No One A Day for One Month!

We actually looked very similar to this in real life when we were younger...

Dear faithful readers, followers and fellow blog-minded people,

With a few exceptions, One A Day has been able to provide you with musical and/or analytical goodness every day for nearly two years. However, starting today, both of us are going to find ourselves in India, a process we understand is about as colourful and crazy as a Danny Boyle film. However, our chances of finding high speed internet access in the land of the Taj Mahal are slim to none and so with heavy hearts we will be putting our blog on hiatus until our return on February 8th, 2010. It kills us, really it does. We have horrible paranoia that you will all leave us and we'll have to start again from scratch. But that's OK, we know where the love is...

Thanks for everyone who supported us last year (especially our wonderful December guest contributors), and to all our friends in labels and independent artists who continue to send us new stuff. This blog has now become it's own, independent media outlet ad we couldn't have done it without you lot.

Gavin DeGraw - 'Indian Summer'


We'll see you right back at this spot in February. Don't stray too far now.

- J & D.

Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis

There seems to be a distinct movement within Australian indie towards whimsical religious-esque ditties. Perhaps because the restrained down-tempo sounds of the genre lend themselves to higher-order thought or maybe as a reaction to a certain secularization of Australian culture at large, these tracks - with their light-as-a-feather acoustic riffs, esoteric lyrics and chilled vocals - seem to have carved out a niche for themselves alongside the other stalwarts of indie (read: the psychedelic, the banjo, the glockenspiel). This is a situation I'm not all that unhappy about, but. When it comes to chilling, the lyric-less charm of French and British compatriots (Zero 7, Air) tends to reign supreme but I am not totally immune to the charm of a solid singer-songwriter effort either.

Bear & Boy marks Sydneysider Dave Hosking's second attempt at cracking the scene after failing to garner enough buzz working under his name alone. Taking labeling (and often, it seems, musical) cues from similarly named Iron and Wine and City and Colour, Hosking and his three bandmates channel an introspective vibe that couldn't be more in vogue if it tried. If Mexican Mavis sounds like something you've heard before and liked, that's probably because it's taken the best bits of The Middle East's hardcore harmonies, combined them beautifully with the subtlety of great Bon Iver and, like fellow 'It' guy Jonathan Boulet, is Australian to boot! It's impressive, intelligent music and, riding the right wave of hype and marketing, deserves to go far.

Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis


Bear and Boy, meet MySpace

Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill

Spoken word is not always the world's greatest art form. In a one-off, live arena-type setting, the spoken word artist's innate power to surprise and outrage has it's apotheosis. Reduced to wax/wav/mp3, however, the once witty, incisive phrases inevitably lose their acerbic lyricism and take on rather a more irritating, predictable character. By some strange coincidence, nonsensical, highly figurative language (read: Chris Martin) tends to hold its endearing quality (this endurance very probably lies in its original ambiguity) whilst the clever social commentary of a thousand wordsmiths gets lost in the ether because we spend too much time scrutinizing on first listen to ever discover some new facet of these lyrics. Worn down as such by an initially sharp ear, these tracks rarely stand the test of time.

Now four listens deep, wading through the mire of Scroobius Pip's facetiousness (real name David Meade), I have a good feeling about this one. The track is not a new one. Back in April 2007, it peaked at #34 on the UK singles chart and then faded, only to pop up every once in a while in the playlists of those edgy hipsters who can't abide regular cuts and prefer anything avant-garde and chorus-less to add to their ever-expanding catalogue of strangeness. On the strangeness scale, this falls pretty high up on the charts. Spoken word is most successful when it can breach demographic gaps with truly inclusive lyricism. With subject matter ranging from Joe Strummer to Outkast, Pip has hit the nail on the head with his diatribe against pop hagiography. It's funny, true and relevant.

