Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

The most glaringly obvious omission from my original list, but I did promise my list would be an honest one, and until November this year I hadn't actually heard Wilco's heartbreaking and ultimately definitive statement; Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It still feels like a coming of age record of a band who I had dismissed in the past, this was the moment when Wilco broke through creating both complex and challenging arrangements and beautiful albeit disaffecting pop music. Opener I Am Trying To Break Your Heart set the scene, it was a big wide open desolate space that grew more sinister with each churning sawing buzz of instrumentation, but was all tied together by a simple effective hook. The heart breaking stakes were raised to raw unrepentant levels with the haunting Radio Cure but balanced by the Springsteen-eske jangle of dissarming War On War, and the slick folk pop of Kamera. The albums most well known track and ultimately it's own magnum opus was Jesus Etc. it encapsulated a little bit of everything that makes Wilco great. A charming but tragic sense of jauxaposition, overt tragic references to 9/11 counter balanced by a heart-warming and surprisingly uplifting chorus, and central narrative. The track and the album is deeply conflicted, and that is where the albums strengths lie, you're never quite sure whether you should cry or wryly smile. It remains one of the decades most powerful works.

I've spoken at great lenght about the LP in the last two months, with both a review and an entry in the 2009 album of the year list, so rather than rehashing the same territory I'll offer the contextual justification for Gaga's entry. Aside from the brilliance of this thirty minute pop masterwork, Gaga has undoubtedly become one of this generation defining pop icons, and the final year of this decade was dominated by her and her unmistakable iconography. The Fame Monster not only gave her a sense of consistency laking on The Fame it gave her an album that not even the greatest sceptic could pick holes in with any hope of maintaining a shred of credibility. Somewhere between Bad Romance and Speechless Gaga announced on to the world that she would now be considered next to M.I.A, Animal Collective and The Strokes rather than with Beyonce and Leona Lewis.

(Merge 2007, Mike McCarthy)

In 2007 Spoon emerged from the studio with yet another album of remarkable quality, but there was something a bit different about Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga it felt like a band on roll who finally hit the jackpot after going awfully close so many times. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga rode the middle ground beautifully between artistic flair and mainstream addictiveness. It proved to be layered with hit after potential hit but more importantly it was caked in a heart ache with a dark detached sense of humour and a tense emotional atmosphere. The Ghost Of You Lingers is haunting, it's almost unpleasant to listen to but it's too darn engrossing and you find yourself utterly absorbed. Don't Make Me A Target is one of this decade's finest tracks and never fails to hit it's mark, elsewhere Rhythm & Soul is simply infectious and is arranged with a deft hand to get the most out of it's relative sparse arrangement. Britt Daniels achieved a mighty feat delivering a lyrical and vocal performance that was both understated and yet utterly captivating, you hang on his every word as these terse and surprisingly catchy arrangements that get you foot tapping and head bobbing at an alarming rate. By the time you reach the brilliant Underdog you're resistance has been thoroughly broken by this perfectly judged and irresistible affair.

Another album who I have written about at great length, for those looking for an explanation I point you in the direction of the Album of the year 2009 column, it should answer all you're questions and stop me repeating myself.

The Lily Allen Bootleg Collection: Obviously this was not a proper album to begin with, and can be found for the most part on the expanded addition of Alright Still which should have placed at least thirty places higher.

Vida La Vida: As I said when writing it's entry it was lucky to make the cut, and reflected the intentions of a big group to expand their sound, but in the cold light of day it simply doesn't measure up.

Only By The Night: The album that made Kings Of Leon Superstars importance is unquestionable but artistically it can't hold a candel to the likes of Ga Ga Ga Ga or Fame Monster.

The Bake Sale: Cool Kids may be one of my favourite acts, and there debut more than lived up to the hype, but on an artistic and influential level it just doesn't fit the bill.

With the mamoth task finished I thought I'd do some statistical analysis of the top one hundred. Just for fun to see what was the dominant genre and who were the dominant artists.

For simplicities sake I've dumbed down the genres so they look a little like this;

Indie: Other than just including Indie it will include soft alternative, so for example Arcade Fire will be labelled as Indie

Hard Rock: American influence rock, the heavier stuff, not metal but distinctly not indie, i.e Foos, Hold Steady, Muse

Electro: Electro will be a group term including dance, sampling and all kinds of stuff like that.

Hip-Hop: Will be a catch all for grime, UK garage, or any other subvarients of rap music

Pop: Will include soul, R and B and Electro-lite

Stadium: Kind of self explanitory think Coldplay, U2 etc.

Metal: Also includes hard Alternative

Folk: Also includes Singer Song writers who are distinct from pop, Psychedellia and other odd stuff.

So lets see what the decades dominant Genre:

Kind of how I expected going in really, if I had to guess the decades dominant themes, although i'd of expected pop to be higher and Hip Hop a little lower, but then that's partly due to classification as Artist like the Streets could arguably be listed as closer to electro than hip hop, but its tough to say. It certainly hasn't been a good decade for metal or in particular Punk, and lets Face it Green Day probably should have been listed as Stadium I was just feeling sorry for them.

So next up whose the dominant creative force, who has the most albums in the list:

There were quite alot of bands with 2 as you can probably imagine but the interesting thing I supose is that Coldplay and Kings Of Leon ended up with 3 a peice, granted when the year is finished I can certainly see Only By The Nigh and Vida La Vida slipping out of the list but it shows that importance and consistantly being good rather than great can certainly let you slip into the back door to greatness *coughs*Dave Grohl*coughs*.

And we'll end with some random facts:

32 of the albums in my list were debuts.

29 of the albums in my list were by solo artists.

11 of the albums in my list were by solo or all women groups.

76 of the albums in my list were made by men and men alone

13 of the albums in my list were made by mixed gender bands.

77 of the albums in my list were made by just caucasions artists

22 of the albums in my list were made by either mixed or other ethnic groups

1 of the albums in my list were made by robots

2 of the albums in my list were compilations

1 of the albums in my list were self released

39 of the albums in my list were by British artist

1 of the albums in my list was Icelandic

2 of the albums in my list were French

25 of the albums in my list have won album of year from major Music Magazines

5 the number of albums who probably would have made the list but I haven't heard

"Ain't Nobody Got Swagger Like Us!" was M.I.A's ironic proclaimation on the awesome Paper Planes, while the line was meant in jest its sentiments couldn't be truer. No one in the world has swagger like M.I.A, no one is even close, their not even playing on the same field, hell I'm not even sure if she's playing the same sport as everyone esle. The line is a tongue in cheek throwaway in a song that puts capitalist consumerism and the live to work cultures to the sword while simultaniously critiquing war and it's realist motivations. Ultimately the song like M.I.A is vague, it's as deep as you want it to be, M.I.A has always said the lyrics are intentional vague, so that the listener can make his or her own interpretation and have a personal unique reaction. Perhaps when you can assess your own priorities and moral compass by how you interpret the child sung "All I Wanna Do is *Gun Shots* and Take Your Money", it's a wonderful contrast between violent pistol blasts and the innoncence of the clearly African child vocal. For me it immediately conjures images of child soldiers in Africa or the kid who shot Omar in the Wire. The song is typical of M.I.A's flow; one minute she's opting for some serious social detialing describing and man who lives his entire life pumping gas just to get by, but then suddenly she decides to start texting her friend Habibee and then as if distracted by a beautiful butterfly she'll start humming a nursary rhyme harmony.

Thinking back to the original line "Ain't Nobody Got Swagger Like Us", it was sampled and turned into a track by T.I, Lil' Wayne, Kanye West and Jay Z and

through outfit with black and white lady bird prints and sun glasses, looking fabulous, that it became apparent how superior she was as a creative force, a musician, an artist and most importantly as an icon. Whether it be rock, pop, dance or Hip Hop M.I.A is a free spirit on a completely different planet to everyone else.

Kala was her masterpeice, taking the superb Arular and improving on it in every possible way. The reason this album stands out above all others is that it speaks for everyone, literally everyone, unlike Arctic Monkeys who speak directly to the young people of great Britian, or Lily Allen who speaks for western women or The Streets music for Geezers, M.I.A is global and all inclusive. Kala contains infulences from pretty much every continent on planet earth, this is future music, it speaks to a boy in Cape Town as clearly as it speaks to a scenester in New York. Whether it be the didgeridoo and Aborignal children on Mango Pickle Dance, or the bollywood meets future club stomp of Jimmy, or the African drums and chants on Hussel this is a clasidescope of music from around the world rooted around M.I.A's care free south London rap.

In this way Kala is the definitive 21st century record, when globalization reached every corner of the world, immigration and multicultralism spread, the internet connected kids in their bedrooms in London with outraged Iranian voters, this is the decade when the world shrunk considerably. Ironically while this album feels like it could have been made anywhere in the world by some kind of omnipotent super being, it's could just have easily been made in multicutral London (and probably was). It's a sign of the times M.I.A could have encountered all these influences and peoples on a tube journey around London just as easily as she could have flying accross the world. M.I.A herself is a Sri Lankan Londoner but this record reeks of London, Melborne, New York, Cape Town, Paris and where ever the fuck else. This is World Music, real world music, music that is just affecting in the east as it is in the west. As M.I.A uncomprisingly states she "Put's People On The Map Who've Never Seen A Map".

Musically this album has everything, whether M.I.A is crooning her way through the Pixies Where Is My Mind? on the sick synth crunch of £20 dollars, seeing M.I.A at her rage filled best telling the story of shanty towns in Africa where they can buy AKs for twenty dollars but don't worry it's all good because they still by T.I. records. Then of course M.I.A couldn't redifine world music without changing the face of dance music with the reworking of Jimmy Jimmy Aaja from an eighties bolywood film into a twentfirst century neon disco stomper. Then there's bolywood meets Brazil carnival stomp of Boyz that has M.I.A going all future whore talking about "Dogging On The Front Of Your Red Honda", it can't seem to decide whether its a sexy rap or a nursary rhyme. Then the middle east meets Africa on the electro squlesh of Down River or the ghosty bongo driven The Turn. I could go on and on there's so much to discuss about each track whether its a sampling The Clash's Straight To Hell or a crazy South African horn blast. This is crazy future music, that continual suprises, constantly changes, is always evolving and is only consistant in its awesomeness.

