Albums Of The Year

Well it's that time of the year again, my top 20 albums of this year!

It's been a great 12 months in the music world. We have seen some fantastic new artists, namely Ellie Goulding, Lissie, Hurts and Delphic who have released some amazing albums.

I do at times become disillusioned with the music scene, maybe I'm getting old or maybe theres just a lot of shit out there, whatever the case the following reaffirm my faith in everything lyrical.

So looking forward I'm excited about new albums from Darren Hayes, Leona Lewis and Ellie Goulding plus, hopefully, some new and exciting talent just bursting to get out...

1. Ellie Goulding Lights

Originally released in February 2010 this album has been on rotation ever since, never leaving my car stereo. The sheer scope and brilliance of this album still astounds me now. It has songs to sing to, songs to dance to and songs to cry to. The lyrics make you think, her voice is mesmerising and the production almost flawless. Then it got a rerelease as ‘Bright Light’ earlier this month with the addition of seven new songs including the beautiful ‘You Song’ and a reworked version of ‘Lights’. I’m not one for the rerelease cash in but this is a masterpiece that is made better by the new songs. They don’t dilute its brilliance but make it possibly one of the best albums I have ever brought. It’s defiantly, in my humble opinion, the greatest and most accomplished debut album since Jagged Little Pill.

2. Kylie Aphrodite

Given the fact that I am a huge Kylie fan most would expect this to be number one, I’m not going to make it number one just because it’s Kylie though. This is possibly Kylie’s best all round album and contains brilliant classic pop songs that will stand the test of time, much like she has herself. This is more the comeback album that X should have been. Although X was experimental it flitted between genres that confused the listener and made for an album that you spent more time skipping through than you did listening to. Aphrodite is Kylie at her camp best, keeping to one style of music that resonates with her fans old and new, all out dance floor disco pop!

3. Hurts Happiness

For me, the most anticipated album EVER. I have been a Hurts fan for well over 12 months and after the release of Better Than Love at the beginning of the year I had to wait another 6 months for this to finally be released. It didn’t disappoint. Considered by themselves as ‘dance music for depression’ this couldn’t be closer to the mark. Many may think that the songs production and vocal style is depressed but once you strip away the angst you are left with a collection of beautiful songs that speak from the heart. Borrowing heavily from 80’s synth pop Hurts manage to produce an album that is musically wonderful with lyrics that truly mean something. It’s certainly not perfect but it’s a bloody good start!

4. Delphic Acolyte

This came out in January and I played it to death on it’s release and I still love it now. Again borrowing heavily from the 80’s this is a group that, if New Order made love to Depeche Mode Delphic would be their bastard love child! Storming dance infused rock is mixed with beautiful and inspired instrumentals that makes this one of the most exciting albums I have ever listened to.

5. Diana Vickers Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree

I haven’t been a huge X Factor ambassador for a few years now but every now and again they find some good talent. When she was on the show I hated her and her performances, her voice grated and I wanted to switch it off. When she was booted off Simon wanted he on his label but she refused and went away, signed with the label she chose, wrote some song s and did it all her way. The result is an album with such depth and beauty that if this is her at 19 we are in for a treat as she matures as a person and an artist.

6. Sarah Mclachlan Illusions Of Bliss

One of my favourite artists made a return to form this year with this little gem of an album. Not a commercial success in this country but a triumph in production non the less. Beautiful written and sung as usal, music for the heart and the head!

7. Lissie Catching A Tiger

Another new female artist to emerge this year, Lissie’s effortless vocal and heartfelt lyrics make this an album of the year. Perfect summery American soft rock, ideal driving music.

8. Amy Macdonald A Curious Thing

Understated, under rated! This Scotish singer went all out on this album. Great lyrically and musically, a must for any lover of modern music.

9. Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer

Every one has heard, and no doubt loves, Forget You and this album delivers a huge slice of sixties tinged rhythm and blues. Not normally my cup of tea but absolutely one of the feel good albums of the year.

10. Plan B The Defamation Of Strickland Banks

Again I wouldn’t normally buy this kind of album but he has managed to produce an album that is gritty, raw and beautiful all at the same time. A triumph in every sense of the word.

