Take me to the bridge
Today’s tune is the centre section of the best albums list.
UNSURPRISINGLY, BRIDGING THE gap between the bottom four albums in my top ten records of 2006 tally (see the day before yesterday’s post) and the hallowed top three are positions Nos. 4, 5 and 6 but, you know, just because they occupy the middle of my list doesn’t mean they’re middle of the road. Hohoho. I kill me.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then once you see the three releases listed below, you’ll probably have a good idea what the top three is going to be, and if you’re a person of taste, then you’ll probably put them in the same order as me too. On the other hand, I might just have a few surprises up my sleeve… you’ll just have to wait and find out.
6. Amplifier – Insider
I don’t listen to much ‘balls out’ rock music nowadays. I tend to find it just that little bit boring and generic. However, Amplifier grabbed my attention a few years ago, whilst supporting The Sisters Of Mercy, and they’ve refused to let me go. Insider is the Manchester three piece’s second full-length studio album and it sees the group building on the expansive sound developed over the course of its eponymous debut and 2005’s The Astronaut Dismantles HAL EP. Amplifier’s trademark pounding drums and driving rhythms are still here in force, just turned up a notch, and Sel Balamir’s voice soars to new heights. I reviewed this album on this blog here.
The result is an album that doesn’t quite sound like anything else around but it also makes for an exhausting experience. It feels like the band has sold some of that fresh and progressive sci-fi feel that it served it so well on previous records to the devil in exchange for some hard rocking riffage. At a shade under 60 minutes, the relentless pace is most manageable in smaller chunks, and any track off this album certainly makes for a great wake up call when iTunes is shuffling away. Standout tracks include Strange Seas Of Thought, with it’s refrain of “Is there anybody out there?”, What Is Music?, and Hymn Of Aten, while the typewriter introduction to Procedures is a hell of a lot of fun, in fact it would be fair to say that the second half of the album is by far the more successful. Amplifier are one of the great new bands of the last five years, and this album does nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for their work. If you have even the faintest interest in modern rock (no, make that metal!) music go out and buy this now!
5. Muse – Black Holes & Revelations
If there was an album that divided opinion in 2006 it was Muse’s, the group’s fourth and most successful effort. Like Belle & Sebastian’s record mentioned previously, Black Holes and Revelations is clearly influenced by ’70s groups but instead of stealing from the glam period at the beginning of the decade, Muse have been raiding the back catalogues of ELO and Queen and chucking a healthy – I hope – amount of insanity into the mix too, producing a sound that finally frees them of their contemporary rock roots and sends them headlong down a path all of their own. With Radiohead’s instruments set to quirky and low key, and Coldplay and their ilk happy towing the corporate line, it is no surprise that Muse saw their chance and took it.
While the emphasis with this album is on the epic, with everything sounding so large, from the towering bass to Matt Bellamy’s singing, there is an amazing amount of variety on show. Every track stands out, from the awesome prog-dance of Map Of The Problematique, to the stripped down harmonies of Soldier’s Poem. The album ends with what now appears to be Muse’s theme tune, Knights Of Cydonia, six minutes of wackiness that somehow just works so well, and it is even better with the music video accompaniment. No-one’s going to take them alive! An awesome album from a band that is clearly just getting into its stride.
4. Stereolab – Fab Four Suture
Known in some circles for their post-rock roots, Stereolab have been producing perfect space pop for over a decade and a half. Fab Four Suture, a compilation of six seven-inch singles released in 2005 and the group’s 92nd album (joke), sees the Anglo-French musicologists on as good form as ever. The 12 tracks clock in at just over 51 minutes, and before even the first quarter of an hour is up, you will have been thrilled by some of Stereolab’s best work, two of the album’s many stand outs Interlock and Eye Of The Volcano, with their infectious melodies offset by Laetia Sadier’s trademark deadpan singing. The band seem on a roll with Fab Four Suture; half way in, is the outstanding Visionary Road Maps, followed by the oh so good Vodiak, both demanding your attention. Don’t try to listen to this at work, it’s just not possible!
Stereolab fans will be pleased with the overall package; the artwork is typical of the group, while the track names are as daft as ever. The release is bookended by Kyberneticka Babicka Pts. 1 and 2, while who can resist the charms of songs called “Get A Shot Of The Refrigerator” or Excursions Into Oh A Oh. Barmy but brilliant, the years have seen Stereolab lose none of their greatness. Fab Four Suture deserves to be on everybody’s best of 2006 list.
Numbers 3, 2 and 1 to follow tomorrow…
