Albums of the Year 2010

Creating a list of your top ten albums of the year should, on the face of it, be relatively easy. The biggest enemy is time. If an album released in February is still much treasured by December there’s a fair chance it’s going to remain a favourite. An album released only three or four weeks ago is harder to judge. Sometimes no matter how much you think you love something initially, time tells a different tale. Look back through your record collection and you’ll almost inevitably find something that will make you question your state of mind at the time. That’s OK though, records are like human relationships. Some form long term partnerships from the start, some grow on you and some start in a fury of passion but quickly die out.

The next biggest enemy is order. Is it really possible to say that X album is eighth best and Y is ninth? Wake up, roll over and on the next day X may be nine and Y seven.

Against this context, over the next ten days we present our ten albums of the year. Some will be no surprise to regular readers of the blog, but some may be. This is a personal list of the records that we’ve formed the best relationships with this year – be it something deep and long lasting or something a little more heady, giddy and spontaneous that will shortly fizzle out. A number of them appear on other published lists - after all a good album is a good album, and sometimes a number of people are going to agree. Right? Then there's taste. It's a funny old thing that maybe explains why one or two of our choices may be a little different. We're possibly going out on a limb with our #8 and #2 choices for example. It's not that our taste is good or bad, right or wrong - just different to some others, sometimes.

This time next year we may think differently about some of these albums, right now that’s impossible to tell, nobody can predict the future. However, we’re damn sure that the top 3 in our list will remain as our top 3. Whilst we might internally quarrel about the relative merits and positions of the albums listed between 4 and 10, our number 1 album stands majestically above everything else we’ve heard this year – and albums 2 and 3 are also solid in their positions.

But before that, here are five acts that didn't quite make our top ten, but whom all produced fine albums this year that would have certainly featured in our top 20. There are videos from Emeralds experimental sci-fi retro synth brilliance on Does It Look Like I'm Here ? and Foals development to a more expansive sound on Total Life Forever, plus streams from Kylie's solid pop on Aphrodite, our One's to Watch 2009 Marina and the Diamond's coming up trumps with her idiosyncratic debut and London's Revere showing just what can be done in terms of dynamics with their album Hey Selim!

Then below all that we recap our previous albums of the year from 2008 and 2009. Our countdown for this year starts tomorrow around 5pm GMT.

Get Outta My Way by kylieminogue

The Escape Artist by Revere

Shampain by Marina and The Diamonds

Our 2 previous years top 10.

Albums of the Year 2009

1.Blue Roses - Blue Roses

2. The XX - XX

3. The Antlers - Hospice

4. Florence and the Machine - Lungs

5. La Roux - La Roux

6. Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More

7. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

8. The Unthanks - Here’s The Tender Coming

9. Lucky Elephant - Starsign Trampoline

10. The Horrors - Primary Colours

Albums of the Year 2008

1. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

2. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

3. Glasvegas – Glasvegas

4. Laura Marling – Alas I Cannot Swim

5. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

6. Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head

7. Lykke Li – Youth Novels

8. James Yuill – Turning Down Water For Air

9. Duffy – Rockferry

10. TV On The Radio – Dear Science

Southsea Fest 2010 - Review

When you list famous musical cities it’s unlikely that the words Portsmouth or Southsea will crop up. Too close to London and lacking the artistic bond of Brighton, Portsmouth has always been the UK’s south-central second rate cousin in terms of music. Portsmouth may possess a small but thriving grassroots scene, the hub of which is Southsea’s Albert Road area, but the size of the place, the lack of quality small music venues (the Wedgewood Rooms excepted), combined with the lack of vision and entrepreneurial foresight of many (but not all) local bands and promoters means that Portsmouth often exists in its own little pond, where even the smallest fish can seem like a shark.

Yet last Saturday Portsmouth put itself a little more on the musical map, with the annual event that is Southsea Fest. It’s a multi-gig, multi-venue one day festival where one wristband allows access to everything. It enabled Portsmouth to look outwards as well as inwards, showcasing a significant number of up and coming national bands as well as the talent that lurks within.

