Albums of the Decade - 48. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)

48. RADIOHEAD -A MOON SHAPED POOL (2016)

Radiohead have always been a sinister band for me. It's ironic that I got into them through "No Surprises," their most beautifully melodic single. Also, their prettiest song on here "Present Tense" has an undercurrent of tango to it - a threatening kind of depression - plus as it's common to misconstrue what Thom Yorke is harping on about as he sings "A self defence against the present" it sounds like "president" - so if you couple that with the ominous shades that the HBO show "House of Cards" was putting forth with Kevin Spacey's excellent but scary character -the cream at the top; you'll hopefully catch my interpretaive drift.

There's no point in dissecting through this one, track by track. That was for Kid A in 2000  which was going to be the winner of the last decade until I took a last minute red wine u-turn and sold out with The National's "Boxer" - it soundtracked a breakup - say no more. So sans dissection on this write-up but I'm absolutely endorsing the most full-bodied, least wonkiest album Radiohead have ever done. They misled us again, it wasn't at all a "low-flying panic attack" but a measured, rich, shiraz with hints of radios and a few heads and no vanilla in sight / smelt.

Albums of the Decade - 49. Radiohead - The King of Limbs (2011)

49. RADIOHEAD - THE KING OF LIMBS (2011) 

There's an electronic stutter, then a surge on Radiohead's wonkiest album - before "Little by Little" reins in the nutball effect, after which "Feral"does exactly that - goes mental, for those who don't know what that word means - usually when an animal is in a wild state, especially when held in capitivity or being trapped in domestication. This album is slop-start in the most measured way possible, the most contradictory thing Radiohead have ever done - especially as it's not even scary, like the title would suggest - see Thom Yorke's 2018 soundtrack Suspiria for that aesthetic.

I've domesticated myself and arrested my development. I've codexed my proteins and endorphined my silo. Galvanized my groceries and dreamt of a return to Waitrose. Slopped down the lighbulb that popped out in the bathroon. Aired out the cobwebs and smoke-bombed my numbness. Nothing has to be linear, be it narratives, monologues or expectations - and this band are dead proof of that. Once a boheme, always.

Albums of the Decade - 50. Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now (2017)

50. JENS LEKMAN - LIFE WILL SEE YOU NOW (2017) 

A fizzy sherbert of spring life, spring fever, spring in your step kind of album by one of the most earnest singer-songwriters out there. Spinning yarns was the thread here. It smells of sandalwood, just as per "What Is That Perfume You Wear" - Lekman was 36 when he wrote this - probably the kind of age that craving comforts kick in.

I have butterflies in my stomach as I type this and it's maybe this album that does it to me as when it came out I was in a hell of a situation in Stuttgart, Germany living in a place that was not my place - trying to make the most of a bad situation - which is what a lot of this aesthetic is about for Jens. He's come a long, long way and matured immensely since 2005 when he sang about killing the party again in "Black Cab." And that is what makes his crescendo-like career even more beautiful; rose petals in toilet times.

Albums of the Decade - 51. Mark McGuire - Living With Yourself (2010)

51. MARK MCGUIRE - LIVING WITH YOURSELF (2010)

Mark McGuire probably didn't mean in the same vein as Freddie Mercury did with living on your own and not having any time for monkey business. The way I interpret the album title is by coming to terms with oneself, one can go on a diet of asparagus more comfortably for example.

Lavendar used to be a smell I didn't like so much, but last year I bought a bar of lavendar soap by mistake from the store, having not smelled it correctly, and at first I was a bit mortified. However, after some thorough application and perseverence, I managed to get aquainted to acquire the appreciation for this nice smell - and felt fortified.

This album and the strumming of acoustic guitars in an electronic coating feels like hushed layers of zzzzzs from another dimension, especialiy the mesmeric "Brain Storm (For Erin)" which strokes your hair, holds your earlobe and whispers  "Soak me up" after drenching itself in mouthwash, lavendar soap and other parfum. Though not a household name by any means, McGuire created a lost classic here that is an enveloping, frosty beauty. I do like.

Albums of the Decade - 52. Jamie XX - In Colour (2015)

52. JAMIE XX - IN COLOUR (2015) 

Jogging has always saved me. Tranquilised the soul. The beats on this thing are primed for a good old jog as a devotion to the old school shifts weight and clacks the week into place.

The steel drum on "Obvs" is as exotic as Tropicana juice, the bassline on "Seesaw" holding down that London bass that Burial and Four Tet put forth, and, of course, both Oliver and Romy from The XX  spread their vocals throughout like Billy Butter.