Shame about the Mario Party beat, then. DJ Dan Le Sac (half of the duo who make up Scroobius Pip) got in on the act after working at the same HMV as Meade. The two hooked up on 2008's Angles and this particular track (ironic given the body blow delivered to New Musical Express) landed up as NME's track of the week on release. The pair's similarities start and end with their previous place of occupation, I'd suggest. If only Scroobius was given a better chance to hit the big-time with a more commercially palatable backing track, I expect we might have seen larger, mor impressive things from Meade. Simple can work. It's when simple meets its ugly, rambunctious cousin annoying (a meeting no more prevalent then on this track) that the song as a whole suffers. I only hope you can somehow hear past the gameboy sounds and recognize the excellent worldly introspection of Meade.

Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill


Scroobius Space

One A Day has a Field Day

Here in Sydney, a New Year's Day hangover is not considered a decent enough excuse to refuse a party. Fuzzy, otherwise known as, 'the people who bring the best dance acts across the equator' have been holding Field Day on January first for almost a decade now, and assuming you have the mettle, it's a pretty phenomenal day out. Held in Sydney's most gorgeous location (also home to Tropfest and Homebake), The Domain, Field Day brought out the big guns for 2010. One A Day dragged ourselves out of bed and joined some 20,000 excessively happy people to see what the buzz was all about.

Field Day has always toed the line between underground and mainstream beatmakers, and this year's diverse lineup was no exception. Being able to walk from a stage being pounded into submission by Roger Sanchez over to another where Russian act The Proxy are melting people's faces off is pretty spectacular. Even more impressive was UK's Sinden, the man responsible for 'Beeper', whose distinct brand of fidget house has gone from the fringe to Ministry-Of-Sound levels of popularity in just over a year. In fact, it was the Fuzzy Logic stage, where the more alternative acts where playing, that really stepped things up a notch. The Proxy, who sit at the same brutal end of the spectrum as The Prodigy, were early highlights. It was literally like an hour in a haunted house. Sure 'Raven' is repetitive, and sure, there's no words except 'Hey' in their biggest hit of 2k9, but rhythmically and sonically, it's a great one:

The Proxy - 'Raven'


Everyone in this city has seen The Presets twenty million times, they are our heroes. Clearly having them blow up a main stage was an exciting prospect, but so was Miami Horro (who D has blogged on recently), the Melbourne producer-cum-frontman whose infectious brand of funk-disco turned into an all-out, late afternoon party jam. LCD Soundsystem in DJ form didn't do it for me, predominantly because I wanted to see James performing not just behind wheels of steel, but this was soon offset by Diplo, Switch and the epic Major Lazer Soundsystem. As Diplo mentioned to me in an interview recently, what he does was never considered popular at the time, and he still finds it weird that people dig his shit. Major Lazer quite literally sound like nothing else, so much so that despite the star power in the group (British DJ Switch makes up the other half of the super-duo), they were relgated to a sdmaller stage to make way for 2manydjs. No matter, the beats were off the Rihcter scale, the ladies were dancing and M.I.A's right hand man proved once and for all that status and conformity isn't what makes the best tunes, it's originality.

Major Lazer - 'Mary Jane' (Highly Recommended)


You can have a Field Day without drugs, even though most people were on it. But God knows they were better behaved than all the drunken morons running around our city on New Year's Eve. The outdoor showers and water refills were also a sign that this is one of only a handful of festivals where safety is more important than simply making money and cramming people into a venue. Oh and the Major Lazer Margaritas at the cocktail bar? Just what the doctor ordered...

Get warm and Fuzzy here.

Little Boots - New In Town

Weird is waking up to a new year, a new decade, a new city after a 45-hour jaunt of sleeplessness, turbulent nights and explosions in the sky. Weirder still is having a song which has figured probably only twice in your conscious history acting as the official soundtrack to your doxycycline malarial nightmares whereby, although all signs point to you being a long-time member of your family, you awake to 2010 certain that you were adopted. Bursting onto the new year scene with thoughts of DNA testing and aggravating English backpackers swirling in my head, it was Little Boots aka. Victoria Hesketh's most addictive ditty that was stuck in my otherwise floating mind. It seemed sort of apt, given the strange night I'd had, that this strange song - which I haven't heard since about July when this track first got big - should feature so prominently in the morning after.

