The Near Misses

Jucifer
Mine Enemy Hunger

I was quite sad this didn’t make it into the top twenty, because I really love it. This eclectic two piece offer up a plate of delicacies diverse enough to tempt any palate. They can do punk with ease (see the album highlight ‘Pontius of Palia’), and then shift effortlessly to dreamy-sexy stargazing (‘My Benefactor’), only to then revert to fall-bollocks metal (‘Luchamos’). Brilliant stuff. What lets it down, and ultimately stopped it getting the top 15 finish it otherwise deserved, was the fact that the first two tracks are utter rubbish. Why on earth they recorded them, let alone placed them both on, and indeed at the start of, the album, I have no idea. Shame, because with an eighth of the album of the scrap heap, I simply couldn’t justify bumping albums that didn’t have any shit tracks on them out of the top twenty. Still, 13 brilliant songs out of 15 ain’t bad…

The Longcut
A Call and Response

A great album of Sonic Youth-esque experimental lo-fi. The Longcut suffer from not having a decent singer (something that was clearly apparent when I saw them live), but otherwise this is a superb album full of invention and understatement. There are elements of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead here, as well as the Pixies, but there is also a dance element that sets them apart, and evokes mid-era Chemical Brothers or something of that ilk. Not quite there yet, and a new singer would be a good move, but album number two could be really special.

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stadium Arcadium

The Chilis have got a lot of stick for this album, and in some respects I can see why. There is nothing to jump out at you over the whole two discs. It is not an exciting album in the way that Blood Sugar Sex Magic or Californication were. As such, it was never going to get in my top twenty. Having said all that, I do really like it, and the detractors, for my money, go too far. Yes, Stadium Arcadium represents the path of least resistance for a band who could do better. Yet, there is not a single duff track over two entire albums worth of music. I like every single song, and have listened to it loads. There is a level of songwriting and musicianship here that is scrupulously maintained in a consistently good (and huge) album. The problem, of course, is that consistency isn’t enough. There is nothing here to challenge either the Chilis or me. I like every track. I don’t love any of them.