There was a slow burning buzz of anticipation for Southsea Fest 2010, more so than similar events in other towns, particularly since the addition of Pulled Apart by Horses who by all accounts played a sweaty and messily fun gig at the tiny café sized Edge of The Wedge. This was a case of Portsmouth’s musical backwater status working in its favour – many of those attending were proud that Portsmouth was putting on such an event – there was no resigned ‘seen it all before attitude’ and good weather helped build the upbeat vibe. Southsea Fest had a d-i-y feel to it, staff mainly being volunteers - which led to a few venues running behind schedule - but nobody seemed to mind.

“Do you ever wake yourself up shouting at yourself?” asked Ollie from Oxford three piece Ute, beginning their lunch time slot in the Edge of the Wedge. Ute were the perfect wakeup call – complex arrangements and intricate rhythms that veered from shouty acoustic thrashes to desolate pastoral pop. Add in Ollie’s comical sense of storytelling – at one point he explained his ‘Pin-up’ labelled belt was purchased yesterday after his old one broke whilst eating pizza – and Southsea Fest delivered a pleasing start to the day.

The Edwardian elegance of the Kings Theatre, with its Italian Renaissance décor and high ceilings played host to four bands who dealt in similar sonic architecture – tunes that filled the space with their expansiveness and occasional bombast. Three of these gropus hailed from Portsmouth and its environs – but it was Londoners Revere who really excelled.

The words “All roads lead south,” sung by The Dawn Chorus seemed highly relevant for the festival. Their mix of acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, accordion, keys, drums and a trumpet player who at one point blasted out his sound from the balcony had moments of tenderness, passion and melancholy. With a drummer who provided a rabble rousing impersonation of Frank Turner on the uplifting Carnivalesque, The Dawn Chorus filled the space of the Kings Theatre with that good old fashioned virtue of excellent musicianship.

Revere raised the stakes even higher. With their chartered accountant attire of black waistcoats and smart clothes this eight piece played incredible widescreen sculptures that built to huge crescendos like Sigur Ros with more guitars or Mogwai with more strings. Backed by projections of grey landscapes and balloons floating skywards, their music also aimed for the stars, full of sweeping strings and transcendent noise. Words such as euphoric, cinematic and majestic came to mind. This was a band who really knew how to fill the tall space, the power of The Escape Artist virtually lifting the roof off as the projections flashed up the words “Fade out of sight, step out of the light.” Powerful and masterful Revere were utterly incredible.

The B of the Bang had a virtually impossible act to follow. Thwarted by a technical hitch where a spilt bottle shorted out some equipment, the band struggled bravely on, but their sound seemed low-key after Revere. They finally hit their stride with a new song The Forest, the result being a bassy grunge-funk groove that seemed to merge 70’s Starsky & Hutch rhythms and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor into something new. Requests from the audience for the missing Alaska led to boos when it couldn’t be played because of the gremlins in the machine. “Just because we’re in a theatre doesn’t mean this is panto,” responded lead singer Chris Whitear before managing to get the electronics working so that the song could be played out.

There’s a military, chest banging, call to arms exuberance to The Strange Death of Liberal England, and this was taken one step further in the Kings Theatre, with an orchestra, marching soldier drummers parading down the aisles and air raid sirens played from the balconies. It was big, a little ridiculous and visually entertaining. Lead singer Adam Woolway’s parrot screech of a vocal was neatly juxtaposed against the bigger orchestral moments – his passionate rasp fighting solo against the orchestra on A Day Another Day, but it didn’t sit comfortably with everyone in the audience, the back rows of the stalls slowly emptying as the bands performance continued.

From the opulence of the Kings Theatre, over the road at The Loft – a grubby worn out pub, Manchester’s Cats In Paris did their very best to confound the indie kids with a set of genre bending oddness. Keyboards that sounded like rock guitars, violins thrown in from nowhere, jittery song structures and a lead singer that could do a good job as a Huw Stephens double act. Schizo-pop strangeness of the craziest order.

Run Toto Run continued the Manchester assault, although in this case it was full of darker jerky synth stabs, breathy feminine vocals and quirky but loveable song structures. Occasionally it appeared the boy-girl-boy three piece wanted to step out and make a big commercial dance-pop song, but are just a little bit more comfortable in their own non-conformity to do so. Run Toto Run are a band who have fully made the transition from sunshine folk tweeness to dark electronic pop eccentricity – the smooth sultry sounds of Out of Order and other new tracks banishing their old singles to the trash can. It will be interesting to see where they go next.