New Years Eve is a weird phenomenon. I can't help but get the distinct, Nitzchean feeling that everyone gets dressed up, tanked up, sloshed out and wasted in an effort to prove to everyone else that they're having a good time. It's like the whole night is a giant game of charades in which every player is trying desperately to outdo the next in acting out the scene to 'a great New Years Eve'. In many ways the night turns into something of a tragicomedy. A painful few hours of waiting and drinking which ultimately gives way to a more gleeful (or, as that may be, depressed) few hours of bad tunes (in one night this reveler heard enough Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summers to last him through til 2011), awkward hook-ups and drinking. Which is probably why the honesty and integrity of Boots' message in 'I don't have a lot of money but I'll show you a real good time' appeals. It does away with the camp, the Moet and the trashy Harbour Bridge glasses and instead embraces a gallivanting sense of good humour and fun.

But then there were the fireworks. Here in Sydney, we're pretty good at fireworks. We have a shit public transport system, a widely maligned state political system and embarrassing numbers of tossers filling the gossip pages with mean feats but at the end of every year, what we Sydneysiders can be assured of is a damn good show. Most importantly, for 12 minutes from midnight, everyone - hoochies, ballers, families and hipsters - forgets the charades and just breathes in the gunpowder. The atmosphere (while not as rowdy as one English backpacker next to me, who kept yelling 'WOO AT-MO-SPHERE WOO!!' in an effort to stir up the crowd, might have liked it to be) is spine-tingling in it's placidity. There are a dozen minutes in which the whole town unites in spectacle, reflects and looks beautiful before devolving into yelps of 'Let's get MENTAL!' and the overarching melee that, as it is written, governs the night. For next year then, here's a party track worth hitting up on the jukebox.

Little Boots - New In Town


A space for small boots

One A Day wraps the decade

If you read blogs (which you do, because you're here), you'll know that the world of the internet has been going bonkers this month having realised the end of the '00s is upon us. Everyone from heavyweights Stereogum, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone have been rounding up their best songs and albums of the decade. Well we don't believe the Americans should have all the fun. Accordingly, we rounded up all our friends we thought had an opinion worth listening to and asked them to tell us their favourite three albums and singles/tracks of the noughties. Not all of them stuck to the rules; some gave us twice as many candidates as we asked for, some included long-winded blurbs. But hey, you can't stifle creativity. The most common response? 'I can't do this - its way too hard! Every time I think of something, a new one comes in.' Thus, this collection is by no means definitive. But it may introduce you to some great music you've relegated to the back of your second Ipod, or even some new tunes you missed in the last ten years while the world fell to pieces. Revel in our listomania and have a happy New Year!

Style notes: 'Year' is based on original date of release or else date of mainstream release (EU/US/UK). Covers are labelled thus: Mark Ronson, Toxic (Britney Spears), 2007. Individual tracks do not necessarily need to have been released as singles, although in most cases they were.

THE BEST ALBUMS AND SONGS OF THE DECADE: 2000-2009.

ANDY BULL.
Universal Music recording artist

Albums:
Common, Like Water For Chocolate, 2000
Kanye West, The College Dropout, 2004
Andre3000/Big Boi, The Love Below/Speakerboxxx, 2003

Tracks/Singles:
The Shins, New Slang, 2001
Menahan Street Band, Make The Road By Walking, 2008
Ben Folds, You Don't Know Me, 2008

DAVID SEIDLER.
Editor, One A Day

Albums:
Black Eyed Peas, Elephunk, 2003
Hate them or love them, Fergie Ferg's first contribution to the (until then) underground hip-hop group made the BEP the hulking commercial beast they are today. Back in 2003 when singles were still a relatively big deal and, in pop at least, efforts were channeled into three tracks, the rest given over to fodder, the revitalized Peas burst onto the scene, all guns blaring, with a swag of killer tunes ('Where Is The Love?", 'Shut Up', 'Hey Mama', 'Let's Get It Started/Retarded') and the industry kudos to pull off one of music's great comebacks. Now that they've devolved into Guetta-driven drivel, Elephunk is a pleasant reminder of how wholesome we used to take our Peas.

