Halfway and looking good Still lots to look forward to. I’m not including my own effort (iTunes), it feels too weird to do so But I will make mention of it for the sake of shameless self-promotion – and if I did list it here, it would certainly sit higher than Madonna and Scarlett Johansson even in my self-loathing ‘cos at least I was trying and improving on what I did before, lol.

1. Music of the Spheres – Mike Oldfield
   The first few bars had me hmming over its overwhelming similarity to Tubular Bells which I list among the greatest albums ever made, and I’m sure there are negative reviews out there to that effect. But though that similarity can’t be denied, the feelings this filled and left me with are completely different from Bells … it’s the most reverential work of art I’ve seen, heard, or witnessed in years. It’s music to bow down to almost. I don’t think I even want to hear anything better this year.
2. Join With Us – The Feeling
   So close to pipping the Oldfield album, this was. It peters out at the end with a bunch of tracks that could easily be removed and render it a practically perfect 45 minuter. But no matter – the greatnesses here are huge … like Supertramp and ELO plus a little bit more, it just leaves you with a smile on your face.
3. Je sais que la terre est plate – Raphaël
   Of course, I knew I’d love this one, the guy is a musical god as far as I’m concerned. His sound is slightly different yet again, though perhaps not as stark as the switch between albums 1, 2 and 3 … here, he finally gets use of the full Bowie band and the production skills of Tony Visconti but his is the voice that shines through. I adore “Adieu Haiti”, “Sixieme Etage” (continuing his flair for appeasing those of us whose French isn’t exactly top notch with a catchy series of “oh-oh”s :)) and “Tess”. Like Caravane it’s short at 35 minutes, but it feels much much longer and I could listen to it twice over in one sitting anyway.
4. Volume One – She and Him
   Zooey Deschanel sings. Seriously do you need any other reason to listen? Okay … because it’s LOVELY. Okay? I love it anyway
5. 15 Minutes Ago – Jessica Lombard
   Not many people will have heard of this girl; I don’t even know quite how I first came to know of her. But from listening to a few of her quite stripped down (production-wise) songs on MySpace, my heart leapt when I found this album on iTunes. It’s wonderfully produced, the words reach right inside you, and her voice is just astonishing. Think Jewel only, 12 years old (somewhere along the line I’d changed that to 15 in my head – I’m even more amazed having just read that again on CDBaby …)
6. I Know You’re Married, But I’ve Got Feelings Too – Martha Wainwright
   I liked her first album but I’ve kinda stuck on listening only to the first track in iTunes ever since … this one has a much greater chance of having total regular rotation. It sounds so much like her mother and aunt the McGarrigle sisters in places it’s uncanny, I’m not sure if this is deliberate or that she’s just naturally grown into the family shoes (her first album really wasn’t so recognisable). “So Many Friends” is my fave so far.
7. Fire Songs – The Watson Twins NEW
   I really liked their work with Jenny Lewis a couple of years ago and this doesn’t disappoint as a follow-up. It’s perhaps not an album I’ll play a lot ... but like the Paul Weller album, it’s just one of those records whose quality you just can’t deny.
8. Funplex – The B-52s NEW
   The most fun album of the year so far. Like John Waters meets Shampoo or something, and B-52s-ey all the way
9. At Mount Zoomer – Wolf Parade NEW
   (thanks to Cinematically Correct for the recommendation) I liked this – reminded me of Arcade Fire’s first album “Funeral” and as such, I really hope they have the success they need to make the sound they clearly want to be making. It’s certainly more rhythmically interesting than the bulk of what I’ve heard this year, s’just the production quality didn’t seem to be quite there for me.
10. Backwoods Barbie – Dolly Parton
    Her voice is just beautiful – I still haven’t really got onto the major binge of her back catalogue that I’ve been planning ever since I saw The Best Little Whorehouse…, but it’ll be happening soon I’m sure. The title track is cheesily beautiful, “Better Get to Livin’” is awesome, but it’s the cover of “Drive Me Crazy” here that leapt out of the blue and made my day, I’m crazy for it lol.
11. 22 Dreams – Paul Weller
    Not really my cup of tea but I can’t deny it’s an incredible production. I love the allusions to childhood imagery, of course. Definitely will listen to it again.
12. The Age of the Understatement – The Last Shadow Puppets
    Someone mentioned Scott Walker in a Newsnight Review of this and I was almost immediately sold, lol, and I wasn’t disappointed. If there’s a reason this doesn’t remain in my top ten till the end of the year, then it’s only that I’m jealous I didn’t come up with it first. Huge.
13. The Seventh Tree – Goldfrapp
    I’m having trouble believing that this album came from the same people who gave the world Supernature, lol. This is just so cute, exactly the kind of candyland pop I adore the most. The lead sounds like Cathy Dennis in places, and the songs like something the Poole sisters of Alisha’s Attic would conjure. I can’t wait to listen to it more.
14. Rockferry – Duffy
    Was very surprised how right the hype was on this one – even the comparison on Newsnight Review to Dusty Springfield which really put me off. It is simply a perfect album.
