
09. The Walkmen – Thinking of a Dream I Had (42.06)
10. Ace Bushy Striptease – I’llfinishyrfinish (I’ll Finish You) (49.32)
Discussions have cropped up frequently on Song, By Toad about the relative benefits of different degrees of recording values in music. Much of the gamut has been covered, from the extreme DIY Low-Fi sometimes known as ‘No-Fi’ to the over-polished FM-friendly MOR found at the other end of the spectrum, and typified by bands who, when mentioned on these pages, tend to find some of the more expressive adjectives inserted into their name. (See ‘Bon Fucking Jovi’ and the ‘Fucking Dave Fucking Matthews Fucking Band’)
I personally tend to find myself tarred with the brush of being a pop-bitch, meaning that I’m regarded as having safe and wholesome tastes in recording values that preclude anything but the most established of techniques. I actually think that’s a little unfair, but I do find myself questioning the value – or occasionally the point – in an artist presenting their work in a wilfully obtuse manner, and deliberately obscuring their finished products.
But it does remain an open question for me; I’m by no means resolved on the matter. I recognise the value in an artist challenging their audience and encouraging them to do a little work in order to gain greater and more lasting reward in the long term. I also understand the desire for a songwriter to get something down ‘on tape’ and out in the public realm as quickly as possible, and yet I still occasionally find myself exasperatedly thinking “Come on, you don’t have to book out Mountain Studios in Montreux, but you could stand a little fucking closer to the mic!”
Low-Fi artists are noted for basic recording methods
That thought, in turn, found me associating the challenges of No-Fi with other genres that have provided obstacles to vast swathes of the listening public. The question I’m struggling with is whether the notion of leaving tape-hiss, static and random mix levels in place on your final release is akin to – say – the pompous excesses of Prog-Rock, or the masturbatory noodling of Neo-Classical Metal.
If some Low-Fi artists use ambient noise and distortion to excess, are they just guilty of self-indulgent noodling too?
I don’t pretend to be an expert in any such genres – I wouldn’t presume to call myself an expert in any musical genre really – so I’m hesitating to criticise them too generally. However I do find myself wondering if that very unfamiliarity and alien air is the basis for my concerns. The argument has been presented to me, regarding Low-Fi and No-Fi, that if I were to spend enough time listening to these rough-edged recordings to develop a taste for them, I would soon be compelled to seek out ever rougher recordings to satisfy my appetite.
Such addictions sound dangerous to me. Nevertheless, it’s certainly true that most experiences that appear daunting to begin with, from spicy food to extreme sports, need practice and perseverance in order to obtain their full rewards.
Rick Wakeman of Yes relaxes at home
So is it therefore safe to say that dabbling in a little light Genesis or Yes on the weekends will soon see you rabidly hunting down the Henry Cow 40th Anniversary 10 CD box set? Or that appreciating that a particular instrumental passage required dexterity and practice from the performer will inevitably lead to irretrievable immersion in the works of Yngwie Malmsteen? I’m not sure.
The other question I find myself contending with is whether or not it really matters. No-one would argue that any artist has the right to present their art to the world in whatever manner they see fit. However, does the artist, if they’re assuming the mantle of entertainer, have a responsibility to show enough respect to the audience to put a little effort into presentation? At what point does free artistic expression cross over into taking the piss?
As abhorrent as it may sound to purists, surely there should be a ring-fence around certain styles. If you’re going to write a jaunty, foot-tapping, upbeat little rock n’roll number, then that genre dictates certain recognised criteria to adhere to. Is it really appropriate to abandon the rhythm and play the song wilfully out of time? Will your audience thank you for it?
The trouble with that statement is, of course, that the counter-argument holds water too. The very nature of art is to challenge perceptions and push boundaries. As soon as you start ring-fencing and applying rules to someone’s means of artistic self-expression, you’re on a short and slippery slope to the realms of Simon Cowell and The X-Factor.
So, to conclude, the question frustratingly remains. If someone – anyone, even you – likes your work, does that make it okay, whatever it is? Or is the movement to abandon the aesthetic no more than an ever-reducing spiral that will eventually vanish up its own arse?
