Instant Coffee Baby

by The Wave Pictures

The Wave Pictures are never likely to break into the big-time. Lead singer David Tattersall’s voice is an acquired taste, their lyrics are occasionally obscure to the point of nonsense, and the arrangements are generally far more delicate and considered than you’d ever hear on the radio. What the band lack in commercial potential however, they more than make up for in charm.

Coming on like early Hefner, but with more confidence and catchier tunes, this is their debut album proper, although a quick glace at their website reveals a whole back catalogue of self-released titles complete with badly photocopied artwork for that authentically indie look. They’ve obviously spent time honing their craft as every track on this record is a winner with its own unique character and story to tell, from failed romances through to small town politics via a myriad of pop cultural references and surreal lyrical juxtapositions.

Indeed, although the instrumentation is tight and joyfully balanced it’s the lyrics which are the real focus of this record. Whilst the songs typically have a theme to them the words sound assembled like a collage where rhyme and alliteration is rife and meaning often takes a back seat, giving a strange aura of Middle-English psychedelia. How else can you describe an extended metaphor beginning, ‘The sun came in like a pack of orange spaniels’? Such whimsy is commonplace and indeed there’s a certain playfulness to the whole thing. If you can have such a thing as a fourth wall in recorded music, The Wave Pictures have no problem with breaking it: ‘Tell them about it on the bass guitar’ requests Tattersall on ‘We Come Alive’ before half-joking that, ‘Everyone who knows me knows I make up every one of these stories’. Made up or not, Instant Coffee Baby is a thoroughly engaging and idiosyncratic record with enough wit, character, and most importantly tunes, to keep you coming back for more.

Sam Leppard

Tres Tres Fort

by Staff Benda Bilili

The rags-to-riches story of the Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili, a group of homeless paraplegics and street children who have become international Afropop superstars, is remarkable in itself. But it is the raw talent that is evident throughout their debut album, Tres Tres Fort, that has propelled Staff Benda Bilili to become the current darlings of world music enthusiasts. As the title suggests, this album presents us with a sound that is bound by no handicaps when it comes to talent, creativity and all-round joie de vivre.

Critics have dubbed Staff Benda Bilili as “the Buena Vista Social Club of the Obama Age”. The comparison between a Congolese band and the Cuban superstar son-masters seems far fetched, but the similarity is made clear within the first few notes of the opening track ‘Moto Moindo’. Considering the common Caribbean roots of African rumba and Cuban son, it is perfectly natural to link the two bands together. Songs like ‘Je t'aime’ and ‘Tonkara’ are so full of energy that I find it hard to resist the urge to get up and dance.

Members of the band have often remarked in interviews that they view disability as a state of mind rather than physical being, and that they don’t see themselves as handicapped. Staff Benda Bilili doesn’t ask for your charity or pity. Indeed, they clearly have a purpose in mind to use their music to enrich the lives of others. Tres Tres Fort reminds us that self-doubt and negativity are far more damaging to one’s character than any physical disability could ever be. If you’re feeling low, this album will give you the motivational kick you need to get out there and be somebody.

Brittany Shannahan

Sunday At Devil Dirt

by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan

This was always going to be an intriguing match-up; Isobel Campbell, formerly of fey indie outfit Belle & Sebastian, pairing off against Mark Lanegan - gruff, whisky soaked Screaming Trees grunger. Their debut, Ballad Of The Broken Seas, was a predictably dreamy folk-pop affair, but with their sophomore release, Sunday At Devil Dirt, things certainly changed a tad.

For a start, this is a record firmly rooted in the waking present. Sparse instrumentation over many tracks and a crystal clear, intimate production leads to the feeling that Lanegan's deep baritone (dominating almost every track) is positioned directly in front of you, lamenting right into your face... in a completely non-creepy, fully comfortable way, of course. There's a much stronger sense of simplistic, porch-bound southern country, whilst stand-out track 'Come On Over (Turn Me On)' pays tribute to 'Feeling Good' style vamp-jazz; Lanegan and Campbell's perfectly synced vocals pulling off such a departure with style. The bluesy 'Back Burner' even manages to take what could easily have been an age-old religious spiritual and injects it with Lanegan's sleaziest drawl intoning the merits of a bit of 'bump and grind', highlighting in sound the contradictions that are made to work so well throughout these twelve tracks.

