The Face

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 1 Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

2011-02-12T00:08:00.006Z

Arcade Fire are one of those rare bands capable of such consistent and effortless feats of greatness, it almost becomes too easy to take for granted.

They returned seeming to have matured, aged and developed by vastly more than the five years since the release of Funeral. The quirks and youthful rallying cries of that era-defining debut are long gone. In their place, the subtler, more restrained sound of a band nostalgic for a bygone age, and seemingly on the brink of a cultural apocalypse.

It's a concept album in the very best sense, packed with deft touches of attention-to-detail and a narrative punctuated with musical motifs. Even the artwork was a visual metaphor - eight different varieties, yet all essentially the same, just like the vast and interchangeable 'endless suburbs, stretched out thin and dead' that were once home.

Of course, the journey that begins with 'grab your mother's keys, we're leaving' packs in more than just barren, bland landscapes and 'the modern kids' who live there now. The disillusionment runs parallel with a sense of urgency at wanting to live before its too late: 'So can you understand / why I want a daughter while I'm still young? / I want to hold her hand / And show her some beauty / Before the damage is done.'

Musically there's a light and shade that makes this 16 track opus seem almost short, while avoiding the overbearing earnestness which previous album Neon Bible arguably fell into. So Sprawl I, an almost funereal lament to lost youth in which Win Butler sings of 'the loneliest day of my life', is followed by the Régine Chassagne sung Sprawl II, which - in a quite unexpected move - sounds like Blondie doing disco. Well, specifically, Heart of Glass.

An album about the inertia that exists in that gap between growing up and growing old ultimately left you feeling glad to be alive now to appreciate a once-in-a-generation brilliant band at the peak of their powers.

It's befitting of their complexity that, in making a record about the transitory nature of yesterday's values, fading childhood memories and dissolving landscapes, Arcade Fire produced a work destined for lasting greatness.

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 2 Jónsi - Go

2011-02-03T12:39:00.008Z

Rumour has it that Jón Þór Birgisson was intending a stripped down, low-key acoustic affair for his first post-Sigur Rós solo album. If that story really is true then something, somewhere really did go quite spectacularly wrong.

A glorious, technicolour cacophony of sound, it almost literally explodes into life within seconds of opener Go Do teasing with a stuttering vocal sample and a finger picked acoustic guitar.

Flutes flutter, string sections soar and tribal drums build to a towering crescendo. It's music so brimming with unbridled optimism and effervescent joy that it's hard not to imagine it being accompanied by an explosion of fireworks and confetti.

The 100mph percussive stomp of Animal Arithmetic sounded like an orchestra getting drunk with a marching band while cinematic epics like Around Us and Sinking Friendships are surely destined to soundtrack the uplifting finales to nature documentaries for years to come. And if there was a song more breathtaking in scope and ambition last year than Boy Lilikoi I didn't hear it.

There would be a danger of Go teetering into saccharine territory in less capable hands, but the sheer scale of its innocent wide-eyed wonderment overwhelmed any attempt at cynicism. It also reaffirmed the fact that Jónsi is possessed of one of the most distinctive and emotive voices in music today.

If Sigur Rós never do return from their indefinite hiatus, it's reassuring to know that even on his own Jónsi is capable of making music as unique, uplifting and extraordinary as this.

Spotify: Listen to Go by Jónsi

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 3 Vampire Weekend - Contra

2011-01-29T11:55:00.009Z

On album number two Vampire Weekend seemed capable of almost anything.

Mariachi brass, calypso, MIA samples, ska on speed; all this effortlessly woven into a record which was ultimately a sparsely produced and intimate listen.

Key to its brilliance was the warm and melodic lilt of singer Ezra Koenig - at its best on the falsetto refrain of White Sky and the gentle croon of the album's (almost) title track. It gave Contra an emotional depth which - for all its ideas, hooks and eccentricities - their debut never quite managed.

