Blog On The Motorway

And so, with barely a day to go, I suppose I had better try and get down my round up of the year, something that has been buzzing in and around my head for the last few weeks.  In the time since I started thinking about it, my feed reader (and probably yours too) have become bogged down by such things, but nonetheless I strive to empty my head of the buzzing sound of formulating top tens, fives and ones.

Top Ten Albums of the Year

1. Meshuggah – Obzen

A spitting, spiralling mas of polyrhythms that will melt your head and confound the ear.  Truly mesmerising.  Imagine all the worlds classical music being played at once by a robot with a distortion pedal and it would sound nothing like this.  I just like the image.  Brutal, technical metal that manages to be accessible and, well, rather splendid.

Meshuggah – Bleed (video)

2. Sigur Rós -Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

By far and away the best non-metal album of the year for me.  Alright, so it’s not as good as Takk, or (), but it fills me with a sense of unbridled joy whenever I listen to it, and it pulls me back again and again.  Uplifting and yet mournful at times, I love this album.

Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook (Live With Bjork at Naturra)

3. Origin – Antithesis 

If you watched the Meshuggah video above and thought to yourself, ‘bloody hell, that’s a bit too heavy,’ then you probably don’t want to follow this link.  By far and away the most technically astounding album made this year, it is a relentless, bludgeoning cacophony of noise.  And it’s brilliant.

Origin – Finite (video)

4. Portishead – Third

One of my favourite ever bands coming back, something that happened a lot this year (AC/DC, Metallica and Guns n’ Roses) but this was the one album which really didn’t disappoint.  Dark, mournful, harrowing, a truly stunning album, with easily my favourite song of the year, Machine Gun.

Portishead – Machine Gun (video)

5. Mogwai – The Hawk Is Howling

A startling return to form by Scotland’s premier instrumental weirdos.  A crystalline sheen sits atop these tracks, which became a staple of my listening when I was doing my nano novel.

Mogwai – Batcat (video)
 

6. Kings Of Leon – Only By the Night

Many purists see this as a dip in form, but to be honest I’ve never really been sold on Kings until now.  Slightly hampered by a dip at the end of the album, this nonetheless became a regular fixture in my household as Ellen loves it too.  And the bassline on Crawl makes my spine tingle.

Kings Of Leon – Crawl (video)

7. Mouth Of The Architect – Quietly

In a year with no new releases by Neurosis, Pelican or Isis, a brilliant slab of Post Metal which remains ethereal and bruising throughout from a band I had never heard of before Last.fm. No videos for this, you’ll just have to wait for my mix!

8. Dozer – Beyond Colossal

Great dirty slabs of Swedish stoner rock.  If you like your rock dirty and fuzz-laden, seek this out.  No vids for this either.

9. Cult Of Luna – Eternal Kingdom

One of my favourite bands, I would hesitate to say this equals their early work, despite a return to heaviness eschewed on Somewhere Along The Highway, but it remains a fascinating listen, layers upon layers of Post metal noise linked to a central concept based on a book they found in a mental institute.

 
Cult Of Luna – Eternal Kingdom (Live in Warsaw)

10. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

I’m sure this merits a higher place in my list, but I did overplay this over the summer to the point where I can barely listen to it again, but this remains a rarity, a British indie album that doesn’t make me want to throw things out of windows.  Great songs, brilliant lyrics, and a wistful melancholy that erupts into a joyful chorus by the end.

Elbow – One Day Like This (live at Glastonbury)

Honourable Mentions for; Metallica, AC/DC, Cancer Bats, Ben Folds, The Sword, Adele.

Worst Album of the Year: Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy

As for gigs, the truth is that I have only been to two gigs this year, shameful though it is to admit.  However, that does at least allow me to do a best and worst gig of the year!

Best Gig: Conor Oberst – York Duchess

Worst Gig: The Streets – Leeds Academy

Top 5 Films

1. The Dark Knight

2. No Country For Old Men

3. There Will Be Blood

4. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

5. Juno

Greatest Thing to Happen This Year: The election of Barack Obama

Worst Thing to Happen This Year: Israel’s bombing of Palestine seems to making a late grasp for the honours here.

Paul’s quick capsule review of the year:

This year has been a good one for me, despite the world seeming to cave in around me.  Obviously the most significant thing to have happened to me was the start of a new relationship with Ellen, the mother of our wonderful little girl Rosie.  It was hardly the most traditional way to start a relationship, but I’m happy to report that nine months on, and everything is still tickety boo.  We clicked so immediately that I almost forget sometimes what a new relationship it is.  Not only that, but Ellen has brought something out of me, a drive that was never really there before, which makes me want to achieve things that will make the lives of my family move forward.  I’ve never really had direction before, and 2009 will hopefully see it being implemented.  But that’s for another post.

As for all the standard geeky Paul stuff, it’s not really been a great year for anything other than political reading.  Music had been a bit ho-hum, with not many great new bands and most of my favourites not releasing anything this year.  Telly has been a bit rubbish, with Heroes going a bit shit and nothing to really get excited about outside of the excellent Big Bang Theory, The IT Crowd, Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe, and the frankly excellent Dead Set.

This year has also been the year that I rediscovered the Internet, in all of its shiny glory.  Without Google Reader I think I would be adrift now, and Last.fm has introduced me to a ridiculous number of bands.

I also returned to Nanowrimo and managed to succeed yet again, although the book itself is far from finished.  But still, quite an achievement.

The other main event of the year was of course the economic collapse, but to be honest I really can’t bring myself to care very much, as it seems the richer you were, the worse of you are.  Now I’m no raving pinko, but so?  It seems to me we are on the brink of some kind of epoch making shift in the way we all live our lives, and that everything terrible that’s happening, from the meltdown to global warming, to the increase in mental religious nutbars killing each other for no particular reason, is providing a rich stew in which we can move forward as a race to find some better ways of dealing with the world around us.  Whether we will or not is another matter.

Blimey, I went a little bit Star Trek there.

So there you go, my review of the year.  I shall be doing a year end mix and posting soon, but not today.