It struck me as particularly strange, as the Guardian yesterday said the most popular name was Oliver, and so do the Office for National Statistics.  The only mention of Mohammed from either of these sources is a newsworthy one, that it’s now the most popular boy’s name in the West Midlands.

The discrepancy is outlined (to their credit, I guess) in the Mail article that tells us that they have manipulated the raw data by adding up the many different spellings of Mohammed.

It would be fair enough, as Mohammed isn’t really a different name to “Muhammad” or whatever, but here’s where it gets interesting- If you look at the girls’ names list and add the number of babies named “Lily” (in 8th) to the number named “Lilly” (in 45th) you find that they actually add up to more than Olivia at the top.

So why is the story “Mohammed is now the most popular name for boys ahead of Jack and Harry” and not “Lily is now the most popular name for girls ahead of Olivia and Ruby”? Is it not more news that babies are being named (presumably) after a third-rate pop singer than being named after a prophet? I’ll let you draw your own conclusions….

By the way, my quick and rough calculations show that there were clearly more Mohammeds of various spellings last year than the 7549 claimed by the Daily Mail this year, but they wouldn’t tell you that would they?

A spokesman said: “We’ve never pretended to be perfect. We’re used to being tainted by allegations about the odd rogue Scout leader, the fact that we once had swastikas on our badges and we’ve even shown we’re happy to sell out by having our Cub Scout Science badge sponsored by a company who make engines for fighter planes. But it’s time to split from our roots and Robert Baden-Powell”

“We’ve been able to survive the fact that he ordered a firing squad to execute an African prisoner of war, that his diaries in 1939 included the words “Lay up all day. Read Mein Kampf. A wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organization etc.”. We can cope that he wrote Scouting for Boys, a book that had a few racist bits and inspired the name of a really shit band, but the embarrassment is too much for us that he is known as “BP”. That’s the fact that’s leaking out around the world, and we need to plug that leak before it spills too far.”

The move comes after numbers in Scout troops in areas that have been hit by oil spills, pollution from the extraction of oil from tar sands, hazardous waste dumping, and climate change (i.e. everywhere). It is thought that BP’s popularity had fallen so low that the Scout movement is in danger of dying out completely, along with the many species cooking in oil. This called for unprecedented measures.

It is believed that Scouts will be asked to vote from a selection of new stories, some written by famous childrens’ authors, about the origins of the movement. The early bookmakers’ favourite claims that early scouts were formed when there was an early 20th Century fashion of a man (represented in today’s scout uniform by the neckerchief) and a woman (represented by a woggle)  taking camping trips together on cold nights, and rubbing a piece of wood until a spark is created.

Meanwhile, after reporters caught Scout Chiefs on the hop with the observation that the Scout Motto “Be Prepared” also needs to be changed due to the negative conotations of those initials, that motto has been changed to “Treasure Every Second Camped Outdoors”.

As a supporter of the Green Party who joined after reading a bunch of policies, most readers will now expect me to continue by praising this sort of tool. But as we get into the swing of policy-launch and manifesto-launch time, it reminded me to make a few points about the limitations of policies, and hence the dangers of sites like “Vote for Policies”.

“Elections are not fought over the answers to the same question, they are fought over the question itself”

We’re living in a very chaotic world, and politicians are full of ideas and opinions over a massive range of matters, Most of these politicians will never be able to do much to make so many of their ideas happen, even if they get elected. What that means is that these opinions and ideas are less important than priorities and well-placed passion. Lets face it, as much as they may want to break out of their non-EU-regulated pigeon-hole, a vote for UKIP is likely to count towards electing somebody who wants to act independently of the EU rather than, say to take schools out of LEA control!

Remember when Is This The Way To Amarillo was celebrating its 7th week at number one and the advert for the Crazy Frog ringtone was appearing an average of 2,378 times on British TV each day? Sven Goran Ericsson’s England were still trying to qualify for the last world cup and Charles and Camilla had been married for less than a month? Christopher Eccleston was still Doctor Who and BBC weather forecast map was still 2-dimensional?

Yes, that was when (unless you’ve had a by-election) your MP was last elected! A long long time ago, wasn’t it? The world isn’t really the same place as it was then and you wouldn’t expect a manifesto from then to be completely relevant to now, would you? Crazy Frog seems to have been dealt with (thank God) and we’re all used to the weather in 3D.