Perhaps the ultimate display of M.I.A's sheer brilliance is the albums weak track (yes it has one) Come Around. Timberland takes over production of the track and beneath M.I.A's wacky samples is one of Timberland's trade mark beats, it's remarkable that the decades most succesful producer who has reivented pop music and saved the careers of Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Nelly Furtado (as well as reinventing the wheel with Missy Elliott), manages to sound so pedestrian and dull next to M.I.A, the track is delightful when M.I.A is allowed to be her sychofrenic self but when it's Timberland heavy, it's limp. It shows the difference between the best of mainstream and something new, something different, and somethign impossible to recreate.

Finally the albums greatest achievement is that it redefined World Music. World Music used to be a term for non Western music, there was nothing world about it, it was just music from countries that were non Western who didn't ascribe to the mainstream rock and roll and pop of the UK/US. M.I.A said fuck that, and spread her creative wings accross the entire globe and drew it all together into a wonderful cluster fuck of colour and sound. M.I.A doesn't deal in nation states, she deals in cultures and peoples, she makes music for the modern world, a united world and an idealised future world. So welcome to The Modern Age (well I had to give the Strokes something), M.I.A is the true global superstar, Kala is the bible of the new world music, and in her own words M.I.A "represents the World Town".

So who knocked the Libertines out of the top ten? Franz Ferdinand of course! This is an album that had it all, it was vitally important, had huge influence, proved the blue print for years of spikey indie pop and best of all it was bloody brilliant from start to finish. However all these factors aside Franz Ferdinand proved that they had "it", that X factor that makes a band or an album special, Franz were perfect they looked cooler than all the competition without actually being cool, they had the coolest artwork yet it wasn't, Franz were unexplainable. Alex Kapranos was a style icon, a trend setter, a scene leader, but not one people would openly speak of because he wasn't a grass roots hero like Alex Turner or Liam Gallagher, he was just Art Pop personified. Something about Franz was distinctly European and cold, from the album artwork, to the dresscode it seemed like Kruatrock but it didn't sound like Krautrock, Franz simple were "it".

Musically it was definitely 21st Century, tight knit, short sharp songs, never over staying their welcome all perfect slaps of art pop. However Franz didn't sound remotely contemporary, they didn't feel like a post Strokes band, the only thing that can date this record is the hordes of subsiquent imitations that followed. The Franz formula is simple sharp dueling guitars, and stomping rhythm section that demands you dance and Alex Kapranos quasi-sexy peodophilic croon. Like an evil Scottish dandy, your never quite sure if he's trying to start a riot, wallow in his own sense of apathy or if he's trying to chat you up. Whatever he's trying to do it works to perfections. His sense of tone and pitch are sublime and just dripping with cool, his delivery on Dark Of The Matinee as he rolls his eyes and passively yawns "I Charm You And Tell You Of The Boys I Hate, All The Girls I Hate, The Words I Hate, The Clothes I Hate, Ooh How I'll Never Be All The Things I Hate". There's a certain distainful nonchalance to his delivery that adds a sense of mournful depression to his vocals, Auf Achse shows Kapranos' subtly at its best "You See Her But You Can't Touch Her / You Hear Her But You Can't Hold Her".

The musical analysis is almost besides the point because what Franz Ferdinand greatest achievement will always be will be reclaiming the dancefloors in the name of rock and roll. Every track of this album jolts and buzzes perfectly it was made to dance, groove and throw shapes to. The choruses are all suitably huge, the guitar hooks are unmistakeable and practicly everytrack on the album could be released as a single. Everyone has their favorite whether its the desperate yelps of Tell Her Tonight, the irresitable stomp of Take Me Out or the camp-arific Michael. Micheal will always be my favorite the balls of Kapranos to get the dancefloors of the nation shouting "I'm Sexy, I'm Sexy So Come And Dance With Me Michael....Sticky Hair Sticky Lips Stubble On My Sticky Lips". Franz Ferdinand will always remain and interesting case, it will forever be cool for some to hate them, but anyone who tries to knock this album is lying to themselves, this is a landmark album, a national treasure, and an album of continual delights. From the look, to the album cover, to the closing notes '40 Franz Ferdinand were absolutely perfect. Franz Ferdinand is the sound of a band capturing the zietgiest.

Let's get the obvious criticism of the album out the way straight away. Back To Black on pure musical quality alone is not one of the ten greatest albums of the decade, there are better collections fo 12 tracks out there, and their is no doubt about this, the afore mention Franz Ferdinand for example. However sometimes the strenght, power and story of an album can elevate it to a level above. When it comes to influence this album is unparrelled only the Strokes and Lily Allen come close to having as many imitators, but none can boast such successful imitators (Duffy, V V Brown, Corrine Bailey Rae). This is ultimately what makes Amy so special she is leaps an bounds ahead of her competition. She is a soul singer who has real soul, unlike the plastic bollocks of Duffy who sounds as though she's never had the blues in her life, Amy is legit, and we know it. We've witnessed Amy's self destructive lifestyle, her drug abuse, her choatic and soul destroying relationship with Jail bird boyfriend Blake. So when she sings in her unmistakeably beautiful brassy voice you know this is 100% legit raw emotion and it makes her records have an unbelievably affecting emotional resonance. You get the feeling if Duffy even attempted to someone one tenth of Winehouse's soul she'd end up hanging herself.

It's her tragic tale and beautiful voice that elevate a track like You Know I'm No Good, its so personal, so real and so moving. It's irresistable, were Amy a fake the depth of song writting would be staggering regardless but her story gives her that x factor that tips her over the edge. "Upstairs With My Ex Boy, I'm With Him But I Can't Get Joy...There Be None Of Him No More, I Cry For You On The Kitchen Floor". Her emotional honest and brutal gutsy storytelling, are so refreshingly bluesy and soulful, it feels like a long lost genre that has spent decades being raped for corperate sentiment crying crocadile tears was finally back. The title tracks is another staggering standout as Amy deals with an emotional break up, her partner shrugs it off and goes back to an old girl friend, where as Amy dies inside. Then of course we have Rehab a huge pop single obviously, it has a killer hook, but it's part of a dark story of drug abuse. It's amazing how Amy takes these grueling break ups and these heavy heavy emotional issues and turns them into such goergeously catchy hooks and delicious pre chorus builds, My Tears Dry On My Own is perhaps the best example as the chorus soars "I Cannot Play Myself Again, I Should Just Be My Own Best Friend / Not Fuck Myself In The Head With Stupid Men / He Walks Away / The Sun Goes Down...". As if she needed anymore credibility English Lit students at Cambridge compare those lyrics to Keats and Yates. The arrangements on the album are subtle and sparse, they comes together for the big choruses, but they simmer in the verse; it's Amy's voice that is left to power these tracks forward. Back To Black will forever go down as a classic album, it spawned one of Britian's greatest stars and biggest media spectacles, here's to hoping Amy recovers, because behind the car crash is one of the greatest voices and an unparrelled brutal honest songwritter. An album of unparrelled emotional power.

When Released in 2002 it was hard to imagine just how influencial this record would be. You'd be excused for thinking that Mike Skinner would just be fad, to fade out and be forgotten, or at best "Cult Classic Not Best Seller". However Skinner surpassed his own expectations and became not only a mega star (all be it fleetingly) but a true revolutionary. Mike Skinner wasn't kidding when he wrote "Everything Sounds The Same...Let's Push Things Forward", that's exactly what he did. He instantly rose above the limp UK Garage scene that peaked in 2001 and introduced a new era of social detailing. Britian was plagued by social problems and was still in the heart of binge drinking culture. Skinner reveled in this climate and became the spokesmen for a generation and opened a fascinating window through which the rest of us could view the streets. As Skinner said himself this was "Street Level", simply "A Day In The Life Of A Geezer".

Musically Skinner had all the halmarks of a post UK Garage act the baselines were familar but Skinners arrangements were punchy and sharp, instantly cooler than the competition. Skinner constantly reached for sweeping sharp string arrangements followed up by thudding baselines, the superb "Same Old Thing" sounds urgent and brooding, but when Skinner lays a punchline the musics seeves like the shocking twist of a soap has just been revealed. Geezers Need Excitement is ominous and never settles comfortably and is the perfect accompaniment to the Streets tale of drunken brawls. Tracks like Has It Come To This? sound like antiques now but Skinners' vocals sound as urgent as ever, Skinner has always managed to rap like a drunken stream of conciousness, you can almost feel a hazy thought process when the beat drops and he repeats "Blinded By The Lights, Blinded By The Lights, Brand New Heights". Somehow even weaker a track It's Too Late transports you back to drunken memories of girls, Skinner manages to idealize women even in the most gritty and depressing of settings, it's very touching, and a telling reflection of the male though process.

Then of course there are the anthems (sorry bangers I forgot) and this album was absolutely stacked with hits from top to bottom How Has It Come To This?, Let's Push This Forward, Too Much Brandy, Weak Become Heroes and Don't Mug Yourself. Then of course there's the delicious satire of The Irony Of It All, a razor sharp critique of the governments drug control policy. However the undoubted highlights are the afforementioned Don't Mug Yourself an unstoppable club banger and the superb Weak Become Heroes the closest thing to a ballad on display, it's heartfelt, honest and real. The Streets may have slumped considerably but Original Pirate Material was an album that shaped a decade it's hard to imagine the Arctic Monkeys or Lily Allen without Mike Skinner. British music in 2009 would be completely unrecognizable were it not for the pioneering Original Pirate Material, a record that kicked down a door and started a revolution.

Kid A and Amnesiac saw Radiohead pushing boundaries rejecting their role as a traditional guitar band and distancing themselves from the world concuring OK Computer. Hail To The Thief was unsettled, it showed Radiohead as jack of all trades without identity and lacking a conherent sound. In Rainbows was the sound of a band coming to terms with themselves, consolidating their sound and becoming happy with themselves. That doesn't sound to exciting does it? But it was, it was thrilling, it was what fans wanted, its what the band wanted, they had evolved into Radiohead 2.0, the infulences of Kid A were apparent, but they'd also accepted the Radiohead that made OK Computer and The Bends. We had the Radiohead sound, this was distinctively Radiohead, it was just right, everything was in its right place.

