AOB: U's Blog Festive 19

Part one here


10: Maps – We can Create
Saw these guys play at Soul Tree earlier this year and they were wicked. They’ve done a good job on their album too, which thoroughly deserved its mercury nomination.
Top Tune: You don’t know her Name.

9: Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
This was a bit of a disappointment actually. The Monkeys have certainly cranked up the intensity, but FWN lacks the memorable tunes of its predecessor, Whatever People Say I Am... Still, Fluorescent Adolescent and 505 are marvellous.
Top Tune: Fluorescent Adolescent.

8: The View – Hats off to the Buskers
Bit of a curate’s egg of an album from the latest darlings of the NME. Some brilliant tracks like Superstar Tradesman and Wasted Little DJ’s are sandwiched between some very average filler. The whole thing seems a bit rushed, but the View certainly show promise here.
Top Tune: Superstar Tradesman.

7: Radiohead – In Rainbows
I don’t think I really ‘get’ Radiohead. I like a lot of their songs on their own but can never cope with a whole album without getting bored. In Rainbows is decent though, and certainly feels much less bloated than their last effort, Hail to the Thief. The middle of the album is particularly strong, with Faust Arp, Reckoner, and House of Cards all standing out.
Top Tune: Reckoner.

6: The Wombats – A Guide to love, loss, and desparation
The Wombats fit the criteria for an up and coming indie band pretty well: Their scruffy hair cuts, ‘wacky’ live shows, and lyrics about real life (ie girls and booze) should stand them in good stead for a prosperous career. Their music isn’t particularly original, and again this album feels a bit rushed, but it’s fun and likeable. Lets Dance to Joy Division isn’t quite as ironic as they think it is though.
Top Tune: Kill the Director

5: Manic Street Preachers – Send Away the Tigers
It amazes me that the Manics are still angry. Not as angry as they were, but still pretty angry none the less. SATT reminds me a lot of Everything Must Go, and although there’s a bit of lyric recycling going on (“You stole the sun straight from my heart” warbles Nina Persson on Your Love Alone is not Enough), this album has rekindled my interest in one my favourite bands from the 90’s.
Top Tune: Autumnsong

4: The Broken Family Band – Hello Love
BFB are probably the best Cambridge-based band around at the moment. Anyone who knows their work will be aware that all their albums are very different in style, and Hello Love is a move away from their country roots towards a new, rockier, sound. The band have applied their usual brand of world weary-cynicism to the topic of love, and the result is some of their best output to date.
Top Tune: Leaps




3: Idlewild – Make Another World
Of course you will have read my gig review of the Idlewild concert at the Junction in October, and from that will remember that I think Idlewild should be more famous than they are. I haven’t changed their mind, and I defy anyone to listen to MAW and disagree with me. Roddy Womble’s lyrics are characteristically thoughtful, while the band have returned to the heavy guitar that featured predominantly on their earlier work.
Top Tune: In Competition for the Worst Time

2: Tunng – Good Arrows
Just for the record, I’m not being pretentious here and trying to show off my music-snob credentials by selecting a relatively unknown band as creators of my second favourite album of the year. Good Arrows features this highly in my chart because it is a quite wonderful record. When the album first arrived I wasn’t that impressed; I found it to be a bit weird and incoherent. But as time passed I began to see it for what it is – a thing of great beauty and imagination. I’d advise anyone not familiar with Tunng to give them a try, you won’t regret it.
Top Tune – Bullets

1: Editors – The End has a Start
If you haven’t been to an Editors gig you should. They are superb, and Tom Smith’s voice, which sounds pretty amazing coming out of my stereo, takes on a whole new dimension in the flesh. Smith has apparently had a crap time in his personal life recently, and while many of his lyrics ache with the pain of loss (“In that moment you realise, that something you think will always be there, will die, like everything else”) it’s also clear that the album is at least in some part born out of the grieving process (“you fuse my broken bones, back together and then, lift the weight of the world, from my shoulders again”).

Editors have handled the potentially tricky second album masterfully. Tracks like Bones and An End has a Start provide traditionally claustrophobic, spiky, Editors fare, while the band also demonstrate several other strings to their musical bow. Smokers outside Hospital Doors is an epic track, while the increased use of the piano on songs such as Racing Rats represents a marked progression in style from debut album The Back Room.

I said earlier that Arctic Monkeys second album left me a bit unfulfilled, but this is not an accusation that can be levelled at Editors. If they continue to make music as good as AEHAS, world domination will surely be within their grasp.