My Favourite Albums of 2011

December 4th, 2011 | 0 comments

I feel like I’ve listened to a lot more music in 2011 than in previous years. I’m not sure why that would be, probably just one of those cyclical things (the same reason I can go for weeks without reading a book and then binge on three in under a fortnight). Maybe it’s just been a good year for music.

So, here’s my favourite twelve. I wasn’t aiming for a dozen, that’s just the number I got to, no point in leaving off some good stuff just for the sake of a round number is there?

(All the album titles link through to Spotify.)

The Antlers – Burst Apart

Yeah, I know: Brooklyn indie kids with falsetto lead vocalist and trip-hoppy beats… so predictable Rob. But ‘Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out’ on its own ensures it a place on this list. It’s not an amazing album, but it’s a solid one, and as long as you can forget that its supposed to be a ‘song suite about an emotionally abusive relationship set in a cancer ward’ then it’s reliably entertaining one too (wow, I know how to damn with faint praise, don’t I?).

Tycho – Dive

I know absolutely nothing about Tycho (I just had to check Wikipedia to make sure it’s a person and not a band – turns out he’s a designer and photographer from San Francisco). What I do know is that this album has been my go-to ‘desk listening’ album of 2011. A good pair of headphones, this on Spotify, and a blinking cursor – that’s been the start to a lot of my mornings for the past few months.

Katy B – On a Mission

This would be my 2011 guilty pleasure, if liking Katy B was considered to be in any way shameful. Turns out she’s actually critically respectable and that (nominated for the Mercury Music Prize don’t you know).

For me, in the ‘respectable face of dubstep-pop’ fight, Katy kicks James Blake’s arse every time.

Metronomy – English Riviera

Another Mercury nominee (the winner’s a bit further down the page), it took me a while to get Metronomy. On first listen they struck me as a bit too art school, a little too eager to impress. But something kept me going back (plus, it kept getting played in the office), and eventually the ear worm burrowed its way into my brain (especially ‘Everything Goes My Way’). The album does fizzle out a bit towards the end though.

Wild Beasts – Smother

If Metronomy felt like they were trying too hard, then Wild Beasts managed to nail ‘effortless’. Not easy when your singers sound like a couple of pissed up choir boys. This album has the best opening segment of any album released this year I think: the spooky hook of Lions Share, followed by the awesome Bed of Nails. Stick this on in the front room on a Saturday morning and I’ll happily wail along to it.

Low – C’Mon

Ah, Low. How can you not love them? Well, actually, their last album didn’t really do it for me, so I was really happy when C’Mon came out and it blew me away. There’s something about the sound of Low that bypasses my brain and hits me right in the stomach, a great emotional ‘whump’ to the gut, like being sideswiped by a giant pillow. They do an awful lot with very little and I’m very grateful they exist.

P.J. Harvey – Let England Shake

A lot of people’s ‘Album of the Year’ and the Mercury Prize Winner of course, and for good reason. Brilliant, folky melodies mixed in with some sonic experiments and beautiful lyrics, it’s Proper Music. I’m not going to pretend that Let England Shake is my go-to iPod album, but when you put the effort in, it rewards you with everything you could want back. And she has some awesome headgear.

Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Best album name of 2011? Absolutely. Best album, full stop? Not quite, but bloody close. I’ve been a fan of Mogwai since Young Team, but I’d always had a nagging doubt (probably unfair) that they were gradually losing it somehow. This album proved me wrong in the best way possible. It’s beautiful and terrifying at the same time, in the way only Mogwai can be.

Friendly Fires – Pala

I was never not going to like this album. I was pretty much obsessed with the first one, played it to death, and fell in love with the way lead singer Ed Macfarlane dances (seriously, it’s incredible). Pala was never going to live up to my expectations, but it still managed to be one of the albums of the summer, and the little drum break approximately four minutes into Live Those Days Tonight is one of my favourite three seconds of music this year.

The Field – Looping State of Mind

Probably my most anticipated album of 2011, and one that did not disappoint on any level. I haven’t stopped listening to Axel Willner’s latest minimalist soundscape since it was released, and I’m sure I’ll be devouring it well into 2012. It’s just utterly mesmerising; a hugely refreshing, substantive, and emotional record that sticks out above all the limp ‘chillwave’ that’s been around recently. Plus, the double vinyl edition is absolutely gorgeous.

The Rapture – In the Grace of Your Love

My party record of 2012. The Rapture have hardly broken the mould with this one: cowbells? Check. House piano? Check. Slap bass? Check. Hand claps? Check. Chanty choruses? Check.

Is it awesome? Fucking check.

How Deep is Your Love? takes my ‘track of 2012′ award by a country mile, and the rest of this album puts such a massive grin on my face that it’s a shoe-in for this list.

Cuty Copy – Zonoscope

I don’t have a ‘number one best album of 2011′ but as far as all-round brilliance is concerned, Cut Copy take the award. This album ticks every box: brilliant artwork, beautifully produced, freakishly catchy, no duff tracks… it doesn’t put a foot wrong, even during the fifteen minute, psychedelic monster that is the closing track. I love it.

A Sunday Afternoon

November 27th, 2011 | 0 comments

This, plus an episode of The Story of Film, and you have a near perfect Sunday afternoon.

