It’s finally the last part of my year-end round-up of weekly mixes. The themes included here are: twee, female singer-songwriters, rock, literature, commiseration, numbers, post-punk, Manic Street Preachers, autumn, cover versions, Halloween, Germany, Remembrance Day/war, winter and Christmas.

Speechless With Tuesday – The Apartments

Friday, Saturday, Sunday – DJ Hell

Weekly Mix #77 – Revolt Into Childhood (Download)

Come Saturday – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Hit the Ground – The Darling Buds
Sensitive – The Field Mice
Au bord du soleil – Souvenir
Pushbutton Head – Strawberry Story
Crush the Flowers – The Wake
Kid Gloves – Voxtrot
The Instrumental – The June Brides
If You Find Yourself Caught in Love – Belle & Sebastian
The Subtle Art of How to Break a Heart – Blind Terry
Lemonade and Somersaults – The Icicles
Blue – Kicker
Talulah Gosh – Talulah Gosh
Stethoscope Sounds – Bedroom Eyes
Who’s In Your Dreams? – Strawberry Whiplash
Love is…1968 – Beaumont
To the Dancers in the Rain – Emilie Simon
Footloose and Fancy Free – Camera Obscura
Candy – El Perro Del Mar
One Blue Hill – Pale Saints
Breathe Into Me – Kind

Weekly Mix #78 – What’s a Girl To Do (Download)

Never Forget You – The Noisettes
Dance and Boogie – The Pipettes
In These Shoes? – Kirsty MacColl
Them Heavy People – Kate Bush
Listen Up! (MSTRKRFT Remix) – The Gossip
Girl – Robots in Disguise
My Delirium – Ladyhawke
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan – Marianne Faithfull
I Could Be Happy – Altered Images
Backstabber – The Dresden Dolls
Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Blue Jeans – Ladytron
Glamour Girl – Chicks on Speed
On My Own Again – Bishi
Please Don’t Touch – Polly Scattergood
I Muse Aloud – Jane Siberry
Comme des enfants – Coeur de pirate
A Sister’s Social Agony – Camera Obscura
Prescilla – Bat For Lashes
The Hollow Men – Cocteau Twins
Into the Light – Siouxsie and the Banshees
Isobel – Bjork

Weekly Mix #79 – Rock ‘n Roll is Our Only Culture (Download)

Welcome to the Jungle – Guns ‘n Roses
Pink Flower – Daisy Chainsaw
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
Rock ‘n Roll All Nite – Kiss
Whole Lotta Love – Led Zeppelin
Woman – Wolfmother
Little Girl – Death From Above 1979
Everything’s Ruined – Faith No More
Slither – Velvet Revolver
Plug In Baby – Muse
Icky Thump – The White Stripes
My Generation – The Who
Jumpin’ Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones
You Really Got Me – The Kinks
Clash City Rockers – The Clash
Imperial Bodybags – Manic Street Preachers
Killer Queen – Queen
Seasons – Jeff Beck
Voodoo Child – Jimi Hendrix
Purple Rain – Prince

Weekly Mix #80 – Songbook (Download)

The Small Print – Muse (Reference: German Legend of Faust or Faustus)
Colony – Joy Division (Reference: Franz Kafka’s Penal Colony)
Charlotte Sometimes – The Cure (Reference: Penelope Farmer’s Charlotte Sometimes)
Don’t Box Me In – Stan Ridgeway and Stewart Copeland (Reference: S.E. Hinton’s Rumblefish)
Ichabod Crane – Momus (Reference: Washington Irving’s The Headless Horseman)
Narcissist – The Libertines (Reference: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Anne Carson – Archivist
Lucy – The Divine Comedy (Reference: William Wordsworth’s The Lucy Poems)
Trainspotting – Primal Scream (Reference: Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting)
Reel Around the Fountain – The Smiths (Reference: Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey)
Buttons – Kingfishers Catch Fire (Reference: Jim Murdoch’s “Cinders”)
The House That Jack Kerouac Built – The Go-Betweens
Billy Liar – The Crooner (Reference: Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar)
Oscar Wilde – Company of Thieves
The Sensual World – Kate Bush (Reference: James Joyce’s Ulysses)
Oedipus – Regina Spektor (Reference: Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex)
Like Straw Dogs – Vanilla Swingers (Reference: John Gray’s Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals)
Tea in the Sahara – The Police (Reference: Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky)
Blake’s Jerusalem – Billy Bragg (Reference: William Blake’s Jerusalem)
So Said Kay – The Field Mice (Reference: Jane Rule’s Desert of the Heart)

Weekly Mix #81 – Everybody Hurts (Download)

Sit Down (Rough Trade Version) – James
Sometimes I Scare Children – The Kid
The Number One Song in Heaven – Sparks
Take On Me (Extended Mix) – a-ha
Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ – Scissor Sisters
Magic Game – Sliimy
This Charming Man (New York Vocal) – The Smiths
The Goodbye Girl – Pluto
Little By Little – The Wannadies
Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse – Of Montreal
Tear Garden – IAMX
The Night Starts Here – Stars
Half Way to Crazy – The Jesus & Mary Chain
Josef’s Gone – The June Bride
Higher Grounds – Cats On Fire
The Man Who Took On Love (And Won) – The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross
If You Need Someone – Field Mice
No Tomorrow – The Boyfriends
Down the Dip – Aztec Camera

Weekly Mix #82 – Countdown (Download)

In-Joke For One – Fosca
Three and Nine – Roxy Music
Three Cheers For Our Side – Orange Juice
The Four Platitudes (A Bridge Song) – Parenthetical Girls
Eleven Executioners – Momus
Six Different Ways – The Cure
Seven – Fever Ray
Thirty Frames a Second – Simple Minds
Two Divided By Zero – Pet Shop Boys
Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed – Mew
Five Ten Fiftyfold – Cocteau Twins
One Thousand Reasons – The Sound
Twenty Four Hours – Joy Division
Sixteen Days – Modern English
Low Five – Sneaker Pimps
Thirteen Days – Sibrydion
Dozen Wicked Words – Longpigs
The Eighteenth Emergency – Butcher Boy
Anthems For a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl – Broken Social Scene
Ten Seconds to Midnight – The Divine Comedy

Weekly Mix #83 – A New Messthetic (Download)

Home is the Range – Comsat Angels
Complications – Killing Joke
A Song From Under the Floorboards – Magazine
Nostalgia (7″ Version) – The Chameleons
Words Fail Me – The Sound
Dark Companion – Tuxedomoon
It’s Her Factory – Gang of Four
Concrete Jungle – The Specials
This is Not a Love Song (Remix) – Public Image Ltd.
Twist Run Repulsion – Simple Minds
Messthetics – Scritti Politti
The Modern Dance – Pere Ubu
Dead Pop Stars – Altered Images
Playground Twist – Siouxsie & the Banshees
Only After Dark – Human League
Thorn of Crowns – Echo & the Bunnymen
Architecture and Morality – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Strange – Wire
Variation of Scene – Josef K
New Dawn Fades – Joy Division

Weekly Mix #84 – This One’s For the Freaks (Download)

Dead Yankee Drawl – Manic Street Preachers (Horse and Groom, London – 20-09-89)
Methadone Pretty – Manic Street Preachers (Hull Adelphi – 17-05-91)
Crucifix Kiss – Manic Street Preachers (Hibernian Rooms, London – 13-08-91)
You Love Us – Manic Street Preachers (London Marquee – 04-09-91)
Democracy Coma – Manic Street Preachers (The Crypt, Middlesbrough – 07-02-92)
Born to End – Manic Street Preachers (Musik Café, Copenhagen – 10-04-92)
Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers (Eurockeenes, Belfort – 03-07-92)
Generation Terrorists – Manic Street Preachers (Oxford Zodiac – 02-02-91)
Little Baby Nothing – Manic Street Preachers (Northampton Roadmenders – 23-02-92)
Yourself – Manic Street Preachers (Southend Cliffs Pavillion – 07-07-93)
Roses in the Hospital – Manic Street Preachers (Milton Keynes – 19-08-93)
Yes – Manic Street Preachers (Paris Bataclan – 22-11-94)
PCP – Manic Street Preachers (Barcelona – 18-11-94)
Love’s Sweet Exile – Manic Street Preachers (Bangkok MBK Hall – 04-94)
From Despair to Where – Manic Street Preachers (The Hague Parkpop Festival, Holland – 21-08-94)
4st 7lbs – Manic Street Preachers (Nancy, France – 26-09-94)
IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt’sWorldWouldFallApart – Manic Street Preachers (Astoria Theatre, London – 21-12-94)
No Surface All Feeling – Manic Street Preachers (Melbourne Big Day Out – 26-01-99)
Masses Against the Classes – Manic Street Preachers (Cardiff Coal Exchange – 08-03-01)
A Design For Life – Manic Street Preachers (XFM Winter Wonderland, Manchester – 11-12-07)

Weekly Mix #85 – For C + M (Download)

The Samurai in Autumn – Pet Shop Boys
We’re in a Thunderstorm – Gentleman Reg
Gone Like Summer – Strawberry Story
Theme to the Autumn Leaves – Autumn Leaves
Waiting For a Chance – Northern Portrait
September’s Not So Far Away – Field Mice
By the Light of a Magical Moon – Tyrannosaurus Rex
Climb a Tree – Jim Noir
Nothing Broke – Meursault
Apples and Pairs – Slow Club
Summer’s Gone – Sibrydion
Darwin’s Tree – Martin Carr
We Could Send Letters – Aztec Camera
Further to Fall – Trembling Blue Stars
Forests and Sands – Camera Obscura
No Excuses (The Autumn Cantata) – Air France
Road to Somewhere – Goldfrapp
Under the Folding Branches – The Veils
September – David Sylvian
Autumnal – Arab Strap

Weekly Mix #86 – Take Cover (Download)

Pop Goes the World – Hyperbubble (Original: Men Without Hats)
Together in Electric Dreams – The Voluntary Butler Scheme (Original: Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder)
With Every Heartbeat – The Rest (Original: Robyn)
Dream Attack – Kites With Lights (Original: New Order)
No Cars Go – vitaminsforyou (Original: The Arcade Fire)
Night Vision – The Twelves (Original: Daft Punk)
Primary – The Dandy Warhols (Original: The Cure)
100% – The Raveonettes (Original: Sonic Youth)
Like a Virgin – Teenage Fanclub (Original: Madonna)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – The Killers (Original: Cyndi Lauper)
Womanizer – Sliimy (Original: Britney Spears)
Whole Lotta Love (Acoustic) – Prince (Original: Led Zeppelin)
Careless Whisper – The Gossip (Original: Wham)
When You Were Young – The Noisettes (Original: The Killers)
Isobel – Xiu Xiu (Original: Bjork)
Transmssion – Hot Chip (Original: Joy Division)
Down In It – Tiga (Original: Nine Inch Nails)
Love Song – The Big Pink (Original: The Cure)
Islands in the Stream – Feist and The Constantines (Original: Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers)
When Doves Cry – Brett Anderson (Original: Prince)

Weekly Mix #87 – Anglopunk’s Bloody Good Halloween Mix 2009 (Download)

This is Halloween – Danny Elfman
Ramalama (Bang Bang) – Roisin Murphy
Monster Mash – Bobby Pickett and the Crypt Kickers
Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
Clap For the Wolfman – The Guess Who
Kandy Korn – Captain Beefheart
Halloween Parade – Lou Reed
Abracadabra – Steve Miller Band
The Time Warp – The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Halloween – Siouxsie and the Banshees
Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus
Release the Bats – The Birthday Party
I Put a Spell On You – Arthur Brown
Halloween – Sonic Youth
Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
Halloween on the Barbary Coast – The Flaming Lips
I Was a Teenage Werewolf – The Cramps
Transylvanian Concubine – Rasputina
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) – David Bowie
Date With a Vampyre – The Screaming Tribesmen
Do the Hippogriff – The Weird Sisters
Secret Vampires – bis
London Ghost Stories – Shirley Lee
Vampire Racecourse – The Sleepy Jackson
Waiting For the Wolves – Daisy Chainsaw
Faces & Masks – The Cherubs
Vampire Love – Ash
Frankenstein – New York Dolls
Halloween – Dead Kennedys
Feed My Frankenstein – Alice Cooper
Vampires Pt.II – The JeanMarie
Tales From the Crypt Theme
Hells Bells – AC/DC
Nanageddon – The Mighty Boosh
Dracula – Gorillaz
Halloween With Morrissey (Ouija Board) – Cheekyboy
Magic Dance – David Bowie
I Want Candy – Bow Wow Wow
My Vampire – Soho Dolls
Vampire – Paul St. Paul and the Apostles
Lust For a Vampyr – I Monster
For Halloween – No Kids
Ghost Town – The Specials
Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.
Ghosts – Comateens
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Every Day is Halloween – Ministry
Batdance – Prince
The Addams Family Theme
Halloween – Japan
All Cats Are Grey – The Cure
Scare Me – Paul Haig
Skeletons – The Sound
Lycanthropy – Patrick Wolf
Dracula – Momus
Please Mr. Gravedigger – David Bowie
Graveyard – Public Image Ltd.
Vampires – Pet Shop Boys
Theme For a Witch – David R. Prangely and The Witches
Ghost – VNV Nation
Waking the Witch – Kate Bush
Bat’s Mouth – Bat For Lashes
They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh! – Sufjan Stevens
Hip Deep Family – The Tiger Lillies
Halloween Head – Ryan Adams
If I Only Were a Goth – Thoushaltnot

Weekly Mix #88 – Die Mauer Wird Fallen (Download)

Disco Fantasy – Mikrofisch
Hero – Neu!
Der Räuber und der Prinz – DAF
Pogo (The Horrors remix) – Digitalism
Jeffer (Modeselektor Remix) – Boys Noize
Yeah – Tiefschwarz
U Can Dance – DJ Hell
Showroom Dummies – Kraftwerk
Mother Sky (Pilooski Edit) – Can
Sweet Lies – Booka Shade
Nights Off – Siriusmo
Happy Go Lucky – Polarkreis 18
Tag für Tag – Xmal Deutschland
Tierlieb – Abwärts
The Twist (Live) – Klaus Nomi
Michail Michail (Gorbachev Rap) – Nina Hagen
Steh auf Berlin – Einstürzende Neubauten
Hauberg – Hauschka
Propeller 9 – The Notwist
Limelight – Apparat

Weekly Mix #89 – War Inc (Download)

The Intense Humming of Evil – Manic Street Preachers
An I For An I – IAMX
New Dress – Depeche Mode
He’d Send in the Army – Gang of Four
When Ya Get Drafted – Dead Kennedys
Melancholy Soliders – The Skids
Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single) – R.E.M.
Missiles (BBC Session) – The Sound
U.S. Forces – Midnight Oil
Poppy Day – Siouxsie and the Banshees
Straight to Hell – The Clash
Man at C & A – The Specials
Bullet the Blue Sky – U2
Soldier’s Poem – Muse
Army Dreamers – Kate Bush
My Youngest Son Came Home – Billy Bragg
Shipbuilding – Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Universal Soldier – Donovan
Voir un ami pleurer – Jacques Brel
In Our Bedroom After the War – Stars

Weekly Mix #90 – Blow Thou Winter Wind (Download)

The First Time You Saw Snow – Shirley Lee
Winter – The Dodos
The Dead of Winter – Martin Carr
Walk Out to Winter – Aztec Camera
Red High Heels – Jane Siberry
Il Neige – France Gall
Snowfall Sorrow – Secret Shine
A Winter’s Sky – The Pipettes
December – Teenage Fanclub
Permafrost – Magazine
Snow – Pooma
Sit Down By the Fire – The Veils
It’s Snowing on the Moon – St. Christopher
Midnight Sun – David Sylvian
Snow Country – Paniyolo
You and My Winter – Snow in Mexico
Snow – The Trashcan Sinatras
Snowfalls in November – Julie Doiron
Peacock Dance – Matt Kanelos
Eisblume – Hauschka

Weekly Mix #91 – Better Than Mincemeat (Download)

Christmas Number One – The Black Arts
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) – The Ramones
Father Christmas – The Kinks
Countdown to Christmas – Glam Chops
Christmas in Killarney – Eugene McGuinness
We Three Kings – Reverend Horton Heat
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Bright Eyes
Little Drummer Boy – The Dandy Warhols
Christmas Wrapping – I Love Poland
I Was Born on Christmas Day – Saint Etienne
Away in a Manger – Hyperbubble
Christmas Reindeer – The Knife
Can You Hear What I Hear? – Bodies of Water
Frosty the Snowman – Cocteau Twins
Christmas Fire – The Deer Tracks
She Came Home For Christmas – Mew
Put the Lights on the Tree – Sufjan Stevens
Child’s Christmas in Wales – John Cale
Fairytale of New York – Stars
The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
Christmas is Cancelled – The Long Blondes
A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper
White Christmas – The Pipettes
Sleigh Ride – The Ronettes
Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews
You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch – How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Spotlight on Christmas – Rufus Wainwright
It’s Christmas Time – Yo La Tengo
All I Want for Christmas – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Carol of the Bells – The Polyphonic Spree
December Will Be Magic Again – Kate Bush
Winter Wonderland – Goldfrapp
Christmas and Train Trips and Things – Trembling Blue Stars
It’s Xmas So We’ll Stop – Frightened Rabbit
Merry Christmas (I Love You) – Hawksley Workman
Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas – Okkervil River
Last Christmas – Manic Street Preachers
Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie
Christmas Song – Mogwai
Douce Nuit – IAMX
Are You Burning, Little Candle? – Jane Siberry
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Remember (Christmas) – Harry Nilsson
There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In – Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello
Christmas on Earth – Momus
The Christmas Wish – Kermit the Frog

And so ends a year marked by my little weekly mixtapes. A year marked by the death of the “King of Pop” and hopefully the death of Oasis; the return of Blur to the stage and the return of the Manics to North America; the rise of Susan Boyle and the eventual incarceration of Phil Spector. The last weekly mix for this year will be for New Year’s Eve – last year’s mix can be found here. We’ll also see if I can manage a best of the decade post before the new year.

