1. Arcade Fire - Funeral

Well for me there was really no contest. A truly astonishing album in both style and sound. A band with the rare ability to balance edgy innovative ideas with accessible melody, without compromising a thing. Their lo-fo orchestration, melancholic lyrics and undeniable charismatic live presence helped shape them into a cult phenomena. They evoke, drama, excitement and crushingly beautiful heartache at every turn. Funeral is as near to perfect as you can get.

2. Ladytron - The Witching Hour

Ladytron’s third and most stunning offering to date. A dramatic shift from stylised 80’s inspired minimalist synth, to semi industrial gothic shoegazeing. Sighting The likes of Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine as a prime influence, they fused electronica with fuzzy early 90’s indie rock, whilst maintaining a devastatingly icy vocal delivery.

3. The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity

Most critics can’t handle the fact that the Cardigans have moved on from their jaunty pop routes. This was a criminally underrated album.It’s the follow up to ‘Long Gone Before Daylight’ and travels into similar territory, broodingly reflective, with heavy emphasis on the frailty of the human emotion and the pain we put our selves through. Devastatingly powerful stuff.

4. Editors - The Back Room

Angular guitar riffs never sounded so good. With more than a hint of Joy Division, Birmingham’s Editors were this years Interpol. The songs Munich and Blood, were enough to buy this album alone. Razor sharp guitars and brilliantly detached vocals, saw the music industry force Franz Ferdinand to make room for them.

5. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

Undeniably the year for The guitar band and Bloc Party, like Arcade Fire, showed how it was possible to marry the unconventional with chart friendly sentiments. Never ashamed to boast a strong melody but equally not afraid to explore less charted waters. Silent Alarm, was 45 minutes of pure excitement and still has that effect a year on. Both brave and inspired, an album that thankfully benefited from more liberated musical times.

6. Saint Etienne - Tales From Turnpike House

The only British band since The Smiths to set the glamour of 60’s kitchen sink cinema so effectively to music. They’ve moved away slightly from Billy Liar territory in recent years, but still hanker for the old London and it’s watering holes, whilst embracing modern life with a graceful appreciation. They still make wonderful relevant pop, set to a story board of disposable every day life. The hit singles are a long way behind them now, but Songs from Turnpike House prove that they haven’t lost any of their charm.

7. Goldfrapp - Supernature

The third album from arguably the most powerful electronica act on the scene. Alison’s self styled image has seen her propelled to unattainable cult status. Her ice queen reputation, combined with full on gritty synth, saw Goldfrapp strike the perfect cross-over balance. They maintain the electronic menace of Black Cherry but with enough commercial thrills to ensure guaranteed chart success. Supernature is simply stunning.

8. The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers

Debut album from a band who built up a strong live following before they had even released their first single. They shoot from the heart and have produced a beautifully emotive pop record. The Magic Numbers debut album is complete with dynamic harmonies and unpredictable arrangements. They have indulged a hippie ideology that harks back to late 60’s Mama’s and The Papas and have brought this genre of music to a whole new generation. An album I’m sure will be viewed as a classic in years to come.

9. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger

One of the years most pleasant surprise’s was this debut from Maximo Park. Sharp Disjointed guitars$ with explosive melodic outbursts, set to a diary of life in Industrial Newcastle and years of plotting an escape. A Certain Trigger, is an inspiration for all kids struggling to find their way in life. A sensitive account of love, heartache and a desperation to become something.

10. The National - Alligator

Another surprise from a relatively unheard of band in this country, who’s third album has grown and grown in reputation over the past months. Combining the underground New York sounds of The Walkman with the full on Collage rock of The Pixies. A lyrical feast of heightened emotion and dry humor, carried by gravely vocals reminiscent of The Tindersticks. An all round treat.

James Heward

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So here I am, one year in New York and pleasantly surprised with the number of good bands that make it to these shores. Sheffield’s The Arctic Monkeys are no exception.  The band, recently taking the UK by storm after their smash "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" and sell out tour, made their way across the pond with the same rumblings of fanaticism that surrounded the band in the UK a year ago.  Both New York gigs sold out in hours with the second date being moved to the much larger Bowery Ballroom.  So how pleased am I that the gig I went to was kept at the Mercury Lounge?  A 250ish capacity, nasty sweat hole of a venue where you’re pretty much on stage with the band.  Fkin exstatic!!  This is the best way to see live music.

