Flynndie Reviews - Blog #20: Top 8 Albums of 2011 - Part 1

Written 1st December 2011:

Top 8 Albums of 2011 – Part 1

So today rather than write an album review, I’ve decided to pick and reflect back on my top 8 favourite albums of the year for 2011. I plan to give a bit of an overview of each album (most of which I have previously reviewed on here during the course of the year) so I’ve decided to split this into two parts, first counting down from #8 to #5 in part 1 and then of course #4 to the inaugural #1 ‘Flynndie Album of the Year’!

Now of course these choices are just my personal preferences and I have no special criteria in picking which album I’ve rated higher than another, after all this list is purely for fun and are my own choices, other than which albums I’ve genuinely enjoyed listening to the most, yet it has still taken me some time to decide on my Top 8 albums this year and even more difficult to decide on their order but this 2-part Blog will reveal my overall choices.

However, if you do disagree or feel I’ve missed an album out on this list, I would be more than happy to view and listen to other reader’s favourite albums of the year, so feel free to post any comments or recommendations at the end of this Blog. You may also notice that I’ve rated some albums higher than others, despite me awarding a higher-score on my initial reviews, but this is due to my marks being given in my reviews on my initial first impressions of the album and over the course of the year, I’ve at times found myself listening to a high-rated album more hence it’s higher position on this list.

So let’s get this show on the road then and weighing in at #8 pop-pickers is………

#8. Kaiser Chiefs – The Future is Medieval (Reviewed in Flynndie Reviews Blog #14 – 8/10)

So the Kaiser Chiefs who had been on the quiet side the past couple of years suddenly popped back on the scene again, with a previously unannounced album and an excellent promotion of their new album whereby they let fans compile their own choice of 10-tracks from an available selection of 20 from their website. After this, demand led to a full CD release containing 13-tracks, one previously unheard, and to be fair I thought it was a real return to form for them and back on a par with their decent 1st two albums ‘Employment’ and ‘Yours truly, Angry Mob’. The album very much goes back to the sound of some of their early material with songs such as ‘Little Shocks’, ‘Dead or in Serious Trouble’ and ‘When all is quiet’ but as I said previously in my review I felt their new songs, such as ‘Child of the Jago’ and ‘If you will have me’, now showed a more mature side of the band than some of their earlier material yet still retaining the light-hearted, cheeky, charm the band are known to bring to their music. I think this album as a whole really does contain a good range of songs that collectively sum up what the band’s music to date is all about.

Recommended Songs: ‘Little Shocks’, ‘Child of the Jago’, ‘If you will have me’
Personal Favourite Track: ‘Heard it Break’

#7. Ben Howard – Every Kingdom (Previously un-reviewed)

So a lot of readers first thought’s here maybe “Who’s Ben Howard?” To be honest it was quite by luck that I came across his music having heard early single ‘The Wolves’ used on the amazing short-film ‘Industrial Revolutions’ featuring free-style cyclists Danny Macaskill (which you can view here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShbC5yVqOdI). I instantly fell in love with this track and upon hearing a couple of other tracks from the forthcoming album ‘Every Kingdom’ I started to develop high hopes for this debut album and fortunately it didn’t disappoint. With a very acoustic, rural and folk feel throughout the record, I often feel an album as stripped down as this need to have songs and guitar playing to the highest quality and Ben happily delivers just such in this debut effort. You can really tell how much thought and care has been put into each note on every song on this record and for me this is a fine debut, acoustic effort.

Recommended Songs: ‘Old Pine’, ‘Only Love’, ‘The Fear’, ‘Keep your head up’
Personal Favourite Track: ‘The Wolves’

#6. R.E.M. – Collapse into Now (Reviewed in Flynndie Reviews Blog #10 – 9/10)

In at #6 on the list turned out to be the swansong album from a band that had by now seemed to be around forever (or at least the past 25 years!) Some R.E.M. albums can be a little bit hit and miss for me and personally I find myself mostly more into their earlier material, with their last truly great album being ‘Up’ in my opinion. However, refreshingly for a change I think R.E.M. finally delivered an album that lives up to their great legacy and have made an album where I don’t find myself skipping the odd occasional track. Admittedly, upon listening to this album I found myself comparing tracks similar in sound to previous R.E.M. tracks (for example ‘Oh My Heart’ sounding like a follow-up to ‘Houston’ from the album ‘Accelerate’ and last track ‘Blue’ having a very similar style to ‘E-Bow the Letter’ from ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’) but when the tracks sound as good as those it’s hardly a criticism of the album. Whether the band were already conscious that this would be the last R.E.M. album or not, I think they certainly made a worthy record to encompass the band’s legacy and a fitting album for their send off and in my opinion their best for some 10 years!

