10. Kevin Devine – “Brother’s Blood”

Brooklyn song-writer Kevin Devine recently caught my attention (yes, I’m a bit late to the party), thanks to the fact that he often tours with Jesse Lacey, frontman of Brand New, a band who I’m a rather big fan of. Despite this association, Kevin’s folk sound is rather distant from said band, falling more in line with the likes of Elliott Smith.  Brother’s Blood‘s sound ranges from stripped down acoustics to 8 minute long dynamic guitar-driven anthems, and certainly isn’t short on emotion. Gutted I missed Kevin performing in Dublin earlier this year along with Manchester Orchestra.

Featured track: “Time to Burn (Another Bag of Bones)”

9. Frank Turner – “Poetry of the Deed”

Frank Turner’s third full-length solo album brings more solid folk songs from the English Ex-Million Dead frontman, covering the usual Turner subjects of life on the road, partying with friends and discontent with the government and society in general. Whilst not quite as good as previous album “Love, Ire & Song“, it remains a solid mix of upbeat sing-a-longs (The Road, Poetry of the Deed), reflective ballads (Isabel, Faithful Son) and rants (Sons of Liberty, Try This At Home).

Featured track: “Poetry of the Deed”

Listen to the album on Spotify

8. Mono – “Hymn To The Immortal Wind”

First instrumental album of the chart and its a band who are definitely no strangers in the ‘post-rock’ scene.  I never really got into Mono before, but decided to give this album a go regardless.  Opening track Ashes in the Snow (featured below) really grabbed my attention: a beautiful 11 minute epic with sweeping guitar crescendos, crashing drums and emotionally powerful melodies.  It turns out this description can pretty much be used to describe most of the album. A great way to lose yourself for an hour.

Featured track: “Ashes in the Snow”

Listen to the album on Spotify

7. Fuck Buttons – “Tarot Sport”

Last year’s debut album from Fuck Buttons, entitled “Street Horrrsing” didn’t sit quite right with me.  It showed potential, but lacked substance and overall just sounded too much like noise and not much else.  Their second album “Tarot Sport” sees the Bristol-based electronic duo team up with electronic veteran Andrew Weatherall. This time they really nail it.  There is an obvious difference in clarity with this album, with tracks being much more structured and melodic – more like songs, as opposed to just noise.  Highlights include the thumping opener Surf Solar (featured below), the euphoric Olympians and closer Flight of the Feathered Serpent.  If you didn’t quite get Fuck Buttons the first time around, give them another go.

Featured track: “Surf Solar (Edit)”

6. Caspian – “Tertia”

Caspian are an instrumental band somewhat typical of ‘post-rock’, yet they manage to stand out from many others thanks to their ability to create great melodies.  Ever since the excellent You Are the Conducter, Caspian have been very much consistent with their releases and Tertia is certainly no exception.  From the atmospheric opening of Mie, right through to the epic closer Sycamore, Tertia somehow manages to keep a fresh sound in a formula that has been almost done to death.

Featured track: “Of Foam and Wave”

Listen to the album on Spotify

5. Phoenix – “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”

My first encounter with Phoenix was Too Young, a standout track on the “Lost in Translation” film soundtrack. Their latest album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a great collection of uplifting pop-rock tracks, extremely easy to tap your foot to and extremely difficult to dislike. While I’m on the subject, be sure to check out the excellent fan-made brat pack video for (in my opinion one of the best tracks of the year) album opener Lisztomania.

Featured track: “Lisztomania”

Listen to the album on Spotify

4. Brand New – “Daisy”

Brand New’s fourth album was always going to be difficult to deliver on – after all, how do you follow the classic Deja Entendu and almost equally excellent The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me? Well, Daisy isn’t a bad attempt at trying. This time around the band have delegated song-writing duties out a bit more, rather than Jesse Lacey writing the large majority of songs. Whether or not this is the reason for the album not quite reaching the heights of its predecessors we can never be sure, but Daisy still holds quite a few moments of greatness – At The Bottom, You Stole and Bought a Bride are all top notch Brand New tracks.  Despite sometimes feeling a bit lazy, Daisy‘s prime moments still place it as one of the albums of the year.

Featured track: “At The Bottom”

Listen to the album on Spotify

3. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – “The Century of Self”

Trail of Dead pull off a real return to form with The Century of Self, following a couple of lackluster albums.  My expectations for this album weren’t exactly high, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The album starts on a real high, with the instrumental opener Giants Causeway leading into Far Pavillions, then on to the highlight track of the album Isis Unveiled (featured below).  Elsewhere on the album there are plenty more highlights: Bells of Creation and Ascending see the band in fine rocking form, whilst quieter moments like Luna Park and Insatiable fully showcase the band’s flexibility when it comes to writing great songs. A must-get album, with fantastic artwork too.

