ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.2 - JOAN AS POLICEWOMAN, The Deep Field

We've heard a lot about a singer called Rumer this year and the thing that's often remarked about her is the similarity in her voice to Karen Carpenter. Well about five years ago I too was introduced to an incredible female voice that, to my ears, could also summon echoes of that great 70s easy listening songbird. Joan Wasser though has a little bit extra, that spark of genius that seems lacking in Rumer whose smoothness and easiness attains knuckle gnawing levels. Joan though has rough edges, a soulfulness and depth in her musical range that means she'll never have completely laid bare her full potential. Not just that, she's cool too. When home in the US she drives around in a cop car (hence the name) watching passing cars hastily observe the speed limits.

On her first two albums there's been an overwhelming melancholy to her work, inviting comparisons to her old boyfriend Jeff Buckley and the king of bittersweet, Elliott Smith. With 'The Deep Field' however it's quite a different story as Joan makes a mockery of the cliche that an artist experiencing some personal contentment will not produce great work. This album really could have been titled 'Joan As Policewoman Sings About Love' so blatantly does she rev up the sexy mood. 'Human Condition' even has a deep Barry White style backing vocalist seducing the listener, all played out totally straight, no tongue in cheek. I'd say that her cleverest stroke across the album is the way she describes these positive developments in her life with a sense of doubt; as if she doesn't quite trust the feeling to last but she's got to discipline herself into enjoying these moments while they're still good. Let's not ignore though the brilliance of the funky groove found on 'The Magic' or the fun that exudes in the old school R&B visited on 'Chemmie'. The album ends on an orgasmic high, the slow building 'I Was Everyone' rising a-la Otis Redding on 'Try A Little Tenderness' as Joan sings of the power in finding your voice and bringing the world your message. If some of this sounds a little corny then cast aside those doubts, 'The Deep Field' is one of the most satisfying and joyously life celebrating albums ever released and a pivotal moment in the work of Joan Wasser.

Free music - The Deep Field

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.3 - THE WATERBOYS, An Appointment With Mr. Yeats

I wonder if Mike Scott of the Waterboys sees a little of himself in this famous line from the W.B. Yeats poem 'The Second Coming'; "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of a passionate intensity". Scott has perpetually warn his 'difficult to work with' badge on his sleeve, never one to knowingly pander to, co-operate with or compromise to the slick machinations of the music industry. A monumental singer-songwriter who has left a trail of Bob Dylan or Neil Young levels of single mindedness in his determination to not be one of the good guys controlled like a corporate puppet. For 30 years now he has taken the unpredictable career decision at every turn. That is until now, there's something wholly inevitable about this album. For starters the progress has been charted for a few years now with updates and reports on The Waterboys website. That's not all however, right back in 1988 on the bands 'Fisherman's Blues' album a Yeats poem, 'The Stolen Child', was set to music helping to produce a heavy duty ending to a classic record. In 1993 too Yeats' words appeared on a stand-out album track 'Love And Death'. So the masters work is clearly no new obsession for Mike Scott. For this then, a whole song cycle built around the work of Yeats he's, possibly for the last time if past form is anything to go by, pulled out an archetypal Waterboys sounding album. In much the same way as Dylan went for his most commercial sound ever on 'Slow Train Coming' in order to get the new Christian message over un-impeded, it's as if Mike Scott wants to ensure that this project stands as one of the most important works in his catalogue. All those musical signatures instantly recognisable as Waterboys are here; the Steve Wickham fiddles, the energetic Celtic-Soul informed Folk-Rock, that rootsy electric keyboard sound and Scott riding these waves and reaching for the stars. When the album came out in the Autumn Mike did the interview rounds telling people his band were bucking the trend of acts playing entire records from their back catalogue in concert by taking a whole new album on the road. What he really tried to do was mask the fact that he'd put more promotional push behind this record than ever before. This record, it seems, is pretty important to Mike Scott and that alone warrants paying it some attention. His ability to marry these poems to an aural setting is remarkable, there's absolutely no question mark as to whether turning them into songs is a good idea. You try reading 'September 1913' without the music after hearing the song version and it can't be done; the tune is playing in your head because it's now a vital missing element and the words can no longer pan out in any other way. So just as he enters a fourth decade in music making (the point when Dylan commenced a brilliant creative renaissance incidentally) Mike Scott has created one of his greatest works. Follow the links below for a listen:

Free music - An Appointment with Mr Yeats

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.4 - TOM WAITS, Bad As Me

I make no apologies for the appearances of legendary artists in the end of year lists. I certainly have no bias against newer stuff but I do feel that there can be a lot of over emphasis on it in other lists. Music isn't exclusively fresh and exciting just because it has been made by a previously unknown face. Indeed there are many artists working today making the strongest case ever for age and experience, artistic growth and the benefits thereof. I can assure you that if The xx release an album of songs next year as strong as Tom Waits has here I will be on it. That said, they'd have to go some for 'Bad As Me' is a record that's awe inspiringly good. He's composed a bunch of songs with partner/collaborator Kathleen Brennan that are amongst the greatest of his career. Yes, you may have heard they're more concise than on recent records but in no way should that imply throwaway. Quite the opposite, the discipline in maintaining brevity and immediacy has kept the standard of writing impossibly high. There isn't one song here that won't have some kind of life beyond this album. This is material ripe for interpretation by others or at least for extensive use in future films and soundtracks. The Waits unique vocal signature is pretty faultless as well, whether vamping up the Nick Cave dramatics on 'Raised Right Men' or consuming the spirits of Howlin' Wolf and Captain Beefheart. In fact 'Satisfied' is both a devastating echo of 'Wang Dang Doodle' and a nod of affection to the Rolling Stones with it's "Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards, I will have satisfaction". Keith appears himself occasionally, best of all with a weary backing vocal on the gorgeous 'Last Leaf'. This is already an essential Tom Waits album, which with frequent bursts of Rockabilly, R&B and primal Blues could work as a perfect entry point for anyone not yet touched by the mans genius. Final track 'New Years Eve' even includes a couple of heartfelt, almost heart breaking, choruses of 'Auld Lang Syne'; an emotional and quite lovely ending to a wonderful record. Have a listen to title track 'Bad As Me' below:

http://open.spotify.com/album/7EhpK2nODFm0LJy750vFQR

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.5 - ALELA DIANE, Alela Diane And Wild Divine

One of the finest Folk-Rock albums in recent years actually suffered a bit of under-appreciation in 2011, or at least was damned by faint praise. Latching onto the fact that Alela left behind the stripped back, purely acoustic sounds of her first two albums and brought in a backing band, many rather dismissively called this an attempt at a pop album. The narrow minded opinion of "I like the early work of Alela Diane" could be heard spoken by some who really should know better. But then, wasn't it always this way with the folk crowd? That anti Dylan going electric mentality sometimes still rises to the surface you know. In an entirely unrelated incident, I attended a Michelle Shocked gig in Cambridge a few years ago when one disgruntled audience member got the singers attention and forcefully requested that she ask her band to stop playing along with her. And this was after Michelle had opened the evening by playing a solo acoustic set! Anyway, wade through all the waffle that can fly around when an artist makes a, to my ears inevitable, shift in direction and the only thing to conclude with 'Alela Diane & Wild Divine' is that it is a quite beautiful record. The accompaniment brings a sweet honey-like fluidity to the song suite, at times Country and others Acid-Folk but always an aural delight. Yes the air of the Laurel Canyon that I loved so much on the Jonathan Wilson album floats around, so maybe there's an element of personal preference here; but I'll back my own tastes on this one. Alela's voice is hypnotic, sweet and pure; no vibrato, just a sharp and soulful instrument of aching loveliness. The songs too are keepers, the kind that stay with you for a while. Take a couple of listens to 'Elijah' or 'Suzanne' and I guarantee those chorus lines will be with you for days. So please take note of this one, some artists do lose identity and direction or just simply run out of ideas once they stray from the pure essence of whatever element brought them to attention in the first place. Alela Diane on the other hand is clearly not of that ilk; her 2011 'electric' album showing her potential to make some of the best singer-songwriter music we'll find in the coming years.

Free music - Alela Diane & Wild Divine

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.6 - PETER GABRIEL, New Blood