Fresh from their first ever London gig the night before Newcastle’s Let’s Buy Happiness played to a fairly small Southsea crowd. Lead singer Sarah Hall beckoned for the audience to come closer and the band won punters over with their utterly beguiling beauty. Spacious layered guitars formed soaring soundscapes with Sarah’s delicate Cocteau Twins referencing vocals caressing the ears. Let’s Buy Happiness made a compelling case for being your new favourite band with the songs Dead Legs, Six Wolves and Works Better On Paper all confirming their ability to create indie music that is graceful and elegantly ethereal.

From chiming indie to 90’s influenced synth pop, Swansea’s Bright Light Bright Light showed exactly why they’ve recently been signed to the new Virgin funded Popjustice Hi-Fi Label. Gracious melodies, gorgeous smooth vocals and hooky as hell choruses that got drunken girls dancing; they provided an exciting and welcome respite for those who found the likes of Pulled Apart by Horses just a little bit too intensely masculine. Ten out of ten for the way lead singer / keyboard player Rod Thomas assertively but politely replied to one drunk girls question of “Do you do cover versions?” He really doesn’t need to do covers when he’s got a case full of glitzy high-fiving pop monsters of his own such as Love Part II which shimmied to the dance-floor with its jubilant call of “I’m in love again.”

In a bizarre, but quite possibly brilliant piece of programming the act to follow Bright Light Bright Light was Cardiff’s Islet. With not one ounce of melody Islet charged straight into the audience with a rhythmic based core of yelping, growling, screaming and unhinged racket. How a band can be quite so rubbish and yet terrifyingly brilliant is perplexing. They really are exporters of the avant-garde and the extraordinary. Taking instruments off stage into the crowd, straining war cries off microphone, using the walls and implements of the venue as percussion to hit plus on the spot jogging, Islet blistered with energy, challenging ideas of what entertainment, art and performance are about. Who cares what the songs sound like? This is a band to experience, not sit at home and listen to.

With Islet having provided one of the most fascinating performances of the day, Southsea Fest 2010 had provided a rich tapestry of eclectic new music for a bargain price.

Southsea Fest 2010 - Preview

It seems that the UK’s appetite for music festivals is insatiable. As summer closes tents are packed away, mud (or sunblock) is scraped off unwashed bodies and weary cider hangovers are kissed goodbye. Instead music festivals head indoors, where at least the countries unpredictable weather can’t hamper the venues, although the streets can still be awash with downpours and cider hangovers can continue to be a real possibility. Bowlie 2 curated by Belle and Sebastian, Nightmare Before Christmas curated by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the NME Weekender at Camber Sands, In The City at Manchester, Wish You Were Here in Cambridge, indoor multi-venue festivals are taking over.

Southsea Fest is one of the smaller, but growing independent festivals of this nature. Starting as just a 2 venue charity event in 2007 it has now grown to a 16 venue affair based in Southsea, Portsmouth. Southsea Fest has expanded from beyond its local scene origins to feature a significant number of national bands, a number of whom have been featured in the past on Breaking More Waves. The event does however give significant support to local artists, with a high number of such acts on the bill, this is invaluable in a city not known for a high quality musical output or national success.

Last year Southsea Fest had a certain scuzzy, dirty, sunshine addled d-i-y pub crawl charm to it with what appeared to be mainly lager fuelled local punters stumbling randomly between pubs and bars that were often running behind schedule; but nobody seemed to care. The weather was good and whatever music played provided a soundtrack to getting drunk. Southsea Fest may not have the high quality ‘as built’ venues (the Wedgewood Rooms and Kings Theatre being the exceptions) that some other towns have, the spot on high level organisation, or the expensive marketing budget behind it, but it still represents a fun-filled day of emerging music.

You can grab a ticket for Southsea Fest which takes place on the 18th September 2010 and find the full line up on the website here. We will carry a full review very soon after and will also be tweeting from the event . Keep up with those tweets by following us on twitter here.

If you’re going, we highly recommend the following five bands. All come with the Breaking More Waves rubber stamp approval on them. All are so blindingly good you’ll need sunglasses. Click on the bands name to access their Myspace or website.

