So I have seen many other bloggers start to talk about their albums of the year. I am certain that I do not have any power or responsibility and have never been able to influence anyone in music decisions, however 2011 has been a superb year for music I like.
I cannot even begin to rank albums 1 to 10 but I will attempt to narrow down my Top 5 favourites for this year, in no particular order.
So for my first choice I am going to start with everyone's favourite ex-grunge king, the Tenacious D Satan himself and his band of merry men (one of which is Taylor Hawkins, not as a friend once announced on the Download Festival bus full of fellow metal heads, 'ooh Taylor Swift is here with his band' - still LMAO).
Foo Fighters - we all know them, we all love them, right?
For me I have never been a huge Nirvana fan. At the height of their fame I rallied against the craziness, I despised the 10 year olds wearing the smiley face t-shirts, I mean what would they know, surely they were just trying to be cool, making a grunge act cool. Some say that the rise to fame and the coolness is ultimately what prompted Kurt to end it all, others say it was Courtney's fault - I have no idea.
Back then I enjoyed Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica (pre - Lou Reed WTF) and Anthrax, I didn't really connect with Nirvana. A good friend once saw them play at the Hummingbird in Birmingham where Kurt came on stage, promptly threw up and then the gig kind of continued - seriously I just didn't get it.
In contrast and quite weirdly I did get Mudhoney - In and Out of Grace is still a tuuunnee. I did like PWEI and Neds Atomic Dustbin, but to be honest they were Midlands bands so that was enough for me. Eventually, when I stopped being the opposite of everyone else and my friend made me listen to the Nirvana Unplugged album I finally understand the genius and tortured characters. I would still not call myself a fan - I only own the Singles Collections.
Anyway in this band was a man called Dave Grohl who has undoubtedly conquered the rock world. He is cool: fact. And, nowadays cool is OK for me - I mean I like Bring Me The Horizon and they are cool dudes - man up Metal world, it can come in all shapes and sizes - I mean look at us lot!
I bought the Foo Fighters debut album and immediately enjoyed the old sound and the punk-esque style they were creating. The Colour & The Shape came next which amongst all its tracks (love Monkeywrench) it gave us the anthem that is Everlong. After this "There is Nothing Left to Lose" and the now famous comedy videos which accompanied the hits "Learning to Fly" etc... The Foos had been consistently great.
I was also a particular fan of Dave Grohl's side project Probot (more please!!) which brought together some great collaborations including Lemmy of Motörhead, Conrad "Cronos" Lant from Venom, King Diamond, Scott Weinrich, and Max Cavalera of Sepultura.
Then the album 'One by One' arrived and I felt that the Foos were starting to wane, there were a few stand out tracks but my doubts were creeping in. "In Your Honour" and "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" passed me by completely as my attention moved away from the Foos and I wrote them off.
In 2011 I heard a rumour - the Foos were returning with a new album. Sigh! I was just not excited. That is until I took a gamble and purchased the album on one of those bored Monday mornings browsing the shops simply looking for some new music.
The gamble paid off - the album was and is a blinder. It stayed on my stereo for weeks, play after play, time after time, until my good lady nicked it for her car.
They were back to former glories. Now maybe it was because they mixed an recorded the album in (I believe) Dave's garage. That gave us the old skool sound once again, my nostalgia for their first album returning. Or maybe it was simply because the album has kick-ass sing-a-long tunes on it. I like angry, screaming, incomprehensible Metal as much as they rest of us (excluding of course you readers who hate metal!), but there are times I just like to ride along in the car and sing like a maniac - this album lets you do this relentlessly.
If you haven't picked up this album then stick it you your tweet to Santa - it rocks: FACT!
http://youtu.be/kbpqZT_56Ns
That's it for album number one - 4 to go...
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