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10. Våre Demoner. Kaizers Orchestra (2009)
I understand that Våre Demoner is an album filled with leftovers, but when a band has leftovers of this quality, it tells you something about how good it was at the time and how fruitful the sessions were that it could afford not to put these songs on one of the records. The album filled up some years of inactivity, before the band started its work on the final push of the three 'Violeta Violeta' albums (see on 26). The fun starts with the title song that is simply one of Kaizers Orchestra's best. Everything the band is good at, comes together in this song. The Dick Dale twang of the guitars, a great melody allowing me to sing along to in a language I do not understand, the weird tempi, the staccato rhythms that includes the way the organ is played, but above all the fun 'Våre Demoner' shares with its listeners. And then the rest of the album still has to come. A killer of an album, but not the band's best.
With 'Take Me Out' Franz Ferdinand, named after the tragically assassinated crown prince of the Austrian-Hungarian Habsburg empire, came into my life and most likely in that of a lot of people with a huge bang. I remember buying the album, in the same record store as the first Kaizers Orchestra album two years before, and decided that I had heard enough in the first seconds of 'Jacqueline'. When a band starts an album like that while I know that it will be so much different, things can't go wrong. And it didn't. Franz Ferdinand was my new band for the whole of two years. (See above.) The collection of songs on this album is simply so good and a tremendous lot of fun. FraFer manages to make the difficult sound easy. It may be that a band like Gang of Four was the main inspiration for the band's music, it is the melodic prowess of a band like The Beatles that wins out. Gang of Four and others from the first postpunk era never came close to anything I'm hearing on 'Franz Ferdinand'. This is the best album of all these bands ever and was my album of 2004.
As a historian I have to add, that while visiting the spot in 2023 where the crown prince and his wife Sophia was killed, I could only wonder how the driver could accidentally drive into this dead end street, without being part of the conspiracy. Had it not been for the fact that Gavrilo Princip was not supposed to be at that exact location. He ran there. It remains a mystifying mistake as they were still so far off from the station. A mistake with very grave consequences, even 25 and more years later.
The album that no one believed would ever come again, despite all the rumours going over 15 years. Yes, the blues album was good, but not for this list. And then 'Angry' came out and really nailed it. The sound was so strong and that riff so cool and good. And then came the biggest surprise, 'Sweet Sounds Of Heaven', a song with Lady Gaga of all people. The song floored me, although it took two listening sessions for it to do so. 'Sweet Sounds Of Heaven' is one the band's best songs ever. I had the pleasure to be able to travel to Japan in October 2023 for first work and then vacation. Hackney Diamonds was released while I was there and I bought it in Tokyo in a huge record store, Tower Records. It was sold out everywhere I tried before. Once home I was able to play the album and knew that The Rolling Stones delivered one more time, although rumour has it that there are more songs from the recording sessions to come. The biggest surprise is Paul McCartney's huge, fuzzed bass solo on 'Bite My Head Off'. A guest role for a Beatle on Stones album! Producer Andrew Watt really got the best out of the three remaining pensioners. Charlie Watts had recorded two of the songs before he died and even Bill Wyman plays bass on one of the songs. Hackney Diamonds shows that artists are never to old to deliver a masterpiece. If the album is not, it comes pretty damn close and was my album of 2023.
The swan song on this list. Bowie released a new album on his birthday and I bought it more because of his name than because I thought it would be any good. The reviews gave me the impression this would not be for me. Was I wrong. Black Star is a beautiful album, that goes so deep. All the jazzy sounds that make the album so special. Bowie knew he was dying and wanted to leave behind something the world would remember him by, and succeeded in a great way. From the long and oh so mysterious opening track to the final notes this album takes the listener on a musical trip, showing all the different elements that mark Bowie's musicianship. Assisted by a score of jazz musicians from the New York scene and long time friend and producer Tony Visconti, something truly special was created, Music that is not for me but turned out to be exactly for me. That was the biggest surprise. And two days later there was an even bigger surprise. While listening to the morning radio show with Giel Beelen who was talking to Triggerfinger's singer, we all learned that Bowie was dead. He had managed to keep his fatal illness a secret for nearly everybody. The musical 'Lazarus' was already playing and then the museums opened with all the artifacts from his career. Bowie kept surprising his fans for a while longer. Black Star was my album of 2016.