15. We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things – Jason Mraz
    All I can remember from Mraz’s last album (I haven’t heard the first) is “Wordplay”, but I’m quite sure I liked it all. This definitely struck me as even more catchy, though. His voice is gorgeous, almost girlish at times. I adore “Lucky”, it’s like my life right now
16. I Stand – Idina Menzel
    I’m not sure if I’ll listen to it as much as I’ve found myself listening to “Still I Can’t be Still” (and I hadn’t even heard of “Here”, an album which apparently came between that and this) ... but “Gorgeous” and “I Feel Everything” in particular are almost certain to be on my best of year playlists.
17. Smilers – Aimee Mann
    It’s growing on me As with “Forgotten Arm”, I really wasn’t so sure of this on a first listen but the story kind of eats into you and it makes more sense and sticks in the ears more with every listen.
18. Identified – Vanessa Hudgens NEW
    So well produced and supercatchy. Reminds me of the Rachel Stevens / Holly Valance / Dannii Minogue type Poole / Dennis composed albums we don’t seem to have had in a long while. Actually thinking now maybe this deserves “most fun album” over the B-52s. I’m not sure, they’re both electric
19. Momofuku – Elvis Costello and the Imposters
    Finally! I think I got so tired of being disappointed with Elvis Costello releases that I’ve probably deliberately missed the last handful – but this is the Elvis Costello that I love and this, too, will likely only grow on me as the year goes on.
20. My Paper Made Men – Amy Studt
    I feared initially that this would be a lot like the first album – I’d shout from the hills how I loved it but in the long run the playcount has really only settled on three songs, “Ladder in Your Tights”, “Misfit” and “Just a Little Girl” (two of which happened to be from a Poole pen – edit ooh and “Under the Thumb”! of course, which is also a Karen Poole song lol … so not a bad album at all in fact …). On a first listen this is definitely more fun in its first half, but that’s not to say that on a second, third, and fourth listen since I didn’t let it run all the way through. “Nice Boys” is a song I object to on a personal level but if they don’t release it to conquer the charts while the sun is shining then they’re crazy (whoever “they” are lol). It’s Shampoo-tastic lol.
21. Bittersweet World – Ashlee Simpson
    It’s Ashlee, you probably know what to expect. On a first listen none of these songs really stand out to me as awesome, not even in the sense that “I Am Me” or “L.O.V.E” or “Autobiography” have become fixtures on my most-listened-to tracks in iTunes. But I’ll listen to it over and over ‘cos I have a very angry teenage girl in me sometimes lol.
22. To Be Loved – Joan As Police Woman
    I think I liked this more than her first album, but I’ve only listened to each of them once so I can’t really stand by my opinion. She was a lot of fun when I saw her live supporting Rufus Wainwright. Her studio work seems pretty stoic by comparison. This is almost certainly too low for now, hopefully I’ll get a chance to listen again before the year is out.
23. Liverpool 8 – Ringo Starr
    Not as good as “Choose Love”, but it’s as competently done as you’d expect from an ex-Beatle working with Dave Stewart.
24. Pocketful of Sunshine – Natasha Bedingfield
    I had to think about whether this was original enough to count as a new album ‘cos it’s kind of a mishmash of b-side-y songs and parts of Nb after that album failed to set the US aflame or something. I decided yes, there are enough original songs here – the Nb songs are always worth hearing again. And frankly, for “Freckles” alone it’s worth it.
25. Home Before Dark – Neil Diamond
    I just saw a short concert on BBC interactive with some songs from this and already I’ve started to think again about my kneejerk reaction to the album, it’s possible it’ll really click with me one day and I think it’s “One More Bite of the Apple” and “Slow it Down” that hold the key. For now, I’ve gotta say, it does feel a little passionless and a bit too much like someone trying to use the perfect “12 Songs” too much as a template instead of trying something original again.
26. Viva La Vida – Coldplay
    The already overplayed title single is of course irresistible – I wanna jump around just about every time I hear it. But like all their best standalone songs, the album just feels lost around it. It’s rarely anything but “nice”. It’s possible it’ll grow on me, and certainly worth it for Viva … but it’s far from great.
27. iCarly: Songs from and Inspired by the Hit TV Series – Various NEW
    It’s a compilation, I usually don’t allow those – but it’s a good compilation, the dialogue snippets are hilarious and even the non-Miranda songs are surprisingly enjoyable (I could definitely get into The Naked Brothers). The Miranda songs turn out to be all covers, but they show her voice improving vastly since recording the theme song (which features here in an extended version). I really hope she gets to do a full solo album some time.
28. The Slip – Nine Inch Nails
    Less scary-noisy than last year’s Year Zero and, weirdly enough, I liked it more than the much more ethereal and ambient Ghosts. One of my favourite songs of theirs, and the one that really introduced me to them in Natural Born Killers, is Burn, and this album pretty much stands up to it all over.
29. Flavors of Entanglement – Alanis Morissette