This decade has had some great electronic albums from John Talabot and The Field. With Jamie XX and Leon Vynehall flying the flag for the UK, it's safe to say that we're in good hands. Bass. Nostalgia. Style. Swagger. Almost as cool as Jamie Oliver. :)

Albums of the Decade - 53. Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like a Levee (2016)

53. HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER - HEART LIKE A LEVEE (2016) 

Almost went to see this band at xmas in 2016 but went to Lisbon instead and dreamed of being in Leeds. I went to Hamburg to a christmas market with a disco-ball and snowdrops flying, polished off a few mugs of mulled wine and then flew to Portugal. Felt like true jetsetter, instead of a trendsetter or a bedwetter.

This album is pure Jimmy Fuller in its capacity for a beautiful blonde beard, Worked with that guy in a call-center in 2008 and this goes out as a tribute to you Jimbeam.  You shaped my love of folk. That guy and the lean-ins on dates. The lunchtime pints. The gigs. The "yeah boy" - the yak and the sulk. The No 1 ' "Who's a bellend? / You are" - then he drenches me in a pint. "I like it!"

Jimmy's with a kid now and he's beautiful. Hope he grows up supporting West Ham too. Maybe he'll end up loving Leeds - I will buy him a Leeds bib when he's 18 and tell him it's the yak and the sulk and the smile going for a glass of milk or a pint. Heart Like a Levvee is "prismatic" as Uncut magazine said - I'll lean in to that.

Albums of the Decade - 54. Fever Ray - Plunge (2017)

54. FEVER RAY - PLUNGE (2017)

There's a town in Lithuania called Plungė, which apparently has a crab-stick factory within it's amenities. Not sure Fever Ray would be into that, but when this album does get kicking, at around the third track, she does start singing about planting a walnut tree - which I take as a sexual euphemism or metaphor por favor. 

I actually saw her and her amazing band play in Vilnius in 2018 - her support act was Tami T - who works with Fever Ray on the aforementioned track "A Part Of Us" - but was warming up that night with a big-strap on Dildo that she beat as percussion. It was a mesmerising set littered with sexual euphemisms por favor.

Modern dating is often the cause for concern for both Tami T and Fever Ray - "IDK About You" - is the double flash negative stance that a lot of cautious minds take now because of Tinder and #metoo. Before there'd be takers. Now, when we do plunge into dating, we feel bored faster - so let's not jackknife maybe, and bring back not necessarily old chivalry - but ditch the apps and learn how to talk to people again.

Albums of the Decade - 55. Holy Fuck - Latin (2010)

55. HOLY FUCK - LATIN (2010) 

There's a track on this old chestnut called "Stay Lit" and it bounds along with a choppy rhythm but still retains its buoyancy. It sums up an aesthetic / concept of not swaying to the pressure of the mainstream and generally keeping true to yourself; no matter how much they are trying to dictate you. The old ravey vibe which resonated with acts like Crystal Castles and Fuck Buttons has long gone now in the modern precept - but I can feel a load of cravings for that to change ahead in the new decade from 2020, which feels weird to type that number.

As blogs and sites abound rein in Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Frank Ocean into the top end of the discussion, authentic albums of the decade will appear in various other places - but at the time of writing, only Gorilla VS Bear bears any semblance of what Spaghetti Blogonese is trying to achieve. Nothing against those three artists, but when you think back to Radiohead and Daft Punk - or even compare them to Killer Mike or Shabazz Palaces - there is no contest for vitality or quality, regardless of genre.

Holy Fuck, with the right amount of hype could've born the torch for electronica over the last 10 years - but the powers that be in places like pitchfork are now the taste-makers, the Kanye worshippers, the zeitgeist zippers - when you previously zigzagged away from it, now it's just one big pressed arrow - with the illusion of choice that is Spotiify. Where there were other choices amongst publications - Dusted Magazine, Stylus (now gone) and Tinymixtapes (thank fuck for this place) - that deviated from what EVERYONE was saying, now it's harder to find than a needle in a raygun.

Albums of the Decade - 56. Lambchop -Flotus (2016)

56. LAMBCHOP - FLOTUS (2016)

Lambchop's Flotus was a joie de vivre of vocodered folk. Like a reinvention, a rebirth, a calming come-uppeth though; not the kind of makeover like in a salon or on a TV show.

Kurt Wagner soothes in this outing. He's a kindred spirit who sounds crisp and fuzzy at the same time. His own autotuned vocals sound as backing vocals to which there is no real lead.

As I lay on the sofa typing this on the phone, which is rare please, as I don't want to sit at the  desk, I melt into a scuzzer of an LP, the kind that Uncut Magazine gave 5 stars back in 2016.

