Mono provides a vague description of past events.;
Mono provides a vague description of past events.;
Here I sit in the very first hour of 2005. I’m here to talk about 2004….Eh?…. What?
There is a theory that the memory is like a billion little rooms, with doors that can be opened at will, to retrieve the information contained within. My brain works on a similar system. The main difference being, that my billion rooms have revolving doors and when I’m looking for a specific detail, I just get what I’m given.
To give an example; I went to the shop the other day for bread, milk and tea. I went and got the bread, found the fridges for the milk but then all I could remember was my Auntie’s address in Basingstoke. Now I’m actually quite proud to find such detailed data floating about, but it just doesn’t wash when your girlfriend doesn’t get her cuppa in the morning.
Suffice to say that asking someone with a memory like mine to do a review of the year is a bit like asking a kangaroo to drive a bus. So come on Rolf, get your mate to tie me down. Tickets please….first stop January 2004.
Sorry, but I’ve got absolutely no recollection of January. It would have been cold, mostly dark, and probably a bit shite. In February, The Smiths released their eponymous debut album. It’s name remains a mystery to this day. OK so it was February 1984, but holy shit it was a fucking great album. The raw deal and not really like anyone else.
In August I was in the Newton in High Heaton and this mate of my sister-in-law comes in from the cold, dark and a bit shite summer weather, proudly displaying his latest purchase from the record shop. It’s the eponymous album by Nouvelle Vague, I wish I could remember it’s name. It’s a collection of New Wave classics Bossa-Nova’ed up to the bollocks, sung by breathless, sultry, chanteuses. "I’ll listen to any old shite" I says, and went out and bought it that afternoon. Many of you will hear it and think "What a pile of crap" but buy it anyway and one day you’ll thank me………or your money back! For me it was a small musical triumph on the day that I made the regrettable mistake of missing Half Man, Half Biscuit at Newcastle Uni.
Where was I? February….great debut albums….eponymosity….Franz Ferdinand, that’s where I was going. The best album of the year by far. The raw deal and not really like anyone else. Tasty, sweet and juicy as rare steak and an orange. The best album of the year by far………until December 27th because that’s when I heard Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Either disc from this double album of pure and handsome joy, would have been a fantastic record in it’s own right, as it happened the bloody Aussie show-off sandwiched them in to the same hessian-feel box and created a classic.
Where am I? March? April? Bollocks! Polyphonic Spree deserve a bit of a mention, I placed a few caveats in my review of Together We’re Heavy but I’ve listened to it a lot more and it keeps tempting me back. Kasabian deserve a bit of a mention, I didn’t place enough caveats in my review of their (you guessed it) eponymous debut album, it wore thin and I haven’t picked it up for months. There again some albums were just plain poor from the off, REM and Ian Brown stand out because I’d hoped for better. If a band you’ve never heard of is shite, it doesn’t matter, but I actually felt let down when I heard those albums. It’s a bit cheeky really, Michael Stipe has provided the soundtrack for great times in my life, but I feel let down if REM make a crap record. Still, I am the punter and what I say goes.
When it comes to gigs, I don’t think I’ve seen anybody shit all year, Franz Ferdinand with The Kills and Sons and Daughters was probably the highlight, but Gomez were fantastic, as were Tom McRae and the mighty Lee Scratch Perry.
I believe it’s traditional to look back and remember those we lost throughout the year. After the horrors of the recent tsunami in south-east Asia, which has been such a vast and overwhelming disaster, the death of the odd pop star or celebrity seems insignificant; but sadness and grief are personal and in 2004 John Peel died on a working holiday in Peru. This man was largely responsible for opening my ears to music, a man who probably did more for music and the people listening to it than anyone else ever, and the man who turned me on to my favourite band, The Smiths late in 1983.
The night he died, I felt a bit maudlin, and I checked the BBC website for his show. All they had were his last 3 shows which were hosted by admirable, but other people. I listened for a while but it wasn’t the same. After half an hour or so, I remembered that I could get Radio 1 on the telly. I tuned in, in time to hear some yank introduce a track from a Peel session from 1984 – This Charming Man by The Smiths. Whoever the guy was he played it right to the end. I turned off the telly and went to bed sad & happy. John Peel is still very sorely missed.
In no particular order and without regard to when their music was released, this year I have been mostly listening to:
The Smiths
Franz Ferdinand
Gomez
Badly Drawn Boy
The Beatles
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nick Drake
Flaming Lips
Stereolab
Johnny Cash
Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra
Nouvelle Vague
Eminem
Polyphonic Spree
Desmond Dekker
Weezer
Catatonia
Tom McRae
XTC
Kings of Leon
Elvis Costello
Pulp
Snoop Dogg
Bob Marley
The Beach Boys
Stiff Little Fingers
Supergrass
And, of course Elvis Presley
Now aren’t you glad you don’t live next door to me?
Words : MONO