Top 15 songs of 2011

15. Graham Kendrick - Merciful - The songwriter returned in 2011 with his 30th studio album, Banquet, which is beautifully crafted with mellow instrumentals and moving lyrics. "I'll not use my words as weapons or the past to gain control/On my tongue no trace of venom only grace to comfort and make whole".

14. Jay-Z & Kanye West - No Church in the Wild - Much was expected of the collaboration between Hip-hop giants Jay-Z and Kanye West but Watch The Throne was received with mixed reviews, however No Church in the Wild is Jay-Z at his best, and the driving beat is complimented from a sharp Frank Ocean chorus: "We make it out alive, al right, all right, no church in the wild".

13. Hard-Fi - Stop - Not many people follow the bands progress these days and latest album ironically named 'Killer Sounds' didn't quite have the desired impact. However during Stop their abrasive yet slick song-writing style comes to the fore with a tuneful chorus and reverberating guitar riff that leaves you wondering just how good this band could have been.

12. Justice -Civilisation- The French electro duo released their second album earlier this year and lead single Civilisation's thundering lyrics "the beating of a million drums" provides the perfect up-tempo backing for Adidas' 2011 commercial 'All In'. 

11. Lucy Rose - Middle of the Bed - Recently nominated as one to watch by various music magazines (including Clash Music) the singer songwriter from Warwickshire released her first single Middle of the Bed in the summer and already has nearly 400,000 views on Youtube, the song reveals her soft vocals and her album which will be out in early 2012 is widely anticipated. Remember the name.

10. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - The Death of You and Me - After waiting until the release of brother Liam's first solo effort with Beady Eye, Noel Gallagher reformed under the alias of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and released one of the records of the year. First single The Death of You and Me combines familiar Oasis style with a marching jazz band. To great effect.

9. Kasabian - Man of Simple Pleasures- While Velociraptor is by no means their best record to date, Man of Simple Pleasures is the stand out song, from the melodic chorus to the bridge and pulsating ending riff while the lyrics elude to the hope of an archaic lifestyle, guitarist Sergio Pizzorno comments, "the more you use (modern technology), the more your mind becomes mashed potato". Philosophical indeed.

8. Coldplay - Paradise - Chris Martin labelled this track as the 'backbone' of their 2011 release Mylo Xyloto, and from it's opening strings (with help from Italian collaborator Davide Rossi) to the heavy drumbeat and echoing refrain it doesn't disappoint, already featured on countless adverts, and TV shows. Strong contender for video of the year also.

7. Gungor - This is Not the End - The American band recently received a Grammy nomination for 'Best Contemporary Christian Music Album' and for good reason, although none of the usual criticism directed at Christian music (clichéd lyrics and overused chord progressions), apply here. The echoing vocals are powerful and soothing while the tambourines, piano and glockenspiel offer an almost Christmas-sy effect. 

6. The King Blues - The Future's Not What it Used to Be - The King Blues rise to acclaim in the music industry has been a slow one, but they are starting to become recognised by critics, their latest album reached 31 in the UK Charts and their murky urbanised approach certainly is in a class of its own, The Future's Not What it Used to Be is a fusion of trumpets, ska and hip-hop and even a contains a drum & bass break. 

5. The Strokes - Machu Pichu - The Strokes's 2011 effort 'Angel's' isn't their most well recieved album, but Machu Pichu leads the album with it's 80's styled guitar beat bouncing along until a classic Strokes chorus, tuneful yet gritty, well chosen by EA for the soundtrack of FIFA 12.

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Even You Brutus? - The Chilli's return after 5 years was greeted with enthusiasm from fans despite the loss of guitarist John Fruiscante, new album I'm With You unveils new sounds with piano's and trumpets making their first appearance. Even You Brutus? is the stand-out track, the combination of drum, piano and bass is perfectly suited to their stadium tour next year.

3.Laura Marling - Night After Night - With released her most though provoking and carefully crafted album yet, it's hard to pick a decisive track from A Creature I Don't Know but Night After Night showcases Marlin'g vocal and musical ability, the haunting guitar opening setting the tone for the dark lyrics "It's fate foretold, it is knowing, what you're told".

2. Lupe Fiasco - State Run Radio - A long running battle with Atlantic held back the release of Lasers, and it was only until fans protested outside the record label's HQ that the album was released. Lupe admitted that he had no hand in some of the songs with Atlantic forcing him to include highly commercialised r'nb style beats, but even so it's his lyrical nous that has awarded him so much credit. The perfect mix of a chart influenced backing track juxtaposed with the lyrics "So beware what's on the air waves/and be more aware of what's not getting’ air played/Independent spirits you can barely hear what they're sayin'/ Propaganda's everywhere, constantly on replay/ all the hits all the time, back to back on relay".

