Top Ten of 2010

While I was writing for www.roomthirteen.com, it was my responsibility to compile the staff album review of the year each December. Let’s just say, accommodating the views of opinionated music fans who feel as strongly about what they don’t like as what they do, in a way that best represented everyone was one hell of a challenge.

Unlike most magazines and webzines, we never ranked our list in chart form, it’s an impossible task trying to decide if Slayer is better or worse than Regina Spektor, but even coming up with a list that didn’t rock the boat by what was left out was harder work than you might think.

I no longer have to perform that act and haven’t even looked at the album poles in the music press these past few weeks.

I did however think for a bit of fun I would come up with my ten favourite songs of the past twelve months, something which I didn’t think would be too difficult.

A lot of the music which I’d have been interested in a couple of years ago has passed me by this year. This summer was the first since 2000 that I didn’t attend a single music festival and I do feel a little out of touch: maybe that’s not such a bad thing. All that said, it still took far longer than I’d expected to get this list down to ten. I'm sure I've missed something but here goes:

Biffy Clyro – ‘Bubbles’
Deciding between this and ‘Many of Horror’ was almost impossible. ‘Bubbles’ was my favourite track on the Biffy album when it came out, and I was really pleased they released it as a single so radio stations would play it. That said, I’ve always loved ‘Many of Horror’ and if I hadn’t made a rule that I’d only have one song per artist on this list, I might have put both in. For the record, I don’t mind X-Factor using the song, I find Matt thingys voice makes my skin crawl when he goes into bloke singing like a girl mode, plus, the production is a bit too boyband for my liking. But if more people discover Biffy Clyro because of it then that’s got to be good, right?

Eminem – ‘Love the Way You Lie’
OK, so I don’t much care for Eminem, or Rihanna for that matter. I’m not sure what it says about me that I’ve included the biggest selling single of the year on my list either. Rihanna’s vocals really stuck in my head, Eminem’s not so much. I fully expected to lose interest in this song after a week or so, but, six months later, I still really enjoy listening to it. Oh, and I really like the drums on this track.

Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Because of the number of festivals I’ve been to over the last decade, there are very few bands that have been around for a while who I want to see but haven’t. Hot Chip are one of these. There’s something fantasticly retro eighties pop about this track, whilst at the same time being very laid back. Reminds me of The Whip who were one of my favourite live bands a couple of years ago.

Jonsi – ‘Go Do’
I think the reason why I like it is, it’s just odd, but then, it does come from ya man from Sigur Ros so it was always likely to be a little unusual. If the vocals were a bit more mainstream this song could have been a huge pop hit, but that would mean it would lose most of its charm.

King Blues – ‘Head Butt’
I think the reason I feel a little out of touch with current music is because I’ve not been going to as many gigs recently. The King Blues are an example of a band totally discovered at festivals, first Guilfest then Leeds. Ska, punk, reggae and a touch of folk thrown in together, with a strong political and social edge to the lyrics, King Blues are definitely one of my favourite live bands, and ‘Head Butt’ is one of their finest moments to date.

Kylie Minogue – ‘All the Lovers’
Ah, now, yes, Kylie does seem to have slipped through the net. I’ve never hated Kylie, but I’ve never loved her either. Her songs are fine in a, in the right mood, take it or leave it kind of way. To my ears this song has a slight 80s, disco edge to it. Most of all though it’s just damn catchy.

Nelly – ‘Just A Dream’
Even more than Eminem, I thought this song was one of those I’d like listening to for a week or so while it was stuck in my head, but quickly it would be shown up for the averageness it was. Erm, something seems to have gone wrong here. Nelly is on this list for catchyness alone, I just can’t help it, sorry.

Robert Plant – ‘Angel Dance’
There were those who were disappointed when Robert Plant refused to rejoin his Led Zep colleagues on a more permanent basis than one O2 Arena show: not me. So it might have been fun to see them play the classics in a big field somewhere, but there’s a part of me that wishes every old band under the sun doesn’t automatically have to reform for the festival circuit. Plant’s decision also means he can carry on releasing great solo material, he’s very much in his prime on that front.

