Musick's Top 20 albums: 13

Girls – Album



It’s easy to be cynical about Girls considering the fact that they’ve seemingly appeared out of nowhere with a fully-formed debut, aesthetic (heroin chic Hanson) and a penchant for artfully debauched music videos. It all seems a bit too perfect to be true. Thankfully, Album is a delight, mixing singer Christoper Owens’ heartbreaking tales of addiction and loveloss with Beach Boys-esque harmonies or stoned wig-outs (the seven-minute ‘Hellhole Ratface’ is a definite highlight). Forget the back story (singer was raised in a cult, becomes a drug addict, meets millionaire who gives him some cash, forms a band) and focus on the music, man.

Key track: ‘Lust For Life’

New Musick Monday

We weren't expecting great things from our selections last week, so, as you will see from this week's picks, we're going all out for the chart glory this week. Amerie was our most bankable bet and she was nowhere, Joe Goddard's album probably sold about 11 copies and the Girls single missed the top 75 too. We're trying not to be too despondent, but it's difficult.

BUY THIS FOR YOUR MUM THIS CHRISTMAS

Echo by Leona Lewis



This week can rightly be labelled 'run up to Christmas' week. For those lamenting the inclusion of someone like Leona, the only other options were that dire-sounding Them Crooked Vultures album or the new Stereophonics collection...So, we thought we'd include this so that if you were having problems deciding on what to get your mum or your older sister for Christmas, this might help you out. Echo isn't exactly what you'd call experimental, but there are moments when that voice wraps itself round an undeniable melody and you get a strange feeling in your stomach (see 'Outta My Head'). 'Happy' is still really dull though.

BUY THIS FOR YOUR NAN THIS CHRISTMAS

The Hits by Will Young



We will be buying this for our Nan and we suggest you do the same. Well-executed, intelligent pop music sung by a nice young man who doesn't swear or 'carry on' like all those other ghastly singers and who has a handful of genuinely great singles. For example; the piano ballad, 'All Time Love', the career-defining 'Leave Right Now' and the underrated 'Who Am I'. What you will need to do, however, is put a little note on the present label, warning your elderly relatives not to listen to the first two songs. 'Evergreen' is an abomination and Will's jazzy cover of 'Light My Fire' is about as jazzy as Simon Cowell's record collection. After that, the rest is plain sailing.

DOWNLOAD THIS (FOR YOURSELVES)

'Cornerstone' by Arctic Monkeys



After the lukewarm reaction to 'Crying Lightning' and the general frustration at the lack of tunes on Humbug, Arctic Monkeys release what their record label will hope is the song to reverse their sales slump (the album sits at no. 75 this week). Luckily, it's a brilliant, beautifully phrased singalong that benefits from the relatively stripped back production and Alex Turner's characterful croon. Revelling in their new-found desire to sell less records, however, the band have made a video that makes Turner look like an androgynous electrical salesperson from the Eastern bloc.

New Musick Monday

What an unmitigated disaster last week was. For a start, the Marina single is actually out on the 16 November (yeah, thanks nme.com!) and the much-touted and intermittently amazing Julian Casablancas album only went and missed the top 40 altogether. Just goes to show that oodles of 'proper' music press coverage (Musick included, naturellement) and a killer first single means diddly squat when your fanbase are only interested in the next album by the band you're meant to be fronting. The Nirvana reissue didn't shift many units either, but there was also a live album out at the same time and that managed to sell quite well, so we're claiming a small victory. Hurrah! This week's a bit of a struggle to be honest...

BUY THIS

Harvest Festival by Joe Goddard



Joe Goddard is the bearded one from Hot Chip. Not the singer, but the one who sometimes wears those retina-destroying woolly jumpers and worked on some of the early (and best) stuff by Little Boots. Harvest Festival is a diverting, kind of enjoyable slice of warm electronica that isn't exactly light years away from his day job, but does miss the pop sensibilities of their best bits. So, when we say 'buy this' we kind of mean 'buy this if you've got some vouchers left over or your Gran has found a fiver down the back of the sofa and given it to you thinking it was a tissue'.

