Top 10 Albums of the Year and One's to Watch 2009

Well it’s that time of year when it seems that everyone in the world of popular culture publishes their best of list, and here at Breaking More Waves we are no different. Since back in the 90’s we’ve been publishing yearly best of lists, be it in our old paper fanzine or now on the internet.

And as the cliché says, hindsight is a wonderful thing. In choosing Radiohead’s OK Computer and Blur’s Parklife as the respective albums of the year in 1997 and 1994 we feel well vindicated. However our selection of Baby Bird’s There’s Something Going On in 1998 now seems a little odd. And then of course two years ago our album of the year wasn’t even an album, but a My Space page. We stand by that choice though. It was the musical place where we had received the most pleasure through repeated listens in 2006 and we were trying to make a small statement about where music was at that particular year.

So grab yourself an early mince pie, a glass of sherry and begin the count down to Christmas with Breaking More Waves by reading about our Top 10 Albums of the Year and Top 10 One’s to Watch. We’ve spent the last month mulling it over before coming up with the final list. It’s a good one. Or at least we think so. Where, if at all, will the popular press favourite artists such as MGMT, Vampire Weekend and The Kings Of Leon feature? Will the debuts by artists in my previous One’s to Watch in 2008 make an appearance ? Last year I went on record saying that Adele and Laura Marling would both be nominated for the Mercury prize, before anyone had even heard their albums. I was right there, but will their albums feature in my list? And will there be some on the list that make people go “What ?”. Remember that Britney Spears has been in our Top 10 album lists the same number of times as Radiohead, with 3 each !

And as for the One’s To Watch list, this year we did very well with 90% of those acts chosen either producing decent debut albums or having commercial success. Mind you, for the first time ever the BBC Sound Of list significantly mirrored our own. This year things may not be quite as similar. As far as Breaking More Waves is concerned there are no obvious choices like last years with Duffy, Adele and Glasvegas. Mind you, at least last year we didn’t pick Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong which so many pundits did. Idiots. Crap band, crap name, crap music.

So from the 1st December enjoy our countdown of the Top 10 Albums of the Year, followed by our Top 10 One’s To Watch for 2009. Let's just hope we can find the time to write a blog a day for twenty days! It's a challenge !

Florence And The Machine - Dog Days

On the 1st December London’s Florence And The Machine release their second single Dog Days, on Moshi Moshi, although it is available to download now. Staring with a gentle mandolin refrain and delicate almost soulful voice, it soon develops into a triumph of handclaps and thumping Adam Ant style drumming with Florence’s distinctive Patti Smith bluesy styled vocals. This song has the potential to further pave her quirky way to stardom next year or at the very least serves as an appetiser for what could be a very fresh and exciting album. Backed with a harp touched cover of You’ve Got The Love, it is an essential purchase.

Having taken command of many festival audiences this summer, and a recent headlining tour where venues were decked out like a village fete with bunting, bird cages and floral posies, Florence has now signed to Virgin records. There is absolutely no doubt that she will be near the top of many “Sound of 2009” polls in the next month or so, including Breaking More Waves very own 10 to watch list.

Why Florence deserves to be a star is not is not just because of her vocal range that can produce floaty high pitched choral delights and gutsy sexy deeper tones, but also due to her complete natural madcap alt folk rock eccentricity. At Camp Bestival earlier this year Breaking More Waves witnessed Florence finish her set and then immediately go to the side of the stage to pose for photos, willingly throwing her arms around new found fans with genuine excitement and all this from a girl who sings“I took a knife and cut out her eye I took it home and watched it wither and die."

Be scared of Florence, but love her as well. Sometimes pagan, sometimes dreamy, sometimes like an overdose of adrenalin, sometimes just very unique Florence and the Machine deserve success and Dog Days propels her in the right direction. It remains to be seen if her excess of energy and crazy ways can find an appeal with the mainstream public, or if she will remain an engaging leftfield attraction. Here's the video to the single.