When putting together a list like this perhaps the one kind of album that should never appear is a greatest hits set or a compilation. For that reason alone I hesitated momentarily about the inclusion of this years Peter Gabriel set but then, such was the impact this record had on my musical year, it was literally only a moments deliberation. After all, if you're going to be particular about the actual year of composition on any album in an end of year selection then that would knock out the vast majority of classical records up for contention. Besides, in orchestral terms, pretty much every song here uses the original structure as the loosest of back bones from which a whole lot of imaginative new music is created. Strange to think that Gabriel has so doggedly resisted a heavily pushed for return to his Progressive Rock days by re-uniting with Genesis, with their frequent early leanings into extended song forms and classical persuasions. Yet here he is, working with a full orchestra and yet still managing to move forward. You'd think some of those Genesis pieces he hasn't gone near for 30-40 years would hold some pull with such a large ensemble at his disposal yet he refuses to even consider them. The oldest work covered here is 1977's solo debut single 'Solsbury Hill' and even that's tacked on the end of the album as if to serve as an audience pleasing encore. Instead Gabriel re-works tracks that may have seemed the least suited to a classical makeover. Something like 'Rhythm Of The Heat' was originally created as a vehicle for an early 80s obsession with working songs from the back beat upwards, with the throbbing pulse of the piece both the starting point and the central theme. You'd be forgiven for thinking that beyond a bit of atmospheric background sound, there'd be little for the orchestra to work with. That's where the effort put into this album has really paid off. Songs like 'San Jacinto' and 'Darkness' are awash with newly created layers, lines, textures and sections. 1980's 'Intruder' more than anything was not calling out for orchestration, built as it originally was around a groundbreaking compressed drum beat, but here it's hammer horrored into whole new dimensions of suspense and creepiness. And the most satisfying thing for the long time Gabriel admirer is how he's been bold enough to put his fantastic voice at the front of all this, making a definitive showcase for one of the greatest vocalists of the Rock era.

Free music - New Blood

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.7 - THE BLACK KEYS, El Camino

Because the run this band are on is the most exciting in Rock music at the moment. They've got the ears that absorb decades of guitar music history and the creativity to turn that learning into something brilliant and new that 100% belongs to today. Last year they flexed a Soul, R&B and Hip-Hop muscle discovered in amongst their raw Blues make up. This time the Rock, or the raawk, is vamped up to centre stage and 'El Camino' literally steamrollers past you as a result. The riffs are mind blowing in their variety, from fuzzed up Glam-Rock show boating to head-slamming Blues intensity. The Black Keys road to legendary status continues apace; check out the preview below:

Free music - El Camino

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.8 - MY MORNING JACKET, Circuital

With 'Circuital' My Morning Jacket have completed their journey from purveyors of out-and-out Southern Rock into the versatile experimental pop beast they threatened, at times unconvincingly, to be in 2008 with 'Evil Urges'. They're basically a vehicle for the visionary songwriting talent of Jim James and of late he's really shown a refusal to be pigeonholed by genre. As was hinted at with the George Harrison tribute set released under the name Yim Yames, his musical artistic template is none other than the wide open palette that The Beatles operated within. Fortunately, his compositional skills have a range to match and this record has brought to the forefront the premier league standard of his songs. Tunes like 'Victory Dance' and in particular 'Outta My System' (about the writers relief at having put his wild days behind him combined with understanding as to why he behaved that way at all) are direct and beautiful melodies, the kind that provoke wonder that you haven't heard the song before, as the best songs often do. Stand out foot stomper 'Holding On To Black Metal' is a tantalising mixture of soulful chorus backing vocals, funky riffing and viscious guitar slashing alongside a daring James falsetto vocal. Played live it's even more of an impressive piledriver. This is a strong album from start to finish and it's one that cements My Morning Jacket's position as a band serving the muse of one songwriting genius a-la Wilco; the difference possibly being that this band are still building towards a career defining creative peak.

Free music - Circuital (Deluxe Edition)

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.9 - DANGER MOUSE & DANIELE LUPPI, Rome

This project may have begun as a loving trip into the world of Italian film scores of the 60s and 70s, an affectionate nod to a sound, style and era highly regarded by both Luppi and Danger Mouse, but it's ended up as something with a whole lot more substance than a mere impressionist tribute. It's a touch simplistic to just put that down to the involvement of Jack White and Norah Jones, neither Brian Burton or Luppi are lightweights when it comes to production, but there's no doubt the two distinct vocalists bring a certain drama to the set with White in particular treating the project to every ounce of the commercial ear he'd bring to the work of his own bands. Norah Jones too is regularly sending out the signals that the next period of her career could hold some mouth watering surprises as she continues to evolve away from the rather MOR Jazz informed vein she first appeared in ten years ago. With 'Rome' it's the infusion of a Rock element that I feel lends the album a proper sense of drama and gravitas. At times the lolling grandeur is more akin to the anxiety and slowly unfolding emotional landscape first heard on Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. With the combined best efforts of four significant musical talents we end up with one of 2011's strongest and most satisfying pieces.

