Oh bugger, it’s that time of year again.
Yup, it’s almost time for those awful end of year “Best Of” lists that are such a pain to organise and write, and which nobody with a single ounce of sense would agree with anyway. And good on us all for being so contrary, it’s pointing out other people’s utter wrongness that makes these things such fun to read. The bits I hate are (and probably not in the order that anyone else would agree with, in keeping with the general sentiment):
- I can never remember when anything came out on the first place, thus including stuff that shouldn’t be there and missing out stuff that should;
- sorting out why album x is 1/50th better than album n is just stupid, especially when album n is from a completely different genre anyway; and
- opinion changes each and every time I listen to something anyway
I’m already suspecting that history will repeat from last year, as what I thought for a long time was pretty much untouchable as far as my choice for #1 was concerned, and I’m now finding that competition is rather fierce so may well end up with a couple of top picks and however many joint 2nd places I can fit into one space without going completely mad.
Anyway, enough of me trying equally hard to talk myself both in and out of doing it, on with the Whatevs.
From Jonny's self-titled LP
Jonny – Cave Dance
Absolutely no idea what’s going on here. What starts off as a jaunty surf-pop singalong track changes suddenly into an elegantly sprawling synthy psych epic. Jonny’s Norman and Euros have certainly made something a bit silly and special with this, as indeed they have with the rest of their album.
From "The Trumpton Riots EP"
Half Man Half Biscuit – The Trumpton Riots
Last Tuesday marked the 7th anniversary of the passing of legendary DJ John Peel, so it’s only fair and fitting that this 25-year old EP (I could feel my fingers wrinkling just typing that) gets dusted off once again in his honour. Sadly, the digital age doesn’t allow for songs to be played at the wrong speed (or, in one famous case involving Brian Eno, backwards), any excuse to visit a song from my youth drawing heavily from the TV shows of my childhood is a good one in my book.
From Kosmos' self-titled debut
Kosmos – Grand Grizou
As far as I know, there are few albums where a song title, bandname and album name are all the same – Black Sabbath is the only other one I can think of other than this lot, who also have a ‘Kosmos’ track on here. That’s not the track on offer here, Grand Grizou is a massive slab of French-Canadian psych/prog/etc from this Montreal supergroup, which happily allows me to use the word “bombast” with a completely straight face.
From "Let It Come Down"
Spiritualized – The Twelve Steps
“The only time I’m drink and drug-free is when I get my drugs and drink for free” – no matter what anyone’s stance is on the use and otherwise of recreationals on either side of society’s good/bad border, that’s a cracking line. As it were. A great celebration of something or other while casting a withering eye over the amount of money needed to straighten out, Spaceman definitely makes a great case for his defence.
From "Why I Love My Home (Songs for Charles Burchfield)
Jonathan Meiburg – Hymn to the Valences
I was fairly sure that I’d already mentioned this one, from a pair of songs recorded by the Shearwater frontman for the above-mentioned artist’s exhibition. Just in case I had, I won’t do the joke about this not being about curtains as I would have done it then as well. Anyway, this is just one of those lovely, patient songs that really grabbed me this year.
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