    Mostly meh, but again, it’s the girl voice. Nothing stands out quite as much as Thank You or Ironic or whatever but, big BUT, I absolutely love, love, love “In Praise of the Vulnerable Man”. It’s so corny, but someone kinda had to write it, and that that someone turned out to be Alanis … it’s just perfect.
30. Bring Ya To the Brink – Cyndi Lauper
    It’s dancey which as a rule I hate; but I love when the tunefulness bursts through, and those incidences are frequent enough for me to listen again given the opportunity. Can’t think of a lot more to say than that.
31. Third – Portishead
    It takes some adjusting to, but I’m surprised to say that I found some of this pretty lovely. Again, I’ve not a lot more to say. It’s mid-June and I’m just tying up the loose ends, I wouldn’t normally listen to this type of thing.
32. Sunday at Devil Dirt – Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
    Since getting into Belle and Sebastian a couple of years ago I’ve been really wanting to listen to Isobel Campbell’s solo stuff – I really hope this is just a bad intro to it. While it’s a really nice album, her voice is pretty much swamped by the Leonard Cohen-ish tones of Lanegan, and I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
33. Little Dreamer – Beth Rowley
    It’s kind of gone out of my head already, but a pleasant enough listen while it lasted. Very well produced and like I’ve said already, girl voices are the best
34. Phoenix – Asia NEW
    About what I expected from this band even though I haven’t yet got around to taking in their back catalogue. They sound exactly like the era they were born in and though I can’t be certain, I’m pretty sure that fans will be pleased.
35. 11 – Bryan Adams
    Meh. Standard Bryan Adams. I love the guy ‘cos he did the Spirit songs but most of his other stuff sounds the same to me. It’s still very catchy though.
36. Accelerate – R.E.M.
    LOUD! This almost gave me a headache lol. It has its moments, but really, it’s just too loud for me. I can’t say the title doesn’t warn, I guess.
37. 19 – Adele
    Standard well-produced female vocals. I’m just a sucker for girls’ voices so this is probably too high already.
38. It Is Time for a Love Revolution – Lenny Kravitz
    Everytime I listen to him I have to remind myself he produced Vanessa Paradis’ wonderful first and only fully English language album, always a good way in. And this album definitely has its moments, particularly “A Long and Sad Goodbye”
39. Discipline – Janet Jackson
    I could do without the computer voice stuff, seems like trying way too hard to be cool to me. I seem to recall this had some nice songs on it somewhere, but it’s a while since I listened and it didn’t exactly rock my world or anything.
40. Simple Plan – Simple Plan
    I was sure I’d listened to Simple Plan before and liked them but my itunes library is telling me it’s only been their movie soundtrack presences that have reached my ears till now. It’s a little unintentionally hilarious in its whininess as I think is to be expected from this kind of band … but I don’t know, I kinda liked it.
41. Ghosts – Nine Inch Nails
    Would make a great movie soundtrack … not really iPod material … but it’s a lot healthier than the deafening “Year Zero”.
42. Sleep Through the Static – Jack Johnson
    Meh. Nothing wrong with it … but I think I said in my review of the movie, there’s a time and a place for Jack Johnson and for me I think Curious George was it.
43. Watershed – KD Lang
    Hmm. This really didn’t make much of an impression on me at all. Positioned here with the benefit of the doubt lol, I’ll maybe listen to it again some time.
44. Dig Lazarus Dig! – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
    It’s at the bottom for now but don’t worry, it won’t stay that way. This is as up and down as anything Nick Cave has done – the one thing I don’t understand is why it hasn’t been released under the Grinderman name, since to me it sounded much more like “them” than “regular” Nick Cave lol if that even makes sense.
45. Consolers of the Lonely Hearted – Raconteurs
    Fun, but nothing special. I’d happily let a track from it play if it cropped up in iTunes Party Shuffle soe time.
46. Jukebox – Cat Power
    I forgot to add this to the list when I listened to it ages ago. I can’t remember a lot about it except, nice voice but completey unremarkable. Meh.
47. Last Night – Moby
    Standard Moby. Which for me isn’t too exciting. It seems to me this guy dropped off the map for a while, and to come back with just exactly the same thing he was doing, seems like a decade ago now, that’s practically become a joke in the meantime, is incredibly lazy. I just can’t listen to the same loop unadorned for more than a handful of repetitions, no matter how amazing a sound it is, I’m sorry.
48. E=MC² – Mariah Carey
    I have no problem with Mariah Carey, matter of fact I’d really love to love her. But there’s really nothing new on this album, and the title too temptingly invites ridicule, especially when she starts talking about “That Casablanca movie” in ways that indicate she (or her writers) has clearly never seen it.
49. Hard Candy – Madonna
    Appalling. (Really, that’s all I have to say.)
50. Anywhere I Lay My Head – Scarlett Johansson
    Seriously, I did not think I’d hear anything this year worse than Madonna … seriously. This starts out like, “crap, did I download a fake again?” – but it progresses to being simply hilarious midway. But by the end, I just felt sorry for her. It’s so bad it made me feel good about my own album, lol. That Bowie was involved is just insult to injury lol.