Lyrically, their unique brand of aloof intellectualism gave way to something far more personal. At its best, the running exploration of class, guilt and social convention is almost reminiscent of a Henry James novel. Like, for instance, the protagonist of Taxi Cab who, "When the taxi door was opened wide / I pretended I was horrified / By the uniform clothes outside / Of the courtyard gate."

Giving Up The Gun may have been the most obvious standout on first listen - a double entendre laden straightforward 21st century indie anthem - but the real delights subtly revealed themselves over time. Fortunate then, that for an album so densely packed with quirky eccentricities, it was also addictively listenable.

Spotify: Listen to Contra by Vampire Weekend

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 4 Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From A Young Man

2011-01-21T12:47:00.006Z

'Rage, rage against the dying of the light,' a famous Welshman once wrote.

It would be premature to start reading the last rites for the Manics, but if they never were to make another album then Postcards From A Young Man would be a worthy epitaph to popular music's last great idealists

Eighteen years on from Generation Terrorists, their passion and articulate anger still burn just as bright. But on album number 10 it seemed the Manics finally discovered a way to channel the angry young upstarts of yore without having to contrive a reinvention or resort to becoming their own tribute act.

The betrayal of the left, the decline of British manufacturing and the Orwellian dystopia at the heart of the internet are all pithily picked apart with the scythe of what may be Nicky Wire's most consistently brilliant set of lyrics.

Meanwhile, the radio-friendly choruses of ELO, stadium bombast of Boston and guitar heroics of Slash are ramped all the way up to 11 by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore. Some Kind of Nothingness waltzed with elegant grace while All We Make Is Entertainment was probably the first and without doubt best song ever to combine duelling guitar solos with a withering critique of economic globalisation and free-market capitalism.

In other words, it's every bit as life-affirmingly good as you'd hope 'one last shot at mass communication' from the Manics would be.

Spotify: Listen to Postcards From A Young Man by Manic Street Preachers

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 5 The National - High Violet

2011-01-13T12:37:00.007Z

The National's fifth album is a hypnotic tour-de-force full of understated anthems for a bewildered generation.

I'd previously resisted the lure of the critically lauded New Yorkers, put off by talk of an ever-so-serious band who make rock music for adults and whose albums are 'growers' - so often a byword for music that's easy to admire but hard to enjoy.

But there comes a moment, on the second or third listen to High Violet, where songs which at first failed to register much of an impression, reveal themselves to be hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck raising works of delicate majesty.

Intricate arrangements and oblique poetic lyrics stealthily lodge themselves in your head until the music carries on playing for days after the album stops.

The haunting and world-weary baritone of Matt Berninger is the perfect medium for songs wracked with existential anxiety, self doubt and heartbreak.

But to label it gloomy fails to scratch the surface. Its emotional palette is richly textured with so many more colours than that - albeit all of them dark.

It would be hard to pick out a stand-out track from High Violet simply because it is full of them. Like a fine wine it seems to improve with age - and had it been released earlier in the year it could well have been top of my list.

Spotify: Listen to The National High Violet

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 6 The Coral - Butterfly House

2011-01-10T13:00:00.008Z

This sepia tinged, harmony drenched collection of flawless 60s folk-pop marked the sound of The Coral coming of age.

Nearly a decade on from their debut, it had seemed the Wirralers were destined to slide into oblivion, with last year's greatest hits package an obligatory epilogue to a once promising career.

But the departure of guitar wizard Bill Ryder-Jones after 2008's Roots and Echoes obviously had a reinvigorating effect. Previously prone to padding out albums with self-indulgent jams, Butterfly House saw The Coral return more focused than ever before.

From the moment the Spaghetti Western-esque percussion of opener More Than A Lover burst out of the traps, it was clear this was a band with a newfound sense of purpose.

Throughout its 12 tracks - or 17 for those with the equally brilliant bonus disc - James Skelly and co didn't put a foot wrong. It's an album awash with pitch-perfect harmonies, shimmering guitars, dreamy soundscapes and timeless melodies.

True, it may not have the experimental streak and wild unpredictably of their landmark debut, but in years to come I suspect it will be this album to which fans return.

