Album Review: First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

You do have to be a bit patient when ploughing through albums by artists you haven't heard of. Clearly there's a bit of taking the rough with the smooth, but the joy is when you uncover a great record that you'd have never previously have considered.

First Aid Kit are sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg and they hail from a small suburb of Stockholm. The Lion's Roar is their second studio album, and a lovely piece of work it is too. The pair have been compared favourably to the Fleet Foxes, although it's an indier and more country tinged sound than, say, Helplessness Blues. I suspect that the comparison comes from the songwriting and beautiful harmonies that the sisters create on tracks such as Emmylou and In The Hearts Of Men.

Conor Oberst makes a guest appearance on the lovely final track King of the World by which time I was totally encapsulated by this record. I'd hesitate before calling them the Swedish Pierces, but it's the most appropriate comparison I can make. If you like the Foxes, the Staves and the Pierces then it's certainly a record you need to hear immediately.

The first excellent album of 2012. Hoo-blooming-rah.

i was raised up believing i was somehow unique

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

1. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (LB)

As I have already said, 2011 was a pretty ordinary year for new music. I've listened to dozens of albums this year and while there were plenty that were perfectly acceptable, I don't think I have heard one 'great' album.

So, my #1 album for 2011 is something that wouldn't have troubled the top of my list in any other previous year. Saying that, it's a lovely record and the follow-up to an album that was almost impossible to follow-up.

At the time, I wondered whether the Fleet Foxes' decision to éschew their marvellous medieval harmonies in favour of sounding more like a normal band was the right one. However, on multiple listens it appears that, in fact, Helplessness Blues was the perfect way for the band to develop. Sounding more like Simon and Garfunkel and less like something from an episode of early Blackadder, the more I listen to this beautiful record, the more I enjoy it. I do miss the wonderful vocal work that characterised their debut album but the songwriting remains superb and it's a very likeable and engaging record.

Title track Helplessness Blues also contains some of my favourite lyrics of 2011:

"I was raised up believing I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me"

Lovely. Fantastic band and a very, very good album.

Listen to - Helplessness Blues

1. Ed Sheeran - + (bedshaped)

In the absence of Damien Rice ever releasing another album, I’m always keen to find new male singer song-writers. I love female singer song-writers too, but there’s something that touches more deeply when it’s a guy pouring his heart out. While Ed isn’t as touching and honest and broken down as Damien has been, he’s pretty good at getting heard.

He’s a honest song-writer. His lyrics are pin point accurate at times, but I wonder if his age comes into play with some of his lyrics; Wake Me Up being an example where he sings about Shrek and playing video games. I dunno. A lot of his lyrics are delivered in a “say what you see” style. There’s not much depth and typically twisted lyrics here. It’s a stark and honest way of writing. Reminds me of The Streets in a way.

A mixture of acoustic and mellow ballads and more uptempo songs, this is a very easy album to listen to. A perfect background music album. Ed delivers some great guitar work and his backing band are good enough, but it’s more his stories and the gentle feeling of this album that wins you over. There’s a lot of talk of love on here, and it’s during the ballads such as Wake Me Up and the brutal and stripped back This that really catch the attention here. Here’s a young guy who’s showing the talent that any guy would absolutely love to have. The talent and ability to write a love song about how he really feels.

The critics seem to be divided on him at the moment. Some praising this young and flourishing talent, some writing him off as a wannabe who got lucky. Whatever. In my eyes, he’s produced a brilliant album of pleasing pop songs. There’s nothing offensive here, ok, maybe the occasional naughty word, but on the whole it’s a very enjoyable album. Enough uptempo tracks to prompt a foot tapping or gentle nodding, enough ballads to stop you in your tracks and made you think.

Listen to - Lego House

1. Noah and the Whale - Last Night On Earth (Swisslet)

I’m pretty sure I should hate this band: just look at those haircuts and those over-privileged, jutting jaws and tweed jackets. Every time I see them on TV I want to smash their smug faces in (apart from the guitarist, who looks like he has wandered in from an entirely different band). This impression was further reinforced by the somewhat twee smugness of their music: 5 Years Time was initially decent enough, but suffered more with every subsequent listen.

