The Top 100 of the 10s, part 6

And the saga continues. Already we are at the fifth instalment of Wo.'s top 100 of the 10s. He confided in us that the intention was to make a top 50 and not bother you too much, but it proved too difficult and time consuming for him to select stricter. To save time he just made it a top 100. Perhaps it brings you some good memories or even ideas? and share your faves with us, will you?


60. Sun Leads Me On. Half Moon Run (2015)
Yes, it exist, an album that was not in my list in the year of release but in the overview of the whole decade. This is one of them. I liked the album but only really started to appreciate it when I found the LP at a nice discount and it did not leave my record player for quite some time. The band has certainly become more popular in this home in 2019 as well.

59. Ain't No Place. TMGS (2018)
The first of two albums by this band from Kalmthout in Belgium. Five years in the making but worth the wait every single second. Peter Lodiers has written another bunch of great songs that his band mates play so extremely well. It is a mystery that hardly anyone catches up on this band. They do come better, but not that much in this decade as you are bound to find out later this week.

58. Norman Fucking Rockwell! Lana Del Rey (2019)
This fairly recent album was made album of the year 2019 in 'Oor'. It seems I'm not going that far. In fact there is an album by Ms Del Rey I like considerably more than NFR! That said, it is clear that with this album Lana del Rey has made a giant step in her career and is taken completely seriously as an artist. And rightly so.

57. Springlevend. The Kik (2012)
The debut album of The Kik was a huge surprise. Springlevend is full of beautifully adorned cover versions of other people's songs. It did not bring the band as far as I had expected. Band leader Dave von Raven is everywhere all the time but it does not reflect as much on his band as one would hope. The more as it would have been more than deserved. Third album 'Stad En Land' fell just outside of this list.

56. Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action. Franz Ferdinand (2013)
'Take Me Out' was a canonshot of a single and still the best known one of the band from Glasgow. The albums followed slowly after the second one but when they came they always delivered. At least seven songs on this album are absolute top, with 'Bullet' as my absolute favourite.

55. A Blemish In The Great Light. Half Moon Run (2019)
As I admitted 2019 has it easier than older years. Yet, this album is so good. Half Moon Run reaches for a level of perfection that is not given to many bands. Not every song is as good, I think, but the way they are executed by this band full of multi instrumentalists is close to flawless. Some songs could have been just this little more free flowing, one melodic catch extra, but that is the only thing I can possibly argue in the face of perfection.

54. Komma. Broeder Dieleman (2018)
A double album, artwork, photo's, maps, this enormous piece of art released as a record deserves a place in a museum for more than one reason. Broeder Dieleman devides the musical part of this piece of art in two halves. Songs on the one and collages on the other album. That makes his album less intriguing than 'Uut De Bron, but hardly less beautiful. The impact of the first work was so much higher on me that you have to keep your patience.

53. Somos. Jarabe de Palo (2013)
And it is remaining silent ever since this album was released six years ago. An album I have not been able to buy. Not a store had it in Spain, I found on two different visits there. So I haven't listened as often to Somos as I would have otherwise. At the time I thought it to be so strong and a great fiesta. (Radiohead has stopped playing. So let me turn to Spotify for Somos.) No matter what, Jarabe de Palo is my favourite Spanish artist, ever since hearing 'La Flaca' for the first time in Salamanca in the summer of 1997. (And yes, the album is still so good.)

52. Bal. De Kift (2017)
One of the best Dutch language (punk) rock songs of The Netherlands is 'Bal', the song that opens Bal. The latest album by De Kift is a joy to listen to. How many bands exist for 30 years and still manage to show growth? De Kift is such a band. Not in approach and touch but certainly in melodies and harmonies. There's no comparing the band I got to know in the mid 90s and the band 20 years onwards. By now I've seen so many shows of the band and each one is a ball.

51. Stay Around. J.J. Cale (2019)
And so there is a posthumous album in this list. J.J. Cale passed away in 2013. His widow released an album with songs that were left behind here and there and is his strongest album in two decades. It is not an album with one mood, as J.J. Cale's albums of the past often were. There is more variance in the approach making the album better. J.J. Cale was a great, modest artist.

TBC

Wo.