Christmas Presents 2006
Obviously my main present this year was the Canon EOS 400D that I got earlier this month (Santa kindly understood that a few week’s practice would be necessary in order to take some decent festive snaps!), but I found the following waiting at the foot of the bed on Christmas morning:
- Calendrical Calculations
- Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Beans
- Lagavulin
- Tamnavulin
- Oyster Bay Chardonnay
- Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Coffee Selection
- Colin Baxter Calendar 2006
- Pulp – The John Peel Sessions
- Gene – John Peel Sessions 1995-1999
- Cute Christmas Tree Decoration
- Body Shop Facial Scrub
- Body Shop Shaving Brush
- Body Shop Shaving Cream
- The West Wing – Series 5
- Autograph Leather Washbag
Once again, thanks to everyone who gave Santa a helping hand!
The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year – 2006
“Regard art critics as useless and dangerous” – Manifesto of the Futurist Painters
With that stark warning ringing in your ears, here’s my list of the best albums I’ve heard during 2006:
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If I had to pick one person to write a protest album about the Iraq war, it would definitely be Neil Young. I blogged about this scathing and visceral attack on the Bush administration back in October, and my opinion of it hasn’t diminished over the past couple of months. It remains a strong collection of work with an energy and quality that has been lacking in Young’s work since, ooh, at least 1994′s Sleeps With Angels. |
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Just a few albums ago Snow Patrol were indie plodders putting out the kind of records that would only be bought by people like me. Now they’ve broken into mainstream by releasing anthemic radio-friendly tracks such as Chasing Cars, You’re All I Have, Set The Fire To The Third Bar, and (my personal favourite), It’s Beginning To Get To Me. And look who they namecheck:
…which brings me on to… |
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I realise that this was released back in 2005, but I didn’t get round to hearing it until early this year! This is the second in Sufjan Steven’s grand plan of releasing an LP for every state in the US, and it’s an absolute corker. Beautiful, melodic piano-led tunes that will be seeping out from my late-night headphones for many years to come. |
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Belle And Sebastian – The Life Pursuit Belle And Sebastian never fail to deliver the goods, and this Tony Hoffer-produced follow-up to 2003′s Dear Catastrophe Waitress is no exception. Brilliant lyrics once more from Stuart Murdoch and the band are sounding tighter than ever, combining to make a deliciously upbeat seventh album.
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Pipettes – We Are The Pipettes The Pipettes are on a mission “to turn back the clock to a time before |
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Long Blondes – Someone to Drive You Home Hooray, another female-fronted pop band! And they hail from Sheffield! And quote Morrissey! How could I resist their charms? |
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Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out Of This Country Camera Obscura are a Glaswegian indie who came to my attention when I heard their fantastic single Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken (an answer song to Lloyd Cole’s 1984 (Are You) Ready To Be Heartbroken?). The video to that single is quite cute too – check it out on YouTube. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the entire album (their third!) is of a similarly high quality. |
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Guillemots – Through The Windowpane The Guillemots’ album makes it onto my list primarily because it includes my favourite track of 2006, Trains To Brazil. The title is a reference to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, and the subject matter of the lyrics concerns the ongoing spate of terrorist attacks, suggesting that we should “live and be thankful we’re here” whilst we have the chance. Soulful vocals and decorative horns help to make this the most joyous, life-affirming pop song I’ve heard in many a long year. |
Honorary mentions to the following other fine opuses:
- Aim – Flight 602
- The Automatic – Not Accepted Anywhere
- The Beautiful South – Superbi
- Be Your Own Pet – Be Your Own Pet
- Delays – You See Colours
- The Flaming Lips – At Home With The Mystics
- Isobel Campbell – Milk White Sheets
- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Ballad of the Broken Seas
- Jarvis Cocker – Jarvis
- Keane – Under The Iron Sea
- Razorlight – Razorlight
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium
- Zutons – Tired of Hanging Around
James Brown Is Dead (really)
I had the great pleasure of watching half a James Brown set at the V98 festival at Leeds in August 1998. My original online journal entry for that day is here.
We had started the evening, like most people at the festival, watching headliners The Verve on the main stage – they were riding high in popularity at that time following the release the previous year of their Urban Hymns LP. I had always been a bit gutted that due to an injury they had pulled out of supporting Oasis at Sheffield Arena in April 1995, but to be fair Pulp were a more than adequate replacement, and that turned out to be the first time I heard Common People.
Anyway, back to 1998, and despite the great songs, The Verve had no stage presence whatsoever. As I wrote at the time:
Emperor’s new clothes or what?! I may as well have sat at home listening to some CDs and turning my bedroom lights on an off.
So, we skulked off to the dance tent to catch the last half of the James Brown set, and I will always be glad that we did. What a showman! Even at 65 he was bouncing around the stage like a maniac, whipping the audience (of mainly teen and twenty-something indie kids) into a frenzy with his shouted and impassioned vocals. The contrast with a statuesque Richard Ashcroft could not have been more stark.
The Royal Podcast
Her Maj’ is getting with the times and making her annual broadcast to the Commonwealth available for download as a podcast.
Best of the Ixus Years
Whilst I get the hang of my fancy new camera, I thought I’d cobble together a Flickr set containing my favourite 100 photos taken with my old Canon Ixus V compact over the last five years:
Fiji Coup
Am I the only person who misread the headlines and thought that Bananarama had seized power in Suva?! 