Another band to ignore then? Well, not entirely.

2009’s The First Days of Spring began the process of changing my mind. Heartbreak had apparently beaten some of the smugness out of Charlie Fink, and the album was full of beautiful songs of loss and hurt. It’s hardly a party album, but it’s a fantastic achievement and was certainly good enough that I bought the follow-up, Last Night on Earth as soon as it came out, on the same day that I purchased Elbow’s Build a Rocket Boys!. I fully expected that Elbow would be the band to monopolise my stereo, but quite to my surprise, they got first play and then barely got a look in. It was all about Noah and the Whale.

It’s the songs, you see. Fink seems happier, but the smugness seems to have stayed away: Life is Life, Tonight’s The Kind of Night, L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N, Give It All Back, Waiting For My Chance to Come, Old Joy… the album is packed with quality songs, with Fink often cast in the role of storyteller. L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N and Give It All Back in particular never seem to fail to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I’ve not been to many gigs this year, but I have seen Noah and the Whale twice and they were fantastic both times (especially in the Bowery Ballroom in New York, but that’s such a great place to see a band that I’m not sure I can really count it). They still look eminently puncheable of course, but there’s simply no denying that I haven’t listened to any other record this year half as much as I have listened to this one.

Listen to - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.

what makes me love you despite the reservations?

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (Swisslet)

It is no exaggeration to say that the debut album by the Fleet Foxes, released in 2008, is one of my favourite ever records. There is just something so perfect about those magnificent harmonies, and I can’t recall hearing a band who sounded remotely like them. It was as though they had stepped out of the fifteenth century.

So magnificent was that record that I found it difficult to imagine where the band would go next. They couldn’t just release more of the same, but where can you go when your major influences appear to be from the Middle Ages? The answer, it seems, was to become a more traditional sounding band: those amazing vocal harmonies that were such a key part of their sound on the debut, are still present but are much less prominent here. Instead we have a more traditional set up of a band supporting a much clearer lead singer in Robin Pecknold.

This doesn’t sound all that promising on paper, as it seems to take away the band’s unique selling point, but actually it works really well. The reason? The songs are strong. Montezuma, Sim Sala Bim, Battery Kinzie, Helplessness Blues, Lorelai… wonderful, warm songs all, brought to life by Pecknold’s crystal clear voice. I could live without that jarring free jazz sax solo that breaks in towards the end of the record, but that aside, this is a lovely record by a band that sound like no other. I can’t wait for the next one.

Listen to - Sim Sala Bim

2. Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys! (LB)

Considering I bought Asleep in the Back a decade or so ago, it's taken an awfully long time for Elbow to clamber their way into a list of acts I'd name if you wanted to know who my favourite bands are. I've seen them live on numerous occasions over the years - mostly in the company of Swisslet - and have always enjoyed their shows without falling in love with them. Sure, there have been moments - the beautiful Newborn and Puncture Repair, the brilliant Station Approach and Leaders of the Free World - but I can't say I'd ever been their biggest fan.

Therefore, I am not sure what happened. It certainly wasn't The Seldom Seen Kid as there are Elbow records I like better. Perhaps it was simply repeat listens, getting a bit older or simply my love of the amazing One Day Like This that unlocked the door, but whatever it was I am delighted it finally happened.

Build A Rocket Boys! is a traditional Elbow album in the sense that it isn't something that grabs you instantly. Indeed, it probably took me a dozen listens or so before I really began to adore this brilliant record. Combining Guy Garvey's lovely and 'real' lyrics with yet more great instrumentation, this is another great Elbow record. I love the anthemic Open Arms, the beautiful Lippy Kids and the gradually building The Birds but it is on the utterly beautiful (and very true, in my experience) The Night Will Always Win that Elbow have again produced a beautiful and majestic pop record that will live with me forever.

