Wooglie's Thoughts

It’s that time of year again, the time when I create my annual CD of the year’s best music. Rules are that I have to have bought the song during the last year and a maximum of one song per artist. While I’m not going to give away the complete track listing in this post, I am going to mention a few albums I’ve enjoyed this year.

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

This album won this year’s Mercury Prize and deservedly so, although I didn’t pick it up until later in the year. I’d heard ‘One Day Like This’ a lot on the radio and grew to like the song so much I purchased the album. I’ve had the album in the car ever since. The album is not what you would call conventional, but I really like the weirdness and how the songs are so different.

Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

This is an old album that I bought this year, along with two other Rage albums Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles. I’d liked the track “Wake Up” since it appeared on the Matrix soundtrack back in 1999 (that make anyone else feel old?) and after persistent encouragement from my house mate I borrowed his copy of their debut self titled album and had a listen. I was blown away. This album manages to mix rap, rock and funk together seamlessly. I love the guitar riffs throughout the album and after listening to it a couple of times went and bought all three Rage albums. This is definitely the best rock album I’ve listened to this year. It was also featured in Zane Lowe’s Masterpieces recently.

3 Doors Down – 3 Doors Down

Another self titled album, but this is 3 Doors Down’s fourth album. This band continue to go from strength to strength and I really like their latest. It’s been a regular on the CDs I make for my car since I got it earlier in the year. Stand out tracks include Citizen/Soldier, Let Me Be Myself and Your Arms Feel Like Home, but I struggle to find a duff track on the whole album.

Other albums I’ve enjoyed include Coldplay – Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, Pendulum – In Silico and The Wire And All the Pieces Matter Soundtrack.