Final update including the (mostly disappointing, gotta be said, outside of Josh Groban) Christmas albums. Still no sign of Shelly Poole’s new album, but that’s just something to look forward to this year There’s definitely some of these I wanna listen to again and might move up or down but I’m pretty happy with the general look of it. So much good this year, and so many surprises too.

1. Chrome Dreams II – Neil Young
2. This Is The Life – Amy MacDonald
3. Snakehouse – The Cliks
4. The Fragile Army – The Polyphonic Spree
5. Neon Bible – Arcade Fire
6. Magic – Bruce Springsteen
7. Hey Eugene! – Pink Martini
8. Zeitgeist – Smashing Pumpkins
9. X – Kylie Minogue
10. Pocket Symphony – Air
11. The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo – The Puppini Sisters
12. Into the Wild – Eddie Vedder
13. Made of Bricks – Kate Nash
14. *Voilà* – Belinda Carlisle
15. Beauty and Crime – Suzanne Vega
16. Breathing Room – Jenna von Oy
17. Seastories – Minnie Driver
18. The Boy With No Name – Travis
19. American Doll Posse – Tori Amos
20. The Turn – Alison Moyet
21. Shine – Joni Mitchell
22. Icky Thump – The White Stripes
23. Songs of Mass Destruction – Annie Lennox
24. Year Zero – Nine Inch Nails
25. Shotter’s Nation – Babyshambles
26. The Pirate Queen – Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
27. Brave – Jennifer Lopez
28. Versatile Heart – Linda Thompson
29. Are You Listening? – Dolores O’Riordan
30. Divinidyll – Vanessa Paradis
31. Release the Stars – Rufus Wainwright
32. The Good, the Bad & The Queen – The Good, the Bad & the Queen
33. Life in Cartoon Motion – MIKA
34. The Magic Position – Patrick Wolf
35. Theology – Sinéad O’Connor
36. Nb – Natasha Bedingfield
37. The Best Damn Thing – Avril Lavigne
38. Pictures – Katie Melua
39. Change – Sugababes
40. Family Tree – Nick Drake
41. Keren Ann – Keren Ann
42. It Won’t Be Soon Before Long – Maroon 5
43. New Moon – Elliot Smith
44. Memory Almost Full – Paul McCartney
45. Yours Truly, Angry Mob – Kaiser Chiefs
46. Stardom Road – Marc Almond
47. Noel – Josh Groban
48. Live in Concert 2006 – Barbra Streisand
49. Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired By the Film Knocked Up – Loudon Wainwright III
50. The New Album – LazyTown
51. Awkward Annie – Kate Rusby
52. The End of History – Fionn Regan
53. Raising Sand – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
54. Maths and English – Dizzee Rascal
55. Just Me – Tiffany
56. Long Road Out of Eden – The Eagles
57. In Rainbows – Radiohead
58. Planet Earth – Prince
59. Over the Rainbow – Various Artists
60. Lost Highway – Bon Jovi
61. Not Too Late – Norah Jones
62. Grinderman – Grinderman
63. Blackout – Britney Spears
64. Family – LeAnn Rimes
65. Stay – Simply Red
66. Trip the Light Fantastic – Sophie Ellis-Bextor
67. Disney Channel Holiday – Various Artists
68. Testify – The Simpsons
69. Over the Rainbow – Connie Talbot
70. Don’t Look Away – Kate Voegel
71. Carry On – Chris Cornell
72. Black Rain – Ozzy Osbourne
73. Dignity – Hilary Duff
74. Yes, I’m a Witch – Yoko Ono
75. Music for Lovers – Nancy Wilson
76. Drastic Fantastic – KT Tunstall
77. Dick at Nite – Richard Cheese
78. Lee Mead – Lee Mead
79. Como Ama Una Mujer – Jennifer Lopez
80. Panic Prevention – Jamie T.
81. Light at the End of the World – Erasure
82. D’Elles – Celine Dion
83. Volta – Bjork
84. Twelve – Patti Smith
85. Eat Me, Drink Me – Marilyn Manson
86. Send Away the Tigers – Manic Street Preachers
87. Wild Hope – Mandy Moore
88. Into White – Carly Simon
89. Favourite Worst Nightmare – Arctic Monkeys
90. Hand Built by Robots – Newton Faulkner
91. It’s Christmas Of Course – Darlene Love
92. Introducing Joss Stone – Joss Stone
93. This Time – Mel C.
94. Another Side – John Barrowman
95. Sex Change – Trans Am
96. The Mix Up – Beastie Boys
97. Teo and Tea – Jean Michel Jarre
98. Version – Mark Ronson
99. Robyn – Robyn
100. Christmas Song – Mannheim Steamroller

