East Coast(er) General said:
Come Around Sundown by Kings of Leon
It would seem that you're not
allbad after all!
This year's been pretty amazing for albums to be fair! Much better than last year in which only THREE were decent enough to be discussed! :lol:
We start with
Animal - Ke$ha, released on Jan 1st and filled with lots and LOTS of guilty joy! She's a ****ing slut, but her music so catchy and amazing <3!
February saw
Ocean Eyes - Owl City released in the UK and go straight to number one. Again, not indie rock and roll, but still really catchy and quite deep to be honest. Yeah, build me some lyrics and I'm quite happy to go along with it!
(Plus me and Manda had been playing this religiously since September 2009 because we love them, it was Error who pointed them out to me if I remember rightly!)
In March I was looking forward to The Gorillaz's latest effort, but was bitterly disappointed with
Plastic Beach. I was willing to forgive the atrociousness of "Stylo" and give the album a chance because their first two albums were really very good - unfortunately this wasn't the case (perhaps the biggest let down of the year).
April was the stomping ground of
Everybody Wants To Be On TV - Scouting for Girls! At this point in the year, this was #1 album for me. Picking up where the last one left off and doing a much better job in this genre than The Feeling ever could! "Posh Girls", "Famous" and "On The Radio" all amazing tracks (not forgetting the Easter #1 - "This Ain't A Love Song"
).
Nothing of real note happened in May, Pendulum are "meh" at best and Diana Vickers may be lavly, but she's not good enough to get an epic album mention! June followed suit (summer music really does suck, too artsy fartsy, lyrics are AWFUL)!
The Scissor Sisters came to the rescue in July with
Night Work. "Fire With Fire" having been released at the end of June as a single made me happy of the oncoming 3rd album from the cooky queens - which didn't disappoint. Not as good as their self-titled debut, but it knocked the SOCKS off of "Ta-Dah"! The title song of the album and "Any Which Way" are two stompingly great hits which are good, upbeat and uplifting - which is what they do best!
The Wanted appeared in August with their single "All Time Low" which I thought was, at the time, the best song of the year. I've yet to get hold of the album, which was released last month - but I'm guessing it'll be at least half-decent. Well, I hope. It was a good anthem!
Illusion of Safety - The Hoosiers and
The Suburbs - Arcade Fire deserve an honourable mention, but not really GREAT enough to get a nomination from me.
September was time for the Script's second album
Science & Faith... I was MOST impressed with their self-titled debut and this album didn't disappoint! I also found they were great live, which was refreshing for a boyband as it doesn't happen often! "You Won't Feel A Thing", "If You Ever Come Back", "Nothing" and single "For The First Time" made this one HEAVY hitter on my list and competing with Scouting For Girls's April effort!
In what was an amazingly good month for music.... Killers frontman Brandon Flowers released his debut solo album
Flamingo which I wasn't aware of until it appeared in front of me in HMV, so it was obviously snapped up immediately! Single "Crossfire" was stunning, as was "Fabulous Las Vegas", "Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts" and "Magdalena". And THEN just to make September all the more better.... the Stereophonics announce that they will be re-releasing their first two albums in deluxe 3-Disc editions with ALL of the B-Sides and some live and acoustic performances! I may have died of musical joy at this point! <3
October saw the release of The Wanted's self-titled album which, as I've said, I haven't got yet... but
Word Gets Around and
Performance & Cocktails by the Stereophonics happened and aforementioned immense joy happened. Obviously, these two beauties would shoot straight to the top spots, but I feel they don't really count :lol: .
So to compensate, I went to see both exclusive "one-night only" shows in London. Clearly.
The Kings of Leon's
Come Around Sundown, as previously mentioned by Jerry, also appeared. It was good, not great. No stonking albums like they've previously been amazing for. But of a decent enough quality as you've come to expect from them.
And then November - Take That jumped back into the limelight AVEC Robbie Williams to release a stunning contemporary 90's album which just blew my socks of! If you were expecting more of the same as "Beautiful World" and "The Circus" from their single "The Flood", this was not to be the case!
Progress is a real contender for the award! With EPIC anthems like "Kidz", "Happy Now", "Underground Machine" and to a lesser extent "SOS" (as well as a heartfelt confession to his wife from Mark Owen with "What Do You Want From Me?"); it really is one incomprehensibly amazing album!
James Blunt's
Some Kind Of Trouble, although sidelined by Gary Barlow and co, also deserves honourable mention because his singing is always like sex in my ears - seriously, say what you will about the ponce, his voice is beautiful!
Still to come is Ke$ha's 2nd album
Cannibal and the
Wonders Of The Younger - Plain White T's. But neither of which I expect to spite whom I'm going to give it to (calm down now :roll: )......
Top 3!
3. Everybody Wants To Be On TV, Scouting For Girls - More of the same, but as previously mentioned - this genre is really fun to get into and they do it so much better than The Feeling, especially considering they manage to go beyond just the one album! Always a cheeky grin on my face when I listen to this through.
2. Progress, Take That - The return of Robbie Williams has been nothing short of wonderful for the ultimate boyband! Their harmonies complete and a return to the style of the 90's mixed with that developed maturity found with their last two albums. A real pleasure of an album!
1. Science & Faith, The Script - Deep, meaningful lyrics, simple but powerful enough music to go with it. Danny's vocals are also very refreshing (as is their ability to perform live)!
There we go then! If you've managed to get this far, well done! I like music, as you may have seen haha, so there's my insight into the year. Bon Jovi and Robbie Williams also released "Greatest Hits" albums - but we ALL know they don't count, but still good!
Next year looks fab too, especially considering we have a new Coldplay album and Kelly Jones and his band of awesomes will be bringing out an 8th studio album <3.
Thanks for reading!