1. The Black Keys - Little Black Submarines - Coming from their most critically celebrated album to date (El Camino), Little Black Submarines starts off as an acoustic blues ballad before launching into a Led Zeppelin inspired anthem, rock and roll in it's purest form. 

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto -Track By Track Review

Mylo Xyloto – After the huge success of the instrumental Life In Technicolor to kick-start Viva La Vida, the band go for a much shorter intro this time round, the title track builds up to a crescendo.. 6/10

Hurts Like Heaven – …before unleashing itself into one of the most disappointing recorded tracks in recent memory. All the vigour and energy of the live version is lost and Chris Martin’s vocals hide behind synthetic effects. 4/10

Paradise – Long time collaborator David Rossi showcases his ability on strings with a dynamic intro backed up by Will Champion’s (only word for it) sick beat.

Recurring ‘Oooh’s draw similarities to the Viva chant, (only time will tell if it has the samesuccess), while you can’t help wondering if the repetitive chorus (Para-para-paradise) could have been more inventive. But then again maybe I’m being too harsh. 7/10

Charlie Brown – After receiving a pro-longed airing on Coldplay’s summer ventures, many fans touted it as the new Viva La Vida., Jonny Bucklands guitar is something to behold, and it’s sure to become a live favouriote. 6/10

Us Against the World – More stripped back, Martin’s vocals come to the fore with harmonies added superbly by Champion. Soft, melodic yet powerful, a lyrical highlight (“And if we could float away/Fly up to the surface and just start again//And lift off before trouble/Just erodes us in the rain”). 8/10

MMIX – Not sure this one-tone piece is deserving of its own title. 4/10

Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall – How much can you do with two synthesised chords and a thumping bass drum? A reverberating Glastonbury pyramid provides the answer. Buckland’s Strawberry Swing-esque guitar riff is melodious and impulsive. 6/10

Major Minus – More distorted vocals (recurring theme) but a compelling chorus. The bridge seems to be above Martin’s vocal range but the echoing instrumental that follows will light up any stadium. 6/10

UFO – A beautifully crafted guitar serenade seems to end prematurely. Maybe because of the band’s unwillingness to produce an album over 45 minutes long? 6/10

Princess of China – Selling themselves out by including RnB heavyweight Rihanna or a brilliant pop duet, destined for global recognition? The latter. 8/10

Up in Flames – An electro drumbeat met with mellow piano chords, much like Paradise, repeating the title 4 times during the chorus makes you wonder if the song doesn't live up to its true potential. 5/10

A Hopeful Transmission – As the title suggests, it has the makings of something better but fades out almost before it’s even begun, and like the other two interludes on this album is just a glorified intro for the following song. 6/10

Don’t Let it Break Your Heart – An all-round vintage Coldplay record, Brian Eno works in a multitude of musical layers that give the song a completed finish. 6/10

Up With The Birds – Only 3 and a half minutes long but split into two, the first a floating ambient piece that does give the metaphorical feeling of floating away, reminiscent of Prospekt’s March/Poppyfields, the second part buoyant and soothing, ending the album perfectly. 7/10


Overall a fairly ambiguous effort, some would say Coldplay's new direction has taken them to new heights while the critics will bemoan the over production and chart conformity. 
It seems that Chris Martin just wants to feel appreciated, and despite the fact that this record will go platinum in over 20 countries and result in a sold-out world tour, he's well aware of the accusations of blandness and often compares himself to other more youthful artists in a jealous but also overly self critical way, and maybe this can explain the shortcomings of the album, but it still harnesses Coldplay's unrivalled ability to produce stadium fillers. 


6.5/10

Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You

After a five  year absence and a change of guitarist, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are back and explore new ideas on their 10th studio release in their 28 year long career.
Opener Monarchy of Roses starts with a mishmash of instruments and distorted vocals but kicks into life fifty seconds in with a classic Flea bass line and melodic Kiedis hook.
The album certainly sounds and feels like the Red Hot Chili Peppers of old with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer continuing where John Frusicante left off without stealing the show, in fact the talented multi-instrumentalist often holds back to let Flea and Chad control the rhythm, such as on Ethiopia and Annie Wants a Baby.
The funky Look Around bears resemblance to This is The Place while lead single The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie would certainly not be out of place on Stadium Arcadium.
Did I Let You Know marks a fairly major change in styles with female backing vocals and a jazz style trumpet instrumental mid way through, but with a characteristic Keidis chorus to keep it familiar.
Happiness Loves Company, Police Station and perhaps stand-out track Even You, Brutus? all rely heavily on melodic piano riffs which are another new feature on this album. Possibly the influence of Klinghoffer, or more likely bassist Flea who enrolled himself onto a musical theory University course in South Carolina in which he learnt how to play and write songs on piano.
All in all a much better all-round effort and much more concise than Stadium Arcadium and the introduction of the piano is certainly a winner.
7/10