A few days late on this but it’s been playing in the pod thing on the front page since Saturday, minus “Bonnie et Clyde” which I’ll add ASAP. Also it’s iMixed here minus the Vanessa Paradis song.

This was originally a 75-minute playlist like the last one, I always figure if you pass the 45 minute mark you might as well run to full CD length, lol, even if it’ll never see a shiny platter … but I think I found a new way of doing this now. Make the 75-minute playlist, but cut it back to an hour. There’s always something in the way of the flow and in this case it was LazyTown’s “We Will Be Friends”, Enchanted’s “That’s How You Know” and High School Musical 2’s “You Are The Music In Me”. I love all those songs, but they didn’t fit in to the following at all.

I think this is a gorgeous playlist, even if I do say so myself. I guess I said this last year, and I’ll probably say it next year and the year after, but what can I say, I’m so excited by music, and this year was no exception.

1. Once Upon A Time by Air from Pocket Symphony
– Loads of nice tunes on this album, hard to pick just one of them. Kind of like the Charlotte Gainsbourg album they contributed to last year, just, err, without her.

2. Digital Ghost by Tori Amos from American Doll Posse
– I wasn’t sure about this album at the start, it all felt too disjointed, but song by song there isn’t a bad moment and if I weren’t so obsessed with albums being albums (don’t ask me to elaborate on that, ‘cos I’m still figuring it out myself; all I know is, I know when an album works for me lol), this would probably be at the top of the list this year. This one’s been on my mind for months.

3. Sensitized by Kylie Minogue from X
– If you can relate to how excited I was by both this and Belinda Carlisle’s two (one French, one English) versions of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Bonnie and Clyde” this year, I think we’re basically in sync. I more than love this track, it’s more like an addiction.