It may have taken a while to get there, but in Butterfly House The Coral finally crafted something of a minor masterpiece.

Spotify: Listen to an acoustic version of The Coral Butterfly House

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 7 Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

2011-01-06T16:53:00.007Z

Before Today, the first major label album from low-fi cult hero Ariel Pink, is a glorious mass of contradictions that really shouldn't work but somehow does.

It is both lovingly nostalgic in its influences yet unmistakably 21st century in the way they are melded together. If you didn't know any better you'd think it was the work of a genius DJ armed with a crate full of classic 70s MOR vinyl, a handful of west coast psychedelia 45s and a 70s cop show soundtrack.

The schizophrenic and breathless hopping of genres - often several times within the same song - belie the fact that Before Today is as smooth as Lionel Richie's larynx and chock-full of guilty pleasure ear candy.

Every song is woven with wierdness, but produced with the glossy sheen of classic Fleetwood Mac.

The pinnacle of its achievements Round and Round already has the air of a spine-tingling classic.

Spotify: Listen to Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 8 Yeasayer - Odd Blood

2011-01-04T11:20:00.008Z

It starts off sounding like a cyborg in a medieval torture chamber and finishes like the deranged funk offspring of Prince partying like it's 1985.

2010 saw Yeasayer transformed from world music dabbling curio of the Brooklyn indie scene, to all-conquering, festival-stealing, pioneers of experimental guitar music.

For such an eclectic and sonically adventurous album, Odd Blood is refreshing lean and impressively lacking in self-indulgence.

Lead single Ambling Alp (below) reinvented Yeasayer as a pop band, and managed the impressive feat of combining one of the year's catchiest choruses with a metaphor about an Italian boxer from the 1930s.

If Odd Blood has one flaw, it is that it occasionally stumbles under the sheer volume of the myriad ideas packed into its relatively brief 40 minutes.

But at its best - like album highlight ONE - Yeasayer proved themselves to be masters in their own offbeat universe of unique and otherworldly synth pop.

Spotify: Listen to Yeasayer Odd Blood

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 9 Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

2010-12-29T16:39:00.009Z

In the quick-fix age of bitesize attention spans where the karaoke colosseum is king and the charts are awash with production line pop, the existence of Gorillaz alone is something to be thankful for. The fact they somehow managed to sneak a 16-track environment themed concept album featuring the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music and Mark E Smith into the mainstream however, is nothing short of phenomenal.

It's an album truly epic in ambition. And while it may not always reach the dizzy heights it so valiantly strives for, it's by far Damon Albarn's most fully realised collaborative record yet.

When the guest spots work - like Bobby Womack's ragged vocal tearing through the speakers on the electro-soul of flagship single Stylo - the results are electric. When they don't you find yourself admiring the idea rather than enjoying its execution; a common feature of Gorillaz albums once repeated listens have shorn them of their novelty.

However, any body of work which can boast the irrepressibly catchy Superfast Jellyfish, the charming Euro-oriental lounge pop of To Binge and half of The Clash in its backing band, is clearly never going to be far from greatness.

And in standout track On Melancholy Hill, Damon Albarn delivered a Waterloo Sunset for the 21st Century and his most touching ballad since... well actually, probably ever.

Spotify: Listen to Gorillaz Plastic Beach

Top 10 Albums of 2010: 10 Belle & Sebastian - Write about Love

2010-12-29T12:25:00.055Z

"Make me dance, I want to surrender" opens the Glaswegians' eighth long-player in a fitting statement of intent, for Write About Love is unmistakably the work of Belle & Sebastian mark 2 - the post 2000 version with dancing basslines, drivetime MOR keyboards and infectious choruses to spare.

At times you wonder what became of the fey and quirky indie darlings who made If You're Feeling Sinister, such is the transformative effect of producer Tony Hoffer's Hollywood makeover. Nonetheless, barring a couple of missteps (the guest spot from Norah Jones is as ill-advised as it sounds) Write about Love is nothing short of a masterclass in subtly infectious and intelligent 1960s pop.

