Hello, and welcome to this short journey into sound. You may notice not everything included in the lists and rankings below aren't strictly from the last year. This is simply because the following lists reflect what I’ve been listening to, and what I have enjoyed over the last year (ish).
The lists were deduced by no scientific method, nor are they of any quantifiable importance or purpose.
Top 5 Live Acts of the Year
1) Beach House
2) Holy Fuck
3) Local Natives
4) The Cribs
Joint 5th) Slow Club / Jack Johnson
Joint 5th) Slow Club / Jack Johnson
Top 10 Albums of the Year
(with a handy one line description and 'Key Track' you should give a listen to if you are new to the music)
1) Beach House – Teen Dream
Chilled Out Indie Goodness
Key Track – Walk In The Park
2) Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Trebly Guitars And Electro Goodness With A French Accent
Key Track - 1901
3) Local Natives – Gorilla Manner
America’s Finest
Key Track – Wide Eyes
4) Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
Music And A Voice You’d Never Associate With Kendal
Key Track – Hooting and Howling
5) Stornoway – Beachcomber’s Windowsill
Echo Friendly Folk
Key Track - Zorbing
6) Miike Snow – Miike Snow
Scandinavian Trip Pop
Key Track – Black And Blue
7) Radiohead – In Rainbows
The Perfect Soundtrack To Any Darkened Room
Key Track - Reckoner
8) The Xx – XX
They Won A Mercury Prize… Meh. Mopey Minimalist Moreish-ness
Key Track – Crystallised
9) The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt
He’s Like Bob Dylan But Swedish
Key Track – Burden Of Tomorrow
10) Foals – Total Life Forever
Haircuts As Conventional As Their Musical Objectives
Key Track – Spanish Sahara
Top 15 songs of the Year
1) Beach House - Walk In The Park
2) Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
3) Tokyo Police Club - Wait Up (Boots of Danger)
4) Radiohead – Reckoner
5) Bob Dylan – Blowin’ in the Wind
6) Elliot Smith – Between the Bars
7) Bright Eyes – First Day Of My Life
8) Phoenix – Lasso
9) Local Natives – Who Knows Who Cares?
10) The Cribs - We Share the Same Skies
11) Stornoway – I Saw You Blink
12) Wild Beasts – We’ve still got the taste dancing on our tongues.
13) The Xx – Islands
14) Slow Club - Giving Up On Love
15) Little Comets – Lost Time
Best Bass Line
Wild Beasts – This Is Our Lot
As Hooky As Peter Hook If He Was Holding A Hook With A Hook Hand
Best Guitar Riff Of The Year
The Cribs - We Share The Same Skies
Johnny Marr
Buskers of the Year
Microguagua
As Mental As Their Parc Guell Haunt
Musical Displeasure Of The Year
Mumford and Sons
They Have One Painfully Country Harmony
Guilty Pleasure Of The Year
The Drums
Leading Purveyors of Indie Nursery Rhymes