Sufjan Stevens, Illinois, 2005
Concept albums are the bane of the music industry. They're generally accompanied by a total flip-out on the part of the artist whereby they might well claim that they have 'become' a character from their grand long-player opus. Concept = warning bells to A&R folks because the word signals a departure from normalcy, a (usually) commercially unsuccessful endeavour and lampooning for years to come. Not so with young Sufjan. Set on capturing the heart and soul of each of America's 50 great states on wax, Stevens jumped out of the blocks with 2003's 'Michigan' but it was 2005's 'Illinois' which was the real tour de force. Incredible instrumentation, more choral arrangements then the Great Barrier Reef and some genuinely intriguing songwriting cement Sufjan's place on my list.

Klaxons, Myths of The Near Future, 2007
Ah, the Klaxons. This, unfortunately, might well be not only one of the best albums of the decade but in fact the only album of the Klaxons' career. Extraterrestrial, littered with falsetto harmonies and great, soaring synths, at least 2007's 'Myths' got past the accounts guys. Rumour has it that the London Nu-Rave kings had their second album vetoed by the blockheads at Polydor who claimed it was 'too experimental' for release. A strange statement when you reflect on the fact that it was these same execs who OK'd this, one of the most forward-thinking albums of the decade. Listen up now, for a taste of what 2010-20 might sound like.

Tracks/Singles:
Eminem, The Real Slim Shady, 2000
Given.

Coldplay, Clocks, 2003
Given. For further elucidation, please see here.

Fatboy Slim, Wonderful Night, 2004
Not so given. The release of Normy Cook's (Fatboy by his regular Christian name) 2004 album Palookaville was, for one reason or another, something that I looked forward to with much anticipation back then. It probably had something to do with my intrinsic adoration for his late 90s bangers 'Right Here, Right Now', 'Rockafeller Skank' and 'Praise You' but I do recall, as one of the first albums I ever streamed, how much of a gigantic letdown it was at the time. The funky rhythm were lost, the radical loops replaced by far more simple iterations. I was depressed. Until I heard this. The beat was fresh as hell, Lateef the Truth Speaker (vocals) was on his game, and they made a funny joke about David Beckham. It was gold. Strangely, nearly six years on, the song stays with me as something of a sentimental favourite. A diamond in the rough. See the Gene Kelly inspired vid here.

KIRSTY BROWN
Editor, The Brag Magazine, DEMO.

Albums:
Radiohead, Kid A, 2000.
M.I.A, Kala, 2007.
TV On The Radio, Return To Cookie Mountain, 2006.

Singles/Tracks:
LCD Soundsystem, All My Friends, 2007.
Radiohead, Idioteque, 2000.
Gwen Stefani, What You Waiting For?, 2004.

ALYX GORMAN.
Associate Editor, Oyster Magazine.

Albums:
Help She Can’t Swim, Fashionista Super Dance Troupe, 2004.
Not only is this record full of catchy synth and shouty vocals – two of my favourite things – every single lyric HSCS wrote about Southampton in 2004 applies perfectly to Sydney in 2009. “She knows all the words to the record she’s playing, she runs into her boyfriend and he’s fucking boring. No one cares about your DJ night.” See? Perfect.

Wicked, OST, 2003.
In the 70s they had Cabaret, in the 80s they had Cats, in the 90s they had Rent, and we got Wicked with Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. Can you think of any other musical genre where the 2000’s actually had something better than the 80s and 90s and almost as good as the 70s? Didn’t think so.

Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand, 2004.
This hasn’t placed as highly as it deserved to in a lot of these ‘Best of the Decade’ lists. There is only one song on this album that isn’t a solid gold pop track, and even it is pretty good in the grand scheme of things. Music girls can dance to indeed.

Singles/Tracks:
Beyonce ft. Jay-Z, Crazy in Love, 2003.
Thanks to catsuits and some Fosse plagiarising Single Ladies may have been one of the best video clips of all time. Of all time! But Crazy in Love is one of the best songs. You can’t not like this track. I know people who hate the sound of trumpets who like this track.

Elliott Smith, King's Crossing, 2004.
This song is just beautiful; I could listen to it on repeat. The To Live and Die in LA cover is also the only good thing they’ve ever done but it is really good.

The Rapture, House of Jealous Lovers, 2003.
I probably danced harder to this than any other song this decade. It’s also the track that spawned the awesomest dance move ever: The Air Cowbell. Of course I wasn’t legally allowed to go out dancing for most of this decade, so maybe I’m wrong.

CYBELE MALINOWSKI.
Rock photographer extraordinaire, Blue Murder Studios

Albums:
Kings Of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak, 2004.
Cat Power, You Are Free, 2003.
Handsome Boy Modelling School, White People, 2004.
Sufjan Stevens, Chicago, 2005.
Arcade Fire, Funeral, 2004.

Singles/Tracks:
Outkast (André 3000), Hey Ya!,2003.
Kings Of Leon, Milk, 2004.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maps, 2004.

AMALI WARD.
Vocalist, singer-songwriter, Mac nerd.

Albums:
Kanye West, The College Dropout, 2004.
Paramore, Riot!, 2004.
Coldplay, Parachutes, 2000.
Alicia Keys, The Diary Of Alicia Keys, 2003.
John Mayer, Room For Squares, 2001.

Singles/Tracks:
Alicia Keys, If I Ain't Got You, 2003.
Kanye West, Jesus Walks, 2004.
Coldplay, Clocks, 2003.

ALISON WONDERLAND
DJ, "Cello, you've got yourself a bass!"

Albums:
Justice, †, 2007.
Radiohead, Kid A, 2000.
OutKast, Stankonia, 2000.

Singles/Tracks:
Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell, Drop It Like It's Hot, 2004.
Justice, Genesis, 2007.
White Stripes, Seven Nation Army, 2003.

JONNO SEIDLER.
Editor, One A Day

Albums:
Bloc Party, Silent Alarm, 2005.
Ask any twenty-something for their favourite album in recent memory, and chances are it'll be the one that came out during their final year of school. Silent Alarm dropped out of nowhere, single-handedly reviving my faith in guitar music to do something other than rip off bands which had come before it. Unlike Franz Ferdinand, Jet and pretty much every other new wave of rock band, Bloc Party sounded like a revelation. The drumming was impossibly intricate, the guitar lines snarled like early Jonny Greenwood and frontman Kele Okereke, with his cheeky grin and serious lyrics really broke new ground. Half this album turned into dancefloor fodder, the other half beloved by indie kids everywhere. I still adore the lot of it, this record really changed the musical landscape in ways people still don't appreciate. A great album reveals added nuance with repeated listens, and I should know; I'm now onto my 4th copy of Silent Alarm having burnt out the others.

Powderfinger, Vulture Street, 2003.
After the ARIA-recognised success of Odyssey No. 5, the 'Finger found themselves floundering. They'd gotten too into their pedal boards, choirs and ballads, and wanted a fresh start. Vulture Street, released in the midst of the new gold rush towards ransacking Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Cream et al, managed to turn Powderfinger from local heroes into national superstars. This album worked so well because you can hear five musicians rocking out without a care in the world. The singles carried over two summers of radio, everyone with an income had a copy and we finally had an act established in the 90s we could be proud of (aside from Silverchair, but they were already getting a bit too weird for the majority of people.) This is the first thing I give travellers wanting to know more about Australian culture. It's the best of everything, and while it's not the best Powderfinger album by any stretch, it's miles ahead of Jet, The Vines or Wolfmother, who all received international accolades for doing pretty much fuck all.

Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liqour, 2006.
Yes, the rap album of the decade probably belongs to Kanye West. But seeing as everyone else will vote for him and I always have to be different, I'm going with Lupe. Food & Liqour is a phenomenal debut; I gave it 5 stars in the Brag when I first heard it. The instrumentation is top-notch, the beats off the chart and Lupe's flow was (and still is) ridiculous. Hyper-intelligent and with a hipster vocabulary beyond belief, Fiasco managed to be a political, social and cultural commentator without even taking a breath. More than Lil Wayne or WALE, both who equally impressed, Lupe conveyed important messages without needing to be crass, wrote his own rhythm tracks and was an absolute perfectionist. Find me a better crossover single than 'Kick/Push'. Seriously. It's the rap album that made rap cool again.

Singles/Tracks:
Daft Punk, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, 2001.
Encapsulating everything that was good and pure about dance music until mainstream house came in and ruined it all. As the precursor to both the French electro dancefloor takeover (Justice), their Canadian brothers (MSTRKRFT/Chromeo) and Australian kin (The Presets), Daft Punk remain the best example of computerised club bangers with soul. Kanye may have made it even more famous, but the cult of the two helmeted Frenchmen will outlast many of this decade's musicians. The song itself? Always phenomenal.

Rage Against The Machine, Renegades Of Funk (Afrika Bambaataa), 2000.
When this song dropped I had just started high school, and it was actually the first RATM track I encountered. To this day, no other tune has ever grabbed me by the nuts and rocked out so hard as this one. By the start of this decade, Rage were all but kaput, but their album of covers stands beside their original body of work as testament to the explosive power of Zach, Brad, Tom and that other guy. Audioslave couldn't match the intensity, and while System Of A Down came close, Rage will always rule. I was always fond of the way De La Rocha took on the mindset of the original lyricist and attacks their enemies, even if they weren't his own. The world is a worse place without the hardened funk of this amazing quartet.

Jamie Cullum, Twentysomething, 2004.
The album of the same name is one of the last I bought at a record store. Jazz music in the noughties fell into one of two catergories; chill-out (Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey-Rae) or 'for the mothers' (Michael Buble et al). Cullum, the little British hobbit who played piano with his feet, arranged songs like a true pop singer and refused to be quiet, temporarily rescued jazz from the middling darkness which a generation of boring crooners had resigned it to. His songs were full of youth and vitality. They were sexy and made you want to dance, which was the original purposae of jazz, anyway. A truly fantastic musician who deserves far more kudos than he received in the last ten years.

CLAIRE COLLINS.
Manager, publicist, Bossy Music.

Albums:
The National, Boxer. 2007.
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002.
Cat Power, You Are Free, 2003.

Singles/Tracks:
Modest Mouse, Float On, 2004.
Outkast (André 3000), Hey Ya!,2003.
PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke, This Mess We're In, 2000.
Beyonce ft. Jay-Z, Crazy in Love, 2003.
M.I.A., Paper Planes, 2007.
Ryan Adams, Sylvia Plath, 2001.
Sufjan Stevens, Chicago, 2005.
Annuals, Brother, 2006.
Kid Sam, Sunday Bus, 2009.

DAN SEGAL.
Designer, Multi-instrumentalist.

Albums:
Fink, Sort of Revolution, 2008.
Gotye, Like Drawing Blood, 2007.
The Ray Mann Three, The Ray Mann Three, 2008.

Singles/Tracks:
Karnivool, The Only Way(Gotye), 2007.
MGMT, Kids, 2008.
José González, Heartbeats (The Knife), 2003.