Recommended Songs: ‘Oh My Heart’, ‘Mine Smells like Honey’, ‘Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I’
Personal Favourite Track: ‘ÜBerlin’

#5. Kasabian – Velociraptor! (Reviewed in Flynndie Reviews Blog #18 – 8/10)

Now we’re starting to reach this year’s ‘big-hitters’ and in at #5 for me are Kasabian with their latest effort named after, of all things, a dinosaur ‘Velociraptor!’ I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the latest offering from Kasabian, however, the band have delivered their 4th successive, solid album while encompassing a fair range of sounds from different genres yet all the time retaining a trademark Kasabian feel about them on this album. The album itself features the band dabbling with retro guitar-fused-jazz with opening track ‘Let’s roll just like we used too’, from the typical guitar anthems we all know and love from Kasabian on tracks such as ‘Days are Forgotten’ and ‘Rewired’ to the more electronic, Indie-club style tracks of ‘I hear Voices’ and ‘Switchblade Smiles’. For me though personally, the standout track on the album is ‘Turkish Acid Bath (Shelter from the Storm)’. It’s actually quite a different track from anything Kasabian have done in the past, featuring verses backed with sounds associated with a Turkish folk-market used on films, but featuring deliciously dark lyrics and snarls throughout, this is certainly a brooding track and my personal favourite. Suffice to say Kasabian have returned again with another album to add proudly to their ever-developing legacy.

Recommended Songs: ‘Let’s roll just like we used to’, ‘Days are Forgotten’, ‘Switchblade Smiles’
Personal Favourite Track: ‘Turkish Acid Bath (Shelter from the Storm)’

So that covers my first four selections in my ‘Top 8 albums of 2011’ list, needless to say in the 2nd part of this Blog, I shall reveal my #4 to 1 albums, mention a few other albums I liked that just fell short of my Top 8 and list a few band’s whose records I’m already looking forward to into 2012!

Still Rocking in 2011 ‘Flynny’

Flynndie Reviews - Blog #14: Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval

Written 2nd July 2011:
 
Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval

Right time for the latest installment in my line of Flynndie Reviews and in today's episode I'm going to cover the recent album release by the Kaiser Chiefs, 'The Future Is Medieval'. Before we move onto the tracks on the record itself, I'm just going to cover the most excellent promotional work the band did for their 4th album release, which I personally thought was a unique yet brillant idea to promote an album, especially for a record that the general public had previously not heard much about.

So the Kaiser's returned to the scene with this previously unannounced album 'The Future Is Medieval' which caught most by surprise. A promo track 'Little Shocks' was given some airplays on the radio, before the band placed snippets of 20 potential tracks on their website, before allowing fans the option to select their own 10 tracks of choice, choose their play-list for their selected tracks and even design the cover for an album! I have never previously seen such a creative manner of promoting an album release and thought it was a real credit to the band to attempt such an ambitious project! I decided to get involved with the fun idea and after giving the 45 second to a minute track samples a few listens I made my own bespoke version of the 'The Future Is Medieval', which you can feel free to check out via the link at the bottom of this review.

Anyway, after such a unqiue album release, there was still such sufficient demand for a full CD album release. The previously 'fan-made' versions were download only if you had previously decided to download another person's copy, but in most cases after paying £7.50 for a choice of tracks, I suspect most fans like myself would have made their own track-listing version and album cover. So this review covers the 'definite' CD version that is now available and opens with previous promo track 'Little Shocks'.

So the album opens with how I would describe as a steady 'creeping-along' type of melody, with the familiar plinky-plonky keyboard sounds in the background to give the track a real Kaiser Chiefs feel to it. As the track 'creeps' along it builds to a big sing-a-long, rock chorus which in true Kaiser Chiefs fashion is very catchy indeed. I really like this track, it's a good opener for the album and shows the maturity the band have reached with such a well written song and particularly chorus. 'Things Change' follows with a funky drumming opening, accompanied by keys and far out-space like sounds, and although that description may sound like this track is really 'out there' the funky beat at the heart of the track actually holds it together well. Throw in an 80's sounding-guitar strum midway through the track, and despite being an eclectic collection of sounds this track actually works and complments opening track 'Little Shocks' well.

'Long Way From Celebrating' continues with another funky melody pulsing through it, before a fast and furious chorus bursts into the track and I can see this being one the band will use during their 'live' sets to tour this record. Next up we have 'Starts With Nothing', with a repeating jagged guitar, and a distant effect used on Ricky Wilson's voice. It's the first track to really steady the pace of the album so far. This is another track where I feel the band has attempted to show a more mature side to them, with it's deep-sounding guitars and I think the track is actually about a disappointed contestant who has left a quiz show unsucessfully emphasised by the lyrics 'You start with nothing and you leave with nothing' and the line 'Yes that is my final answer'. The track finishes with guitar sounds that actually reminded me somewhat of the BritPop classic 'Champagne Supanova' by Oasis and is a nice way to close the song.