Those five stars alerted me to a band that truly changed genre - not direction - not style - but genre - who does that? Tell me? I can tell you: Lambchop did it in 2016, with their twelfth (!!!!!!!) LP. Boom. 

Albums of The Decade - 57. Sun Kil Moon - Benji (2014)

57. SUN KIL MOON - BENJI (2014) 

An epic album of sardonic and often tragic circumstances - capturing euthenasia, adolescence and people popping off this earth in the blink of an eye. His second cousin dying from taking out a can of aerosol that exploded and burned her to death, an ode to his Mother, an ode to his Dad, his Dad's friend Jim Wise - a convicted husband for helping his poorly wife die at her bed, a mentally handicapped friend named Micheline and his own regrets about bullying a kid at school - this isn't an easy listen - but it's beautiful and beguiling.

Albums of the Decade - 58. William Basinski - A Shadow In Time (2017)

58. WILLIAM BASINSKI - A SHADOW IN TIME (2017) 

Anxiety is never easy. It has always befounded and confounded me. It envelopes me and flows right through - and no coffee can put it out. Neither does a glass of wine in the long term - as it only makes it worse. Luckily the answer often comes in the form of musical therapy - and luckily here came one of the most beautifully meditative works in decades from the master of ambience.

Just 2 tracks covering 43 minutes, the first one - a tribute to Bowie - is sumptuous tape loop featuring a fractured saxophone - it really sorted me out when I was blue two years ago in Germany, in a hellhole of a flat organized by my former employer. The bed was uncomfortable - the sofa shocking - I wanted to get out but the city had a massive deficit of flats - I moved out eventually to another place where the water from the shower flooded the whole studio....

,...better to flood your life with dissonance maybe. This changes the game. Breathe it in.

Albums of the Decade - 59. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan (2012)

59. DIRTY PROJECTORS  - SWING LO MAGELLAN (2012) 

The bend he puts on the guitar. The off-kilter vigour and experimentation - yet still falling on the right cylinder of accessibility - David Longstreth and his amazingly orchestrated backing singers put out their best album here - as it jets into twee territory and all the better for it.

When the highlight "Impregenable Question" was first heard by moi - the hopeless romantic I was back then - I wanted the song to be heard, received and shared - but the lady in question just batted it away and gave me a bottle of Heineken - and though nothing surfaced between us - the picnic that we had suffuses itself on that track and remains etched in my memory.

"Just From Chevron" has a punch-like imapact, whacking me in the gut with it's appetite for wit, and "About To Die" has a penchant for hedonism - which  bangles along a great trajectory. Mega fan all around then - an understated career highlight from the dirties. <3 p="">

Albums of the Decade - 60. Cut Copy - Zonoscope (2011)

60. CUT COPY - ZONOSCOPE (2011) 

Top of the decade in Taipei - felt liberated - this was my soundtrack. Pitchfork described it as a landscape of a record - and they weren't wrong, especially with all the percussion on here - it's an urbanity of session musicians and synths. Their album before this, the magnificent In Ghost Colours came in at #15 on Spaghetti Blogonese - a great achievement for a stellar offering.

They sound a lot like New Order actually and I think they should sing this poem I wrote:

This was just an experiment in the kitchen going wrong
I am not gonna go and buy a new oven glove
I just got some pizza out the oven 
Not with my bare hands
I took it with a towel
And it was okay anyway

I know that I can't sing now
I know my rhythm's pretty good
I thought I'd sing to you
I'm shit at typing - you know I am - would?!?
I don't know why my grammar's bad
I'm a native English speaker
Gonna just rhyme with you anyway
Gonna try and rhyme something with speaker - "beaker"
I got a beaker full of tea
Gonna go and drink it now
You're a fucking cousin
That's the way i'm proud now - uh!

Albums of the Decade - 61. Beak> - Couple In A Hole - Original Soundtrack - (2016)

61. BEAK> - COUPLE IN A HOLE - (OST) - (2016)

What a fucking day of up-in-the-air feeling as so much was achieved but not in an empowering way at all. Feel like I am shapeshifting, when all I want to do is be mellow and sink into one thing - not just pam pam pam all over for different people. If there was ever a soundtrack for pam pam pam'ing all over for different people, then this it. Oh, and it's actually a soundtrack for a real film too.

I haven't even seen Couple In A Hole, but I might as well give it a whirl; I like the concept of imaginary soundtracks anyway - for example David Holmes' Bow Down To The Exit Sign  came in at #14 in my list last decade.  Imagining a movie scene to the tracks themselves add a filmic layer that wouldn't be there otherwise, just gotta do a bit of make-belief aintcha. Ok then, this soundtrack: it's drone, it's motorik, it's seismic, it's subliminal - and it might just get me through my F___ working week.

