Top Ten Albums of the Decade (Part 1)

Apart from the actual decision making, this has been a hugely enjoyable exercise. Inevitably, it's a surprise to find just how old some of these albums are, but pleasant to discover that a few old favourites have released new albums recently. I hope choosing my favourites will be just as hard in 2019.

( The Final 12 )

And that's it, hope there was something new and interesting in there for you.

Top ten albums is a pretty predicatable subject as far as reviews of the year/decade go, but seeing the first of them before Xmas made me wonder what mine would be. Half an hour on iTunes and 45 albums later, I realised it would be like deciding what my favourite book or child was. Which is why there's 25 albums on the final list. I've always wanted to write more music reviews on here than I've had time for, so I will indulge myself.

I've followed the usual arbitrary rule of one album per band, but apart from that, these are basically the ones that I wound up playing the crap out of, for one reason or another. Ordered by year because this has caused enough scars already. There's a YouTube link for a song from each album as well.
( The First 13 )

Top Ten Albums of the Decade, Not Really (Part 2).

Going on the plinth

David Byrne (Talking Heads) invited Amnesty to his concert at the Barbican. We had a couple of petitions for people to sign and handed out flyers. Some kind person donated us the spare ticket of a sick friend. Only two of us knew who David Byrne was, so I got the first 45 minutes and another volunteer took the rest. I'd never heard any of the songs before, but it was very enjoyable and the dancers and choreography were beyond fabulous. Also, first big concert I've ever been to without a bag check, that was kinda weird.

( Read more: Paper cranes on the plinth )

( Read more: Climate Camp in London )

Third gig in four days... Both of Amanda Palmer's dates sold out to the disappointment of many, so she decided to organise an extra "secret" one on Sunday via Twitter. The idea was to start the show at midnight at the Underworld Club in Camden (cap. 500) and go on 'til she was too sleepy or too drunk. I was just in time for the release of the second batch of tix, so grabbed two and then called Xtian, who is a Dresden Dolls fan, and made him happy. :)

Amanda arrived on stage in a bra, men's underwear, stockings and boots, and asked the audience to dress her as she'd felt too ill to go shopping for a new outfit in Camden. The result was a tricorne, a small purple shirt and a fringey scarf. Someone threw a tie, so the scarf was demoted to skirt and Amanda put on the tie though she was a little concerned about it being too "Avril". But said she liked Avril's second album, which made me happy. :)

I now regret not having brought my camera, I really hadn't expected to be right in front of the keyboard with only a couple of people in front of me. Also it was weird to see that Xtian was the tallest person there at 6'4", while the rest were more my height. Quite different from the Netherlands!

It was a requests night so Amanda didn't even pretend to have a setlist this time, but the gig was even fuller than Saturday. By the second song she was attempting to read lyrics off someone's iPhone. #Screensaver, screensaver, still screensaver... There was a puppet sing-a-long, including a Neil Gaiman puppet which looked like it had button eyes. There was a violist, Una Palliser, who hadn't really rehearsed with AFP before but who was awesome, especially on "Half Jack". Meanwhile, the donated costume changes continued with the help of "stylist" Holly Gaiman, including a pink polka-dotted dress in size minus 2 and a vintage top hat (not at the same time). Neil Gaiman read one of his stories from the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book. Unfortunately, a merch failure meant I couldn't buy one and get it signed by both of them.

At some point, the manager announced a lock-in, but about an hour later word about a curfew was passed along. It was 3am at this point, so Amanda decided to sing Hallelujah to finish and the audience joined in. Lovely. Then as a bonus, she did "Oasis" again because the manager asked (and she was holding Amanda's coat hostage). It's a bit of a jumping up and down song but the crowd, while enthusiastic, was surprisingly immobile. New Rocks too heavy?

In sum, the sleep deprivation was totally worth it.

So I was a bit more tired last night than I thought, which resulted in bad links in both reviews. Thanks, Reinier. Wish LiveJournal had the equivalent of Google's Mail Goggles.

Last night, I also wanted to post a link to Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman's hymn but could only find one with poor sound quality. However, isihac has just posted another link on Twitter, thank you! The Brits seem to recognise the song though I'd never heard of it. NSFW.

Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer perform "Jump", Union Chapel, London, 12 Sept 2009