11. Take That Progress
12. Joshua Radin Simple Times
13. James Blunt Some Kind of Trouble
14. Alesha Dixon The Entertainer
15. The Script Science and Faith
16. Duffy Endlessly
17. Natasha Bedingfield Strip Me
18. Eminem Recovery
19. Lene Marlin Twist the Truth
20. Goldfrapp Head First

This years epic fail award must go, again, to Chery Cole with Messy Little Raindrops. Boring, dull and pointless. Smelt like a rush job from 20 miles away. A piss poor X Factor cash in!

Other mentions here must be;

Robyn and Body Talk (1,2 and 3) Not a bad piece of work but the concept was always stupid and the execution was even worse. A rip off of epic proportions!

If any of this has inspired you to buy any of these albums then my work here is done!

Happy New Year all!

The Second Great Depression

I've not been in a great place lately. I'm constantly fed up and have no interest in anything. I'm not sleeping at night yet falling asleep in the day and I don't see the point in getting up in the morning most days. I have had low moments in the past but they only tended to last a few days, everyone has days like this and we deal with it and move on. It passes.

I've been feeling low for a few weeks now and I don't really know why. Usually if something stressful is happening I can take it to one side, deal with it and get on with things, it's the way I have always dealt with things. When it all comes at once it takes a little longer.

I think I may be a little depressed. Maybe that sounds dramatic and perhaps it is, I have seen people depressed but then it all has to start somewhere.

I feel like I have no purpose at the minute. Uni is getting me down as I just want to be qualified now and get working at what I WANT to be doing in life. Working in the pub gets me down. Yes I love the people we have in and the team are great but I don't want to be working all the hours god sends just to make ends meet just to be spoken to like I'm thick by some narrow minded customer. I'm tired of being taught in a classroom, I want to be back on placement making a difference and helping people, learning it on the front line. It's all well and good being told what the text books say but it's hardly real life.

I'm hoping that going on placement in November re motivates me because I need this year to go quickly.

I'm also scared in case I don't get a job at the end of all this. Three years I will have studied and I have worked hard. I have sacrificed a great deal, given up time and money to re train and if I can't get a job doing this then I will be heartbroken.

It sounds silly to say I feel lonely, I have loads of people around me all the time but I don't feel that I can be honest and open with them. People think I'm being a recluse, keeping a distance. I am, I know I am and it's because I don't want people to see me like this. People see me as strong emotionally, the person who has had heartbreak and come through it fighting. I don't want them to see me weak and in the mess I'm in so it's easier just to stay away.

I'm not after sympathy and I'm not looking for attention, just for someone to ask me how I am once in a while and really mean it rather than it forming part of a well rehearsed and over used greeting.

I read something the other day;

'depression is not a sign of weakness,

just that you have been strong for too long'

Maybe thats true. We can all only carry our burdens for so long before something has to give.

Not Giving Up On Love

I know you're feeling restless Like life's not on your side

It's weighing heavy on your mind But when we stand united

Our hearts, they beat in time And I know we'll make it all alright

Let's bring it back to you and me There's no one else around

Now don't get lost in gravity 'Cause I want you to

Hold me now Nothing else matters

It's just the two of us And if it all falls down

Nothing else mattersI know we're strong enough

I'm not giving up I'm not giving up on us

I said I'm not giving up I'm not giving up on love

We're of the same existence No lock without a key

We can't deny it's meant to be 'Cause I feel it inside

Take me over tonight I'll be there when the storm is breaking

In this moment I'm yours And you can always be sure

That together we're gonna make it

So baby, won't you Hold me now Nothing else matters

It's just the two of us And if it all falls down

Nothing else matters

I know we're strong enough I'm not giving up

I'm not giving up on us I said I'm not giving up

I'm not giving up on love

Fight For This Love

Someone asked me yesterday if me and Gavin ever argue. The answer is no, we don't... not anymore anyway. We used to argue like cat and dog when we were first together. Most of the arguments were down to me. Not so much that I had done anything wrong but I used to pick fights for no other reason than to get a reaction.

I met Gavin very quickly following the breakdown of my previous, well documented relationship. To a lot of people it may have been rebound (six years later I could argue it wasn't) but when we met something connected, we have such a similar outlook on life and want the same things from it. He is the calm to my storm, by better half and my best friend. But in the beginning it seemed as if I was intent on ruining anything we had and I pushed him and pushed him to the point where someone less tolerant would have left me long ago.

I was still hurt and bruised from my previous relationships. Both had cheated on me. Both had left me feeling that I couldn't trust anyone or anything and that no one could ever love me. I felt ugly and fat and unattractive and to be honest I was all but destroyed. I had absolutely no confidence and I truly felt I was worthless.

