jasonfranks

I own a few f those albums. The Radiohead, the PJ Harvey. the Arctic Monkeys, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I don't own that particular Libertines or Arcade Fire album but I do have some of their stuff. I even have a Strokes album. Not a bad list, artist-wise, but it certainly has a bit of a smarmy hipster aftertaste. I'm surprised the Killers and Vampire Weekend didn't make it on there--I guess they had to make room for perrenial list-makers Radiohead and for dark horse Primal Scream. And of course, the White Stripes are far too popular to get a look in now.

Just about everything on that NME list fits into the indie/alternative/postpunk bracket, which I guess shouldn't surprise me... but I have broader tastes than that. FEVER TO TELL is the only one of those that'd go on my list, although the STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA was a close call. Course I'm not the sort of person who makes and orders these kind of lists, but I'll have a stab. My list is unordered.

-FEVER TO TELL, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Rock and fucking roll, FEVER TO TELL is all drums and guitar and Karen O, who is a unique instrument all by herself despite her many imitators. Killer lyrics and asses kicked.

-ORPHANS, Tom Waits
This 3 disk monolith beats out Waits' BLOOD MONEY by sheer weight. I like the first disk the best, as you might have guessed, but this is huge and dark and amazing.

-DOOMSDAY MACHINE, Arch Enemy
Razor sharp guitars from the Amott brothers, brutal vocals from Angela Gossow, this is for me the bet album to come out of the Gothenburg Metal scene. It's melodic death metal displaying classical virtuosity without the pretentious pomp that other bands from the region have displayed (and which Arch Enemy themselves adopted on their following album.)

-HERE COMES THAT WEIRD CHILL, Mark Lanegan
It was a tough choice between this EP and the BUBBLE GUM album which followed it (and includes some key tracks from the EP), but that album lacks the key tracks "Skeletal History" and "Wish You Well". The comparison to Tom Waits is obvious, but Lanegan's lurching, baritone blues-rock with a preponderance of songs about alcohol abuse and apocalypse is more conventional and less humorous than Waits' variety. Lanegan smoother and harder and to my mind quite musically distinct. The EP is full of killer guests from the Desert Sessions scene, but none of them play their regular instruments, putting everything just slightly off kilter. Marvellous.

-RATED R, Queens of the Stone Age
Swaggering psychedelic rock from this motley group of Kyuss alumni. Ferocious and oddly funky, this one was an instant winner. My favourite track is the non-single "Better Living Through Chemistry".

-TOXICITY, System of a Down
You'd forgotten the Amernian metallers already, hadn't you? But they're still good. If they still exist. They still haven't decided if they've split up or not. Anyway. The political polemic was a little bit half-assed, but this is the nu metal band that actually did introduce something new to the genre, and they used it to monstrous effect. Huge.

-GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BAD NEWS, Modest Mouse
Well, if I was gonna choose a hipster band it was going to have to be one with a pedigree, and who is better pedigreed a hipster than Johnny Marr? Well written, unique, agile, distinctive, agile, moody, and just plain odd, this band brings brains and class, rather than the usual sentimental hand-wringing.

-THE SPELL, Black Hearts Procession
If Black Sabbath was an indie rock band, they would be the Black Hearts Procession. To downbeat to be metal, the BHP wails its way through some wonderfully atmospheric, occult-tinged songs of doom and despair. Lots of strings and odd instruments in super-clean arrangements, none of the usual studio fakery.

-SWEAT TEA, Buddy Guy
This is where Buddy steps up and crowns himself the king of the blues. Blistering.

-THE BLACKENING, Machine Head
Straight up, finest cut, blue ribbon, choice-grade original god damn METAL.

Honorable Mentions:

PJ Harvey and Tool don't need any further coverage, but I reckon these two could stand a mention:

-PASSOVER, the Black Angels
Take the classic Creedence track "Run Through the Jungle" and turn it into a strutting psych-rock concept album and then turn it up loud. Pick up your feet and let's go.

-BLOOD MOUNTAIN, Mastodon
The music journos in my local broadsheet, The Age, love to use the word 'hirsute', but there's no better band to apply it to than Mastodon. A forward-looking metal band who are versed int he breadth and depth of all of those who came before them, and manage to cite those influences without sounding like copycats or teenagers who forgot to take their ritalyn.

-- JF