This page features albums which I would consider to be essential listening.
Wallis Bird: Spoons (UK Users)
Wallis Bird: Spoons (US Users)
This was one of my favourite albums of 2008, without a doubt. Wallis is an awesome little lady, with a powerhouse voice, a great band and most of all, a selection of fantastic songs. There may be one or two tunes in here that I’m not mad about, but songs like ‘Blossoms in The Street’, ‘The Circle’ and ‘Just Keep Going’ give me goosebumps that still won’t let up on repeated listens.
It’s a crying shame that Wallis isn’t better known and that this album wasn’t touted as an ‘album of the year’ next to the usual tight-jeans pointy-shoe bullshit indie rock bollocks that people are convinced is so relevant, even though it’s disposable shite.
Favourite Track: ‘The Circle’
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John Mayer: Continuum (UK Users)
John Mayer: Continuum (US users)
This album is just incredible. The writing, the sounds, the players…. and the guitar solos. Wow. Each one is exquisitely crafted. Get it and learn them all.
Favourite Track: ‘Belief’
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Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard: The Dark Knight (UK Users)
Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard: The Dark Knight (US Users)
An absolute masterpiece of composition. Brooding, dark and intense, this soundtrack has been my most listened album of the last year. The themes in it are beautiful, the orchestration magnificent and it doesn’t hurt that the Dark knight was my movie of the year.
Most of it is in the same key (D min) and plays on rhythmic themes, timbre and pacing to create a sountrack that never feels boring or monotonous. Beautiful.
Favourite Track: ‘A Dark Knight’
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Gladiator: Music from the Motion Picture (UK users)
Gladiator: Music from the Motion Picture (US users)
Hans Zimmer is a masterful rip off merchant, borrowing wholesale from Holst, particularly from the Planet Suite, but he uses it to such good effect, that I almost don’t care. This soundtrack is one of my favourites ever and spans an incredible range of emotional geography from poignant and tender to downright viscious and the brooding orchestral arrangement of ‘Am I Not Merciful?’ is one of my favourite pieces of string writing – check it alongside Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, and it seems like a close relative, perhaps a grandson of the epic Holocaust narrative.
Favourite Track: ‘Am I Not Merciful?’
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Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid (UK Users)
Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid (US Users)
Elbow are, for me, one of the saviours of modern British music – they all play great, they write great songs and arrange and produce them beautifully. Watching their Live at Abbey Road Session reminds you what it’s like to hear a frontman who can really sing – with power, emotion, and that combination of tone and tuning that most of the throwaway Brit artists of 2010 struggle to get near. This album was written, recorded, produced and mixed by the band themselves and that fact in itself is further testament to their incredible level of musicianship.
Favourite Track: ‘One Day Like This’
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Imogen Heap: Speak for Yourself (UK users)
Imogen Heap: Speak for Yourself (US users)
Imogen Heap represents a breakthough for me – an artist who embraces electronica but manages to make it feel warm and organic. To give a human face to all the machinery, if you like. From the first time I heard ‘Hide and Seek’ I was absolutely hooked. The fact that the rest of the album is full of diamonds has firmly cemented her in my favourite albums list. She has a production style that is unmistakably hers, a great range of songs, from the driving and dance-y, to the tender and introspective and with guest artists like Jeff Beck showing up to lend their talents, the album is enjoyable on many repeat listens from start to finish.
Favourite Track: ‘Just For Now’
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Ryan Adams: Easy Tiger (UK users)
Ryan Adams: Easy Tiger (US users)
I struggled with Ryan Adams for a long time. Friends told me that he was a genius, a legend, one of the songwriters to check out. I just didn’t connect with him. Until I heard this album. Then I got it. As artists go, Adams is both prolific and to some degree inconsistent. I think he makes some incredible stuff and some that I can’t very easily leave. This album represents (for me) the most complete collection of songs that he has assembled. Ryan Adams fans will cut me to ribbons for saying that I prefer this to ‘Gold’ but to me… it just has more meat and less fat. Bruised, beautiful and real – the musicians make mistakes in the songs and they stay there, because they were part of a great take. Proper old-school, in that sense… and part of me really loves the sheer balls of that approach.
Favourite Track: ‘Two’
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