2012: blur - Under the Westway

Welcome back to the only monthly blog to be updated just once a year. [insert generic excuses here].

My twelve for '12. In reverse order (these are all links to the videos, I just can't figure the colour thing out)...

12. Chairlift - I Belong In Your Arms
11. Atlas Sound - Lightworks

10. Sharon Van Etten - Give Out

9. Wye Oak - Civilian

8. Evening Hymns - Dead Deer
7. Bat For Lashes - Laura

6. Feist - The Bad In Each Other

5. Deerhunter - Desire Lines

4. Girls - Vomit

3. Norah Jones - Miriam

Miriam is probably my favourite thing Norah Jones has done. I couldn't stand her when she first appeared on coffee tables all across the developed world, but her last few albums have been superb. Love the darkness she's conjuring up here, plus it's just a brilliant tune (and definitely my favourite music video of 2012, too).

2. Lana Del Rey - Ride

Ride might have won, but for the fact I wasn't convinced Lana Del Rey warrants back-to-back roty wins. Not least because I'm still pissed off with the mess of an album she churned out. It's not that it didn't have great songs on it - it did - but they threw some shite in there too while leaving off things like Ride and Without You (which they held back for the sold out (in every sense) 'Deluxe' and 'Paradise' editions). Sad, because strip her album back to 10 or 11 of the best songs from all of the editions she's put out and there's a really good record in there. One of the best this year, in fact. 

Whatever. Ride is a great pop song, so I'm taking it on its merits and throwing second place at it.

1. blur - Under the Westway
Under the Westway, however, is blur at their very best and shows that they are still relevant and should still be making music together. And yes, it does sound a bit like Whiter Shade of Pale. And there's a touch of Let It Be in there, too. But if you're gonna borrow, then borrow from the best. It's all fantastic, but from 2m 40s onwards - 'magic arrows hitting the bull' - it's up there with just about anything they've ever done.

And if it does prove to be the last thing they do together, then it's a worthy curtain closer.

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.