Run Toto Run

This will be the second visit to Portsmouth for Manchester’s Run Toto Run. (The first was reviewed here). From warped fancy dress cover versions of Bowie and Passion Pit (which has clocked up over 225,000 views on You Tube), to twinkling fairy light stages, Run Toto Run have a neat line in imagination. The band are two sexy boys and one sexy girl making a whole bunch of devilishly sexy synth songs. Think a sexier Hot Chip or an even sexier The Knife. Basically sexy. They used to have a far more twee folk sound but they’ve gradually evolved and now they’re making darker, glitchier, electronic pop. They’ve been reviewed as “Pleasingly gaspy and saucy,” by The Guardian and have supported the likes of Ellie Goulding, Miike Snow and Everything Everything. With edible pop songs such as Did You Hear That and Catch My Breath (below) Run Toto Run are an absolute must see at Southsea Fest.

Islet

Islet are like nothing else. Part performance art. Part indie mental experimentalists. This Cardiff band turn heads wherever they play. Expect instrument swapping, a primal racket of noise that goes in any direction, chanting, yelping, improvisation and a chaotic thrash-whack energy that destroys the boundaries between artist and audience. Their music is highly challenging, occasionally absorbing, often infuriating and abstractly odd. However their performances are nothing short of startling. Trust us, even if you can't stand their sound they'll thrill the pants off you and make you question every live performance you've ever seen. Go watch.

Let’s Buy Happiness

Their music has already been described by this blog as the stuff that will “make you fall in love.” Sean Adams of Drowned In Sound has also got in on the act calling Let’s Buy Happiness “one of the most thrilling new bands I’ve seen in years.” Hailing from Newcastle the group have already released their debut EP No Hot Ashes, played the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury after making it through to the final of the festival’s emerging bands competition and are due to release their debut single proper Six Wolves on October 18th. Firmly filed in our Ones To Watch for 2011 drawer, Let’s Buy Happiness drench their songs in atmospheric otherworldly guitars and vocals reminiscent of Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays or Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins. Undeniably beautiful.

Revere

Returning to Southsea Fest following an exhilarating performance last year, this eight piece London outfit possess enough drama, emotion, atmosphere and excitement in their songs to be comparable to an epic movie. Strings, brass, guitars and vocals combine to create a huge sound reminiscent of early Arcade Fire, Mono and Broken Records. Gypsy-folk, post-rock and epic indie collide head on. Be prepared to batten down the hatches for Revere who will be bringing their immense songs from their album Hey! Selim which we reviewed with much praise here.

Bright Light Bright Light

You may have heard of Bright Light Bright Light before - the singers real name is Rod Thomas. He’s been around the musical block for a while. Rod is a Welsh do it your self music making whiz-kid who has now changed his operations to the Bright Light Bright Light banner and bagged a deal with the newly formed Popjustice Hi-Fi record label, which has been created by freelance journalist Peter Robinson - the man who runs the Popjustice website and writes for the NME. His new single Love Part II released on the 13th September is a stellar piece of 80’s referencing electro pop with enough modern production values to make it a tune for 2010. The future shines brightly with Bright Light Bright Light who Huw Stephens of Radio 1 called “A one-man swoon machine.”

Revere - Hey! Selim

The music of Revere aspires to big things. This is very evident on the bands debut album - Hey! Selim.

Hey! Selim is like a warship, bedecked with elements of post-rock, gypsy folk and epic ballsy stadium crescendo. Its songs are string drenched soundscapes that cast themselves away from the shores of radio friendly obviousness, preferring to sail in darker waters of drama. Recorded in a remote barn out on the Scottish Highlands as well as at Pinewood Studios, one of its telling production credits is Anthony Theaker on mixing duties. Theaker, a former member of mid 90’s Chichester band Hope of the States makes much sense, Revere having a similar sense of ambition to their music as did Theaker’s now defunct group.

Starting with the instrumental gypsy folk of Forgotten Names, Hey! Selim soon finds its feet with two of the most obviously commercial tracks on the album. The doomy drums, mournful violin and Thom Yorke styled vocals of As The Radars Sleep may not sound particularly uplifting at the start, but as trumpets and strings head skywards it becomes a blissful triumph. Next song We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow is a thundering tub-thumping rock work-out, resplendent with brass and driving piano and a repeated chant of “We must keep breathing through the fire inside.” For (the minority of) disgruntled Arcade Fire fans who disagree with most of the critics and find The Suburbs a little dreary, middle of the road, pedestrian, over long and underwhelming, We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow will put a smile back on your face.

