Wooglie's Thoughts

Yep it’s time for me to create T2009 and in view of that here are a few albums I’ve enjoyed this year:

Little Boots – Hands

Stunning little pop number, I just love this album. There isn’t a song I don’t enjoy on this album and each and every one leaves me with a smile on my face. Stand out  tracks include the lovely duet Symmetry, the incredibly catchy Remedy and the slightly geeky Mathematics.

Chevelle – Sci-Fi Crimes

Hadn’t heard of this American rock band until this year, but really like this album. Immersive rock songs with some rhythmic guitar and very haunting vocals. Stand out tracks for me are Jars, best rock song for me this year by far, and This Circus, love the riff on this one.

U2 – No Line on the Horizon

Nothing different from U2, but it’s still U2. Not much more to say, but check out the powerful and emotional Moment of Surrender.

There are loads more albums I’ve been listening to this year including some oldies (Rush, Faith No More and Extreme), some things new to me (Alabama 3) and some new (The Script and Foy Vance). See you next year.

Saw Head Luggage again on Friday night. They were playing at the Boiler Room in Guildford, which is quite a good venue, do some nice fast-food Chinese if you get peckish. I’d seen Foy Vance play there over Easter and it was packed, but this evening it was a bit more of a chilled affair. Although I preferred the less claustrophobic atmosphere, the bands probably would have liked to play to a packed venue. I hadn’t been to a Head Luggage gig in a while so it was good to see them play. I really liked their new stuff, especially the funky opening number (I’d love to tell you the name of the track, but I don’t know it and even if I did chances are it’s going to change in the next week or so) and the instantly catchy Towers. They also played the ever popular Bones, although Mike did hit some very duff notes. In fact there were some times where they didn’t seem that tight, but interestingly this didn’t detract from their performance. I’d actually go on to say that this is one of their best performances and they’ve definately grown since I saw them play last. Anyway if you want a listen pop over to their website or myspace for free MP3s and future gig dates.

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.

Went to see Santana at the O2 on Sunday. It was an amazing gig, especially considering that Carlos Santana has been playing gigs since the 1960s, he can still rock with the best of them. Some of his solos were astounding. His band were also very good, including three different percussionist, trombone and trumpet players and a hammond organ. The show alternated between amazing instrumental pieces to the more recognisable (to me) vocal tracks like Black Magic Women, Smooth and Maria Maria.

The following is a picture I took on my camera:

and here i’ve cut together a few clips that I took on my camera (hence the poor quality):
Click to view video

I saw went to see Linkin Park at the O2 in London yesterday, that’s two gigs in four days. This was a bit of a last minute thing as I won a ticket off ebay last week. It paid off nicely as I got a seated ticket very close to the stage and paid roughly what the ticket originally cost. You can see how close I was in the very blurry picture below.

The gig had been smiling from start to finish, as although Linkin Park are a bit too commercial for a lot of people, I really enjoy their slant of rock/metal mixed with rapping and mixing/scratching. The songs just make you want to jump around and I found myself singing (well yelling ) along to loads of the songs.

Saw Alter Bridge on Saturday night at the Astonia in London. I have only recently got into this band after my house mate introduced me to them. Unfortunately he couldn’t go to the gig due to man-flu. It was an excellent gig for many reasons, but mainly because the band rocked. I probably should have ‘rocked’ in capital letters or numerous exclamation marks after it, but you get the idea. There was loads of showmanship with the three guitarists regularly lining up in a row to play riffs together and Mark Tremonti (lead guitarist) had some excellent solos. Myles Kennedy’s (lead vocals and guitar) unique voice carried above the excellent rocking of the rest of the band and they all seemed to be having the time of their lives. It was an excellent gig and I enjoyed it immensely. If you get the chance to obtain tickets for their show in November, you won’t be disappointed.

It’s that time of year again, when I make my annual compilation music CD. I have done the front cover and the track listing, all I need to do is make the back cover and actually burn and print the CDs and covers. Here’s a preview of the front cover to keep you guessing.