4. I Lied by Jenna Von Oy from Breathing Room
– This whole album has really grown on me, but I loved this song right from the start. It reminds me a little of Alisha’s Attic, most particularly, “She Ain’t Missin’ You” which I will never forget breaking into a laughter that completely surprised me following a “break-up” (inverted commas ‘cos I’ve kind of smudged that “relationship” out of history). It’s just hilarious, between the L in AnnaSophia’s “possibilities” during “Keep Your Mind Wide Open” and Jenna’s “about … you” here, I’ve been spoiled for cute girl noises this year lol.

5. If the Lights Go Out by Katie Melua from Pictures
– Say what you will about Katie Melua, I’ve laughed at all the gags from Dead Ringers to last week’s Never Mind the Buzzcocks. But she’s put out a lot of instantly catchy and unforgettable songs for just three albums, and this is one of them for me. Can’t get enough of it.

6. Birds by Kate Nash from Made of Bricks
– I’ve told a few people about this song and the best summary I’ve come up with, it’s a chavvy love song, and it’s beautiful. I mean, really seriously beautiful. “Right – Birds can fly so high / and they can shit on your head, yeh? / They can also fly into your eye and make you feel well scared / But when you look at them and you see that they’re beautiful / That’s how I feel about you” (“she said … ‘waaaaaaaaaaaaat?’ lol) Screw the comparisons to Lily Allen … even if they’re right, there’s easily room enough for two of these type of girls.

7. If I Had a Heart by Joni Mitchell from Shine
– The most difficult album of the year, but this one had me at hello, it’s the satisfying gelling of chords on the word “cry”, I love it.

8. Oh Yeah by The Cliks from Snakehouse
– I seem to have a gift of stumbling across some of my favourite artists as support acts. It began with Raphael at a Vanessa Paradis concert – then Iva Fruhlingova at, who knew? a Raphael concert, lol. And now this. I think I might’ve died without ever knowing of these guys if it weren’t for the Shelly Poole gig in September, which we arrived for geekishly early, these guys have a massive following but their time slot had changed, so we were among around 10-20 people to witness their set that night. Every single one of their songs is as good as this one. I only found out later on that Lucas Silveira, the lead singer, is a trans man, which makes the whole discovery even cooler On the night I actually couldn’t figure out for sure what any of them was.

9. Bonnie et Clyde by Belinda Carlisle from Voilà
– I was actually in full swing of rediscovering the wonders of Belinda Carlisle when I found her MySpace page and the news of this album which came out way back in February. The original (as you should’ve gathered from what I wrote about Sensitized) is one of my favourite songs, and pretty much any cover would thrill me slightly. But I love how different this take is.

10. Versatile Heart by Linda Thompson from Versatile Heart
– I’d never heard of Linda Thompson till I heard the relevant Radio Lab podcast (which I’ve been loving this year) which featured a story about her. The album as a whole doesn’t measure up to this title track, but it’s all good, and sometimes, as Bob Dylan is always saying, one song’s all you need.

11. Society by Eddie Vedder from Into the Wild
– I can’t wait to see this movie, and this song, in addition to it being (yes, I’ve noticed) one of the few male singers on the list, let’s just say, I’m interested in my inner workings that made this selection without me even noticing all that.

12. Let’s Start a Band by Amy MacDonald from This Is The Life
– the whole album is astonishing, the way it builds and then peaks and then … simply never stops, it’s exhaustingly wonderful

13. Emmenez Moi by Vanessa Paradis from Divinidylle
– overall, I’ve gotta say, this album was disappointing, but following Bliss was always gonna be hard (I expect the same from Shelly Poole’s followup to “Hard Time…” next year) But I keep listening to this one. It reminds me of the end of a Tarantino movie or something.

14. Section 24 (The Fragile Army) by Polyphonic Spree from The Fragile Army
– another artist I really mightn’t have happened upon were it not for a very specific live performance, in this case on TV on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Just pure energy

15. The Way by Neil Young from Chrome Dreams II
– My favourite track from this album is “Ordinary People” and I just realised now that having cut the list back by 15 minutes, I could now have included it anyway and still fit the list on one disc I don’t much fancy streaming a fifth of a whole album through the pod thing, though, so I’ll leave this really heartbreakingly light track from my favourite album of the year.