At this point I still think the album has not quite got a definitive 'focus' or 'theme' about it that I can think of which moves us nicley on to fifth-track 'Out of Focus'. With a slightly menacing guitar sound to open the track with, and spookily backing keys to it, this track has a really nice flow about it and sits well on it's place in the record, the chorus in particular is very-catchy indeed! 'Dead or in Serious Trouble' is up next and picks up the pace of the record again with an almost battle-off-duel between guitars and keyboard! I think this track in particular has real old-school Kaiser Chiefs feel to it and certainly would not find itself out of place alongside tracks from their debut album 'Employment' and this another track I can see making up part of the band's 'live' set. Next up with have 'When All Is Quiet'. I really like this track, it has somewhat of a bit of a 'Madness' feel to it the way it kinda bounces-along, while the later duel backing vocals give the song a bit of a 'Beach Boys' vibe to it too! For me it's the melody and the pacing of the track that I really like about this song, which all seems to fit perfectly for it.

Next up we have the track 'Kinda Girl You Are', which bearing in mind the previous track had a somewhat 'Beach Boys' vibe to it, opens with an almost guitar like 'Surf Wipe Out' sound. This song was previously unavailable from the initial 20-tracks that were made available from the band's website (www.kaiserchiefs.com). The track coasts along at a fair old pace and rhythm, and standing at 2 minutes 37 seconds long, is one of the shorter, more instant type of track to make up this record. 'Man of Mars' soon slows the pace of the record again with a real-trippy like, 'far-out-there' sound about it, and a nice guitar-solo thrown in about halfway through it. The track as whole has a lot of sounds thrown around it and is cleverly layered when listened to carefully.

Track 10 'Child of the Jago' is another of my favourite tracks, with a simple yet catchy guitar hook flowing through it, Andy White is fine form on guitar for this one while Ricky is also on top-form with his vocals on this track in my opinion. This is very-much a likeable and instant track in my opinion with a nice solo at the end of it and the line 'The Future Is Medieval' helping to build it. The first thing the listener will think of upon hearing the opening of 'Heard it Break' is 80's synth! This has a real-retro feel to it and is very keyboard-synth heavy yet is very catchy indeed! The unique sound of the track finds me struggling to find any easy comparisions to the sound the band have created on it, which is a credit to them. 'Coming up for Air' is another slow-burning, yet very distinctive effort like a few of the previous tracks on this record. Again this track for me shows that the band are certainly maturing in their sound with piano and violin also thrown into the mix on this, possibly the big ballad of the album.

The 13th and final track, 'If you will have me' is actually my personal favourite track on the record. I'm a real sucker, to this type of raw acoustic heartfelt song and this is one of the best of that particular type I've heard in a while. With a nice, soft melody throughout and backing violin this is a real beautiful track and rightly closes the album in my opinion and was even also my choice of album closer on my version of the album I previously made up. Great minds think a-like eh?! However, that is not all as if you keep listening the band have sneakily thrown a secret instrumental track on as a bonus on the album, so keep an eye out for it if you want to catch it, it again has a very space-based theme to it in my opinion with it synth sounds and guitar riffs, but listen out for it and give it a judge yourself.

So overall I really like this album, but my main gripe with it I guess is that it very much feels like a large collection of songs thrown together, rather than a record that seems to have a defenitive focus, flow and theme to it. However, surely this was fully the intention of the band in the first place?! With such a unique release given to the album even allowing fans to choose it's tracklisting how could the band possibly put together a track-listing that would create such a defintive theme for the record? And it's the previous unique album release, and the subsequent demand for a 'definitive' version of the record that has helped me draw my conclusion that the is an album full of well written tracks, that although may seem disjointed at times, still make up a great record and return to top form of the band in my opinion! The open approach of song-writing has really brought out some of the most mature song-writing the band have done to date and I'm quite happily going to give this record 8 Jousting Knights out of 10, which possibly would have been higher if the record had that bit of cohesion it just lacks due to it's creative launch process which I think the band should rightly be applauded for having the balls to do! Overall this is a good return to form for them so I'd recommend the album especially if you previously enjoyed the band's 1st two albums 'Employment' and 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob'.

Always Medieval
Flynny

PS. If you would like to see the original 10-track version of The Future Is Medieval' I put together (which does flow nicely as a collection of songs in my opinion, heh-heh! ;o) ) you can find it here: www.kaiserchiefs.com\addicteaddick