CHRIS HONNERY.
Deep Impressions - electronica & debauchery in music column and nightclub form.

Albums:
Depeche Mode, Exciter, 2002
Goldfrapp, Black Cherry, 2003
Ulrich Schnauss, Far Away Trains Passing By, 2001

Singles/Tracks:
Gotye, Here In This Place, 2004
Erlend Øye, A While Ago and Recently, 2003
Cagedbaby, Hello There (The Presets remix), 2006

LISA DIB.
Music journalist, editor.

Albums:
Florence and the Machine, Lungs, 2009
ROOT!, Root Supposed He Was Out of the Question, 2007.
Fred SMith & the Spooky Men's Chorale, Urban Sea Shanties, 2009.

Singles/Tracks:
White Stripes, Prickly Thorn But Sweetly Worn, 2007.
Florence and the Machine, Drumming Song, 2009.
Skye Harbour, Further Away, 2008.

GID ANSTEY.
Agent-in-training, Paradigm Talent Agency.

Albums:
Wolfmother, Wolfmother, 2005.
Coldplay, A Rush Of Blood To The Head, 2002.
Foo Fighter, In Your Honor, 2005.

Singles/Tracks:
The Killers, Mr Brightside, 2005.
Coldplay, Clocks, 2002.
Bloc Party, Banquet, 2004.

DOM ALESSIO.
Presenter, Triple J's Home & Hosed.

Albums:
Ryan Adams, Gold, 2001.
Radiohead, Kid A, 2000.
Arcade Fire, Funeral, 2004.

ZARA SEIDLER.
Little sister, One A Day Editors.

Tracks/Singles:
OutKast, Roses, 2003.
Amy Winehouse, Rehab, 2007.
Kanye West, Gold Digger, 2004.
Doves, Black And White Town, 2005.
Lily Allen, Smile, 2006.

Thanks to everyone who cast their votes during the silly season. This was a mammoth task and you're the real winners. See you in 2010.

-Jonno & David

Nicole Atkins

Guest post by Colin Ho (II)

New Jersey born singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins has a beautiful voice that is deep, husky and slightly operatic. I could make all sorts of comparisons to Nina Simone mixed with Roy Orbinson, but it’s a bit pointless really because all you need to know about Nicole Atkins is that she’s wonderful and fantastic and everything. What also I love is how she describes her sound as “pop noir.”

So what makes her so wonderful?

Well, first off, she writes and sings amazing songs that have sweeping, anthemic choruses which build and climax. Her melodies dip and turn over a bedrock of jangling guitars, strings, dark drums and brooding basslines. Upon these layer of sounds, you’ll notice that there’s a touch of David Lynch in the strange “monsters-under-your-bed” sounds of quivering, discordant strings, the echoes of childrens voices, the bone dry, icy glockenspiel and growling, fuzzed out guitar.

It’s the sound of nostalgia and memories lost, of wood and peeling paint, of heartbreak and of love. There’s an almost theatrical and cathartic quality to her music, and it comes as a great credit to her and her band, The Sea (not to be confused with Jen Cloher’s Endless Sea).

Her music conjures images of wandering around amusement parks at night, watching as an incandescent ferris wheel slowly turns and the cars tilting back and forward above the seaside skyline. Like a vignette, the reality and memory that she’s singing about… it’s like a dream, but then there’s something so bright, vivid and tragic about her stories of burning cities, celebrations and love even though the edges are all fading away.

Picking one song would be like just picking one chapter or a character from a novel, so I’ve decided to pick a few to try and illustrate the scope and the narratives in her debut album because Neptune City which is easily one of the best pop albums of this decade.

But seriously, listen to it! Don't take my word for it, let it play and immerse yourself in the textures and layers and feelings of Nicole Atkins' "pop noir". Perfect for some reminiscing before we hit 2010.

Nicole Atkins - 'Maybe Tonight'


Nicole Atkins - 'The Way It Is'


Start your (Nicole) Atkins diet here.