So Alex Turner and his merry teenagers stroll on stage around 10pm and the place is packed, although I have to say there’s alot more ‘índustry’ types than actual hard core fans.  Something that always annoys me over here. They seem to have lost the capacity to enjoy themselves, let go, cheer, get down, dance, bounce(delete as appropriate).  And most annoyingly there’s always some arse, usually standing behing me, who just cannot SHUT UP! and stop shout-talking to her friend throughout every song about the fkin prada bag she saw on sale at Macys.  Ok I’ll stop now.

Anyway, back to what matters.  Just how good are a bunch of ‘kids’ with little live experience under their belts.  Better than I expected is my answer.  Very tight, very loud and with a set list that includes what have become almost cult classics, even the girl behind me stopped talking, briefly.  Matt Helders drumming is rather hypnotic and just supports the rest of the band with such battering ease and perfection.

What really stands out is Alex Turner’s song writing ability, obvious in the rather large back catalogue of tunes available for download and just reinforced in Sheffield steel here tonight.  They hammer through classics like ‘Fake tales of San Francisco’ and ‘Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts’ and the soon to be tune of the year, for me anyway, ‘From The Ritz To The Rubble’.  Turner just has the shear genious of being able to write about what many of us growing up in those similar environments experienced on a regular basis.  We only thought the thoughts, he turns them into the story that gives us the soundtrack to our youth.

The night ends with a personal favourite; ‘A Certain Romance’, and I’ll say it again, Classic!  Five years from now we should all look at this year as a classic year because of the emergence of The Arctic Monkeys. Bring on the album in January. 

10/10

Andrew Moore

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December 3rd Bloc Party will perform at Paradiso, Amsterdam. This concert will be broadcast live over the internet at www.fabchannel.com, in video and audio (broadband streaming video). Afterwards the concert will be added to the online video archive at Fabchannel.com.

Live as well as on demand the Bloc Party concert is free for everybody to watch.

The webcast starts at 20:30 CET (check www.fabchannel.com for your local time).

The direct link to the Bloc Party page at Fabchannel is www.blocparty.fabchannel.com

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December 3rd Bloc Party will perform at Paradiso, Amsterdam. This concert will be broadcast live over the internet at www.fabchannel.com, in video and audio (broadband streaming video). Afterwards the concert will be added to the online video archive at Fabchannel.com.

Live as well as on demand the Bloc Party concert is free for everybody to watch.

The webcast starts at 20:30 CET (check www.fabchannel.com for your local time).

The direct link to the Bloc Party page at Fabchannel is www.blocparty.fabchannel.com

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Funny how a band that not many people are aware of, or are particularly interested in, can play the odd festival date, have a track or too played on 6 music that suddenly strikes a chord with a select few and before you know it there’s a distinctive buzz carried by word of mouth. Subsequently, what was once a low key tour becomes a sold out affair. Well this is pretty much what’s happened to Ohio’s The National.

Already three albums down the road they know their trade, but the U.K has only just sampled the goods, as Beggars Banquet saw the sense to put out, ‘Alligator’, this summer. An album that has silently crept its way into the critic’s end of year polls without anyone realising. Tonight the band appear to be as baffled but clearly as overjoyed as I am over what has been a sudden ascension into the popularity stakes.

The practically sold out venue enthusiastically receives the over awed five piece as they take to the stage, instantly launching into the subliminally catchy, ‘Secret Meeting. They have the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands immediately and rightly so, for they are perhaps one of few U.S imports to actually deserve the adoration from indie rocks elite. They perform some of ‘Alligators’ already established classics, the recent buoyant anthem, ‘Lit Up’, and the sly nod to Frank Black, ‘Abel’ that is tonight’s evident crowd pleaser.

