My cds of the decade: and in equal eleventh …

Dec 23, 2009 | Music

from our front window this afternoon

And so the Christmas holidays are upon me with all thoughts of work banished from my mind until 6th January 2010.  We woke up this morning to what passes for a decent snowfall in Edinburgh – we don’t usually get too much here although the temperature can plummet impressively from time to time.   The city has not ground to a halt and we are not experiencing substantial problems.

Actually, compared to the winters we used to get up in East Kilbride in the nineteen seventies this is but a passing autumnal shower.  No doubt I shall receive advice from Canadians of my acquaintance wishing to remind me what snowfall is really all about, although parts of Perthshire were apparently colder than Alaska last night.

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Anyway, to the business of the day: my top cds of the past decade.   Selecting these wasn’t actually all that difficult although ranking them (loosely) was.  My criteria were that they had to be new cds released after 1 January 2000 with no re-releases, remasters or “Best Of” compilations included.

My choice is based on those which have “stuck” with me, either because I play them a lot or because, even if they are not frequently played, they have taken me someplace I haven’t forgotten.

So first up, lets mention all those which are right up there but haven’t quite made it to the top ten – let us call all of these ones as being “equal eleventh”.  I have ranked them by year of release

• Stories From the City, Stories From The Sea : PJ Harvey (2000)
• Curly’s Airships : Judge Smith (2000)
• Fashionably Late : Linda Thompson (2002)
• Cammell Laird Social Club : Half Man Half Biscuit (2002)
• The Wind : Warren Zevon (2003)
• The Evening of my Best Day : Rickie Lee Jones (2003)
• Between Here and Gone : Mary Chapin Carpenter (2004)
• 50 Minutes Later : Phil Manzanera (2005)
• Back Home in Sulphur Springs : Norman and Nancy Blake (2005)
• Cruel Sister : Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (2005)
• Deadwing : Porcupine Tree (2005)
• Strangers in Another Country : Rosalie Sorrels (2008)
• Black Ice : AC/DC (2008)

Honourable mentions to Garbage, Goldfrapp, John Tams and Eliza Carthy, all of whom produced very solid work in the decade which I enjoy a lot.

My personal top ten cds of the decade will follow in a subsequent post…