I think deep down I was petrified that Gavin would also leave me or cheat on me to the point where I needed to know where he was all the time, what he was doing, who he was with. If he was ten minutes late in from work I'd make myself sick with worry then when he did get in, after a long a stressful day I would scream and berate him to the point where he wouldn't want to talk to me, and looking back I don't blame him.

Psychologically I was pushing him away, looking for arguments and in some cases making them up so that if he left me I'd have a reason as to why, so I could blame it on something, when Mike dumped me I never saw it coming and there was never any real reason. If I made Gavin leave me I'd have control over it and know the fundamental reason why it had happened.

I was such a hate filled and angry person everything made me upset and I was so volatile I could go off like a bottle of pop! Some may say I haven't changed, I think I have, I still have issues, no one is perfect and I'm really not but I am calmer.

It took me years to fully trust Gavin and the realisation finally came when I really thought he was gonna leave me and I knew it's not what I wanted. It took a lot of hard work to get to where I am but I did it, I fought my demons and got to where we are now.

I don't pick fights with Gavin anymore and I thank whatever is out there everyday that he didn't give up on me and has put up with me, warts and all, for nearly seven years. He's a true saint.

In A Lonely Place

When I decided to go back to university I knew a lot would change, I knew I would have to give things up and I knew I'd lose things along the way. I never expected one of those things to be my social network.

Before I went back into education I was out with friends most weekends and we would often do things together in the week. I had money then and I could afford to spend a little and have a good time. Over the last two years I have been short on money and short on time and slowly but surely I have become a recluse. OK that maybe a little dramatic but back at the start of my course friends would ask me if I wanted to do something, 9 times out of 10 I had to say no, either because I was broke or because I was too tired.

As well as Uni I now work 32 hours a week including Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday and Monday night with another night shift mid week. Doing these hours has allowed me a little more money to myself but I don't go anywhere to spend it. My friends have moved on, they have found another group that want to go out every weekend, that are still fun and up for a laugh to the point now where I seldom get asked out anywhere. I can't say I blame them, people can only hear no so often and it's only natural that they will stop asking and be bored of hearing the same tired excuses. But even though I can't go out on a particular occasion it's still nice to be asked, to feel part of the group again.

This week it's one of my best mates 30th's, he has gone out with a big group tonight. I can't lie and pretend it doesn't hurt that I can't be there because it does but I know it's my fault.

The fact is I'm at work at ten in the morning and I'm really tired. He is going out for a meal on Wednesday as thats his actual birthday, I can't go as I'm working and cannot have ANOTHER night off. This makes me feel like crap because I wanna be there for him as he was for mine!

At the end of this three years having worked really hard I will have given up weekends away, holidays, nights out, laughs with best friends and I know it will have been worth it, I will be a fully qualified nurse.

But at what cost?

The Music's No Good Without You (Part Two)

My second favorite album of all time is the second album from Scottish/American group Garbage.

Garbage formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994. The band consists of Scottish vocalist Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, and has counted worldwide album sales of over 14 million units. Their debut album, Garbage, was an unexpected smash, selling over 4 million copies and certified double platinum in the UK.

Garbage - Version 2.0, 1995

Another long player that changed my musical tastes completely was Garbage's self titled debut album which was released in 1995. It was a bit of a post Christmas impulse purchase and on it's first listen I hated it, but over time it really grew on me.

Version 2.0, the bands second album, was released in 1998 and I was eager and excited to get my hands on it. It didn't disappoint. It seemed to fuse together grunge rock and dance and was, at the time, ground breaking in it's production.

In May 1998, Version 2.0 debuted at #1 in the UK and at #13 in the Billboard 200. Garbage began touring Version 2.0 on May 15, a tour which lasted until the end of 1999 and one that I was able to go and see, one of my first concerts and I loved it. "I Think I'm Paranoid" was released worldwide in July, while the music video for "Push It" received eight nominations at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. By October 12, "Special" was released and Garbage was nominated for three MTV Europe Music Awards: "Best Group," "Best Rock Act" and "Best Video" for "Push It". In early 1999, Version 2.0 received two Grammy Award nominations for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. Version 2.0 was awarded the European Platinum Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for 1 million sales across Europe and U.S.

To this day this is an album that I can listen to from beginning to end and it's managed to stand the test of time as a brilliant album.

