Music Spotlight by Daragh Mulligan

The year that was

Seeing that there's a lack of new album releases in January, I thought I might regale you with what I thought were the best albums of the year and, maybe, give you a few ideas for spending the vouchers that your Granny gave you.

In keeping with awards tradition, my favourites are in reverse order:

(5) Yours Truly, Angry Mob - Kaiser Chiefs.

A rocky and quirky snapshot of life from the Leeds quintet is a must have 2007 album. Everyone will remember the sing-along Ruby and the downtempo Love Is A Not Competition, but the diamond track for me on this album is the anthemof- the streets, The Angry Mob. This is a great CD to have in the car.

(4) Release The Stars - Rufus Wainwright.

Going To A Town is Rufus Wainwright's brilliant American disillusionment statement and you're bound to have heard in the radio. The album track Slideshow is simply majestic. This should've been number one, but out of pure music snobbery, I'm glad it wasn't.

(3) Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys

The dreaded follow-up to their multi-multi platinum selling debut Whatever People Say, That's What I Am, this album blazed on to our shelves in late April and actually lived up to it's hype. The singles Brainstorm and Fluorescent Adolescent gave the Artic Monkeys their deserved chart success and a massive outdoor arena tour. Expect 2008 to be an even bigger year for them (If that's possible!!).

(2) Life In Cartoon Motion - Mika

The surprise package of 2007, Grace Kelly had many asking who the Freddie Mercury sound-a-like was. Curiosity turned to sales and in December Life In Cartoon Motion was announced as the biggest selling album of the year.

It's camp, it's kitsch and it's brilliant. I could listen to Happy Ending for hours on end and never get tired of it. He was without a doubt one of my favourite moments of the Oxegen music festival.

(1) We'll Live And Die In These Towns - The Enemy

A bunch of scruffy young lads from Coventry stopped this cynical reviewer in his tracks the very first time he heard Had Enough. Such a mature, angry and very catchy song surely couldn't have come from someone so young?? But it did, as did the killer Your Not Alone and the Jam-influenced, We'll Live And Die In These Towns and the incredible This Song. Trust me on this, there isn't a bad track on this album. If you don't have this CD, I command you to buy it! If you only buy one album from last year, it really should be this one. Buy it now, because when they're huge in the future you'll be able to say you were 'into them from the start, man'.

So there you go, all that's left to say is: Happy New Year and enjoy the music! Darragh Mulligan

Back to Chill-out Homepage »