Opener I Didn't See It Coming has to be up there with Belle & Sebastian's finest, effortlessly segueing one musical motif to another and building from an opening whisper to a dizzying climax. Meanwhile, the mod-tinged I Want The World To Stop - all lilting arpeggios, walking basslines and a bittersweet vocal exchange - would surely have been a dancefloor-filling chart-topper had it been released 40 years ago.

Musically, Write about Love may at times sound lightyears apart from 1996 debut Tigermilk, but it still inhabits the same doe-eyed romantic world of unrequited longing, wistful nostalgia and late-night soul-searching that Belle & Sebastian soundtrack better than anybody else.

Spotify: Listen to Belle & Sebastian Write about Love

Top 10 Albums of 2009

2010-12-14T13:37:00.028Z

Two years ago this blog burst out of the traps in a blaze of prolific writing and relentless updates. Days merged into nights penning new entries while computers were ground to dust by the constant and ferocious clatter of keys composing missives to the masses.

Inevitably such productivity could never last.

But now, after a well-earned 18 month break, it seems like time I graced the blogosphere again - and lent a hand to the ailing music industry - with another countdown of the year's 10 best albums.

Before I do though, I thought it would be wise to fill in the gaping 2009-shaped-hole in the web by revealing - a mere 12 months late - my favourite albums of last year.

So, in a very particular order, the winners are...

1 Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2 Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers
3 the xx - the xx
4 The Horrors - Primary Colours

5 Mew - No More Stories...
6 Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

7 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

8 Muse - Resistance

9 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

10 Metric - Fantasies

The Face Reviews... Oasis

2009-07-13T17:41:00.011+01:00

Oasis at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry - July 7 2009

When the Gallagher brothers’ tour dates went on sale last October they were being billed as the defining gigs of this summer.

Fast forward nine months – in which the previously defunct Blur have reformed to play a universally lauded Glastonbury headline slot – and on a rainy Tuesday night in Coventry Oasis looked in danger of being upstaged by their old adversaries once more.

Personally, I've found that the Groundhog Day approach to creativity adopted by Noel and Liam has tarnished the memory of those three mid-90s glory years further with every over hyped, underwhelming LP they've release since. It took the return of Blur and that spine-tingling rendition of The Universal which closed the curtain on this year's festivities at Worthy Farm to prove that the excitement of the Britpop era was not completely ill-founded.

Oasis opened with a gargantuan rendition of their debut album opening call-to-arms Rock’ n’ Roll Star. The fact that the crowd were sent home to the tune of Definitely Maybe's closing track tells its own story.

Songs written in the last decade were a token and fleeting gesture. In fact the only real surprise came when they launched into tuneless dirge My Big Mouth and managed to make it sound even worse than it did on Be Here Now - no mean feat.

But for all my cynicism and wishing I'd been lucky enough to see Blur this summer instead, Oasis as a live band are nothing short of electric. They have an enduring appeal that seems to defy time and logic. Only two of the six stood on stage were anything to do with the band that were for a short while feted as our generation's Beatles; in terms of stage moves they just stand there; and they have been churning out more-or-less the same Greatest Hits set at every gig for the past 10 years now.

Yet when Liam swaggers to the front of the stage, puts his hands behind his back, leans forward with his head tilted towards the sky and sneers "toniiiiight, I'm a rock'n'roll staaarrrr" into the microphone for what must be the 10,000th time - there's no doubting he means it every bit as much as he did back in 1994.

And the 30,000 captivated fans, drunkards and nostalgia seekers packed into the Ricoh respond in kind - as millions more do at stadiums, arenas and festivals the world over.

If only they could promise never to release another album, being an Oasis fan and being a music lover might no longer seem such polar opposites.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 1 Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge

2009-02-15T21:02:00.007Z

It’s an indescribably brilliant feeling when you put a CD on for the first time and what comes out of the speakers completely confounds any expectations you may have previously had.

