// Index
Rob’s Top 5 Albums of the Year
Okay… I know we haven’t reached the end of it yet, but I doubt that anything else amazing is going to be released so now seems as good a time as any.
In reverse order:
5) Readers Wifes – Gaslight
Sleazy but melody-heavy synthpop/rock from the Duckie DJs. Okay, “Bitch at the Brits” is missing, which two or three of the final tracks could easily have been replaced with that and the sublime B-side “Endless Night”, but otherwise it’s amazingly textured piece of work. Download only, it seems, but hey. That’s the future. Key tracks: “Nostalgia”, “Cheap Dress”, “25 Floors”, and the stompingly brilliant “Boy Ain’t Right”.
4) Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Trip the Light Fantastic
An overlooked gem. It lacks the punch and stripped-down electronica of her debut, Read My Lips, but improves on the lacklustre Shoot From the Hip by actually including some genuinely beautiful songs. Some definite sixties soul influences on some of the arrangements too. Key tracks: “Me and My Imagination”, “Today the Sun’s On Us”, “Supersonic”, “If I Can’t Dance”, “What Have We Started” and “The Distance Between Us”. (Yes, several of those are slow numbers and yet I like them. She’s that good.)
3) Girls Aloud – Tangled Up
An assured astonishingly cohesive album, almost one that seems to be definitive Aloud. Punchy, powerful, noisy arrangements, with the usual “let’s throw a few choruses at it and not bother with the verses” in parts and a smattering of “what the fuck does that mean?” lyrics. Key Tracks: “Call the Shots”, “Close to Love”, “Sexy? No, no, no”, “Girl Overboard” and “Can’t Speak French”.
2) Dragonette – Galore.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard a debut album like this. It’s a slutty collection of songs: “Jesus Doesn’t Love Me” is arguably the benchmark with it’s riffing on the subject “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll” so it’s definitely an album about abandoned excess and yearning for something more. Key Tracks: “I Get Around”, “Jesus Doesn’t Love Me”, “True Believer” (the real standout track for me), “Black Limousine”, “Get Lucky”, “Another Day”, “You Please Me” and “Get Lucky”. (And since this is 8/11 of the tracks you may as well get the whole thing.)
1) Matinee Club – Modern Industry.
If this hadn’t finally got out then Dragonette would have been number one, but here’s another band whose career has been somewhat stymied by the fact that Mercury Records are just unutterably shit at promoting pop. Due to their various label woes I’ve had many of the tracks for about four years but finally they’ve been released on download (with a physical CD arriving January). It’s an album of slick, glamorous electronica which managed to sum up the ethos of “Future Retro” beautifully. Key tracks: “Discotheque Francais”, “Sometimes”, “Jane Falls Down”, “Seven Oceans”, “Goodbye Means Forever” (there’s a sound glitch on the download though) and “Fool in the Name of Love”. But even the other tracks hold their own so there’s not really a bad bad track. (“Nothing Special”, however, is one which is summed up by its title. Ho hum.)
Posted on December 23, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music
Comments
Got something to say?