I wasn’t initially going to write about this one but having just raved on about Natasha Bedingfield’s album I think it’d be wrong not to talk about the second listen of this one. I heard about this album relatively late, I think – I really didn’t have any idea it was coming till a couple of weeks ago, if that – but in the short waiting time I’ve had, I was extremely excited about it, a sort-of concept album from Tori sounded just terrific. My first listen, though, was a bit iffy. It’s cool to hear just about every side of Tori’s style in one place, it’s a great showcase for her, but as a result, obviously, it’s not an immediately easy listen and it doesn’t flow as an album as perfectly as, say, “Under the Pink”. It’s basically as sonically schizophrenic as it sounds, Tori singing 23 songs as 5 different characters about just about everything under the sun.

On a second listen though, even though I still don’t think it flows great as a whole, and there are too many songs as far of my idea of a perfect album goes (but that’s just me) ... on a song by song basis, I really can’t complain. There are definitely gems here – even the kind-of obvious “Yo George” demands further listens, and at least she gets it out of the way early and quick (just over a minute in length – I guess when even I’m getting tired of Bush-gibe songs, though, it must be pretty darn trite). I won’t be listening to this all in one go many more times, but I think just about every one of its tracks are tracks I’ll never skip while shuffling iTunes.

BTW I realise I’ve given this 4 ‘discs’ (I promise I’ll think of a less cheesy rating system than this in the future, lol – I have to use a separate thing from the movie ratings ‘cos of how WordPress nests my categories) and Natasha Bedingfield’s 5 while this goes to the top of the year’s list, that’s just my crazy working – I just personally got a huge kick from Nb, while this is just more of a song-by-song, production-wise, etc perfection and it’s no “Under the Pink”, ‘cos, like, y’know … what is?

I guess I’m really writing about this for one reason (two if you count my promise at the beginning of the year to write more about music) – there was a point somewhere around the middle of this album I found myself thinking, “Can I really put this above Rufus Wainwright’s new album in my list of the year so far?” It truly struck me – considering the Wainwright release is definitely not one of his best – as being that good. I wasn’t keen on the first single that came from it, “I Wanna Have Your Babies” – but the first track here absolutely blew me away (“”If it’s weird for girls to give guys flowers / Then maybe that’s a reason to / You’re not climbing up my ivory tower / So I’m coming down for you.” – hmm, wonder why I like that lyric? :)), and though the feeling dulls slightly towards the end (mainly due to the seemingly endless stream of “bonus tracks” separated by silence), it barely lets up for a second. Natasha Bedingfield falls for me somewhere between P!nk and Milla Jovovich, but there’s something else about her voice, it’s just so consistently, astonishingly assured, I think with this album she has easily become one of my favourite artists. The answer to my question, can I put it up there? is yes … this is just how I like my music right now, it’s simple as that. While you can take your Grindhouse and 300 in the cinema and give me more serious and considered matter to chew on, when it comes to my tunes, I want Avril Lavigne and Natasha Bedingfield, and I can’t wait for Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s new one too. It’s probably incredibly uncultured and dumb, but I say the same for the Tarantino fanboys, so nerrrrrrrrrrrrr

Firstly, I need to say, this album definitely made me love Rufus again. I’d sort of gone off him recently in one of those sort of stupid, “actually, he’s okay, it’s just the majority of his fans that piss me off, so I’m out,” sort of deals. That combined with the concert I went to of his that was just very disappointing in a lot of ways (again, not entirely to do with the man himself). What I’d hoped for from this album, following the extremely self-indulgent “Want” project (“Want Two” in particular – not saying they weren’t great albums, but sometimes the classical stuff was a little overwhelming), was the most unabashed pop Rufus is able to deliver. For the most part, I can’t complain. It starts brilliantly – “Do I Disappoint You” sets the hairs on the back of your neck on end within seconds, and it’s followed by my absolute favourite by far on the album, “Going to a Town” (“I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down – I’m so tired of you, America …”)

The first half of the album is better than the second half, which ends on the hugely disappointing title track, which is about the most pointless song I’ve ever heard – the title of this record evokes so many things, and what the song turns out to be about is just … really, really, pointless. Maybe if it wasn’t the title track, maybe if it came somewhere in the middle of the album, sure, it’s an okay song … but not a title track or finale, not by a long shot. But like I said, for its highlights, I really can’t complain about this album. For better or worse, it’s the best album of the year I’ve heard so far, and I’m sure people will want to crucify me for saying so, but it only narrowly beats out the new Avril Lavigne record in my books.

I’d been avoiding this because in general I dislike compilations no matter how official they may be, but after seeing the episode of the BBC’s Imagine about the Cirque du Soleil show that this album (yes, I’m gonna call this an album, so sue me) is the background to, I just had to check it out.