Two, three weeks ago my son was visiting and I asked him what album would you like to hear. First 'The Wall' and then 'The Plan'. I had not played the album for some time and was surprised how good it is. I knew it's good but it was even better than I remembered. The Plan was a band from Sweden and may have recorded an additional album. If so, it never found me. This is the one. The only chance I had to see The Plan live proved impossible for me on that date. 'The Plan' kicks off with 'Mon Amour', a totally deranged shot of energy. I just love that song so much. Upbeat, up tempo, with a slightly odd rhythm and singing that verges on off key and beyond. And yet, it all works a miracle. The horns add to the party 'Mon Amour' already is. It never gets that good again on 'The Plan', yet as a whole the record is tremendously good. The weirdness is translated into good songs. The singing that is just as weird, the exuberance the musicians put into their playing, all together makes for a great record. If 'The Plan' wasn't my record of the year 2002, it's obvious in 2024 that it should have been.
One more and final Kaizers Orchestra record in the list. Maestro, the band's third, is the best one of all. The records on which everything really came together. The songs are better, the extraordinary rhythms involving a car wheel, a crow bar, work gloves, oil drums and traditional percussion, all meshed into a rhythm that is impossible to play for any lay man. Wiping the sweat off their brows the band members are when these songs are played live. The songs about the war, decadence, Dieter Meier's Institution, and whatever else the album is about, as my Norwegian is non-existent, let alone the Bergen dialect, are totally impressive. I was already a fan of Kaizers Orchestra. From here on the relationship was rock solid as the band's presence in this list shows. Maestro was not my album of the year 2005. It hindsight it should have been.
My record of the year 2013 was not by by Arctic Monkeys, but by TMGS. Time corrected this. AM is the album where the transition was set even more into motion. Where the punk feathers were ruffled and totally shed. I had not thought that the band from here onwards would develop the way it did. All songs on AM were strong but still easy to follow. Alex Turner did not yet have the ambition to become a latter day Frank Sinatra. With a bunch of strong singles leading the way, AM found its way to the masses easily with the songs who clearly have a lasting impact. 'Do I Wanna Know?', 'R U Mine', 'One For The Road', "Why Do You Only Call Me When You're High', are all songs that drive the point home. Where at the time I thought this album to be to Arctic Monkeys what 'Revolver' was to The Beatles, it sort of became the end of road instead of the last step towards utter brilliance. Who knows what's still to come though?
My album from 2006 is up next. The album that came out with a bang. My introduction came through single '(I Bet You Look Good On The) Dancefloor'. One of the very, very best songs of this century so far. The energy it has, the wild intro and that super, super strong chorus. It's an explosion, just like Alex Turner sings. And most of that energy comes through from the whole album. This band was not afraid to musically do things totally different, while showing everything it has to their fans and fans to be. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is one of the best debut albums ever made and unlike many of those albums, not the band's best. (Patience, patience, dear listener.) Look how the album opens (and that video accompanying it). I have seldom heard a more powerful opening song to a career. One of the other singles, 'Fake Tales Of San Francisco' has this change to it that is beyond imagination for most artists. The world only is turned upside down from one minute 40 seconds. The drumming is incredibly powerful, the bass runs utterly fantastic, the power of the band everything that comes with youthful self-confidence. When Arctic Monkeys came on the scene there was no saving Franz Ferdinand. As I wrote earlier, Franz Ferdinand is to Arctic Monkeys what John the Baptist was to Jesus of Nazareth. Musically I can best compare it like this: the tongue in cheek, well thought through witticism versus unleashed primordial power. Arctic Monkeys win with ease.
My album of 2022 is still holding out with ease. I just keep returning to the album and think it's still just as good as when it was finally released after all the strong singles. Wet Leg mixes the light and the shade, the fun with the seriousness and quality with more quality. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers started playing together in 2019 and three years later were ready to conquer the world, which they did together with recruited band members. I can only hope that in 2024 they still enjoy being musicians and are able to produce another even better album in 2025. Somehow I have my doubts if they still have fun. Time will tell. In the meantime I keep enjoying 'Wet Leg'. I came on board with 'Chaise Longue' and from single to single, the one even better than the other, with 'Wet Dream' as my absolute favourite, kept following the band. Another highlight is Rhian Teasdale announcing she's going to scream, counts down and starts screaming. Wet Leg weaves some nice musical jokes into its music, music that totally resonated with me.
1. Favourite Worst Nightmare. Arctic Monkeys (2007)
The best album of this quarter century and as a result the best album of Arctic Monkeys. The energy is still fully there, just like that youthful exuberance. The wildness was traded in for a more controlled way of playing. The band put constraints on the music and became better and more in control, making the songs sound better and more stylised. Overall the songs are of a higher level than on 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'. What mystified me at the time was the final song '505'. It proved to be the bellwether of things to come and not the odd one out. Arctic Monkeys would never be this good again as they were on Favourite Worst Nightmare. The band really got it all together and all influences from the best postpunk bands to The Police can be found on Favourite Worst Nightmare; the album of the period 2000 - 2024.
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