Sunday At Devil Dirt, like it's predecessor, is an album to convince even the most hardened country/folk avoider that there is music of worth in these genres. It seems they can knock these collaborative albums at will...

Tom Macdonald

The Script

by The Script

I absolutely love this album. It tells a tale of love, heartbreak, struggle and life’s ups and downs, with a mix of amazing soulful vocals, eclectic drumming, dream riding piano notes and beautiful sharp guitar sounds.

The most romantic song I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, 'I’m Yours', makes your heart skip a beat when Danny O'Donoghue recites those words through song.

Along with Kings of Leon – Only by the night, The Script’s album has got to be a favourite of 2008 that will continue to grow in 2009.

Hipatia Velastegui

Everyone's Entitled To Our Opinion

by Slyde

If you're into great big fat breaks, electro and hip hop with a dash of punk, you'll love this album. This came out last spring and I've been thoroughly addicted to it.

The album kicks off with Lady Posh (Jamaica's Dance Hall princess) belting out 'Vibrate To This'. The track isn't half bad but she also features on 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang', which is an absolutely cracking track that makes you want to throw some crazy shapes. The album also includes the remake of Ian Dury's classic 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll' which is certainly jam packed full with dirty beats and sleazy sounds.

Pop this little beauty on, crank up the volume to 11 and start grinning.

Kate Hayden-Ellis

Distance and Time

by Fink

Ever since he ditched the laptop electronics of his debut record (Fresh Produce), Fin Greenall, aka Fink, has been forging a path for himself as an acoustic guitar-toting troubadour, and has been doing rather well with it too. Distance and Time takes the promise of his first outing into singer-songwriting, 2003's Biscuits for Breakfast and does a sterling job of realising Fink's vision to the fullest.

Helped along the way by the dark production of Lamb's Andy Barlow, Distance and Time is fantastic from start to finish; as brooding and haunting as it is beautiful. The nine tracks on offer allow no room for any dip in quality, and whilst drums, bass and occasional electronics fill out the sound, they never encroach on the album's focus – Greenall's gently plucked guitars and drawling vocals. Distance and Time is a timeless album of reflection, loss and closure, placing Fink as one of the UK's most promising artists in the process. Turn the lights low and get your brood on.

Tom Macdonald

Gong Lake

by Neptune

Hailing from the same New England noise triangle as racket luminaries Lightning Bolt, Daughters and Arab On Radar, Neptune are simultaneously anachronistic and the sum total of every celluloid future dystopia you’ve ever seen; brutal, ugly and utterly compelling. They’re the equivalent of the static on your decaying tube television; merrily flogging themselves away in the face of their digital obsolescence.

Their mix of claustrophobic white noise, sparse melody, muscular tribal drumming and bizarre drawled vignettes, marks them as kin of Sightings and AIDS Wolf, but while so many of their brethren generate atmosphere through 1 and 0s, Neptune spawn their menace by squeezing every single squeal and snarl from their analogue home-made contraptions. Their set-up is part art project, part white-good carving board; the result of a hideous in-vitro experiment between HR Giger and Scrapheap Challenge. Betamax cases fashioned into the bodies of baritone guitars, oil drum floor toms, home made synthesisers and oscillators that lie with their bellies slit open; a mess of copper entrails.

Some bands induce happiness, others arousal, others still, incandescent rage. Upon witnessing Neptune at a dirty snooker hall on a dirtier midweek winter evening, my non-smoker associate became briefly and intimately acquainted with the fragrant delight of a sweaty, half-smoked Dorchester. Neptune’s recordings are a memento of an evening spent in a delightful, din-filled morass.