No Government was ever elected with a manifesto commitment of going to War in Iraq or introducing Top-up fees
They still happened, didn’t they? Some would read this and suggest that parties should be limited to what they have in their manifesto, but sadly this would be completely unworkable. More on why, and how to deal with it in my conclusion…

The Nature of Government

<tongue in cheek> If policies were all that mattered, we could just vote for a list of policies every few years and leave the rest to the civil service and police. No expenses, no corruption, none of the horrors of BBC Question Time followed by This Week. <tongue out of cheek>

Well OK, from a decade of experience of seeing politics and government from a few different angles, it is very clear to me that the biggest tests of a politician is how they deal with urgent crises and unexpected questions. Given time, it’s far easier to consult and consider the advantages, risks, opportunities and options of a situation, and word any communications on the subject, than it is if an individual is put on the spot. That means that logically the biggest scope for differences in people “running the country” (does anyone else hate that phrase?)  is where there’s the biggest chance for messing up. Not only, for this purpose, do we need to elect people who are bright and quick and sensible, but I believe that this is one area where parties and organisation are important. If there’s a culture around our elected people to give clear and well-thought-out advice, they are far more likely to make a good decision when faced with a difficulty than on taking a decision off the top of their head.

So?

Well one thing we need to avoid is “Policies for votes”- where elections become about matching up manifestos and parties can win elections bypolicy  focus group- as much as we need to also avoid “Marketing strategies for votes”. Policy should never be more than a driving cog in our political machinery, rather than anything like the whole machine. But I think that the approach of Vote for Policies and equivalents, if taken further, could place too much emphasis on the finer points of policy.  After all, who would want to vote for a bullying, corrupt, uncommunicative MP with a perfect manifesto over one who his honest, listening and open but honestly disagrees with them on a few other issues?

There are clearly problems caused by parties and politicians backtracking on manifesto commitments, or being a major disappointment once they “get into power”. This doesn’t suggest that the manifesto should be stressed with more importance, it suggests instead that there’s a need to reduce the representative nature of democracy and involve people more in the specifics. By doing so, we can have more chance of guarding against less than meaningful manifestos and actually involve people in developing and prioritising policy.

Vote for policies, yes. Vote for somebody who cares about you enough to involve you for the next 5 years, double yes!

5) King Creosote- Kenny And Beth’s Musakal Boatrides (Fence/Domino, 2003).

Like most of Kenny Anderson’s releases, there weren’t stacks of real surprises for the die-hard fan here but enough to be compelling. But what sets this one apart is that it reads like a Greatest Hits played to be better than ever before, yet with roots buried on the coast of Fife. And it was his first real pop at a conventional mass-release non-CDR album.

Starting with somewhirring musical wineglass action, we’re thrown into the action in the form of Homeboy, Pulling Up Creels and Turps, some of King Creosote’s most growing and lingering songs. But it’s the middle section that impresses most. So Forlorn makes an achingly beautiful song of a Funkadelic sample and accordion. Harper’s Dough compels the listener to “rise above the gutter you are inside” and then there’s Lavender Moon, a collaboration with his brother Pip Dylan, in the style that only the Fence Collective seem to be able to manage. Folky reminiscence at its best.

Of the last few songs, the standout is a version of his tap-along classic Missionary. And all is rounded off with A Friday Night in New York.
4) Rachel Unthank and the Winterset- The Bairns (Rabble Rouser, 2007)

What’s not to like about folk music? What’s not truly endearing and heartwarming about the opening track Felton Lonnin, a Geordie mother’s lament for a missing child ( a nursery rhyme of a different kind?), played with discordent piano and over-the-top strings? What is “in the past” about Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk, a traditional Scottish tale of domestic aggression and a woman’s revenge? Could a cover do more justice to Robert Wyatt’s chilling Sea Song? As a proud North Easterner, does anything give me a feeling of homesickness more than hearing Fareweel Regality?

This is the Unthanks’ second, and best, album. I can’t think of a better introduction or reminder to the modern music-lover about what folk is really about, a musical heritage and stories that mean something and will always do so.

