2011: Lana Del Rey - Video Games / Blue Jeans

Record of the year time. Well, 11/12 of the year to be precise, because I started this thing in Feb.

In reverse order (altho the title of the post has already given the game away, so I'm not sure why I'm bothering to massage the suspense)...

11. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Death & Rats (March)

10. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (June)

9. Sarabeth Tucek - Get Well Soon (August)

8. Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes (September)

7. Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever (December)

6. Bon Iver - Holocene (November)

5. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats In The Attic (May)

4. Emily Jane White - The Law (April)

3. Ryan Adams - Lucky Now (October)

2. Okkervil River - Mermaid (February)

1. Lana Del Rey - Video Games / Blue Jeans (July)

It was *real* close between this and Okkervil River. I love 'Mermaid', it's one of my favourite Okkervil songs and they're one of my favourite bands. BUT...

'Video Games' stopped me in my tracks last year. And to be backed with the (almost) equally excellent 'Blue Jeans' is just too good a record to overlook.

December: Kurt Vile - Jesus Fever

"If it wasn't taped you could escape this song."

The final rotm of 2011 is here. Late again, but here. 

'Jesus Fever' is the first thing I've heard of Kurt Vile. I'm not sure how many guitars are played on this at times but having seen the live performance it seems to be at least three. All with the delay whacked up, to give a real nice chiming effect. Which reminds me of old school Teenage Fanclub. In fact, the outro solo on this really recalls the outro to one of my all time favourite tracks, TFC's 'Everything Flows'. It's been a while since I heard a song with a great guitar outro.

In fact, the recorded version - as good as I really do think it is - doesn't do justice to the outro in the way the live version does. So I've slotted that in under the promo video. Everything after 2m50s in that live version is my idea of guitar solo heaven. Most of what's before it ain't too shabby, either. Kurt Vile has pretty much nailed my favourite guitar riff of 2011.

November: Bon Iver - Holocene

"I can see for miles, miles, miles."

Slight delay in announcing November's rotm as I've been on holiday. But that holiday gave me time to really listen to the new Bon Iver record and appreciate just how good it is. In particular, the tracks 'Perth', 'Calgary' and the quite brilliant 'Holocene'. And so, while it might have been released slightly pre-November, it's 'Holocene' that gets November's rotm.

First time I heard it I knew I liked it, but then it continued to grow on me, which is when I know that I really like a song. The constant, echoed guitar riff underpins the whole thing but - a bit like Okkervil River's 'Mermaid', an earlier rotm - there's so much more going on and to listen closely for. I remember once reading that classical music students have to complete exercises where they are given a piece of music that they have to listen to and they need to be able to dissect it into all the constituent instrument parts. This would probably make brilliant subject material.

Listening to the track reminds me so much of our holiday, driving across hundreds of miles of the long, flat roads of Wisconsin and Minnesota under early winter's sharp blue skies. The line "I can see for miles, miles, miles" pretty much speaks right to that. As we were driving, Clare absently said that this album was the perfect music to accompany our journey. She was right.

October: Ryan Adams - Lucky Now

"Am I really who I was?"

For a man who gave up music just two years ago, Ryan's output (three albums in the last 12 months) doesn't seem to have suffered too much.

'Ashes & Fire' is one of the first RA albums in a while tho where I really feel that he's started employing some quality control again. Easy Tiger is underrated and Cardinology had some fantastic individual tracks, but neither really felt like they were quite as complete as some of his earlier records. I guess it's hard when the benchmarks he's set are always going to be a bit of a crown of thorns. But this time it does feel like he's been a bit more patient and selective about choosing and recording the songs that are right for this album, rather than just rushing to get something out there.

'Lucky Now' was the first single off of the record and so gets October's rotm by virtue of being first out of the Ashes & Fire box, altho I could easily have selected any of about four or five from this collection. It's also a nice bookend to the 'old' Ryan Adams - a look back at who he used to be, "all that's faded into memory."

The guitar solo coda is unmistakeably signature RA too. It's been a while since I heard something new feel so familiar simply because of the guitarist's playing style.

> Bonus video of 'Ashes & Fire' included below the single. Just because he has to be seen live to really appreciate how good he is.

September: Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes

"I fear that I'll never sleep again."

This month's choice was a tough call. Lana Del Rey finally released July's rotm and her debut release turned out to be a double A-side, backed with new song 'Blue Jeans'. It will almost certainly end up as my record of the year and in any other month Blue Jeans would have taken the sotm prize on its own.

But having already given lead track 'Video Games' the nod in July - and with the release of the new Dum Dum Girls album 'Only in Dreams', I can't look past the brilliant 'Bedroom Eyes'. It's the kind of indie-girl pop that I'm a total sucker for (and which has been sadly missing since Elastica downed tools).

Pretenders-styled girl guitar bands will usually get my attention. Hot Pretenders-styled guitar bands with great tunes will steal my heart and my money.

August: Sarabeth Tucek - Get Well Soon

"It just takes time."

Sarabeth Tucek's new album 'Get Well Soon' was one of the more depressing but untold stories of the recent London riots.

One of Sony's distribution centres is based in north London and the rioters probably didn't think much of throwing a few firebombs at a major label. Unfortunately, this was also a major distribution centre for many independent labels and artists (165 in total), none of which can afford to have their stock destroyed, and yet found themselves caught up in the crossfire.

'Get Well Soon' was one such album - the promotional work was all done, the cds were pressed and ready for distribution...only for all the hard work to - quite literally - go up in flames. It's a real shame for a number of reasons (quite apart from the cost to the label, Sonic Cathedral, and the artist herself), because this should have been a bit of a breakthrough for Sarabeth. She'd had great press in the UK nationals (ranging from Q to the NME; from the Guardian and Times, even through to the Daily Mirror) and so the timing sucked.

Sympathies aside, 'Get Well Soon' is an excellent album from an excellent and under-exposed artist. The writing is deeply personal - both emotionally and physically - and none more so than on that title track, 'Get Well Soon'.

It's a song that's both easy to hear and difficult to listen to. The melody is undoubtedly easy on the ear, but the lyrics and themes (grief following the loss of her father, as well as mental fragility) are clearly from a harder place.