In short, it’s absolutely extraordinary, a journey through the very best of the Beatles, a story in itself, the story of a band, the story of its fans, the story of the whole time period they occupied, the story of love. It’s so many things, and you can completely lose yourself in it again and again (I’ve listened to it twice already today). I don’t know how anybody could listen to these 80 minutes and deny The Beatles’ brilliance, even genius. The new mixes don’t often differ hugely from the originals aside from sounding spectacularly cleaner etc (I think this might eventually be my first 5.1 audio purchase when I have suitable equipment to play it on), but when they do deviate, they deviate in the most unusual ways and it’s almost ethereal. If you’ve seen any clips of the Cirque du Soleil show (there are some on their site) – heck if you’ve seen the whole show even better (god would I love to) – the experience is even better. You can really see those guys doing their thing in your head as you’re listening. The Beatles music fits their work so well it’s wonder it wasn’t done sooner (I say that even knowing how long the remix process has taken).

That Ringo Starr’s “Octopus’ Garden” is included is the icing on the cake for me, ‘cos it’s one of my favourites and you just never hear it enough. Should I have ever actually seen the show I would’ve almost regretted hearing this recording first, because in the form it appears here, I swear I would’ve be in tears if I wasn’t expecting it.

It’s absolutely incredible, and though technically it’s a compilation, I’ve gotta say, one of the best albums of 2006. You feel the electricity that happened between The Beatles and their fans, you feel their sound developing, you hear them rehearsing, playing, experimenting and when it hits Sgt. Pepper, you can almost feel them become musical gods before your very ears. It’s really, really, really incredible, I wish I had better words to describe it. I hope they filmed the actual show for a future DVD release, or that they put it on tour or something at least.

1. The Life Pursuit – Belle and Sebastian
2. 5:55 – Charlotte Gainsbourg
3. Friendly Fire – Sean Lennon
4. Folk is the New Black – Janis Ian
5. Free to Stay – Smoosh
6. Never Said Goodbye – Cerys Matthews
7. Imaginary World – Tim Finn
8. Fictions – Jane Birkin
9. Modern Times – Bob Dylan
10. Love – The Beatles
11. The Drift – Scott Walker
12. LazyTown – LazyTown
13. Endless Wire – The Who
14. Alright, Still – Lily Allen
15. Ringleader of the Tormentors – Morrissey
16. Surprise – Paul Simon
17. An Other Cup – Yusuf
18. Wintersong – Sarah McLachlan
19. It’s Only Time – Drake Bell
20. One More Drifter in the Snow – Aimee Mann
21. Living With War – Neil Young
22. Resistance a la Nuit – Raphael
23. Rudebox – Robbie Williams
24. Jarvis – Jarvis Cocker
25. 9 – Damien Rice
26. Four on the Floor – Juliette and the Licks
27. Ys – Joanna Newsom
28. Beautiful World – Take That
29. Essential Musicals – Elaine Paige
30. The Path We Chose – Prussian Blue
31. I’m Not Dead – Pink
32. The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living – The Streets
33. Paris – Paris Hilton
34. Lohan Holiday – Ali Lohan
35. The Open Door – Evanescence
36. Goodbye Alice in Wonderland – Jewel
37. Rabbit Fur Coat – Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins
38. The Avalanche – Sufjan Stevens
39. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards – Tom Waits
40. Love Travels at Illegal Speeds – Graham Coxon
41. Real Life – Joan as Police Woman
42. Stranger Things – Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
43. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
44. Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not – Arctic Monkeys
45. The Captain and the Kid – Elton John
46. Loose – Nelly Furtado
47. All the Roadrunning – Mark Knopfler and Emmy-Lou Harris
48. Fundamental – Pet Shop Boys
49. Bat out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose – Meat Loaf
50. Life in Mono – Emma Bunton
51. American V: A Hundred Highways – Johnny Cash
52. Comfort of Strangers – Beth Orton
53. Falling in Between – Toto
54. Favourite Things – Connie Fisher
55. The Eraser – Thom Yorke
56. The Greatest – Cat Power
57. The Sweet Escape – Gwen Stefani
58. At War With the Mystics – The Flaming Lips
59. 3121 – Prince
60. A Whole New World – Katie Price and Peter Andre (I feel the urge to say – actually not that bad! lol)
61. Forever Diamondz – Bratz