I was lucky enough to see Elbow twice in 2011 also, and both times they were astonishingly good, largely thank to Garvey's gregarious and endearing personality (although, if there is a criticism, it's that both gigs were a little too focused on the recent two albums).

Elbow are a national treasure, and this is another fine record.

Listen to: The Night Will Always Win

2. Radiohead - The King of Limbs (bedshaped)

It’s no secret how much I love Radiohead. Even in their ‘difficult’ period, I can still hear the genius, in the background, fighting for attention. People will say they find it difficult to associate the same band that produced The Bends or OK Computer with Kid A and their last album, In Rainbows; a monumental album of pure genius. And I can understand that. And I can totally respect it. But one of the reasons I love this band so much, is listening to them grow and evolve and change and experiment. Considering I feel like I’ve been with them since Pablo Honey, they are probably one of biggest musical influences in my life.

Eight tracks, running in at just under 40 minutes (some say the perfect album length!), this is Radiohead in a much more playful mood than on In Rainbows. There’s a lot more knob twiddling, sampling, scratching, looping, vocal play going on here, particularly during the first half. Lots of programmed percussion, but their drummer is also getting mixed in (the fabulous Lotus Flower being a great example) and overall it’s the beats that really dig in here. Thom’s vocals are typically great, but there’s lots of vocal sampling, scratching, back-mixing and the likes on the up-tempo tracks. I like it, but it does take away some of the fragility of his voice. And that’s such a shame. That said the pulsating rhythms are infectious and hypnotic. There’s a certain ravey-trance vibe going down here

Thom’s vocals really come into play on the final three tracks; Codex; a piano led ballad, haunting backing vocals, wonderfully effective brass sections, sombre cello moments creating a chilling song that sets off those all too familiar goosebumps, Give Up The Ghost; heartbeat percussion, minimal chord strokes on an acoustic guitar, light bongos, amazing backing vocal samples and Thom has never sounded better, Separator; busy drums, boomy basslines that walk up and down the frets, again some fantastic backing vocal playaround, then about half-way in, a guitar hook sneaks in from outta nowhere and sinks itself deep inside your head. And you hear it days later. It’s soulful, it’s rhythmic, it’s swirling, it’s hypnotic, it’s trance-like, it’s dreamy. It’s a bloody stroke of genius!

For me, Radiohead just keep getting better and better. I secretly like the fact that when they release albums like this; slightly more experimental, their fan demographic changes. The more I read about the band members, what they stand for and why they love making music so much, the more I fall for them. Radiohead are like my bestest friend ever. They never let me down.

Listen to – Separator

we would chase ourselves until the sun forgot to shine

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

3. Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires (bedshaped)

For me, Snow Patrol have always been a consistently good band. The brilliant Eyes Open was a particular favourite of mine, being responsible for the wonderful ballad that was Chasing Cars and the gorgeous Set The Fire To The Third Bar. I have to admit, I think I’d kinda written them off as a good band, but a band that would never amount to anything near what they deserved. A bit like how I felt about Elbow, before they exploded, got over-exposed and produced a piss poor follow up to one of my all time favourite albums.

In my opinion Snow Patrol have smashed it this time. This really is a great, great album. They usually fare better with their ballads, and even though they have the lovely Lifening, the stunning The Garden Rules and the radio-play smash This Isn’t Everything You Are, there’s much more to hear on this collection. The more uptempo songs have the makings of classic songs, and there’s a few scattered here and there that build and build into those crashing anthemic songs that bring to mind stadiums filled with singalong fans. Yes, they are touching Coldplay territory here, but delivering it in a much more.....well, a much more mature and convincing way. As if these songs may have begun life as a simple piano driven ballad, and through growth and experimentation, developed into a huge wall of instruments, chanting, chanting. These songs don’t feel forced or primed, they feel natural.

Lead singer, Gary Lightbody has such a lovely, warm voice. His Irish accent drips through on his vocals, particularly in the ballads and I can’t help but feel drawn to him. Warming to him like he’s the nicest person in the world, right now. A strange feeling. His accent only helps with his emotional delivery and you find yourself believing every damn word he sings. He undoubtedly comes into his own when singing the ballads. This is where it feels like his heart is.