Free music - Rome

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.10 - FLEET FOXES, Helplessness Blues

Let's face it, the purity of vision in Fleet Foxes incredible debut album was never going to be repeated. There was a directness to that set which left an instant impression with songs that knocked you out immediately because os their melodies. The gorgeous close harmonies and wall-of-sound Folk music were merely the icing on the cake. 'Helplessness Blues' on the other hand is a harder listen at first, it may take four or five goes before these songs really lock together and start to make sense. This is still lush Folk-Pop bound with amazing Beach Boys vocals to make a unique baroque flavour. But this time there's more, the expressive guitar patterns on 'The Cascades' bring to mind the pastoral shades of the UK's progressive Folk years in the early 70s as all over more experimental tangents are thrown in. Towards the end 'The Shrine/An Argument' explodes at one point with what sounds like a burst of far out sax blowing Jazz hard bop. Then, as if to remind us of who we're dealing with, they close on 'Grown Ocean' which ebbs and flows with a hymnal, hypnotic grace. The Fleet Foxes second album expands on their debut whilst retaining the core elements that set them apart from the pack. Given time, it opens up to become an even better record than that hugely acclaimed debut.

Free music - Helplessness Blues

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.11 - JILL SCOTT, The Light Of The Sun

After attaining possibly her most high profile status ever via a leading acting role in HBO's 'The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency' it's been a relief to find that Soul music hadn't lost one of it's greatest female voices to the world of TV and film. Far from it as it's turned out, in so many ways Jill has seriously laid her soul bare on this incredible comeback record. In fact details of a relationship lived between records (leading to the birth of a child) are dished up across this album in raw detail with wit, venom and a raw intensity. If the love expressed for her child in opening track 'Blessed' comes over a little syrupy it at least also sounds 100% sincere. The positive attitude pours out of every groove, there's no self pity here and even a tune like 'Quick', basically an expression of regret at the brevity of the affair that gave her a son, has a knowing wink in its eye. With human beatbox Doug E. Fresh backing up on 'All Cried Out Redux' Scott brilliantly recalls the fun and innocence of the early Rap days. Best of all is 'Shame', a funky tune so familiarly infectious you keep thinking "it must be an old Northern Soul track",  "it's gotta be an old Disco classic". This isn't 'old school' in the sense that it's going for a conscious vintage retro vibe; it's more 'old skool' because it sounds totally now but, as this lady's got so much class, it instantly sounds like it belongs in the upper league of Souls back pages. It's been a year in which Beyonce has crowned herself 'Soul Queen' thanks to some well chosen high profile shows and an actually not all that bad, more adult orientated record.  For us though, nothing has quite hit the diva spot as indelibly as this versatile odyssey by Jill Scott, a real undervalued album that delivers on every single track.

Free music - The Light Of The Sun

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.12 - PAUL SIMON, So Beautiful Or So What

Yesterday I sang the praises of current recording artists putting out new material with more regularity than has become the norm in modern times. So today I find that my plaudits are going to an artist who has, on this occasion and similarly in the past, taken about five years to produce a new album. To be fair to Paul Simon though, he did keep that album-a-year work rate up when he was in his twenties so nowadays he's pretty much earned the right to take whatever time he wants. He's always been a meticulous worker anyway and at least doing things thoroughly he ensures that when he does put out an album it will be something worth listening to. I'll say this for him too; out of all the songwriters of his generation he is arguably the only one who to this day constantly moves forward with every release. Paul Simon has never repeated himself across his entire career. 

This time around he's created a sonic mix that brilliantly blends electro-Rock sounds with more flowing acoustic guitar work than Simon's indulged in for at least 30 years. Top that off with some thunderous rhythms and a lyrical turn that's as sharp, witty and moving as we've ever heard from this songwriters pen and you've got a legend enjoying an Indian summer every bit as potent as Bob Dylan's or Neil Young's. Yes there's layers upon layers of incredible production flourishes to marvel at but underneath it all Simon has once again written some great songs. It's such a shame that the singles chart have become so Urban dominant because there's little doubt that the man could still write hit singles in his sleep. He had a stab at it last Christmas by releasing the infectious lead track 'Getting Ready For Christmas Day' as a single. It really should have been given a chance to make a mark on the festive market, with a looping hook and a finely aimed lyric about the unfortunates who have to celebrate the season of good will far from home in a war zone, it's chances of  becoming a winter standard were surely robbed. I mean unless you specifically followed the work of Paul Simon you'd be forgiven for not knowing he even had a Christmas single out this time last year, let alone hearing that it was pretty good. The dark humour is a treat too, especially from the earnest songwriter who in 1968 wrote the line "how terribly strange to be seventy". Now that strangeness is near, he's imagining scenes of God returning to the 21st Century Earth and declaring "the people are slobs here" and a journey into heaven that requires a wait in line and a form to be filled in. But then it's not all tongue in cheek and when the fantastic closing track sings "you know that life is what you make of it, so beautiful or so what" you see that Paul Simon has nailed it again just as he always could.

