Best Of: 100 Favourite All-Time Records

Two years ago I posted a first version of this list, but since then it has naturally evolved and changed. Tomorrow it will be 3 years since I first started this blog so, as to commemorate, it now seems a good time to re-upload this list in an updated version. I'm sure (and thankful) that there's still so much out there or to come...so, as always, stay tuned and stick around.

Here is the updated list (in chronological order):

BEACH BOYS - Pet Sounds (1966)
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
DR JOHN - Gris Gris (1968)
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & HIS MAGIC BAND - Trout Mask Replica (1969)
MARVIN GAYE - What's Going On (1971)
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE - There's A Riot Goin'On (1971)
SERGE GAINSBOURG - Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)
NEU! - Neu! (1972)
MILES DAVIS - On The Corner (1972)
FUNKADELIC - America Eats Its Young (1972)
CAN - Future Days (1973)
ROXY MUSIC - For Your Pleasure (1973)
DAVID BOWIE - Aladdin Sane (1973)
CURTIS MAYFIELD - There's No Place Like America Today (1975)
BRIAN ENO - Another Green World (1975)
DAVID BOWIE - Station To Station (1976)
SUICIDE - Suicide (1977)
KRAFTWERK - Trans-Europe Express (1977)
TELEVISION - Marquee Moon (1977)
DAVID BOWIE - Low (1977)
WIRE - Chairs Missing (1978)
GANG OF FOUR - Entertainment! (1979)
P.I.L. - Metal Box (1979)
DAVID BOWIE - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS - Colossal Youth (1980)
TALKING HEADS - Remain In Light (1980)
JOY DIVISION - Closer (1980)
PRINCE - Dirty Mind (1980)
GRACE JONES - Nightclubbing (1981)
KRAFTWERK - Computer World (1981)
TOM TOM CLUB - Tom Tom Club (1981)
PRINCE - Controversy (1981)
WAS (NOT WAS) - WAS (NOT WAS) (1981)
A CERTAIN RATIO - Sextet (1982)
MICHAEL JACKSON - Thriller (1982)
PRINCE - 1999 (1982)
NEW ORDER - Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - Purple Rain (1984)
ARVO PÄRT - Tabula Rasa (1984)
MADONNA - Like A Virgin (1984)
SONIC YOUTH - Evol (1986)
PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION - Parade (1986)
JANET JACKSON - Control (1986)
PRINCE - Sign'O'The Times (1987)
BIG BLACK - Songs About Fucking (1987)
SONIC YOUTH - Daydream Nation (1988)
PUBLIC ENEMY - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)
PET SHOP BOYS - Introspective (1988)
NEW ORDER - Technique (1989)
DE LA SOUL - 3 Feet High And Rising (1989)
BEASTIE BOYS - Paul's Boutique (1989)
THE KLF - Chill Out (1990)
PET SHOP BOYS - Behaviour (1990)
PUBLIC ENEMY - Fear Of A Black Planet (1990)
THE KLF - The White Room (1991)
MY BLOODY VALENTINE - Loveless (1991)
MADONNA - Erotica (1992)
UNDERWORLD - Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1993)
NIRVANA - In Utero (1993)
SANDALS - Rite To Silence (1994)
PAVEMENT - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain (1994)
JON HASSELL AND BLUESCREEN - Dressing For Pleasure (1994)
BLUR - Parklife (1994)
TRICKY - Maxinquaye (1995)
GOLDIE - Timeless (1995)
PULP - Different Class (1995)
BJÖRK - Post (1995)
BECK - Odelay (1996)
MOTORBASS - Pansoul (1996)
BJÖRK - Homogenic (1997)
KELIS - Kaleidoscope (1999)
BECK - Midnight Vultures (1999)
D'ANGELO - Voodoo (2000)
SIGUR RÓS - Ágætis byrjun (2000)
MIRWAIS - Production (2000)
BJÖRK - Vespertine (2001)
THE STROKES - Is This It? (2001)
DAFT PUNK - Discovery (2001)
JAY-Z - The Blueprint (2001)
THE NOTWIST - Neon Golden (2002)
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE - Justified (2002)
OUTKAST - Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (2003)
BJÖRK - Medúlla (2004)
THE TOUGH ALLIANCE - The New School (2005)
KHONNOR - Handwriting (2005)
BLOC PARTY - Silent Alarm (2005)
GORILLAZ - Demon Days (2005)
THE KNIFE - Silent Shout (2006)
KODE9 + THE SPACEAPE - Memories Of The Future (2006)
BEYONCE - B'Day (2006)
CLIPSE - Hell Hath No Fury (2006)
JENS LEKMAN - Night Falls Over Kortedala (2007)
THE TOUGH ALLIANCE - A New Chance (2007)
STUDIO - Yearbook 1 (2007)
BURIAL - Untrue (2007)
BRITNEY SPEARS - Blackout (2007)
ROBYN - Robyn (2007)
PATRICK WOLF - The Magic Position (2007)
KANYE WEST - 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
LOS CAMPESINOS! - Hold On Now, Youngster... (2008)