Like many of my best purchases I bought this album on a whim. In an indie celeb packed jaunt to London, Gaz and I crossed paths with an eccentrically dressed Dev Hynes in an underpass in Shoreditch. Later that evening, in an almost surreal twist of fate, we found ourselves sat next to him (still wearing trademark deerstalker) at the NME Awards show along with his companions - Farris Rotter of The Horrors and then-squeeze Peaches Geldof.

So when the distinctive lucid blue record sleeve of his recently released album caught my eye in HMV the next day, even having never heard a single Lightspeed Champion song, I couldn’t resist the urge to give it a try.

I quite liked his last band – the ridiculously monikered post-hardcore dance punk noiseniks Test Icicles – and with song titles like Let the B****es Die and All to S*** I was expecting something along similar lines from Falling Off The Lavender Bridge.

How wrong I was. Had I known it had been recorded in Nebraska with Bright Eyes' producer Mike Mogis I might have had a better idea of what to expect: namely lashings of country pedal steel guitar, lots of acoustic folky finger picking, a hint of baroque and a multi-instrumental backing with guest spots from the likes of Tilly and the Wall, The Faint, the erstwhile violinist from Hope of The States Mike Siddell and Emmy the Great.

Of course, springing stylistic surprises alone is not the maker of a great album. The best thing about this record - which helped it clinch a fiercely fought contest for the top spot in this end of year poll – is that in this digital age where the individual track is king, it fits together so perfectly as a singular piece of work. It’s got an intro, a centrepiece in the 10 minute four-song-in-one tour-de-force Midnight Surprise and even a reprise to close proceedings while each song seems to effortlessly segue into the next. It’s one of the many reasons why Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is my favourite album of 2008.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 2 Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

2009-01-29T22:27:00.005Z

If Klaxons are the soundtrack to the ultimate 21st century rave, then Friendly Fires would have to be the house band for the afterparty.

I was initially suspicious of the nu-rave tag attached to them. But 30 seconds into the effervescent choir and spaced out guitar harmonics of opener Jump In the Pool it becomes clear that tarnished label was pretty wide of the mark.

There’s definitely more than a passing nod to the uber-cool post-punk cowbell-embracing disco of The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem – the percussion on this album is nothing short of amazing. But that doesn’t stop Friendly Fires aiming straight for the jugular when it comes to irresistibly catchy melodies and unashamedly borderline cheesy riffs (In the Hospital being a prime example).

I think perhaps what sets Friendly Fires apart from a lot of their musically like-minded peers is the real sense of romanticism that pervades this album from start to finish. From the naive escapism disco of Paris (below) to the blissfully serene electro-lullaby Strobe, its ten perfectly formed songs sound just as spine-tingling good in a nightclub on a Saturday night as through a pair of headphones on a cold winter evening.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 3 MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

2009-01-25T19:43:00.008Z

Well, it had to make the list somewhere didn’t it? The indie snob in me really wanted to relegate Oracular Spectacular to the lower regions of my top ten but every time I’d listen again only to find that, actually, it really does still sound just as fresh, exciting and addictive as when it came out back in March.

It’s an album truly epic in ambition. Bits of it – like the ridiculously titled 4th Dimensional Transition – sound like psychedelic Mighty Boosh skits developed into proper songs, while Weekend Wars is a prog rock odyssey distilled in a four minute tune so catchy it could have been written by ELO.

A lot of credit has to go to producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev) who I suspect probably had to rein in Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser’s more self-indulgent tendencies to create an album on which nearly every song is worthy of being released as single.

The three that actually were released pretty much sum up everything brilliant about MGMT. There’s the tongue in cheek rock’n’roll cliché lyrics and colossal chorus of Time to Pretend, the borderline-cringeworthy-but-actually-quite-brilliant Prince-esque funk silliness of Electric Feel, and Kids (below) – which has the most incessantly catchy riff since Seven Nation Army and provides the album’s highlight when, about three minutes in, a faux classical baroque keyboard solo that George Martin would have been proud of seamlessly segues into a New Order like drum break. Brilliant.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 4 Santogold - Santogold

2009-01-24T00:51:00.005Z

Easily the most genre-defying listen to make my top ten - Santi White sounds like a 21st century Debbie Harry one minute, another MIA the next.