Featured track: “Isis Unveiled (Edit)”

Listen to the album on Spotify

2. And So I Watch You From Afar – “And So I Watch You From Afar”

There’s not much for me to say about this album that I didn’t say in my review of the album earlier this year.  This is a full on, balls out instrumental punk rock fest that, even now after a year of listening to, I still find myself stomping and rocking along to regardless of where I am or what I’m doing.  As I mentioned in the review, these guys really have to be seen live to appreciate, so should the opportunity arise for you – do it.

Featured track: “Set Guitars to Kill”

Listen to the album on Spotify

1. The Antlers – “Hospice”

New York three-piece The Antlers is the brainchild of Peter Silberman, who initially started the project as a solo endeavour.  Hospice was initially self-released by the band in March of this year, selling a huge number of copies, and later signed by French Kiss Records who released a remastered version of the album in August.

The album is a haunting tale of meeting and falling in love with a cancer patient, caring for them and having to experience their from the bedside.  It deals with experiences while the patient is still alive and the memories, nightmares and loneliness that occur once they are gone.  It should definitely be noted that, given the concept, this isn’t an easy album to listen to on an emotional level, particularly for those who have lost someone close to them.

Musically, the album is a mixture of both sweeping ambience and more upbeat (musically that is) anthemic tracks, often simplistic in nature but beautifully produced with a very progressive, almost Pink Floyd style layering that adds huge depth to the experience.

Its been a long time since I found an album that really stirred so much emotion in me.  I have been lucky enough never to have lost anyone so close to me, and yet this album still connects and evokes all sorts of feelings each time I listen to it.  In particular, the albums closer, Epilogue, is ridiculously beautiful and moving.  I was fortunate to catch the guys playing in Dublin in October, which was a fantastic experience given that they played Hospice in its entirety.

It was difficult to select a track to place at the bottom of this post, as I really feel Hospice needs to be heard in its entirety to appreciate just how great The Antlers are. Please do yourself a favour and check this album out.  It may take a few listens, but in the end you may find yourself listening to one of your favourite albums of recent times like I did.

Featured track: “Bear”

Listen to the album on Spotify

10.  Cut Copy – “In Ghost Colours”

Melbourne electronic act Cut Copy fuse extremely catchy lyrical riffs with uplifting electronic synthpop.  A great summer album with plenty of anthems which work both in the club and outside of it.  Even my girlfriend approved of this one.

Last.fm album page (full stream)
Myspace link

9. Gemma Hayes – “The Hollow of Morning”

Ever since I seen her several years ago supporting Counting Crows, I’ve really enjoyed her music.  Her first full length album “Night on My Side” was a great album (and was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize).  The follow-up album “The Roads Don’t Love You” seen Gemma try to crack the mainstream with a more poppy accessible mainstream sound; however since this didn’t succeed in throwing Gemma into the limelight, she’s went back to her lo-fi roots for her third album “The Hollow of Morning”, and in my opinion its for the best.  This album is simply beautiful: mellow acoustic sounds perfect for sending you off to sleep (not in a boring way, more of a soothing lullaby).

7digital album page (with previews)
Myspace link

8. Death Cab For Cutie – “Narrow Stairs”

Death Cab for me are just one of those bands that you know every album they release is going to be one to enjoy.  I first fell in love to them thanks to the stellar “Transatlanticism” (if you haven’t heard this, I heartily recommend you seek it out), but follow up “Plans” was somewhat of a let down, even though it was still a great album.  Their latest effort “Narrow Stairs” is somewhere between “Plans” and “Transatlanticism”.  It has some fantastic moments (intro “Bixby Canyon Bridge”, “Grapevine Fires”, “Long Division”) but also some skippable filler tracks (“Talking Bird” and “You Can Do Better Than Me”).  Despite the low moments, its still a cracking album, and having had the privilege of seeing these guys live this year, I can safely say Death Cab firmly remain as one of my favourite bands.

7digital album page (with previews)
Myspace link

7. Kyte – “Kyte”

Not so sure if this qualifies as a full length album since its sold as an EP, but with 7 tracks and totalling in around 40 minutes, it certainly qualifies an album, and an absolute beaut of one at that.  Mellow ambient with electronic elements and soothing vocals.  Kyte also released a second EP this year entitled “Two Sparks, Two Stars” also well worth checking out.

Last.fm album page (some full tracks for streaming, previews of the rest)
Myspace link

6. Balmorhea – “River Arms”

Guitars, pianos, banjos and voices: “River Arms” seems like Balmorhea’s first full effort of going into a studio and recording a full quality record, including re-recordings of tracks from the raw predecessor self-titled album. An excellent album to unwind to, although theres still something I prefer about the self-titled album.  Either way, both are fantastic – can’t wait to hear more from these guys.