3 songs for the week

Ellie Goulding - Wish I Stayed (feat. Frankmusik)





"Simple ways getting played"

One of my female tips for 2009, Ellie Goulding has a touching vulnerable voice and great song-writing skills. In this song, her lovely introspective charms are joined together with the electro-pop midas-touch of Frankmusik, one never shy to add a bit of vocoder here and there. The result, marrying folk with electro, is nothing short of brilliant and one of the best songs I've heard in a while.

MySpace page


Giantess - Tuff 'n Stuff





"How do we get high when the sun gets low?"

A few more months and these guys will be everyone's favourite new band. Stick-in-your-head melodies, an absurd amount of involving keyboards and infectious synth-lines, and so much loud energy and intense exuberance that, when getting into the chorus, they have no choice but to slow it down and make a catchy-as-fuck love declaration.

MySpace page


US Royalty - Keep It Cool (Bo Flex Remix)





"Words slipping through my hands"

The original is just an average rock track, but Bo Flex (a.k.a. Ayad Al-Adhamy, a Passion Pit member that also doubles as producer of Giantess) takes it into a whole new level, immersing the melody into layers of icy synths and unashamedly dated keyboards and handclaps, creating a celebratory anthem to shout out loud.

MySpace page

Marina & The Diamonds - Obsessions (video)

"I want to wipe out all the sad ideas that come to me when I am holding you"

2009 is setting up to be a great year for girls. While the Swedish charms of Lykke Li pretty much ruled the whole 2008, we now have the likes of Little Boots, Ellie Goulding or La Roux as some of the new talents that have been blossoming lately, all of them with enough charisma and strong identity to make them do whatever they want. Marina & The Diamonds (or just Marina, plus an imaginary backing band) is one of the best newcomers to add to this list, and if you need some reasons right now to love her, just press the "play" buttom in the amazing video above, a brilliantly-shot piece based in a creative low-budget concept and her fierce presence. The song itself is a technicolor pop beast of its own, with haunting vocals, theatrical atmospheres, lavish orchestrations and an unique sense of raw eccentricity. It's actually for things like this that the word "irresistible" has been invented.

MySpace page

Theophilus London - This Charming Mixtape

A great medium for an artist to expose his work without any constraints like copyright rules or sales pressure, free mixtapes do tell a lot about their author. Judging from what you can hear in "This Charming Mixtape" (download it here), Theophilus London will be huge. Featuring some of his own original work, along with covers, remixes and instrumentals from the likes of Kraftwerk, Amadou & Mariam, obscure post-punk bands and also wicked versions of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" or Crazy Cousins' "Bongo Jam", there's just too much happening in here to put this Brooklyn guy in just one shell, so calling it hip-hop would actually be kind of limited. Truth is, the closest thing that we get to more classic hip-hop sounds is a cover version of Lauryn Hill’s “Take My Eyes Off Of You”, because the rest... the rest is a kaleidoscopic journey that includes electro, soul, techno, breakbeat, african pop, new-wave and ends up with a gospel-inspired song, while Theo does some of his clever rhymes on top, rapping and singing with his smooth and confident posture. Touching so many things and with radical shifts from one track to another, everything still flows so naturally and gracefully that it's inevitable to see the "charming" of the title as more of a deserved auto-compliment than just a nod to an old The Smiths song. Oh, and if you think you've seen the above cover somewhere before, you're right, it was this one:



Yes, too many cool references but who cares when this sounds so fresh and original? (8/10)

UPDATE: Theophilus London - Always Love You clip



MySpace page

Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Songs From The Beehive

Coming from Heidelberg in Germany, David Moufang (a.k.a. Move D) is already a veteran in electronic music, with more than 15 years of releases in inumerous projects like the ambient-jazz technologic adventures of the Conjoint collective or the hybrid fusions of Studio Pankow. Recently re-discovered by a new clubbers generation, his latest album is a collaboration with ambient techno producer Benjamin Brunn and, even if not starting new paths to electronic music, it does contain some truly addictive sounds. With only 7 tracks, most of which with more than 10 minutes long, each piece takes its time to evolve, unfolding and unravelling new dimensions with each new listen. The basis in these songs may be those profound minimal beats that seem designed for more sophisticated and underground dancefloors but what comes around them is much more than that, containing inventive and ulta-deep sounds rarely associated with techno music, a bit like melting liquid atmospheres and solid beats together to create a new geometric world that exhales an unparalleled ellegance. Subliminally, a sensual and mysterious ambience sets in and we end up being directed towards the unknown. (8/10)

Telepathe - Dance Mother

With so many things raising that always-dubious coolness/hipster factor (girl/girl duo, coming from Brooklyn, produced by TV On The Radio man David Sitek, etc.), there was real danger of all this actually working against Telepathe, in case their music didn't meet expectations. But one song in, and those Moroder synths and pop hooks beneath all the reverb and echoed effects that can be heard in "So Fine" leave all fears behind: this stuff has the ability to conquer even the most cynical ears. The rest of "Dance Mother" never lets the guard down, with a grandiose sound full of the most amazing details that really seem like the future, just as their MySpace page promises. So, David Sitek doing wonders once again at the production helm. But the best thing is that, for all the modern technology and computer-processed elements they use (arcade games glitches, techno/r&b beats, filtered vocals and samples, processed keyboards and treated percussive sounds) there's also a bit of an old-school rock band feeling, one not shy to use their guitars with layers of reverb, adding up tribal drums and, above all, cristalline-pop melodic vocals. Behind all the machinery, one always needs a human touch to add emotions to it, and each song in "Dance Mother" has more than enough drama to prove this theory right. (7/10)

Telepathe - So Fine (video)

Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart (video)

"This will never end 'cause I want more"

Remember The Knife? It was in 2006 that this Swedish duo took the world by storm with their third album "Silent Shout" and its spooky atmospheres that didn't sound like anything else at that time (hell, 3 years on and they still don't). To complete the unique ambience of their music, there were also jaw-dropping videos and shows with the most amazing visuals, as seen in "Silent Shout - An Audio Visual Experience". Well then, good news: even if they are not officially back, their female half, Karin Dreijer Andersson, has a new album coming out soon and judging by this first song and video, the creativity is bloody intact. Darker and scarier than ever, "If I Had A Heart" is a little cinematographic piece of art that slowly and patiently builds a fascinating universe, with an extremely creepy video directed by long-time The Knife collaborator Andreas Nilsson, that includes a wolf passing by, dead corpses, cold house interiors, a singer with a skull face paint and two little children lost and terrified, looking at something they can't understand.

Official site
MySpace page

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlandia

The second of a trilogy dedicated to mankind's relationship with technology, "Fordlandia" is a delicate piece of modern classical music featuring aching lovely sounds. The fact that its composer comes from Iceland, makes the comparisons with this country's beautiful landscapes almost inevitable: there's a feeling of something grandiose, icy and ethereal that brings to mind those inspiring Icelandic images we've grown used to admire. The title track, with its almost 14 minutes of sublime intensity, sets the tone: it's built around a gorgeous and melancholic melody of strings slowly rising over a discreet layer of electronic sounds, ending up in a powerful tone of breathless proportions. It's like a soundtrack to a touching non-existing movie and it's amazing. The rest of the album applies those same techniques, with a collection of small symphonies of strings, choral elements and soft electronics that exhale various emotional depths. And even if it never quite reaches again the highs of those first 14 minutes, it still has a lot to tell, besides the many detailed concepts behind each song, expressed in its titles and liner notes. Mostly, there's also an hypnotic story of a simple yet majestic dream, put into sounds with an impressive restraint that makes its quiet moments breathe a peaceful serenity, while its peaks go even more up there. (7/10)

