[dihansse]

Two albums of 2007 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation (2007) by The Wombats
Maybe a bit too poppy for my taste but hits like Let's Dance To Joy Division and Backfire At The Disco are fairly irresistible so the album moves up from the 59th to the 51st rank.

And an album from my wishlist:

North Star Deserter (2007) by Vic Chesnutt
Vic Chesnutt has always been known to steer his own course but here he has chosen to invite a number of guest musicians and I must say they really enhance the album especially on the longer and more electric guitar drive pieces like Everything I Say and Debriefing. Overall a fine album which ends up at the 40th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

Two albums of 2008 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

Some Are Lakes (2008) by Land Of Talk
Another one of those albums I didn't listen to in a long while and in fact is still not bad so it moves up from the 81st to the 41st rank of 2008.

And an album from my wishlist:

Free Somehow (2008) by Widespread Panic
And another good album from this newly discovered jam band with again a few very good long guitar songs like Walk On The Flood and Her Dance Needs No Body. Nothing revolutionary here but just good old guitar rock and maybe I should try one of their live albums because they should be very good. This particular album enters my year chart at the 19th rank.

[dihansse]

Two albums of 2009 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

Crooked Timber (2009) by Therapy?
Clearly this is not Troublegum any more and this must be one of their worst ones. The title track , somnambulist and Blacken The Page are ok but never reach the heights of their first big albums. It nevertheless climbs from the 88th to the 71st rank of the year.

And an album from my wishlist:

The Mountain (2009) by Heartless Bastards
Let's start by saying that the title tracks is a hell of a good song with a great flow to the track. In the rest of the album the main flaw to me is the sound of the singer I don't really that much so the better tracks where the band goes in a bit of a jam like on the last track. This album lands at the 55th rank.

[dihansse]

These are two albums of 2010 I listened to:

First an album I already own/know:

Beachcomber's Windowsill (2010) by Stornoway
I already had this album, which I bought on iTunes because of some good reviews, at a low place in my chart but after listening to it again it really think this is a boring and dated album and even Zorbing is not as good as I had in my memory. So I decided to remove it from my year chart.

And an album from my wishlist:

Dislocations (2010) by The Silence Kit
They really sound as a derivative Cure band on this album but somehow they do hit a chord. Not their best but ok for the 48th rank on my year chart.

[dihansse]

These are two albums of 2011 I listened to:

First an album I already know/own:

Dynamite Steps (2011) by The Twilight Singers
Being a fan of Afghan Whigs and Gregg Dulli it's a bit strange I know only this album from The Twilight Singers in which Dulli plays such an important role. I would even say that this album can rank amongst the better Afghan Whigs albums (except for Gentlemen which tops everything of course) and that's a big compliment. The songs are dark and great with as best examples Waves and On The Corner. A great album which moves up from the 43rd to the 17th rank of 2011.

And an album from my wishlist:

Widowspeak (2011) by Widowspeak
I already have few more recent albums from this band in my playlists but not yet their debut album from 2011 which is just Hope Sandoval/mazzy Star (but also Lush and so many other bands) heaven: whispered voices, cool guitars and kind of gothic sadness which finds its quintessence in the final great track Ghost Boy. This album is good enough for the 26th rank of the year.

[dihansse]

Two albums of 2012 I listened to:

First an album I already know/own:

Company (2012) by Andy Burrows
Again one of these albums I hadn't listened to in a long time and I must admit I thought it would be mellower than I thought. But there are some rough edges round these songs and in some instances some tracks make me thing about one of my favorite bands: the Posies. So all in all a good album which moves up from the 42nd to the 28th rank of the year 2012.

And an album from my wishlist:

Nothing In Rambling (2012) by Helvetia
A fairly wobbly affair this album and I mean this in both senses, the singing and the fact that I don't really know how to judge it. It certainly has something but in my opinion it lacks good songs. Just ok for my year chart at the 53rd rank.