Free music - So Beautiful Or So What

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.13 - LAURA MARLING, A Creature I Don't Know

In 1992 R.E.M. released 'Automatic For The People' 18 months after their big commercial breakthrough album 'Out Of Time'. I recall at the time some shock was expressed by observers unable to countenance how a big act could produce a follow up album so quickly. "They managed it because they didn't tour 'Out Of Time'" was the general conclusion. U2 won similar praise for releasing 'Zooropa' a mere two years after its predecessor; "EP sessions that got unexpectedly creative" came the consensus of explanation. Nowadays, and I don't know if it's down to the collapse of major label marketing strategies or advances in recording technologies or just a general speeding up of processes brought by the internet, but a 3-4 year gap between albums is no longer taken as standard. This is great news too, that Beatles work rate of creating two albums worth of material per year is the output I still believe new acts should work towards, especially in their first ten years. I mean obviously bands like Coldplay still indulge in that extended time lapse but then they've got to come up with a multitude of gimmicks to deflect attention from their piss-poor music. Laura Marling is by no means alone in following up a great 2010 album with another this year (take The Roots yesterday doing exactly the same thing, and there's others in this years list) but she's worthy of praise because not only has she followed up quickly but she's also topped the earlier effort. This time around the sound is slowly beginning to branch out, although the influence of that golden late 60s early 70s period I spoke of last year continues to resonate with one beloved Canadian singer-songwriter shining through. With the intimacy of those gently plucked nylon guitar strings, then the distant, angelic and choral female backing vocals drifting behind the up-close and occasionally semi-spoken Laura Marling dialogue this is pure early Leonard Cohen. Short of recording on analogue in a Montreal bedsit it's hard to reckon how she could possibly get any closer to that classic sound. In fact she's pulled it off with such aplomb over the last two records now that I wouldn't be surprised if she leaves it behind in the future. Indeed there are pointers here that a change is about to happen. Take the albums midway diversion into crunching electric guitars and snarled delivery on 'The Beast', here already is a side to Marling we have yet to see much of. On opener 'The Muse' the Cohen/Dylan-esque vocalising is still deployed but there's Jazz piano breaks and a frantic air of guitar picking urgency. The record concludes on a pretty jubilant note too, with the words "all my rage has gone" repeated around the most uplifting foot-stomping refrain of her career. Three albums in now and still impossibly young, the potential in Laura Marling is a rare thing indeed and we're very lucky to have both her and her music.

Free music - A Creature I Don't Know

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.14 - THE ROOTS, Undun

If you’re looking for a record with an album length story arc, based on a semi-fictional character whose story unfolds across dramatic interludes on a song suite where each number seamlessly blends into one another. A concept album where the voices of the ensemble seem to step in and out of character in order to illustrate the drama, as musical themes are stretched out during an instrumental section with a classical suite in four movements. If this is the kind of album you desire then surely you’ll flip back to the Prog-Rock scene of the early 70s wouldn’t you? You’re not going to hope to find such a grand premise and the musical dexterity to pull it off in the US Rap arena, now are you? I’m being a touch facetious here, not to mention forgetful, for I already made plain in last year’s countdown that we’re witnessing an incredible modern day act blossom into an amazing maturity with The Roots. They are just so multi-talented it’s frightening. It’s not simply that they’ve attempted a deep work of urban fiction with this album, it’s that it is executed with so much credibility; on every single track the vibe of the music captures the exact sensation being experienced by the stories central character. Even a relatively upbeat song like ‘The Other Side’ somehow manages to capture a sense of overwhelming foreboding. It’s nothing short of a musical work with the detail and punch of TV’s acclaimed crime drama ‘The Wire’. It’s only been released this month and may yet stand the test of time as one of the greatest pieces of work in 2012 but at the moment I’m tempering my amazement by considering the longer held appreciation and love I have for the albums placed above it, but this is pretty damn special!

Free music - Undun (Explicit Version)

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.15 - P.J. HARVEY, Let England Shake

In PJ Harvey’s mind, an England shaken to its core would see the big black crows being stunned and disturbed enough to flee their nests and fly away in blind panic. That alone is the visual representation on the cover of this album and it’s an image that Harvey’s taken to her stage show, appearing in a sort of ruffled crows feather head dress standing alone and separate from her band mates, as if to emphasise the observation role she now finds herself in. This is just one of the many finer attentions to detail you’ll find on this concept record, a suite of songs in some ways similar in category to Neil Young’s ‘Living With War’ in that it focuses exclusively in the modern day military conflicts our country finds itself involved in. Rather than protest however, these songs are more of the perspective of a reporter and a brutally honest scribe at that. This songwriter doesn’t just leave her commentary at the plain facts, she also lays bare the horrific impression these scenes have left upon her. Neil Young tried to revive the tradition of protest music but PJ Harvey appears to have learnt that those 1960s topical tunesmiths were doomed to failure, at least in terms of how much difference their songs actually made in the grand scheme of things. That doesn’t stop her from occasionally pointing the finger though; take ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ questioning the lack of support for those suffering from traumatic stress with its “what if I take my problem to the United Nations?” The one other great thing about this PJ Harvey album though it has to be noted is that, like on ‘Stories From The City Stories From The Sea’, when she has a real lyrical message or theme to put across she really pulls her best tunes out of the bag. ‘Let England Shake’ is a record with an abundance of important messages wrapped up in music that you’ll want to keep on coming back to. There’s some strong competition for the title, but this might just edge it as her masterpiece.