Perhaps more notably gratifying for them is that their previous two albums that haven’t been commercially available in the U.K are lapped up with an insatiable thirst from tonight’s dedicated audience. So much so they sell out of all the stock from the merchandising stall. Now you don’t see that happen often in Leeds, and by the time they’ve delivered ‘Alligators’ closing track, ‘Mr November’, complete with the brilliantly catchy repeated line, ‘I used to be carried in the arms of Cheerleaders, I’m acutely aware of this bands brilliance. This ain’t no flash in the pan. The National may not be spring chickens but their evident musical and worldly experience sparks originality with every riff and lyric, making them so now. This is just the beginning boys.

10/10

James Heward

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The transformation from the future of rock n roll to possible rock martyr to tabloid fodder and finally to indie diva has been a fascinating one, not for the music but the entertainment factor, so finally its back to the music with the long awaited debut from Doherty and pals.

An album which has been hyped to high hell throughout the detox, the arrests, the court appearances, the no shows at gigs, the dropping from the Oasis support slots, the on-off goings on with Kate Moss and the shock of them doing drugs together - hmm, rock star and super model – what did u expect, hand in hand trips to Ikea on a Saturday morning?

Oh and then there was the embarrassment of Live 8, the downright shit storm of a set at Glastonbury, just about every other gig they did during the summer and now this,   the album is finally with us – was it worth the wait? The fact it’s even in the shops and the main creator of it is relatively in one piece is a victory in itself.

The Libertines were pretty over-rated but listening to this shows what a tight unit they were, the musicianship on this album comes nowhere near anything they did but Babyshambles surprisingly manage to cram plenty of good moments on this 16 track car crash through 40 Years of very English pop.

‘Ay’rebours’ and the ‘32nd of December’ are brilliant pop tracks with the former nodding a trilby to the Smiths and The Jam.
Also worthy of an ear is the skiffle of ‘Back from the dead’, the sweet love song ‘loyalty song’ and the title track even manages to cram in a bit of The Beatles and late Ride, finally, the dazzling psychedelic rock of ‘Up the morning’ which features the voice of Mick Jones is nearing excellence.
It’s one of those in these days rare albums which gets stronger as it goes on, they hit a rich vein as the tunes become less frenetic and more introspective.

The album is however equally as bad; the opening track ‘La belle et la belle’ sounds like a band warming up together for the first time and features vocals from Kate Moss which prove that maybe her skills lie in racking them up than taking over the mike. 

‘Pentonville’ is stoned rubbish featuring some reggae toasting dropped on it, adventurous but nothing to keep Peter Andre awake at night.  ‘Sticks and stones’ is a doomed take on reggae, at least UB40 had black dudes in the group and Pete slurring “Sticks and stones may break my bones but your words oh they really hurt’ is the sound of a writer attempting to do so at 9am after 2 days sleep deprivation.

All in all, a narrow success, but it still sounds like Shane Mcgowan taking a load of tramps that smell of special brew and wee to a soup kitchen set to music. 6/10

Chris Todd   

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Mogwai have finished work on their fifth studio album, the follow up to 2003’s ‘Happy Songs For Happy People’.  The record, titled ‘Mr Beast’, was recorded in the band’s new Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow with producer Tony  Doogan and will be released on PIAS Recordings on the 6th March 2006.

As the title might suggest, a large part of ‘Mr Beast’ finds Mogwai returning to the bone-crushing volume and intensity of earlier recordings, but like all folk-lore’s greatest monster stories, this beast has a quieter, more sensitive side, as single ‘Friend Of The Night’ shows. In the words of manager Alan McGee the album  “is probably the greatest art rock record that I’ve been involved in since My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Its possibly better than Loveless. It is the record that they have always threatened to make. It is a shockingly good record – fucking masterpiece.”