Snow Patrol are treading some new territory on this album. The instruments seems to be mixed much better, and I hear looping, programming beats and lines and even some electronic slipping in. But, it’s all quite subtle and they don’t seem to stray too far from their ‘sound’. For the rockier and more epic tracks; pounding drums provide the foundations for some great thumping bass, and some of the guitar work is wonderfully ambitious. For the more mellow tracks; piano or acoustic guitar tends to lead the way, with Gary spinning his stories alongside . The tracks that stand out the most to me, are the ones that cleverly and quite neatly blend the two styles together. To say some of these gigantic rock-ballads are epic is selling them short. If Snow Patrol can do one thing well, it’s produce a mighty fine ballad of mahoosive proportions. These songs almost demand vast stadiums to be performed in.

Listen to – The Garden Rules

3. Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys! (Swisslet)

Following up an album as good and as successful as The Seldom Seen Kid was always going to be a bit of a struggle, wasn’t it? Apparently not for these boys. Look, I’ll be honest with you: I bought this record as soon as it came out, but it took several months for it to take hold. I didn’t think it was a bad record or anything, it’s just that it didn’t grab me immediately and instead took several months before I realised that it had wormed its way underneath my skin.

It wasn’t until I heard Lippy Kids on the radio one day that I realised that they’d bloody well done it again. Listening to those lyrics, I realised that there can’t be many lyricists around with Guy Garvey’s gift for exuding warmth and humanity, even when he’s singing about kids hanging around in bus shelters. Build a rocket boys! I can’t think of another lyricist with such a gift for bringing a lump to my throat and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Seeing them live at Glastonbury sealed the deal: another gorgeous singalong with nearly 100,000 people singing their hearts out. We were eating out of the palm of Garvey’s hand and well he knew it. I was crying like a baby by the end. Brilliant. All of their albums have taken a little while to grow on me, actually, and much though I love The Seldom Seen Kid, my favourite remains Leaders of the Free World. I’m not sure that I would say that this record represents progress, as such, but it does surely demonstrate that the success of their last record was not a fluke. The Birds, Lippy Kids, Neat Little Rows, High Ideals, Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl…. There’s not a bad song on here. Success has been a long time coming, but boy do they deserve it.

Listen to - Lippy Kids

3. Noah and the Whale - Last Night On Earth (LB)

It's been a strange journey for me and Noah and the Whale. I bought their debut album Peaceful The World Lays Me Down mainly for my missus, seeing as she liked the jaunty (but frankly quite annoying) breakthrough single Five Years Time. Having become quickly bored by the tedious ukelele and chirpy, folky jauntiness I almost immediately wrote them off.

Then, one day, bored at home I decided to listen to their follow-up album The First Days Of Spring. And immediately listened to it again. And again. And again. It was, and remains, one of the most beautiful albums ever committed to CD - melancholy but utterly beautiful.

So, buying the band's third album Last Night On Earth was always a bit of a no-brainer. This time, however, the band seem to have adopted neither a folk nor a beautiful orchestral approach, going for the sort of sound you'd perhaps expect to hear on a sunny American freeway with the top of your Cadillac down and your hair blowing in the Arizona wind.

And, on the whole, it works. Last Night On Earth seems to broadly be telling the tale of the band's origins - songs refer to their early days performing in school assemblies and them getting out of their small provincial towns 'promising they would never go back' and whilst it's not the most original record ever made, it is one of the most entertaining.

The songwriting is of the highest quality here with radio friendly singles L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N, Life is Life and the brilliant Tonight's The Kind Of Night particular highlights. Whether they have sold out in favour of more commercial success is another question, but for now it's simply a great record.

One caveat, though - don't expect it to be brilliant live. Having seen the band this autumn I was immensely disappointed. They can't recreate their sound live on stage and so their show lacks charisma and power. It's a very wet reproduction of some great material and ultimately rather a waste of time.

