My Favourite Releases of 2012!

Well as we come to the very end of this eventful year I would like to reflect on some of the amazing musical releases of 2012. I do hope you enjoy the selection, and feel free to add your own favourites in the comment section!

10. Haim

Be transported into a John Cusack film with this altogether 80's girl band. No album release just yet, but watch this space for the West Coast sisters in 2013. Think Wilson Phillips for the noughties, happy clappy fun songs that take you back to a simpler age...

9.  Of Monsters and Men

Iceland may not quite be Scandinavia in the music stakes but it isn't far behind. Cutesy cool folksters Of Monsters and Men rocked the festivals and the charts this year, most notably with the catchy Little Talks. Nanna's husky voice and quirky ensemble of talented young musicians make them quite a mesmerising act.

8. Jack White

Eschewing norms has never been out of the realms of possibilities for eccentric rocker Jack White and 2012 was no different. Employing two concurrent single sex session bands for his tours may have made his entourage rather large, but it seems Mr. White does not do things by halves. The Blunderbuss album was a corker, except for a long time I thought that the bird on the front cover was a giant hat... He doesn't fail to put on a good show: the absence of Meg White on stage did not hinder his presence one iota. 

7. Little Comets

I can't get enough of Little Comets Life is Elsewhere at the moment. African guitar riffs and the hint of a geordie accent come together and guarantee to make you smile. My favourite for trekking up the M5 alone and pretending I'm an indie rocker.

6.  Dry the River

The album cover for Shallow Bed may look like a local teenage rock band's latest release, but stick with it! I first saw these hairy nu-folksters singing their unique blend of ancient mythological lyrics at Roskilde in Denmark and their album was the first I bought on return to the UK. All their flashy lights and the mixture of acoustic and smashy guitars made me like a child at Christmas. Mumford and Sons with balls.

5. Bat for Lashes

She may have been Mercury shortlisted for her two previous efforts, but in my personal opinion The Haunted Man is a work of art, from the front cover onwards! Never one to shy away from controversy, no doubt her album cover sent many blushes on teenage boys faces across the country. Laura might make you cry. Just a warning.

4. Poliça (pronounced POL-EE-THA)

Ever since Michael Buble released that Christmas album where his voice sounded all tinny and tampered with, I have hated autotune. That weird electronic sound is so far from what I personally appreciate in vocals which is truth really (without sounding all wanky and pretentious).  So how surprised I was then to enjoy Poliça's most recent releaseGive you the Ghost. Lead singer Channy Leaneagh uses auto tune not only self conciously but as a live tool. It's not everyones cup of tea, but I like it.

3. Everything Everything

Not an instant hit with me, but wow how they have grown in my estimations. I can't get over Cough Cough. I often re-write the lyrics along the lines of "havin' a laugh, out with the lads, having a fag, being all mad." That type of thing. If you listen to it you'll know where I mean. It's a hoot. That weird chord change on "cop car" is just genius.

2. Django Django

Team barber shop vocals with electronica and live guitars. Meet Django Django. Exciting, happy, clever music and an awesome album. Seriously not one to miss.

1. Alt-J

Winners of the Mercury Music Prize this year, it just had to be Alt-J at my number one spot. I first saw them supporting Wild Beasts earlier this year and was blown away. Often support acts are a disappointment  not least of all because they have the disadvantage of not being known musically and lyrically. Alt-J though were absolutely captivating from Joe Newman's squeaky vocals to the lyrics "triangles are my favourite shape." A triangle symbol as a title may be a premature Prince-like move, but somehow, they rock it.

There were so many others I loved this year. Special mentions to Jessie Ware, her toned down vocals sound great out of SBTRKT's edgy electronics, but I still think Wildest Moments could have been bigger.

The Gossip's A Joyful Noise shows Beth Ditto to be equally proficient in singing impeccably and writing heart-felt lyrics. The move to Xenomania surprised me somewhat, but I think the album shows that it was the right move.

Alex Clare: from being dropped to being put on an Internet Explorer advert hasn't done all too badly. Hummingbird is one of my faves from the album.

Metric's Synthetica is well worth a listen. Emily Haines has done it again in capturing a somewhat distant lyrical emotion in Girl Power beats that hark back to old-school Metric style. If you liked The List era, you will like this!

So many albums, so little time. But here are just a handful of gems from 2012. If you'd like to add your own contributions please do!
The Shins' Port of Morrow. Simple Song is another one that I cry at. I do cry at most things though, bear this in mind.

