Radiohead - In Rainbows
What can I say? This was probably the most news breaking album of the year with the whole “pay what you want’ for the album. I loved how Greenwood just popped up one day and said, ‘oh we’ve finished the album it’s called In Rainbows and it will be out in 10 days” on their blog… what the?? 10 days? And it’s the start of a new era for music. Trent Reznor has also wanted to do this for a while, but he had to get off his label, which he now has done with the Remixes CD or was it Year Zero? Hmmmm… well I’m excited for the prospect of this new medium of releasing albums by major artists. Standout tracks for me would have to be: All I Need (my favourite), Bodysnatchers, House of Cards, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Go Slowly(CD2), Last Flowers To The Hospital(CD2) and Up On The Ladder(CD2).

Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Good return, and also AWESOME live shows, with unreleased tracks supporting too, as well as some new versions of old songs!! What they also did with this album as well was release multiple versions of it through different retailers and each one had a different bonus track, this was mainly done in the US, the australian iTunes store only had one, but it had all the bonus songs included. There are also a lot of video footage and interview with Billy and Jimmy (the only original band members in the lineup, but who really cares, I sure don’t because they produced a really strong album) about their song writing process and recording process of the songs. There is one song on there which is close on the 10 minute mark, that Jimmy did the drums in ONE take!! That’s amazing, and the song is really amazing as well, if you pick up the album listen to United States, it really is an epic track on an album that DOES come back to some original Pumpkin sounds!!

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Great release for their major label debut. I ended up ordering the special edition from the bands record label website and got a cool poster with it. I recently shared the album to a friend and she mentioned that it is really dark… Hmmm what do you think? I think some songs are, but a lot of them are pretty up beat as well, especially Keep The Car Running, which was a great track to get into the commercial world since it’s pretty much the poppiest of them all. I really love the last track though as well ‘My Body Is A Cage’ has some really intense moments. And I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing them live at the end of January as I have heard nothing but good reports when it comes to their live shows.

The Hives - The Black And White Album
A really heavily punk inspired i think, on some tracks, love it. This album really snuck in at the end of the year for me. I really don’t listen to the radio that much. Australia has a really good national radio station called Triple J which is a national youth radio station, but it is the BEST station to listen out for new music and albums. But yeah, somehow I missed this album when it was released, glad i got it though towards the end of the year.

Daft Punk - Alive
!!! What can I say, this live compilation is AWESOME!! and it makes me hate myself even more that i missed the live show when it came to Melbourne, 1st show sold out, they announced a 2nd show on the day before the 1st one… How am I meant to find that out? But seeing video footage and pictures from their shows was amazing, I will get the DVD of this eventually.

Interpol - Our Love To Admire
OK!! I will admit, the first listen of this album kinda bored me, but it really has to grow on you this album. Antics was GREAT! And so was Turn On The Bright Lights, but I thought it was kind of the same. BUT I was wrong. Favourite song on this would have to be: Rest My Chemistry, LOVE IT!

Kanye West - Graduation
Ok, not as good as Late Registration, but the whole battle between Fifty Cent and Kanye was great!! And I’m so glad Kanye won out. They really are different leagues though, I do not know why 50 went out and said those things saying if Kanye outsells him he will quit. Kanye is in more of the traditional Hip Hop sense, and is easier to listen to than the “Rap” of 50 and Kanye is WAY more commercial, that’s why it probably sold more, but yay! It’s got a lot of good tracks to bounce around to and dance.

Mercy Arms - Kept Low EP
Ok, so this is an Australian band out of Sydney, they supported the Strokes when I saw them in… 2006 (had to look it up) they were a very little unknown band then and I guess have really only grown in australia, but they’re a really great band, use a lot of different noises on the EP. I think influenced by Joy Division a bit, but who isn’t these days!!! They don’t have an official website but got songs up on myspace: www.myspace.com/mercyarms My favourite would have to be Shot Right Down, go check them out.

The Midnight Mass
Another Australian band, and friends of mine. they recorded an EP at their house, they got the coolest house, it’s an old 70’s Lotto winners house, pretty greek style but it’s pretty cool. it’s in the middle of nowhere so when they recorded they could pretty much be pretty loud, it was recorded by Michael Stavrou (McCartney, Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens) and assisted by Mat Robbins. and was mixed by: Scott Horscroft (Sleepy Jackson, Silverchair, Mercy Arms) Go to their myspace page and have a listen, AND make sure you listen to: Mock Company, www.myspace.com/themidnightmass

NIN - Year Zero
What a GREAT concept album, and it was really promoted well by Trent Reznor, leaving USB drives and whatnot in toilets of NIN shows… haha. I got to go to one of the small club shows NIN were doing around the world in Melbourne, and being a Spiral member, being able to get in early and get front rail for the show was amazing… at one stage i had trent screaming the song Piggy into his mic right infront of me in my face as he came out onto the subwoofer that was in front of myself and a friend, check out my pictures here: NIN on FlickrCapital G would have to be the standout track for this album, i haven’t got the remixes CD yet, might have to check it out soon.

The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE RELEASES OF THE YEAR!! And probably my most listened too as well. They’ve ditched the white/colourful robes for an all in clad black overalls costume and I love it, it’s a new turning point for the group. This is one tour I don’t want to miss out on when they come out again (missed them last time). This album is really energetic and soft as well on some songs like: We Crawl, and The Championship just makes me want to get up and jump around. They had Mike Garson play some piano tracks on this album (he’s worked with David Bowie a lot, recently on the Reality Tour, he also toured with the Smashing Pumpkins on the Adore tour). Now i watched the DVD of the making of the Fragile Army, and it’s amazing to watch as each stage progress in watching the album come together. At one point Tim DeLaughter had this song that they had been playing on tour called: Younger Yesterday (which is an awesome track) and were trying to work it onto the album but Tim was pretty much sick of the song, but the producer Steve Albini really wanted to get this song somewhere, so they had Mike Garson come in and experiment on the piano for the song, and it then turned into an amazing track, what Albini did was make DeLaughter fall in love with the song again, was amazing to watch.