All My Friends

So in retrospect, maybe I was a little bit selfish yesterday. Not only did I make a mix catering exclusively to my taste in music but I forgot to thank all the people who’ve made this experience worthwhile... my disciples/readers. So as a way of thanking you all for checking out whatever gobbledygook has spawned from my keyboard on a daily basis, for one night only I’ve commissioned a special ‘readers choice’ blog in which those brave enough to put their heads above the parapet have selected an album that they think you should all hear. Just as with the Special Olympics there are no winners, just participants. Each album gets a brief summary stating why its selector deems it worthy of your attention and to give thing a competitive edge I’ll engage in some genteel chop of my own by giving my own thrupence worth on each LP.

So in no particular order let’s start with:

· Maureeny Wishfull – Maureeny Wishfull (Recommended by Steph Rosevear)

For those of you familiar with Warwick Student Radio’s head honcho of music you’ll know she has a bit of a scattershot taste in music covering everything from Alice Cooper to Kid Cudi. Here Steph has garnered full marks on her indie pretentiousness credentials by recommending me a band that don’t have a website, MySpace or Wikipedia page (cheers for that one). Essentially all I can tell you is that Maureeny Wishfull were Jimmy Page’s pre-Zeppelin folk band and they were pretty damn good. Great shout Steph!

Listen to Maureeny Wishfull here

· Brand New – Deja Entendu (Recommended by Andrew Cole)

Andrew has no shame in admitting his favourite band of all time are Blink 182 and consequently he has a pretty exhaustive knowledge of American pop/punk/rock bands. Brand New have been labelled by NME as ‘the emo Radiohead’ and although there’s a fair bit of hyperbole behind that statement, it does capture the experimental and lyrical deftness of touch that places Brand New a par above many of their contemporary skater bois. Deja Entendu is the bands second album and from my first listen onwards it rocked my socks.

Listen to Brand New here

· The Knife – Silent Shout (Recommended by Daniel Thompson)

Dan knows what he likes when it comes to music: 80s and electro. Should those two genres collide then... For his selection though, Dan has played it safe and gone with some uber-cool Swedish electro courtesy of The Knife. This album was ranked Pitchfork’s Best Album of 2006, so clearly it’s got some critical clout behind it but I wouldn’t call it the most accessible LP I’ve ever listened to. One to keep plugging away at for sure.

Listen to The Knife here

· Christina Aguilera – Stripped (Recommended by Sara Sesardić)

Sara describes the Christina Aguilera featured on Stripped as “the ultimate idol figure for any 14 year old girl at the time - including me!” For this reason it’s probably best I never caught on to the Christina fad seven years ago, my parents would have been mightily concerned. Still though time has passed and we’re all a bit older and (hopefully) wiser. As for Stripped, it remains a pop album through and through. At a mammoth twenty tracks long it does overstay its welcome somewhat but in terms of guilty pleasures this record goes to the top of the pile.

Listen to Christian Aguilera here

· Broadcast 2000 – Building Blocks EP (Recommended by Alex Wilks)

Last but by no means least, I’m going to stick my neck on the line here and say Broadcast 2000 were my favourite band out of all the excellent choices. They’re just lovely in a scones and tea round Grandma’s kind of way – delightful and chilled out at the same time. Unfortunately they don’t have an LP out yet but you can find their mini-album ‘Building Blocks’ on Spotify now.

Listen to Broadcast 2000 here

So thanks again to everyone who sent in a recommendation, last blog tomorrow aaaaargh!!!