First, there are three other albums that I bought on the strength of fairly decent singles. However, all three of them are awful with the singles being the only songs worth listening to and I don't want to spend two hours listening to the three deciding on whether they should be in an order!

 

Emma Pollock 'Watch The Fireworks'

Pigeon Detectives 'Wait For Me'

The Wombats 'A Guide To Love, Loss & Depression'

 

Check out: Any singles ('Paper & Glue', 'Adrenaline', 'Take Her Back', 'Romantic Type', 'Let's Dance To Joy Division', 'Kill The Director'

Avoid: The rest.

 

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Of my top 25 albums of the year 10 are by solo artists (of which 6 are female and 4 are male) and 15 by bands (of which 11 are fronted by males, 2 fronted by females and 2 don't really have a frontperson...)

Edited January 6, 200817 yr by RabbitFurCoat

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25 Willy Mason 'If The Ocean Gets Rough'

 

It's certainly not a bad album. Infact it's fairly good. It's just that he's done it all before, and better, on 'Where The Humans Eat'. It certainly has its moments. Single 'We Can Be Strong' with the vocals of either Rosanne Cash or KT Tunstall (depending on which version you have) is excellent and definitely one of the albums highlights, along with the title track. There just isn't anything on here that'll inspire or catch you like 'Oxygen' or 'Hard Hand To Hold'.

 

Download: We Can Be Strong, If The Ocean Gets Rough, Simple Town

Avoid: Riptide

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24 Maximo Park 'Our Earthly Pleasures'

 

Considering I take my username after them (on all forums bar this one!) you may have thought they'd be a little higher. And really, I would love for them to be higher. But listening to this album again it's one of many of this years sophomore slumps, certainly in terms of quality anyway - they never really had the sales with 'A Certain Trigger'. The album starts off alright with the first three singles, 'Our Velocity' and 'Books From Boxes' particularly standing out and if they were to set the tone it would be a second very good album from them. But unfortunately that's about where it ends. It just starts to fall down a hill from then on. 'The Unshockable' and 'Karaoke Plays' are decent enough but they're nothing new and would be amongst the worst couple of tracks on their debut. An album which could have, and should have, been so much better.

 

Download: Our Velocity, Books From Boxes, The Unshockable

Avoid: Nosebleed, Sandblasted And Set Free, A Fortnight's Time (like the plague, in this case...)

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23 Bloc Party 'A Weekend In The City'

 

I loved 'Silent Alarm'. It took a while for their songs to grow on me but in the end I did really like them. A great and different new band. With 'Weekend' I've not quite been so fussed. It's not grabbed me like their debut did. There's not really anything particularly bad on it, I just can't really get into much on it. I am glad they made a different album though and have progressed their sound further and not played it extremely safe for record sales. I'm really not sure how 'Song For Clay' was never a single though. Definitely amongst their best and instead of being the most notable band to not appear in my top 200 singles they would've had a sure-fire top 100, possibly top 50!

 

Download: Song For Clay (Disappear Here), Uniform, I Still Remember

Avoid: Flux (I've decided that I really don't like this song. I'm glad they aren't going in that direction permanently!)

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22 Amy MacDonald 'This Is The Life'

 

As the album I've had for the least time this is hindered by having the least listens. I put it here because, so far, only 'Barrowland Ballroom' has captured me. The singles (bar L.A.) are of course, also good songs. Now I don't have to put up with hearing 'Mr Rock & Roll' every 10 minutes from Virgin Radio playing in the kitchen I can now appreciate the song. It's a really good, clever, catchy pop song. The title track and 'Poison Prince' follow in the same vein. It seems that songs written about Pete Doherty are better than the songs he now writes. The album's highlight though is somewhat easily the aforementioned 'Barrowland Ballroom'. This album has sold well but surely if that was released, or gets a released, it will become an album that sells very well. A song made to be played on daytime Radio that actually has some substance and is neither bland or safe. There's definitely some substance behind Amy, and if she continues in the same vein she will surely last longer than other new female Singer-Songwriters such as Adele or Kate Nash. This album would probably be higher if I started the countdown in a weeks time but I don't have the patience and move back uni in 7 days.

 

Download: This Is The Life, Poison Prince, Barrowland Ballroom

Avoid: Run, L.A.

#025| Willy Manson - Not my Thing really ):

#024| It started well with the first 2 singles but gosh @ what the album as a whole is like. It's so banal and pointless. Poor effort agreed.

#023| Haha "Flux" is the best thing they've done yet imo. Though "Song for Clay" is excellence. I generally prefer Bloc Party remixes to their originals. The Crystal Castles remix of "Hunting for Witches" for example is excellence!

#022| She's God awful imo. Makes me ill.

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21 Malcolm Middleton 'A Brighter Beat'

 

There's more to him that 'We're Going To Die'! Before Colin Murray got involved by campaigning for one of the albums weakest songs to be Christmas one he was pretty much an unknown in the public eye. But his album had been out for nearly a year and it was the fourth single from it. More known for his work in 90s duo Arab Strap he's made a decent enough job at trying to make a name for himself as a solo artist. First single and title track is a good, solid first single, even if the intro does sound like U2 (I think it's 'I Still Haven't Found...' but I may be wrong!) but I do think it's a good job there were better to come otherwise it may have sunk with even less of a trace. Third single and the albums most commercial song 'Fight Like The Night' would surely have been a better choice of song to take him into the mainstream. Featuring the vocals of fellow Scot Jenny Reeve it showed there was more to him than being moody. Their voices compliment each other greatly, something which doesn't always work when combining a male voice with a female. The album's other single is by far the standout track; 'f*** It, I Love You'. A truly fantastic piece of songwriting of a tale of love and loss it gets better half-way through with the excellent guitar solo coming in, somewhat surprisingly, but the way he finishes it with a 'when are you coming home? Don't want to be alone.' is stunning. The other great thing about the album is his fantastic Scottish accent shining through on every song. The last few tracks do seem to go on a bit but overall, it's a solid effort.