3. James Yorkston and the Athletes- Moving Up Country (2002, Domino)

I first listened to this one on a bus from Notting Hill to the British Museum. The fact I remember that probably means it was a memorable bus ride.

A bit of background- this one sold rather a lot, but not many at first, and apparently wasn’t exactly given an awful lot of publicity money. It was, therefore, a classic word-of-mouth success.

Most of the songs (best example being St Patrick, I think) speak “magic”, I Spy Dogs is full of energy, and otherwise it’s all subtle beauty and soul (6.30 is Just Way Too Early and The Patience Song).For the rest, I’ll leave you to seek it out and make your own mind up.

2.Lambchop- Nixon (2000, City Slang/ Merge)

The title ironic*, the lyrics…err… “impenetrable but they sound nice and thoughtful”. If you’re like most people, including myself, you just won’t get this one. But the best thing I can possibly say about this record is that I get withdrawal symptoms. 10 years on, I just can’t get the feeling anywhere else that a listen-through gives me. This is real soul music, aiming straight at one’s inner feelings, whilst somehow steering clear of strained melancholy.

The Old Gold Shoe sets the scene, starting with a whisper and gaining in soul, confidence and masses of strings and steel. Grumpus and You Masculine You continue the trend, the latter featuring Kurt Wagner’s thin yet marked falsetto. And then it’s time for Up With People, the undoubted stand-out, featuring an 80 second introductory riff that seems to bizarrely make it onto the soundtrack of the odd economics documentary and then….

“Yeah there comes a booming sound
It used to come from underground
Now it emenates
From a kind of welfare state
Of the soul
Yeah baby of the soul”

Pure joy.

If Up with people is the climax of happiness, the next song Nashville Parent marks the peak of soul. It’s then back through the falsetto range with What Else Could it Be before we enter the back-to-back sorrowful, reflective and painfully beautiful The Distance from Her to There and The Book I Haven’t Read. And to round things off, it all explodes into the highly uncomfortable, more frenzied pairing of The Petrified Florist and The Butcher Boy. A classic from start to finish.

*- As far as I’m aware none of the album actually refers to Nixon, but the sleeve notes include a “suggested reading” list. I think the term is “LOL”!

And number one…..

1. Circulatory System- s/t (2001, Cloud Recordings)

22 tracks of buzzing joy. I want to say that lots more about this, but I’ve already sort of reviewed it here, and everything else can be said by the fact that it’s number one on such a wonder-filled list.

10. A Hawk and A Hacksaw- The Way The Wind Blows (2006- The Leaf Label)

Pan-European psychedelia… by Americans with the help of Europeans. The story of this one is told in lots of detail on the Leaf Label’s site but if you can’t be bothered to read the 12 paragraphs, here it is in two!

Jeremy  Barnes is probably still best known as the drummer of 90s legends Neutral Milk Hotel. In the few years after that band was on hold he played in Bablicon, Broadcast and others, finding himself as a (bad!) postman in Leicester playing as a one-man band called A Hawk and a Hacksaw. On Sundays, he would volunteer at a refugee centre. In his words “In a run down cafeteria there were people from China, Iraq, Iran, Roma from Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria. There were Africans, Pole and Kurds. I mostly played with Iraqis and Kurds; the Roma kept to themselves. I thought there was some sort of unapproachable barrier between me and these people whom I so admired. But there wasn’t.” And it all fell in place from there.

Hooking up with violinist Heather Trost, who shared his new-found musical passion, and various Eastern European ensembles and players, AHAAH have now recorded 4 full albums, each showing a deeper love of East European traditions than the last.

This is the third Hawk and a Hacksaw album, and was partly recorded in rural Romania with an ensemble called Fanfare Ciocarlia, and it’s the authentic brass band sound that sets this apart from their other albums. This is a record from the land of horse-drawn agriculture, no electricity and stony tracks, yet there’s still something “normal” and relevant to western life. I can only guess that it has something to do with the fact there’s something universal about some of the more pure forms of folk music.

9. The Sadies- New Seasons (2007- Yep Rock)

One of the hardest questions to answer, in my experience is “which is your favourite band?” If I’ve listened to the Sadies in the last few days, I find it very difficult to name anybody else. So having just listened to this one, I think they might be the best band in the world. Fronted by Travis and Dallas Good, sons of Bruce Good of Canadian Country band The Good Brothers, the Toronto band have been releasing consistently listenable LPs since 1998.