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Those who have any interest in such things will have noticed that a band from Utah called Navigator released one of my favourite albums of 2009, called Bad Children. Navigator is largely the work of a fellow called Braden McKenna, whose work sprawls far beyond the stuff he releases under the umbrella of Navigator and into all sorts of other mental stuff.
If you go to his homepage you’ll see all kinds of stuff available for free download, including both Bad Children and this fantastic record: Old Mountain Radio by Grizzly Prospector. It’s hard to tell who is responsible for what work exactly because an awful lot of it sounds, in production style and vocal characteristics, an awful lot like Mr. McKenna himself, although he seems to collaborate with a handful of other people so it’s feasible that some of the bands featured on the page may not be his at all.
On the mp3 tags for this album the composer is credited as being Parker Reese Yates. That could be one person’s full name or three people’s surnames, you never know with Americans and their enthusiasm for using last names as people first names. Either way, the short version is that I have no real idea who wrote and recorded this album, although I suspect strongly that Braden J. McKenna was fairly heavily involved.
This is something of a concept album, and I would tentatively suggest that it is something of a tongue-in-cheek one; not a piss-take, just written with a slightly raised eyebrow. Also, it happens to be completely gorgeous. The familiar low-fi recording style is strongly in evidence, but with much gentler instrumentation you don’t get anything like the aural battering which a Navigator recording tends to dish out.
In fact, there’s barely anything on this record at all, bar a fragile vocal and gently plucked acoustic guitar. It’s like some strange cross between Woody Guthrie and Will Oldham, although neither as raucous as the former nor as honeyed as the latter. The songs are almost impossibly short as well. Basically, there is no point listening to most of these tracks individually, because the whole record is a start-to-finish meander where there is no real demarcation between songs, more an unhurried train of thought in musical form, which is sometimes beautiful – such as the gorgeous harmonies on Old Mountain Hum – and often so slow that it’s almost stationary.
It’s a bloody brilliant album though. One which may have been very carefully constructed, but which still gives the impression of having casually drifted off the tip of someone’s tongue one evening and dripped slowly into recorded form in no other order than the one in which it happened to coalesce, like smoke rings drifting in an out of shape against a twilight sky.
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1.Timber Timbre – Timber Timbre
This record is ghostly and weird. I hate to keep going back to the Bon Iver thing, but reading the Bon Iver press, including the superlatives, lead me to expect an album as good as this, only to be massively disappointed.
Then, months later, I took a chance on this record, which turned out to be the album which matched the breathless accolades – to my mind anyway. The ghostliness, the creepy sense of the macabre, it just all works so incredibly well – almost like the tales of some lost animalistic religion from an isolated community out in the wilderness somewhere.
It is also perfectly judged in terms of when to stay quiet and bare, and when to drag the sound up from the grave to dance around the odd figures the song has conjured up out of the dark. Brilliant.
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2.Navigator – Bad Children
For an album this high on my list to have been released as a free download from a micro-label based in Bone Valley, Utah. Even more surprising, then, that other people in and around Edinburgh had already heard of him.
This record is astoundingly good though, a ferocious mess of overloaded channels and twisted distortion, delivering pain and anger and the occasional, fleeting glimpse of something a little more tender. And somehow, underneath all this tangled mess, there are pop songs. Braden McKenna actually writes amazing tunes – he may batter the living shit out of them afterwards, but he really does write cracking pop songs first and foremost, and that combination is what makes this such a great album.
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3. Withered Hand – Good News
It’s hard for me to judge this album, given I knew pretty much all of the songs beforehand either from his superb Religious Songs EP or from live performances. Somehow that just didn’t seem to matter, because Dan’s delivery, the superb performances of his band and the brilliant job Pete and Neil did of recording this have managed to capture one of the unlikeliest heroes of Scottish underground music you could imagine. In a really odd way, Dan just oozes a kind of reticent charisma, and the album is a lovable as it is devastating.
A brilliant piece of work by a fellow not one person in the music press would ever have tipped to write one of the great Scottish albums of the last five years, and yet that’s exactly how I would describe Good News.
