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)