Of course this album is famous for a reason that has nothing to do with how fucking fantastic this album sounds. This album saw Radiohead break from Parlephone, they were no longer to be dictated to, unfortunately the Studio would get their moneys worth with a heartless Best of but Radiohead were free. Radiohead were always trend setters, and in 2007 they shook the music world to its core. They released there album online, and they were going to let their fans choose what they wanted to pay for it. Shock horror, it's the apocalypse, or at least that's what the press and the music industry said, of course it wasn't. Radiohead were simply pushing the boundaries and embracing the new media. I paid 7.99 for this album, the same price as it would cost on itunes. It turns out as the band made 100% of the profit they reeped in huge sums reportedly £5 a download (with huge numbers, and a 40 boxset too that sold out). The album awesomeness spread and the regular retail release went straight to number one as well and stayed in the charts for most the of the year. Radiohead had put the whole record industry on the back foot, again suprised everyone, and had made a packet.

That is only half the story. The album itself was sublime from the skipping eltro beats of 15 Step and the millenium bug crackle of the fragile Videotape you could see the influence of Kid A now absorbed down into lovely three minute tracks. Then there was Nude ten years in the making a ballad so beautiful, so tender it became a classic of the highest order on first listen. Nude kicked off a series of three staggering ballads that we're remarkable in their beauty, subtly arrangement they felt like floating through space, first Weird Fishes with its skippy jazzy drums and then the wonderful stripped down and raw All I Need. A song so haunting a tender it sit side by side with Pryamid Song, yet while it brought back memories of Amnesiac it was so now, it couldn't be anywhere but on In Rainbows. Lyrically Thom was as cutting as ever "I'm An Animal / Trapped In Your Hot Car / I Am All The Days / That You Choose To Ignore" his imagery was sinister and pitched to perfection.

This album had all Radiohead's talents on display and fitting together so comfortably, next to the ballads we had the heir to danceable discendant of Idioteque; 15 Step, the visceral wrath of Body Snatchers, the radio friendly sing along A Jigsaw Falling Into Place. Every track on this album is superb, only Videotape feels like a hang over from Hail To The Thief but the beauty of the ballad means it is far from unwelcome. Radiohead did it again, they reinvented the wheel and shocked the world while at the sametime releasing their most conventional, accesible and beautiful album since OK Computer. Radiohead proved their as vital today as they were ten years ago. An Instant Classic.

James Murphy clearly wasn't happy proving that he had the coolest record collection on earth, and proving that he was the coolest DJ on earth, above any scene or trend, he was constant. No now he had to make having a mid life crisis cool. Yes you read that corectly, he was coming to terms with his age, his friends, his life, his status, he was all depressed and serious and he was of course going to nonchalantly make the best record of the year. The thing that makes Murphy and by extension Sound Of Silver so great is that he can delve into the past, seek influences from rock and dance, and various legends and sound so remarkably fresh. While New York I Love You may sound more than a little reminiscant of the Velvet Underground and Bowie, it never feels indepted, it feels like more, and evolution and new creature, vital, and urgent. Get Innocuous! is a sublime example you can hear Bowie again and of course Eno and pinches of Kraftwerk but it sounds so different and timeless, you can identify point A but how the hell Murphy got to point Z is beyond explanation.

If we think back to the LCD's debut album LCD Soundsystem it was dripping with cool, sounded like a million bucks but it felt a little souless, it sounded cool, but you felt Murphy had nothing to say and not much of a voice to convey it with. On Sound Of Silver those question marks have been blasted into out of space, Someone Great is staggeringly emotive, full of great trusism ("I Wish That We Could Talk About It / But Then That's The Problem") but it's opaque hard to penetrate and remains as fascinating on 50th listen as it was on the first. Murphy's voice that before seemed concerned with being cool, the unapproachably apathetic party host, is now tender, a sort of hushed depressive tone, the tone of a man feeling low, who can't quite conjure the words to say what he means, so the thoughts just neurotically swirl in his head. Of course after the charming Someone Great comes the superb All My Friends one of the bravest and most powerful singles in recent memory, it's emotive, and Murphy's voice is perfect, his fragile tone is just right. Musically the tracks are arranged superbly the grow and morph to the perfect conclusion, it so organic, it's remarkable that cold harsh electro could ever be this moving.

All this talk of emotion, depression and midlife crisis probably has you worried, after all this is James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem, we demand club bangers, and tracks to make us dance until our feet bleed. Murphy delivers in spades, his trademark yelp and stomp are present on the deliciously satirical North American Scum. Then there's the hypnotic chanting of Watch The Tapes and the burbling subversive irrestibility of Get Innocuous! Then there's the eighties grooveathon of Sound Of Silver which continues the midlife crisis theme while giving you a finger lickingly good bass line. All in all there isn't really a weak track on this album, it flows from place to place, it's never predictable, there's a hell of alot of artistry gone into creating these intricately laid grooves and beats. Murphy now stands without critics, he can be the coolest kid at the party, while also being the most serious and soulful, its an incredible achievement, and puts Sound Of Silver in a class of its own.

Sometimes you wish that you'd just discovered an album. You know when you see a review or see a website and give a band a try just because, and then they stun you, blow you away, you wonder how you ever managed to live without them. It always feels better when you're genuinely suprised by a bands brilliance, it's never quite the same when you've had months of being told a record was great, that you have to own it and then you hear it. I'm the worlds biggest Strokes fan (literally), and even though I loved their debut after all the hype on first listen I couldn't help but ask myself Is This It? Of course in the Strokes case that was by design but it happens so often, the hype always undermines the joy of the first listen. Therefore when it came time to listen to Funeral after a plethora of five star reviews, non stop hype in the magazines and in the broadsheets, not only did they have indie and art creditibility, U friggin 2 took them as support on world tour, an impossibly high bar was set. Yet when the first violin jab, piano line and guitar crunch of Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) sounded I was blown away, implausible caught by complete and utter suprise. The arrangments were so captivating and ellequent, and Win Butler carried such raw emotive desperation in his voice, it left me completely speechless.

Funeral is such a dense album, its full of little hidden suprises, coming back to it some five years after my first listen I find subtle touches hidden away in even the most over played of songs, I had honetly never noticed the delightful triangle on Neighbourhood #3 (Powers Out). Which remains an amazing single, a track so cleverly crafted, so powerful, it doesn't aim to make you dance or sing along this is music that's made to move you, yes move you deep inside. It's staggering, the fact that this was a huge selling single makes it even more of a delight. The consistancy of the album is staggering, with so many instruments on display there's always a tendency for bands to over do it or for sloppy arrangements to accomidate a multi talented band at the expense of song structure but Arcade Fire never make that mistake, their arrangements are always right on the money.

This album is a remarkable array of contradictions it has huge sweeping widescreen arrangements that could fill whole feilds or movie screens there so epic, yet at the same time, it feels small organic, homely, like your in Win Butler's little Canadian Neighbourhood. They manage to come across as subtle and complex, densely layered and yet sparse, heartfelt and uplifting but equally tragic and heartbreaking. They have songs for every occasion the epic Wake Up has filled huge festivals from Glastonbury to Tokyo and then there's the tragically short, fragile and honest Crown Of Love (my favorite song, although that changes with each passing track). Funeral truly is a timeless album, it doesn't connect itself to any trends or temporal landmarks, had I been told this record had been released in 1954 I'd of believed you, Funeral is purely and simply timeless genius.

It was a really tough call but I've stuck with my gut feeling and placed Arctic Monkeys just ahead of Arcade Fire. It was such a tough choice because it was a choice between a timeless classic of grace and beauty and a historical document, a record that could only have been made in the noughties, could only have come from Great Britian. When the Andrew Marr's of the future (hey maybe it'll be me) come to write their histories of Modern Britian the sound track to the chapter on 2000-2009 will be Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. This is an album that every person in Great Britain can relate to, even if they have to stretch their memories a little. This is the story of a night out, on a weekend, it's gritty urban storyline, it's drinking in the streets, dealing with nasty bouncers, asbos, taxi cabs, kebabs, vomit, pulling, romance, if your ages 15-30 this is your life.

A Certain Romance remains the albums standout and the Arctic Monkey's epic, the songwriting peak that will close their sets from now till the day they hang up the guitars, even though it was never released as a single. I can see it now, a documentary in twenty years time, some clips of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, then a non discript city centre with people filmed on CCTV binge drinking and falling out of a walkabout and a harsh narrators tone as Alex Turner croons "There Ain't No Romance". Turner has a sublime turn of phrase that sums up seemingly everything about modern life "There's Only Music So That There's New Ringtones". Turner taps into the mindset of every bloke "on the pull" in a nightclub in the awesome Dancing Shoes "The Only Reason That You Came / So What You Scared For?", the theme is continued on Still Take You Home where Turner buries modern women tarted up ("Your Just Probably Alright But Under These Lights You Look Beautiful / I Can't See Through Your Fake Tan"), completely buries modern top shop scenester culture ("Your A Fad / Your A Fashion / A Top Shop Princess / A Rockstar Too") but then for all his cynicism he admits he's no better because after all "I'd Still Take Home...And You've Got Control of Everyones Eyes Including Mine".

It's the brutal honesty that makes Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not so affecting, it pulls no punches, unlike the Libertines there's no bullshit visions of lovely old Albion with fair madions skipping around Camdem town and swooning when a gentlemen dofs his cap. No the Arctic Monkeys present a view of Britian with Riot Vans, under age drinking and kids "scrapping with pool cues in their hands". Of course all this would be fruitless if the music couldn't match Turner's tongue but the guitars trash, the baselines bounce and every track on display is tight, urgent and vital. Everysong on this album could have been released as a single, its consistancy is remarkable, the album is well ordered and flows beautiful to its sublime aforemention end note. This album made Arctic Monkeys superstars but more importantly it will be more powerful and more relevant than any newsreel footage, or history book, this is living breathing social history.