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4. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Songs in the Night
Instead of being the alt-folk record her Confiscation EP seemed to be preparing us for, Songs in the Night came out as more of a folked up rock ‘n’ roll album. Instead of ruining the delicacy, this gave Sam Crain a really strong platform for her stunning voice, and the resulting record has energy, guts and pathos absolutely all over it.
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5.Trembling Bells – Carbeth
Carbeth, amazingly, has almost entirely retained its ‘What the fuck is this?’ impact ever since the first time Ruth from the Bowery passed me a CD-R of it way back in March. It’s wild, preposterous and… well in all honesty it’s a completely mental psych-folk anachronism. But it’s still utterly engrossing and giddily brilliant, and despite still being a bit baffled by it, I love this album.
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Get it – Festive Fiddy! Oh I do crack myself up sometimes, I really do.
So here endeth the Festive Fifty for this year. As anyone who has compiled this kind of list will know, the whole process is more than a little arbitrary, and were I to start from scratch tomorrow I would probably end up somewhere notably different.
The interesting thing for me personally is to note how strongly the advantages and disadvantages of nepotism have made themselves known.
The advantages are obvious – would there be so much Withered Hand, Meursault, FOUND and all the rest so high on this list if I didn’t have a much closer personal relationship with their music than most other music? Well I doubt it. I am being a hundred percent sincere when I say that these are my favourite songs this year, but I do know that being as close to music as I am does change how you feel about it, so I have to acknowledge that.
On the downside, bands like Broken Records, Sparrow & the Workshop, Withered Hand and even Meursault to a degree have suffered from how early I became familiar with certain songs. I have a demo version, a Religious Songs EP version and an album version of New Dawn, for example. So while under normal circumstances songs like that, Devil Song by Sparrow, Eilert Loveborg by Broken Records and even Nothing Broke by Meursault would normally have figured very prominently indeed on this list, I already expressed my enthusiasm for them at least a year ago and consequently they are on other lists and I don’t really feel I can put them on this one.
And before anyone complains about Trips and Falls being another Song, by Toad Records band on this list, remember that, as with Meursault last year, it’s not that they’re on this list because they’re a Song, by Toad Records band, it’s that they’re a Song, by Toad Records band because they’re on this list.
01.Elvis Perkins In Dearland – Shampoo
There just something about the rhythm of this song which I cannot get away from. When I first played it on my Fresh Air Radio show Dylan commented that it had a sort of cocky swagger to it, and it really, really does. Then there’s the deep, foreboding harmonies which break in at the end. There’s strut to the rhythm, a crack to his voice, belligerence and tragedy in the mood of it all – it’s just a fucking special, special song.
02.Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt.2 (Single Version)
When Neil first played us this apparently he though ‘Fuck, I’ve finally written a song they don’t like’. Mrs. Toad now plays this single at least once a day in our house, and if ever there was a song to break your speakers for it’s this one. The cello is gut-shaking, the piano is chiming and gorgeous and those vocals are just about the most heart-wrenching I’ve heard anywhere, ever. So if he wants to write a song we don’t like he may have to try a little harder.
03.Navigator – Work is Done
This sensitive, emotional song interrupts an album which is basically an onslaught of overloaded mics and distortion and when this suddenly appears it hits you right between the eyes, largely because you’re so unprepared. It doesn’t depend on its surroundings though, because even in isolation this is every bit as heartbreaking a song.
04.Trips and Falls – And In Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants
This was one of those moments where the very first second you listen to something you know for certain that you are hearing something a bit special. This is a genius combination of massively infectious pop song and really peculiar atmosphere. There’s something just plain creepy about this album, even the sugar-sweet Prelude to a Shark Attack, but this song perhaps embodies that better than any. And it really is one to be played loud as well.
05.FOUND – Mullokian (Toad Session)
I remember sitting there while they were recording this and thinking ‘What the fucking hell is going on here, this is amaaaazing!’ The gently rolling guitar refrain, the simple heartfelt chorus (if you can call it that) and Tommy’s phenomenal backing vocals – there’s just so little actually there, and even that is used with such economy. Brilliant.