Last.fm album page (full stream)
Myspace link

5. Bon Iver – “For Emma, Forever Ago”

So the story goes… singer-songwriter Justin Vernon retreated to a remote cabin in Wisconsin after a traumatic breakup.  There he recorded the majority of this album, a powerful compilation of folk songs visiting love, loss and loneliness.  Regardless of the hype the story created with this album, the album stands up to the hype, despite some occasional seemingly nonsensical lyrics.  One of my regrets of this year was not being able to see these guys when they visited Ireland.  For Shame (Forever ago)…

7digital album page (with previews)
Myspace link

4. Sigur Rós – “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust”

For those of you not fluent in Icelandic, the album title translates to “with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly”.  These guys playing endlessly certainly sounds like a fine plan to me!  I’ve seen these guys twice now (2005 in Dublin and this year at Pukkelpop) and both gigs were a completely inspirational experience. “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust”, when compared with previous albums, seems like the band taking a perscription of happy pills, throwing one heck of a party, and then coming down towards the end.  Its a party I’d be a happy to a part of.

Last.fm album page (full stream)
Myspace link

3. Maybeshewill – “Not For Want of Trying”

Its no secret that I’m a huge fan of post-rock.  Most post-rock that I listen to consists of atmosphere, melody and emotion.  Very little of the post-rock I listen to, unforunately, couples all these things with aggression and full-on energy (the other notable exception to this is my favourite local band, And So I Watch You From Afar).  This is where UK band Maybeshewill come in, with their fantastic debut full-length album.  Highlights include “Seraphim & Cherubim”, “He Films The Clouds, Part 2″ and title track “Not For Want of Trying”, which samples 70′s film “Network” in a rant about the breakdown of society and the economy, even more poignant now with the current economic crisis happening around the world.  Its also very much worth checking out the band’s latest EP, a split with Her Name is Calla, which includes two cracking tracks from Maybeshewill.

Last.fm album page (full stream)
Myspace link

2. Glasvegas – “Glasvegas”

I have to admit it took me quite a while to warm to this band.  My first time even hearing of the band was frontman James Allan’s terrible appearance on TV show “Never Mind the Buzzcocks”, where he appeared to have been in desperate need of some funny pills, as well as looking somewhat ridiculous sporting a pair of sunglasses in a tv studio.  Add on top of that the fact that word had been getting around that (wrongly) these guys were tipped to be the next Oasis.  This didn’t exactly encourage me to listen to the band, but thanks to a persistant friend and seeing several recommendations for the album online, I decided to give it a go.  At first I struggled to get used to Allan’s strong Glaswegian accent which is prominent throughout the entirity of the album.  Hearing loutish chants of “Here we, here we, here we fucking go” during songs also threatened to curb any chance I had of liking this band.  Eventually repeated listens prevailed, I got over the Glasgow accent and fell in love with the lushious soundscapes, the heartfelt stories within the songs and hell, even the accent.  Opening track “Flowers & Football Tops” conveys the emotions of how it feels to lose a son, with the touching finish of “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine… how could they take my sunshine away”, while “Daddy’s Gone” displays a son’s anger and hate towards his dad for walking out on his family.  The genuine songs, unashamed to reference the hardships of growing up in a tough area with a broken family, coupled with the wall of sound (reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine) makes this album an absolute essential.

7digital album page (with previews)
Myspace link

1. Frightened Rabbit – “The Midnight Organ Fight”

Two Scottish bands with strong Scottish accents in their music topping my list – who’da thunk it?  I discovered these guys thanks to seeing their name listed as the support band for Death Cab For Cutie prior to their Dublin gig.  I always like to check out bands before gigs because if they’re my kind of thing, I want to know the songs when I see them.  These guys really took me by surprise: a breakup album whose lyrics ranges from hilarious (“I’m armed with the past, and the will, and a brick”) to crushing (“Why won’t our love keel over as it chokes on a bone? We can mourn its passing and then bury it in snow. Or should we kick its cunt in and watch as it dies from bleeding? If you don’t want to be with me just say and I will go”) to strong (“You can mark my words: I’ll make changes to earth”).  Melodic, meaningful, fun, tragic, inspirational, this album really does its best to cover all the ranges of emotion that one goes through after a fucked up relationship.  Like frontman Scott Hutchison says, “there’s nothing worse than a song without meaning” – and there’s certainly none of those in here.  Scott has definitely succeeded in making a small change to Earth.

7digital album page (with previews)
Myspace link