The Brits 2009

So, tonight I watched THE BRITS. It was ok, wasn't it? The Pet Shop Boys were fantastic.. did a mash up of a ton of songs, before watching it I never really appreciated that they had so many good songs. It just seems that they are one of those bands who could just nail a hooky melody time after time.

The Brits got me thinking back to albums released in 2008. I was chatting to a guy today who made an interesting point about record sales. He said that the main reason that sales have slumped so much is simply due to the fact that the music, and therefore albums released just don't cut it. Is this true? I think it's a pretty valid point to an extent. It got me thinking.. Do we value older music more because of nostalgia? Because we have more memories and attachments to older songs after we have lived with them for years.. After time, songs can start to stand for something. Or is it simply that albums and artists of the past are just "better"?

Last year, for me there were three stand out albums.

1. Coldplay - Viva La Vida.
I don't understand people who don't like this record. I'm not even going to bother elaborating on it, if you haven't heard it or listened to it properly, you need to.

2. The Killers - Day & Age.
Now I have never really been a Killers fan in the past. Sure, I liked a lot of their songs, but I never owned any albums, or saw them live. Then this album came out, I heard the first single and was intrigued. I then bought the full album and was blown away. I think what they are doing is totally fresh and there are so many standout songs on this album. When I heard the track Joy Ride, I had a feeling similar to the first time that I ever heard *insert classic song* - it just ticked all the right boxes.

3. Mystery Jets - 21.
Similarly with The Killers, the Jets were one of those bands where I didn't own previous stuff, had never seen them play, but liked a few tunes. I then did some work with them and got the record and couldn't put it down for months. I remember all my friends getting massively excited with 'Two Doors Down' on first listen and it was great for the band that this excitement spread throughout the country and bought them a level of success that they duly deserved.

Here is a video by The Killers, performing on the one and only JH show. Brilliant.

Haircut 100

Ok, so not a new band to most people. But this is a band that came to my attention recently. The band formed in 1980 and broke up in 1984. A time where I was just one lucky sperm in my fathers' testicles. A time of great joy. I manage a band called apples and a few people had told me "Chris, they sound just like Haircut 100". I thought a) who calls a band Haircut 100 and b)what on earth could they sound like.

I downloaded a few tunes, watched a few videos and really could not believe I had never had the pleasure of hearing this band before. When I asked my parents if they were familiar with the band, they knew most of their songs, which left me slightly disgruntled that whilst they had given me lots of Queen, Tina Turner, Gary Glitter... (ok..) as a child (!), they had never given me Haircut 100.

I think their videos are fantastic. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Mark Fox from the band who told me that even in the early 80s, their videos were costing £100,000. That is a lot. Mmm.

Anyway, they are just so fun. And you can see how much thought has gone into them, rather than your bog standard performance videos that too many bands seem to be knocking out these days.

Here are two of my favourites - Fantastic Day and Love Plus One.