"You have balls.....I Like Balls", yes I did just quote Team America in a music review, but it's entirely relevant because in the year 2000 Thom Yorke and Radiohead and the biggest balls in the world, seriously they must have been the size of Bowling Balls. I'm still staggered when I listen to it now that Parlephone didn't tell Thom to go back to the study and record the album all over again. Remember all that worry about the Millenium bug, and how all the computers would break down and chaos would ensue. Well that's exactly what Kid A sounds like, when listening to Everything In It's Right Place (still my favorite album opener of all time), it sounds like the apolocalypse has come, that all the computers are breaking down and melting in your ears. It's deathly cold, and scary as hell, it feels sparse and spacious like there's no one around like you've been dumbed on the haunting glacier of the album artwork. Thom croons in a skipping and staggering beat that Everthing is in it's right place, but it isn't, he knows it, you know it, but while it may be wrong it begins to feel right and you become engrossed in this haunted neo acopaclyptic dream, like a ghostly conciousness stuck inside the machine.

National Anthem then comes in and those of you who were still recovering from the mind fuck of Kid A are probably thanking your lucky stars for an irresistable guitar hook, phew my computer is okay again. Unfortunately for you no it isn't, but luckily for the rest of us the boundaries are about to be pushed to their limmits, we get these specteral coos, like spirits rushing across a frozen glaciar in out of space, there utterly terrifying but strangly beautiful. Then Thom Yorke's voice comes in all managled by the machine, but he sings so beautiful, like the last utterings of a dead soul caught in an evil computer memory bank. Radiohead clevely let the vocoder trail off leaving us a second of Thom's gorgoeus vocal at the end of each line. Then in true A Day In The Life fashion, a lovely horn comes in, but it turns from a horn, into a thousand horns sounding at once, out of tune and out of time, it's a mamoth conclusion to a mind bending track.

I just dedicated a whole paragraph to a single track but it's utterly neccesary, becuase the tracks on this album challenge you, they throw these uncomfortable but beautiful arrangements at you, they never quite sit still, you have to go with them from place to place they take you on a journey. Even a simple ballad like the tragic How To Dissapear Completely are goregously arranged, with haunting echoes and soaring strings and float between a dream and a brooding nightmare like a feather caught in the wind. Then of course there's Optimistic and the fucking fantastic (sorry to be crude but it is) Idioteque, the beats are amazing, it's ah, so bloody good. There is so much to admire and decifer on this album its a tough nut to crack but even if you have to whack it repeatedly with a sledgehammer its worth it. "Getting" this album is an important part of every music lovers development, when I first heard it I gave it Three and a half out of five, but now I can't believe I was so foolish, this is a landmark album, it represents an evolved palate, and a deeper understanding of music. It pushes boundaries, it's uncomfortable, it tries to scare you off, but at it's core is a beautiful child that just wants to be loved.

I'm going to regret this for the rest of my life (or at least until December when I do my refiddle), but somehow I've managed to put my favorite album of all time, the most important album to me culturally, the most important album to music in the twentieth first century, arguable the most influencial ever, seriously look at any musical landscape and you'll find it hard to find an album that had a more immediate effect (one which is still felt ten years on) than this. Yes I've put it second, I have my reasons, probably stupid reasons, but my desire to throw a curb ball has won out and the mighty Is This It has come in second. Let's start with the influence, I've reviewed this album several times but I never get tired of doing it, because I owe it a great debt of gratitude. Do you remember music prior to this album? Do you? Well I bloody well do because I grew up before this album changed the musical landscapes. The charts were dominated by Limp Bizkit, Korn, Linkin Park, shit period Metallica if you liked hard rock, if you liked Indy Blur had gone all experimental and it wasn't cool to like them, Oasis were complete horseshit, Britpop was dead (thankfully) and you basically had the choice of Athlete, Staind or Travis. Pop was pretty awful too we had S Club Seven, Steps, Britney before she went mental and cool, Usher, pre sexed up Christina Augillara and general crap. Seriously rap metal was cool, but thank god for Is This It because it killed all of that shit dead! Everything changed, it had too, in a word The Strokes reinvented being cool.

Now this sounds like ludicriously over the top praise, but is it really? Think about it imagine before the Strokes think about how people dressed, you had the punk hair cuts, shity clothes, and white boy dreadlocks of the rap-rock era, you still had the lad rock hang over with flip flops and a football shirt and then of course there was the Travis look. After The Strokes appeared looking (and sounding) like the bastard offspring of the Velvet Underground and the Ramones in a Armani advert. Suddenly everyone started wearing converse, skinny jeans, designer hair cuts, cool jackets, just look at a picture of the Strokes in 2000 and then walk down your nearest high street, Toni and Guy stay in business by making you look like the Strokes. Even Doctor Who is post Strokes. Then there's the music, after Is This It guitars started out selling decks, New York became the world capital for cool, The US started having Indie bands again, every band today sounds like or openly sites (see Arctic Monkeys) the Strokes as their biggest influences. This album got a whole generation myself included into music, and more specifically into rock music. Even Busted and McFly and Britney suddenly needed guitars to be credible.

Then there's the music. The usual band math says Television + Velvet Underground + Ramones = Strokes, and to a certain extent that's true. The Strokes didn't reinvent the wheel, they didn't push boundaries, they reminded us how rock used to be, how it used to look, and reminded us all why we feel in love with guitar music in the first place. Wanking off on guitar, that was gone, ten minute tracks, no way, crying your eyes out, no way. This was short sharp tight rock and roll, it was the new musical minimalism, everything had a purpose, any potential fat was trimmed, it was thirty two minutes of perfect rock and roll. Every song on the album could be have been a single, people still debate the tragedy that Take It Or Leave It, Soma, New York City Cops or whatever your favorite is never got a release. The absolute best thing about the Strokes was the nonchalance, this album was so indie, it sounds like it's recorded in a skip, it has no pretence, no granduer, just dirty rock and roll. The opener Is This It sums up the album, a short sharp track sung with complete apathy, they seemed bored with there own super hype as Julian drooled "Is...This....It?".

There was of course one criticism, that Julian Casablancas has absolutely nothing to say, he just sings about chasing girls and has no serious insight to offer, no life creedos, but I think Nicky Wire summed it up best on MTV when he said, The Strokes have absolutely nothing to say, and they say everything about there generation. Ultimately The Strokes were never the hard workers, they were always the laziest band in show business, they were so apathetical, they just didn't care, they came to make music, and that's what they did. They never would be Kings Of Leon or the Killers they weren't here to concour the world, they were just here to set us all back on the right course. If ever you doubt the importance of Is This It simply search your itunes and playing Rollin' or Why Does It Always Rain on Me or any of the garbage we had to endure back in those dark dark days. So Is This It? Yeah it is, eleven three minute rock songs, that saved the world.

So what do you get if you add Bruce Springsteen and the Kill....wait that's far too patronizing and sloppy a way of summarizing the brilliance of Gaslight Anthem's seminal '59 Sound. The late twentieth century has seen the return of the great American song writers, finally overcoming the bland "hard rock" that dominates the charts. Sure everyone loves Foo Fighters but lets face it their boring as fuck, they haven't released anything genuine thrilling in a long time, and they are the prototypical American band. Sure they had the Strokes and Interpol but they were rejects, they were more European and the Strokes were just plain hated. Finally in Gaslight Anthem they had a band, a brilliant band, drenched in American music history, you can feel the rage of a young Bruce Springsteen in Brian Fallon and you can even see the evidence of fellow New Jersey legends Bon Jovi in their music, no its not power pop but every song on this record despite its gritty blue collar appeal is catchy as fuck. The album is loaded with immediate punk rock Great Expectations, '59 Sound, Old White Lincoln, High And Lonesome all rock and thrash perfectly, there tight and addictive. But that isn't what makes the Gaslight Anthem stand out from the crowd, what makes them amazing is that they can write these powerful emotionally fraught ballads and somehow there just as catchy and immediate as a throw away rocker like Backseats, its remarkable. This is an album that hangs together perfectly and by the time you reach the height of the ballads you'll realize this is no band of one trick ponies, this is a serious band, with serious song writing credentials. Right smack dab in the middle of their album is their unquestionably best song and absolute epic Miles Davis And The Cool sung with all the small town heartfelt sentiment that's been lacking from Mainstream American music since the Boss got old. It's full of beautiful memories of lost loves and such brilliant truism ("My How The Years In Our Youth Pass On") and this combination of amazing imagery ("You Move Like A Dream I Had, Woke Up Sweating In My Room") and straighforward honest storytelling ("Cause I've Never Had A Good Thing, And I've Always Had The Blues"). It's staggering, whether Fallon is talking about drug re-ups, impressing girls or the pounding Jersey rain he can conjure these amazing images and irresistable hooks.

It's almost too obvious to say but he is the heir to Springsteen but he doesn't hide his love for the Boss, their happy to acknowledge their infulences The Rivers Edge throws it in our faces "No Surrender My Bobby Jean...I'll Take You To The Rivers Edge" not exactly subtle is it? But who cares their proud of the Boss and New Jersey, and they are making emotion packed, incredibly affecting, raw urgent rock and roll music. Seen in its entirity its a jaw dropping album, so tightly knit, so well crafted, it all hits the spot perfectly. Only Backseats could be considered for the cut, but even then you'd be losing some staggering songwriting. The Gaslight Anthem have brought the good old fashion east coast American storytelling back again, it's good to see an American band proud of their heritage and saying fuck Joy Division, The Smiths and England we're proud of where we come from, we're going to make music that might not be scene, but by the time we're done it's going to be fucking cool again, and guess what it is.

So after making one of the greatest albums of the ninities (the best depending on whom you ask) in Soft Bulletin how do you top that, what do you with the first first album of the twenty first century. You never felt that any pressure was really on Wayne Coyne, he was always going to get on with doing whatever he wanted to do, and continue to make Flaming Lips records. Honestly how many of the great critical artists dance on stage with Giant bunny rabits or run over the audience in a plastic bubble? The question was more what would the follow up sound like? The answer of course was friggin fantastic. The album is consistantly wide screen and beautiful, but constantly cooky, suprising and quite frankly off the wall.