I realize this is a week late – I apologize. It wasn’t just to build suspense; I suppose I decided to get a bit of actual relaxation in when I finally started my holidays four days ago. At any rate, let’s dip into what autumn brought for albums. September gave us releases from Sondre Lerche, frYars, The Cribs, The Big Pink, Dragonette, Boys Noize, Yo La Tengo, Noah and the Whale, Sliimy, David Sylvian, Jamie T, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, and surprisingly, Prefab Sprout. Wild Beasts broke through with their sophomore album (being contrary, I thought it wasn’t as good as their first), and Matt Bellamy led the Resistance (perhaps wearing a tinfoil hat). There were also releases that already graced this countdown, including the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack and Malcolm Ross and the Low Miffs.

In October we saw new releases from Julian Casablancas, Richard Hawley, Tegan and Sara, Editors, Kings of Convenience, Atlas Sound, The Mountain Goats, Fuck Buttons, White Denim, The Flaming Lips, and a heavily pared down Wolfmother. There was a truly disappointing return from Echo & the Bunnymen, and another album from Flight of the Conchords, which must console us in the wake of their declaration that there will be no third television series. A couple more of my top albums also appeared including ones from Emilie Simon and Mumford & Sons.

Squeaking into the end of the year, albums out in November included ones from Pants Yell, Weezer, Brett Anderson, and the ubiquitous Lady GaGa. There were also ones who just made the deadline for my countdown: Luke Haines and The Mary Onettes.

If you’ve missed it, this is my countdown so far:

40. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix
39. Through Fire – Twiggy Frostbite
38. The Empyrean – John Frusciante
37. Travels With Myself and Another – Future of the Left
36. Nonsense in the Dark – Filthy Dukes
35. Yes – Pet Shop Boys
34. xx – The xx
33. Temporary Pleasures – Simian Mobile Disco
32. Primary Colours – The Horrors
31. Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons
30. Polly Scattergood – Polly Scattergood
29. Sun Gangs – The Veils
28. Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective
27. Where the Wild Things Are – Karen O and the Kids
26. Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees – Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees
25. It’s Blitz – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
24. Bitte Orca – The Dirty Projectors
23. Dragonslayer – Sunset Rubdown
22. Islands – The Mary Onettes
21. he closed his eyes so he could dance with you – vitaminsforyou
20. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
19. The Big Machine – Emilie Simon
18. Malcolm Ross and the Low Miffs – The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross
17. 21st Century Man/Achtung Mutha – Luke Haines
16. Ellipse – Imogen Heap
15. Is It Fire? – Jessie Evans
14. “Further Complications” – Jarvis Cocker
13. React or Die – Butcher Boy
12. Shirley Lee – Shirley Lee
11. Jet Black – Gentleman Reg
10. Cloud Pleaser – David Shane Smith
9. Bob and Veronica Ride Again – Morton Valence

Drumroll please…

8. Manafon - David Sylvian
I’ve been on a David Sylvian kick this year. Buying several CD copies of his past solo efforts and several more Japan releases on vinyl, the mania culminated in purchasing his Weatherbox collector set from a used record shop (the guy at the counter had originally priced it at $90.00, but sold it to me for $60.00, saying that he had vowed to sell it to anyone who was already buying a David Sylvian album – he figured there were only two Sylvian fans in Winnipeg: me and the guy who sold the set to him). Through this raid on his back catalogue, I’ve come to admire and appreciate his material more than ever, following him on an unexpected journey and ending up in the Welsh parish of Manafon. This record is both an articulate tribute to the contradictory poet, R.S. Thomas, and a deeply personal story that spreads like a rhizome in the loamy earth. The lyrics are potent with disappointment, yearning, and bitterness while celebrating the artistic process. Spaces and silences gently push the vocals and instruments into new constellations, providing room to breathe and contemplate. There are soothing repetitions and reprisals as pervasive and refreshing as cool misty rain and violet shadow; there are phrasings and gaps waiting to be bridged, forcing you out of your reverie in poignant peaks. There is a strength in this album’s sadness, a dignity in dearth. Sylvian and his collaborators crafted an album that evokes a subtle patience, a quiet coaxing of everything music and words could be if given space and time.

Read my review of the album here.

Small Metal Gods – David Sylvian

The Rabbit Skinner – David Sylvian

7. Dark Young Hearts – frYars
From the wildest and comically strange realms of the gothic, frYars summoned up his debut album. Filled with enough curiosities to fill numerous Wunderkammern, the album is electronic chamber pop with dark, sometimes seemingly nonsensical, narrative. There are whiffs of murder, decanters of betrayal, and niggles of odd laughter – an Edward Gorey illustration come to life. The plumb line of frYars imagination and use of language dips into the inky macabre as his distinctive deep vocals surge from plummy tones to soft menace. The off-kilter nature of the music keeps you spinning in an infinity of mirrors even as frYars’ voice keeps you anchored and calm. Lying somewhere between a penny dreadful and the unsettling liminality of a child prodigy, Dark Young Hearts is an intelligent, imaginative record that stubbornly denies definition and remains ambidextrous in its morality.

Read my review of the album here.

Lakehouse – frYars

A Last Resort – frYars

6. No More Stories Are Told Today, I’m Sorry They Washed Away, No More Stories, The World is Grey, I’m Tired, Let’s Wash Away – Mew
Danish band, Mew, are no strangers to pushing their dreamy, ethereal pop into new planes and challenging contexts; their last album, And The Glass Handed Kites, was a seamless opus of melancholic whimsy. This latest record takes them yet further with a fierce crashing of rhythm and the angelic heights of sighing melodies, but also brave disjointedness and shards of funk. Sometimes the rhythms duck and elude you as they move in all directions at once, leaving you as displaced as the sentiments told by the lyrics. There are multiple, but involuted layers of melody, sometimes guitar, sometimes synth, rising to meet the unique airy vocals of Jonas Bjerre. To balance the aural fireworks, there are also moments of cooling minimalism as intricate rhythms get reduced down to a vertebrae of xylophonic tones and tapping knocks, reminding me of Gentlemen Take Polaroids-era Japan. The sunlight has broken through for Mew and these upbeat tracks criss-cross each other even as the words cross-examine themselves.

Introducing Palace Players – Mew

Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy – Mew

5. The Bachelor - Patrick Wolf
Borne from loneliness, bitterness and frustration, Patrick Wolf’s latest album acted as an epiphany and self-revelation. Wolf no longer inserted himself into fairy/folktale contexts, but allowed them to pour forth from his own reality. Generating a sometimes frantically violent, sometimes balefully self-pitying record, the lycanthropic runaway youth came of age in a battle of incendiary passions and self-destructive doubts. After listening to The Bachelor, I felt war-torn and liberated, as though I had been taken through a medieval quest or pilgrimmage via urban alleyways, mass-mediated networks, and seamy sex clubs. While specifically locating himself in this decade of information overload, pervasive fear, banality disguised as significance, and the solitude of crowds, Wolf also cast himself back into his personal history, mourning missed opportunities and regrets. Though Wolf’s music has always straddled time periods, blending old folk styles with modern electronics and samples, this album is truly alive in its pain and desire, using the darkest reaches of the human condition to be found in music. Unlike previous Wolf albums, The Bachelor doesn’t regale you with stories of tragic, but fantastical characters; instead, it relays the hellish turmoil and purifying hope to be exposed in Wolf’s own life. Between the victorious anthems of Hard Times and Oblivion, the raw violence of Vulture and Battle, and the keening forsakenness of The Bachelor, Who Will, and Damaris, and paralleled with intricately-wrought visual imagery, Patrick Wolf succeeded in illuminating his own manuscript and finding a way beyond the blackness.

Read my review of the album here.

The Bachelor – Patrick Wolf

Damaris – Patrick Wolf

4. Everyone All at Once – The Rest
There is something utterly overwhelming about this record from Canadian band, The Rest. It feels like blissful chaos and tastes like symphonic nectar, gliding from delicate moment to powerful zenith and back again often within the same song. The shambolic meanderings of the lyrics convey an endless stream-of-consciousness that transforms mundane happenings into magical imagery. Vibrantly coloured with that uncertain yet omnipotent gait of youth, Everyone All at Once makes me feel everything all at once: heart-racing anticipation, bittersweet restlessness, fleeting serenity, sweet harmony. This record lives in that brief moment when you inhale fresh, outside air too quickly and your mind rushes so fast that it nearly crashes into your soul.

Read my review of the album here.

Modern Time Travel (necessities) – The Rest

Walk on Water (auspicious beginnings) – The Rest

3. Learning to Live on Poison – Archivist
This record challenged and pushed me in a way that the best literary and theoretical works do. It travels beyond music, punching words into the paper, hammering like the lettered arms of a typewriter, tiny fists raining down, attempting and achieving stunning wealths of meaning over and over again. Abstract and oblique, there is an internal music in Ben McCarthy’s poetry, which is merely augmented by the use of instruments, creating a piece that is both soulful and spare. Despite being some of the utmostly intelligent lyrics I’ve ever heard in music, they are not staid intellectualism, but empowering in their humanity and pitch-perfect imagery. Amidst the desire for self-immolation and the longing to fill the lack, you find yourself in a yellowing library of ideas, memories, and emotions, where cream-coloured pages drift across the floor like beautiful but dangerous manta rays; the constant struggle against your own decrepit habits and idiosyncrasies can be documented, but never resolved. You have to live inside this album, repeat its litanies, drink in its toxicity, to scratch even the smallest of surfaces. And when you do, you’ll see a piece of yourself and be comforted.

Read my review of the album here.

Son of My Sorrows (Genesis 49:27) – Archivist

Speaking – Archivist

2. Kingdom of Welcome Addiction – IAMX
This album became my second most listened to record of 2009. While I’ve loved the first two IAMX albums, this one hit me in a different spot. Chris Corner got political. And whilst his presentation may have gotten more theatrical than it had ever been, his fragility and vulnerability grew in proportion. The lyrics on his record show an acute recognition of the world’s pathologies, its plague of humans, but also provide a redemptive release to be found in the beauty of damage and destruction. Through Corner’s music, the broken is transcendent. Expressing fears of too much thought and too much care, he creates art from these lines of flight from a world that is undoubtedly and irreparably cruel. His vocal range is sublime as his singing soars, rasps and cajoles through spellbinding dynamics and acrobatics, and his musical palette has expanded beyond darkwave electro and slinky beats; his music has absorbed Old World nomadic glamour, easily cleaving to sounds of flamenco, waltz, cabaret, hymns, and circuses. Every track on this record is a hit in its own right, and Corner has ensured that the visuals have kept up with his musical standard; this culminated in his self-directed music video for My Secret Friend in which he and Imogen Heap demolish the pretence of gender amidst even deeper identity politics and psychoanalytics (taken even further in this bonus improvisation). Identity should be fluid and transient to keep us as happy as we can hope to be; to be neither here nor there is the best place to be. There is both an anger and an empathy to Chris Corner’s lyrics and music, an admission that we are all part of the problem, we are all fickle, sadistic and hypocritical. However, we are gifted with an inexplicable consciousness that allows us to feel colour and be happy in the in-between.

Read my review of the album here.

Kingdom of Welcome Addiction – IAMX

I Am Terrified – IAMX

1. Journal For Plague Lovers – Manic Street Preachers
“In the end we had pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn’t name.” This passage from Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides is featured at the end of Doors Closing Slowly from the Manic Street Preachers’ Journal For Plague Lovers, and I think it perfectly encapsulates what this record means and why it’s so compelling. Like the doomed Lisbon girls of Eugenides’ novel, Richey Edwards was reified and mythologized, but impossible to pinpoint, awash in a sea of artifacts, stories, theories and exhibits. Among these artifacts is the journal of lyrics used for this album and also for most of the liner notes for the deluxe edition. The remaining members of the Manics studiously worked inside these gaps to produce their best album since The Holy Bible, plotting a way into and through Richey’s difficult writing whilst leaving enough ends loose and permanently free. Their approach made the album richer than it might have been, and these words, which meditate on a mixture of Judeo-Christian tropes and pop culture/information glut, brought out some of the mightiest guitarwork and vocals from James. This group of friends knew Richey the best and were often puzzled by the fragments and apocrypha he left behind, so the rest of us can only cling to these unnamed countries of his mind with damaged maps and conflicted observations; this album helps us with that, leaving deliberate apertures like the best art does. And Richey’s manuscripts turned the sparks from Send Away the Tigers into the inspired flame we all hoped was still there. There’s a moment in William’s Last Words in which James joins in behind Nicky’s brilliantly Lou Reedesque performance, and combined with Sean’s loose, easy drumming and the small string section, it hits me in the chest every time. This record, in every sense of the word “record,” is to be cherished and pored over. The Manics achieved what seemed impossible: a fitting tribute to the infinitely unknowable Richey Edwards.

Read my review of the album here.