Free music - Let England Shake

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.16 - THE UNTHANKS, Last

It can be so hard to love some Folk music with it's basis in tradition. The very sight of Kate Rusby and her sensible clothes and her Daily Mail face so full of contempt for the modern world with her legion of fans worshipping her for nothing more than the politeness of her music and the inane stage banter about jelly babies. I don't mind a bit of arts and crafts you know, but that world can stumble so easily into overtly twee territory that the chances of finding a bit of genuine raw emotion amongst that tribes choice of folksy music can be remote. On paper the Unthanks should be more twee than a home made Christmas Wooly bobble hat with matching sweater and socks, after all they're a tight knit sibling based traditional combo at home in rural surrounds whose stock in trade is traditional material. The truth is quite the opposite, theirs is a sound that is as pure and lovely as you'll ever hear and at every step it's clear that music is their primary concern. They're not traditional because they yearn for bygone eras, it's merely the easiest category for commentators to land them in; I doubt they care much for those limiting name tags at all, it's clear that they possess the questing spirit of all music buffs simply from the obscure yet inspired choices of material. Yes there's tradition but we also visit a Tom Waits tune along with material created by the chief Unthanks composer Adrian McNally. It's hard to pick out these changes in source without prior knowledge though, the whole set flows like a perfectly formed sequence right down to the closing reprise of album centrepiece and title track 'Last'.

With 'Last' the Unthanks have delivered their most assured, complete album of music to date. A record that's perfect in every detail, down to the antique dance scene on the cover chosen to depict the importance of direct human interaction in an age when we spend too much time staring at computer screens. Best of all, and evidence of what committed music fans this bunch really are, they're about to release an album of Antony & The Johnsons and Robert Wyatt music. Ask yourself this; can you imagine Kate Rusby listening to a Robert Wyatt album? I picture her, a couple of tracks in, moaning in those flat Barnsley intonations "it's all a bit weird isn't it?"

Free music - Last

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.17 - WILCO, The Whole Love

Here’s an album that wasn’t going to make our top 20 initially. It’s problem? Well none really other than the sense that it was merely just another very good album by Wilco. Now there’s no shame in that of course, but these days they’re a band enjoying the most settled line up of their life and perhaps there was a sense that they were a tad too comfortable with the recording process. Things kick off sharply enough; there are some who hear the hypnotic Krautrock vibe of opener ‘Art Of Almost’ and wish that Wilco would go for it with an albums worth of experimental fare. That’s not where they ‘re at though now; in fact if it wasn’t for the fact that they appear a fairly amiable working unit I’d say they’re almost going through a kind of ‘White Album’ phase. This band are really exploring their sonic and stylistic ranges which is why a Country type tune is followed by a song with Britpop flourishes (‘Capitol City’, it even ends with very English sounding church bells) amongst out and out Rockers, Garage Rock and then finally the strung out Folk picking of the long flowing narrative ‘One Sunday Morning’. This is the track that resonates the longest on the album, it’s a major Tweedy piece of writing that beautifully illustrates the story of a son’s fractious conflict of religious opinion with his father and the feelings he experiences on the older man’s passing. Already a highlight of this great songwriters back catalogue, I suppose it does have the unfortunate effect of Dylan’s ‘Wedding Song’ on ‘Planet Waves’ in that it slightly overrides the impression left by the perfectly fine album that’s preceded it. Maybe that too was the reason this record wasn’t looking initially like a contender for the year’s best. As we have seen on the past few records by Wilco however, the entire set is packed with an expansive pallet of slowly unfolding pleasures. Now I feel it sits proud alongside the best of their work and we should cherish them why this combination remains together. This is the band’s defining period of work as they’re slowly, subtly putting together one of the finest music catalogues in the modern era.