DOWNLOAD THE CLUB BANGERS FROM THIS

In Love & War by Amerie



For those not on top of who's who in the great post-Beyoncé feisty female R&B challenge that took place about five years ago, Amerie is the woman that made this piece of perfection. She then went on to release some more songs but everyone just wanted to listen to '1 Thing' so nothing much ever happened career-wise. This is her fourth album and though it's not exactly trying new things, it does feature some pretty special moments, not least the first single, 'Heard 'Em All'. Again, you might not want to actually buy this. Oh, we don't know, just do what you want.

DOWNLOAD THIS

'Laura' by Girls



Girls are that band with scraggly hair and the backstory that everyone from Pitchfork to, well, other similarly minded music websites are calling 'the greatest thing of 2009'. This is the second single from their new album, Album, and it's a rather lovely concoction, all jangly guitar and little boy lost lyrics. The singer sounds like Elvis Costello, but looks like one of Hanson had they turned to crystal meth after 'Mmmbop'.

New Musick Monday

After the unbelievable high of recent weeks comes the crushing low of last week. The Girls album missed the top 75 despite much love from all quarters, and the 'big in 2008' tag that still hangs round Kid Harpoon's neck seems to have strangled him as he misses out too. The Veronicas, however, made up for things slightly with their single '4Ever', which moved up to no.17, but seeing as they're currently on Radio 1's A-list this is something of a disappointment. Still, there was positive news in that Mika's album dropped out of the top 10 after just one week. Good job his record label haven't spent oodles of cash on his comeback, huh?

BUY THIS

Tarot Sport by Fuck Buttons



We can't condone this kind of language. What is the world coming to when a nice couple of lads can't come up with something a little less profane than Fuck Buttons. Whatever happened to names like Selfish Cunt or Pissed Jeans? You know, nice names that don't make you hide your eyes for fear that you'll never be the same again once you've seen it written down. Still, Fuck Buttons are alright because they make music that's all light and fluffy and very easy on the ear...oh no, they don't, they make noisy, sometimes aggressive sometime beautiful dance music that will slowly put you into a kind of trance. BAN THIS FILTH!

ENJOY BITS OF THIS

Love 2 by Air



It's been a bit of a struggle for Air since Moon Safari. Such was the ubiquity of that near perfect album that anything since has always been compared to it. Never mind that follow-up 10,000Hz Legend was actually pretty amazing and their soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides certainly had it's moments. This follow-up to the disappointing Pocket Symphonies is better than its predecessor but not as good as Talkie Walkie, which in turn is not as good as 10,000Hz Legend or The Virgin Suicides, which are both arguably as good but not as culturally significant as Moon Safari.

DOWNLOAD THIS (and buy on 7")

'Let's Go Surfing' by The Drums



This was out last week as a download but is also out on 7" vinyl (VINYL!?) this week. Theoretically we should have done this song last week is what we're saying, but we forgot and it's so good that we decided to break all our strict rules and put it in this week. It's the best single to feature whistling since Peter, Bjorn & John's 'Young Folks', but will hopefully not find itself soundtracking a run of DFS adverts. Fingers crossed.

Girls Allowed

Last Monday we asked you to buy Girls debut album, er, Album. We have to confess that at the time we hadn't actually heard it, just the odd song here and there on myspace and such like. We are well aware that we let ourselves down, but what hurts the most is that we let you guys down. We can only apologise and hope that one day, when the time comes, our Lord and saviour will look at us with pity and let us through the gates to Heaven.

In the meantime, let's celebrate the fact that we now have a copy of the album and it's a brilliant piece of work that makes us simultaneously happy and sad (sappy!?). Each song is suffused with an aching sadness that can probably only come from living your life in a religious cult, where-in you watched your older brother die due to lack of care and your mum forced into prostitution. Add to that a recent break-up and you're somewhere near where singer Christopher Owens is coming from.



Here are two videos they've made (with a little help from director Aaron Brown), for two of the album's highlights. This is the epic 'Hellhole Ratrace', which is accompanied by some footage that at first seems nothing more than a night out with VICE magazine, but is ultimately really beautiful:



This one is for the new single, 'Lust For Life', and has more bedraggled but beautiful people in it, this time they're lip-syncing along to things like "I wish I had a boyfriend/ I wish I had a loving man in my life":



A to the M to the A to the Z...you get the message.