New Seasons is a typical Sadies’ record. Based mainly on sunny surfy psychedelic harmonic instrumental-heavy material (OK, I very very rarely say one band sounds like another, but the Notorious Byrd Brothers comparisons are too obvious to ignore, and that’s a sufficiently flattering comparison for me to be happy with breaking my rule here), the band seem to rattle through this one at breakneck speed, slowing for the odd bit of big organ, like at the end of Anna Leigh. What’s Left Behind, My Heart of Wood (another relatively slow one) and closing instrumental The Final Inquisition are all some of my favourite Sadies songs.

8. Grand Drive- True Love and High Adventure (2000- Loose)

Another pair of brothers, Danny and Julian Wilson. Born in Australia, raised and settled in London. I’m not going to say much about this one because the story is all in its sounds. Nine songs, all between 4 and 7 minutes, all ridiculously complex in terms of the number of layers and the constant twists and turns. Wheels is a great opening. A Ladder to the Stars, about leaving one’s fathers ashes in the sea at a rundown seaside resort, has a video to match the heartbreakingness of the song, and Little Numb is a truly beautiful piano-driven ballad. The whole thing’s so well put together that you’ll probably listen to a different instrument each time for about 10 listens until you even find the piano line running through. I’ll never ever grow tired of this.

7. St Thomas- Children of the New Brigade (2005- Racing Junior)

I first heard Thomas Hansen supporting somebody in about 2002. I don’t remember who he was supporting, but I remember how much he stold the show. It was almost as though he were playing songs to me. He loved what he was playing, and I loved it too. I hope this is not going to sound indulgent, but his naivety and humour seemed to match my own. I don’t know whether it’s in my part-Norwegian ancestry.

In September 2007, he was no longer, having taken a lethal combination of prescription drugs. He was just 31.

This is one of his later records, and on balance this one marked his high point. It has a sufficient rock edge that I imagine him ironically proclaiming from a stage that “This is from my heavy metal record. Be careful as you mosh”.  A pattern of equal measure of intensity, silliness and reminiscence is woven, and then it ends with the absolutely stunning Herman Dune collaboration Sheer Wonder…. and then it ends with the extra track Like The Byrds. A sign of what would have been to come? Maybe.

RIP Thomas, sorely missed.

6. The Clientele- Strange Geometry (2005- Merge)

A haunting and beautiful record, sounding like no other. I don’t know why nobody else seems to manage to sound anything like the Clientele, but it makes gems like this all the more special.

Strange Geometry is a story told in sepia. The highlights for me are the angularly structured songs, most notably the opener Since K Got Over Me, and My Own Face Inside the Trees, E.M.P.T.Y and Impossible. The reflective and sorrowful are well catered for through (I Can’t Seem to) Make You Mine, K and superbly in Step Into The Light. Losing Haringey is a diversionary monologue of a summer trawl through the complicated streets of that part of London.

Beautiful stuff, and I haven’t even started to praise the artwork.

———————————————————

From:”UNITED NATIONS ASSISTED” <**********@yahoo.co.jp>

To:undisclosed-recipients: ;

Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 12:01 PM

UNITED NATIONS (UNITED NATIONS ASSISTED PROGRAMME)

DIRECTORATE OF INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT AND TRANSFERS.

UNITED NATIONS LIASION OFFICE

WIRE TRANSFER/AUDIT UNIT

Our Ref: WB/NF/UN/XX027

DEAR BENEFICIARY :

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family?You may not understand why this mail came to you.

We have been having a meeting for the passed 3 months which ended 2 days ago with the UNITED NATIONS BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND AUDITORS with new secretary to the United Nation Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS have agreed to compensate them with the sum of US$500,000,00 each.

This includes every foriegn contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc.

We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed.

You are advised to contact Wels laz, of Zenith Bank of Nigeria as he is our representative, contact him immediately for your Cheque/ International Bank Draft of USD$500,000,00.

This funds are in a Bank Draft for security purpose ok? so he will send it to you through Courier Services and you can clear it in any bank of your choice.

Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone number/your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you.

Conatct Wels laz immediately for your Cheque:

Person to Contact Wels laz

Email: welslaz1316@gmail.com

Cell phone Call: +234 808 196 0704

Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft.

