Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Compelling art pop from the Big Apple that comes over like Talking Heads for the MySpace generation. Full of irresistible songs such as ‘Over And Over Again (Lost & Found)’. We clapped our hands and we said hell yes!

The Warning

Hot Chip

An unashamed homage to the power of the electronic groove. Never has repetition sounded as right as it did on the hit single ‘Over And Over’. We liked this a lot, a lot, a lot...

So This Is Goodbye

Junior Boys

These cool Canadians have made a brilliant dance album for people who can’t be bothered to dance, picking up where Kraftwerk and Talk Talk left off. ‘In The Morning’ in particular is a perfect piece of electronic pop.

Real Life

Joan As Police Woman

This hip singer/songwriter with a jazz-punk edge used to date Jeff Buckley and has played with everyone from Nick Cave to Lou Reed. ‘Real Life’ provides one spine-tingling moment after another, but it was ‘The Ride’ and ‘Eternal Flame’ that really blew us away.

Ys

Joanna Newsome 

Newsome’s strange, child-like voice and dazzling harp playing add up to create a bizarre but wonderfully dreamy leftfield folk album. An acquired taste for sure, but an artistic masterpiece for certain.

The Trials of Van Occupanther

Midlake 

Fleetwood Mac plus a shot of indie cool equalled plenty of songs we couldn’t help singing along to, but it was ‘Roscoe’ that was the absolute killer tune. The soft rock of the Seventies never rocked this good...

Back to Black

Amy Winehouse

Lily Allen’s ‘Alright, Still’ was a close contender, but pop music’s greatest album of the year was forged through Winehouse’s brilliant alliance with hip hop producer Mark Ronson. No one can deny the sheer soul power of the infectious ‘Rehab’ and the new single ‘You Know I’m No Good’. Modern-day Motown, no less.

The Greatest

Cat Power

Everyone needs a little Cat Power magic in their lives; she has to be one of contemporary music’s most cherished singer/songwriters, blessed with both hypnotic voice and skilful penmanship, as evidenced on songs such as ‘Could We’. Her latest album, ‘The Greatest’, was exactly that.

The Loon

Tapes 'n Tapes

Fresh from the other side of the Atlantic, these guys were one of the few indie bands to live up to their hype. Here was infectious indie rock that acknowledged its debt to the Pixies and the Beach Boys but was brave enough to break the rules.

Lunatico

Gotan Project

Following the success of their first album, ‘La Revancha Del Tango’, these French/Swiss/Argentine musicians returned with another winning, but more mature, marriage of tango and electronica. Chill-out music for those sophisticated souls who don’t want to be listening to ‘chill-out music’.

Freedom Fields

Seth Lakeman

The fiddle-playing Devonian deserved the success he has enjoyed in the past year for this mystical collection of songs. Warm and very English.

Something for the Weekend 3

Mr & Mrs Smith
Sorry, we couldn't help ourselves: this, the third in our series devoted to aural escapism is, naturally, the best yet.