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Melodia (Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device based on Heim´s Quantum Theory) (video)



Official site
MySpace page

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

The reception to this record (absurd amounts of expectation followed by hysterical reactions of love and appraisal everywhere since its leak) can very well be translated by "In The Flowers", the first song included in "Merriweather Post Pavilion": mysterious and hypnotic arpeggios build an atmosphere of obsessive anticipation to something huge that is about to happen, with Avey Tare incessantly singing words like "the dancer who gets wild to the deep revelling rhythm" or "if I could just leave my body for a night"; and then, when we can't hold the expectation any longer, everything finally erupts and multiplies into an immense catharsis of sounds and rhythms that really, for lack of better words, is fucking excellent. As a side note, I have to confess that, for a few moments and before hearing it, I almost wanted to not like this album, seeing such an enormous and almost annoying consensus over it, and also because I was kinda disappointed with their previous "Strawberry Jam". But hey, believe the hype, this record is really that and that good. The thing is, after that first song / cathartic explosion, they manage to maintain (or even surpass!) the feeling of euphoric blissfulness induced, using everything they can lay their hands on (and some more) to build larger than life songs that, more than causing goosebumps, actually manage to open your brain and aim directly to your whole body. Using a multitude of layers that include infinite sounds, voices, melodies, rhythms, samples, all recorded very loud but with crystal clear detail, this is the most sincere soundtrack to a party where 3 guys are having the time of their lives playing with sequencers, samplers, vocal harmonies and everything else they have nearby. So much so that, more than a dozen listens on, and I'm still discovering a whole new world of details in each of these incredibly amazing 11 songs. So yeah, guess I'm one more joining the club: this is radiant happiness at its best. (9/10)

UPDATE: here is the official video for "My Girls", which btw may very well become THE SONG of 2009.



MySpace page
Official site

Zomby - Where Were U in '92?

Ten years emulating the eighties and the consequence could only be one: history following its natural course and the first signs of a nineties revival starting to show up. Zomby is a London producer usually associated with the dubstep movement, but with "Where Were U In '92?", he shifts his attention into actually answering that question in the title. So what happened in 1992? Acid and rave cultures were at its high and very close to eat itself into decline, while jungle was just around the corner to be the next big thing. And 15 years later, here's the natural follow-up to those exciting times, full of harcore breakbeats, pitched pianos and female vocals, dense jungle rhythms, sirens and rave riffs, making up an explosive cocktail that doesn't limit itself to be a piece of nostalgia. For every element that takes us back in time in this album, there's always a new perspective to support it, complete with an absurd amount of fresh energy that only wants to live the present at its fullest. (9/10)

Zomby - Fuck Mixing, Let's Dance (mp3 via Neonized)



MySpace page

frYars (feat. Dave Gahan) - Visitors (video)

"For the price of a human heart it's really not that bad"

Our London boy Ben Garrett (a.k.a. frYars) is never able to disappoint us, and his latest track comes to once again prove this theory right. "Visitors" is a an electro delight with some irresistible dark twisted vibes and featuring the voice of Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode (apparently he was in a nearby studio when the song was being remastered, liked it a lot and insisted on participating). I've been following Ben's work since his second demo "The Ides" of late 2007 and nothing convinces me that this guy is not blessed with a special talent and an unique voice to match. Thankfully, things are really happenning for him now: his first album "Dark Young Hearts" is finally scheduled to go out in March this year and it will be one of the the first releases published through the revolutionary Bandstocks model, where you can basically own part of the records you like, investing as little as 10 pounds in it, which will get you a share of its revenues among other exclusive stuff. Not bad, huh? And judging from his work so far: Can't. Fucking. Wait. to get my hands on it.

Official site / Blog
MySpace page
Facebook page

Polaroids # 28

8 amazing days full of Scandinavian good-treats, spent in Copenhagen (plus a short visit to Malmö)...









Pictures taken in Copenhagen, Denmark (and Malmö, Sweden) between 28th December 2008 - 5th January 2009)

The Tough Alliance - The Last Dance (video)

"Not looking back - Letting go / Disidentification complete. / May I have the last dance?"

- Happy New Year everyone!