06.Withered Hand – No Cigarettes
The first time I heard this I remember a grin slowly spreading over my face. Dan’s songs can often be about little in particular other than a weird sense of something really not being right, and this seems to be one of those – describing a general sense of malaise with such simple music and a deft turn of phrase, you can’t help but let this get to you.
07.Auld Lang Syne – Where My Fortune Lies
This is as rousing and uplifting as any church music could ever be, and has even more impact for shrinking back into such quiet in the middle. Some fucking voice as well.
08.The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
The album may have disappointed, but this is stunning. It’s that voice, the slow piano, the… just the sheer sadness of it all. It sounds like the demoralisation of someone coming out the other end of a midlife crisis and surveying the wreckage of their lives, although it may not be about that exactly, it does feel that way to me I have to confess.
09.Navigator – Blood
This embodies Navigator’s brilliant album Bad Children, for me. It’s a song which is full of pain, but is angry and belligerent with it. There’s an underlying aggression to it which really batters out at you from within the noise, and prevents the song, or indeed the album, sounding at all self-pitying or maudlin. He’s hurting and he’s fucking angry, and the resulting music is absolutely superb.
10.Alela Diane – Age Old Blue
Age Old Blue may be from another album I wasn’t that keen on overall, but this duet with friend Michael Hurley is beautiful. I remember seeing them perform it for the first time after her performance at the Bongo Club a couple of years ago and having no real expectations when they took the stage, only to have my jaw drop at the combination of his nasal, grizzled accompaniment to her gorgeous voice.
To download all these songs as a single zip file, click here.
21.FOUND – Enough About Human Rights
I’m not sure if anyone, not even the band themselves, likes Enough About Human Rights best from their excellent Let Fidelity Break EP, but I do. There’s just something unexpected about this song, for some reason. The fact that it is in fact a Moondog cover probably has a lot to do with that, but the hectic, percussive energy FOUND pile into their version just makes me grin every time I hear it.
22.Timber Timbre – Demon Host
The ‘ohs’ in this song take the spectral folk of Timber Timbre and give it a pleading, forlorn quality which imbues it with just a little more pathos than some of the others on the album, and this makes it extra special, in my view.
23.FOUND – You’re No Vincent Gallo – Toad Session
Honestly, I could put pretty much their entire session in the top ten of this list quite easily. It was one of the best things I have ever seen, I think it’s fair to say. Without all the stuff added by the full band I found myself so much more impressed with Ziggy’s voice, with the gorgeous tones he got from his banjo… with pretty much all of it, honestly. Gorgeous.
24.Broken Records – Lessons Never Learnt
This may have been on an earlier release, but it was on this year’s(ish) Out on the Water EP, so I am putting my foot down and saying that it counts. In any case, a really surprising song to come from a band like this, and I think that little down-up of the cello absolutely makes it.
25.Trips and Falls – Breaking Up With My Mormon Missionaries
These guys were pretty much the revelation of the year for me, in all honesty. So much so that we’ve offered to release He Was Such a Quiet Boy on Song, by Toad Records, and it should be coming out in early March. Their music is just fucking creepy, to be honest, and the male/female vocal interplay on this track in particular really is odd. Add that repetitive descent on the strings and this really is an unsettling song. And a brilliant one.
26.Jesus H. Foxx – Elegy For the Good Times
It didn’t grab me as my favourite track from Jesus H. Foxx’ debut EP Matter right off the bat, but I think it is. The cornet, the harmonies, and that simple, repetitive rhythmic underpinning for the whole thing… it all just works incredibly well together, and there’s a sophistication to it which never ceases to surprise me when I think that this is the band’s first release, with their current lineup that is.
27.The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)
I love the Toad Sessions. They really can provide some amazing recordings, and with Neil so kindly recording and mixing all of the ones we’ve done so far this year we really have had some incredible stuff. Johnny Pictish is about the nicest guy ever to set foot in our house, and his session really was good. The slow build of this, and the prominence of his vocal really are gorgeous.
28.Navigator – Change
An oddly melodic tune from one of the most belligerently low-fi albums I think I have ever heard. It took a while for the sense of ‘whoooah, what the fuck?’ to subside when I first heard this record, but it is absolutely brilliant. Fuzz or not, this is just a stone-cold pop gem and one of the most catchy riffs of the year.