The first four tracks of the album form their own little miny story/concept of the title character Yoshimi battling the dreaded pink robots. It starts with the glorious pop gem Fight Test it apes Cat Stevens but does anyone other than Cat Stevens care? It's big warm uplifting pop, with the simple but affecting story that some times you have to step up to the plate and fight for what you believe in, "I Thought I Was Smart, I Thought I Was Right, Thought It Better Not To Fight, I Thought There Was A Virtue In Always Being Cool". It's one in a series of stark contrast accross the album, between the straight forward emotional songwritting and the more complex conceptual beautiful spacial arrangements. The next part of the story is the beautiful slowly sweeping One More Robot Symphony 3000-21 before leading natural in the the Epic two part title track based around a delicate accoustic guitar line before the ballad morphs into a huge eltectro grooveathon, It's an absolutely gorgeous centre piece. The album is clearly tackling the notion of confronting your demons and standing up for what you believe in but also Science fiction themes of Artificial intelligence and emotion. The album then opens up and becomes a walk accross a giant artifial parie somewhere in outerspace. As I alluded to earlier the album then drops back from the huge wide screen imagination to simpler beauty in the form of Summertime and then the majestic Do You Realize? The latter is one of those perfectly written pop songs, it sums everything up so succinctly just like the Beatles when they sang "I Want To Hold Your Hand" however while the Lips take a while to get the big honest pay off ("Do You Realize? That You Have The Most Beautiful Face") First they tackle the big themes of life death and mortality but take these huge debates and waves of emotion and simplify them beautifully "Do You Realize? That Someday Everyone You Know Will Die / And Instead Of Saying All Of Your Goodbyes, Let Them Know / You Realize That Life Goes Fast / It's Hard To Make The Good Times Last / You Realize The Sun Don't Go Down / It's Just An Illusion Cause By The World Spinning Round". It truly is one of those rare perfect songs, that manages to tackle such pure sentiment and complex considerations in perfect unision. A Sublime endnote to a remarkable album, from one the world's most intriguing forces.

Well in the words of Lil'Wayne we've just been discussing some "heavy duty shit" but now its time to have some fun. Make no mistake Lil'Wayne isn't all fun and games but lets face it even when he's rapping about Hurricane Katrina his swagger is so slick and his vocals so Wheezy (they don't call him that for nothing) you can't help but smile. So lets start out with the fun shit, 3 Peat kicks of the album in jaw dropping style, a nonstop free style to start the album, and its slick as fuck. Mr. Carter is obviously aware of just how much better he is than his US competition "Shit, Get On My Level, You Can't Get On My Level / You'd Need A Space Shuttle Or A Ladder That's Forever / However I'm Better If Not Now Then Never / Don't You Ever Fix Your Lips Unless You About To Suck My Dick". To be honest most rappers would need a space shuttle to get on Wayne's level he's right on the money with the daffy Phone Home "We Are Not The Same I Am A Martian". He might as well be from out out of space because his flow is undefinable, he goes at his own pace, and he's funny as fuck and always sharp as a tack "They Don't Make 'Em Like Me No More / Matter Of Fact They Never Made 'Em Like Me Before". Then there's the awesome Mr. Carter where he shares the mic with fellow Carter "the greatest of all time" and totally shows up Jay Z's dated swagger. The album is just stacked with hits the dirty bass bombshell and endless flow of A Milli, the throwaway parody of the rap game Lollipop, the club stomper I Get Money featuring a typical irrestible T-Pain chorus of I'm On A Boat proportions, then there's the slowee for the girls Ms. Officer with Bobby Valentino he's covering all the bases and totally owning everything he attempts.

So your two records into your career, you've made some decent music but you've yet to make an impact, what do you do, well if your the White Stripes you release White Blood Cells a collection of amazing three minute bluesy rock stompers. The longest track on this record clocks in a 3:32, its all short short blasts of music, that leave you wanting more rather than thinking christ I wish this song had ended three minutes ago. Of course Jack White decided to bring the hits with him this time out there was Fell In Love With A Girl with its sizzling riff and desperate bluesy howl, then their was the quirky Hotel Yorba a cute little lovely song that gets ingrained into your head bouncy folk guitar and its stomping gold old time beat. Then there's the equally quirky school yard innocence of Let's Be Friends which has recently been given new life thanks to Napoleon Dynamite and finally the brilliant Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground with its fuzzy distortion fueled riff that suddenly drops into some elloquent plucking while some of Jack's most subtle song writing goes to work "If You Can Hear

A Piano Fall Then You Can Hear Me Coming Down The Hall / If I Could Just Hear Your Pretty Voice, I Don't Think I'd Need To See At All". Its easily to forget beneath the wild howls and supersized blues riffs that Jack White is a talent songwritter, unfortunately, intricate sentiments like the one above would be smoothed out and turned into smash hits like Hardest Button To Button but back in 2001 the Stripes were blues to core.

What also made the Stripes so powerful was their concise bluesy guitar work, you can feel just how D.I.Y this album is. There are no choirs or symphony orchestras just stripped down rock and roll. It's this stripped down fragility that makes the music so powerful and bold, when Jack is singing his soul out and trashing his guitar in anger on The Union Forever you do feel like its just one lost lonely soul out there. It adds great emotional depth, to the tracks and makes them feel doubly powerful. It's amazing how much emotion the Stripes convey, ultimately they have three tools, Meg wailing on her drum kit, Jack making his guitar cry and roar, and his desperate howl. It's the latter that is the fierest weapon on his record even overpowering Jack's mighty Montgomery Airline. Jack sounds almost on verge of tears when he croons with such great desperations, and Jack is certainly the great male blues singer of his generation. White Blood Cells is ultimately sixteen tracks of concise soulful bluesy rock and roll, it's that simple, and it's utterly fantastic.

So whose the bar room band in the world? The Hold Steady of course, it's not even close, they play the kind of rock and roll that's meant to be played to the drunken masses in a dark, dirty intimate setting. However while they may be the best bar band in the world the Hold Steady are so much more than that, they are making a legitimate case to be the best band in the world. They have a knack of combining rousing guiar and jazz piano with some of the best songwritting of the decade. Craig Finn has hit upon one hell of a purple patch, four albums in four years and he's still hasn't run out of insane tales of blood, booze, drugs, desperation, love and sex, in fact he appears to be getting better and better. So Boys And Girls In America said good bye to the spoken word tracks and hello to the all singing all dancing Craig Finn. He weaves intricate tales, routed around familar characters Gideon, Holly and Charlemane who can be followed across all four albums. So its vital that you pay attention to each and everyword that comes from Finn's mouth as he rarely says anything short of genius. He's the back alley poet telling tragic stories of drug and drink fuelled depression, this album may occasionally sound like a party but its rooted in tragedy. Take the most obvious single Chips Ahoy it sounds like a fun romp but its actually the tale of a woman in deep depression "How I'm Supposed To Know If Your High / If You Won't Let Me Touch You / How I'm Supposed To Know If Your High / If You Won't Even Dance". The characters in these tales aren't having fun and singing in Irish bars their lying in hospital in First Night or the girl who tragically is gonna "walk around a drink some more" on Party Pit. Of course there's the brutally honest Citrus with its heartfelt refrain "Lost In Fog and Love was Faith And Fear, I've Had Kisses That Made Judas Seem Sincere". In many ways its like a depressed old school American Arctic Monkeys rather than knowing joking about a chavy drunken adventure, the Hold Steady detail drinking in the streets and ODing. This sounds like some heavy shit, and while alot of Finn's poetry is heavy the guitars have been cranked all the way up to 11 and there are some romping stompers that can't really be described as feel good but you'd be forgiven if they had that effect (Massive Nights, Hot Soft Lights, You Can't Make Him Like You). The Hold Steady at heart make good old fashion rock and roll, they want to be AC/DC but they've got too much soul, these are guys that have seen some scary sites, and see modern life for what it is, they detail it, but never sound preachy, they just tell one hell of a story and that's what Girls And Boys In America is, one hell of tale with some "Massive Highs and some Crushing Lows".

There can be fewer more uplifting stories than that of Dizzee Rascal, when a 16 year old Dylan sat writting I Luv U he could hardly have foreseen that six years on he'd be the countries biggest hit maker, and one of our countries most loved Artists. It makes you feel immensely proud of Dizzee and the British record industry looking back now, to see how he's transformed from angry dissolutioned youth to the countries good time party host, frankly its Bonkers. Sorry I couldn't resist. Flash back to 2003 when Dizzee dropped Boy In Da Corner there couldn't have been a more appropriate title for his debut. Dizzee was the boy sat in the corner of a bleak concil estate, witness gang life, the drug game, murders, benefit cheats, single mothers and overwhelmed by hopelessness all he could do was sit and watched, forced into the corner, with his back against the wall by the weight of the world. That's where we find Dizzee on the sublime album open Sittin' Here being crushed by the weight of his existance and morality "I'm Just Sitting Here, I Ain't Saying Much I Just Think...I Think Too Long And I Think Too Deep...Cos It's The Same Old Story, Young Intelligent Yaps In Hospie Flats / Cos It's The Same Old Story / Benefit Claims and Cheques In False Names" it goes on in kind before Dizzee is led to the inveitble conclusion "I'm Sitting Here Depressed And I Don't Know Why / I Pull Myself Together And Tell Myself To Fix Up / And I Keep Myself From Bawling But My Eyes Erupt". It's powerful tragic frank assesment, while Mike Skinner reveals in his street level story telling, Dizzee is depressed and confused.

