One year. 2 CDs.
I couldn't do it this year. I actually couldn't bring it down to less than 78 minutes of music for the end of year CD.
So, there'll be two 60 minute CDs instead. Featuring everything from mash-ups to fucked up country with a bit of rock, blues, bluegrass and techno thrown in for good measure.
Here's the track listing, and if you want a copy, let me know.
1.1 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Still Unbroken I love Skynyrd. I loved their stuff with the original lineup, I loved the album that was released in the early 90s, with the surviving members and Johnny van Zant on vocals (Born to Run is a great song), and I really like this year's offering, especially this song, and for a year that had a lot of decent southern rock albums, it's only fitting to kick this off with the grandaddies of them all.
1.2 Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing You either love the Scottish "twee" music scene, or you hate it. I love it, and I especially love Camera Obscura. My Maudlin Career is a good album, though not their best, but I really like this song.
1.3 The Answer - On and On The Norn Irish section starts here. Downpatrick's greatest export since Ash, and probably on the verge of being even bigger following this year's Everyday Demons album. Have gained a huge following in the US after supporting AC/DC on their tour. This is the best four to the floor driving rock track of the year.
1.4 Ricky Warwick - The Arms of Belfast Town The official song of the Green and White Army, and unlike "We're Not Brazil" it's actually a damn fine song. Ricky was a member of the New Model Army before forming the Almighty and rocking Britain in the early 90s and he kept a rock edge to the acoustic album "Belfast Confetti" and this track. There's an electric version of this song as well, the video was posted here back in August, so find it yourself.
1.5 DLM - Jiggery Pokery Neil Hannon and some other bloke make an album of songs about cricket with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. This is the best, and funniest, song on the album, though it's only funny if you watched the 1993 Ashes series and watched Shane Warne making a mug of Fat Gat. Which I did.
1.6 Jackson Cage - Taste The Moon Last of the Norn Iron contributions, Jackson Cage are one of the finest alt-country bands on the planet. And they got even better when they had one of our friends join the band.
1.7 Bruce Springsteen - Outlaw Pete I don't need to explain to you who Bruce is. And if you saw his Glasto set I don't need to tell you how great this song is.
1.8 Jaydiohead - Dirt Off Your Android Jay-Z mashed with Radiohead. Dirt Off Your Shoulder meets Paranoid Android. This should be awful, but it's absolutely brilliant.
1.9 Muse - Undisclosed Desires My favourite song off the new Muse album, even if it does sound like a Depeche Mode track.
1.10 Gov't Mule - Steppin' Lightly Mule are the hardest working band on the planet. They constantly tour, the members are in more bands than Josh Homme and Dave Grohl put together and they make astounding records. This is 7+ minutes of brilliance.
1.11 Peggy Sue - Lazarus Peggy Sue are an English folk-rock band. Other than that I know very little about them. This song was on the Open House Festival free downloads back in September, and after I heard it I really wished I'd gone to the Chilli-fest on the Sunday rather than the Saturday so I could have seen these guys.
1.12 Dinosaur Jr. - I Want You To Know J.Mascis is one of my guitar heroes, he plays great riffs, and his solos are punchy and powerful. Farm is a great album, and there were a couple of other songs in contention for this, but I Want You To Know got the final nod.
1.13 Sonic Youth - What We Know Legendary grandfathers of grunge hit the studios again and produce another masterpiece. Sonic Youth can be hit or miss, but "The Eternal" is pretty much perfect all the way through, and this is the best track of the lot.
1.14 The Urban Voodoo Machine - Killer Sound The album is called "Bourbon Soaked Gypsy Blues Bop and Stroll", and you need to go out and buy it and listen to it until it clicks and you finally get it, because once you do, you'll wonder why you haven't been listening to this sort of stuff your entire life.
2.1 The Pedro Delgados - Do It Like That Bluegrass band from Amsterdam who were fantastic at the Open House Festival. And they gave me a free CD, which is how you come to have one of their tracks here.
2.2 The Prodigy - Omen Most of Invaders Must Die was Prodigy by numbers, but Omen is a fantastic track. Get on your feet and get dancing.
2.3 Lacuna Coil - Spellbound I went a bit over the top about how good this album was when it came out, but I still really like it, and this is my favourite track from it. Italian Goth Metal stalwarts who have gone a bit more electronic this time round, and I approve of the decision.
2.4 Jace Everett - Bad Things The theme tune to True Blood, this is the acoustic version released this year, rather than the electric version on the TV show. Great song, and the very first thing about the show that I loved.
2.5 Joe Bonamassa - Last Kiss Part of the reason that this needed to go to 2CDs was the fact that I had 3 tracks over 7 minutes long, and this is the third. Joe Bonamassa is this generation's SRV, "The Ballad of John Henry" is his most polished and musically varied album, with a couple of excellent cover versions, especially a blistering version of "Feeling Good", but this is my favourite track.