Alex Bundock

Daydream Nation

by Sonic Youth

Few teenagers can resist the narcissistic aura of Kurt Cobain. At 14, I discovered a magazine exploring the Nirvana mastermind's top 50 albums, and immediately bought as many as I could afford. Among these purchases would be my first taste of The Stooges, Pixies, and Bad Brains. In these albums I could see links from the history of rock'n'roll to the present. But one of them was different. Daydream Nation was like nothing I'd heard before; it was a challenge, an adventure, an explosion. Sheets of lush, hazy guitar sat between raw electric punk stabs. Melodies jumped from sweet and catchy, to obscure and doomy, consistently unpredictable.

As the patchwork of weird melody sank in, I came to appreciate that the record is narrated by the three coolest voices you will hear on the same record (very much in the rock n roll spirit of Lou Reed). The words these uber-cool New Yorkers were coming out with seemed almost pagan on first listen, with lines like "Let's go walkin on water/Now you think I'm/Satan's daughter". I've come to realize since that rather than toying with the occult, the band were channeling the spirit of the 1950s beat poets, verging on stream-of-conciousness, verbalising the ennui which has come to epitomise modern youth.

The album's defining quality is the way its wonders mystically evolve. I don't think I will ever fully understand Daydream Nation, but every new slice of noise I discover is enchanting.

Joe Barker

Bubblegum

by Mark Lanegan

Quietly sneaking out as his collaborators in Queens of the Stone Age hit the mainstream with Songs for the Deaf, Bubblegum was always destined to be an oft-overlooked album. Without the mainstream chic of the aforementioned record, Bubblegum always risked being lost in the pack (one suspects this suited professional miserablist Lanegan down to the ground anyway), but those familiar with it will be the first to attest to the gem others are missing out on.

Though the initial focus is pulled towards the rockers, particularly ‘Hit the City’ (featuring PJ Harvey) and ‘Sideways in Reverse’, the real highlights for me are when the songs are stripped down to their bare essentials – the haunting ‘One Hundred Days’ is absolutely stunning, whilst ‘Strange Religion’ can most certainly be read as a precursor to Lanegan’s later work with Isobel Campbell. Trendless and fantastically assured – Bubblegum is one of a fine singer’s best works to date.

Tom Macdonald

Sea Monsters

by The Wedding Present

England. The North. Leeds, specifically. This deliciously grumpy noisefest from Monsieur Gedge et al. will always have a special place in my heart. Some might say their finest hour, but there's a strong case for Bizarro or indeed George Best; no matter, there's joy (for the listener) here aplenty, not least in opener 'Dalliance', 'Corduroy' and 'Heather'. Touched by the hand of Steve Albini, whose other credits include Nirvana, Pixies, Gogol Bordello, etc etc. Features all the b-sides from the singles which supported the album's release at the time. How could they throw away 'Fleshworld' on the Lovenest 12"? I still recall shouting for it in vain when they played York Uni once upon a time. Apparently the bass player couldn't be bothered to learn it... love the sparse snare intro to 'Blonde' too. Get involved.

Will James

A Northern Soul

by The Verve

Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod. Now this, this is UNBELIEVABLY good. When I first saw The Verve at Phoenix '95 (or was it '96?), I'd never heard of them. They were on before Spiritualized as I dimly recall. I left the tent an instant convert, rocking on my heels, mind fully blown, and immediately sought the entire back catalogue.

This album is way above the more commercial Urban Hymns which followed it; the thread of psychedelia evident in their early EPs and first album Storm In Heaven, is still there. String-laden epic "History" invokes Blake (as does 2008 comeback single ‘Love is Noise’) and is surely a precursor to ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’. ‘New Decade’, ‘This is Music’ (which they still open with live) and the title track are standouts, but the whole thing is just... well, you get the idea. Rocks, chills and bends minds. Compelling.

Will James

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Bass

by Bass-O-Matic

William Orbit isn't a man likely to be remembered by history for anything other than Barber's Adagio, but he's a very clever man. Not only because he took the credit from saucer-eyed trance monster Ferry Corsten for the monstrous remix of ‘Adagio For Strings’ (Orbit's ‘original’ is actually quite subdued), but because he's produced some of the best earworm pop numbers in recent history.

