I hope you all had a nice Christmas. No rest for the wicked here at Top Ten Towers, as I continue to count down my favourite records of the year. What number did we get to? 8? So this post will therefore feature 6 & 7?
You'll only get that if you know any young people. And even then, you won't get it.
For mor information, google "What is 6 7?" - but don't blame me if it makes your screen go funny.
8. The Waterboys – Life, Death & Dennis Hopper
For truly, it is the year of the concept album – but this one’s definitely the easiest to comprehend, because it does exactly what it says on the tin. Following on from the stand-out track on the last Waterboys album, Good Luck Seeker, which was a tribute to the actor Dennis Hopper… here’s a whole album dedicated to his insane story. And somehow, Mike Scott resists the urge to revisit that original tune… he’s got more than enough ideas to fill this record with as it is.
This is a story of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll – plus plenty of movies too, from Easy Rider to Blue Velvet and beyond – with a host of special guest Dennis Hopper fans invited along for the ride, including Steve Earle, Fiona Apple, Taylor Goldsmith and some guy called Springsteen, who’s not allowed to sing… just deliver a spoken word monologue in those reassuring, gravelly tones… a master-stroke of restraint on Mike Scott’s part.
All this and a song celebrating Hopper’s finest hour – playing this hideously terrifying Frank in Blue Velvet. If you know the film, you'll understand why I'm not sharing the title here. Much of this record isn’t about Hopper as an actor though, it’s about his place in history (particularly the 60s), as a counterculture icon, and as an observer at some of the wildest moments of the 20th Century. So maybe you'll dig it even if you're not a Hopper-head. Or maybe not...
Clearly not a man who believes in sleep, the artist formerly known as one half of Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine this year released two new albums on the same day. Just like Guns n Roses did with Use Your Illusion, and Bruce did with those early 90s albums that weren't as good as Use Your Illusion. Jim Bob promoted this twin-release with his usual verve and vigour...
Well, I bought them both, of course. And they're exactly what you want from a pair of Jim Bob records - lots of angry, maudlin songs about how shit the world is, and quite a few that make you realise he's not actually as misanthrope despite all that, because he writes with such empathy for ordinary folk that at times it just breaks your heart.
I've broken a promise that I made to myself
I'd never write another one of these songs
I'd turn my attention to something else
I've tried but the pull is too strong
God knows real life is hard enough
Without the need to fictionalise
But it grinds my gears and it breaks my heart
To think of all the wasted young lives
Two albums deserves two videos...
...and you might wonder whether those two albums are both 6 and 7?
No. Gen Alpha, I'm sorry... because I'm stopping there today. Just so that 6 is on a separate post to 7. (And also, that leaves me three albums x two more posts. Which seems neater.)
Join me next week for my Top 6 albums of 2025... if you can be bothered.
Start placing your bets now for what's still to come...
Here's The My Top Ten Traditional Christmas Song...
And here are some more of my favourite records of 2025, to listen to while you cook your turkey.
I wouldn't normally do this on Christmas Day, but I'm worried if I don't, I won't get them all in before next Thursday.
11. The Mountain Goats - Through This Fire Across from Peter
Balkan
Another concept album, knocking on the door of the Top Ten,
this one involving a dream that novelist / songwriter John Darnielle had, involving
a shipwreck and a desperate ordeal for three survivors (including the titular
Peter Balkan).
I’m only just beginning to scrape the surface of this one –
the latest Mountain Goats album was released in early November – and its
position so high in the countdown is perhaps more reflective of my growing
fascination with the work of Mr. Darnielle and a lot of time spent listening to
the Goats’ back catalogue this year (I’m even thinking of putting together an ICA
for JC… if I ever get the time).
10. Jonathan Richman – Only Frozen Sky Anyway
It’s a while since I’ve listened to any new releases from
Jonathan Richman – in fact, I don’t think I’m familiar with any of the albums
he’s put out this century, only the stuff from his prime in the late 70s early
80s, and the classic 1990 release Jonathan Goes Country.