Making the world a better place,

OUR BEST REGARDS.

Mr. Kofi Anan

Former secretary to The United Nation.

And New secretary to the United Nation,

Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

Like most of the Anstruther troubadour’s pre-2005ish work (and lots after that) if you’re lucky enough you’ll find this on a CD-R and it’ll have the feel that somebody’s scribbled some album artwork especially for you. Depending on how you count, Kenny did somewhere between 20 and 30 albums in the last decade alone. This one stands out from the rest of the “homemade ones” purely on the basis that it contains a some of the greatest hits, in an especially stripped down, basic, more beautiful and honest form. I’ll Fly By The Seat of my Pants tops the lot, for me.

19. Lambchop- Damaged (City Slang/ Merge, 2006)

The second most recent Lambchop album. On first listen, the rest of it is completely dwarfed by the enormity of the first track, Paperback Bible. A slow and passionate reading of…err… some classified ads.

“Then there’s a Reba designs
Size eight, prom pageant dress
It’s icy blue
With sequins worn just once
There are others that are strapless
But this one’s slit above the knee
If you’re looking for
Something perfect for that student”
Having proved that he can make even ads sound poetic, Kurt Wagner continues on with some of the most slow-burning growing songs in the band’s 16 year career. I have to be honest and say that this is the only Lambchop album (except Thriller, perhaps) that hasn’t filled me with utter excitement on first listen, but I’ve grown to rate it up there with the rest of them. Look out for the suspense in Prepared, the Crescendo of the Rise and Fall of the Letter P , the nod-along Crackers, and the final explosion of The Decline of Country and Western Civilization. Most of this features on the live DVD No Such Silence, worth seeing if it helps you to see the songs.

18. James Yorkston- When The Haar Rolls in (Domino, 2008)

James Yorkston, and his Athletes, made consistently beautiful music all decade. This one makes the list mainly down to the sublime interpretation of Lal Waterson’s Midnight Feast. Yorkston takes the sublime original, introduces his characteristic subtle creeping drums, accordion, banjo, clarinet, wine glass (…you get the idea….) and tops it all off with Lal’s sister, Norma, on backing vocals in the refrain, and Lal’s son, Olly Knight on guitar. Magnificent, and the rest of the record is more than up to scratch, in particular the title track and Would You Have Me Born With Wooden Eyes.

17.Circulatory System- Signal Morning (2009, Cloud Recordings)

See here!

16. The National- Boxer (2007, Beggars Banquet)

I guess fans of what lazily gets called “Indie music” will fall into two categories on this one. The first are those who are enthusiastic National fans who can’t believe anyone could ever put this album so low down a list. The second camp is made up of those who see The National as a fairly ordinary and unspectacular band, who probably couldn’t fathom its place in this list. I mention this deliberately as I think it says a lot about “bands who take a lot of effort”.

I got this one in early 2008 as it was quite cheap and had heard a couple of songs off it which sounded quite interesting. I listened a couple of times through, and didn’t really bother again. Then I stumbled upon their set at Green Man that summer, the last date of a marathon European tour. The difference between what I’d expected and what I saw was illuminating. I simply didn’t expect intricate arrangements seemlessly faded in and out, and a singer in Matt Berninger showing leadership to put great military officers to shame! On further inspection of the album, it was all there and there’s something new to grasp the attention every time. Highly recommended- give it time.

15. Mojave 3- Spoon and Rafter (2003, 4AD)

The band’s roots were with shoegazers Slowdive, and this is fairly evident in this record, but as with Mojave 3′s other 4 albums, they draw upon a much wider range of influences. This is their most consistent album by far and it’s difficult to drift away for a moment, the songs are dream enough. The 9-minute epic Bluebird of Happiness (Great Ulrich Schnauss remix here!) sets the standard, and the singalong highlights like Tinkers Blues and Starlite No. 1 are netly interspersed amongst  slow-paced sweet-sounding melancholic numbers typified by Hard to Miss You and the beautiful Writing to St. Peter.

14. Wilco- A Ghost Is Born (2004, Nonesuch)

-WHAT?? Better than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?

- I don’t know, what’s the definition of a good album?