Tensnake – ‘Coma Cat’
It’s like we’ve got in a time machine and gone back to when Orbital were at their best. Nothing more needs to be said.

Frank Turner – ‘Try This at Home’
One of the best things about being a music journalist, as I laughably described myself for a while, was seeing someone you’d written about at the very start of their career, rise to the point where this year, amongst other things, they supported Green Day at Wembley Stadium: a long way from the Fighting Cocks in Kingston. This became a single around the time of the Green Day tour, and is one of my two favourite songs from last year’s ‘Poetry of the Deed’ album. This wouldn’t get in my top ten Frank Turner songs list, but is enough to make this one.

Blogs

This is just a short post to draw your attention towards other blogs I write.

My main blog right now is the one I'm keeping, following my training for the 2011 London Marathon. See how I'm getting on here.

The other is a writing project I've had for a while, which has stalled somewhat. The idea was to write about life in London, with the ultimate dream of getting it to a point where it could become a book. It's not going so well at the moment, I've not written anything new for months, but some of it is here.

More To Rage Than Giving Cowell A Good Kicking

One year on from all the fun and games which surrounded the race for Christmas number 1, I’m posting the article I wrote on the subject for the
Social Arts Network.

For the first time since
Band Aid in 2004, we have a Christmas number 1 that hasn’t been produced from
Simon Cowell’s reality TV conveyer belt.
Rage Against the Machine sold over half a million downloads of their early nineties hit, if you can call getting to number 25 such a thing,
‘Killing in the Name’. This saw them take the top spot by 50,000 more sales than
X-factor winner Joe. Those in the media that know about such things are calling this one of the biggest shocks in chart history, up there with
Mr. Blobby beating
Take That to the festive number 1 back in 1993.

The people behind the RATM campaign certainly achieved their goals in not only defeating Cowell’s latest pop product, but restoring the race for Christmas number 1 to the status it held less than a decade ago, when it was the most talked about sales week of any year.

While Facebook and Twitter has been a wash with people celebrating a victory for real music, sticking the boot into Simon Cowell or, already wondering what could do it next year, it’s also worth reflecting on another major part of the Rage success, something which did get slightly overlooked in the hysteria.

Those that created the Facebook campaign, as well as encouraging people to download ‘Killing in the Name’, also suggested group members might like to make a small donation to
Shelter. In doing so, £72,000 has been raised for the homeless charity, and that’s before you include the donation Rage themselves will be making from money made from the song sales.

The Thursday before the Christmas chart was revealed, Rage Against the Machine made a somewhat controversial appearance on the Five Live breakfast show, a headline grabber since they performed the track live following an interview with Nicky Campbell and, either not realizing, or choosing to ignore that they were live, attempted to perform the song in full, F words and all.

Following this, the station was swamped by phone calls and emails from people arguing the case for and against Rage or Joe. One such contributor drew attention to the link to Shelter, suggesting that those that were downloading the song and justifying their actions with the homeless charity in mind were merely clutching at straws. The emailer in question wondered what percentage would continue to support Shelter in the future, as she and her husband were doing by way of a monthly contribution. As well as missing, perhaps not being aware of, the link through Facebook to make donations, they also overlooked something which is absolutely vital to the success of any charity.

Charities both large and small, benefit greatly from loyal support, people that make a monthly or annual donation, but sadly a lot simply wouldn’t survive from this alone. Although Shelter in this case were the fortunate beneficiaries of the Rage campaign group founders interest in their cause, this incident is an extremely high profile example of what all charitable organizations need to include in their yearly activity. Something which, for want of a better term, can be regarded as a publicity stunt. So not only was it a happy Christmas for fans of Rage Against the Machine, but also for Shelter and its fundraising team. A New Year’s resolution for the charity sector should be to take inspiration from this in a time when more people have les money to spare. OK so not everyone can get the music press on their side, but a bit of social networking imagination and the ability to seize the moment can get you a long way.