Doors Closing Slowly – Manic Street Preachers

All is Vanity – Manic Street Preachers

This Joke Sport Severed (Patrick Wolf’s Love Letter To Richey Remix) – Manic Street Preachers

The last honourable mention album of 2009 is Patrick Jones’s Tongues For a Stammering Time, a piece of art that keenly observes the last century and this young one. There’s no question that most people who know about Patrick Jones were led to him and his work via his younger brother, Nicky Wire. This fact does not retract from Jones’s talent as a poet and playwright (there’s a clear influence of his work on his sibling’s lyrics); I recommend reading fuse, which is a collection of his poetry and plays. Jones tends to take on topics that no one else wants to touch; if his more famous brother presents a variation on masculinity through eyeliner, dresses and feather boas, Jones presents masculinity as a plurality that is often troubling and brave, taking on ideas ranging from the emasculating of unemployed Welsh miners to domestic abuse with men as victims. This album is actually his second (the first, released in 1999, was called Commemoration & Amnesia and featured the likes of Cerys Matthews, James Dean Bradfield and Gruff Rhys), and like his debut ten years ago, this is Jones reading his poetry over soundscapes provided by a variety of musicians, this time including the likes of Billy Bragg, Beverley Humphreys, Les Davies, Martyn Joseph, and Defiance of God and Steve Balsamo, in addition to his brother and James Dean Bradfield once again. There’s nothing quite like Jones’s voice reading (often nearly shouting) his own poetry, and though he bloodies you with his politics, his honesty and belief is as powerful as that of his brother’s band and Billy Bragg. And the music accompanies perfectly, sometimes contributing extra vocals, sometimes fading into a understated backdrop like a good film soundtrack does, making its presence felt subliminally and eclectically.

The Healing House – Patrick Jones featuring Billy Bragg and Beverley Humphreys

Well, it’s been quite a ride through 2009, and I actually feel a little emotionally exhausted by the whole countdown. I hope you all found at least something in it that was valuable to you. Feel free to let me know what the soundtrack to your year was. The last part of my weekly mixes will be up shortly, and don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the Day of 200 Songs. I’m now out of words. Thank you for coming this far with me, and have a Happy Christmas.

See here for Part 1 of this series. This second part includes mixes with themes of: senses, 80s film soundtracks, Australia/New Zealand, cover versions, robots, acoustic, London, New Wave, 2009, summer, dance/electro, Canada, France, and wit. Next weekend, the last of weekly mixes will make their appearance, and hopefully, at the end of the week, you’ll find out what my top eight albums of the year are.

Come Monday Night – God Help the Girl

St. Monday – Billy Bragg

Weekly Mix #62 – Why Can’t You Touch, Taste and Smell Evil? (Download)

It’s Your Touch – The Black Ghosts
Taste the Rust – The Vince Noir Project
Touch Too Much – Hot Chip
Sound and Vision (Live at Sony Studios) – David Bowie
The Smell of Bob – Kaji Hideki
See No Evil – Television
Stop and Smell the Roses – Television Personalities
See Emily Play – Pink Floyd
We See the World As Our Stunt Doubles – Fosca
Heard You Whisper – The June Brides
Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before – The Smiths
Taste – Animal Collective
Sigh’s Smell of Farewell – Cocteau Twins
Taste the Floor – The Jesus and Mary Chain
Touch Up – Mother Mother
A Sucker For Your Sound – I Monster
The Smell of Outdoor Cooking – Arab Strap
Love at First Sight – Gist
The Bugle Sounds Again – Aztec Camera
Touch My Bum – Tom Rosenthal

Weekly Mix #63 – Hipster Kryptonite (Download)

Then He Kissed Me – The Crystals
Skid Row (Downtown) – Little Shop of Horrors Cast
I Am the Future – Alice Cooper
Light of Day – Joan Jett and the Black Hearts
Back in Time – Huey Lewis & the News
You’re the One That I Want – Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
Oh Yeah (Indian Summer Version) – Yello
Weird Science – Oingo Boingo
Pretty in Pink – The Psychedelic Furs
(Don’t You) Forget About Me – Simple Minds
St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) – John Parr
The Secret of My Success – Night Ranger
I Am the One and Only – Chesney Hawkes
I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man) – Kenny Loggins
Beetlejuice Theme – Danny Elfman
Underground – David Bowie
Never Ending Story – Limahl
I Will Never Love Again – Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher
In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

Weekly Mix #64 – The Band Down Under (Download)

Eucalyptus – The Presets
House Music – Kikumoto Allstars
Murder in the Daylight (Van She Tech Mix) – Mandy Kane
We Have Tomorrow – PNAU
Bright Neon Payphone – Cut Copy
No Accident – Car Crash Set
Twenty Thousand Leagues – Midnight Juggernauts
Come Back Lover – Charlie ASH
Another Runaway – Ladyhawke
Survive – Van She
We Are the People – Empire of the Sun
Kids in Space – So I’m Joe
Into the Chaos – Howling Bells
Happy As Can Be – Cut Off Your Hands
Fire Fire Fire – Dappled Cities
Streets of Your Town – The Go-Betweens
Devil Was In My Yard – The Sleepy Jackson
A Trick of the Light – The Triffids
You Don’t Have to Be a Prostitute – Flight of the Conchords
Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth – The Brunettes
Little Possessions – Andrew Keese and the Associates
Footsteps – Mercy Arms
Mr. Somewhere – The Apartments
From Her to Eternity – Nick Cave

Weekly Mix #65 – Don’t Steal Cookies From the Library (Download)

New Life – The Wannadies (Original: Depeche Mode)
Psycho Killer – Huw (Risque) with Pravda (Original: Talking Heads)
Jump Into the Fire – LCD Soundsystem (Original: Harry Nilsson)
Trash – Apoptygma Berzerk (Original: Suede)
Sound and Vision – Franz Ferdinand (Original: David Bowie)
A Forest – British Sea Power (Original: The Cure)
Mack the Knife – The Psychedelic Furs (Original: Kurt Weill)
Lions After Slumber – The Veils (Original: Scritti Politti)
The Jean Genie – The Dandy Warhols (Original: David Bowie)
Friday I’m in Love – Glo-Worm (Original: The Cure)
Suspended in Gaffa – Ra Ra Riot (Original: Kate Bush)
Girlfriend in a Coma – Noah & the Whale (Original: The Smiths)
Walk Away Renee – Elliott Smith (Original: Left Banke)
“Heroes” – TV on the Radio (Original: David Bowie)
Kangaroo – Bat For Lashes (Original: Big Star)
At Your Best (You Are Love) – El Perro Del Mar (Original: The Isley Brothers)
Oh! You Pretty Things – Au Revoir Simone (Original: David Bowie)
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Honeyroot (Original: Joy Division)
Mad World – Gary Jules (Original: Tears For Fears)
Borderline – The Flaming Lips (Original: Madonna)

Weekly Mix #66 – Lick My Battery (Download)

Tupac Robot Club Rock – Filthy Dukes
Laser Laser – Neo Tokyo
Dude, You Feel Electrical – Shout Out Out Out Out
Rotwang’s Party (Robot Dance) – Giorgio Moroder
Robot Rock – Daft Punk
Guitars Are Overrated (Neo Tokyo Remix) – The Robot Disaster
Naked – Alice in Videoland
Neon Generation – A-ux
The Girl and the Robot (Chateau Marmont Remix) – Royksopp
Electric People – Ruede Hagelstein
The Robots in My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock – Softlightes
Electric Barberella – Duran Duran
You Killed My Robot Friend – Nyhlin
Rodney’s English Disco – Helen Love
I Wish I Was a Robot – Das Wanderlust
Garden of Love – Clor
Electronic Germany – DJ Hell
I Love You (Miss Robot) – The Buggles
Robot Man (Hot Chip Remix) – The Aliens
Computer Love – Glass Candy

Weekly Mix #67 – Unplugged (Download)

Chains – Sons & Daughters
Meds – Placebo
Those Things I Do – Protocol
Flowers – Emilie Simon
Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
The Magic Position – Patrick Wolf
Mr. Brightside – The Killers
Bluebeard – Cocteau Twins
Grace – Jeff Buckley
You Love Us – Manic Street Preachers
Walk Away – Franz Ferdinand
Beware Our Nubile Miscreants – Of Montreal
Home – The Cinematics
Weightlifting – The Trashcan Sinatras
Spit It Out – IAMX
Don’t Know Any Better – Puressence
Skeletons – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Heroes – Twiggy Frostbite
Sun Gangs – The Veils
Monster Love – Goldfrapp
Help I’m Alive – Metric

Weekly Mix #68 – The London Underground (Download)

London’s Mine – White Rose Movement
Disappearing Act – Jonny Cola and the A-Grades
The Rest For the Wicked – Soho Dolls
Too Good For Hollywood – Simon Indelicate
Visitors (Stephen Hague Remix) – frYars
Anyone Fancy a Chocolate Digestive? – The New Royal Family
Round the Rim and Back to Him – The Firm
It’s a Kick – Monocle Rose
Pump Up the Volume – Art Brut
Fun is For the Feeble Minded – The Indelicates
I Love You – The Boyfriends
Supine on the Astro Turf – Fosca
City – Truck
Rambling – Small Crew
A Week Away – Spearmint
Chandelier – Morton Valence
Mise en Scene – The Melting Ice Caps
Ballerina – Kingfishers Catch Fire
Two of the Beatles Are Dead – Keith TOTP
Tesco is Evil – Tom Rosenthal
The Town – Vanilla Swingers

Weekly Mix #69 – Nouvelle Vague (Download)

See You Shine – Alcian Blue
Love Your Shoes – Furniture
Statue of Liberty – XTC
Reward – The Teardrop Explodes
Veronica – Wreckless Eric
Less Than Zero – Elvis Costello
Let Her Go (12″ Mix) – Strawberry Switchblade
One More Colour – Jane Siberry
Marcia Baila – Les Rita Mitsouko
Hanging on the Telephone – Blondie
Away – The Bolshoi
City of Fun – The Only Ones
Into You Like a Train – The Psychedelic Furs
Waiting For a Miracle – Comsat Angels
Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream) – The Icicle Works
No Tears – Tuxedomoon
Coitus Interruptus – Fad Gadget
The Wrong Road – The Go-Betweens
The Thief and the Bride – Mary Goes Round
Bringing Home the Ashes – The Wild Swans

Weekly Mix #70 – 2009 0.5 (Download)

Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Light Skips Cross Heart – Filthy Dukes
The Great Shipwreck of Life – IAMX
Fist of God – MSTRKRFT
Jump the Gun – Midnight Juggernauts
No You Girls – Franz Ferdinand
1901 – Phoenix
Beautiful Losers – Stuck in the Sound
Young Adult Friction – The Pains of Being Pure of Heart
Wake Up – Sliimy
French Navy – Camera Obscura
You Can’t Get It Back – Gentleman Reg
Anything Other Than Kind – Butcher Boy
The Smack of Pavement in Your Face – Shirley Lee
Journal For Plague Lovers – Manic Street Preachers
Battle For the Sun – Placebo
Parallel Lines – Junior Boys
David – The Radio Dept.
Daniel – Bat For Lashes
When I Grow Up – Fever Ray

Weekly Mix #71 – Summer of ‘09 (Download)

English Summer Rain – Placebo
Summer – Shy Child
Rollercoaster – The Jesus and Mary Chain
Beach Party – Air France
Half Mast – Empire of the Sun
Summerdreamer – The Daysleepers
Barbecue – Orange Juice
Sound of Summer – Art Brut
Lorca and the Orange Tree – The Mummers
Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective
Honey in the Sun – Camera Obscura
You Wear the Sun – The Delays
Summerside – Adorable
Like a Summer Rain – Ladybug Transistor
Summer Shakedown – Slow Club
Last Summertime’s Obsession – Trembling Blue Stars
Summer Days – Euros Childs
Serenade – The Soda Stream
Sunshine Makes Me High – The Guggenheim Grotto
Summer Wind – James Dean Bradfield

Weekly Mix #72 – Let’s Dance the Blues (Download)

Zero (MSTRKRFT Remx) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I’m So L.A. – Mynx
Dance to Our Disco – Punks Jump Up
Kiss ‘n Fly – Surkin
Vulture – Patrick Wolf
Where Have the Club Kids Gone – The Mystic Underground
The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (Kissy Sellout Mix) – The Human League
Bulletproof – La Roux
Taken Away (Frederick Carlsson Remix) – Digitalism
Audacity of Huge – Simian Mobile Disco
1901 (Fabian Remix) – Phoenix
Body Packer – Love-Fine
See the Light (Calvin Harris Remix) – The Hours
Neo-Violence (Shazam Remix) – The Tough Alliance
Smack My Bitch Up – The Prodigy
Chinball Wizard (Cadence Weapon Remix) – The Wet Secrets
Listen to the Hiss (Tiefschwarz Remix) – DJ Hell
Beep Beep Beep – Tiga
Hazel – Junior Boys
Fixin’ to Thrill (Don Diablo Remix) – Dragonette
Tiptoe – Goldfrapp

Weekly Mix #73 – Souvenir of Canada (Download)

1000 Cigarettes – MSTRKRFT
Magic Fantasy – Dragonette
Bits & Pieces – Junior Boys
Untrust Us – Crystal Castles
A Century Old – Duchess Says
Young Hearts Spark Fire – Japandroids
Body of Years – Mother Mother
Mutiny, I Promise You – The New Pornographers
Benediction – The Weakerthans
Jagwagger – Archivist
Hate Then Love – The Dears
Solipsism Millionaires – The Most Serene Republic
Ocean of Noise – The Arcade Fire
Alive Until Saturday Night – Hexes & Ohs
Mimi on the Beach – Jane Siberry
Say It’s All Over – Paper Moon
Falling Back – Gentleman Reg
Counting Stars on the Ceiling – Stars
Corbeau – Coeur de Pirate
Nice to Know – Andrew Spice
Fish Water Desert Trapeze – Allegories

Weekly Mix #74 – Tous les garcons et les filles (Download)

One Minute to Midnight – Justice
Crescendolls – Daft Punk
Tie Me Up Tie Me Down – Huw (Risqué)
Polly (Chateau Marmont Remix) – Koko Von Napoo
Gwendoline – Housse de Racket
Maison Klaus – Chateau Marmont
Love Your Enemy (Kill Your Friends) – Birdy Nam Nam
Miss You – Thieves Like Us
Cool frénésie – Les Rita Mitsouko
Night – M83
Remember – Air
Zapruder – Stuck in the Sound
If It’s Not With You – Phoenix
Comme tu les aimes – Dani
Les sucettes – France Gall
Kiss and Kill – Mary Goes Round
Je n’attends pas plus personne – Francoise Hardy
L’antiquitié – Stone
Poupée mécanique – Die Form
Sandcastle – Little Nemo
Ces petits riens – Serge Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve

Weekly Mix #75 – Hearing Double (Download)

Help! – The Damned (Original: The Beatles)
Punk Boy – Ash (Original: Helen Love)
You’re the One That I Want – Hyperbubble (Original: John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John)
My Way – Polysics (Original: Frank Sinatra)
How Soon is Now? – The Psychedelic Furs (Original: The Smiths)
Are Friends Electric? – The Dead Weather (Original: Gary Numan)
Feels Like Heaven – Happydeadmen (Original: Fiction Factory)
Shoplifters Of the World Unite – The Black Tulips (Original: The Smiths)
Together in Electric Dreams – Nixon (Original: Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder)
Open Your Heart – Beki & the Bullets (Original: Madonna)
Train in Vain – Kirsty MacColl (Original: The Clash)
Sleepyhead – The Mummers (Original: Passion Pit)
Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself – The Killers (Original: Morrissey)
Young Parisians – The New Royal Family (Original: Adam and the Ants)
Open Your Eyes – Soho Dolls (Original: Lords of the New Church)
The Con – Popular Damage (Original: Tegan & Sara)
Straight to Hell – Emm Gryner (Original: The Clash)
Femme Fatale – Big Star (Original: The Velvet Underground)
Use Somebody – Bat For Lashes (Original: Kings of Leon)
Cosmic Dancer – Morrissey (Original: T.Rex)

Weekly Mix #76 – Magnetic Poetry (Download)

The Last of the Famous International Playboys – Morrissey
The Last Significant Statement to Be Made in Rock ‘n Roll – The Indelicates
What the Housewives Don’t Tell You – Luxembourg
Perfect Skin – Lloyd Cole & the Commotions
Fat Children – Jarvis Cocker
A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17 to 24) – Momus
The Past is a Grotesque Animal – Of Montreal
Secret Crush on Third Trombone – Fosca
Drum Machines Will Save Mankind – Mikrofisch
Interview – Simon Bookish
You Should All Be Murdered – Another Sunny Day
lit. – Archivist
Disneyfied – Eugene McGuinness
The Upper Classes – The Auteurs
Falling In Love With Myself Again – Sparks
Please Sir – Wild Beasts
Giant Bicycle – Tom Rosenthal
Midfielding – Midfield General and Noel Fielding
Rambling Through the Avenues of Time – Flight of the Conchords
A Third of My Life – Spearmint
My Chemical Romance Saved My Life – Esiotrot
Barricade – Stars

I know…it’s even later than the last one, but I’ll push on. Let’s take a look back at who released albums in the summer of 2009. July produced new albums from Stellastarr, Trashcan Sinatras, The Most Serene Republic, and Nicky Wire’s brother, Patrick Jones. There were also records from the latest Jack White project, Dead Weather; former Boo Radley, Martin Carr; and finally a debut from folk duo Slow Club. And the ginger quiff that is La Roux dropped her first album.