Free music - The Whole Love (Deluxe Edition)

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.18 - DEVOTCHKA, 100 Lovers

Devotchka are one of those bands where I’m genuinely envious of anyone who hasn’t discovered them yet; bubbling below or around that mythical radar that most decent acts remain forever beneath. They’re a pretty difficult band to pin down though; a multi-instrumental four piece from Denver, they sound at times more like an Eastern European rabble-rousing Indie-Folk collective. This is largely thanks to the yearning cold swoon in the vocal of singer Nick Urata but this too is a strong spiritual weapon in the bands impressive arsenal. Since enjoying something of a minor US breakthrough in 2008 with ‘A Mad And Faithful Telling’ they’ve consolidated that position in the live arena, particularly impressing when supporting Muse in front of 90,000 strong crowds. Compositionally too, they’ve enjoyed movie soundtrack success including award winning work on the ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ film. But it’s here, on the home ground of an original album that their genius really shines on; they’re writing songs with a real cinematic flare that current studio collaborators Calexico have helped occupy a vast landscape that’s all their own. Add to that the multitude of international reference points and you end up with that rare thing today, a sound that is truly unique. On ‘All The Sand In All The Sea’ they manage to reclaim the Turkish rhythm used by Dave Brubeck on ‘Blue Rondo A La Turk’, stick a rocket up it and send it flying off to previously unimagined destinations. Elsewhere we’re awash with whistles, flutes, bouzoukis, accordions, trumpets and drums stirred to the most potent brew of rampant gypsy-soul to be found anywhere at the moment. Please take the time to preview this great album below:

Free music - 100 Lovers

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.19 - JONATHAN WILSON, Gentle Spirit

This is one of the big revelation albums of 2011. A record that opens up to full bloom slowly and gently, revealing as it does wave upon wave of melodious, textural, layered beauty and warmth. A proper album, at double LP length on vinyl that you can lose yourself to under the headphones, on a spaced out evening or melt into on a hot summers’ afternoon. Best of all, it rewards the repeated listens time and again. The only problem, and I mean the only problem, is that its cultural reference points are so strong that it has at times been swamped by comparisons to them. I mean Wilson lived and recorded large chunks of the record in Laurel Canyon, he’s used a 1972 analogue recording console and a 1969 guitar, he’s performed with David Crosby, Graham Nash and Jackson Browne this past year and even appeared on TV backing Robbie Robertson so he’s hardly shying away from the connections. The similarities in sound on the opening bars of ‘Can We Really Party Today’ to the general laid back vibe of Neil Young’s ‘After The Gold Rush’ album are incredible.

The point surely is though, that none of that matters a jot. Just as the current crop of Retro Soul purveyors are following that vintage path because it expresses what they want to do with their music the best, so too an artist like Wilson naturally settles on a period from Rock history when free flowing instrumental excursions, solos and dreamy reflective lyrical tangents were the norm. It’s not limiting because this music feels boundless in its scope. His current workmates are pretty significant too, for people like Andy and Otto of Vetiver (who both feature here) and the Fleet Foxes are amongst the most exciting of America’s current crop of acoustic, Folk-Rock friendly bands. One other flavour that I think comes through quite heavily is Elliott Smith; he’s floating in there somewhere amongst the breathy vocals and melancholy acoustic picking. With this first official debut album (there was an earlier recording in 2007 that didn’t get a proper release) Jonathan Wilson has given us a gift glimmering with the rays of a golden age in music that isn’t for one moment wishing it was 1969. Instead it searches for hope, peace and love in the modern world with the ready acknowledgement that all is not right with the way things are; in doing so he has delivered a wonderful, timeless and extensive piece to cherish forever.

Free music - Gentle Spirit

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 No.20 - CAROLINE FAUCHET, Piano

I'll admit that I came to this album because I quite liked the look of the cover, something about it said that this would be less an album about studied reverence and far more a vibrant musician artist looking to express herself through these pieces. Really it's only the Chopin Nocturne that opens here that could be said to be an obvious route for a solo pianist to take, the journey's a pretty radical one after that and all the more thrilling for it. Little is known about Fauchet, it would appear she is 26 and her Mother was a violinist, her Father a pianist and she found her way into music by following them around on concert tours. It appears she took some time working out which particular instrument to settle on before ultimately making the piano her font; an obvious choice it can be said with hindsight for her playing is impossibly sensitive to the feel of the compositions. I guarantee once you zone in on the flow of these pieces the spell will not be snapped until the last note fades away (or crashes to a thunderous halt as is actually the case here). She certainly saves the best to last, with a trio of lively and lush pieces by the under-valued 20th Century Argentine composer Alberto Ginestera. The Latin American flavours at the core of these pieces shine brightly and reveal Fauchet to be a pianist of some considerable flare. I for one want to find out and hear a lot more. Have a listen to this wonderful record through the link below:

