Happy New Year pt.2, and my fav music from 2007

Well, I was going to post this imaginatively titled entry into the canon last week but I’ve had a terribly serious case of man flu that has resulted in me loafing around and feeling sorry for myself, and obviously completely incapacitated in every possible way, so much so that I can’t even bring myself to sit at a keyboard and type a few short words for your entertainment.

I think I can safely say that we have arrived at 2008, and today being Monday 7^th January means for most of us its probably the most depressing day of the year as we are all back in work, and also the day when most of us start thinking about new challenges and changes of jobs! I dare say they’ll be a fair few hours in my office spent trawling the internet as various members of staff decide they are fed up of the place and start looking for something else.

I was thinking the other day which records and artists have most impressed me in 2008. It’s always nice to have a little retrospective, so here we go.

In terms of albums, “Attack/Sustain/Decay/Release” by Simian Mobile Disco stands out for me as a great dance album, and I’ve also enjoyed !!! (pronounced chik chik chik I understand) who are on Warp Records, with their album “Myth Takers”. All in all, it’s been a good year for Warp with both the excellent Battles album “Mirrored” and “Our Earthly Pleasures” by Maximo Park being brilliant too. I’d also be keen to mention the new Bjork album, “Volta” which came out this year, and although I don’t think its as good as some of her previous works, there’s a few great tracks on there. I’m a massive Bjork fan. Her set at Glastonbury was one of the highlights of the year for me. A lot of end of year polls have mentioned “Myths of the Near Future” by the Klaxons as being the album of the year, and it’s a record I’ve enjoyed as well, so well done to them. I also liked “Control” by Good Books, which featured their excellent single “Passchendaele”. I haven’t yet heard the new Radiohead album, as I’m not into downloading music I’m afraid, no matter how free it is, but I dare say I’ll be acquiring a copy on CD and hopefully that’ll be good too.

In terms of singles and one-off’s, you can’t go wrong with a bit of Manchester pop, and I think the recent offering from Take That, “Rule the World”, is one of the finest pop records of the decade and fair play to Gary Barlow and chums for having a bit of a renaissance this year, its been brilliant. Slightly more alternative but no less fun was the great single “Lets make love…” from CSS, which is guaranteed to get me dancing. I just love that sine wave analogue synth sound over the bridge. Returning with a heavy, up-tempo sound, the recent offering from Bloc Party is a real winner – unfortunately I can’t remember the title off the top of my head, but it’s been on Radio One a lot. If someone could enlighten me, that would be marvellous. It’s a good record. Good records too from Cold War Kids and Crowded House, who return with a beautiful melancholic single called “Pour Le Monde”.

On a local or unsigned level, this year I’ve been impressed by the acoustic strummings of Becca Williams, Kev Fox and Liz Green, three solo artists with really distinctive sounds, and of course, Vox’s own Suzie Wilkins who we met at “The End Of Camden” gig. I also came across a Manchester band called The Travelling Band during In The City, who I thought were marvellous, playing Crosby, Stills and Nash type folk indie with a ridiculous amount of contributors. Other local treats included Tetchi, who supported us at our Futuresonic gig way back in March doing ambient, trance and paganist dance music, and Ollie Farshi, an old friend who has delighted and impressed me with his output this year in the downtempo electronica vein. I think he's putting an album together for next year. On MySpace, I discovered a band called Elliot Jack from Birmingham, with whom I have a lot in common as we are both Doctor Who addicts. They sent me a copy of their recent DIY album. It was a real treat of sweet, electronic tinged folk, pop and acoustic music. I urge you to get a copy by contacting the band directly on MySpace.

Biggest disappointment to me this year was the realisation that once again, the hype in Manchester seems to be surrounding some real pap, such as The Courteneers and another outfit, Twisted Wheel. I attended a gig by a band called The Children, who apparently went on to become Twisted Wheel, and I thought it was a bit cack although they managed to fill Academy 3, so they must be doing something right, or have a lot of friends. I also saw another band, Air Cav, at the Night and Day and although I thought they were good, I was a bit disappointed with the turn out and it was really lacking in atmosphere. Where are all the music lovers? Pissing about on the internet at home, I dare say! And, of course, The Ting Tings, not a bad band but somewhat overrated IMO.

So there we go, I think 2007 has been a great year for music, and I think there’s going to be some real treats in 2008 as well. Bring it on.

Still trying to work out with the help of vox staff why I can't upload any new music - its a real pisser but I'm working on it. In the meantime, all our up top date mixes of our best tunes are available on MySpace.