JANUARY ALBUM PREVIEW GIGS
7      Dublin    Temple Bar Music Centre  
8      Belfast    Spring &  Airbrake
10-14  London,     ‘Mogwai Take  Control at the ICA’ SOLD OUT
            special supports/dj’s to be announced
24&25  Tokyo    Unit

www.mogwai.co.uk

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The Paddingtons approach their 200th gig of the year with a run of dates with The Bravery, catch them at -

November
18th Southampton Guildhall
19th Birmingham Academy
20th Nottingham Rock City
21st Manchester Apollo
22nd Newcastle Academy. 
24th Glasgow SECC
25th Dublin Ambassador
27th Belfast Ulster Hall
28th Brixton Academy

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‘The Clientele bristling with the potential of early Suede’ is how they’ve been described, and on their debut EP ‘Household Words’ Spencer de Vere don’t disappoint.

Formed early 2004 by Dom Flook and Ben Milton in Norman’s, a legendary Soho tavern, Spencer de Vere’s first foray into the limelight was an unusual one. They scored a soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s silent classic and ode to bare-knuckle boxing, ‘The Ring’, and performed it live at London’s Borderline.
 
Then drummer Ben disappeared. To Moscow, and then Vegas. Meanwhile Dom accepted Norman’s kind offer of shelter. They don’t speak to one another again until March this year when Dom’s phone rings while he’s kicking around the Bristol docks. Guitar and Jonny Hynes arrived in May.

Already earning comparisons to early Suede, Jeff Buckley and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, none of which are right, Spencer de Vere deal in literate, genuinely provocative, modern English song.

You can see Spencer de Vere play live in November and December:

November
18th LONDON The Kings Head supporting Aidan Smith
25th LONDON Bull & Gate
29th CHELTENHAM Hub
December
3rd  LONDON Rough Trade Shop Covent Garden 2pm
6th  LONDON Twist Club, Greenwich

Spencer de Vere : Dom Flook (vocals, bass), Ben Milton (drums) and Jonny Hynes (guitar)

www.spencerdevere.co.uk

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FROM A COMPOUND EYE is Robert Pollard’s first full length solo release since disbanding the legendary GUIDED BY VOICES on New Years Eve 2004.

When things came to an end with GBV, Pollard made no secret of the fact that this would not mean the end of his songwriting and recording career. If anything, it was a new beginning.  In leaving behind his main vehicle of expression for the last 20 years, Pollard freed himself from the expectations of “the next Guided By Voices record”.  This freedom meant recording when he wanted, what he wanted, with whomever he wanted.  And the results – FROM A COMPOUND EYE - are no less stunning than anything he has produced thus far in his illustrious career .

With From A Compound Eye’s 26 songs clocking in at over 70 minutes, Pollard has finally made good on his threats of releasing a double album. And the wealth of new material is astounding. Highlights include some of the best of the Pollard / GBV canon ("Dancing Girls and Dancing Men", "I’m a Widow" and "Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft"), as well as other nuggets that find Pollard tweaking his style and experimenting with new sounds. "A Flowering Orphan" has an elegant, if somewhat skewed, chamber pop feel, while "U.S. Mustard Company" and "I’m a Strong Lion" are buoyant and shimmering pop tunes. "Kensington Cradle" features a noisy sound collage that works perfectly, while "Conqueror of the Moon" is epic and daunting in its prog-rock grandeur. And that’s just scratching the surface of the breadth and depth of the songwriting here.

FROM A COMPUND EYE follows a flurry of Pollard and GBV-related activity as we enter the closing stages of 2005 ; 

October ‘05 saw not only the release of ‘Suitcase II – American Superdream Wow’ - the fourth (that’s right! FOURTH!!) Guided By Voices CD boxset, containing 100 previously unreleased Pollard compositions – but also an EP ‘Music For Bubble’, featuring music especially recorded for the forthcoming Steven Soderbergh film, err, ‘Bubble’ (if rumour is to be believed, Bob is also collaborating with Soderbergh on a big budget Hollywood musical based on the story of Cleopatra… starring Catherine Zeta Jones!! The mind, indeed, boggles).

Mid-November ‘05 brings the release of the ‘Electrifying Conclusion’ DVD, containing the full 4 hour final Guided By Voices show recorded in Chicago on New Year’s Eve.

AND… as if that weren’t enough, November also sees the publication of the first GBV biography, ‘Guided By Voices: A Brief History. Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents In The Forests of Rock And Roll’ written by Rolling Stone journalist James Greer.

www.robertpollard.net

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