Not everything is as call to arms bombastic as We Won't Be Here Tomorrow however. The Escape Artist has a distinctly melancholic feel to it, ending with swirling melodic strings and beautiful noise last created by Japanese sonic-masters Mono, albeit more leashed-up than Mono’s epic work. Likewise the seven minute opus that is I Bet You Want Blood has Indian mysticism, military drumming and funeral-like trumpets to create moments of downbeat complexity before the song explodes in a seething mass of instrumentation at the end.

Besides the references of Hope of the States, Radiohead and Mono, Hey! Selim prompts memories of the first two Arcade Fire albums, Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Broken Records and The Dawn Chorus - bands that deal with musical landscapes that rise like mountains and fall like valleys.

It’s good company to be in.

Revere - We Won't Be Here Tomorrow

Revere is a big small band. Big in so far as there are a lot of members (eight), and they make a sound befitting of their size. Small only in terms of the number of units they have so far shifted.

Yet whilst Revere may not have achieved U2 sized commercial success they certainly deserve to be massive and their new single We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow fully justifies their case. A blast of throw your head back shout along magnificence, it’s a call for renewed beginnings. “Unchain everything, find new words to sing, no time for sorrow, we won’t be here tomorrow,” commands lead singer Stephen Ellis, whilst the propulsive mix of instrumentation which includes guitars, drums, bass, brass and piano heads for the heavens like the energised cousin of Arcade Fire. We're sure we felt the sweat of the drummer touch us as we listened to this song, he hits them so hard.

Revere have already received praise from Tom Robinson of 6 Music, The Times and The Guardian, who called them “one of the best bands you’ve never heard of.” We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow now gets our approval as well. You can catch the band at a variety of summer festivals in the UK in 2010 including Secret Garden Party, Standon Calling and the one street rampage that is Southsea Fest, where we first noticed the band here last year.

We Won't Be Here Tomorrow is streaming for your pleasure below.

Revere - We Won't Be Here Tomorrow by Breaking More Waves

Southsea Fest 2009

Southsea Fest is modelled on events such as The Great Escape in Brighton and Swn in Cardiff but on a smaller scale. Established in 2007 the first event was held to raise funds for the promoter Josie Cutis’ younger brother, a musician, to record an album after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The event has now expanded and this year took place in twelve venues with over one hundred and fifty acts performing with some profits given to charity.

An entry wristband was budget price, being the same cost as a standard gig ticket, allowing access to all venues which were situated within close proximity to each other, mainly on Albert Road in the south coast town. Unlike similar larger events such as The Great Escape there was no need to turn up at a venue early and queue to guarantee entry, wristband holders were able to freely wander between locations as they chose. At times the event resembled something more like a giant pub crawl than a music event, with bands providing a backing track for happy drunken punters roaming the street. Breaking More Waves took a more conservative approach however, remaining in one venue all day, (Little Johnny Russells) except for our surprisingly well received DJ Set early in the day under our DJ Hojo Hits guise at Cafe Citrus, where we managed to bring dubstep, synth pop, vintage rock and roll, and seventies disco to the artists VIP area.

This years event was crammed so full of bands that it is no surprise that several stages ran behind the scheduled timetable, but most punters seemed unconcerned, happy to catch whatever artist they stumbled across at any particular time. The line up for the event consisted of a number of small national bands previously featured on this blog such as Peggy Sue, The Joy Formidable, James Yuill and Alessi’s Ark as well as plenty of local artists. So to the bands we saw..

With lead singer Clym Arnold swinging from the stage balustrade till it almost collapses, diving onto the floor and his band raping your ear drums with a fistf*ck of visceral punk, The Deads mean business; and we don’t mean the kind that involves hot desking, water cooler moments and power lunches. No this is business that is primitive, brutal and likely to find you sprawled over the photocopier with a microphone stand thrust up your backside. We have no idea about the songs they play, except for a dirty cover of Helter Skelter, but finding blood gushing from our ears actually seems like fun.