Happy New Year! Here's to a musically rich 2013.

Keira Knightley in Love, Actually. What Actually Happened to Clothes at the Turn of the Millennium?

This time every year, me and a whole load of other Christmas embracing losers across the world sit down to watch Love, Actually. Every year I laugh at Bill Nighy, cry at Emma Thompson and hold on to a (perhaps outdated) notion of Britishness.

This year though, something not terribly important occurred to me. Keira Knightley, lovely as she may be, sports (amongst a variety of crop tops and flared jeans) a baker boy hat. For those who aren't familiar with this type of hideous headwear: think Victorian chimney sweep boy.

Don't look so happy Keira, you have something very peculiar on your head

This year I didn't feel content and cosy, I felt distinctly unsettled. Visions of myself aged 11 came flooding back to me in a whirlwind of horror. I look almost identical (bar the whole puberty thing, and braces THANK GIDDY GOODNESS), except I'm wearing a baker boy hat. Not any baker boy hat, it was constructed out of small squares of varying vile shades of denim bought from etam or Tammy Girl or whatever that shop was - I'm sure most girls of my age remember. It was the one with  faux purple leather jackets, silver gilets and slogan t shirts that said things like "I <3 ME!" (all of which I owned).

If anything, I should've been relieved that even Ms. Knightley herself couldn't pull off the look, this was after all a widespread pandemic of fashion faux pas. But when I was at work today, this magazine from 2001 reminded me of the whole sorry saga. Nestled in between an Amstrad advert for a home phone that could send e-mails and an article about how to choose the right hi-fi system was a fashion spread replete with tiny little handbags and bellybutton rings.

"edgily sexy" and "stylishly funky" 

So what exactly went wrong between the late 90's and early noughties? Something odd happened that's what. I wouldn't consider myself particularly into fashion and yet there's something about this era which makes me feel a little bit pukey. As a young-un in that awkward in between stage (the stage before the awkward teenage stage - poor kids) I feel I should be allowed to absent myself as I was, after all, merely a child. And yet... I can remember begging my mum for a top like this:

I'm from a pretty liberal family, but this was not going to happen. You can't tell from the picture, but behind the darling butterfly on the front, a series of strings pass along the back, I can only be thankful that it never had the opportunity to criss-cross against my pre-pubescent flab, there would be more than a few things wrong with that...

... also I know I would've teamed it with hot pink baggy combat trousers, the horrific ones fitted with useless dangly tassels - why was that ever a thing?

Alas, apparently fashion will always come around eventually.

I can see myself now, middle aged, bleached bootcuts and a sparkly crop top. Please, no.

Hashtagging Hopelessness: Twitter's Turkeys

I have a Twitter account, as does my Dad, Stephen Fry and the rest of the world and his dog. I understood the concept, and I wanted to love it - I still do, desperately, but do I really have anything to say that the world and his dog gives a half a hoot about?

I write something on Facebook and it's brilliant. My Mum's there, ready to endorse me, my aunties and cousins and my best friends. My dull statuses will stick around on their News Feeds like bad smells until they really have no option other than to like it.

Twitter is different. 140 words is small and I'm quite the talker. 140 words would reduce me to one of two things:

1. Tlking lik dis, bt I rely fink Im 2 old 4 dat lol.
2. Unimportant factoids from the vat of unimportant things that happen in my day.. "Just put a pizza in the oven - blimey I'm famished! #hungry" or "I do like bubble baths #warm #bubbly #bath" or "Just burnt my elbows on the pitta bread #onlyme #lol #hungry"

Perhaps the latter would only apply to me (how else do you squish the hot air out?) Anyway, the point is, I have this momentous occasion with Twitter and I click send. I watch the screen, too eager. Check my e-mails... Come back to the screen.. 3 tweets, oh wow!

Got the wrong end of the stick. 3 tweets from 3 other people.. awkward. I'm still learning. My 82 year old Grandad is quicker with his iPad.

Where Facebook would have my Dad putting LOL (always in capitals, why?) Twittersphere would not be an arid desert, salivating at the juicy minutiae of my existence. No, it's New York; a metropolis of importance, a hustly bustly exciting array of activity where nobody really cares what 140 characters you have up your sleeve. Unless of course you're Ellen Degeneres or Barack Obama.

I'm no quitter though, noooo.. just waiting for my Mum to get an account.

Writers Block!

It may seem like there was a period of writers block but I have been working a contract with Glipho!! Feel free to check it out :)