Her brilliance lies not in pushing the boundaries but in mixing up sounds and styles that you would never have imagined working together and somehow ending up sounding both unique and like perfectly written classic pop.

During its 38 idea-packed minutes there are nods towards dub, electronica, post-Strokes indie, ska and 70s new wave, all while never losing sight of the importance of a great melody. It’s precisely that quality which means that when, for instance, the spaced out dub of Unstoppable gives way to the lo-fi Pixies-esque I’m A Lady, it couldn’t sound more natural.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 5 Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

2009-01-13T22:20:00.010Z

There’s something endearingly vulnerable about Ladyhawke.
On paper the almost painfully in-vogue synth’n’strings 1980s stylings of this debut should make her the pied piper of the 2008 scenesters, ticking one too many boxes to be genuinely lovable.

But lyrically songs like Better Than Sunday, Magic and Oh My are wracked with self-doubt and loneliness while musically Another Runway, Crazy World and Back of The Van teeter too close to sounding like they could have been sung by Kim Wilde to be knowingly ‘cool’.

Even better, Paris is Burning picks up where CSS’ first album left off (a bonus given the disappointment of the Brazilians’ aptly named follow-up) with an even bigger chorus.

Of all 2008’s nods towards a 1980s revival this was the album that came closest to making it sound genuine. With the exception of the slightly clunky Professional Suicide, it’s a flawless attempt from start to finish.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 6 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

2009-01-09T22:50:00.010Z

Of all the albums I bought in 2008, this is the one that caused me to spend most time scouring Wikipedia.

Thanks to Vampire Weekend I’m now full au-fait with what a Mansard Roof, Oxford Comma, and M79 is. What the songs themselves actually mean though still eludes me.

Musically they are just as hard to pin down. Standout single A-Punk somehow manages to combine Strawberry Fields and the Ramones to make a two minute lo-fi pop masterpiece.

But then maybe that is the whole point. Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio and Christopher Tomson – I can’t help feeling the last one is letting the side down a bit in the exotic names department – wear their Ivy League pretentiousness on their sleeves.

No other album I heard last year could throw up a lyrical reference as esoteric as: “No excuse to be so callous / Dress yourself in bleeding Madras / Charm your way across the Khyber Pass.” And that’s just the chorus.

Vampire Weekend are probably destined to be one of those bands that people are either filled with love and devotion for or really can’t stand.

I always love those bands.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 7 Neon Neon - Stainless Style

2009-01-06T20:48:00.012Z

Proof positive that Gruff Rhys truly is a musical genius capable of turning his hand to pretty much anything.

After more than a decade spent mastering the art of seamlessly blending country with techno, the Beach Boys with industrial metal, Phil Spector with New Wave, perhaps this was the logical next step: teaming up with an underground American producer to create an 80’s synth-pop and hip hop influenced concept album documenting the colourful life and career of a disgraced former car industry executive.

For the first four songs Stainless Style sounds something akin to Kraftwerk deciding to make the perfect pop album. The synthetic strings and beatbox rhythms carry the same glossy sheen as the luxury car brochure style CD inlay (a touch that mirrors the impeccable attention to detail given to pretty much every other aspect of this project.)

Taken as a whole it doesn’t quite deliver on this early promise (much like John DeLorean himself, if you’re looking for a convenient analogy). It could just be a reflection of my own musical persuasions but the guest rap spots on Trick For Treat, Sweat Shop and Luxury Pool seem to jar with the flow of the record once the novelty of the first few listens wears off. However that doesn’t detract from the fact that singles Raquel and I Told Her On Alderaan, would rank among SFA's very best while the retrofuturistic inventiveness of the Cate Le Bon featuring I Lust U and the icy electro melancholy of Belfast proved that - 12 years on from the release of SFA’s debut single - Gruff remains as musically fresh and relevant as ever.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 8 Foals - Antidotes

2008-12-18T00:48:00.005Z

Antidotes almost sounds like the album Bloc Party could have made after Silent Alarm if they had only ditched some of the FX pedals and kicked Snow Patrol producer Jacknife Lee out the studio. Foals have the same brand of jittery, duelling guitars but they manage to take them somewhere altogether more adventurous.