August sweltered on with music from Mew, Japandroids, Calvin Harris, Patrick Wolf, The Antlers, Imogen Heap, and mum. There were also rather hyped releases from Florence & the Machine and Arctic Monkeys (neither really captured me). The xx, which has already appeared on the first part of this countdown, put out a debut. Oh yeah, and the male answer to La Roux, Frankmusik.

Onwards and upwards…

16. Ellipse – Imogen Heap
Imogen Heap is yet another artist that I haven’t always paid a lot of attention to. I confess that most of my familiarity with her came through that Frou Frou track used on the Garden State soundtrack and through the track Hide and Seek, which seemed to pop up here and there last year. And then of course she also dueted with Chris Corner for the IAMX song, My Secret Friend. When I finally got to listen to her latest record, I was hugely impressed with the great frothy folds of song and her breathy vocals; listening to Ellipse is a lot like burying you face in perfumed tulle. Deliciously dreamy, brilliantly offbeat and strangely tribal (tribes of sprites, perhaps), this album chronicles the emotional oscillations involved in any relationship, including with lovers and children. In spots, there are glimpses of Cocteau Twins, but that idiosyncratic inflection and phrasing in Heap’s vocals, along with that synthy double-effect layering that Heap is known for, makes this album a magical warping of reality, a “street-level miracle.” Even lyrics that may have been mundane in anyone else’s hands are made exotic and fantastical.

First Train Home – Imogen Heap

Earth – Imogen Heap

15. Is It Fire? – Jessie Evans
With a voluptuous fusion of Latin rhythms and Berlin cabaret, Jessie Evans debuted with an astonishingly spicy, yet aloof, album. Between the hot beats and the icy vocals, these tracks steam and press into you like a sauna. Songs about lust and hedonism are sung in a strong persona with old-style glamour and chutzpah. Listening to Is It Fire? is like tumbling headfirst into Stromboli at the climax of a black-and-white film; confidently striding in and out of genres, this album feels both old and new, cosmopolitan and global, rough and smooth, rustic and urbane.

Read my earlier review of it here.

Is It Fire – Jessie Evans

Blood and Silver – Jessie Evans

14. “Further Complications” – Jarvis Cocker
It’s the second solo outing from Jarvis Cocker, and it was unexpected in a brilliant way. Recruiting Steve Albini, Cocker’s music is heavier in spots and sometimes downright raucous in a gloriously messy way. But at the same time, it does mournfully slow, but in a pseudo-mawkish way. You’re just never sure how distanced Cocker is from his own lyrics, which makes the record all the more complex and wonderful. This album could have been relegated to a last thrash before middle age really sets in, but those quotation marks change everything. I’ve never been disappointed by viewing the world through Cocker’s NHS frames, and this, in some ways risky, record reaffirmed this.

Read my earlier review of it here.

Further Complications – Jarvis Cocker

You’re in My Eyes (Discosong) – Jarvis Cocker

13. React or Die – Butcher Boy
This Glaswegian band is an ebullient, charming mixture of gentle twee and kitchen sink drama, and I’ve only grown to adore them more with this second album. It is alternately jaunty and tender, and features elegant lines like:

You carve a perfect rose on the door, with hands so soft, with lips so warm. The petals cover me so beautifully, and the flower will fall upon the birdie sheet and growl “say, are we close? How close are we now?” But first we double up with a coffee cup, and the sheets will buckle.

You carve a perfect bird on the wall, with hands so soft, with lips so warm. The bird will sing for me so beautifully, and the notes will fall upon the bed we make so you growl “say, are we close? How close are we now?” And then you comfort me so beautifully, but the knife will buckle.

Lead singer, John Blain Hunt, has a voice that feels as warm and comforting as flannel as the music rises up behind him like a sun-warmed dale. There is something alternately Celtic lilt and John Cale circa Paris 1919 with a dash of Belle & Sebastian. The tender mini-dramas of regular folk are painted with a folktale brush until they’re fairytales. A testament to the power of their music is the first track When I’m Asleep, which only features the lyrics: “When I’m asleep, I never dream. I never feel anything.” It’s powerful because somehow I feel as though I’ve been through an entire range of emotions and stories after listening to this song despite having only heard the same two lines over and over again with slightly different inflections.

When I’m Asleep – Butcher Boy

This Kiss Will Marry Us – Butcher Boy

12. Shirley Lee – Shirley Lee
Frontman for witty band, Spearmint, Shirley Lee released his first solo album this year, and it reinforces the good-natured, detail-oriented ethos of his earlier lyrics. In the hope of breaking away from making just another Spearmint album, Lee embarked on a slightly more personal route, albeit with his band members in tow. The songs range from the plodding Upside Down on Brighton Beach, which seems to parody everything about a place like Brighton, to the folk-pop balladry of The Smack of Pavement in Your Face, which turns the love song on its head with fresh analogies. The whole record has an old feel, a bit like department stores and elevator music, but in a heartwarming, nostalgic way rather than a poke at the fall of grandeur. Youth and all of its fun quirks are laid out in these songs with puppyish energy, leaving you feeling clean and exhausted as though you just took a ride in a tumble-dryer. And there’s something truly endearing about the way he mispronounces Sondre Lerche’s last name “lurch” in Spiralina Girl, a song about Lee’s girlfriend.

Spiralina Girl – Shirley Lee

The Lights Change – Shirley Lee

11. Jet Black – Gentleman Reg
I only discovered Gentleman Reg (AKA Reg Vermue) this year when I saw him open for The Stills. He captivated me then on the spot, and when I later purchased his latest album, I remained under his honeyed spell of bittersweet romance and life experience. So much so, that I ended up buying his previous albums whilst in Toronto this fall. His loose and easy dulcet tones accompany a shambling guitar and flourished keys to create narratives of self-reflection, regrets and hunger. This record feels like the soundtrack to the adventures and misadventures to be explored in the city; the satisfying exhale of breath on those odd days where you actually feel possibility pressing at your temples; the moment a bad experience becomes a good memory. With the delicate and unique assemblage of a charm bracelet, Jet Black captures the desperation, resistance and recklessness that can come with crossing the threshold from twentyish youth to thirtyish maturity and modifying your expectations accordingly. The metamorphosis can be just as difficult and bewildering as adolescence, and this record will be there for you.

To Some It Comes Easy – Gentleman Reg

We’re in a Thunderstorm – Gentleman Reg

10. Cloud Pleaser – David Shane Smith
Like his Stroboscopic labelmate, stanleylucasrevolution (who appeared on 2008’s countdown), David Shane Smith produces some of the most challenging music out there. With a post-apocalyptic form of folk-electronic music and intelligently poetic lyrics, Smith made his latest album sound like a missive from the last man on Earth, his brain synapses burnt out and hanging down by his ears like grotesque headphone wires. Except the end of the world hasn’t happened yet. So no one believes him even as the bleak reality eases its way into their lives. And they remain ignorant because they can’t handle much more information or anything that inconveniences them. What they don’t understand is that the end of the world isn’t an event. It’s a process. And David Shane Smith is one of the prescient artists to document it as eloquently as possible.

Read my earlier review of it here.

Empty Action – David Shane Smith

Eyes – David Shane Smith

9. Bob and Veronica Ride Again – Morton Valence
In the world of music and its digital ubiquity, it becomes harder and harder to find really creative artists making really tangible pieces of art. With London band, Morton Valence, you get more than you pay for. Accompanied by an equally entertaining and thought-provoking novella, this album tells the picaresque story of Bob and Veronica, who eventually fall in love, but the love is never quite a sure thing, and perhaps it was never really love in the first place. And the music follows this non-linear path, looping through multiple genres and sliding in and out of parody. The back of the box reads:

Bob and Veronica.
An unlikely couple. Bob was suburban. And Veronica? Well, she wasn’t.
But so what? Ok, let’s put it another way; they had absolutely nothing in common. But then again, they weren’t planning on starting a social club or saving the world or anything. Bob was simply insanely attracted to Veronica from the moment he first saw her. Veronica took a little convincing. Pretty basic stuff really.
There were no opposites attracting or any of that. Bob doesn’t believe in opposites attracting anyway.
Neither does Veronica.

But they did believe in lust at first sight.

And unlike love, at least lust seems to last forever.

In effect, they’re a lot like all of us. And when you let the characters drive the story, you end up here with this fascinating, unexpected album. You don’t have to understand it because you’ll never understand life either.

Read my earlier review of it here.

Funny Peculiar – Morton Valence

Hang it on the Wall – Morton Valence

This week’s honourable mention is Morrissey’s Years of Refusal. It hurts a little that I couldn’t put him in the actual countdown, but I just didn’t think this album was quite up to it. Don’t get me wrong – I still really enjoyed it, and it contained the gem that is It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore. Perhaps he’s just set the bar so high earlier on, that it gets increasingly difficult to exceed it or surprise me. Read my review of the album here.

Something is Squeezing My Skull – Morrissey

The second part of my weekly mix round-up is coming up in the next couple of days. It’s my last week of work before a couple of weeks off, so things are a bit hectic again. And Friday or soon after, I will have my last installment of this series, which will reveal my top eight albums of 2009.

Here’s another music meme I got off Rol.

List 10 musical artists (or bands) you like, in no specific order (do this before reading the questions below). Really, don’t read the questions below until you pick your ten artists!!!

1. Manic Street Preachers
2. IAMX
3. Patrick Wolf
4. The Smiths
5. The Clash
6. Pulp
7. The Indelicates
8. McCarthy
9. David Bowie
10. Stars

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?

Common People. I was watching a mind-numbing stream of music videos about twelve years ago, and then this spindly man with limp wrists and clever lyrics came on the screen – first in a shopping cart and then clapping around hip-level and waggling his finger. I fell in love and have been a disciple of Mr. Cocker ever since.

What is your favorite song of 8?

I have a fair number of favourites from McCarthy, but We Are All Bourgeois Now is one of the catchiest and most memorable for me. And it’s so true, it hurts. But I also really love the lyrics of We Are All Born Creeps:

Evil first entered the world when Adam and Eve tried to know.
They tested the apple of death and Original Sin was passed on from them to us.
So when we’re born, we are bad.
There’s no evil that we’ll not do.
But God’s love can turn us around!
And then we can become warm-hearted people.
That’s what it says in the Bible, and oh, well it may be true.

So when we’re born we are bad.
Each one of us longs to compete.
And only the strong ones survive.
They reach for the top!
They make all the big money!
And those born with less strong genes -
Well, they make ends meet as dustmen and things like that.
It’s hard, but it’s natural.
Nature won’t be messed with.
Do you want to live in Russia?
No, it’s hard, but it’s natural.
Nature won’t be messed with.

What kind of impact has 1 left on your life?

If you really want to know, read here.

What is your favorite lyric of 5?

I’m all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for the special offer
A guaranteed personality

I heard the people who lived on the ceiling
Scream and fight most scarily
Hearing that noise was my first ever feeling
That’s how it’s been all around me

Or…

White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway

Or…several others.

How many times have you seen 4 live?

Don’t rub it in. They were broken up by the time I was five years old. I haven’t even had a chance to see Morrissey live yet.

What is your favorite song by 7?

Ooh….I guess I have to say We Hate the Kids (they have so many brilliant songs). But Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die and New Art for the People are close seconds.

Is there any song by 3 that makes you sad?

Nothing stands out immediately. Some of his songs fill me with a bittersweet feeling, but nothing actually sad.

What is your favorite song by 9?

A favourite song by Bowie? How is that possible to choose? I’ve adored the man since I was eight years old. I refuse to choose. It’s a three-way tie between Life On Mars, The Man Who Sold the World, and “Heroes.”

When did you first get into 2?

I think it was 2005 when I first read about IAMX. I had heard about the Sneaker Pimps only in passing and had never really checked them out, so Chris Corner’s name wasn’t on my radar. Then, of all places and people, I read about IAMX in Noel Fielding’s column of recommendations in the NME.

How did you get into 3?

I’m not entirely sure. I first heard about Patrick Wolf back in the days when I actually read music magazines, so it could have very well been in a few of those. I remember being impressed by his clothing (one photo had him wearing a strange hoodie with large, felt rabbits stuck to it) and then by the descriptions of his multi-instrumental music. He sounded Bowiesque on paper, so soon after, I ordered a copy of Lycanthropy. Then Wind in the Wires. And from there on in, I’ve been anticipating and buying all subsequent albums and singles. All because he first blew my mind to bits with the dark experimentalism and imagery of that first album. He was always the whole package, and I’ve admired that.

What is your favorite song by 4?

This is getting ridiculous. I’m supposed to pinpoint my favourite Bowie song, and now one from The Smiths? Okay, I’ll pick the one that gets me everytime and fills me with a melancholy racing: There is a Light That Never Goes Out.

How many times have you seen 9 live?

Once, but it was one of the best nights of my life. I was third row on the floor at the old Winnipeg Arena for the Reality Tour, screaming my brains out with one friend who was screaming equally as nuttily and one friend who didn’t seem to know why she was there (the latter isn’t a friend of mine anymore – enough said). I know I’ll never have that kind of opportunity again, especially for the pitiful sum of $75 for a ticket. There are still moments when I have flashbacks of Bowie standing right above me on the raised platform as he moved to stage left. Needless to say, the screaming friend and I were hoarse and wild-eyed at the end of it.

What is a good memory concerning 2?

Seeing IAMX live in both Toronto and Detroit within days of each other. For the full account, click here. The shorter version is that I went on my own to the Toronto show a couple of years ago, met some other fans, including a girl who gave me a ride back to my hotel. She then came up with the rather fannish idea to follow IAMX to the next stop in Detroit two nights later. I didn’t need much convincing despite having coursework to do for my MA, and thus, went with a virtual stranger down into the States and back, returning to my apartment at about 4:00AM, just to experience IAMX live once more. It was all more than worth it. I get that music fan mist that falls over my eyes sometimes – it’s like some people’s bloodmist when they’re angry – and I do things that seem highly unlikely or highly dangerous. But my instincts have never failed me.

Is there a song by 8 that makes you sad?

They’re all rather sad because they’re about the reality of society and its political trappings. For the most part, these songs are brutalizing in the lyrics, but sweetly melodic in the music. The Way of the World comes to mind as a heartbreaker.

What is your favorite song by 1?

Motorcycle Emptiness. It breaks my heart again and again, and when I see them perform it live, I find it hard not to throw myself on the floor and speak in tongues.

How did you become a fan of 10?