Musically you'll feel like your ears have been raped, its sharp, japping, edgey, dark and frantic, it's almost anti rythemic, but it works, it's the definitive Grime sound (that at this point was yet to be defined), over the top of that Nighmarish cacophany, Dizzee doesn't have swagger he yelps with the anger desperation and passion of a 70s Punk rather than a Jigga Man. There are of course two quotes that every review of this album has to include, and they are too vital to overlook for the sake of originality. Dizzee declares himself "a problem for Antony Blair" its not the crass boast of low level thug, it's a depressing statement on the relaties of east london, Dizzee is a major problem for Tony Blair not because he's a knife murderer, but because he represents a lost youth that desperately needs help, unfortunately this is a problem Tony never managed to solve. Then of course there is the genius of I Luv U and its macabre throw away brilliance, dealing with underage pregancy with tragic disregard reflecting deep societal apathy "Pregant! What You Talking This For / Fifteen, She's Underage That's Raw, And Against The Law,

Five Years Or More". In Boy In Da Corner Dizzee created a tragic document of inner city life, with all the tragic, vile, visercal anger of a voiceless bystander finally able to set the worlds to rights. Thankfully Dizzee got it all of his chest in one angry burst, and he can go about making festival fields bounce in unision to the grand children of Fix Up Look Sharp.

Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss someone untilt there gone. This couldn't be truer of Daft Punk. Nowadays they hardly ever make records, they rarely bother with terms just as accessibility, their too busy being robots, playing live is just a hassle that they endure every couple of years seemingly just to prove how effortlessly better they are at it than everyone else, then of course there's the morose avante guard movie about robot love, is it meant to be ironic, serious, art or just a big joke who knows, who cares people stopped caring long ago because all they want Daft Punk to do is make music. Make us dance, make us smile. Daft Punk are after all legends for a reason, it's not because of amazing PR it's because there music is so strong, stronger than it first appears. There is an art of getting from place to place, in rock it simple you have arrangements you go from point A to point B, dance moves all over the place, it blends, it suprises, but it always has to feel right, because it's about cultivating a groove, this is what Daft Punk understand better than most. See their mind blowing live show, its a two hour experience, there are no breaks, no rest, the light show never stops, the beat never stops, it simply evolves. So when critics listen to Daft Punk albums they often miss the point, they wonder why each track isn't a One More Time, they don't see that a Daft Punk album is one unit, that can be repositioned, reblended and remixed into any order, shape or form. Tracks like Cresendols and Night Vision make little sense in the world of a conventional LP, where they seem like mechanical slices of pre programmed prog dance, but these aren't tracks to put on your iPod or sit listening to as you browse the internet, these are tracks to be weaved into one another, to blend with whatever the hell Daft Punk want. The fact that unlike Norman Cook they use excusively there own materiel live is paramount to Daft Punk's vision, Homework, Discovery and Robot Rock were created to share the same space.

Musically this is a fabulous album, Aerodynamic stands out as a staggering work, developing and roaming free, it feels perfect from the opening Gong to the closing outerspacial journey, you think it couldn't be bettered but then you see it mixed gloriously live with One More Time, with snippets of High Life and Superheroes with a light show that memarizes. You get so lost in the effortless creativity of it, that you don't realize your on the otherside of a giant feild and you've lost all sight of mates. This is an album of great dance tracks, glorious retro eighties pop, but discussing individual tracks is fruitless because this is an album to get lost in, to forget where you are, if you thinking about track names, and song lyrics you've missed the point entirely, your just supposed to "celebrate and dance so free".

Sometimes when your dealing with serious themes of meloncholy, depression and dissolution the best way to deal with it isn't to be aggresive and suicidal, it's better to be ridiculous put a smile on your face and sardonically laugh "la lala lala la la". See My Chemical Romance out grew the narrow limmits of emo very quickly. They always knew who they wanted to be, they wanted to be Queen. They wanted to be huge, ridiculous and overwhelming fabulous. They wanted to make a serious mark, understand troubling emotions but do it with a deliciously ironic twist. They wanted huge ballsy operatic themes, they wanted mountianous guitars, sweeping piano arrangements, cabaret finger clicks, hell they wanted the whole hog they even recruited Liza Friggin Manelli. This album would be big, ludicrious and completely unaviodable. They were serving their resignation to the emo genre and in their own words they would "serve it in drag".

So how do you go about being huge, well they obviously looked to historical prescendent, to escape the expectation of being My Chemical Romance the *yawn* rock band, they created the Black Parade the alter ego, their Srg. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, then they reached for the grand old book of rock and roll pomposity and plucked out the concept album. Yes this album is the story of a man sitting in a hospital ward facing his death of sick cancer and dying and joining the Black Parade, passing through hell and all that kind of silly stuff. It was fantastic, completely ridiculous, but fantastic, and if you were mocking them for being pompous and pretentious then your an idiot, this album was designed to ensnare you and make you look stupid.

We get the divariffic The End to start the album, yes we start by dying, its a sad death "If You Look In The Mirror And Don't Like What You See / Then You Can Find Out First Hand What It's Like To Be Me" it's an in your face ballsy start, it's daring you to hate them, but the arrangements are so ludicriously over the top you can't help but be drawn in and you'll find yourself chanting the refrain "Save Me". So after track one, if your deuche you've probably turned the CD off, and after all that's what they want, because MCR are as uninterested in you as you are them. If you did them you missed out as the guitars are set free to bounce, pulsate and thrash blowing away the competition on the ludicriously immediate Dead! Sharpest Lives and How I Dissapear. Then of course there's the singles, and its no suprise MCR ruled the world in 2006 Welcome To The Black Parade is the epic microcosm of the album going from ludicrious to sublime, to even more ludicrious until it settles for plain old fashion genius, the most suprising and thrilling number one in recent memory. Then there's Famous Last Words, Teenagers and I Don't Love You just like the Beatles and Queen before them these boys aren't affraid of showtunes and with a ironic wink and some of the funniest videos in human history, the resistance had faded and MCR had won. The Black Parade was all kinds of silly, but it shows an incredibly versitile band who don't hide from their emotions or their inner campness and their all the better for it, it took nearly fifty years but hard rock finally has its White Album.

Eminem has become so embedded in the mainstream and frankly so overplayed that you almost forget just how visceral and brilliant he was back in 2000. Stan became a chore to listen to back in 2001, you couldn't escape it, but now we're removed from its chart success and we can go back to the remarkable lyricism on display. Eminem puts himself in the body of a demented fan, whose obsession with Eminem has driven him to insanity, he lives his life by Ems credos. It's a mind bending concept, full of dark distrubing themes, murder, spousal abuse as well as the role model status of recording artists. How on earth something so dark became a huge pop single is a tribute to Eminems incredible flow and story telling abilities. This album saw the clash between Eminem's two alter egos, Marshall Mathers the human being and Slim Shady the out of control anger filled monster. Em seems geniunely concerned with the notion that people follow his lead, want to be him, want to wear what he wears and that the media blame him for seemingly all of societies ills. The undoubted highlight remains the incredible wrath of The Way I Am this poison tongued assault on his fans, what people expect of him and how they label him. Eminem seems overwhelmed "The Media Immediately Points Its Finger At Me...When A Dude's Gets Bullied And Shoots Up His School And They Blame It On Marilyn", he's under attack, from every corner and then when he gets a moment to be normal he's bombarded by fans who have to respect for his privacy or his daughter "I Can't Take A Shit In A Bathroom Without Someone Standing Beside It / No I Won't Sign Your Autograph". Is he real is he fake, Eminem simple offers his confused conclusion "I Don't Know / It's Just The Way I Am". There are of course the party tracks like Real Slim Shady, and then there's the seriously scary shit Kim he actually raps about brutally raping and murdering his wife. However just like The Way I Am its the honest and brutal moments that make you stop in your tracks, the disbelieving humble honestly of Who Knew "Never Knew I'd Get This Big / Never Knew I'd Affect This Kid / I Never Knew I'd Get Him To Slit His Wrists / Never Knew I'd Get Him To Hit This Bitch". Unfortunately for all the brilliance of Em's demented flow and genius lyricism, there is a healthy dose of pathetic sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and violence advocating, its a depressing asterix against an otherwise brilliant and thrilling album that defined Ems emotional peak.

I have to say it was a bloody tough call between numbers 10 & 11 one album had to miss out on the top ten, I decided Up the Bracket would make the drop, as while I won't reveal its competitors name, they were both wildly influencial in very different ways, both cultural cornerstones in very different ways, but simply the album that won in the end was better. That was always the Libertines biggest weakness they were always better in romanticised memory than they were in person. They looked great had the right attitude, the right sound, but they never quite had music of a high enough consistancy. Fuck it nothing about the Libertines was consistant and that's why we loved them. What the Libertines did do right was some good old fashion british rock and roll. They were an incredibly affecting band, I'm sure some indie Cindy is crying in her bedroom over the latest Pete Doherty news somewhere. They presented a romanticised vision of Old Albion and contrasted it with the grim reality and had a knack of having the right tone and turn of phrase to create a great poetic moment. Then it struck me, the real reason Up The Bracket isn't in the top ten, is because those magic moments are too sparse, great songs are a plenty and there is some great bounce up and down rock, but it's not as cool as Is This It and it's not as affecting as a great Radiohead record. Around the cool dirty rock and roll of Vertigo, Death On The Stairs, Up The Bracket and the aptedly titled What A Waster were a mixture of hit and miss tracks and the one spark of genius Time For Heroes.

Ultimately that's what the Libertines were, our heroes, we didn't have The Strokes, they were too distant to be loved, but in the fragile Pete Doherty girls could fall in love and men could bellow out his huge chorus in sweaty huddled masses. Then of course there is that one line, the perfect line, delivered sublimely, timed perfected, the moment when Pete Doherty could say he was as great a songwriter as any man walking the face of planet earth; "There Are Few More Distressing Sights Than That / Of And Englishman in A Baseball Cap". So Libertines were the self destructive heroes, they weren't really as good as we all made out, but in Up The Bracket they created a frantic and thrilling album full of great romanticised memories. For their own legacies sake, I hope they never get back together, they can only sully the memory. Whereas back in 2002 they restored our "faith in love and sex and music" and we love them for it.

