10. Once I Was an Eagle - Laura Marling
Best Track: Master Hunter
Laura Marling is one of the finest female singers working right now. Consistently perfect in so many ways, Marling sings beyond her years. Her releases between Alas I Cannot Swim and Once I Was an Eagle have been consistent, but Once I Was an Eagle is the first album which matches Alas I Cannot Swim perfectly. Lyrically it's as beautiful and harmonic as Alas I Cannot Swim, but where Eagle soars (sorry) is the fact that it moves and shakes like one whole beast. The album has been designed to be listened to from the first track through til the end and it works best in this mode. It's always exciting to hear Marling's new releases, especially when they're this consistently strong.
9. Hobo Rocket - Pond
Best Track: Whatever Happened to the Million Head Collide
I couldn't give two shits about Tame Impala. I'll say that right away. I have no patience for their music at all. But, Pond - which kind of swaps out some of Tame Impala at times to be a rotating musical act of goodness - are just too damn good. The lead track, Whatever Happened to the Million Head Collide harks back to the heyday of The Sleepy Jackson and even throws in a little Gomez style horns at the end. Sure, they go a little Wolfmother-y with stupid song titles, but that's ok when the music is this good.
8. Unfold Yourself - Ian Ball
Best Track: Open Sesame
Just like Ian's first solo effort, Who Goes There, I was not impressed the first time I heard this album. Nor the second, third, fourth and fifth times. I just simply wasn't taken with it. I figured, that's ok, I love Gomez a heck of a lot and I admire Ian, but maybe this just wasn't for me. Then just recently I saw Ian perform live and the album transformed in front of my eyes. The work that Ian's put into this album is phenomenal. Maybe I was stupid for not realising it straight away, who knows. It really is an album which translates perfectly live and is best experienced that way - even if it was just Ian, a guitar and an iMac laptop. There's no desire to stretch away from what Gomez do here, it's just Ian showing what he's best at doing and that's creating beautiful music. Sure, it took me a few listens to crack the code, but dammit, it's a good album.
7. What Would Christ Do?? - The Growl
Best Track: Clever Leaver
Earlier this year The Growl supported Tame Impala on their international tour. They played to sell out shows and gained a heck of a lot of exposure. From what I understand, Tame Impala were very good on those shows, but even better was The Growl. I've seen them a fair few times in Perth and they consistently knock you over with the wall of sound they create with their dirty guitar licks and yowling bass. As perfectly dirty an album as you can get. If there was any justice in this world, these guys would be much much bigger than Tame Impala.
6. Push the Sky Away - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Best Track: Jubilee Street
Winner of best album cover of the year right here. Nick Cave is a monument in Australian culture. Anybody else this far into their career would be struggling to maintain such perfection, but Cave makes it seem effortless. With Push the Sky Away, alongside his perennial Bad Seeds, he has turned in one of his finest albums - dare I say it's almost (just almost) equal to Henry's Dream and the Murder Ballads. Jubilee Street should go down as one of the great Australian songs.
5. Ballet in the Badlands - The Chemist
Best Track: Heaven's Got a Dress Code Now
Unfortunately Ballet in the Badlands will go down alongside Ammonia's Eleventh Avenue and Institut Polaire's Make Your Own Mayflower as one of the great one shot albums from a WA band. The quality on this release should have shot these guys to national status, but unfortunately for whatever reasons they couldn't stick around for another album. This release is just bonkers good. The guitar work is addictively insane to listen to.
4. Harlequin Dream - Boy & Bear
Best Track: Harlequin Dream
Just listen to that saxophone at the end. Goddamit. Really, this album and the next three all could be the best album of the year. Just like Moonfire, Harlequin Dream is one of the most consistently perfect Australian albums. Even though some of the songs feel a little trite, there's something truly heartbreaking when Dave Hosking sings through A Moment's Grace, or when he sings about being a role model for his kids in Old Town Blues. Moonfire is a perfect album without a doubt, but Harlequin Dream is an album which other bands should aspire to match.
3. All Day Venus - Adalita
Best Track: Trust is Rust
Quite simply put, this is the finest piece of work that Adalita has put her name to. Yes, it tops anything done with Magic Dirt. It's an astounding album full of all the heart break that her first solo album had. The hole that Dean Turner left in Adalita's life is still there, and whilst her self titled album dealt with that perfectly by herself, All Day Venus feels as if she's getting past those demon's with a band behind her. It's a masterpiece of a record that just astounds you on each listen.
2. I See Seaweed - The Drones
Best Track: Nine Eyes
To say I was nervous about this release is an understatement. I shouldn't have been nervous at all, but fuck, The Drones previous album Havilah is without a doubt the finest album I've ever heard. I've lost track how many times I've listened to Havilah - I'm on my third copy of it given how many times it's been scratched to shit from being carted around so I can listen to it. Needless to say, I See Seaweed - it doesn't disappoint. Gareth Liddiard is hands down the finest singer songwriter this side of David McComb. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Liddiard made a deal with some shady devil in Bunbury and bought McComb's soul. The Drones always come on like a slap in the face, a kick in the guts and punch in the nuts all at once. Whilst this is no Havilah, it's pretty much right there next to it. There is no finer band working in Australia right now than The Drones. Does it sound like I've got a hard on for them? Well, sure, maybe, but how many other bands have heard write a song about Google Street View and make it one of the finest songs of the year?
1. Kiss My Apocalypse - Abbe May
Best Track (Also Song of the Year): Sex Tourette's
There must be something in the water down in Bunbury. In the space of a few years, the sleepy little death toll town of Bunbury spawned both Abbe May and The Drones. Whatever is in the water down there, they better keep putting it in. Kiss My Apocalypse is an evolution. A sexual evolution of synth beats and discarded guitars. It's an album of an artist evolving into something phenomenal. Design Desire hinted at this, but Kiss My Apocalypse comes on like napalm. It's thirty four minutes of something crawling in your head and just having their way with you. Unlike Abbe's previous albums, there isn't a track out of place here. It's an aural exercise in being as tantalising as possible. Abbe May is an artist who is on the brink of major things and once she hits it big, people will rediscover her older music and think, how did we miss this? Add the fact that Abbe can turn a cheesy 90's R&B track into one of the sexiest covers ever is a testament to her talent.
This year as well I feel I can finally manage to throw together a top ten live acts that I saw. So without any explanation, here's the best live acts I saw this year.
1. Bruce Springsteen - Hanging Rock
2. Paul Simon - Blues & Roots Festival
3. Abbe May - The Astor Theatre
4. The Brothers Grim & the Blue Murders - The Indi Bar
5. Ian Ball - Mojo's
6. The Drones - The Astor Theatre
7. Something for Kate - The Astor Theatre
8. Rufus Wainwright - Blues & Roots Festival
9. The Graveyard Train - Blues & Roots Festival
10. Ben Ottewell - Mojo's
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