Through a former co-worker actually. He and I developed a sort of odd work relationship in which we sometimes had long discussions about linguistics, orality and literacy, existentialism, books, music, and films. And sometimes we didn’t speak to each other for weeks. I’ll always remember him asking me if I liked The Smiths, and when I enthusiastically said I did, he said I should try out the Canadian band, Stars. I did, and I’ve loved them ever since. And every time I listen to What I’m Trying to Say, and hear the chorus, which goes, “I am trying to say/What I want to say/Without having to say/”I love you,” I think of that co-worker. Why? Because I remember him telling me how much that particular lyric resonated with him, and considering his outlook on sex and relationships, it made a lot of sense. And he was kind of the first person I had met that had those kinds of views. He had a bohemian charm, but that wore thin sometimes. I also distinctly remember him saying something like “I’ve just fallen in love with you” to which I replied “I think you and I have drastically different ideas of what love is.”

We Are All Born Creeps – McCarthy

What I’m Trying to Say – Stars

When I was taking my communications diploma in between my BA, we were assigned groups in which we would have to create a concept for a local magazine and see it through from conception to publication. As my luck always runs, I was saddled with an incompetent, uncreative, unproductive group, whose best idea was some very vague Manitoba showcase magazine. At any rate, one of my journalistic contributions was to be an interview with David Steinberg while he was in town for the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. Slightly daunting to me even now, but pretty tongue-choking intimidating for an nineteen-year-old with zero interviewing experience. To make a very long story short, I showed up to the show he was a part of, but at the end of the show, David Steinberg was whisked away (despite the organizers promising me that interview), and the day culminated in me standing at the Winnipeg Airport, realizing I wasn’t going to get that story at all. In a salvaging attempt, I wrote an entire story/rant for the magazine about my chasing/stalking adventures in pursuit of David Steinberg. Perhaps in the end it was a stronger piece than it would have been with the interview. Perhaps it was all rather Steinbergesque. Okay, a very anemic Curb Your Enthusiasm or a Seinfeld in which even less than nothing happens. So why am I telling you this story? Because I’m about to write a piece about an interview I have been trying to get for nearly 8 months: an email interview with Chris Corner of IAMX.

Back when Kingdom of Welcome Addiction first released, I decided I would go after a long-shot opportunity (this happens in my periods of mania) by contacting the North American PR representative for IAMX in the hopes of being able to send a list of questions for Mr. Corner to reply to. Being a lowly MP3 blogger, I figured this wasn’t likely to happen. In fact, I had already resigned myself to not getting any reply (based on my general pre-emption of hope and/or faith in myself and others). The only glimmer of possibility in all this was the fact IAMX is an adamantly independent enterprise; albeit, one with PR representation run independently from them. To my surprise, I did get a very prompt response from PR, allowing me to listen to the full album before I received my hard copy, and consenting to pass my interview questions on to Chris Corner. And I had dealt pleasantly and briefly with this particular contact in the past after he had found my essay on independent artists, including IAMX. So far so good.

I diligently listened to the promo stream and wrote up my questions, they varied from “In your opinion, what are humanity’s biggest myths?” to “You’ve opened yourself up to dialogue with your fans via your MySpace blog. What have you learned through this experience?” to “Your music tends to find the beauty in the wreckage and often juxtaposes the two. Are things more beautiful when they’re damaged or destroyed – burning the box of beautiful things, so to speak?” I was consciously making an effort to ask questions that hadn’t been asked of him before, especially as I figured it’s always fascinating to ask interesting questions of interesting people. I sent off the questions and hoped for the best. I still wasn’t exactly convinced this would happen. I’m not a “professional” journalist with an affiliation or concrete deadline. In fact, I was in an odd liminal place between journalist and fan, and I’m thinking it was the latter identity that perpetuated the fiasco that then ensued.

When I checked to make sure my questions had actually been received, I was given the following reply: “Chris should be getting the answers back to me over the weekend (he’s touring Europe right now and internet connection is rather dodgy out there). Hold tight.” This is perfectly reasonable. After writing my review of Kingdom of Welcome Addiction, I emailed the link to it as a courtesy, and held tight. At the beginning of June, I emailed to check in (after all more than a weekend had passed by this point). No answer. A few weeks later, I tried again. Crickets. Then I tried in July – at this point, I was still just assuming I got lost in the shuffle of requests for all the bands under the same PR. From the beginning, I had also included the escape clause of “if Chris Corner is too busy, I understand. Just let me know either way.” It was now August, and so I tried again, but only after I sent one more at the end of the month with a high priority flag, did I get a response. I feel as though I was still pretty polite: “It’s been several months, and as I initially understood, you had already passed the questions on to him. I’m just wondering where the delay is occurring – all I really want is an update. If this interview is no longer possible, I would still appreciate a response. I haven’t been receiving any responses for the last three or four emails I’ve sent you regarding this.” Yes, I started sounding a bit sterner (less obsequious anyway). So, as I said, this finally got a response. A very suspicious one.

It stated that this PR guy had been trying to get a hold of me by email over the summer while IAMX did a short tour of the US. He said he had wanted to set up a phone interview with Chris Corner rather than bother with the email questions. He then said that because I didn’t answer him, he figured I was no longer interested. He also insisted, “I ALWAYS reply within 24 hours of emails I receive.” Now, this might have been plausible if I never checked my Junk Folder, or if my inbox wasn’t receiving emails properly over the summer, or if I didn’t always include my email address and blog URL in the signature of each e-missive. But none of that was the case. Consequently, unless my hotmail account suddenly assumed sentience of its own and decided certain emails didn’t need to get through, these emails about phone interviews never occurred.

Nonetheless, I grudgingly gave the PR guy the benefit of the doubt and said I would be fine with him passing my questions on to Chris Corner again. Note: “again.” This was the end of August. I then waited for about a month before trying for some sort of confirmation. I bet you clever otters know what happened next. No reply. I realize that at this point I was probably crossing the line into pretty damn irritating. But then again, what journalist after a story isn’t irritating? Sometimes it’s the only way to keep getting stories at all. I tried high priority flagging again, and roused a response. Firstly, I was told that he had replied the week before (once again, there was no logical reason why only 50% of his emails should reach me). He told me I had to appreciate the difficulty of Chris Corner being in Germany and he being in the US; the distance was making it hard to “turn the heat on” in getting a response from Chris. Additionally, he said he didn’t know why it was taking Chris so long to reply since he’s usually so quick. Hmmmm….

Now I learned PR in my communication diploma as well as journalism and advertising. PR people are notoriously evasive spin doctors for the most part. They’re a bit like Post-Structuralists that way; the Truth is an arbitrary construct to them. Presently, I’m exhausted by the whole situation, which could have ended months before if the PR guy would have just said, “No, I’m sorry, the interview is not possible.” I was now only persisting because of adherence to principle, the principle being that I deserve some sort of resolution even if I am just an MP3 blogger. I’m not naïve enough to think that journalists don’t get screwed over by PR people; they do – I’ve heard the stories. And I learned early on with that David Steinberg incident (although being a college student probably isn’t much better than being a fan). But judging from the IAMX interviews that have shown up in various online publications (not blogs), I don’t think everyone got dragged along for 3/4 of a year.

I don’t blame Chris Corner for this farce. I can’t be certain of how much communication he has with his PR, and last year, when I included IAMX in a couple of posts, I received my IAMX Live in Warsaw album in a package that had a thank-you message hand-written by Chris on the outside. He thanked me specifically for the blogs. That was above and beyond what he could have or should have done.

I suppose I don’t even need a full explanation of why this interview couldn’t have happened; a simple decline would have been sufficient. Sadly, I reckon this kind of predicament just ends up undoing any sort of façade of independence and accessibility projected through the IAMX rhetoric and ethos (ie: dialogue with fans, band and fans as one tribe, etc). Dealing with this PR flak screen is no different than any number of other impersonal celebrity machines. I was naïve to think that it might be different. Which brings me to a more general point about PR and MP3 blogging.

I realize, that as a blogger, I get slapped onto a lot of mailing lists for labels and artists I couldn’t care less about. Those mass mailings are obvious. There’s something honest in their blatancy (even the ones who try to use your name and mention a small fact about your blog to seem authentic). In the end, this all doesn’t matter if I don’t like the music or the artists being marketed, so I go on ignoring and sometimes I even bother to unsubscribe if I’m getting too annoyed by three mailings a week from the same person. However, there has been the odd PR person that I had more than a few emails with, and some have been quite decent to deal with. But recently, aside from the PR for frYars, I haven’t been getting any acknowledgements that my review links have even been received (this is after I was told to send them on), including from people that I had originally been pretty friendly with. This feels slightly deflating even if all of this shouldn’t matter to me (after all, I’m not doing this for a living). However, I’m just not the type to make promises I know I can’t follow through on, and when I commit to something, I feel obligated to finish it (hence, if I say I will review your music, I will). In theory, the relationship between PR and journalism should be symbiotic (one can’t exist without the other), but it nearly always ends up feeling like an abusive relationship, where there’s only one giver. Email has also made it so much easier to ignore people and blame technology; it absolves anyone of any direct responsibility. Somehow the supposed immediacy becomes less than immediate.

Is the problem here really one to do with identity and position? If I were a journalist attached to something more official, would my questions be more important? In the world of music fandom, wouldn’t it be a good thing if music fans influenced other music fans directly rather than through third party journalists, who often don’t have anything invested in what they write about? Yes, perhaps they can be more objective when the situation calls for it, but I would think fans are the ones who might come up with the best questions to ask because they know so much and care so deeply about their favourite artists. But I’m not sure that MP3 blogs, as liberating as they may seem to us fans on the ground, are viewed as legitimate (a problem all sorts of blog genres face). We might be one more prong of a larger marketing strategy (the digital promotion/word-of-mouth contingent), but nothing more. And nothing that anyone owes anything to. Maybe a lot of these MP3 blogs have done it to themselves by “unprofessionally” just posting straight from any press release that comes their way; although, I’m certain that’s also a regular practice among journalists. They copy and paste their way through a lot of blurbs and stories.

I know my blog isn’t terribly lucrative in terms of marketing and publicity for these artists. I’m not a newspaper, magazine, or even an e-zine/blog like Stereogum. At the same time, I might have fewer, but much more loyal fans in my audience, who do actually discover and buy into new artists they find here. I’ve decided that, ultimately, the best practice for my blogging is to deal directly with artists and/or other music fans. There’s never been an issue with them. And maybe I’ve gotten wrapped up too much in the journalist part of my motivations and forgotten about the fan part, which shouldn’t be relying on PR. I might be shooting myself in the foot here. Or maybe not. I have to engage in other people’s email evasion tactics and futile goose chases on a daily basis as part of my regular job, so I really don’t need it here, too.

And if you want to see the production and power of fandom in action in relation to IAMX, go to http://www.iamxforum.com and download your free copy of a fan-made DVD of IAMX’s first live performance in 2004 in Berlin.

My Secret Friend (Omega Man Remix) – IAMX

Tear Garden (Art Deco Version) – IAMX

It’s a little difficult to believe another whole year has passed since I started this blog – in January, CTRR will hit its second birthday. Once again, I didn’t make a weekly mix for every week this year, though I tried to make up for as many as I could. In this part of the series, there are mixes with themes of: lullaby/sleep, Scotland, colours, John Peel, work/unemployment, Valentine’s Day, underdogs, cover versions, synthpop, Wales, Ireland, dance, spring, paranoia, and science fiction.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my friend, Roland, who has kindly allowed me to use his ftp for these mixes (you might have noticed that since Halloween, I’ve been posting zip files of full mixes – thanks to this ftp).

On a Sunday – The Orchids

Love is a Rainy Day Sunday – Monday Sinclair

Weekly Mix #47 – Lullaby (Download)

Violet Tree – M83
Chanson de Toile – Emilie Simon
La Valse d’Amelie (Orchestra Version) – Yann Tiersen
Sarah – Trevor Jones
Stay Awake – Asobi Seksu
Somewhere Around Here – Chairlift
Hope, You Know – Celestial
Chinese Whispers – Brett Anderson
Leave My Dreaming – Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
I Love You, Sleepyhead – Lanterns on the Lake
Wall Poster Star – The Brunettes
Marine Thing – The Bridal Shop
A Sister’s Social Agony – Camera Obscura
Twilight At Carbon Lake – Deerhunter
Pink Shadow – Mary Goes Round
Falling Sky – Autumn’s Grey Solace
Space Whale Migration – The Daysleepers
The Experience of Swimming – Japan
Nothing Ever Dies – The Starlets
Andvari – Sigur Ros
Coast is Clear – Windermere
Not a Number – Apparat
Umbilical – Mazzy Star

Weekly Mix #48 – The Sound of Young Scotland (Download)

I Travel – Simple Minds
Burning Libraries – Stroszek
Blood In Your Eyes – The Retrosexuals
Number One – Salon Boris
Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Mary Chain
In the Gold Dust Rush – Cocteau Twins
Party Fears Two – The Associates
Sweet Suburbia – The Skids
The Greys – Frightened Rabbit
Blue Boy – Orange Juice
Sorry For Laughing – Josef K
Gunpowderkeg – The Close Lobsters
Profit in Your Poetry – Butcher Boy
Broken Bones – Sons & Daughters
These Wooden Ideas – Idlewild
Pillar to Post – Aztec Camera
Candyskin – The Fire Engines
Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying – Belle & Sebastian
Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? – Lloyd Cole & the Commotions
Maybe I Should Drive – Trash Can Sinatras
Fields of Fire – Big Country
All the Rage – The Royal We
Son of a Gun – The Vaselines
The Sun on His Back – Camera Obscura
Sidewinder – Teenage Fanclub
Breaking Lines – The Pastels
Real Toys – Altered Images
Cherubs – Arab Strap

Weekly Mix #49 – Synesthesiac (Download)

Colours – Calvin Harris
She’s a Colour Scientist – Robots in Disguise
Red Paint – The Sound
Turquoise Days – Echo & the Bunnymen
Indigo Eyes – Peter Murphy
Mr. Brown – Puressence
Red Sleeping Beauty – McCarthy
Grey Streets – Felt
Blue – Kicker
Orange Car – Mary Go Round
Silver Sands – Stereolab
Blackout – David Bowie
Tell Me When My Light Turns Green – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Gold Against the Soul – Manic Street Preachers
Purple Haze – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Pretty in Pink – The Psychedelic Furs
Black White – The Raveonettes
Start Wearing Purple – Gogol Bordello
The Monochrome Set – The Monochrome Set
Silicone on Sapphire – The Clash
Blue Girls – Pulp
Saffron, Beautiful and Brown-Eyed – Trembling Blue Stars
Rainbow – Boris featuring Michio Kurihara
Bonus Track: Rainbow Connection – Kermit the Frog

Weekly Mix #50 – Long Live Peel (Download)

Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
Complete Control – The Clash
Boredom – Buzzcocks
Are Friends Electric? – Gary Numan and The Tubeway Army
She’s Lost Control – Joy Division
O Superman – Laurie Anderson
Requiem – Killing Joke
Eat Y’self Fitter – The Fall
This Charming Man – The Smiths
Kangaroo – This Mortal Coil
Never Understand – The Jesus and Mary Chain
Frans Hals – McCarthy
Suedehead – Morrissey
Kennedy – The Wedding Present
Therese – The Bodines
Sexuality – Billy Bragg
French Disko – Stereolab
Babies – Pulp
If Fingers Were Xylophones – Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
Abba on the Jukebox – Trembling Blue Stars
Windowlicker – Aphex Twin
Painting and Kissing – Hefner
Chinese Whispers – Melys
Green Grass of Tunnel – Mùm

Weekly Mix #51 – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now (Download)

We Are All Prostitutes – The Pop Group
Take This Job and Shove It – Dead Kennedys
Seventeen (I’m a Lazy Sod) – Sex Pistols
Working For the Yankee Dollar – The Skids
Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep) – The Rakes
Model Worker – Magazine
Welcome to the Working Week – Elvis Costello and The Attractions
Bright Future in Sales – Fountains of Wayne
Town Called Malice – The Jam
Career Opportunities – The Clash (Sandinista! version)
Frankly, Mr. Shankly – The Smiths
We Are All Bourgeois Now – McCarthy
Step Into My Office, Baby – Belle & Sebastian
I’m Going Slightly Mad – Queen
Businessman – Snog
Slave to the Wage – Placebo
Careful in Career – Simple Minds
I’m Not Working – Manic Street Preachers
Shangri-La – The Kinks
Ernold Same – Blur