Albums of the Decade - 62. Land Observations - Roman Roads IV : XI (2012)

62. LAND OBSERVATIONS - ROMAN ROADS IV: XI  (2012)

Visual artist James Brooks crafted this gorgeous piece to accompany his visual art concerning mapping and cartography. Think boundaries and surface area infused with gently ruminative guitar licks over looped pedals. It is in keeping with the theme of one of my favourite novels of the decade, The Map and the Territory by Michel Houlebecq - in which an artist is doing amazingly successfully in depicting Michelin maps, is dating a Russian model - but the boiler in his house is broken and keeps fucking up - the text a paean to try and find some structure in ones own existential crisis.

Luckily with Roman Roads, no shit hits any fan, as the burnished film on these licks oscillate and oscillate. The album actually leaves the artists house on opeenr "Before the Kingsland Road" and takes some existent routes and others philosophical. I'll pander now:

When does one go? 
Where does I depart 
How come I didn't hang the clothes out to dry and instead you put them on the clothes horse? 
When will you send that fax?
Map me out my future would you?
Thanks.

Albums of the Decade - 63. The Field - Cupid's Head (2013)

63. THE FIELD - CUPID'S HEAD (2013)

Back when I DJ'd in 2013, I dropped a few of these cuts into my sets and wrote about how it was as if Axel Willner had sat down at the kitchen table, plotting away his fourth LP and thought to himself "you know what? I'm gonna sort everyone right out." For this underrated project, Cupid's Head does the best job in showcasing the breadth and depth of The Field's textures.

Starting with the gloriously sinister "They won't see me" at bang on nine mintes long, it then clacks into rhythmic shape with "Black Sea" which I always found perfect for jogging. The title track comes next, and is slightly annoying, but bearable if you sing "Cupid and Robin" - imagine them as sidekicks :) - but the real organic electricity comes in the unbelievably gorgeous "No...No."

That aforementioned track is preceded by the pulsating "A Guided Tour" which reminds me of a racehorse doing its rounds - and the album closer "20 Seconds of Affection," lacing on the fuzz and crystal mesh, culminating in decades of excess distilled into nigh on ten minutes of glorifcation. There - a full track by track analysis for a change, well you've got to mix it up a bit haven't you?

Albums of the Decade - 64. Six Organs Of Admittance - Burning The Threshold (2017)

64. SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE - BURNING THE THRESHOLD (2017)
Posting a quick one-two here of folk, which as swift as a Ferrari one two in the days of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barichello. Gotta hit up the Wikipedia here for a change:

"Six Organs of Admittance is the primary musical project of guitarist Ben Chasny. Chasny's music is largely guitar-based and is often considered new folk; however, it includes obvious influences, marked by the use of drones, chimes, and eclectic percussive elements"

It is a tres rich and balanced, meditative kind of folkoid - and I would give it the colour orange - but which shade? I am saying definitely not 5.1, 5.6 or 5.10 - perhaps 5.4, 5.15, 5.22 or 5.27 ;)

• 5.1Papaya whip
• 5.2Peach
• 5.3Light orange
• 5.4Apricot
• 5.5Melon
• 5.6Atomic tangerine
• 5.7Tea rose
• 5.8Carrot orange
• 5.9Orange peel
• 5.10Princeton orange
• 5.11UT orange
• 5.12Spanish orange
• 5.13Tangerine
• 5.14Coral
• 5.15Pumpkin
• 5.16Saffron
• 5.17Giants orange
• 5.18Vermilion (cinnabar)
• 5.19Tomato
• 5.20Syracuse Orange
• 5.21Bittersweet
• 5.22Persimmon
• 5.23Butterscotch
• 5.24Persian orange
• 5.25Alloy orange
• 5.26Burnt orange
• 5.27Bittersweet shimmer
• 5.28Jasper
• 5.29Tiger’s eye
• 5.30Brown

Albums of the Decade - 65. Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness (2017)

65. JULIE BYRNE - NOT EVEN HAPPINESS (2017) 

A sweet and tender trip into a folk kind of nostalgia. Last FM has her down as a mix of Leonard Cohen and Vashti Bunyan. Easy shapes. I'm deep into her. Don't marry him. Don't carry him into paradise. Melt into the heat of the passion. Don't turn away from me. Send me away from me. Was listening to James Blake and RZA again as I wrote this.

I felt pretty blue yeterday morning (Monday) - so I played this album and it really calmed my chambers, as I worked out some semi-structure to the week. I managed to bang on the blackboard in my kitchen to buy some tea, pesto, sandwich filling, milk and vegetables - and that was achieved, plus a can of tuna I recall - a cheap legendary shop.