It’s that time of year again where I declare my favourite albums from the last 12 months, it’s not been a vintage year but there’s still been some great stuff around. For those with Spotify I’ve created a list of all the albums (apart from the two that aren’t on there*) HERE. I’ve also made a shorter playlist featuring a track from each album HERE

Here’s the list in no particular order..

PJ Harvey – “Let England Shake”

Iron & Wine – “Kiss Each Other Clean”

Gruff Rhys – “Hotel Shampoo”

Pugwash – “The Olympus Sound”

The Horrors – “Skying”

Treefight for Sunlight – “Treefight for Sunlight”

Jonathan Wilson – “Gentle Spirit”

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – “Rome”

Jonny – “Jonny”

Fionn Regan – “100 Acres of Sycamore”

Wilco – “The Whole Love”

Jay Z & Kanye West – “Watch the Throne”

The Jayhawks – “Mockingbird Time”

White Denim – “D”

Ryan Adams – “Ashes & Fire”

The Silver Seas – “Chateau Revenge”

Ron Sexsmith – “Long Player Late Bloomer”

Real Estate – “Days”

*The High Llamas – “Talahomi Way”

*Gillian Welsh -“The Harrow & The Harvest”

The Beach Boys -”The SMiLE Sessions” (Technically a re-issue but as The Beach Boys version of SMiLE hasn’t been officially released before I’m counting it as new)

Mister Fusty – “The Waiting Room” (Oh ok, that last one was a plug!)

Athen's Finest

REM have been one of my favourite bands since I was about 16 (many years ago) so I was quite sad to hear that they’d called it a day. However they have created a body of work most bands would kill for. The music critics have been desperate to write them off for a while, probably since Bill Berry left, but they’ve still (mostly) come up with great music. Even a fan like me would admit their last couple of albums have felt that perhaps they were losing their fire a little bit.

Although initially Berry’s departure seemed to invigorate them, their first album afterwards ,”Up”, is one of my favourites and seemed to give them a new sound from their previous records before that. Perhaps “Up” wasn’t successful enough and so the albums that followed returned to type – still pretty good but it’s almost like they decided to sound atypical REM. They never really made a bad album, (although “Around the Sun” comes close!) and were one of the most consistent bands I knew. Favourites? Pretty hard but I’ll always have a soft spot for “Green” which was the first album I heard and the one that got me into them.

So adieu R.E.M. and thank you. I’ll leave you with the first R.E.M. song I heard, “Stand”, which I distinctly remember dancing to at a youthful age at the Sleaford Rugby Club 6th form disco. It didn’t impress any girls…

It’s only mid-February but there’s already a clutch of great albums already released so far this year, including (in no particular order) PJ Harvey – “Let England Shake”, Gruff Rhys – “Hotel Shampoo”, Jonny – “Jonny”, Yuck – “Yuck”, Destroyer – “Kaputt” and Iron & Wine – “Kiss Each Other Clean”, plus there’s a new Radiohead album today (which I’ve not properly listened to yet). Upcoming there’s albums by R.E.M., Elbow and Fleet Foxes which I hope will be as equally as good.

How about Mister Fusty’s latest? How’s that going you may ask? It’s nearly complete recording wise, I have a couple of vocals to do but I think I might just record another song or two just so I have plenty to choose from when I make the final selection of tracks.

A mad thought fleetingly crossed my mind the other day to do a double album, but then I realised that it was a ridiculous idea (stupid mind). I still can’t decide on a title from a list of two or three I have.

The sound of the album is much more guitar-based than my past endeavours, I’d day it was slightly psychedelic, slightly late ’80s indie pop. Anyway it will be released sometime this year but I can’t say when yet – hopefully the first half anyway (crossed fingers). Also there will be a deluxe special edition with an extra something,  I won’t mention any more details yet until everything is in place. Onwards and sidewards!

John Grant – Queen of Denmark.

Backed by Midlake, whose own album I found disappointing (sorry chaps), this stunning album evokes 1970s soft rock in the best way imaginable. For once a MOJO album of the year I agree with.

http://www.myspace.com/johnwilliamgrant

Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation

“Return to form” is such a cliche, but I can’t but help using in Mr Weller’s case. He’s returned from his “return to form” album, 22 Dreams, with a leaner (and better) album. There’s still life in the old mod yet.

http://www.paulweller.com/

Beach House – Teen Dream

Victoria Legrand has such a unique voice and uses it to great effect in this languid and delicate album. Dreamy.

http://www.beachhousebaltimore.com/index.cfm

Field Music – Measure

A lot, if not most, double albums could do with a lot of pruning. Not so in this case. This album takes a while to get into but rewards repeat listens. It’s about time more people listened to Field Music because they are one of the best UK bands around and deserve big success.

http://www.field-music.co.uk/

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

For me this is the best Gorillaz album so far, Damon All-Bran knows his way around a good tune and this is full of them.

http://gorillaz.com/

Josh Rouse – El Turista

Since he moved to Spain I’ve read that some fans are disappointed he’s moved away from his more country-folky roots. Those fans are buffoons, I say, because you’ve gotta move on and with this album he has beautifully.

http://www.joshrouse.com/

Teenage Fanclub – Shadows

The world is a better place with Teenage Fanclub still around. One of the most dependable bands out there. They may not be prolific but when they do release an album it’s always bloody excellent.

http://www.teenagefanclub.com/

Pernice Brothers – Goodbye, Killer.