Buy the record instead. It really is rather good.

Listen to - Tonight's The Kind Of Night

it's only been a year

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

4. The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? (LB)

It's not big and it's not clever. As Swisslet has already pointed out, there's nothing much original here either, but I have found myself loving this, the debut release from the Vaccines.

Packed full of punchy and short guitar pop records, it's a record full of fun and great tunes. Post Break Up Sex is one of my singles of 2011 despite not actually being particularly representative of the rest of the album) and I also really like it when the band chill out a bit on the likes of Wetsuit and A Lack Of Understanding.

Great live - their Glastonbury slot was a highlight - and slightly less of a Ramones tribute act than a lot of people believe, the answer to What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? was, in truth, an album that was less joyful, entertaining and downright catchy than the one they produced.

Listen to: A Lack Of Understanding

4. Chapel Club - Palace (bedshaped)

Another album that I was tempted to download after reading a review. That review didn’t give the album the justice I think it deserves. This is a terrific album!

Guitar driven rock and indie is what’s on the cards here. Pure and simple. The basslines are particularly prominent, giving a nice Bunnymen, White Lies, Joy Division, Interpol feeling. The drums are great in places; really crashing, throbbing and just....booming! The vocals are honest and delivered effortlessly, perfect for the style of music. There’s no danger of the greatest male vocal in the world being found on here, but his voice fits really well with the music. Not too sombre and down-beat. Enough hope and inspiration can be heard and that’s why this album is much more uplifting than its most likely influential predecessors.

Feeling decidedly short, but clocking in around 44 minutes, this is ten full blown, cracking tracks. The opening instrumental track doesn’t count, but sets the tone very nicely into “Surfacing”, a dirty bassline driven rollocker. Moody vocals add to the ambience and even the nursery rhymish chorus fits perfectly.

What’s drawn me back to this album time and time, again is the good old earworm. There’s plenty to be found here. The guitar hooks are vindictive, and the chorus’s are perfectly shaped. Quite often I would find myself enjoying one of the tracks, then when the chorus kicks in, it just makes me peak my interest in the song that little bit more. Days, sometimes weeks later, something would trigger that particular earworm, and I’d spend the rest of the day trying to figure out who the hell it was. When I pinned it down and listened to it again, I’d find myself picking back through the rest of the album. With more listens of each track, a new section in the song could be heard. Like, with each listen, a layer was being peeled back to reveal it’s true nature. That’s the sign of a damn good album!

There is hope for real bands yet!

Listen to – All The Eastern Girls

4. The Pierces - You & I (Swisslet)

Sisters Catherine and Alison Pierce been releasing records together as the Pierces since 2000, but it’s only now, with their fourth album, that they seem to have found some genuine mainstream commercial success. Critical acclaim (and a song – Secret - featured on hit US TV shows Dexter and Gossip Girl) never really converted into sales, and the band seemed on the verge of calling it quits before fate intervened in the unlikely shape of Coldplay bassist, Guy Berryman and an offer to produce their next album.

The result, You & I reached number four in the UK Albums chart – the first of their albums to make the chart in the UK - and although the singles You’ll Be Mine and Glorious didn’t really bother the top 40, both featured heavily on national radio playlists and can still be heard over the PA system in Boots, of all places. It’s not especially original sounding, perhaps, with the most obvious reference point being Fleetwood Mac, but this is smart, well-written pop music for grown ups.

It’s something of a shame that the sisters seem to have lost the waspish edge that informed some of their earlier albums (Boring, for instance), but this is more than made up for by the wealth of fantastically written tunes on this album. They just keep on coming: You’ll Be Mine, It Will Not Be Forgotten, Glorious, Kissing You Goodbye…. As something of a rock fan, this sort of thing isn’t usually my cup of tea, but I’ve surprised myself with quite how much I’ve taken this album into my heart.

