Albums of 2015

2015 has been a pretty good year for music; there were albums and shows from long time favourite bands of mine, discoveries of some great new artists, plenty of brilliant music from Scottish artists and plenty of surprises including the Belles going disco, Gaz Coombes stunning Matador album, the return of Idlewild and Blur showing how booking time to just jam and create, can sound wonderful.

Here are my favourite albums. I have selected my favourite song from each album to give you a flavour of what you can expect from each artist in case you haven't heard anything from the album. Just click on the link to stream.

I'll still be discovering albums from 2015 for a while to come and I have Trust Fund's 2 albums on order at Monorail as I type. But for now....

ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Dr Cosmos Tape Lab - Beyond The Silver Sea

Dr Cosmos released 2 albums in 2015. This was the first of 2015(their second album) released back in March - a cosmic trip full of McCartney and Wilson inspire melodies, hooks and harmonies. If you haven't discovered them yet then you are losing out.  The sounds that Joe Kane and Stuart Kidd are all the more impressive given their method of recording! The album was recorded in Joe's bedroom on to an old Tascam 424 mk3.

FAVE SONG - I have 5 real favourites! The Mirrors Reflection, The Stars My Destination and the closing trilogy of The Long Sleep, Space Dream and Beyond The Silver Sea - stream them and the rest of the album HERE  Read my review from back in April HERE

Gaz Coombes - Matador

I heard a couple of incredible songs on 6Music and wondered who it was - 'Gaz Coombes....really?' Well the answer was yes, it was, Gaz Coombes from Supergrass delivered an exceptional album - playing most of the instruments and producing as well. The musicianship is incredible, delivery sublime.

My fave song -DETROIT the way it develops is incredible. Read the guest review by Craig Douglas from Sonny Marvello HERE

The Charlatans - Modern Nature

Modern Nature contained some songs that are up with the bands best - the singles So Oh (check the Brian Jonestown Massacre remix), Come Home Baby and Let The Good Times Be Never Ending along with gems like In The Tall Grass and Emilie.

My fave song - COME HOME BABY that soaring chorus gets me every time, also my 4-year olds fave and we dance around the kitchen to it. My blog review is HERE

Happy Meals - Apero EP

This mini-album/EP was released at the end of 2014 but it only came to my attention (and pretty much everyone else's) when it was longlisted for the SAY Award. Their name stood out and then I checked out their song Altered Images and was just blown away. This was something different, completely different, sounding super cool and totally brilliant.

Fave song - Yeah it is still ALTERED IMAGES check this incredible BBC Radio Scotland session.

There will be a special guest blog on Happy Meals very soon.

New Order - Music Complete

How would they sound without Hooky? Well, I personally miss his unique bass playing but New Order still sound fantastic and full of energy. My good friend Tel who saw them away back in 1981 and he was blown away by Music Complete. The Academy show in Glasgow was one big party.

Fave song - PLASTIC edges it for me, Bernard Sumner in great form.

Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass

A beautiful album released on Matthew E White's Spacebomb label. Word of mouth spread on this, leading to sold out shows and a performance on Later With Jools.  Check BIRD OF PREY from Jools - HERE

Fave song - IF the disney-esque album closer is one of my songs of the year, never mind song of the album.

Ultimate Painting - Green Lanes

I saw this bands name kicking around a little and then Bobby Gillespie posted about how much he was enjoying it and Holly Calder from Eyes Wide Open booked them to play the Old Hairdressers - two people with impeccable taste. I got tickets for the show (later upgraded to Mono) and the album and wasn't disappointed.

Fave song - (I'VE GOT THE) SANCTIONED BLUES is pure Velvets inspired brilliance with fantastic harmonies and a gorgeous guitar riff.

Norman Blake and Jad Fair - Yes

Norman and Jad also released How Many Glasgow with Tenniscoats, but this album that followed shortly afterwards, with a show at Mono to coincide edges it for one of my favourite albums of the year. Jad Fair is unique, a romantic dreamer, a poet. This is a beautiful album, full of love.

Fave song - ADD YOUR NAME is bursting with positivity and hope

Belle and Sebastian - Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

The Belles delivered a few surprises with Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance, going a little electro, a little disco, but still remaining distinctly Belle and Sebastian with Stuart Murdoch's clever, witty and at times autobiographical lyrics backed by an exceptional band. Their show at the Hydro was an absolute delight - a far cry from the first time I saw them at the QMU all those years ago when they had breaks on stage to go off for cigarette breaks.

Fave song - Loads to choose from as you will see if you read my blog review of the album HERE but my favourite is the epic disco of PLAY FOR TODAY

Hooton Tennis Club - Highest Point In Cliff Town

Ah the sound of raw and loud duelling guitars and a band having fun - it doesn't seem to happen quite so often these days with so many bands being over-produced and using synths. This is glorious.

Fave song - KATHLEEN SAT ON THE ARM OF HER FAVOURITE CHAIR just crashes and smashes into existence and then gets better as it goes on.

Idlewild - Everything Ever Written

Roddy Woomble and Rod Jones returned with a couple of new members and they released a brilliant album and performed some sensational shows. Both were on top form.