-Errr…

Well maybe it isn’t better, but i like it more. I think what it is is that when I listen to this, the whole record has a sort of “personality”. Indulgent, playful and slightly cynical. Try listening to it without grinning- you can’t. YHF may have the songs and the story, but A Ghost is Born is fun. Songs like Spiders (Kidsmoke) are so much fun and it’s silly, and after the 13 minutes-ish of DIY sounds, there’s an anthemic extra track about being an extra track. Brill!

13. Songs: Ohia- The Magnolia Electric Co. (2003, Secretly Canadian)

Until now, Jason Molina had been perfecting the art of the chilling spine-tingler. This is an album of 7 chilling spine-tinglers “that rock out”, and an 8-minute fiddle-driven playout at the end. The folk, blues and country influences are clear in varying degrees all the way through and there are recurring lyrics cropping up all over the place. I love every song so much it seems unfair to pick any of them out, but John Henry Split My Heart captures the spirit best.  Arrrgh, this one should really be higher up the list!

12. Okkervil River- Black Sheep Boy (2005, Jagjaguwar)

Opening with a version of the Tim Hardin folk song after which the album is named, this, more than any other Okkervil River record, is a twisting journey, a folk tale of one beautiful melody and arrangement after another. A story made by weaving together emotions and concepts. Here, it is proved that human beings can have emotions towards stones. Like #13, every song could be a highlight, but the epic So Come Back, I Am Waiting just takes too much beating.

11. Dead Meadow- Feathers (2005, Matador)

This is Dead Meadow’s 5th album. I like all of them, but this saw them moving beyond the albums where repetitive psychedelic rock riffs form the substance into an album where these shared the limelight with something a bit more psyche-pop, in the form of songs like At Her Open Door and Stacy’s Song. The highlight is still the full volume “stoner” material, but the balance here works (surprisingly?) well. And the version of Heaven, which previously featured on their 2003 album Shivering King and Others is FAR superior!

29. The Aliens: Luna
Their second album, this time with a heavier influence on letting its hair down and enjoying itself. Ends with my two favourite Lone Pigeon songs

28. Of Montreal-Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse  
“Good Morning Mr Edminton, how are you feeling today?”

This one surprised you, huh? Very very hard work, this, but a nice example of how the hardest listens can be the most rewarding. Every now and again, there’s nothing I want to hear more than that nonsense story about Detectives Slocks and Slovits, and after that the more relatively accessible psychedelic ditties like Penelope and The Frozen Island are somehow put better in context.

“….When their seargents return from butterscotching Mr. Lynn they can do the Charleston while I paint the face of Private Fontaine on his enemies face and do the same to him until the ballrooms filled with soldiers wondering if they like them selves and all are forced to forgive and forget”
27. St Thomas- Lets Grow Together

In 2007, music lost a songwriter and performer with a dedicated following. This was probably his cheeriest, most positive collection from 2004. I defy anyone to listen to Sunny Day or Come My Way without raising a grin.

26. The Unthanks- Here’s The Tender Coming

See here for more on this!

25. Jason McNiff- In My Time

I agree with Mojo on this one. McNiff is “one of the UK’s best kept secrets”, and I just told you the secret. How beautiful is this?

24. The Go-Betweens- The Friends of Rachel Worth

I “discovered” the Go-Betweens in 2000, just as they were releasing this, their comeback after 11 years apart. It’s also my favourite. They released 2 more before Grant McLennan’s untimely death in 2006.

23. Butterflies of Love- Famous Problems
The third and most recent Butterflies LP, containing 13 really good songs, one after the other, just like a record should be. And once it’s over, you’ll want to put it on again, and again, and before you know where you are you’ll be singing along in your head… I don’t know what it is about the Butterflies of Love that makes them such musical treasures, but they are.

22. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
As far as I understand the story of this one following so many Chinese Whispers, the band had been making good and steadily improving records for a while, and then presented their (major) label with this work of innovation and slightly weird loveliness. Being a major label in financial difficulty they at least wanted some radio playlist material, instead they got a mixture of nonsense, discordency and moments of lefty political sentiment. The label were said to have claimed YHF would “end their career”, but following first a release on the band’s own website (yes, back in 2001), and then, ironically, a release on another subsidiary of the label who had them dropped, the band’s following balooned. My prediction for the next decade is that somebody somewhere, maybe a reality TV star who doesn’t care, will murder/cover a Wilco song and make a massive smash hit out of it. But then again, if it means more people listen to this, I’d be delighted.