(Amazing how much pride one can derive from cooking a decent poached egg.)

Just read: Yellowman

October 5th, 2011 | 0 comments

Yellowman is “a deliciously dark Victorian-set mystery from two new British comics creators”, those being writer Justin Quirk, a journalist for mens titles like FHM, and artist Warren Holder who has worked on some of the recent Tim Burton movies.

It’s self-published on very nice, heavy paper stock, which means it’s going to cost you £15 plus £2 P+P for Vol 1 if you buy it from the official website (which I did).

First impressions: these guys have read From Hell… more than once. Same dark scratchy artwork and heavy Victorian atmosphere, unfortunately I dont think they have Moore and Campbell’s skills to make this worth £17 of your hard-earned.

The art style is so gothic it makes the XX look like S Club 7, but the lack of white space makes it very difficult to tell exactly what’s going on in a lot of the frames, and so you spend a lot of the time that should be spent exclaiming “ooooh” and “aaaah”, asking questions like “hang on, is that his foot or his hand?”.

The story sounds intriguing:

“In shadowy, foggy 1870s London it’s even tougher. The titular Yellowman is being hunted by two occult groups keen to acquire his skull for their magical rituals. A secret war is breaking out: between magic and science, between the past and the future, between imperialism and independence. Between Yellowman and the world. Being on the run doesn’t stop him from foiling at least one crime – one that puts him on a collision course with a disgraced science academic whose own motives become murkier as the book goes on.”

But you get none of that in Volume 1 – this is all set up… creepy, atmospheric set up, but set up nonetheless; and most of it involving a character that is very hard to care for in any way.

Throw in a few clunky ‘period’ jokes involving the invention of the telephone (“He should think about developing a mobile one…” groan) and it starts getting very difficult to justify spending another £17 on Volume 2. A bit of a shame really, the UK could do with a creepy Steampunk anti-hero to call its own.

Stephenson’s The Mongoliad

September 26th, 2011 | 0 comments

Just reading a (slightly disappointed) review of the new Neal Stephenson novel over on Adrian Hon’s blog and heard about Stephenson’s “community-driven, enhanced, serial novel” The Mongoliad for the first time.

No idea how I missed this the first time round, maybe because the general reception has been the same as Hon’s (i.e. badly-designed and not very engaging), but the concept alone ties into a lot of stuff I’ve been thinking about recently re: the evolution of the novel and the story.

There’s loads of examples around, but if you, like me, missed The Mongoliad or you found it and didn’t think much of it, then Balance of Powers by the team who wrote Perplex City has just reached its target on Kickstarter. Looks interesting.

And, coincidentally, tickets for The Story 2012 conference go on sale later today. See you there.

Upgrading my bike

June 20th, 2011 | 0 comments

Just over two years ago I decided it was time to get rid of my heavy, cumbersome mountain bike (a bit of a hangover preference from my teenage years) and get myself a road bike.

The main reason was my recent move to Crystal Palace, surrounded as it is by the ‘South London Alps’, but I was also excited about adjusting to a very different way of riding a bike, and also learning a bit more about how a bike actually works.

And the best way to find out how a bike works is to buy a 25-year-old one that you’re going to have to continually upgrade and repair over the next 24 months. At least that was the route I chose, scouring Gumtree for a suitably inexpensive and small frame (I’m 5’8″). In the end I got my hands on a 1986 Peugeot P10 that didn’t need too much initial work to make it roadworthy, but that had plenty of room for improvement.

Over past couple of years I’ve fallen in love with that bike. I’ve replaced or repaired around 90% of it: handlebars, pedals, wheels, tires, brake levers and cables, gear cables… even the water bottle (vintage Peugeot of course). I installed a lovely Carradice Nelson longflap and rode the thing from London to Paris, from Oxford to Cambridge, around Ireland (including the Ring of Kerry), and commuted the 10 mile route to work in all seasons.

I have not had one puncture, and the only mechanical nightmare I’ve had was a third of the way between Oxford and Cambridge when my rear axle broke (90 minutes in the Milton Keynes branch of Halfords fixed that and I actually got to Cambridge!).

A pleasant side effect of all this is I’ve got gradually more and more interested in cycling culture as a whole, watching (and understanding!) the Tour de France, devouring books like It’s All About the Bike, and The Great Escape, reading magazines like Rouleur, and watching documentaries like Road to Roubaix.

So, over 24 months later, I think I’ve paid my cycling dues on a bike which is only a decade younger than I am, and I’m ready to upgrade… and by a lovely coincidence the Condor Cycles shop just happens to be around the corner from my new office.

I’ve been in the shop before to pick up some bits and pieces, and found myself drooling over the Fratello, their best-selling commuter/tourer (that’s it in the pic at the top of this post). So last week I went in and got myself fitted for a brand new bike. It was fascinating to get a bike measured to my specific requirements and choose all the components with one of Condor’s guys to guide me through the real nerdy stuff.

Here’s a video from Condor which shows you the kind of detail they get into when they fit you for a bike (it’s speeded up, because the process takes around an hour).

Now I have to wait “between four and six weeks” for my new ride to arrive. To say I’m excited would be an understatement. I’m hoping it will arrive before the end of July so I can Christen it on the Oxford to Cambridge ride.

(And if anyone wants to buy a much-loved Peugeot road bike, email me!)