2.6 Wilco - You Never Know A decent, but not great, album this time around from Wilco, but I really liked this track, which is a bit more upbeat than the others.
2.7 Clutch - Struck Down It was a tough choice between this and "Motherless Child", but I think I like the solo in this track better. Clutch are a desert/stoner/southern rock band, and they have some of the best riffs you'll ever hear. "Strange Cousins From The West" is probably not their best album, but it's still a cut above the average stoner rock.
2.8 Alice In Chains - Your Decision I missed AIC, but I never thought that they could replace Layne Staley. "Black Gives Way to Blue" showed that they could, and while the album wasn't a return to their finest work it was still a good album. "Your Decision" is reminiscent of the "Jar of Flies/Sap" songs which were among my favourite AIC tunes.
2.9 The Derek Trucks Band - Don't Miss Me Derek Trucks is a brilliant guitarist, and along with Warren Haynes is one of the hardest working men in rock today. "Already Free" was one of the best albums of the year, and this is a really good example of Trucks' ability to craft a song.
2.10 The Wildhearts - Plastic Jebus Glorious return from Ginger and co. The Wildhearts simply make music that makes you smile. It's overblown, it's got silly lyrics and they have riffs that could sink battleships. Awesome.
2.11 Pearl Jam - Force of Nature I really like Backspacer, it's a very good rock album, and Vedder's voice seems to improve with every album. This is a good old fashioned mellow Pearl Jam track, and shows that they remain relevant today.
2.12 Liam O'Maonlai - Siobhan Ni Duibhir Traditional Irish music from the lead singer of the Hothouse Flowers. O'Maonlai is an exceptional musician, and this is an excellent track.
2.13 Tinariwen - Tahult In Second straight song in a language other than English. Tinariwen are a band made up of Touareg tribesmen, who play a strange mixture of their traditional music and blues. Which is pretty damn awesome.
2.14 Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - You're So Vain Sweet and Hoffs return with a second album of cover versions, and this is by far and away the best. There are some truly bizarre songs on the album, including their version of "Killer Queen", but this just works brilliantly.
2.15 Pucifer - Cuntry Boner (Evil Joe Barresi Mix) Technically this was released at the end of 2008, but I didn't hear it until this year. Not one to play in front of children as Maynard James Keenan sings about fucking every country singer you've ever heard of, and a few you haven't...
So that's it. 29 songs, 2 CDs, 124 minutes of music. Downloads available from tomorrow evening, link will be posted then.
So, there'll be two 60 minute CDs instead. Featuring everything from mash-ups to fucked up country with a bit of rock, blues, bluegrass and techno thrown in for good measure.
Here's the track listing, and if you want a copy, let me know.
1.1 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Still Unbroken I love Skynyrd. I loved their stuff with the original lineup, I loved the album that was released in the early 90s, with the surviving members and Johnny van Zant on vocals (Born to Run is a great song), and I really like this year's offering, especially this song, and for a year that had a lot of decent southern rock albums, it's only fitting to kick this off with the grandaddies of them all.
1.2 Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing You either love the Scottish "twee" music scene, or you hate it. I love it, and I especially love Camera Obscura. My Maudlin Career is a good album, though not their best, but I really like this song.
1.3 The Answer - On and On The Norn Irish section starts here. Downpatrick's greatest export since Ash, and probably on the verge of being even bigger following this year's Everyday Demons album. Have gained a huge following in the US after supporting AC/DC on their tour. This is the best four to the floor driving rock track of the year.
1.4 Ricky Warwick - The Arms of Belfast Town The official song of the Green and White Army, and unlike "We're Not Brazil" it's actually a damn fine song. Ricky was a member of the New Model Army before forming the Almighty and rocking Britain in the early 90s and he kept a rock edge to the acoustic album "Belfast Confetti" and this track. There's an electric version of this song as well, the video was posted here back in August, so find it yourself.
1.5 DLM - Jiggery Pokery Neil Hannon and some other bloke make an album of songs about cricket with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. This is the best, and funniest, song on the album, though it's only funny if you watched the 1993 Ashes series and watched Shane Warne making a mug of Fat Gat. Which I did.
1.6 Jackson Cage - Taste The Moon Last of the Norn Iron contributions, Jackson Cage are one of the finest alt-country bands on the planet. And they got even better when they had one of our friends join the band.
1.7 Bruce Springsteen - Outlaw Pete I don't need to explain to you who Bruce is. And if you saw his Glasto set I don't need to tell you how great this song is.
1.8 Jaydiohead - Dirt Off Your Android Jay-Z mashed with Radiohead. Dirt Off Your Shoulder meets Paranoid Android. This should be awful, but it's absolutely brilliant.
1.9 Muse - Undisclosed Desires My favourite song off the new Muse album, even if it does sound like a Depeche Mode track.
