And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain...
What an excellent year it's been for music. As well as great new records from old favourites like Luke Haines, Elbow and PJ Harvey, I've also made some incredible new discoveries from the likes of Skint & Demoralised, The King Blues and Cosmo Jarvis. Many of the artists I've been championing don't get a lot of attention from the radio or music press, yet they have strong fanbases and if the winds of taste were blowing in the right direction for a change, they'd be topping the charts. Not that topping the charts means anything to anyone but the X-Factor idiots these days.
Anyway, it's been a hard fought battle on my own chart of the year. Will my favourite band of the 21st Century clinch a hat-trick of number one albums... or has someone else beaten them to the top spot?
Click the links to hear a selection of my favourite tracks from each of the albums.
My Top 20 Albums of 2011
20. Glen Campbell - Ghost On The Canvas
19. Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!
18. Half Man Half Biscuit - 90 Bisodol (Crimond)
17. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See
16. Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What?
15. 8in8 - Nighty Night
14. Skint & Demoralised - This Sporting Life
13. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
12. Luke Haines - 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970's And Early 1980's
11. Shirley Lee - Winter Autumn Summer Spring
10. Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full Of Holes
9. The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
8. The King Blues - Punk & Poetry
7. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
6. Cosmo Jarvis - Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange?
5. Elbow - Build A Rocket, Boys!
4. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
3. Noah & The Whale - Last Night On Earth
2. The Indelicates - David Koresh, Superstar
1. Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
Apologies to The Indelicates then, it would have been nice to let them win three albums in a row, but brutal honesty must give the award to Frank Turner this year. Truth is, any one of the albums in the Top Five would have been a worthy victor in less exciting years. There's not an album there I wouldn't fight to see gain more recognition. Cosmo Jarvis asks, Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange...? And FRank Turner replies...
Not everyone grows up to be an astronaut
Not everyone was born to be a king
Not everyone can be Freddie Mercury
Everyone can raise a glass and sing
Well, I haven't always been a perfect person
I haven't done what mum and dad had dreamed
But on the day I die I'll say
"At least I fucking tried!"
That's the only eulogy I need
That's the only eulogy I need.
Happy New Year, thanks for wasting some of the old one reading this silly little blog. Despite everything, it's been fun.