Free music - Caroline Fauchet - Piano

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011

As promised exactly 12 months ago today, if our end of year Top 20 failed to hit the spot last year we would return again for another attempt, so here it is. Starting tomorrow, our 20 favourite albums of the year will be highlighted daily, in the order of our choosing, building up to the big reveal of the winner on New Years Day. There's no change to the judging criteria, these are the albums that we've enjoyed the most deciphered by the trusty method of just listening to lots of music as much as is humanly possible. Where the system gets a tad skewed is when, as has just occured, two of our top 20 albums are released in the month of December. I mean it's a safe bet that the top two records, both of which have received regular plays for most of the year, are assured placings but when there's only been a few days the potential for lessening appeal with repeated plays is still very real. That said, the two records I'm thinking of here are so fine that the only real danger is in twelve months time I might feel they should have appeared higher up the chart. Hey ho, there you go...

Musically 2011 has often seen more brilliant albums coming out than a mere top 20 countdown can adequately convey. Still my feelings when tuning into almost anything mainstream radio or TV are putting out is invariably despair. I know I'm beating on an old drum with this one, but I can't comprehend what's happening with the blanket use of Autotune on pop records. There's a tune doing the rounds at the moment where a quite lovely Lily Allen vocal is juxtaposed with another Autotune treated voice that for me renders the whole track unlistenable. It's just heartbreaking, you know, because I love a bit of great Pop, I've got no issue with Rap and great Dance music is invariably more life affirmingly joyous than anything the Indie set ever come up with. Yet it's almost as if three or four years ago a private dare went around the worlds recording studios to see who could get away with sprinkling the shittest vocal effect on records before anyone noticed and so far nobody has, and the joke just keeps getting ever more ridiculous. The idea that a top producer could make me a backing track so I enter the studio for five minutes, hung over and nauseous, only able to vomit the word "huey" into a bucket and he could turn that into a workable Autotune treated vocal should only really endure for a couple of minutes on a 'One Show' factual featurette. It shouldn't be the basis on which the entire pop recording industry works around.

Still there has been some great Pop this year with Adele's record being top of that particular tree. Of course it's a traditionalist's formula but how it works; write some great songs and get a great voice to sing them, good production and market it with the music centre stage. I regret that Adele didn't make our Top 20 but I'll rest assured she won't care much! Then there's the other end of the mainstream spectrum; the big money major label release whose dire content is masked by the promotional circus that circles it's every move. That'll be Coldplay then. I know people of the 1960s generation who'll make a blanket decision on whether a new band are any good or not by how much they move on stage. It's that idea of if they're staring at their feet the whole time they're not all that because they've got to concentrate too much whereas if you're jumping around and playing you've got to have a bit about you. I go for the opposite position with Coldplay, I think the more Chris Martin pogos about on stage the more he's over compensating for the lack of creative spark in the content of his music. I've seen Chris Martin do an awful lot of bouncing around on stage this past year. His bands music has an abundance of "whoa oh oah oooh's" floating about, the first calling port for any uninspired stadium band fearing for their reach in the cavernous arenas they're about to spend two years playing to. Oh and lastly, I sincerely wish that indie bands would stop sounding like the 80s Human League or Talk Talk or A Flock Of Seagulls etc etc. This is because the 80s were crap for music; I thought that fact was long established?!

So onto the good stuff. Here are a few that just missed the leaders pack, number 20 in our chart will be revealed tomorrow:
THE BLACK LIPS, Arabia Mountain
TORI AMOS, Night Of Hunters
ZEE AVI, Ghostbird
RANDY NEWMAN, Songbook Vol.2
TRUMMOR & ORGEL, Out Of Bounds
LUCINDA WILLIAMS, Blessed
JONNY, Jonny
BABY WOODROSE, Mindblowing Seeds...

Finally three musical departures left their mark on us this year. One awfully tragic, another sadly inevitable and the third a blessed relief. For Amy Winehouse there's little I can say other than what a terrible loss and a massive blow for 21st Century music. She really should have had a lot more in her, gone too soon doesn't even begin to cover it. With Bert Jansch I've been feeling his absence quite intensely this winter but sad to say, I was shocked by his sunken appearance at this summer's Cambridge Folk Festival playing with Pentangle and feared he may not be long for this world. Then on a more positive note R.E.M. knocked it on the head this Autumn. Did they read my pleading with them to call it a day on this blog and decide enough was enough? I think they might have. The great thing for me though was this; the moment they were no more I could once again enjoy their back catalogue free from the fear that they would keep testing my love for them.