29.The Builders and The Butchers – Golden And Green
Mental and ferocious brilliance. When these guys hit their stride their ramshackle old jalopy threatens to shake loose its wheels altogether and crash into a ditch, and those are almost without fail their greatest songs. This is just like that.
30.Titus Andronicus – Fear And Loathing In Mahwah, NJ
I don’t know whether I just like how raucous this song gets, or whether I like how quiet it is half the time, compared to how raucous it gets when it cuts loose. Either way, this is one of the best play it loud soungs of the year.
31.Sparrow & the Workshop – Into the Wild
I heard this EP so close to doing this list that Horse’s Grin could as easily have been here instead, but such is the slightly arbitrary nature of these things that you’re getting this one. Maybe it’s something about the storming ending which gets me – Nick is getting to really have a right bloody go on his guitars these days, and Jill is proving that her voice is easily powerful enough to step up and match it. This is full on rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s superb.
32.Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (I)
Yes, more Wild Beasts. I don’t know how this happened – it wasn’t exactly deliberate, I just kept ordering and re-ordering my list and their songs kept on sticking in there, often at the expense of stuff I thought I liked better. This one’s more downbeat, but again that guitar sound and gorgeous voice produce something atmospheric and yet still insidiously infectious.
33.Alela Diane & Alina Hardin – I Have Returned
This whole EP is simple and absolutely gorgeous. Again, I could have picked pretty much any of the songs from it, but there’s something about this one which seems to have captivated me just that little bit more. The vocal interplay between the two is as lovely as with any song on the EP, but maybe there’s something in the roll of the verses which does it. Then again, maybe it’s just arbitrary and I might pick a different one this time next week.
34.Meursault – Nothing Broke
A different version of this was on the band’s MySpace page the first time I ever heard them and it made a really strong impression on me. They recorded it for their Toad Session back in August last year, and now this gorgeous piano and harmonium version for the truly stunning Nothing Broke EP. If anything, the only reason this song is so low on this list is down to the fact that it’s so familiar by now.
35.Timber Timbre – Lay Down in the Tall Grass
This song shows just how simple most of this album is – the barest hint of percussion doing nothing very complex, a simple organ riff repeating throughout the song, and vocals. There’s other stuff there too, but really very little of it, and that kind of subtle touch is what makes this such a special album.
To download all these songs in one big zip file, click here.
Unfortunately due to technological disasters there was no recording, and not even any broadcasting, of last week’s Mammoeth session I’m afraid. So I’d like to apologise to Russell, and promise to get him back in next year at the first available opportunity to have another go. I suppose it’s no consolation to any of you for me to tell you that he was really good? No, thought not.
As for this week, we were supposed to have Dan from Withered Hand and Neil from Meursault doing a joint session, because they are recording a joint EP in the near future and it seemed like a nice idea. Dan is unable to make it unfortunately, so you will have to make do with Neil I’m afraid. Fortunately the lad can sing a bit so it’s unlikely to ruin your evening.
As per usual the playlist below will be updated live as we go along, and the comments section will be the best place for all your usual abuse/sniping/snide remarks.
This week’s playlist:
1. Shearwater – Castaways
2. Navigator- Work Is Done
3. Meursault – Love or Limb (live in session)
4. Kath Bloom – Come Here
5. Clem Snide – I Heard My Mother Praying For Me
6. Meursault – An untitled triptych! (live in session)
7. The Libertines – Tell The King
8. The Streets – Same Old Thing
9. Samamidon – Head Over Heels
10. Meursault- What You Don’t Have (live in session)
11. Wounded Knee – Oh My Captain!
12. Meursault – Heaven Waits (live in session)
13. Eagleowl – Sleep the Winter
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No, not mine, that’s a secret for a little while longer. Well, at least until I figure out which five they are at least, which might take another week or so. No, this is yours. For those of us sleeping off hangovers from Thursday’s drinking, and preparing to give ourselves whole new ones tonight, I think this might be the perfect diversion: simply list, in order, your five favourite albums of the year.
