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A mixed year, personally. A lot of the new stuff I bought and liked (ie, not the Babyshambles album really - I suppose next time round I'll leave The Man out of the equation, and give the tenner directly to one of the more colourful musicians that hang outside around Kings Cross station, acoustic wind instruments cocked and ready to go - you let me down, Pete,) seemed to be by people who've been around for a fair while now. I'd agree with whoever it was that mentioned, upthread, that it's difficult to get a handle on new stuff since the weekly UK music press stopped being worth reading. There are any number of websites I could try out, I suppose, but the thing is that life, while long, still seems a bit too short.
Anyway:
Citizen Cain'd - Julian Cope. While this suffers a bit, IMVHO, from a slightly primitive, 'campfire tapes' style of production, at least the campfire sounds as if it was thirty foot high and fueled by the flesh of his enemies, as opposed to say recycled orange boxes and good intentions. A long-haired record made by a long-haired man who's no longer too sure about people with long hair. As a set of demos anyway, it's very impressive, shows more invention, yadda, yadda, yadda, than most of the rubbish that's around these days, etc. Not sure if this should have been a double exactly, but still, go Julian! Attack your own reflection! It's the thing to do! Four stars out of five.
Demon Days - Gorillaz. I was a bit worried about this on the first few listens, insofar as I was a bit worried that I'd been suckered in by the (excellent) videos. But it's turned out to be a grower. It's a terribly Guardian reader thing to say, this, I realise, but is D Albarn slowly turning into a kind of D Bowie figure, as opposed to the Sting that he could have been? 'World music' anyway, done with style and taste. Four stars out of five.
I Am Going To Shoot Myself In The Head, And Then I Am Going To Do The Same Thing To You - The Stockbroker Belt.
Saw these guys at in a pub on the way back home a couple of weeks ago, and then bought the CD. The scratchy post-punk guitar thing has been a little too ubiquitous this year, but these guys are great. They sound like, well imagine The Kinks meets The Birthday Party, in a public convenience. And then double it. Ex-public school boys with no illusions, at all, about what's going to happen to them fairly soon, is their schtick, like punk rock, pinstriped rabbits thrashing about in the headlights of the future. Sample song titles; 'My Desk... Oh God, My Desk,' 'Dad, Things In Nigeria Aren't Really That Cool,' and 'I Must Sacrifice My Dreams, Or The Flat In Holland Park... How The Fuck Am I Expected To Make That Decision?' Quite soulful lyrics though. Four and a half stars out of five.
Want Two - Rufus Wainwright. I suppose the come-down album to 'Want One's' euphoria, is a slightly dodgy argument, but I'm sticking to it. He's been all over the papers like a rash recently, RW, but for once, it'd seem to be justified. I don't fancy him at all, though. But he's excellent somehow, really very moving, live. Again, four out of five.
Vaporise My Insides (And Laugh While You're Doing It) - Hog's Pizzle. Is rock music dead? I don't think so. This is an album (two and a half hours of an album, two and a half hours of the most punishing, intense music that I've ever heard. Makes The Swans, circa Raping A Slave, sound like The Pixies. Five out of five.
Those were my top five that made me feel alive, in 2005. |
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