Today I walked into a shop and randomly purchased a CD, which I took home and played.
Why am I bothering to post this? Well because if recent financial results don’t improve, it might be extremely difficult to do such a thing in most UK towns in the not too distant future – which would be a great loss.
While renting music or downloading it may satisfy some – I still like to own a physical copy of my music.
Yes I know its nearly February but here’s what grabbed my attention the most last year (in no particular order).
The Arcade Fire’s third album is one of those albums that sounds better as a whole that any single track. From the epic orchestral thumping of “Rococo” to the quiet introspection of “Wasted Hours” to the delightfully poppy “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” this collection of songs deserves your full attention while listening. While it probably is slightly too long, I couldn’t pick a song to drop and I’m glad they didn’t. There really is no filler on this album, a rarity indeed. Original, catchy, melancholic this if my favourite album of the past 5 years, let alone 2010. It just hooks me every time, it has its rockier moments, it’s quiet moments but they all feel like one. The hallmark of a great album is one where your favourite track changes regularly, for now my favourite track is ‘We Used to Wait’ (checkout this amazing dynamic video) but in the past it has been Rococo, Deep Blue, Ready To Start (in fact they’ve all been a favourite at times). Brilliant.