Okay I have to admit due to a snafu with my list where I had the same Kanye West album in two different places the Rapture ended up a little higher than I expected. Now while musical this album is a long way from the top thirty, in terms of influence it stands head and shoulders above its peers. The noughties were an interesting decade for rock music, as via the medium of indie they managed to concur the radio, the tv, your record collection but also thanks in large part to the Rapture rock and roll once again took hold of the dance floors. Bands remembered its just as much fun to dance as it is to mosh. While the Rapture weren't the finished article they were the pioneers and effectively slapped the entire world in the face with a wet tuna when they dropped House Of Jealous Lovers in 2002. It's odd, that track sounds kind of formulaic and even dated today but in 2002 there was nothing else like it. They brought the beats and hooks of dance and combined it with the bite of rock music. Repeating the lead vocal over and over like a Daft Punk record. How exactly did the Rapture get ahead of the game? Well you only have to look at the production team DFA basically James Murphy & Tim Goldsworthy and as we well know everything that James Murphy touches turns to awesome and immediately sounds fresh and different. Ultimately that's what the Rapture were in 2003 they were fresh, and they were different. You can hear Murphy's touches across the album on the hypnotic I Need Your Love and even on the downbeat Open Up Your Heart which feels like the forerunner of New York I Love You. Everything about the Rapture's trademark sound, the yelping vocals, the looping precussion, the spiky guitars and of course the grooves have all been assimilated and bettered, but Echoes is where it all began. So if your looking at your scenester record collection and you see Friendly Fires, Foals or Passion Pit, stop thinking your record collection is so cool and brave because it isn't. It took balls for the Rapture to do it 2003, it took balls for Franz to take it mainstream, these days Foals are about as exciting and creative as the Pigeon Detectives just no one has the balls to say it. So thank you Rapture, we may not love you, but we owe you a great debt of thanks, you taught the rock and roll world how to dance again, without having to sound like the acid wankery of the *shudder* Happy Mondays. As if we didn't owe New York enough already this decade.

So thanks to our previous entry rock was fully embedded on our nations dancefloors but by 2006/07 it was all getting a bit stale, everything was sounding too similar we needed something new. The Rapture faded away, and Franz strayed from the dance floors to the festival fields. Enter Klaxons, they brought a drug fueled D.I.Y ethic to the table. They were different, just like the Rapture before them, they looked different, covered in crazy hoodiest, whack nineties T shirts and day glo colours, and best of all they sounded different taking a love of early nineties rave records they streamlined it and created Nu-Rave, it wasn't all that new it was basically fast punk guitars with sirens and bleeps, but in 2006 it sounded like Klaxons had come from some underground super club on the planet Glagemek. Klaxons brought more than just funky danceable music they had the coolest vocals, a combination of sci fi crooning, cultist chanting and desperate punk screams, it was brilliant. No band since Franz had arrived with such a huge set of sure fire dancefloor slayers Atlantis To Interzone was the frantic crazy first and last word on Nu-Rave, Gravity's Rainbow was their trademark epic, Golden Skans was their etherial hands in the air moment, Magick was Interzone Mark II the agressive dance floor killer and of course their was the sublime reworking of It's Not Over Yet one of the truly great covers. However the Klaxons were determined to stay one step ahead, and knew they had to outgrow the scene they had created and raise above, that's why sure fire stompers like their cover of The Bouncer were dropped. Instead big bouncy numbers like Totem On A Time Line, the apocalypitic punk of Four Horsemen and the gloriously ludicrious death march of Isle Of Her made the cut. Klaxons never really were Nu-Rave, that happened to be something they stumbled accross on there way to stardom. Klaxons were just too creative, they exude big brave music, you could create a new concept or scene out of each track on the album. Ultimately whatever comes next for Klaxons they will always be remembered for Myths Of The Near Future the minute they took the conventions of pop music, and hell the conventions of what we thought we knew about Klaxons, and span them around and around so fast we lost all sight of where we started, we just knew that we'd arrived somewhere new, and somewhere from which there could be no return.

By the end of the 90s weren't you just begging for someone anyone to knock U2 of there little perch, since Achtung Baby they'd just been writing the most boring uninteresting music imaginable and getting grammy's and awards no matter how uninspiring their work was. Thankfully Parachutes had been the warning shot, and now with A Rush Of Blood To The Head Coldplay were coming for U2's crown of stadium rulers of rock and rolls. Now in 2009 the world seems right again we have Muse, Kings Of Leon, Killers and Coldplay ruling the stadium scene, but back in 2002 it really did seem like no one would be able to displace U2. However, when that first drum beat and then the huge jangling riff of In My Place kicked in we new Coldplay had done it. They had struck the perfect balence, the one U2 used to toe so well, between huge wide screen pop music and brutally honest music. There's just something so believeable about Chris Martin's voice when he croons "I Was Scared, I Was Scared, I Was Tired And Underprepared"

your inclined to believe him. Whereas when Bono sings the big emtoional chorus you feel like he's shooting for a vodaphone comercial or the soundtrack to match of the day. When Coldplay presented this album to their label they must have been licking there lips, almost every track was perfectly suited to a multi million selling single. Obviously there was the Clocks, In My Place, God Put A Smile Upon Your Face and of course the magnificent The Scientist which remains Coldplay's greatest single. However, the thudding pounding opener Politik with its gorgeously upfront lyrics and simple hook could have been released. Then there's the big wide screen festival field filling majesty of Daylight and of course the sure fire single that never was in the lovely Warning Sign. What makes Coldplay so great and so bloody popular is their honesty. Chris Martin is a clever bloke, and Coldplay are clearly a clever band, but when it comes to songwritting they are straightforward, blunt and honest. Chris Martin will never be acused of being Morrissey but sometimes being direct is more powerful and potent than witty wordplay ever can be. The sentiment is simple but when Chris Martin crooned "Yeah The Truth Is, That I Missed You, So" hearts melted accross the world. A Rush Of Blood To The Head proved that the best music doesn't have to be as witty as an Oscar Wilde play and it doesn't have to aim to save the world, sometimes a sentiment as simple as "I love you" sung beautifully with a delicate arrangement is all you need.

The career of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will always be one of the most remarkable in pop history. Listening to the slap bass bollocks they released throughout the eighties its amazing that they are now one of the world's biggest bands that your mum and your little sister will happily listen to. They started out so counter culture, so drug riddled so crazy and now their so huge, uplifting and well mainstream. While the previous three phrases would have most running for cover and uttering the phrase sold out, this was never true of the Chilli Peppers, they simply aged an matured from party animals to mature rock stars. Age has suited them splendidly. There zaniness makes them stand out from the likes of U2 and Coldplay but it no longer drives away fans. Large thanks has to go to Rick Rubin who on Blood Sugar Sex

Magic saw there potential, and with By The Way he not only crafted there best album but there most popular to boot. This was the moment when the Chilli's really got their sound under control By The Way and Can't Stop are huge bouncy radio killers, that appeal to everyone becuase they rock hard but have killer sugar sweet hooks, its a tough trick to pull off, and yet they still feature Antony's silly rapping and Flea's slap bass, yet it just feels right. While those tracks are immediate thrills the album really hits its peak when the Chilli's are writing huge wide screen anthems that feel like they are booming out from the top of mount everest. The three punch combo of This Is The Place, Dosed and Don't Forget Me are irresistable. John's guitar playing is just sublime, from the subtle bits to the huge soaring riffs that accompany the chorus, it's spot on, and Antony's songwriting is at its most elloquent and beautiful, Dosed and Don't Forget Me can stand shoulder to shoulder with Under The Bridge. It's amazing how this abbrasive drug feuled punk has become a soulful emotional songwriter. It's the slow epic stuff that steals the show, but its nicely counter balenced by fun summertime anthems Cabron and On Mercury. While the Chilli's will always divide critical opinion By The Way will always stand as their greatest album the moment they became genuine mainstream headline superstars, with some momumentally epic songwriting.

It feels wrong to put a greatest hits album in a greatest album list, but in this case it just felt right. Girls Aloud have put out continually excellent albums since their debut, and picking one above the other would be fruitless as after all it is the hits that made Girls Aloud who they are and so damn important. The Sound Of Girls Aloud is ultimately the best collection of pop songs produced this decade, and its a tribute the hit machine that is xenomania that there output has remained so strong. Girls Aloud have continued to compound presumtions by being cooler and better than their peers. Remember when Nu-Rave was big? Well the periods defining track wasn't Atlantis To Interzone it was ridiculously sublime Something Kind Of Oooh. Girls Aloud are least we forget, just a regular bunch of girls. Chosen through the Popstars tv series, god that seems along time ago, and it shows, Sarah Harding is just a rock chick who spends most her time gatted outside of indie clubs, Cheryl is just a semi charming northern oik, and I could go on but you get the point. I think it's this down to earth core that has made them immune to criticism, it gave them legitimate sex appeal rather than plastic coating of photo edit suite, even NME wouldn't dare bash them. So everyone likes them as people, so surely we can rip on their evil pre produced pop music, well no we can't, because they won't ever put a foot wrong, first there was the incredible Sound Of The Underground could there be a better first single? They realized before Mcfly and Busted that to be credible in the post Strokes world you need guitars and damn good songwriting and Girls Aloud came flying out the gate. They of course followed it up with No Good Advice that was just dripping in sex. But they kept evolving, do I even need to describe Love Machine? Honestly, the riff is superb, the kind that used to pop up on Micheal Jackson records and lyrically its a delight. It's not all immediate thrills there's the genius of Biology the best and most intricately crafted pop song of the decade. The only weakness in Girls Aloud were the ballads I'll Stand By You is to soppy and sentimental, Girls Aloud were always best when they were concuring dancefloors with camp club stompers like Jump, The Show and Wake Me Up. It's an absolute war crime that the mind boggling awesome Call The Shots and the divine The Promise came out after this best of, as ideally they'd be front and centre, but it's the only real misfire. This is a historical document of Britian's greatest hit makers, and biggest media pop star icons. This was the decade that pop music was reclaimed from Steps, A1 and the Spice Girls and became cool and credible once more. If I told you in the nineties the winners of Pop Stars would be standing proud atop festival stages without having to dodge a single bottle you'd never have believed me. It's a crazy world where Girls Aloud have more rockstar credibility than My Chemical Romance.