Weekly Mix #52 – Love Me, Leave Me (Download)

Be Mine – 120 Days
Valentine – The Moths
The Lovecats – The Cure
Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
Casanova’s Last Words – The Go-Betweens
Love You So What – Lloyd Cole
The Love Gang – The Raveonettes
Mansun’s Only Love Song – Mansun
Fall in Love With Me – Japan
V – The Soda Stream
My Funny Valentine – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Love Games – The Mighty Boosh
Love Turns to Hate – The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
My Last Girlfriend – Snow Patrol
The State of Your Heart (Shit End of the Deal) – Apoptygma Bezerk
I Wanted Your Heart – Magazine
Kiss You Off – Scissor Sisters
Mass Romantic – The New Pornographers
Here Comes That Feeling – El Perro Del Mar
Anti-Valentine – The Very Sexuals
The Broken Paper-Hearts Club – Princess Niko

Weekly Mix #53 – I Hope Jarvis Cocker is Right(Download)

Strange Ones – Supergrass
Casual/Glam – Nicky Wire
Bruise Pristine – Placebo
Mis-Shapes – Pulp
All the English Devils – Luke Haines
Road to Nowhere – Talking Heads
Just For a Second – Orlando
(Here’s One For You) Underdog – Bedroom Eyes
The Boy With the Thorn in His Side – The Smiths
Outsider – Chumbawamba
One With the Freaks – The Notwist
Susan’s Strange – The Psychedelic Furs
Less Than Human – The Chameleons
Black Sheep – Sneaker Pimps
We Are the Pigs – Suede
You and I Are a Gang of Losers – The Dears
Single – Luxembourg
Spectators of Suicide (Heavenly Version) – Manic Street Preachers
“Heroes” – David Bowie

Weekly Mix #54 – Re-Make/Re-Model (Download)

I Wanna Dance With Somebody – David Byrne (Original: Whitney Houston)
Do the Strand – Scissor Sisters (Original: Roxy Music)
Wig Wam Bam – Gavin Friday (Original: Sweet)
Johnny and Mary – Placebo (Original: Robert Palmer)
Mama Told Me Not to Come – The Wolfgang Press (Original: Eric Burdon & the Animals)
West End Girls – We Have Band (Original: Pet Shop Boys)
Love Hangover – The Associates (Original: Diana Ross)
Relax – The Dandy Warhols (Original: Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
Only You – Freezepop (Original: Yazoo)
All Tomorrow’s Parties – Japan (Original: The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Jump – Aztec Camera (Original: Van Halen)
Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? – Sandie Shaw (Original: Lloyd Cole and the Commotions)
Jolene – Strawberry Switchblade (Original: Dolly Parton)
Das Model – The Cardigans (Original: Kraftwerk)
Womanizer – Ladyhawke (Original: Britney Spears)
Party Fears Two – Heaven 17 (Original: The Associates)
Super Trooper – Camera Obscura (Original: ABBA)
Hoppipolla – We Are Scientists (Original: Sigur Ros)
Playground Love – Phoenix (Original: Air)
Don’t Look Back in Anger – Devendra Banhart (Original: Oasis)

Weekly Mix #55 – Run With the Dogs Tonight (Download)

Suburbia – Pet Shop Boys
Enola Gay – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
M.A.G.I.C. – The Sound of Arrows
Another Day – Strawberry Switchblade
Quiet Life – Japan
Send Me an Angel ‘89 (Dance Mix) – Real Life
Be Near Me (Munich Disco Mix)- ABC
Sub-Culture (12″ version) – New Order
Jump For Joy – The Passions
Don’t Go (12″ version) – Yazoo
Underpass – John Foxx
The Magician – Secession
Fang – Los Electricos
Sanctuary – New Musik
Love Action (I Believe in Love) – The Human League
The Ballad of Sexor – Tiga
I Wanted to Tell Her – Ministry
The Rules I Broke – Tim Scott
Doot Doot – Freur
Venus – Indochine

Weekly Mix #56 – Bore Da (Download)

Last Exit on Yesterday – Manic Street Preachers
Icarus Smicarus – Mclusky
Does Your Heart Go Booooooom – Helen Love
Extra Sexual Terrestrial – Hemme Fatale
King of England – The Hot Puppies
Sexbomb – Tom Jones and Mousse T.
You’ll Need Those Fingers For Crossing – Los Campesinos!
Little Bird – Threatmantics
Desperados – Sibrydion
Shame On You – The Darling Buds
Happiness – Freur
Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Ei Gilydd – Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
Skank Bloc Bologna – Scritti Politti
Gwn Mi Wn – Gruff Rhys
Would You Settle For Less – Silver Gospel Runners
Tom Waits Rip Off – Sweet Baboo
Ready For Drowning – James Dean Bradfield with John Cale
Right Before You – Volenté
Y Dŵr Yn Y Môr – Melys
Time Away With You – Cymbient

Weekly Mix #57 – Emerald Audiophile (Download)

B.C.T.T. – The Japanese Popstars
Twenty Tens – Virgin Prunes
Wasps – Concerto For Constantine
Kung Fu – Ash
Jake Summers – Fight Like Apes
Forget Romance, Let’s Dance – We Should Be Dead
The Sunnyside of the Street – The Pogues
After All – The Frank and Walters
What Else Could You Do? – The Stars of Heaven
Fee Da Da Dee – The Guggenheim Grotto
Blinded – Whipping Boy
Pride (In the Name of Love) – U2
Glimmer – JJ72
Blown A Wish – My Bloody Valentine
Kansas (Yellow Brick Road Mix) – The Hedge Schools
Little Death – One Day International
Lille – Lisa Hannigan
A Bear in the Hermitage – Sunken Foal
Medals – Halves
Hands Swollen With Grace – Dakota Suite

Weekly Mix #58 – What a Feeling (Download)

Testcard Girl – White Rose Movement
Bonne Nouvelle – Birdy Nam Nam
Teknoir – Kindle
The Melting Moon – VHS or Beta
25 Seconds (Gary Numan and Ade Fenton Remix) – Mandy Kane
This Rhythm – Filthy Dukes
State of Alert – Radio 4
The Magnificent Romeo – 2 Many DJs
Ares (Villains Remix) – Bloc Party
20th Century Boy – T.Rex (Hoshina Anniversary Remix)
Switchblade – HEARTSREVOLUTION
Into the Galaxy – Midnight Juggernauts
I’m Not Alone – Calvin Harris
I Feel Love – Donna Summer
Boy (Extended Mix) – Book of Love
The DJ’s Got a Gun (IAMX Remix) – Robots in Disguise
Turn It On – Ladytron
I Want Nothing – The Black Ghosts
Phantom Pt 2 (Soulwax Remix) – Justice
Extraball – Yuksek

Weekly Mix #59 – The Tulips Are Too Excitable (Download)

Run Into Flowers – M83
The Divides of March – Soundpool
Ouais – Stuck in the Sound
Country – Empire of the Sun
April Fools – Rufus Wainwright
Lisztomania – Phoenix
Language of Flowers – Pale Saints
Got Apprehension – The Close Lobsters
April and May – Eggstone
The Fallen Aristocracy – Northern Portrait
Printemps – Coeur de pirate
Frames on the Wall – We Swim You Jump
The Centre of My Little World – Another Sunny Day
Spring Came, Rain Fell – Club 8
Semi-Babe – Pop Levi
When You Walk, It Makes No Sound – Matt Kanelos
Maps – Peter Broderick
Hide and Seek (DVW Spring Remix) – Imogen Heap
In the Flowers – Animal Collective
Before the Storm – The Deer Tracks
Rain – Paniyolo

Weekly Mix #60 – Chicken Little Syndrome (Download)

I’m Afraid of Americans – David Bowie
Paranoiattack – The Faint
I’m Afraid of What’s There – Zombie Zombie
Price of Gasoline – Bloc Party
Panic Attack – The Sunshine Underground
Thoughts of a Dying Atheist – Muse
New Dark Age – The Sound
Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) – The The
London Calling – The Clash
It’s the End of the World As We Know It – R.E.M.
Waiting For the End of the World – Elvis Costello
Panic – The Smiths
God Made the Virus – McCarthy
Tiny Apocalypse – David Byrne
Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues – The Kinks
Agoraphobia – Deerhunter
Paranoid Android – Radiohead
It’s Only the End of the World – Black Box Recorder
Fear Made the World Go Round – The Dears
The End – The Doors

Weekly Mix #61 – Bigger on the Inside (Download)

Doctorin’ the Tardis – KLF
It’s Always Nighttime Somewhere – Los Electricos
Totem on the Timeline – Klaxons
Knights of Cydonia – Muse
Sands of Time – Cut Copy
Astroboy – Indochine
Timebomb – The Whitest Boy Alive
Alien Monsters – Mikrofisch
Replicas – Gary Numan
Space Oddity – David Bowie
Strange News From Another Star – Blur
Space – The Beta Band
Satellite – The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Omelette From Outer Space – Adam and the Ants
Space Clown – Jobriath
Velvet Spacetime – Carter Burwell
Astronomy Domine – Pink Floyd
Space Cadet Apology – Birdy Nam Nam
On Planet Off – The Notwist
Alien – Japan
Satellite State – Jon Ryman
Invasion – Simon Bookish
Time Code – Bright Eyes
Breakfast on Pluto – Don Partridge

Yep, it’s a day late. Probably two if you live in a different time zone. It’s part three of my top 40 albums of 2009. If we look back at the month of May, it seems like the majority of my favourites were released all at the same time, including albums from the Manics, IAMX, Morton Valence, Jarvis Cocker, Archivist, and The Rest. We also had new records that have already graced this list, including The Horrors’ Primary Colours and Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The month was rounded out with albums by Maximo Park, Peaches, Esser, Midnight Juggernauts, Au Revoir Simone, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, Jeremy Enigk, Grizzly Bear, St. Vincent, White Rabbits, Passion Pit, Kronos Quartet, and DJ Hell. And Green Day figured their clichéd “political” lark should be used once more in the yawn-inducing 21st Century Breakdown.

June ushered in albums from Eels, Little Boots, Sunset Rubdown, Wilco, The Low Anthem, Moby, Regina Spektor, The Gossip, Elvis Costello, Tiga, Sonic Youth, VNV Nation, and Dirty Projectors. There was more Oasis-replacement fodder from Kasabian, Paolo Nutini released more music that sounded like a senile, toothless Jamaican man, and Placebo battled for the Sun. Several of the albums that have already appeared on this countdown were also released, including ones by Future of the Left, Simian Mobile Disco, and Twiggy Frostbite, along with honourable mentions, Diving With Andy and God Help the Girl.

On to the list…

24. Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors
I only became aware of Dirty Projectors slightly prior to seeing them live as openers for TV on the Radio. Admittedly, I wasn’t all that convinced seeing them live, but I had a feeling that I would better appreciate their experimentalism through headphones. And when I finally actually sat down to listen to their latest record, I discovered that my assumptions were correct – they are unlike most things I’ve ever heard, including sound other than music. Coming out of the currently hip Brooklyn scene, Dirty Projectors stitch together disjointed pieces of vocals, rhythm and guitar melody to fashion a rather astounding curtain of sliding groove, angelic soulfulness, and epileptic vocal delivery. Like organized chaos, the seemingly conflicting sounds and elements come together like an audio Magic Eye puzzle. Sometimes spare and frenetic, sometimes electronic and playful, always a bit beautifully bewildering.

Cannibal Resource – Dirty Projectors

Stillness is the Move – Dirty Projectors

23. Dragonslayer - Sunset Rubdown
This sophomore release from Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug’s side project has captured my imagination much more than any of Wolf Parade’s work (I don’t hate Wolf Parade, but I just never really got into them either, despite seeing them open for The Arcade Fire a few years back). Careening between a fantastical, epic spaciness and a pretty pastoral dance with some Talking Heads thrown in, the music rolls in and through me like breeze caught in wind chimes, whilst Krug’s voice pitches between an overwrought glamour, a commanding wisdom, and a choked-up sentimentality. The lyrics are esoterically brilliant, giving you the impression that Krug is a lover of language and narrative above all. And when they’re sung by Krug, you feel like you’re hearing a truly exotic piece of literature that has slipped through from a slightly different world. I’ll leave you with a sample of the wonderfully arcane lines from the opening song, Silver Moons, which later dovetails nicely with the closing track, Dragon’s Lair:

Confetti floats away like dead leaves in the wagon’s wake. There were parties here in my honor until you sent me away. Now silver moons belong to you. Passing the baton from the old mare to the fawn – it was out of line but it was fun – and didn’t you love the part right before the dawn? But now silver moons belong to you. I’m off to the ballet, and to practice all these ancient ways. Tell the new kids where I hid the wine, tell their fathers that I’m on my way, and say “Hey, maybe these days are over now…”

Under all the folds of the dresses that you wear there’s an ocean and a tide and a riot in the square. Over are the days that the congas made your hair sway around to the cadence of your ‘hey-oh-hey-oh’ cheer

Silver Moons – Sunset Rubdown

Black Swan – Sunset Rubdown

22. Islands – The Mary Onettes
This is only the second album from the Swedish band (I suppose I didn’t realize it because of the three EPs they’ve also released), but it is a stunning blend of several of my favourite genres, including dreampop, synthpop, post-punk and that achingly beautiful pop that Swedish bands tend to make best. The slightly gloomy, but heavenly album cover gives you an inkling of what the music sounds like; the fragile, soaring synths, jangly guitars, clean, euphoric drums, and vocalist Philip Ekström’s New Wave vowels, wash over you like a torrent of your best memories. Songs like Puzzles and God Knows I Had Plans are perfect salvation for those moods of melancholy self-doubt and loneliness. There’s nostalgia, regret, insecurity, and romanticism bursting from every Roman candle in the dove-coloured sky of The Mary Onettes’ soundscape.

Puzzles – The Mary Onettes

Once I Was Pretty – The Mary Onettes

21. he closed his eyes so he could dance with you – vitaminsforyou
vitaminsforyou (AKA former Winnipegger, Bryce Kushnier) has created a gorgeously understated third album of quietly pumping electro, clinical drum machines and hushed vocals, which knocks about like a nightclub android with ice in its veins. Often dubbed a lo-fi bedroom artist, or a laptop whiz, vitaminsforyou is a one-man-show of a lighter brand of electro as opposed to some of the harsher, dirtier beats being made by outfits like Justice, MSTRKRFT, and Digitalism. With songs like the title track and refrains like, “Lying under covers, doesn’t make us lovers,” from the song, One Nite Stand, this album feels deliciously cynical and slightly sinister, all the while being absolutely ideal to dance to. There’s even some satirical nostalgia on the curmudgeonly track B4U. While there have been comparisons to Junior Boys and Hot Chip, vitaminsforyou and this record are so much more interesting and memorable for me.

Flesh Python – vitaminsforyou

He Closed His Eyes So He Could Dance With You – vitaminsforyou

20. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
This American band has been impressing most indie music fans this year with their re-working of C86-throwback sounds. Their sense of effervescent melody and slightly fuzzy jangle pop, along with all the rushing bittersweetness and hyperbole of youth, makes for the musical equivalent of lemonade and jumping off the playground swings. There’s even a bit of punky energy on songs like Come Saturday, A Teenager in Love, and Everything With You (A Teenager in Love borrows quite interestingly from David Bowie’s Modern Love – come on, you hear it, don’t you?). They are the bright, shiny successors of the NME C86 tape and Sarah Records, wearing their puppyish hearts proudly on their record sleeves. Some of the sweetest pop to emerge in the past few years.