Essentially five art-school types from Oxford who decided to hike up their guitar straps and start making dance music, they became one of Britain's most exciting live bands and indie night floor-fillers despite the self-indulgent and po-faced persona that seemed to manifest itself in all of their interviews.

It probably explains why they belligerently decided to leave fan favourites Mathletics and Hummer - still their best ever song - off this Dave Sitek produced debut. It’s a shame because the energy of those two breakthrough singles would have saved it from the mid-paced rut it nearly gets stuck in about halfway through. The borderline dreary Electric Bloom wouldn’t really have been missed.

But for all their knowing awkwardness and slightly too oblique lyrics, when Foals got it right - like the exhilarating moment Two Steps, Twice reaches its climax or the spine-tingling majesty of Red Sox Pugie – there was not a more exciting sound made with guitars this year.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 9 Mystery Jets - 21

2008-12-17T00:52:00.008Z

As if the album title wasn’t enough of a clue, in came pink suits, headbands and Spandau Ballet’s synth and out went Making Dens’ Barrett-esque moments of proggy excess and dad-on-tour Henry. From the opening sirens of Hideaway through to the wisful waltz of the closing Behind the Bunhouse, 21 sounded like a young band brimming with ideas, shorn of inhibitions and having the time of their life.

Two Doors Down, with its incessant synth-driven chorus and a sax solo that could’ve been phoned in from a Duran Duran sesson circa 1984, briefly made a full scale New Romantic revival seem like the best idea ever. (At least until the moment Keane came along to crash the party.)

And in Young Love (featuring the brilliant Laura Marling) they penned the most touchingly romantic three minute pop song of the year.

Top 10 Albums of 2008: 10 The Killers - Day & Age

2008-12-16T21:48:00.017Z

The Killers started off as a so-so band I was fairly indifferent about bar a couple of great singles. They’re big enough now for a proper backlash from those fans who think they’ve lost their way since the patchy Hot Fuss. But for my money they’ve got better with every album with Day & Age being the pick of the lot.

What I love about Flowers & co these days is that what they lack in good taste they make up for in fun. And they lack in good taste a lot... as anyone who’s seen the third album promo shots or heard the slap bass and sax of Joy Ride will confirm.

It’s not the best album this year, but it’s definitely the most likely to induce a guilty smile and raise a quizzical eyebrow. And when you compare their musical trajectory to that of the Kings of Leon – who sadly seem to have equated stadium-sized ambition with U2 aping blandness – The Killers’ apparently uncontrived willingness to indulge in the sheer ridiculous can only be applauded.

List-ening

2008-12-15T23:39:00.003Z

There are probably better ways to launch into the blogosphere than introducing myself as a borderline Nick Hornby cliché, but I'd like to start by declaring my love of lists nonetheless.

There’s something about their tangent-free finite simplicity that gives me a comforting feeling of reassurance. In a world of 24-hour rolling news channels and the knowledge that there’s more information than I will ever be able to digest accessible in the fraction of the second it takes to carry out an internet search, the list - in all its humble simplicity - provides a fleeting opportunity to delude myself into believing my knowledge of any subject could ever be complete.

British culture? Yeah I’m familiar with the BBC’s list of the 100 Greatest Britons. Modern American history? Will a googled list and summary of the 43 Presidents of the USA do? (How ever else would I have discovered that Dwight Eisenhower was an uncanny dead ringer for William Hague?)

If I was to compile a list of my favourite types of lists, the classic end of year poll would undoubtedly come out top. It’s why every December I clean out the newsagent’s music magazine rack, devouring every top 50 I can feast my eyes on. Even the abysmal Q gets an annual look-in (although only for as long as it takes to reassure my musical taste it has safely managed to avoid lapsing into Toploader territory for another year).

All of which brings me to this - my first foray into the world of blogging – a countdown of my favourite ten albums of 2008...