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Another year over and another year just begun. Despite the economic downturn, the deluge of new releases continued with the postman bringing ever more musical delicacies to the Bluesbunny’s ears. Once again, a surfeit of self indulgent male singer songwriters returning to their roots to wallow in their own self pity was a theme running throughout the year with Canada seemingly badly affected by the scourge. Needless to say, none of them made the list. I’m actually quite proud of the list this year. The numbers don’t lie and yet these are the albums that I would have picked myself. Even better, just underneath the cut off point were a remarkably large number of very respectable albums by musicians and bands who clearly have a top class album in them. The future does indeed look so bright that I shall have to start wearing shades.
So to the Albums of the Year list…
1. Lush Rimbaud - The Sound of a Vanishing Era
Words nearly failed me with this album so I suspect this dynamic Italian electro rock might fall in to either your love or hate category. Barely above organised chaos in their approach, Lush Rimbaud punched well above their weight with this one.
Read the full review.
2. Anna Von Hausswolff - Singing From The Grave
A Swedish singer songwriter discovered by accident (a random purchase whilst in Mono browsing the racks) but she stopped me in my tracks and my sole purpose in life became to hunt down her album. Dark, intense and complex, her songs are matched, indeed exceeded, by her voice that alternately exudes pain and joy like few others can.
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3. Joanna Chapman Smith - Contraries
A Canadian singer songwriter with a way of navigating the urban jungle in songs that both charm and entrance and she decorates said songs with a whole variety of influences that neatly complement her words.
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4. Doris Brendel - The Last Adventure
Doris Brendel has been around a bit – and I mean that in the nicest possible way – so she brought experience and no small amount of talent to her album. It would have been easy to write it off as taxi driver rock if it weren’t for the obvious class shining through.
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5. Bitter Ruin - Hung, Drawn and Quartered
Wildly theatrical vocals from Georgia Train took this dramatic art rock album from Brighton band Bitter Ruin to the front of the queue. That and the number of men lyrically, and brutally, killed over its duration set some sort of record.
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6. Rachel Harrington - Celilo Falls
Americana is much derided by some (notably me) but Rachel Harrington’s beautifully sentimental album was a standout in a tired musical genre. I’d go as far as saying that it sounds like it was written from the heart.
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7. We See Lights - Ghosts & Monsters
Good things come from Glasgow as well and this was the best example of the polite Scottish sound that I heard all year. What made it stand out was its dramatic scope and the care that had obviously gone into its creation. We See Lights might sound like a band from Scotland but they don’t sound like every other band from Scotland.
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8. Randolph’s Leap - Battleships &Kettle Ships
Technically not even an album but who cares when you get this kind of quality. Sure, the album was ragged in technical terms but those moments of lyrical grandeur mixed with the ennui of the misfit made for something of wonder.
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9. Marnie Stern - Marnie Stern
Chopped up and deliberately edgy, Marnie Stern continues to twist what is expected of a woman and a guitar. Quite a difficult album to get into, you eventually realise the reason why Ms Stern doesn’t sound like anybody else. It's because she isn’t like everybody else. Praise be!
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10. A Joker’s Rage - A Joker’s Rage
An adventurous rock album from a Scottish rock band is just what I needed and that is what this band delivered with pomp, pizzazz and quality musicianship selling those songs over and over again. Expect to be playing your air guitar to this one. I have been.
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