The Hall Of Mirrors are about as far removed from The Deads as you can imagine. Every song is a delicate spoonful of sugar adventure of perky tunefulness. “This next song is all about love,” gushes singer Jessica Spencer and we are sure we see fairy dust sparkle from her keyboard and Mary Poppins skipping around in the background. Only at the end when she kicks back her piano stool and delivers a harsher bluesy number do things become a little more unsettling.

The keyboard remains for a short set by Loz Bridge , this time without his backing band The Box Social, who we have featured here before. Bridge produces a short, accomplished set of jazzy rootsy sounds, full of earnest musicianship with just a hint of Chris Martins more reflective moments. One for the more mature listener, his sound is better suited to a quiet theatre or lounge bar than a chatty south coast pub on a Saturday afternoon.

Little Johnny Russells fills up rapidly after Bridge finishes for the megaphone wielding Holdfast, who having recently bagged support slots with White Lies, These New Puritans and in the near future The Chapman Family. The band have developed a confident swagger as they race through their charged punkish riot of keyboard and energetic guitar laden noise with glittery dress clad singer Roberta stepping into the crowd. They may not yet have perfected any killer songs, but they have a dark raw shout about them that takes them above the level of your standard local indie no hopers.

Breaking More Waves regulars The B of the Bang have been peddling their wares for some time now and tonight feels like one of closure, songs from their debut album Beginning Middle End being performed for possibly the last time before some new material is unleashed. Lung is still a colossal beast of a song, triumphant in its sadness and set closer Alaska bristles with taught atmosphere, but their live centrepiece remains Last Day On Earth which is performed with members of The Dawn Chorus; full of soaring trumpets and men singing the words “La la la,” as if it were the most important thing in the world.

Rather like a game of tag The Dawn Chorus continue where The B of the Bang left off. The band are a menagerie of multi instrumentation and subtle tunes with heavenly trumpet fanfares that uplift and involve, and on one song the band even have a little stab at some ska which seems rudely off centre to the rest of their country tinged rock sound. Strangely endearing and glorious.

Eight piece Revere (pictured) are physically and musically too big for such a tiny stage as Southsea Fest. The band bring military jackets, waistcoats, strings and a big big sound that comes from the same musical space as bands like Broken Records and Arcade Fire. Their songs sweep and soar gloriously high, powerfully evocative and beautiful. With due respect to all of the bands that have come before them, Revere stand that much taller, that much stronger and bring the most illustrious sounds we hear all day.

After Revere ‘dirty folksters’ Billy Vincent have a tough job. A slimmed down check shirted version of the whole band, they play with just two acoustic guitars, and as the beer flows more readily you have to feel sorry for any act that really demands quiet attention.

Next up are San Francisco’s Love Like Fire who play a fairly straightforward female fronted blend of indie rock that has a vaguely early to mid nineties feel to it. The band suffer from an audience that now seems more interested in alcoholic kicks than actually listening to the music. There are hints of something epic trying to break out, but it’s a case of seen it all before with this band.

“Give me some love it’s tough up here,” announces Chris T-T. Good god the man’s right. At this point in the evening we wonder if anybody is actually interested in the music at all. Chris T-T could have probably come on stage, pissed in a pot and walked off again and nobody would have noticed. So all credit to the man who has played on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for having the guts to force out his political acoustic folk rock to those who care. Breaking a guitar string after his first song, he continues a cappella, before thrashing out tunes about getting older, hunting and the wonderful Preaching To The Converted which has thrusting intensity and humour in equal measure. “Billy Braggs gone fishing in his 4 x 4,” he sings to a an audience who are drowning in lager.

At this point it doesn’t look good for James Yuill , but miraculously his beats, loops and geekoid electronic wizardry win the day. The inebriated crowd are ready to dance and the heavy beats and laptronica that Yuill produces work well. His sound mixes elements of Nick Drake, Radiohead, Aphex Twin and Calvin Harris into something that is uniquely his own. As songs such as the dreamy rotating No Surprise and the gentle bounce of This Sweet Love are played out it reminds us why we put his Turning Down Water For Air album in our Top Ten of 2008. Enchanting electronic melodies with a human side, from one of the nicest men in music make a fine way to end the evening.