Best Album

Hayden: In Field & Town
Affairs of the Heart

1. Hayden – In Field & Town. With new albums from The Hold Steady and Okkervil River, two of my favourite bands, I didn’t expect this to be hands down my favourite album of the year, even though I’ve always been a fan.

In Field & Town is a beautiful thing. ‘More Than Alive’ floats along on a gentle piano melody and Hayden’s lilting voice before the horns and drums kick in and it’s enough to make you cry. It would be the most beautiful song of the year if it wasn’t for ‘Damn This Feeling’. Hayden is a master of subtlety; he’s never showy or obvious in either his lyrics or music. This is not only easily his best album, it’s album of the year by a mile. 2. Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane (awesome) 3. The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride 4. Centro-matic/South San Gabriel – Dual Hawks 5. Herman Dune – Next Year In Zion




Best Concert

Chad VanGaalen
Borderline
25 November

1. Chad VanGaalen – The Borderline. I’ve already gushed about this in the live reviews so instead…

2. Lambchop – Union Chapel. The band could just as easily have been sitting on Kurt Wagner’s front porch as on the altar of Union Chapel. On a cold November evening, Lamchop turned an echoey church into a warm, friendly place. Fittingly, there was something transcendental about their performance but when they shifted things up a gear with a beefed up take on ‘Give It’, it was their own reputation they transcended. Wagner became the South’s answer to Craig Finn, pointing and barking at the crowd like a hopped-up preacher. Lambchop are unquivocal proof that live music doesn’t have to be loud and sweaty in order to be exciting. 3. Big Star – Shepherd’s Bush Empire 4. Shearwater – St Giles In The Fields 5. John Vanderslice – The Windmill.