Contender – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

This Love is Fucking Right – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

19. The Big Machine – Emilie Simon
A lot of female singer/songwriters, especially the quirkier ones, get painted with the Kate Bush brush, but I can’t say I’ve ever completely believed the comparison for French songstress, Emilie Simon. Until now. This is Simon’s third studio album, and it melds danceable electronic beats and circus-like melodies with the wild keening of her vocals, sometimes coy, sometimes operatic. There’s a playful whimsy and theatrical bent to her music in general, which has hit its peak with this latest record, and I think it’s that kind of element that makes her more easily comparable to Ms Bush than perhaps someone like the oft-Kate-Bush-compared, heavily lauded Florence and the Machine. Maturing from a Polly Scattergood-like style into this bolshier, full-on aural assault, Emilie Simon has stepped up her game with a delightful confidence. Like a steam-powered toy shop at the end of the world, spouting smokes in a multitude of hues, this record is reminiscent of the past, but also contains some industrial magic.

Rainbow – Emilie Simon

Ballad of the Big Machine – Emilie Simon

18. Malcolm Ross and the Low Miffs – The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross
I owe JC from The Vinyl Villain for this one. Talk about pleasurable throwbacks, this brilliant pairing of Malcolm Ross (Josef K, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera) and Glaswegian indie band The Low Miffs is like a Postcard revival in all its unabashed glory. These songs are sometimes languidly drawling lounge music that you could imagine backing a black-and-white film in an exotic locale (The Back of Midnight, Scarface, As Good As It Gets) and sometimes twinkling, off-the-wall pop (Cressida, The Man Who Took On Love [and Won], Dear Josephine), and the lyrics are all full of the type of unironic, enchanting playfulness and witty wordplay that bands like Orange Juice were known for. See The Man Who Took On Love (and Won): “Brevity, you’re telling me that I lack brevity, I think it’s something…you lack” and “This is no soliloquy, this is a plea for love’s last reserves, are more than I deserve, but they’re what I need.” Vocalist, Leo Condie, performs a pleasant sort of caterwauling that really appeals to me in a bizarre way (not dissimilar from how I feel about Edwyn Collins’ idiosyncratic vibrato). Like a blazer with elbow patches, this album is unabashedly retro, fun, and a little tweedy around the lyrics.

Cressida – The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross

The Back of Midnight – The Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross

17. 21st Century Man/Achtung Mutha – Luke Haines
I’ve been eagerly awaiting new material from the jet black, uncompromising wit of fabulously eccentric Mr. Haines. And this double album of sorts is exactly what I needed. The first half, 21st Century Man, is pretty standard Luke Haines fare with intelligent, biting commentary and varying melodies, while the second part, Achtung Mutha, is primarily a more experimental spoken narrative complemented with music. The first disc dives in with the track, Suburban Mourning, which itself begins with “It’s the same old story we’ve all heard before, about the Satanists who moved next door/They met their match, they didn’t stay for more/Now it’s pure suburban mourning.” Simultaneously criticizing suburban living and obstinately refusing to leave it behind, Haines epitomizes inscrutable, always refusing to be pinned down. Of course he also opts to pick brilliantly strange, but apt, choices for celebrity odes, including Klaus Kinski and Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill (the former track expresses some great acidic sentiments that I fully agree with, and oddly reminds me of Adam Sandler’s melody for Grow Old With You). His musical style also blazes through a Wigwam Bam-like glam stomp on Peter Hammill, Waterloo Sunset parody on Love Letter to London, and austere electronic music with Russian Futurists Black Out the Sun. The second disc reminds me of Bowie’s Outside album in its interjecting tracks of spoken word against low, shady buzzing, but instead of using futuristic fictional characters, Haines embodies the first-person point of view of American artist, Richard Pettibone, who is known for his miniature replicas of modernist art. It’s like being told a highly unconventional, but mesmerizing bedtime story interspersed with lullaby-like musical interludes. Much of it is a genius rant against contemporary art. I was intending to do a full review of this double album a few weeks ago, but still haven’t gotten round to it – I hope I can still squeeze it in this year because it’s worth a longer listen and look.

Klaus Kinski – Luke Haines

The Great Brain Robbery Part 1 – Luke Haines

The runner-up for this installment is The Yellow Mini by Jonny Cola & the A-Grades. Led by Alex Potterill (former keyboardist for the sadly-defunct Luxembourg), Jonny Cola & the A-Grades has featured on this blog before in one of the weekly mixes (specifically, the catchy, glammy song, Disappearing Act), and I think this rather brief album (seven tracks) is worth a mention. There’s a sense of quintessential, 21st-century, English urban life about the lyrics, including all its pathologies, and the music hearkens back to the heyday of glam rock with its driving electric guitars and Potterill’s vocals, which sit somewhere between early Bowie and Luke Haines. They also released a free EP this summer, entitled Another Summer Burning, which featured three brand new tracks and is also something you should make sure you get. 

We’re All Going to Die – Jonny Cola & the A-Grades

Tomorrow I will hopefully have my first part of the Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and…Well, Friday I’m in Love Year-End Round-Up, in which I give you the first third of this year’s weekly mixes for download.

I explained my loathing of Christmas last year, and all I can say is how happy I am not to be working retail (it was getting pretty close as the resumés kept going out to no avail last year). I’m already feeling the funk creep in (not the Parliament kind) as I avoid the shopping centres and try my hardest to block out my mother’s moaning about not having enough extended family for holiday occasions (the dig at my singleness is duly noted – if only she could understand what pure joy I have in my own company…she’d likely have me sectioned).

Apparently, Christmas sales are down this year, not because of the credit crunch or the recession or whatever else you want to call the routine economic trough, but because we don’t have any snow yet. I find that peculiar. Are we, as humans, that affected by climate conditions when engaging in capitalism? So, not only can we blame obesity on our snow and extreme cold, but we can also accuse frozen precipitation for our economic woes and proclivities. Just think – if global warming really takes off, Manitoba just might end up a communist province. Hmmm…has anyone checked into how much snow Russia got at the beginning of glasnost?

I did solve one problem for this year: I went ahead and downloaded that pesky Christmas with the California Raisins claymation special that we hunt for in our basement every year. Although, now that’s one less tradition and I feel a little emptier inside.

As I did with my Halloween mix this year, I will merely add on some tracks to last year’s compilation. There are considerably less palatable Christmas tunes than there are Halloween ones, so I’ve tried my best to ferret out some other good ones, or at least ones that won’t make you want to cut yourself on ornament shards or climb into the chimney, curl up and die. New tracks include offerings from: yet another Eddie Argos project, Glam Chops; the witty Eugene McGuinness, who came in as a runner-up in my top albums last year; darkwavers I Love Poland, who cover The Waitresses’ Christmas classic; a bouncy bit of holiday house from Saint Etienne; Hyperbubble and their double-speed synthpoppy carolling; the best track from the How the Grinch Stole Christmas; some acoustic anti-capitalist balladry from Rufus Wainwright; Yeah Yeah Yeahs and an unconventional bit of festive pop; IAMX’s ethereal French version of Silent Night, which I put up under a different post last winter; Jane Siberry and a characteristically gently sweet holiday song; a Ryuichi Sakamoto piano instrumental from the film of the same name that also starred Sakamoto; a 1972 classic from Harry Nilsson; and the rather hilarious duet between Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello, which first appeared in Stephen Colbert’s Christmas special last year. Following the tradition of Better Than Fruitcake, this mix is called Better Than Mincemeat. Why call bits of fruit drowned in alcohol “meat”? Truly disappointing for those of us who enjoy meat.

Next weekend…Year-End Round-Up.

Christmas Number One – The Black Arts

Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) – The Ramones

Father Christmas – The Kinks

Countdown to Christmas – Glam Chops

Christmas in Killarney – Eugene McGuinness

We Three Kings – Reverend Horton Heat

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Bright Eyes

Little Drummer Boy – The Dandy Warhols

Christmas Wrapping – I Love Poland

I Was Born on Christmas Day – Saint Etienne

Away in a Manger – Hyperbubble

Christmas Reindeer – The Knife

Can You Hear What I Hear? – Bodies of Water

Frosty the Snowman – Cocteau Twins

Christmas Fire – The Deer Tracks

She Came Home For Christmas – Mew

Put the Lights on the Tree – Sufjan Stevens

Child’s Christmas in Wales – John Cale

Fairytale of New York – Stars

The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes

Christmas is Cancelled – The Long Blondes

A Christmas Duel – The Hives and Cyndi Lauper

White Christmas – The Pipettes

Sleigh Ride – The Ronettes

Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews

You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch – How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Spotlight on Christmas – Rufus Wainwright

It’s Christmas Time – Yo La Tengo

All I Want for Christmas – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Carol of the Bells – The Polyphonic Spree

December Will Be Magic Again – Kate Bush

Winter Wonderland – Goldfrapp

Christmas and Train Trips and Things – Trembling Blue Stars

It’s Xmas So We’ll Stop – Frightened Rabbit

Merry Christmas (I Love You) – Hawksley Workman

Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas – Okkervil River

Last Christmas – Manic Street Preachers

Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie

Christmas Song – Mogwai

Douce Nuit – IAMX

Are You Burning, Little Candle? – Jane Siberry

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence – Ryuichi Sakamoto

Remember (Christmas) – Harry Nilsson

There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In – Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello

Christmas on Earth – Momus

The Christmas Wish – Kermit the Frog

Weekly Mix #91 (Zip File)

As promised, here’s the second installment of my top albums of 2009. The year carried on into March, which brought us releases from some very familiar acts (and in the case of the one-man Bono show, sometimes too familiar), such as U2, The Prodigy, PJ Harvey and John Parish, Prince, Gomez, and Pet Shop Boys. We also had albums from The Decemberists, The Whitest Boy Alive, The Great Lake Swimmers, MSTRKRFT, vitaminsforyou, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Polly Scattergood, Neko Case, Royksopp, Julie Doiron, Peter, Bjorn and John, and lastly, the Filthy Dukes, who already made my countdown. The Rakes gave their swansong with a Klang and one half of The Knife went more obscurely experimental as Fever Ray.

April signalled the return of Camera Obscura, Bat for Lashes, The Veils, The Noisettes, Doves, Super Furry Animals, Metric, Junior Boys, Butcher Boy, El Perro del Mar, Art Brut, and Silversun Pickups. It also became the month for debuts from The Mummers, Dananananaykroyd, Micachu and the Shapes, and the truly odd “supergroup” of Tinted Windows, which features the likes of James Iha and Taylor Hanson (sounds like a bad practical joke, doesn’t it?). Spearmint frontman, Shirley Lee, dropped his first solo record, and Depeche Mode delivered a disappointing one, especially after the relative success of Playing the Angel.

Back to the countdown…

32. Primary Colours – The Horrors
I admit it – like many music fans, I dismissed the skinny-jean-wearing, back-comb-coiffed Horrors when they released their first album. With the NME covering them and Noel Fielding boosting them, it all just seemed like a pale imitation (pun intended) of goth nonsense. And so I kicked against listening to their sophomore record, flicking and clicking swiftly through some player that streamed the full album and ignoring the incessant buzz about it, hoping the hum was from the flies gathering around the moribund band. Then I actually forced myself to have a proper listen in the name of giving as many 2009 releases a chance as I could. And I had to acknowledge the less than exciting cartoonish antics were over, and The Horrors had made an admirable album. It very obviously borrows from both post-punk and shoegaze, but it does so with a youthful, fresh energy and sweeping sense of melody. What The Raveonettes are to The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Horrors now are to Echo & the Bunnymen.

Who Can Say – The Horrors

Scarlet Fields – The Horrors

31. Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons
I came to the debut album from this London indie folk band late and only after being alerted by Rol over at Sunset Over Slawit. It took a moment for me to get into the record, but when I did, it started to move me in a similar fashion to how Frightened Rabbit does. Their folk style is more traditional than Frightened Rabbit, but the ragged, yet erudite, world weariness comes through with the same intensity. As frantic banjo jostles against soaring choruses, Mumford & Sons craft poignant mini-narratives of vulnerability, heartbreak, hope, regret, vindictiveness, and stunning lines like “if only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy, I could have won.” As gentle as a good weep and as self-affirming as a good scream, this record is catharsis at its finest.

The Cave – Mumford & Sons

Little Lion Man – Mumford & Sons

30. Polly Scattergood – Polly Scattergood
This oddly menacing debut by Ms Scattergood grabbed me with its emotionally-exhausting fragility and hand-wringing vocals (you can read my original review here). The self-psychoanaylsis is gripping as her voice slips in between sweet childishness and erratic descents into a slightly mad register. Lines are dropped, whipped and pulled taut as she recounts an incredibly agitated mental state, exacerbated by toxic relationships and niggling insecurities. Sure, it’s overwrought, but you sense the violent emotion hovering behind the rasps and coos and it is all delivered more articulately and artistically than most adolescent angst. The music, which features subtle electronic accents, drum machines and keyboards, provides a fluid backdrop for the turmoil of the lyrics’ delivery, lapping gently and pushing at the cracks like a stream full of drowned flowers.

Please Don’t Touch – Polly Scattergood

Bunny Club – Polly Scattergood

29. Sun Gangs – The Veils
This third album from The Veils is a beautiful exploration of an “unmanned universe.” Finn Andrews’ voice never ceases giving me chills and his passionate, literary lyrics of emotional fractures pair perfectly with the dark warmth in the sulfur-smoky depths of the music. The Veils even had a competition around the time of the album’s release, where you could come up with a creative way of expressing what you thought a “sun gang” is. I submitted a poem, which wasn’t anything more than a rather slapdash job from a very rusty poet, but as yet, I haven’t heard about the results (considering it is now six months later, I figure the contest was aborted somewhere along the way). If you’re curious about what I submitted as an entry, you can read it here, and if you want to read what I thought about the album earlier in the year, click here.

Sun Gangs – The Veils

Killed By the Boom – The Veils

28. Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective
This album will likely crown a lot of lists this year – it was like that decision was unanimously declared by hipsters back upon its January release. And while it won’t be topping my list, nor even making it into the top half (I’m contrary that way), it is worthy of a spot. Their neo-psychedelic music manages to be both brittle and soulful with swirling, overdubbed sounds filtered through reverb; like an eternally gushing fountain, it bubbles over with melodic strains that also feel so delicate that they may drift away at any moment like an errant balloon. The lyrics are full of a pleasurable, giddy glee, and the album ends up feeling like all of the seasons crashing in on you at once: the heady perfume of spring, the golden laziness of summer, the crisp brightness of fall, and the mesmerizing hush of winter. Merry weather indeed.

My Girls – Animal Collective

Bluish – Animal Collective

27. Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack – Karen O and the Kids
I would name Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers’ film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s most famous picture book one of my new favourite films. It lived beyond the hype, stretching what was a naturally limited narrative into a piece of art that doesn’t offer any specific resolutions while keeping the thematic content intact. There’s an interesting darkness at its heart, which when placed in such close proximity to the idea of the child, can create a disturbing dissonance for some people. Working in an academic setting devoted to the study of young people, I heard a variety of opinions about the film, including one comment about the almost unsettling surreality. This same person then went on to mention the soundtrack and how significant it is to know the music’s context in relation to the film, meaning Karen O’s own identity becomes wrapped up in the interpretation of the narrative. And it’s true; however, I would like to take a slightly less academic look at it and say how perfectly the music fit the film’s atmophere and contributed to the chaos. I can’t imagine a better sound to accompany this movie. Karen O’s child-like voice could have been that of a bratty, young boy with ADHD who escaped and became king of the wild things, but it also brings that dazzling, rambling feel of childhood – the place where everything is made up as you go along. In many ways, the film reminds you that the adults are just making it up as they go along, too.