Check out Madonna's ‘Beautiful Stranger’, All Saints' ‘Pure Shores’, P!nk's ‘Feel Good Time’ or pretty much anything on Blur's 13 for evidence of this. But I digress. Orbit's distinctive sound came to my attention back in 1990 in Bass-O-Matic's debut Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Bass. Back in the early nineties, aside from the odd half-decent rave number to make it into the charts, no-one managed to commercially walk the line between credible pop and something you could actually dance to without looking like an uncle at a wedding.

Despite having a band name like a compilation South London badboys might listen to while cruising the streets, this wonderful piece of dance-pop-memorabilia really stands the test of time. In a club environment any of these numbers will get me moving like a madman. But thankfully not like an uncle at a wedding.

James Kane

Desire

by Bob Dylan

When you ask someone ‘what's your favourite Bob Dylan album?’ they might tell you with their best Alan Partridge impersonation ‘I'd have to say, the Best of Bob Dylan’. The trouble is that songs from this masterpiece are rarely featured on the many 'best of' collections and Desire is in fact, my favourite Dylan album, if not one of my favourite albums of all time.

Most of Desire was co-written with Jacques Levy and the instrumentation, sound and atmosphere of these recordings are truly unique. This is due to the album being recorded with the musicians from the famous Rolling Thunder revue tour and it's the haunting violin and backing vocals from Emmylou Harris, prominent throughout the whole album, that help to make this album so special. 'Hurricane' kicks off the album at racing speed, telling the true tale of the Rubin Carter murder case and although it’s story telling at its best, for me the album peaks with the hugely personal 'Sara', the sensitive 'One More Cup of Coffee' and 'Oh Sister'. If you like Dylan but haven't heard this album, I suggest buy it now and listen to it again and again until you know every violin screech and every vocal snarl like the back of your hand.

Jim Sanders

Based On A True Story

by Fat Freddy's Drop

New Zealand has been a breeding ground for acts in the category of dub reggae, notably producing acts such as Salmonella Dub, Katchafire, Kora, Black Seeds and probably the most successful export in this genre, Fat Freddy’s Drop. This is the 2005 debut from the 7 piece in which they manage to successfully fuse together elements of reggae, dub, jazz, blues, soul, funk, rap and disco into their own warm, laid back blend.

Introduced to me by a former Kiwi colleague, this is such a versatile album; it serves as a great soundtrack for both hot, lazy summer days and cold winter nights by the fireside.

Mark Unsworth

Wooden Shjips

by Wooden Shjips

Buy this album. Go to the pub. Drink a lot. Go home. Listen to this album. Throw the rest of your music out of the window.

James Priestley

Natural Boogie

by Hound Dog Taylor

Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor was born with 12 fingers until he cut one off with a razor blade while drunk. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as "blues" as it gets. No! Wait! Come back! This not your run-of-the-mill, hoary old blues rumblings. This is something else.

This is the Ramones of the blues. Never downhearted or truly melancholic, its wasp-in-a-jar production values are a virtue, and it pelts along. Careful though, as played at the correct volume it will slay a small child, and rip the face off even the most experienced adult. His band aren't called the Houserockers for nothing, you know.

This album (his best) from 1973, is the sound of a cheap Japanese guitar played through an even cheaper amplifier while drinking the cheapest liquor. The album's best track, 'Sadie', is a creeping groover that slopes along like an alley cat, different to most of the rest of the album, and most of the rest of his career.

If you want to know from whom Jack White or Jon Spencer took their cues, Hound Dog's punky, primal take on the blues will give you some hints. In the words of the man himself, 'When I die, they'll say, "He couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!"'