Ashley's box of tricks

After another disappointing transfer window under the regime of Mike Ashley I thought I'd write a few notes on lessons learnt form the past:


1. Business Before Football
An obvious observation, but it's clear Ashley runs this club to make a profit and has no real ambition of taking the club forward on the pitch or bringing any form of success to the fans. I would also like to point out that the fans are not demanding money to be spent for the sake of it, we do want to see general improvements in the squad.


2. Hand Picked Manager.
After the departure of Kevin Keegan who seemingly caused too much trouble for Ashley's liking, an inexperienced Mr.Nice guy was chosen in the form of Chris Hughton to try and steady the club until the cheapest appointment could be made by the board.
Despite winning promotion at the first time of asking he fell out of favour after questioning the board which is strictly forbidden.
Alan Pardew was the next man in, and his reign so far seems to be that of a puppet fed lies and  and untruths by director Derek Lambais, he doesn't seem to have any influence over transfer dealings and is the unfortunate one who has to face the fans and the media scrutiny over the failure to deliver any board promises of reinvestment in the team.


3. No Mutiny From The Ranks
A similar point but this time referring to unhappy players, if you don't like the way the board is treating you (Joey Barton, José Enrique) and speak about such matters in public you won't have a future at the club. Even former captain Kevin Nolan had a dig at the club after departing for West Ham earlier in the window.


4. Transfer Policy - Outgoings
Players will high market value or on big wages are targeted first, Carroll and Enrique were both shipped out for decent money. Ashley should take some credit for setting a price and not budging, ensuring maximum profit is made, but where the money goes after that remains to be seen...


5. Transfer Policy - Incoming
Young, foreign, and cheap is the quota for new players, there is a certain amount of risk in bringing in untested players and hoping/expecting them to make their mark immediately in the Premier League, the signing of Tiote last year looks like a great deal,  but there is potential for huge profits to be made on successful players two years down the line so there is no certainty that the best players will stay. 
If deals prove unsuccessful player will always find a club back home and losses will be minimal.


6. Deadline Day
Already a classic couple of tricks have been invented by the board to create false hope near the end of the window. The first trick I'm going to name the 'We Tried': It involves bidding a decent amount of money for a player (N'Zogbia), having the bid accepted, but then offering a laughable contract to the player and blaming the failed transfer as a 'unable to agree personal terms'. At first the fans fell for it and blamed the player for failing to agree terms but by now the fans can see through these false deals as just an excuse by the board to pretend they were active.


A second trick which I'll name the 'Hi-Jack', involves bidding for a player at the twelfth hour who's already agreeing personal terms with another club (preferably a club with more ambition), having a bid accepted but then offer a poor contract again, the player (Bryan Ruiz) rejects this and then signs with the first offer (Fulham with Europa League football) and we are again made too look like we were active but with no real intentions of signing anyone.


6. Broken Promises./lack of communication
Probably the biggest cause of controversy and anger from fans, press releases and promises of reinvestment broken by the board who feed the media with fake information regarding transfer so fans can get their hopes up about incoming players, hopeful quotes such as '"Judge us on the 1st September"- Pardew' or "Every penny of the £35m will be reinvested in the team" create a false optimism which results in another major let down at the end of the window.


The only way to stop Ashley is to boycott games, sadly this is not a viable possibility due to the pre-paid season tickets, and the unswerving loyalty of a lot of fans to the team (to be applauded). 
We can only hope we find a buyer soon.

My Premier League Team of The Season 2010/11

GK - Ali Al-Habsi - Wasn't voted Wigan's player of the year for no reason, really stepped up after Kirkland's unfortunate set of injuries.

LB - Leighton Baines - As per usual Everton decided to start playing after Christmas, Baines expert delivery from corners, free-kicks as well as firing home 4 penalties earned him regular call ups to the England side, He was also instrumental in the defence that kept 7 clean sheets post January.

CB - Nemanja Vidic - One of the best centre backs in the world, clean sheets and goals from set pieces helped Man Utd lift the title once more. Was the ever present defensive rock for Alex Ferguson's side after injuries to Ferdinand and Smalling.

CB - Christopher Samba - The Blackburn captain performed a U-turn on wanting to leave the club and helped them to another season of mid-table safety. On the radar for a number of PL clubs.