All is Love – Karen O and the Kids

Hideaway – Karen O and the Kids

26. Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees – Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees
I only became aware of this Canadian band nearly two months ago when I attended a Dragonette show with them as the opening act. Their self-titled debut is an electronic maelstrom of splintered samples, high-pitched whines and dirty guitars. The distorted, warped vocals of Rebekah Higgs blur in and out of the highly-danceable beats. Grinding like a MSTRKRFT fronted by Peaches, this album is filled with enough manic complexities to keep it from being just another catchy electro record. And in some spots it gets downright dreamy.

You Don’t Miss Me – Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees

Danse Danse Resolution – Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees

25. It’s Blitz – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oddly enough, I’ve never really listened to a lot of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. No good reason. It’s not that I ever thought they weren’t a decent band and I was fully aware of Karen O’s onstage antics, but I guess I never really stopped to pay closer attention. Then I heard Zero this year. People can argue that the band lost something in their new glammy accessibility, but it made me (and others) take notice, and Zero became one of my favourite songs of the year along with Heads Will Roll. But there’s more here than glitzy electro; you’ll also find a chimerical whimsy in slower tracks. Skeletons is a stand-out track in its synthy re-imagining of celtic ballads, and Runaway is a twinkling symphony. I’m now going back to find out what exactly I missed by skimming over their previous two albums. Along with their involvement in the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack, it’s definitely the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ year.

Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Skeletons – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This week’s runner-up to the countdown is Sugar Sugar by Diving With Andy. I don’t think this French band is all that well-known, at least not in the online circles I travel in, but I’m glad I finally came across them. They are retro loungey and as sweet as their album title. Conjuring up the insouciance of the chic 60s and sometimes using a James Bond-like sweepingly decadent background, Sugar Sugar feels as shambolic and sensuous as a bohemian Sunday morning in Paris.

Sugar Sugar – Diving With Andy

This weekend will feature the last proper weekly mix of the year before the Year-End Round-Up starts. But you’ll have to wait til next Friday for more of this list.

I don’t watch most music award shows, and I haven’t watched nor even noticed the American Music Awards since I was a teenager. But where there’s self-righteous, bigoted furore, I’m there. Because my mother tends to half-watch entertainment news programs (the implication being entertainment is actually worthy of being called news and that all news is now entertainment), along with a heavy dose of “reality” tv, I only became aware of the so-called Adam Lambert controversy last night. Apparently, the runner-up in this year’s American Idol kicked off the promo for his debut record with a live performance on the AMAs, which notably airs on the Disney-owned ABC network. And apparently, the performance was a wee bit too naughty. Naturally intrigued by the media uproar, I decided to watch the performance (I had to download it via a torrent because YouTube maintains it’s copyrighted material). To Disney’s chagrin, Lambert the sheepish lion, he was not. PR savvy, yes.

As with most performances of this nature, I didn’t notice anything particularly awry or offensive. Suggestive pop song, check. S & M-costumed dancers, check. Semi-naked writhing, check. Crotch grabbing, check. Pretend fellatio, check. Same-sex kiss, check. Admittedly, I’m not the average middle American ABC-viewer. But if you insert someone like Britney Spears into the formula, you’ll feel like you’ve seen it all before. However, because it was Lambert, who is openly homosexual, parts of the performance were blurred out in later airings of the live footage. You can pop in any number of alternative scenarios, including overt, clobber-you-in-the-head heterosexual sexuality, heterosexuals masquerading as homosexual for the titillation of others, and scantily-clad dancers who don’t openly reference “deviant” sexual practices, and suddenly, the likelihood of censorship goes down exponentially. You can connote all you want right up until a wardrobe malfunction and/or a big slap of gay in your face.

I don’t know why I still get shocked by puritanical hypocrisy in relation to the US. It’s why Adam Lambert couldn’t have actually won American Idol despite quite obviously being more entertaining and stronger vocally than the guy who eventually won. It’s why they cancelled his Good Morning America performance. But my jaw does still slacken a bit. Perhaps because I’m used to reading books, watching films/tv and listening to music that isn’t remotely conservative, especially in the gender/sexuality department. A high percentage of my favourite artists are gay or bi-sexual, and frankly, you’d think S & M is so passé by now in a post-post-punk age. I’m not likely to be shocked at Lambert’s trite lyrics (“I told ya I’m ‘a hold ya down until you’re amazed” – I think he may have gotten so worked up he forgot how to speak English) when Chris Corner sings lines like “I can hold you down by candlelight/With indifference.” The kiss between Lambert and his male, ostensibly straight keyboardist actually made me chuckle because of the indifferent reaction from both parties; the keyboardist just gets back to work without missing one non-chalant bounce to the music.

Interestingly enough, while supposedly 1500 people complained about the “indecent” kiss, others like
Rosie Swash on the Guardian website, actually griped about the dangerous link between sex and violence. Oh, dear. Firstly, as far as I can tell, most interpersonal relations are rife with power differentials, including sex. The fact that some people take this further and consent – note the word consent – to sado-masochism is just that, a fact. To quote Depeche Mode, it’s a lot like life. Secondly, I don’t believe Lambert is attempting to shake off his American Idol roots (those never go away), especially when he’s pandering to the mainstream with catchy, dancey pop songs with suggestive lyrics. Pop music is built on selling sex. And Lambert just did what hundreds of pop stars have done before him – generated publicity through controversy. The difference between him and other gay Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, is his campy, over-the-topness; Lambert somehow ironically managed to offend more people by turning his sexuality into an ultimately unthreatening cartoon than if he had quietly stepped out of the spotlight while stepping out of the closet. He could be/has been accused of trivializing and playing to gay stereotypes, but when it is play, the agenda isn’t likely to be very serious. As if that massive picture frame enclosing the stage didn’t already give you a clue about his intentions.

These kinds of teacup tempests, like Lady GaGa’s MTV VMA spectacle (read my opinion about that here), essentially reveal more about society than anything else. Will I buy into Adam Lambert’s music? No, just as I won’t with Lady GaGa’s. I don’t get much out of them musically, but I can appreciate their attempts at challenging what constitutes acceptable representations on popular stages. In the schlockfest of manufactured awards shows made to celebrate disposable, mass-produced music, hyperbolic renditions should be expected. There’s nothing terribly subtle about Lambert in the first place – choosing to collaborate with Matt Bellamy and Justin Hawkins on his album shows you what level of theatricality I’m talking about. Lambert’s only crime was throwing everything but the pubescent boy chained to the kitchen sink into one performance.

I’m more offended by objectification without admission, which nearly every other pop star engages in. These performers who shake their barely-covered butt cheeks and gyrate their pelvises may not be attached to leashes and harnesses, but they’re no less tied up in bondage.

Master & Servant – Depeche Mode

Kiss & Swallow (Moonbootica Remix) – IAMX

As with most things this year, this first installment of my favourite albums of 2009 is a few days late. Last year, I posted one of these every Friday until the last week of the year. Of course I was also basically unemployed. I will try my hardest to post the remaining four installments on time. I only recently realized that it was also the end of the decade, and after having a mini panic attack, I’ve decided that I will only do a top albums of the decade list if I feel like it.

If you were with me for this last year, you’ll recall I tried to run down the main album releases throughout the year while writing a blurb on each of eight albums for each post in the countdown. By the time I hit my top eight records, the blurbs are a bit larger and I’m usually kicking myself about missing something out or wanting to change the order slightly. And probably the most difficult installments to create are the first couple – my very favourite albums seldom change, but I tend to shuffle around the lesser ones as my mood shifts its fickle little feet. I also include one runner-up to the list in each installment, so make sure you scroll right to the bottom. Feel free to criticize or let me know what your favourite albums of 2009 are.

The last year of the noughties began with a few notable releases in January, including albums from John Frusciante, Bruce Springsteen, Franz Ferdinand, White Lies, Stuck in the Sound, Andrew Bird, and It Hugs Back along with a slew of ampersand bands like Matt & Kim, Antony & the Johnsons and Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees. Animal Collective’s critically acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavilion also released to the slavering jaws of indie hipsters everywhere. February saw the return of the Mozfather and the less exciting return of Lily Allen. It also featured releases from Jessie Evans, The Joy Formidable, David Shane Smith, Yuksek, Gentleman Reg, and another solo turn by Robyn Hitchcock. The unfortunate dog vomit that is the sophomore record from The Fray was balanced out by the raved-about-C86-throwback The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

And so off we go to the countdown…

40. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix
It’s a tad ambitious inserting your band’s name where Mozart’s should be, but high on their increasing visibility through 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That and its accompanying hit Marie Antoinette-assoicated single Consolation Prizes, Phoenix went right ahead. Judging by the opening two tracks, Lisztomania and 1901, you’d think the French band was going to continue squarely on the path of Consolation Prizes, eschewing the loungier end of their retro pop for frothy powder wigs of song; then something rather more interesting happens by track four, Love Like a Sunset Pt. 1. It is also unfortunately where some critics seemed to fall out of love with the record as the music builds through buzzing and bubbling electronic textures to some vocals by the time you hit the considerably shorter Love Like a Sunset Pt. 2. And perhaps the record seems a bit disjointed in spots because Thomas Mars and Co decided to use Eno’s Oblique Strategies. Even if I don’t love every track on this album, it does prove that Phoenix is at least thinking about different ways of being pop.

1901 – Phoenix

Love Like a Sunset (Pts 1 and 2) – Phoenix

39. Through Fire – Twiggy Frostbite
Last year, I included Swedish band, The Deer Tracks, in my Top 40, and this year, it’s Twiggy Frostbite, which shares both sound and members with The Deer Tracks. That same vocal which defined the whispering tenderness of The Deer Tracks is present here, as ephemeral as a light puff of throat-warmed breath melting frost on the windowpane. The music itself descends like a feathery snowfall, sending droplets of purified sound into your ears; it is both spare and expansive, filling emptiness you never knew was there.

Eye For an Eye – Twiggy Frostbite

Thrown in Two- Twiggy Frostbite

38. The Empyrean – John Frusciante
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have always just been incidental in my life – I’ve heard them on the radio since I was a child and never really gave them much more thought, let alone any solo projects which ensued. I now realize how mistaken I was to dismiss former guitarist/songwriter John Frusciante, especially since I’m only just taking notice at solo album number ten. The album title itself can be defined as “highest heaven” and “the pure element of fire,” and there is something definitely ethereal about the strains of mournful virtuoso guitar, bouncing and wavering like dying stars gasping their last celestial, dusty breath. At the same time, there’s a steady burn of psychedelic jamming, and Frusciante’s vocals hover around the edges of sound like a satellite broadcast or as though sung through a cellophane envelope of ozone. A couple of the tracks on the record even feature Johnny Marr. One of my favourite songs on this record is the opening track, Before the Beginning, which is epic and anthemic just by using electric guitar and slow, minimal drums. His version of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren is also androgynously beautiful, strong and fragile. Like the soundtrack to the birth of the cosmos, this album surprised me in wonderful ways.

Before the Beginning – John Frusciante

Central – John Frusciante

37. Travels With Myself and Another – Future of the Left
Rising from the angry ashes of Welsh band Mclusky, Future of the Left has crept in and out of my music playlists for the last couple of years. With the release of this second album, I’ve taken far more notice, and felt comforted after the unfortunate dissipation of Mclusky. This sophomore album is full of snarling, punk jabs and augmented by rather expansive banks of melodic guitar. The relentless melody grinds against the raw vocals and short bursts of Gang of Four-like minimalism, creating a less predictable sort of noise rock. Bloodied screams punch through lyrics about existential angst, religion, economic realities, drunkeness, and the random meaninglessness of events, scattering myths and mores in its wake. This album is like punk music for the dramatic, but with a pitch-perfect sense of satirical humour.

The Hope That House Built – Future of the Left

That Damned Fly – Future of the Left

36. Nonsense in the Dark – The Filthy Dukes
This London-based synthpop band pretty much came out of nowhere for me earlier this year, eventually even going on to mix their own FabricLive record. Nonsense in the Dark then went on to entrap me in some of the sweetest electro melodies and beats that I’ve heard this year. The track This Rhythm is one of my favourite songs of the year, and the rest of the album keeps the momentum going with Tron-like precision. There is definitely a whiff of the 80s about this record in its often New Romantic-like vocals and robot disco sound, but it isn’t forced; these songs were expertly handcrafted for dance. Even the slower numbers like the title track retain a pop sensibility as alluring as a sweep of ultraviolet mascara. And one of my favourite artists, frYars, makes a guest vocal appearance on Poison the Ivy.

Elevator – Filthy Dukes

Messages – Filthy Dukes

35. Yes – Pet Shop Boys
It was a happy technicolour day (with ironic cloud cover) when Tennant and Lowe came back with their tenth studio album after three years (read my review here). While it could be argued that the duo had lost some of their spark over the past few albums, Yes showed that they have kept their ascerbic, urbane commentary as memorable as their music. Whether observing the trainwreck that was Pete Doherty and Kate Moss (Pandemonium) or dissecting fame and wealth more generally (Love Etc., Beautiful People), they proved that they could still create music with icy distance and gloriously brilliant flourishes while questioning how a concept like love fits into our wireless new world. Testing the shiny surfaces of this decade, they hit their targets time after time, their bows as arched as an eyebrow. 

All Over the World – Pet Shop Boys

Did You See Me Coming – Pet Shop Boys

34. xx - The xx
I admittedly came late to the xx party, not bothering with listening to the album until this month. As much as their cryptic name suggests, they lurked about my periphery for several months, topping the Hype Machine for days at a time. I then discovered that this low key, dreamy record was poignant in its chiming guitars, clipped xylophone and prominent kicks of bass. The vocals from Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims are aloof yet soulful, a duet of hushed pains and pleasures. It’s a subdued record, but all the more powerful in its compressed containment. In Shelter, there’s a heartbreaking simplicity to the lines: “Maybe I had said, something that was wrong/can I make it better with the lights turned on?” xx is an album alive with subtext, begging to be uncovered.

VCR -The xx

Shelter -The xx

33. Temporary Pleasure – Simian Mobile Disco
I’ve been a fan of Simian Mobile Disco for a few years now, and this sophomore album has reinforced my love for them. This time they’ve utilized a plethora of guest vocalists, including Gruff Rhys, Beth Ditto, Jamie Liddell, Alexis Taylor, and Yeasayer’s Chris Keating. All of these singers lend more than just their voices; there is a distinct shift in feel and genre despite the consistency of SMD’s electro backdrop complementing them. For example, Rhys’s song generates a psychedelic sheen, Ditto’s song turns into a soul disco number, Taylor’s track becomes an exotic sort of electro, inheriting some of Hot Chip’s flavour, and Keating’s Audacity of Huge takes a laundry list of materialism to a skittery arcade sound. The possible schizophrenia holds together brilliantly with the glassy beats rolling into one another like a silvery necklace shot through with lasers.

Cream Dream (featuring Gruff Rhys) – Simian Mobile Disco

Cruel Intentions (featuring Beth Ditto) – Simian Mobile Disco

This installment’s honourable mention is God Help the Girl’s self-titled album. It’s an interesting release in that it’s basically an offshoot of Belle & Sebastian and that it’s a soundtrack to a musical film yet to be released. The 1960s French pop sound that Scottish bands like Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura have embraced is all over this album like a warm mustard-tinted sweater while focusing on a distinctly feminine set of vocals, including Catherine Ireton, Celia Garcia, Dina Bankole, Brittany Stallings, Asya, and Anna Miles. While Stuart Murdoch makes an appearance himself and also incorporates a guest vocal from Neil Hannon, this is a female-focused narrative as evident from the title itself. Filled with the off-kilter wit and retro tweeness that defines his regular band, Murdoch’s foray into musical films is off to a good start with this soundtrack.

God Help the Girl – God Help the Girl

Stay tuned for the next installment of the countdown this Friday.