Drumroll……..Ladies and gentlemen my opinion on all a very small slice of the music of 2011………..

Singles

Rather than list all the indie music I liked predictably (Elbow, REM and more of that ilk) I’ll just focuse on the pop music I have liked in the last 6 months, meaning that this is truly a 2011 music review in the narrowest of ways.

Much like the innocent silent majority of the German public circa 1933 I am not averse to going with the flow – this summer proved that as I was all over boy bands going a bit trance. JLS’s She Makes Me Wanna‘s only disappointment was that the Dev it featured was not Dev Alahan. This was the first time I had really heard a JLS song and was pure ready to admit I had made a mistake and misjudged the inoffensive 4-some. Since then I have heard a few more of their songs and – while they aren’t awful – I am now not that bothered I didn’t give them a listen. You could basically re-write this paragraph inserting ‘The Wanted’ in place of ‘JLS’ and Glad You Came in place of She Makes Me Wanna. No wait you would have to get rid of that bit about Dev Halahan. Just because there isn’t a ‘featuring Dev’ on the The Wanted song – I am pretty sure most songs would be somewhere between 6 and 13.2% better featuring an improvised bit by Dev Halahan.

I can’t really argue about Pixie Lott looking fucking good. But fair tits to her All About Tonight. And I’m not saying the art of creativity in making music videos is dead but on the lyric “ready to show all the boys what I’ve got” you get a close up of her phone with “message: ready to go” written on the screen. Quite why they didn’t go the whole hog and have a message screen with ‘Boys’ written after ‘To:’ and ‘Ready to show all you what I’ve got” is a decision for someone else to explain, because I CAN’T.

My opinion on Adele has mellowed from earlier in the year. I don’t mind some of her songs now (for those wondering I would still love to give ‘it’ to her until at least one of us was satisfied) but I couldn’t really say any of them made my songs of the year. That is unless you include the cover version of Someone Like You by Kid British which IS in my songs of the year, cos I thought it was fucking brilliant when I saw them earlier in the year (and subsequently when I have listened to it).

Speaking of not hating the original but liking another version better, Rizzle Kicks’ remix of Jessie J’s Pricetag. RK were definitely a success story of 2011. I actually did know who they were months before they were famous thanks to music fashionista siblings Michael and Sarah whom were down with Down with The Trumpets last Christmas. ‘Kicks had a massive hit with DWTT when given a proper release during the Summer. I also loved Miss Cigarettes and their hook-up with Olly Murs, Heart Skips A Beat.

Sticking with the undeniable pop flavour of my songs of the year, ‘Tune of The Year 2011’ comes down to a straight fight; between a band I have always despised and a product endorsing electro-pop-rap single. That’s right close runner-up is Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger. Ridiculously enjoyable little upbeat pop number with an addictive little hook. I fucking hate Maroon 5 but I am a big enough man to drop a bit of hatred for a pop hit. This also was so good it caused an instant stop to all pop songs having a ‘Jagger’ reference, after that Swagger Jagger rubbish from Cher Lloyd (who I don’t mind but that was pure tosh).

And so the winner is………………….PITBULL (featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer) with Give Me Everything. If for nothing else then for the Kodak endorsing opening “Me not working hard? Yeah Picture that with a Kodak, Better yet go to Time Square take a picture of me with a Kodak”. Oh and that he took his life from a negative to a positive (he just wanted y’all to know that). It was a catchy little fucker and no fooling. And it ended up in him legally stating that Lindsay Lohan should be talked about like trash for behaving like it. Allegedly.

Albums

I’m tired of writing now so we’ll cut the shit and I’ll just do the top 3 albums of me 2011

3. Miles Kane – Colour of The Night

Great sole debut from the scouse bastard. Piles of swooning guitar pop delights that have me in a right bout of pleasure taking when I listens to them. Standout tracks: Come Closer, Rearrange and Inhaler.

2. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne

Prince and King of hip-hop got together and made a quality album of beats and rhymes. Whatevs. Standout tracks: That’s My Bitch, Otis, Niggas in Paris & No Church In The Wild.

1. Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See

These lads do no wrong for me. this is as good as, if not better, than their orgasmic debut. Turners lyrics are as interesting as ever and their music is like Cadburys Dairy Milk miniatures in that it just gets better. Actually I’m not sure Miniatures exist any more so that is a poor simile. They were good though weren’t they miniatures – in those dinky little slide-draw-box type things. Standout tracks: Suck it and See, Black Treacle, The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala, Reckless Serenade, Piledriver Waltz & That’s Where You’re Wrong.

See a playlist of 2011’s top tunes here (it is a Spotify playlist so only click on it if you have Spotify). Oh and if stuff is on there it definitely means I like it but if something isn’t on there it doesn’t mean I don’t like it, I’m kind of careless.