Little Boots @ London ICA

From the moment that the diminutive Victoria Hesketh aka Little Boots strides on stage to a sold out Institute Of Contemporary Arts, it’s clear that this girl may be tiny physically, but on stage she has a big charismatic presence. Dressed in an off the shoulder glittery blue dress, with braided hair and glitter make up, her short set confirms why she could well be crowned the new queen of pop. Armed with her keyboards, a tenorion, a Korg keytar (last seen in the 80’s) and backed by a live drummer and a further keyboard player, Little Boots brings Kate Bush meets Kylie Minogue vocals combined with Goldfrapp go clubbing electronica to get everyone dancing.

With not a guitar in sight Little Boots blasts out pulsing disco with massive pop songs. Click with its “Oh oh oh oh,” hook line sounds like a future hit in the making and final song Stuck On Repeat is more gorgeously Moroder than Moroder himself. In fact there is even more Moroder influence with a cover version of Freddie Mercury’s Love Kills, which Victoria admits is very camp, and she carries it of perfectly. For those who have become acquainted with Little Boots and her stylophone and piano for her appearance on Later With Jools program, tonight they see a much more Friday night, hard hitting, shake your ass version.

Despite her young age Victoria exudes confidence and is a consummate front woman. Rather than hiding behind her keyboards, she leaves much of the playing to her band, thus giving her the freedom to parade around the stage, encouraging the crowd with her arms aloft reaching for the stars.

To paraphrase S Club 7, she could soon become what she reaches out for.

Fight Like Apes @ Brighton Audio

There’s a whole choice of gigs in Brighton tonight, from Ryan Adams, Peggy Sue, Chairlift to The Airborne Toxic Event. However Breaking More Waves decides on one of our current favourites, hardcore synth mentalists Fight Like Apes at Audio, the only gig venue we know of that has a fish tank in the toilets. Unfortunately it seems that either this global armageddon of a recession is kicking in, people have chosen other gigs or simply that Fight Like Apes are not proving popular, as there are only about forty people at the venue.

After encouraging people to come to the front, the lack of punters doesn’t stop the band producing the most brutal primal assault on the ears, combined with a deep dark sense of humour, the end result of which is a deliciously leftfield pop thrill. Musically this is a set from the Irish underground that is deliciously out there, aggressive, but still fun and with enough inventiveness to rupture a few spleens.

The band are an intriguing visual prospect, with gothic looking lead singer MayKay, comical but scary keyboard player Pockets with his flashing light goggle glasses, a big haired bass player who is not afraid to wear both a headband and sweatband, and a drummer who looks like he would be better off in a punk rock band. During their set the band will get the audience to waltz to I’m Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me, MayKay and Pockets will jump off stage to bash plastic milk crates against the stage barrier for extra percussion, and during Jake Summers Maykay will wander through the crowd before falling to the floor to sing “Hey baby you were the bedroom king, Well I'm so sorry for breaking your ding-a-ling-a-ling.” Obviously not a woman to be messed with boys.

Fight Like Apes whole show is perversely wrong, and all the better for it. I suspect they would be great fun to go out with for a night, but they would end up chaining you to a lamp post, stripping you naked and ramming a hot poker up your backside. And as wrong as that is, it would seem like a lot of fun. This after all is a band who are happy to sing “Did you fuck her, and did you stick things up her?” whilst aggressive synths create a wall of electro noise; it seems both natural, funny and horrendously right for Fight Like Apes.

The band finish with Battlestations, MayKay screaming into the microphone and jumping up and down on the spot like someone with a mental illness whilst Pockets tips over his keyboard before leaving the stage. Looking round the venue it would be easy to expect to see bodies strewn across the floor, guts hanging out, ear drums exploded, with vomit strewn across their bodies. If there was such a sight then there is no doubt that the bodies would have had a smile on their face. Luckily Fight Like Apes sound didn’t quite reach that a level of brutality, but the smiles were there. There was no need for an encore.