21. Alasdair Roberts- Farewell Sorrow

If record 21 starts with ” I am an American aquarium drinker”, this one is a whole lot more serious.

Raise me high, raise me high,
That I may see my fallen kindred seated.
Who met with death upon the battlefield,
Who, in the end, fell and were defeated.

So, arm in arm, we’ll run toward that pair
And, we as they, join them double-threaded
And, arms flung wide, we’ll run towards that pair
And never fear that which once we dreaded.

It does get a little more cheerful than that, but Roberts sure can bash out a folk song as powerfully as anyone else I can think of right now.

Something of a conglomeration of mini-songs, from the chilling to the comic, caracterised by the interspersing of vocals played backwards and forwards. Many happy hours with this one!

39. Owl Service- A Garland of Song

A folk album which could easily have come from the 70s and is proud to sound like it, but this one’s from 2008.

38. Beirut- Gulag Orkestar

The story goes that Zach Condon dropped out of school, stayed in Europe for a while, and recorded this album in his bedroom while still a teenager in 2005. A beautiful interpretation of balkan brass band music for a new audience.

37. Elf Power- The Winter is Coming

Elf Power released 6ish (depends what you count) full lengthers this decade, and probably 4 or 5 could have made this list. This is my favourite, and was the first of them in 2000. The menacing nature of songs like Wings of Light are a refreshing progression from their more upbeat 1999 classic “A Dream in Sound”

36. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois

The critics loved it, and so did I- Sufjan showed his genius fully here with some impressive symphonic arrangements.

35. Sodastream- The Hill for Company

Australian duo characterised by their use of a bowed double bass. This record, for me, was their peak.

34. Field Music- Tones of Town

Best Sunderland album of the decade:) Clever, complicated, and almost perfect. And extra marks for having Louis Restaurant on the front. Pop in there for a cup of tea and a cream cake.

33. Vic Chesnutt- North Star Deserter

RIP Vic, just part of a great legacy. I look forward to discovering as much of your back catalogue as I can. In the words of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum “In 1991 I moved to Athens Georgia in search of God, but what I discovered instead was Vic Chesnutt. Hearing his music completely transformed the way I thought about writing songs, and I will forever be in his debt.”

32. Shearwater- Rook

Gorgeously dramatic, the finale “The Hunter’s Star” brings a beautiful and warming ending.

31. Elliott Smith- From a Basement on the Hill

A departure from what came before, and some would say a peek into what may have been to come. Makes the loss of a fine singer-songwriter all the sadder. RIP

Anyway, here’s your next lot.

50. The Clientele- God Save The Clientele

Their 4th album showed progress towards a more expansive sound with use of wider instrumentation. You can really tell it was recorded in Nashville with Lambchop producer Mark Nevers.

49. The Aliens- Astronomy for Dogs

The Lone Pigeon gets a band! The Aliens’ debut gave, for me, a new slant on songs like I Am The Unknown, and, of course, The Happy Song.

48. Magnolia Electric Co.- What Comes After The Blues

A nice follow-on from the later Songs:Ohia material.

47. Circulus- The Lick on the Tip of an Envelope Yet to be Sent

A band for whom references to being in another world are barely an exaggeration. Simply the best Space-mediaeval folk record in the world ever. POWER TO THE PIXIES!

46. Beachwood Sparks- Once We Were Trees

Lovely, timeless, and I really hope we get to hear more of them in the future.

45. The Tyde- Once

Equally lovely, equally timeless, and always exceeding expectations live.

44. Yo La Tengo- Popular Songs

Okay, I admit, I only got this one for Christmas so thought long and hard about including this, but I like it A LOT and in my opinion is their best one in the last 10 years.

43. Wooden Shjips- Dos

Epic psychedelic full-on riffs (oh, and I should declare that this is a recent acquisition too, but I’ve definitely heard enough to be confident in its inclusion)

42. Lone Pigeon- Concubine Rice

One of the albums on this list that swings from the ridiculously odd to the oddly beautiful.

41. The Futureheads- s/t

Putting Wearside back where it belongs, on the musical map:)