 

Download: Fight Like The Night, Death Love Depression Love Death, f*** It, I Love You

Avoid: We're Going To Die, Superhero Songwriters.

I actually really liked Maxmio Park's album (My 2nd most played of the year). :o

 

 

Bloc Party I find a bit boring though, allthough I agree that "I Still Remeber" and "Song For Clay" atre two of the best though.

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20 Chemical Brothers 'We Are The Night'

 

After the somewhat excellent lead single 'Do It Again' my expectations for this album were quite high. Unfortunately, they remained unfulfilled. It's a good album, certainly. But that's all. For an act that have been around for so long this is the type of album that shows their creative peak may be unfortunately coming to an end. 'All Rights Reserved' featuring Klaxons is (somewhat unsurprisingly for a song with Klaxons on it) dreadful. 'Das Speigel' and 'Harpoons' are also quite obviously filler. 'Burst Generator' and 'A Modern Midnight Conversation' are also not particularly great tracks. They're not the slightest bit inspiring and they sound like they've been done many times before, not only by other acts but by the Chemical Brothers themselves.

 

But away from the negative points, they still show they're more than capable of writing a killer tune. Lead single 'Do It Again' featuring the vocals of Ali Love is fantastic and proves that they usually are at their best when they get a guest in to provide a vocal. This is again proved on the closing track 'The Pills Won't Help You Now' with vocals from the very underated Midlake. A much slower track to end an album mainly full of upbeat dance tracks. The other exception would be second (and what looks like final) single 'The Salmon Dance' featuring Fatlip. It may not be serious and quite novelty but there's something about it that still makes it great. The album's highlight however, comes in the form of an instrumental; 'Saturate'. A completely fantastic song which will sound best at about midnight in a packed field at a festival. But even that is really just a shorter and inferior version of what is possibly their best song, 'The Private Psychadelic Reel'.

 

Download: Saturate, Do It Again, The Pills Won't Help You Now

Avoid: All Rights Reserved, Burst Generator, Harpoons

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19 Maps 'We Can Create'

 

I'd heard of Maps but never heard anything by them until watching his fantastic performance of recent single 'To The Sky' at the Mercury Awards. Or so I thought. I'm convinced I'd never heard them but I knew I'd heard 'It Will Find You' somewhere before though I can't remember where. Looking on the likes of Wikipedia and Youtube it's not been used on an advert... Confusing. He has been releasing singles and building up a fanbase since March 2006 when 'Lost My Soul' was released. A further four tracks have been released from it, all of which are fairly good. His sound is very distinctive, and very good, but it just seems to be too familiar throughout and it makes the album seem like it goes on a bit. For that reason, it stops a good album being very good.

 

Download: So Low, So High, You Don't Know Her Name, It Will Find You

Avoid: Lost My Soul, When You Leave

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18 Feist 'The Reminder'

 

I've always found albums by female singer-songwriters to be a bit of a risky purchase. I find that whilst there can be a fair amount of decent songs, they always have a fair share of filler in them. I don't find this any different. Singles '1234' and 'My Moon, My Man' are obvious highlights. 'I Feel It All' is also excellent but towards the end I just feel it gets a bit... boring.

 

Download: I Feel It All, My Moon, My Man, 1234

Avoid: Intuition (Live), Brandy Alexander

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17 Bat For Lashes 'Fur And Gold'

 

I've always found albums by female singer-songwriters to be a bit of a risky purchase. I find that whilst there can be a fair amount of decent songs, they always have a fair share of filler in them. I don't find this any different. Singles 'Prescilla' and 'What's A Girl To Do' are obvious highlights. Opener 'Horse & I' is also excellent but towards the end I just feel it gets a bit... boring.

 

Download: Horse & I, Trophy, Prescilla

Avoid: Seal Jubillee, Sarah

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16 Idlewild 'Make Another World'

 

Like the Chemical Brothers, this lot are past their creative peak. But like the Chemical Brothers also, they're still capable of writing some great songs. I don't own their first two albums but the following two are both brilliant. Amongst the best of the past 10 years. 2005's 'Warnings/Promises' was a bit of a letdown. I don't think it deserved the stick it seemed to get but it wasn't a particularly good album. This, whilst certainly not hitting the highs of, say 'When I Argue, I See Shapes', 'American English' or 'In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction' they still managed to make some good songs.

 

Singles 'No Emotion' and 'If It Takes You Home' had that raw edge that was missing from its predecessor. Opener 'In Competition For The Worst Time' and final single 'Ghost In The Arcade' also showed this and it was a welcome return. But listening to the album as a whole, it seems they never really knew whether that's the sound they wanted, or whether it was the more folky, mellow, dare I say it Snow Patrol-esque sound they were going for. 'You And I Are Both Away' sounds like it could come from a Snow Patrol album, it's anthemic, it's made for stadiums. But also, it's quite good. Which suggests it may be an anomoly on a Snow Patrol album. A welcome imrovement, just not what they once were. I doubt many bands from the current scene could make music this good on their 6th album.

 

Download: In Competition For The Worst Time, No Emotion, If It Takes You Home

Avoid: Future Works, Finished It Remains