Listen to - Kissing You Goodbye

the fast goes fast and the slow goes slow

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

5. The Young Knives - Ornaments From The Silver Arcade (Swisslet)

Ashby-de-la-Zouch probably doesn’t produce all that many rockstars, and it somehow seems fitting that the ones that they do produce like to perform onstage wearing tweed suits. Formed as long ago as 2002, the band found ‘instant’ success with their Mercury nominated debut album, 2006’s Voices of Animals and Men. Although that album is packed with great tracks, for me, the Young Knives have only got better with each successive album they’ve released: 2008s Superabundance and now this year’s Ornaments from the Silver Arcade.

Their distinctive, pastoral-edged, rock has got more and more sophisticated and, a bit weirdly, given how they look, their music has now got an almost sexy swagger about it –if you don’t believe me, then just check out Woman or Silver Tongue on this record. See what I mean? The sad truth is that the band have also become less commercially successful with each release, and this album only scraped its way to number 80 in the UK chart.

It’s such a shame that a record like this isn’t heard by more people, although the first I heard about the new album was when I heard Human Again played on BBC 6 Music; it sounded so distinctive and was so obviously by the Young Knives that I looked it up the moment I got home and found out that the album had actually already been out for some time…. And I’m a fan who has seen them live several times. If I nearly missed it, what chance has someone of discovering the band now? Such a shame, because they’re a great band and real originals too. Cherish them whilst they’re still bothering to scream into the void.

Listen to - Human Again

5. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto (LB)

If there was ever evidence for this year being a pretty poor one for albums, it's the fact that a distinctly average Coldplay record is still much better than all but four other records in 2011.

I'm a huge fan of Coldplay but am still not entirely convinced by Mylo Xyloto. However, unlike lots of other Coldplay records which I have liked immediately (I remember loving Speed of Sound from the very time I heard it) I am finding myself liking Mylo Xyloto more with every subsequent listen. Single Paradise has grown on my immensely while Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall is one of my top ten sngles of the eyar.

Coldplay remain lyrically suspect and there are one or two tracks which disappear in one ear and out of the other. However, despite what I thought on first listen, the band's collaboration with Rihanna - Princess of China - actually works and the likes of Charlie Brown, Hurts Like Heaven and Up In Flames are solid and likeable Coldplay songs.

I don't think it is their best album by any means but in a year where I have listened to more new music than ever before, the fact this album still makes my top five is rather a sad indictment of the state of the music business.

Listen to: Princess of China / Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall

5. The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You (bedshaped)

I think this is their debut, but I could be wrong. What I do know though, is that this album grabbed me on the very first listen.

This is like....erm....indie songs, but with electronic and pop elements in it. There’s elements of Arcade Fire here, along with Subways, Friendly Fires, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and even Radiohead. Loose indie songs; some of which are driven by a guy singing, some driven by the girl, coupled with some great guitar work, some looping, and oh yes, they weren’t shy in the feedback and reverb areas and some infectious keyboard strokes. The percussion is pretty good too. Imagine The XX on RedBull. No?

This album would have a perfect second album for Sleigh Bells or even The Ting Tings; should they wish to drop their sugar-pop trend and go all out adventurous. There’s songs on here that have a certain pop element to them, then in from nowhere comes a twisting loop, or some vocal sampling, or some sampled feedback, and it sends the song in a completely new direction. Most of these songs aren’t just songs, they’re like mini-plays. They have layers. They have acts. They even have slight intervals.

Songs will begin with programmed percussion, bombastic basslines and keyboard rinky-tinks, then switch direction with some clever vocal play or some monsterous guitar riff. Other songs are driven by keyboards and dual vocals, then burst into life with bass and guitar whooshing in to add depth, then switch to something else. Others begin with pulsating beats and low-fi keyboard strokes before crashing into a frenzied dance beat, with all sorts of crazy samples and loops. And it all makes sense.

I don’t know where this album came from. I picked up a review online and convinced myself it was worth a listen. The more I listen to it, the more it digs itself into me. The more it means something. Different, diverse, interesting. Definitely worth a listen. Albums like this give me great hope in the future of music. With the charts dominated with auto-tune R & B, there’s a distinct lack of new bands and artists coming through who show much promise in the talented department. This is a lovely breath of fresh air.