Stephen Somerville

Songs For The Deaf

by Queens Of The Stone Age

After sleazing their way into the mainstream with indie-kid favourite Rated R, Josh Homme and his merry band of desert troubadours returned to their roots for their third album Songs For The Deaf. Few could have predicted the sheer ferocity of their return. Recruiting the considerable talents of tub-thumper Dave Grohl and renewing their working relationship with ex-Screaming Trees howler Mark Lanegan, Queens proved there is simply no one better at providing hard rock and roll around today. Sticking two fingers up to any preconceived notions and trends, it shot out the blocks with the monstrous ‘No One Knows’ and showed no dip in quality over the record’s fourteen tracks. This is arguably the best rock album of the last ten years, and is to date the highlight of Queens’ mighty back catalogue. Songs For The Deaf is relentless - everyone else just seems a little wet after listening to this…

Tom Macdonald

Behaviour

by Pet Shop Boys

The arrival of the dark evenings is the cue to dust off the glorious Behaviour in my house. Elegantly co-produced by Harold Faltermeyer, Pet Shop Boys' fourth album is an unmistakably autumnal affair - reflective, evocative and richly melancholic.

'This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave' is a wonderful title and an overwrought take on provincial youth and oppressive schooling. Culminating in Neil Tennant's determined exclaim 'I don't want to belong', it would have been a teenage anthem for me if I hadn't been listening to Vanilla Ice at the time.

I discovered Behaviour five years after its 1990 release at university, where the historic and tranquil surroundings were better suited to the rest of the album. Between the understated 'Being Boring' and graceful 'Jealousy', the album's centrepiece is 'My October Symphony', which relates Soviet hope and despair with the help of Johnny Marr, The Balanescu Quartet, a Shostakovich sample and Italian piano house.

It's difficult to avoid describing this work as "mature", but for me, it perfectly captures the essence of adulthood - often unspectacular, occasionally tragic, always emotional.

Ian Bell

Stone Roses

by The Stone Roses

Blending rock, dance, funk and Jackson Pollock with an era-defining swagger, this album is effortlessly brilliant and an unalloyed delight. From the lolloping bass intro of '...Adored' to the wig-out jam of 'Resurrection', these songs have graced a million indie dance floors from Manchester to Marrakesh. Incendiary, inspirational and indispensable; if you don't already own this, there is a gap in your music collection the size of a small planet. Purchase immediately.

Will James

Crying Over Pros For No Reason

by Edit

Every now and then, an album comes straight out of leftfield, instantly heralded as a classic of its genre. Crying Over Pros For No Reason is a perfect example.

LA's Ed Ma came out of nowhere, dropping this incredible album on the UK's Planet Mu label in 2004. Weaving melancholy guitar, bass and strings over hyper-cut sampled drums and glitches, Ma created a perfect late night soundtrack for the new millenium, and a record that was a major player in the populisation of the current 'glitch hop' sound. The level of maturity shown by Ma, not only in his drum programming and sound manipulation but also his songwriting craft is incredible, even more so when you consider Crying… was his debut release.

A perfect break-up soundtrack for the Apple generation, Crying Over Pros for No Reason is essential listening for anyone with even a passing interest in the IDM/Glitch/Leftfield genres.

Tom Macdonald

Koyaanisqatsi

by Philip Glass

The work is so coherent and fluid you’d never know it was a film soundtrack – unless of course you already knew it was a film soundtrack. Or indeed part of the GTA IV soundtrack. Koyaanisqatsi works perfectly in isolation; I became involved in it before watching the film (which of course you must see).

As moreish as chocolate-covered Pringles, it’s impossible to listen to just one track without seeing the musical journey through to the end. At once minimal and incredibly involved and involving you’ll genuinely pick up more and more from this on each listen.

You’d have some justification for considering Philip Glass’s work to be impenetrable nonsense. Unless you’ve heard Koyaaniqatsi and suddenly it all makes sense.

James Kane

Exile On Main St

by The Rolling Stones

Regularly nestled in the upper echelons of those 'Top albums of all time' lists, Exile is considered by many to be the Stones' masterpiece. It's a sprawling epic of an album which rocks out ('Rip This Joint'), slinks ('Shake Your Hips') and struts ('Stop Breaking Down') with Jagger's usual pomp and aplomb. Penultimate track 'Shine A Light', from which the 2008 Scorsese concert film was titled, is in turn melancholic and uplifting. If ever an album were deserving of the epithet "classic", this is it. Essential.

Will James