Special, When I Grow Up and the haunting You Look So Fine are all album highlights and as a group they are sadly missed. Manson's angry but beautiful voice and Butch's modern production made these a true and brilliant group.

Track Listing;

1. "Temptation Waits" – 4:36
2. "I Think I'm Paranoid" – 3:38
3. "When I Grow Up" – 3:23
4. "Medication" – 4:06
5. "Special" – 3:43
6. "Hammering in My Head" – 4:52
7. "Push It" – 4:02
8. "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" – 4:11
9. "Dumb" – 3:50
10. "Sleep Together" – 4:03
11. "Wicked Ways" – 3:43
12. "You Look So Fine" – 5:23

The Music's No Good Without You (Part One)

As I've stated in previous blogs, music is my life. I listen to it all day everyday and to me there is still no greater feeling then going into HMV, buying a new album and falling in love with it.

There are a few albums, out of my thousands that stand out and would be in my 'Desert Island Discs' and heres the first.

Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, 1995

This album changed my life. Dramatic? Maybe. The truth, defiantly. Before JLP my music taste was confined to euro dance music such as 2 Unlimited, Whigfield and Corona. I had heard Hand In My Pocket and thought it was OK but then Ironic and Head Over Feet were released and I loved them. I remember vividly going into Virgin Megastore in Walsall, the album was number one, there was a massive buzz about it. I had some wages from my paper round, I think possibly just enough. If I brought this album I’d be skint for a week but I brought it anyway. I couldn’t wait to get it home so I could play it. The art work captivated me as did the liner notes and song lyrics as I read them on the bus.

After the first listen I didn’t think much of it but by the third listen I was hooked. Never before had song lyrics affected me and sung to me in that way and never before had I purchased an album that I didn’t need to skip.

From the opening chords of All I Really Want to the final whisper of hidden track ‘Your House, you are transcended into her world and allowed to learn some of her darkest secrets. You Oughta Know is THE breakup song and I have always felt sorry for the person that was written about, You Learn is pure pop brilliance and the theme tune to everyone’s life, Perfect and Forgiven are deeply personal, Ironic is, for all its bashing at the time, a great radio pop tune and Wake Up is a pure sing along classic and the perfect way to end (almost) the album.

Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill in June 1995. Because expectations for the album were low, Scott Welsh (Morissette's manager and long-time friend) and executives at Maverick did not expect the album to sell more than 250,000 copies.

It debuted at number 117 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart.

Things quickly changed when a Los Angeles DJ from the influential radio station KROQ began playing "You Oughta Know", the album's first single.

The song instantly garnered attention, and a subsequent music video went into heavy rotation on MTV. The subject of the song (long suspected to be ex-boyfriend Dave Coulier of television's Full House, whose relationship with Morissette had soured shortly before the song was recorded, became the most guessed-about antagonist since that of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain". However, it was the hit singles that followed that sent Jagged Little Pill to the top. "Hand in My Pocket" was released as the second single, and then "Ironic", which became Morissette's biggest hit. "You Learn" and "Head over Feet", the next two singles, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 for over a year. Outside the U.S., "All I Really Want" was released in 1997 as the album's last single, and in Europe "You Learn" was released before "Ironic".

As of 2009, it has sold thirty-three million copies worldwide and in the UK it is ranked as the 12^th bestselling album of all time. In Ireland, when Morissette's sixth album Under Rug Swept was released in 2002, Jagged Little Pill re-entered the album chart on February 21 at number seventy-two and reached nineteen on March 7. It took nine weeks for it to depart the chart again, on May 2.

In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Jagged Little Pill the nineteenth greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 327 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track Listing;

"All I Really Want" – 4:44

"You Oughta Know" – 4:09

"Perfect" – 3:07

"Hand in My Pocket" – 3:41

"Right Through You" - 2:55

"Forgiven" – 5:00

"You Learn" – 3:59

"Head over Feet" – 4:27

"Mary Jane" – 4:40

"Ironic" – 3:49

"Not the Doctor" – 3:47

"Wake Up" – 4:53

Through all its commercial success none of her later albums have matched the sales of JLP. What it did do was allow her a devote worldwide following that has enabled her to continue writing and recording for over a decade.

To me this is my favourite album of all time simply because to this day, fifteen years after its initial release, I can still sit and listen to it all the way through without skipping a single track and there aren’t many albums I can say that about.

So whether it sold 33 million copies or 3 I don’t care to me it will remain a modern rock masterpiece, my favourite album and possibly the greatest debut in music history.