Listen to – Frayed

what if I’ve been trying to get to where I’ve always been?

The Top 10 Albums of 2011

6. Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math (bedshaped)

Not from Manchester nor an orchestra, these guys from REM’s neighbourhood have produced a great rock and indie album, with imaginative arrangements and hooks a plenty. There’s quite a scope within the album, as such it’s quite difficult to pin them down. And that’s one of the nice things about it. Tracks begin with gentle intros, grow into indie, touch on a country twang, then mature into rock. Then we have the orchestrations adding bulk and emotion to the songs. There’s certainly brushes with REM, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Young Knives, Noah & The Whale, Smashing Pumpkins, The Decemberists, even They Might Be Giants.

This album is packed with great songs; bringing together rock ‘n’ roll, blues, indie, folk and AOR under one roof. And melting them with some lovely orchestra arrangements that compliment the songs perfectly. Especially the strings. Oh mannnn, it’s always the strings! The orchestrations add to the growth of the songs. Pale Black Eye is a perfect example, beginning in a dirty, bluesy style, then finding itself more of an indie tune before the orchestral backing sweeps in and grows the song to anthemic proportions.

It may be unfamiliar territory for many people, but as the album plays through, (and I can remember this, the first couple of times I heard it) it all sounds so strangely familiar. Without being an album that treads old ground. It’s not breaking new boundaries by any means, but it’s different enough to have captured my ears for the year.

Listen to – Simple Math

6. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Swisslet)

I stumbled across PJ Harvey at some point around 1993 when, as a student, I innocently picked up a copy of Rid of Me after reading about it in the NME. Oh my goodness. I was somewhat ill prepared for the assault on my ears that followed, and Harvey’s exhortation to “lick my legs, I’m on fire” has stayed with me ever since. To say that record is raw and angry doesn’t really even begin to do it justice. I was hooked.

I can’t think of anyone else in the British music business who has so steadfastly followed their own muse as Polly Harvey. Trends come and trends go, but PJ Harvey can always be relied upon to go her own way and she certainly doesn’t repeat herself. Sometimes, as with Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea and To Bring You My Love, her work has been accessible and popular, but many of her other albums are far less immediate, even if they are generally uniformly excellent. White Chalk is a stunning record, but it sounds like nothing else recorded in 2007, that’s for damn sure.

Perhaps it should be no surprise then that, if anyone was going to record an album about the horrors of World War I and the post-War chaos that ultimately led to the rise of the Third Reich, that PJ Harvey would be the person to do it. As she did on White Chalk, Harvey sings much of Let England Shake in a kind of falsetto, and this lends an air of almost detachment as she sings about “soldiers falling like lumps of meat”. It won the Mercury Prize for the record of the year, and although it isn’t my number one choice, it’s a damn good choice.

Listen to - The Words That Maketh Murder – somehow rendered all the more effective by her echoing of Summertime Blues in the lyrics.

6. Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (LB)

Sometimes you just can't beat a bit of high quality pop music. And, since winning American Idol in 2002, that's exactly what Kelly Clarkson has been providing us with.

In many ways Clarkson is the Belinda Carlisle of the 21st century. She's beautiful, has a great voice and produces guitar power pop of the highest order, including classics such as Since You've Been Gone and My Life Would Suck Without You.

On Stronger, it's more of the same classic Kelly and the album weaves its way through a wide array of styles from the gentle R&B of Mr Know It All to ballads such as the excellent Dark Side. And, of course, there's a smattering of classic uptempo pop here - title track Stronger is brilliant as is I Forgive You and Don't Be A Girl About It.

There's nothing particularly big or clever about this record, and that's one of the reasons I like it. It's pure entertainment but with Clarkson's brilliant voice and knack for picking tunes from the higher quality end of the pop spectrum, it's a cheery, likeable hour of pop goodness.

Listen to - Mr Know It All