Lambchops

For shame!

(nice column though, just felt I had to get a "no {x]" comment in!)

I was 10 at the time!

As such whenever I heard Radiohead on the radio I dismissed them as miserable and dismissed Prodigy and Chemicals as just noise. Though I do remember liking some Supergrass and so on that was on a Smash Hts compilation so I guess there were signs of hope for me! Plus for some reason Wide Open Space by Mansun sticks in my mind too.

Retrospectively I obviously love OK Computer and the other stuff that I had dismissed but I think my favourite from that year has to be Radiator, which I wasn't to listen to until about 10 years after its release. Still sounds amazing.

Belfast.

I reached a figure of 77% (including tedious adjustment for albums with "town" in the title so not bad agreement there. Obviously still not a representative sample size!

. . . as it looks like he jumps at the chance to slag of bands that he doesn't even think the album he's reviewing is particularly similar to.

Nothing wrong with a little bit of slagging off, don't get me wrong, but it seems rather shoehorned in.

more of the positive comparisons in the second half of the review, save the entertaining (and wrong!) slaggings for another piece where it fits! Ta.

I'd just stuck on the second John Knox Sex Club album for its first listen before reading this. Just as I was reading the bit about them the first song Kiss the Dirt did a bit where it kicked into a massive cacophany of drums, violins and amazing vocals.

Rest assured, someone is listening!

Coincidentally I was just listening to React or Die for the first time in ages a couple of days ago, really is a wonderful album. Didn't realise there was a new album on the way, definitely looking forward to hearing it.

Laura Marling, Emmy the Great and Marissa Nadler all releasing albums in the same year makes it a fantastic year for wonderful female folk albums. Is it too much to ask for Meg Baird and Isobel Campbell to release albums this year as well?

Based on first listen I'm really liking it, not sure if it's quite as good as the debut but it's way too eary to say on first listen as that took a while to grow on me.

Still lots of glorious, enthusiastic noise can only be a good thing.

It's a real grower as well. Thought it was pretty good on the first listen but over the last month I've utterly fallen in love with it.

<i>"There's even a record that one staff members scored 10/10 in his review earlier this year which didn't get a single vote from any other member of our staff.</i>

I take it this would be Hadestown then? While I wasn't expecting it in the top 10 to not even see it in the top 75 seems a bit off. Such a fantastic album.

Good to see The National and Sufjan placing high as well.

While i wasn't expecting another Andorra (Caribou albums don't tend to sound the same) I was expecting something good. I just didn't enjoy this at all though. Lacked for the warmth of Andorra or the amazing crashing joyful drum breaks of Up in Flames. Despite some good moments Swim is largely just harsh electronic noise and not an enjoyable listen for me.

Still there'll be a change in direction next time so I'm still looking forward to hear what he gets up to next.

But a review saying they are back ot the quality of their first album (I quite liked most of the third one as well) has me looking forward to this again.

Depite having been on a bit of a Delgados binge recently I didn't realise this was out until I went to buy the new Joanna Newsom album and saw this sitting beside it.

I instnatly bought it and listened to nothing but those two albums for a good couple of weeks. It's superb stuff, the review is spot on, it does sag a little at the end but after the brilliance of House on the Hill and I Could be a Saint this is entirely forgivable.

What a great fun album to start the year with - the first album i've bought so far this year that i felt has merited near constant repeat plays. Also what is it with the Welsh and their ability to write superb silly pop songs; Cake is definitely up there with the best of them like Horseriding by Euros Childs.

. . . then I can see where this review is coming from.

I saw Sweet Baboo a couple of years ago supporting Euros Childs at King Tuts. He wasn't originally supposed to be the support act and i have to say i though at the time that this was a joke act rigged up by someone at the last minute.

It just had a feeling of the muzical equivalent of an episode of the Office. As such the bloke i was with thought it was pretty funny and rather enjoyed it. Personally I though it was a load of old cobblers.

Still I have to admit I'm bemused that such an act could have become something to be taken seriously - although we had differing opinions on how much we enjoyed it we both were convinced that this was a joke act. Maybe it's evolved into somehting else over the last couple of years - but if it hasn't reviews of 2 out of ten don't suprise me in the least.

i can see your point to an extent with De Rosa and WWPJ (still a tad better than Glasvegas though) but I think the 'indie shmindie' is a pretty unfair dismissal of the rest.

On another not, perhaps my most played British album this year doesn't feature. SFA's Dark days/Light Years. not their finest album but that still puts them streets ahead of a lot of the stuff that's come out so far this year.

Also from initial quick listens to the nominees I hadn't come across: the Invisible and Sweet Billy Pilgrim both sound pretty good - but not to the extent of the Winterset last year when nigh on the first thing i did after hearing them was buy the album.

I thought before the prize that it would be a travesty if a Scottish ace didn't make the list but i have to say I'm left cold by it being Glasvegas. Their album was alright . . . but without thinking too hard I can name these Scottish acts who have made better albums in the last year:

The Aliens
The Phantom Band
We Were Promised Jetpacks
King Creosote
malcolm Middleton
Aidan Moffat and the Best Ofs
Camera Obscura
De Rosa

This is the first list in a few years where i only own one album on the list (I really should get round to checking out Bats for Lashes) - i've got a few unknowns tolook through - hopefully there will be a treat as good as Rachel Unthank and the Winterset was last year.