Does anybody really care about Trip Hop anymore? It really was one of those scenes that either you were there and you loved it or it didn't register with you and outside of the name you probably don't even know what it is, if you even know it exists at all. Despite recent albums you don't really hear anyone raving about Tricky or Massive Attack these days, they seem like relics of an older time, trying to get an 16 year old Arctic Monkeys fan to appreciate Massive Attack is...well it is a massive waste of time. However when Portishead announced they would be returning a decade later with a new LP, well then from the darkest depths of your memory came haunting memories of beautiful music and the tender voice of Beth Gibbons. And people were excited again. Because while musical trends will change Portishead and Dummy in particular remained bloody brilliant. But people wouldn't settle for a watered down retred that would ruin all our memories, if a band as serious and big as Portishead were coming back they had to get it right. Just like in the 1990s they had to be new, different, powerful and like nothing we'd ever heard before. Third therefore was a real revelation, it managed to symoltaniously preserve Portishead's legacy and revitalise their sound making them feel vital once more. Machine Gun was our first taste and you'd be forgiven for thinking Portishead had gone industrial, with a pulsating beat, that sounded like a computer malfunctioning and sizzling, and then the error message flashing ten times in rapid order. Wrapped around all the seething electro was Gibbons tender spirit trail vocals, fragile and beautiful, instantly it was more relevant than anything Trent Reznor had done since Portishead were last record. You soon realize that while the music may change Gibbons voice is the constant, and after all it should be, because her voice is what made Portishead so special in the first place and slower tracks (dare I say ballads?) The Rip and Small are of unmatched quality. The later ends up like a 1990s rave dying a slow death, like the fair ground rave from a horror show. The instruments are muffled and unclear for the most part creating a brooding psycheldic effect, almost like a bad trip that your being guided through by Gibbons heavenly vocal. So Portishead are back, they grown and developed, and transitioned to once again be haunting a beautiful. All in all we like Portishead, they dissapear hide in the shadows and just when we need them they emerge out of the deepest darkest depths of our mind with a great album. They will never been mainstream but they have created a unparrelled legacy of artistic quality.

It seems that when ever band threatens to get huge, I mean really big, stadium big, they have to make a choice, after a while of finding their own way and carving out a fan base, they have to make a choice, they can either be U2 or they can be Radiohead. Unfortunately Kings Of Leon chose U2, but I wouldn't have wanted them to pick Radiohead, they should have just chosen to be Kings Of Leon. While I wouldn't try to deny the awesomeness of Sex On Fire, Use Somebody or Crawl, Only By the Night just doesn't have the pizzaz and the awesomeness of Because Of The Times. This was the album that took Kings Of Leon to headline status, let us not forgot, no one knew a word of Sex On Fire when they headlined Glasto or embarssed Razorlight at Reading. This was the sound of a band being themselves. It was hard and gritty but it was equally parts wide screen and epic. There was the monster chant along of On Call that Kings of Leon always threaten to make but then their was the romp and stomp of Black Thumbnail and McFearless. They had the tender tracks too, while it may not be a number one like Use Somebody the beautiful tender Knocked Up showed off just as much soul, and was even more emotional affecting. It still remains the fans favorite when it comes to working the heart strings. Of course it doesn't get much more wide screen that album closer Arizona, this song is fucking huge, the guitar soars like a eagle flying over the vast Arizona desert while Calob howl is at its most fragile and most affecting. Then there was the dirty sexy aggresive groove of My Party with guitars that go from Queens of the Stonage, through Red Hot Chilli Peppers before dropping into classic Leon. Vocally Caleb is on thrilling form, doing his (second) best Pixies impression "You Talking About My Baby / I Could Flip You Upside Down And I could Mop This Place", visceral, funky, vital. Then of course there's Charmer so it owes its entire existance to the Pixies but who cares because this is as good as the quiet loud dymanic gets and Caleb's scream is exhilarating. While I'll settle for Kings of Leon over Stereophonics anyday, a part of me will always wish we could get the multi facet Kings who made Because Of The Times back, whatever happens this was their make it or break it record, and they made it bigger than any of us could of possibly dreamt.

Sometimes you just have to sit up and say "wow" that's beautiful. That was the case for the majority of the record buying population when they first heard Fleet Foxes, The Sun Giant EP or saw a Fleet Foxes liveshow. They are just a band who blow you away and leave you speechless. There's been plenty of Psychedelia in this list already but this is the second "oddball" (I put that in quotes as only idiots think its odd) folk album. Joanna Newsom must be rather annoyed, I bet she didn't think anyone would beat Ys as the most lavish, well arranged, mind blowing folk album of the decade. What makes Fleet Foxes even more remarkable is that not only is it beautiful and unexpected, its so accesible. It's verging on pop without ever really being mainstream. It's amazing to hear a track as lavish and different as White Winter Hymnal forcing its way onto XFM let alone Radio One. When it comes to Fleet Foxes, while the guitar work, piano lines and string arrangements are phenominal and varied (honestly on each track everything is in its right place) it's the vocal harmonizing that is unparrelled. There is no more beautiful sound than when the harmonies combine for a coo or a "oooooh o oooooh" on Heard Them Stirring. There's something very uplifting about this album it soars majestically like the sun shining down on a summers day. Even in a sombre mood, the wood and string arrangements on a track like the opening to Your Protector you can't help but be galvanized by this music, then when the huge sweeping chorus comes in and the rumbling precussion thumbles along your just carried along with it. Fleet Foxes is a remarkable work, the music is so well layered, everything comes in at just the right time, each sweep, scrap, beat or coo, it's lovely. I can't imagine how long it must have taken them to perfect these works, they feel so effortless natural but they can't just make this stuff up on the fly, can they? Fleet Foxes is both thrilling and pleasent, its continually suprising without ever feeling abbrasive, their not dangerous, but their not boring or placid either, then you realize searching for adjectives is pointless as this is rare perfect album. All is how it should be, this is truly a work to be admired.

Okay I'm going to have to hold my hands up I got this one completely wrong. I've got Lily's two album the wrong way around, This should be in the 80s and Alright Still should be just missing out on the top twenty. Ultimately though who cares, because both albums deserve to make the list and it's Allen's overall influence and musical talents that are far far far more important than the individual merits of Lily's albums. It's Not Me, It's You perfectly demostrates one of Lily's absolute greatest skills and what is fast becoming the Lily Allen trademark: Juxtaposition. Yes Juxtaposition, I love that word, basically the secret to Lily Allen is how playful and sweet her voice and her musical arrangements are. Take the brilliant Not Fair Lily sings sweetly and without irony in her voice over a nice cuetsy country stomp, sounds like a nice normal pop romp right? Wrong. Lily takes the sweetness and turns it on its head by singing about such macabre and cycnical themes. "I Lie Here In The Wet Patch In The Middle of The Bed / I'm Feeling Pretty Hard Done By I've Spent Ages Giving Head" not only is that the best cuplet written by a woman in twenty years, it's so devilishly subversive. It's constrasting sugary sweet innocence, with bitter cynicism. Isn't that what girls do best after all? Look completely sweet but then turn out to be as dirty and cynical as any bloke. Could there a better sign of the times than Lily slamming a guy for being the absolute perfect boy friend but being shit in bed so he has to go? Then there's the Fear "I want loads Of Money, And Fuck Loads Of Diamonds / I Here People Die While There Trying To Find Them" while this seems like a straight forward slam of consumerism, it's not its much more subtle, Lily is a self admitted shopaholic and her issues with weight are well known so when she sings "I'm Not A Siant, But I'm Not Sinner / Everythings Cool As Long As I'm Getting Thinner / I Don't Know What's Wrong And What's Right Anymore" it's remarkable asute and open songwriting for someone her age. Its this kind of introspection, and the multiple levels and readings of her songs that make them so brilliant. Funny thing is, I don't think she puts half as much effort into writting them as critics do analysising them, I bet she just opens her mouth and honesty spews out. Kind of like the equally honest anti-Chris Martin. Oh I nearly forgot the songs are catchy as fuck too hence them spending near milleniums in the top ten. Elsewhere Lily's second album both deals with grand themes (God, Growing Old, George Bush) and ones personal to her family and past, it's a brave effort, and whether you give it a critical thumbs up or thumbs down along with Alright Still its a perfect time capusule of our time.

Never has an album had a more appropriate title in music history. When the world final got to hear this record for the first time everyone must have collectively smiled. After all the nerves, fears and panic about this album and how it would turn out, it was like the weight had been lifted off the worlds shoulders when everyone in unison could say it was bloody fantastic! Sometimes the story leading up to an album is just as important as the album itself, this is certainally evident on Is This It, Alright Still and Whatever People Say I Am That is What I Am Not but there was no more powerful or tragic story than that of Smile. Originally writting and recording started in 1966 after Good Vibrations but the band fell apart and relations became strained and heated and the great Beach Boys masterpeice was lost. Then the tragedy really set in as allegedly spured on by hearing the Beatles opus A Day In The Life Brian spiraled into depression, drugs, and obsesity. He reportedly wouldn't leave his room becoming depressed and a cocaine addict, and was reported to be suffering from Bi-Polar and depression. In the meantime his two brothers died, leaving Brian left as the last Beach Boy. So when the world heard he was going to complete Smile we were all pretty worried by the prospect. The result blew us away, telling the story of traveling from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii, the album was goofy and heart warming. It wasn't Pet Sounds but it blew away all expectations. Good Vibrations sounded better than ever and in many ways was a triumphant symbolic message to say Brian's okay and he's back. Performing it live at Glastonbury was a truly fantastic moment probably lost on the thousands who were dancing and singing along in the sunshine. While the album is full of fantastic pop (see Heroes And Villians) its the slower more downbeat reflective moments when the albums full power is felt, when considering all that it took to get to this point Surfs Up and Old Master Painter You Are My Sunshine have a special power. Musically the arrangements are wonderful and the production sublime. While in many ways the album is tragic, it still manages to puts a smile on your face, as arguably the greatest American song writer has left a fitting final reminder of his brilliance and a perfect epitaph to his Brothers and the legend of The Beach Boys.