1.10 Gov't Mule - Steppin' Lightly Mule are the hardest working band on the planet. They constantly tour, the members are in more bands than Josh Homme and Dave Grohl put together and they make astounding records. This is 7+ minutes of brilliance.
1.11 Peggy Sue - Lazarus Peggy Sue are an English folk-rock band. Other than that I know very little about them. This song was on the Open House Festival free downloads back in September, and after I heard it I really wished I'd gone to the Chilli-fest on the Sunday rather than the Saturday so I could have seen these guys.
1.12 Dinosaur Jr. - I Want You To Know J.Mascis is one of my guitar heroes, he plays great riffs, and his solos are punchy and powerful. Farm is a great album, and there were a couple of other songs in contention for this, but I Want You To Know got the final nod.
1.13 Sonic Youth - What We Know Legendary grandfathers of grunge hit the studios again and produce another masterpiece. Sonic Youth can be hit or miss, but "The Eternal" is pretty much perfect all the way through, and this is the best track of the lot.
1.14 The Urban Voodoo Machine - Killer Sound The album is called "Bourbon Soaked Gypsy Blues Bop and Stroll", and you need to go out and buy it and listen to it until it clicks and you finally get it, because once you do, you'll wonder why you haven't been listening to this sort of stuff your entire life.
2.1 The Pedro Delgados - Do It Like That Bluegrass band from Amsterdam who were fantastic at the Open House Festival. And they gave me a free CD, which is how you come to have one of their tracks here.
2.2 The Prodigy - Omen Most of Invaders Must Die was Prodigy by numbers, but Omen is a fantastic track. Get on your feet and get dancing.
2.3 Lacuna Coil - Spellbound I went a bit over the top about how good this album was when it came out, but I still really like it, and this is my favourite track from it. Italian Goth Metal stalwarts who have gone a bit more electronic this time round, and I approve of the decision.
2.4 Jace Everett - Bad Things The theme tune to True Blood, this is the acoustic version released this year, rather than the electric version on the TV show. Great song, and the very first thing about the show that I loved.
2.5 Joe Bonamassa - Last Kiss Part of the reason that this needed to go to 2CDs was the fact that I had 3 tracks over 7 minutes long, and this is the third. Joe Bonamassa is this generation's SRV, "The Ballad of John Henry" is his most polished and musically varied album, with a couple of excellent cover versions, especially a blistering version of "Feeling Good", but this is my favourite track.
2.6 Wilco - You Never Know A decent, but not great, album this time around from Wilco, but I really liked this track, which is a bit more upbeat than the others.
2.7 Clutch - Struck Down It was a tough choice between this and "Motherless Child", but I think I like the solo in this track better. Clutch are a desert/stoner/southern rock band, and they have some of the best riffs you'll ever hear. "Strange Cousins From The West" is probably not their best album, but it's still a cut above the average stoner rock.
2.8 Alice In Chains - Your Decision I missed AIC, but I never thought that they could replace Layne Staley. "Black Gives Way to Blue" showed that they could, and while the album wasn't a return to their finest work it was still a good album. "Your Decision" is reminiscent of the "Jar of Flies/Sap" songs which were among my favourite AIC tunes.
2.9 The Derek Trucks Band - Don't Miss Me Derek Trucks is a brilliant guitarist, and along with Warren Haynes is one of the hardest working men in rock today. "Already Free" was one of the best albums of the year, and this is a really good example of Trucks' ability to craft a song.
2.10 The Wildhearts - Plastic Jebus Glorious return from Ginger and co. The Wildhearts simply make music that makes you smile. It's overblown, it's got silly lyrics and they have riffs that could sink battleships. Awesome.
2.11 Pearl Jam - Force of Nature I really like Backspacer, it's a very good rock album, and Vedder's voice seems to improve with every album. This is a good old fashioned mellow Pearl Jam track, and shows that they remain relevant today.
2.12 Liam O'Maonlai - Siobhan Ni Duibhir Traditional Irish music from the lead singer of the Hothouse Flowers. O'Maonlai is an exceptional musician, and this is an excellent track.
2.13 Tinariwen - Tahult In Second straight song in a language other than English. Tinariwen are a band made up of Touareg tribesmen, who play a strange mixture of their traditional music and blues. Which is pretty damn awesome.
2.14 Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - You're So Vain Sweet and Hoffs return with a second album of cover versions, and this is by far and away the best. There are some truly bizarre songs on the album, including their version of "Killer Queen", but this just works brilliantly.
2.15 Pucifer - Cuntry Boner (Evil Joe Barresi Mix) Technically this was released at the end of 2008, but I didn't hear it until this year. Not one to play in front of children as Maynard James Keenan sings about fucking every country singer you've ever heard of, and a few you haven't...
So that's it. 29 songs, 2 CDs, 124 minutes of music. Downloads available from tomorrow evening, link will be posted then.