Fave song - UTOPIA closes the album in a devastatingly beautiful manner. This was truly special when they played it live at the ABC earlier in the year. Read my album review HERE

Miaoux Miaoux - School Of Velocity

I really thought Miaoux Miaoux might just break through a little bit further with this album. 6Music got behind It's The Quick and it sounded superb on the radio. Away from the studio Miaoux Miaoux delivered some brilliant live shows with the bands set at Wickerman being a real highlight.

Fave song - Lead single It's The Quick showed a funkier and meatier side to Miaoux Miaoux but I really fell for LUXURY DISCOVERY live when the band went into an extended jam at the end. And that chorus is just so uplifting, camp and disco.

Best Girl Athlete - Carve Every Word

A Facebook post alerted me to this artist, I like the name and checked out the album and it is one of my favourite albums of the year. Incredible songwriting from one so young. Check my blog review HERE

My fave song - HILLS reminded me of Beth Orton

Blur - The Magic Whip

Damon Albarn and co produce something quite special by using downtime in Japan to jam and record a quite raw but superb album. The rawness is what makes the album, nothing is over though or over produced. Lonesome Street was like stepping back into 1995, Thought I Was A Spaceman was blissfully dreamy and My Terracotta Heart just what you wanted from Blur in 2015.

Fave song - ONG ONG just has a great feeling to it 

Matador by Gaz Coombes

I bought some cracking new albums in January - but one in particular really stood out. Matador by Gaz Coombes. I never expected to be buying an album from Gaz Coombes in 2015 but I was blown away when I heard lead single 20/20 on 6 Music. The album features inventive Radiohead/Massive Attack style riffs, songs that swoop and soar, huge choruses, stunning production, arrangements and vocals. The cover and the song The Girl Who Fell To Earth tip more than a nod to Bowie.

I wasn't the only one to fall for Matador. My good friend Craig from the band Flash Talk was also on to it and he asked if he could write a guest blog on it. So here it is...

Guest blog by Craig Douglas

The fucking 90's!!

• A time of endless possibility.
• A time before smart phones.
• A time when you had to wear shirts ten times too big for you because they didn't make cool clothes for teenagers.
• A time when the NME seemed to bring news of a new music revolution weekly.
• A time for hero's: Blur, Oasis, Nirvana, Radiohead
• A time for pure shite: Northen Uproar, Kula Shaker and fucking Menswear!

And a time for Supergrass. Supergrass where right up my street. They where young, free they kept their teeth nice and clean and they produced some truly great pop singles over a period of 17 years:

Alright , Moving, Pumping on your Stereo, Richard III.. all classics and there is a lot more where that came from...Just like Queen or the Who though, their greatest hits collection is far superior to any of the albums they have produced.

When they split in 2010  I thought we'd sadly seen the last of one of Britain's most naturally talented frontmen and after hearing his first solo album Here comes the Bombs in 2012  which was decent at best (White Noise was a highlight), I was of the opinion that we wouldn't ever hear a great album from Gaz Coombes.

With Matador, his second solo album, Gaz Coombes has (I'm a big enough boy to admit this) proved me wrong. Opening track Buffalo switches from sparse piano led verse to a menacing chorus filled with yearning lyrics, ethereal backing vocals and thunderous drums. A compelling start which leads into one of the albums (and the artist's) highlights, 20/20 is an epic piece of songwriting with a truly soulful vocal and a melody that Brian Wilson's dad would give him a slap for.. a total journey of a record with the perfect mix of light and shade.

The English Ruse repetitive riff and rhythm is irresistible with sci-fi lyrics, a middle section out of nowhere filled with angelic voices and a guitar solo that sounds as if it's being played by a Martian in a K-HOLE! It's the audio equivalent of inter dimensional travel.

Next up is The Girl Who Fell To Earth... What a title! How has no one come up with that before?!  My first reaction was "You bastard" but it's hard to stay mad at him once you hear this song. 

      

First you cry and then you laugh, you're like a circle cut in half

 A truly beautiful three and a half minute pop song that Ray Davies or McCartney would have been proud of. 

Track 5 in my opinion should always be a belter, it's a hallowed position on any album and Mr Coombes clearly agrees. Detroit has a scuzzy swagger to it, a sort of lackadaisical menace that is intoxicating. There is a moment at the end of this track after a brief respite of the beat where Gary says "OK" and the beat kicks back in....For some reason this really floats my fucking boat and I find myself pressing repeat to listen to this wee magic moment over and over again.

As you may have gleaned.. I love this album with a passion which has been reserved for 'Arcade Fire' of late. You could put the first 5 songs on this album up against the first 5 songs of all the LP's in Q fucking magazines(monthly) 100 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, they would stand proudly next to the best of them and tower above the majority.

The rest of the album is just as strong but I'm not going to sit here and describe the whole fucking thing to you.. I will say that the penultimate track To the Wire is seismic and the closing lyric of the title track shows a man who has faced adversity and has maintained a pleasant fuck you attitude.

   

      I'll take all the pain and the scars of war, 

       cause I've faced the beast and fight like a matador

With Matador it becomes apparent that Gaz Coombes is not only a great songwriter that should be cherished far beyond that Troll like,garbage pail kid Ed Sheeran but also a tremendous singer whose voice is the main instrument throughout this wonderful Album.

In my books Gaz can take his seat along side Damon Albarn and Thom Yorke as the only artistically relevant survivors of the last great musically creative period in rock and roll history. A time when men wore Wallabees. A time before internet porn. A time....

Come to think of it.... the 90's where shite. x