Although it lacks some of the production sheen or the lush strings sections of some of Joe Pernice’s other albums it’s still full of great songs – as ever.

http://www.pernicebrothers.com/

The Divine Comedy – Bang Goes the Knighthood.

This album is brilliant, witty, tuneful and contains my favourite middle eight of any song this year on “Assume the Perpendicular”.

http://www.thedivinecomedy.com/

The Roots – How I Got Over

Until the last few years I was never a big rap/hip-hop fan, but it’s albums like this that make me realise what I’ve been missing out on.

http://www.theroots.com/

The Coral – Butterfly House

Definitely their best album so far. A classic sound with wonderful harmonies and production. Get the bonus edition if you can because the 5 extra songs are as good, if not better, than some that made it on to the ‘official’ release.

http://www.thecoral.co.uk/

Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

I’m always put off by hype but slowly but surely I came around to this album. The track “Helicopter” alone warrants it’s place in this list.

http://www.myspace.com/deerhunter

John Cunningham – 1998-2002 Homeless House/Happy-Go-Unlucky

This is a compilation released this year by The Pernice Brother’s Ashmont label of two albums by John Cunningham, a English singer-songwriter. The latter Happy-Go-Lucky album is the better of the two, containing my favourite song of the year, “Losing Myself Too”. (You can hear this song on his myspace page, couldn’t embed it here – thanks myspace)

Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void

I’d not heard of this band before so it was a delight to discover them, “Lover Leave Me Drowning” is probably another contender for fave song of the year.

http://www.blitzentrapper.net/

And finally, even though I’m on this album, (on a track called “Fitness Suite”) I must mention Expo’s She Sells Seashells, a wonderfully woozy slice of psychedelic Americana.

http://www.myspace.com/expoh

For those who have Spotify here’s a playlist of these albums (the ones that are on Spotify anyway) plus a couple of other ones I forgot to mention.

Update!

As soon as I hit publish I realised I missed out the excellent Janelle Monae, whose album The Arch Android is a cracker. Rectified!

Paint Along With Nancy. Artist Nancy Kominsky presented this 1970′s show which, as the title suggests, taught people how to paint. It has a great breezy, jazzy theme tune which is quite hard to find online but I did find it..although you have to sit through 6 mins of testcard! (WHY?!!?) Just skip along to about 6.14 on the video above.

UPDATE: Hear the theme tune in all it’s glory here (Thanks Arnie!)

Farmhouse Kitchen. This series had another theme in later series but I prefer the original flavour. The track’s called “Fruity Flute” by Reg Wale and it’s bloody marvellous. You can get it on an excellent compilation CD of themes and library music called, “Girl in a Suitcase”.

Jim’ll Fix It. The best bit of this theme is the “ba ba ba”s backing vocals, I’m a sucker for “Ba ba ba”s. The show was, for those who don’t know,  a British Saturday tea-time staple – where a slightly creepy elderly DJ from Leeds would grant children’s wishes (“Your letter was only the start of it..). Best remembered though for the, still hilarious, clip where scouts are granted their wish of having a picnic on a rollercoaster.

Mr. Men. Kids TV show themes are usually the best so let’s hear some great examples. First up the Mr. Men (Original series) with it’s lovely theme, so good it makes me almost shed a tear. Couple that with the wonderful Arthur Lowe telling the tale and I’m 5 again. *sniff*

The Wombles. Written and Sung by Mike Batt, this McCartney-esque song is a 70′s classic, in fact the Wombles had quite a few chart hits in the 70′s, I think I had an whole album of Wombling songs as a kid, including the classic, “Remember you’re a Womble” which is actually a great pop song!

More great themes to come….(seriously).

The Avengers. My two favourite things about this theme tune are the ethereal strings that seems to float around the main theme and the “ding ding ding ding ding” bit, know which bit I mean? It’s at 0.37 in the video, you’ll know it when you hear it. Wonderful.

Are You Being Served? A classic from the late great Ronnie Hazlehurst, a titan in the world of TV themes, this is a classic piece of 70′s kitsch with cash register sounds possibly inspired by Pink Floyd (or was it the other way around?).

Grandstand. I’m not a big sports fan but this classic theme from the BBC sports show ran for many years. I’m not entirely sure why this particular video features a picture of a cake…Composed by Keith Mansfield, a library & production music giant, I found a great video of Alan Hawkshaw, another library music great, with Keith and the KPM Allstars playing this live at the Jazz Cafe, wish I’d seen that!

Dave Allen At Large. Speaking of Alan Hawkshaw let’s have one of his finest, “Blarney’s Stoned”, the theme to comedian Dave Allen’s long-running show. You can find a compilation of Hawkshaw’s genius on CD called Mo’hawk which is highly recommended. Strike up the Hammond!

More to come soon…