I was suckered into falling for this one through his cover /
reinvention / Jonathanisation of the Bee Gees’ Night Fever, but there’s much
more joy to be found here. The critics tell me the album dwells on death and
mortality – but isn’t that to be expected from an artist with six decades in
the music business? I can’t say I noticed it anyway, I was more taken with his
customary wit and wisdom (making me wonder why I haven’t paid more attention to
his more recent output), deep philosophical insight (which you can take or
leave, it never feels like he’s pontificating) and splashes of Spanish, as on Se
Va Pa'Volver and Little Black Bat.
9. Divine Comedy – Rainy Sunday Afternoon
Another late entry to the countdown, released at the end of
September, yet already confirming itself as a glorious addition to the
Neil Hannon songbook. It’s a deeper and more personal record than his rather
frivolous last recording, Office Politics – incredibly, that was six years ago,
but Neil kept himself busy writing the soundtrack to Wonka in the meantime.
Unlike the Jonathan Richman record, I could
definitely spot mortality as a major theme here – understandably, as it turns
out Neil lost both his father and his favourite dog while working on these
songs. Yet it’s never a depressing record – there’s a lightness, a joy to be
found in even the most contemplative of tracks. Just none of the pure comedy
moments Neil often throws in to satisfy his Noel Coward urges.
It always amazes me that The Divine Comedy came to fame at
the height of Britpop, since Hannon’s songwriting belongs to another era
entirely. Coward yes, but Cole Porter too.
The Grim Reaper is always busier than normal over the festive season, but it seems particularly cruel to take Chris Rea three days before Christmas... giving crass DJs across the country a dilemma about whether they make that joke or not.
Here's an idea - don't. A great man just died. That shouldn't be an excuse to reach for the lowest hanging fruit.
Yes, I said Great Man. Because although Chris Rea often gets lumped into the Dad Rock category with Dire Straits and Robert Palmer... er... sorry, I'm not sure where I'm going with that, because I like all three of those artists - and not just now that I'm a Dad... I loved them when I was a teenager too. And this is why I'll never be accepted into the Illuminati of Cool Bloggers.
Still, Road To Hell was a cracking album, and I bought my copy long before Alan Partridge did, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
By the time he made it really big with that record, Chris had already been kicking around the charts for over a decade, and he'd recorded some cracking tunes along the way. Dad-Rock staples? Who cares? A good tune's a good tune.
So DJs - forget making the obvious remarks about Christopher Anton Rea's Christmas song today. A far better tune to play for Chris right now would be this one...
As it's Christmas, and we've already observed the tradition of Roasting The Bono, I thought we'd follow that up with a few Carols. Feel free to sing along if you know the words...
THE CAROLS #1
We start today with some Detroit Carols, led by Tommy Edwards, active since the late
40s when they won an amateur contest at the Frolic Show Bar. Included below are
the A and B sides of their first release on CBS… “Drink Gin” was not well
reviewed in Billboard, to say the least.
Three British sisters from the late 60s – Caroline, Helen
and Marion Samuels – but only one of them won the band name competition. Were
also known as The Carolines, to rub salt further into that sibling-rivalry
wound.
From 1966, here’s a Scouse band whose actual surname was Carroll – led by Eunice, with her three brothers, Lee, Ron and Mike. Eunice
would later change her name to Faith Brown and broaden her act to include
comedy and impressions… here she is with Sooty & Sweep.
No definite article for these Carols from Seattle in 2014. “I
might record vocals on this later once I get around to buying a good vocal mic,”
the lead (only?) Carol admits on her bandcamp page. I’m presuming she’s still
saving up. Still, at least there’s a Christmas connection in the song title.
It’s A Wonderful Life… if you don’t weaken.
Jangly indie from 2020 made by West Yorkshire lads Andrew
Pankhust and Robert Kennedy – one now lives in London, the other in Scotland,
and they hadn’t met in person for 10 years when they recorded this, via the
interweb, doing the covid lockdown. Far more information than you will ever
need to know about them can be found on their bandcamp page.
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