Well, it's coming to the end of the year so I thought I'd write my own little review, just like all those glossy magazines but not quite so achingly self conscious. Mind you, me assuming you want to read about what albums I've been listening to, already smacks of narccissism and superiority, so don't let me patronise you, what do I know? I've been dubbed a musical facist. Once, long ago, I was going out with a nice girl, but we broke up not long after I threw her Rancid tape out of my car window because she refused to acknowledge their stylistic debt to The Clash. She called me an old man (I was 22) and I flipped, wrenching the cassette from the dashboard and flinging it onto the central reservation of the Filton by-pass. I felt very smug until she pointed out that it was my tape in the first place. (Actually it was a brilliant album.) Anyway, if she's reading this, hello.
Where was I? Review of the year!!

ALBUMS

For starters The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America, ok, ok, this technically came out last year but I only got it this year along with the rest of the UK. It's incredible, I didn't think bands wrote lyrics like this anymore, it's like Elvis Costello joining the Lemonheads, it's like Ben Folds writing songs with Springsteen, it's amazing.
Field Music - Tones of Town is an absolute belter, full of inventive instrumentation, beautifully written concise snappy songs, and not forgetting to rock out here and there. All the reasons why I love XTC came flooding back for Field Music. But what happened to them after the album came out, no proper touring, no press, are they Andy Partridge in disguise.
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold was nicely diverting, with some lush melodies on it, and she's pretty fit in a posh kind of way, not that it has any bearing on the artistic merit of the album,
Arcade Fire, you know it's good blah blah blah, ditto Arctic Monkeys second album, they make all the pretenders look like Pugwall.
Radiohead - In Rainbows you know when your dad used to beat you hands down in a running race but it didn't feel so bad losing because he's your dad so he should be beating you, that's how I think of Radiohead. This album is unbelievably good.
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, was brill, not just because of the guitar genius on it, but because of the Pixies/Talking Heads mash ups and videos with seaman in. We've Got Everything is a beautiful piece of rock music.
Grinderman, oh Lordy you've got to buy this album (if they have itunes up there in Heaven) sorry about all the sweary lyrics and the sexual imagery but when music is this filthy, greasy, dirty good then what the fuck can you do? "Kick those white mice and blacks dawgs out!" Genius, can't wait for the next Bad Seeds album, but I have a feeling it won't be this much fun. It's like, say I'm married to Nick Cave, then this album was like shagging his evil twin brother behind his back. Naughty!
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger. He's just found his stride again, and Two is one of the most beautiful tracks I've heard this year. Also back on form are my old favourites Manic Street Preachers. Send Away The Tigers was a real blast, they're like the Paul Scholes of British rock, you almost take them for granted and then out of nowhere they put a 30 yard screamer like Your Love Is Alone Is Not Enough into the top right hand corner.
Super Furry Animals - Hey! Venus. A total return to wonky genius I reckon. I thought Love Kraft, their previous, was a bit crap, so this made me fall in love with them again.
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky a high benchmark for musicians and songwriters everywhere.
and of course Ween - La Cucharacha still awesome after all these years. If you can listen to Your Party without whooping with delight you probably don't laugh at children when they fall over in the street. Oh...just me then.
Also much loved CSS, Rilo Kiley, Tokyo Police Club, Queens of the Stone Age, The Good The Bad and The Queen, most of the Klaxons album, White Stripes (except for the shocking mastering which makes all the kick drums sound shit) and dear old Brucie Springsteen.

GIGS

Can't really top Prince, I went to see him 3 times at the o2 and got absolutely taken to school, he owned the place, I've never seen such effortless virtuousity on a guitar, and it was a total fucking privelige to be one of the massed worshippers. I even led a drunken sing along on the thames clipper on the way back, where me and a nameless friend swiped some red wine from the bar.
The Hold Steady at Reading festival and Camden Electric Ballroom were stunning, I took my sister to the second one because they remind me of all the bands we used to listen to when we were teens. Craig Finn sings like a possessed drunken evangelist, brilliant.
Arctic Monkeys at Glasto were great, a friend of mine has more sway than me so managed to get me up on the stage to watch their set (even when they wouldn't let Filthy Docherty on, HA!), and looking out over the 100,000 or so people in the crowd was awe inspiring. They have one of the best drummers around at the moment, and if any musos out there are going to get snobby about that fact then look in the mirror, see yourself as the cocks you are and go and enjoy your Toto albums.
Judie Tzuke at the QEH, London, seeing her do a great gig in front of a total sell out in an amazing venue made me fucking proud, even if I didn't actually see it from out front (I was stage left playing guitar for her that night!) Bailey (Tzuke, obviously) and myself both got to do support sets that night as well, which was a great opportunity, but it was Jude's set that got me all emotional.
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, at the Circus, Stockholm was a treat, I was there gigging with some other friends of mine and our show finished really early so a few of us blagged tickets off the record company and went to "catch a few songs" as we had to be up for promo at 3am. However we were so mesmerized we ended up staying for the full 3 hours, and I welled up with tears on at least two occasions. I'd seen him a couple of times before and he's been decent but never as breathtaking as this. Genius, genius, genius.
Christy Moore in my hometown, a brilliant interpreter of songs, and I won't give up on my dream of him recording my song The Wagon one day.
Declan O'Rourke at the Troubadour, Earls Court. I'd never heard him before and his voice blew me out of the venue.
Thomas Truax, at various venues, if you haven't seen this NYC guy yet then go, go go!!!!
CSS, loved 'em, loved her all-in-one.
Also a late entry The Manics, Brixton Acadamy last week was very special, and how could I not mention Take That at the o2? Ok, so they my not be Godspeed You Black Emperor, but they've got lasers, semi-nude violin players, lapdancers, drunken sing alongs (the crowd, not the band...I think!), and it's more rock n roll ramala than the good old days of Motley Crew. They make a lot of us look like po-faced, shoe gazing miserabilists. Which is a fair cop.
By the way, I'd love to have been able to put Led Zeppelin on this list but I couldn't get a pissing bloody ticket off anyone. Lindsay Lohan went, who probably thought Led Zeppelin was a T shirt company or a flavour of Ben n' fucking Jerrys, til she saw them, if she could tear herself away from the ladies room long enough to hear them play that is. Celebrity, celebrity, celebrity, why are we celebrating? We should have all broken into the venue screaming "I already have the severed head of that cockring off X Factor in my rucksack, so get out of my way or you're all next on my list! I just want to watch the nice old men on the stage, is that too much to ask???!!?!?"

So that's my take on the year, I had a lovely time, hope you all did too. Please feel free to add your favourite albums to the comments on this blog too.