RB - Robert Huth - He played mostly as centre back I know but the versatile defender was a rock at the back for Stoke as they reached the FA Cup final earned a Europa league spot. His 9 goals helped to make up for a lack of a top quality striker as they managed only 46 goals all season (15th highest in the PL).

LM - David Silva - Not always first choice for Mancini (remarkably), but by the end of the season the Spanish wizard was the first name on the team sheet. Attributed 9 assists and 4 goals in 35 premier league appearances, a number of which were from the bench, his successful season somehow slipped under the radar.

CM - Charlie Adam - Plucked from the Rangers subs bench for a club record £500k by Ian Holloway last season, he's turned out to be the best buy of Holloway's career. If there ever was a case of a one man team it was certainly Blackpool. Instrumental in almost every goal they scored he finished the year with 12 goals and 9 assists. A wanted man.

CM - Scott Parker - Football Writer's player of the year is all you need to know about the West Ham captain, his fighting spirit and determination was sorely missed during the 8 games he was injured for. Who knows what the Hammer's fate would have been had he stayed fit.

RM - Luis Nani - Despite his (seemingly) poor attitude and questionable on field antics he led the league in assists with 18. Add to that 9 goals also in his 33 appearances it's a wonder how he fell out of favour with Sir Alex by the end of the year.

ST - Robin Van Persie - Injury kept him out for the team for the first 3 months of the season but since returning to the side his form has been sensational. 18 goals and 7 assists in 25 appearances confirmed his reputation as a world class marksman. A good tip for top scorer next year.

ST - Carlos Tevez - Made club captain by Mancini this season, the inspirational Argentinian finished as (joint) top scorer in the league with 21 goals in only 19 Premier League appearances. The ability to create something out of nothing and single handedly win games earned Man City a Champions League spot.

Manager - Either Stoke City's Tony Pulis for helping his side become established in the Premier League and with an FA Cup runner's up medal and Europa League place to boot or Roy Hodgson's unexpected turn around of the sinking ship at West Brom. 

Subs 

Cheick Tiote - Bargain of the season at £3.5m, his defensive midfield performances earned him praise form Sir Alex Ferguson and was voted Newcastle's player of the year.

Luka Modric - With Van Der Vaart and Bale taking all the plaudits many critics wondered how Modric didn't get look in. More consistency than the two aforementioned players give him a place on the bench.

Antinio Valenica - One of the reasons why Nani was considered surplus to requirements by the end of the season, he didn't play enough games to merit a place in the starting line-up.

Rob Green - Put the World Cup behind him and single handedly kept West Ham in  games.

Dirk Kuyt - Expected to be sidelined after the arrival of Carroll and Suarez, it was actually Kuyt who stole all the headlines with 8 goals in his last 7 matches from midfield as Liverpool sprung to life.

Move aside Golden Generation, the future is here.

After a fantastic performance against Ghana and a solid away win against Wales, England  need to look to the future.
The golden generation, who were championed by the media and destined for World Cups have failed to live up to expectation, reducing Champions League and Premiership winning ability to pitiful and lacklustre performances for their country, only Steven Gerrard has shown the determination and drive that fans come to expect when one pulls on the famous 3 lions.
And the fans have made their feelings known, with a general wave of indifference towards the England team post world cup showing through on 5live's 606 and across the Twittersphere. The English national football team needed a new spark.
With Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrad injured, and Lampard, Ashley Cole, John Terry and Wayne Rooney released from International duty, Capello was forced to turn to the next batch of England talent.
And the talent was there. Ashley Young, who scored his first England goal against Denmark, won a penalty and got an assist against Wales, put in another fine performance against Ghana.
Jack Wilshere has received a lot of praise this season (some of it OTT) for his passing ability, vision and creativity and it has proven it's worth with swift rise to stardom for Arsenal and England this season.
With the return of Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon and Adam Johnson, England have a lethal arsenal of  pace and penetration on the wings and Andy Carroll's sweet finish is sure to be his first of many.
At the back Gary Cahill and Michael Dawson both look capable and Leighton Baines is in the form of his life.
Capello should take credit for the new 4-3-3 that allows for more flair and pace out wide with with a composed central 3 to control the possession.
The change of tactics and personnel should keep the critics at bay in the short term but the real question is whether recalling the so called 'Golden Generation' would be one step forward, two steps back.


How about this for a potential Euro 2012 Line-Up?


                                  Hart
Kelly/Walker   Smalling/Cahill   Dawson    Baines
              Parker    Wilshere   Gerrard
              Walcott     Carroll     Young