Bobbysix.com's End of Year Review 2011 - Alice Parsons

Today, Bobbysix's resident artist, reviewer and all round lovely human-being, Alice Parsons, tells us about her 2011. Be sure to keep an eye on Bobbysix.com later in the week as we'll be bringing you the overall winners of album/film/gig/song of the year:

Top 5 Albums
1. Wasting Light - FOO FIGHTERS
Not that I need any more reasons to suspect that Dave Grohl is a god but, Rope and White Limo offer pretty conclusive proof.
2. Skying - THE HORRORS
Beautiful album cover and beautiful trippy sounds. Still Life in particular.
3. Queens of the Stone Age - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Avon do do do do do doooo
4. Suck it and See - ARCTIC MONKEYS   
5. The Peoples Temple - SONS OF STONE

Top 5 Gigs
1. DISTANT WORLDS -  The Royal Albert Hall, London
A full orchestra playing the haunting music of the Final Fantasy games. Yes I am a nerd... that is fine.
2. OK GO - Koko club, London
Two feet away from Damien Kulash *sigh*   
3. CHASE AND STATUS- Brixton Academy, London    
They really know how to put on a show.
4. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - O2 Arena, London
Okay haters, I agree about the new stuff but the oldies are still classic. Really strong performance, to my surprise.
5. TELEPATHETIC - various Brighton venues
Admittedly my brother’s band but brilliant nonetheless.

Album Cover of the Year:
Bon Iver – Self Titled LP. Artwork by Gregory Euclide

2011 in Words
In order to remember what I’ve been doing with myself in this the year 2011, I had to have a little dig back through the pages of my big wave calendar in search of clues for the exciting events and glamorous parties I have surely attended. I was surprised to find that my only engagement in March was a visit to the dentist (clearly this was a big month for me). Luckily I had been more diligent across the rest of the year in noting my activities. Here follow a few of my 2011 highlights. Excellent year!

Item of the Year:
My vintage Moroccan Rug from the Atlas Mountains (found in Brighton). I am in love with it. It is joy in rug form. Also my suede peep-toe cut out wedges in pale blue from Office.

Art Highlight
Visiting the Mucha museum in Prague was really inspirational for me. His work is incredibly iconic and seeing the original sketches and poster prints just made me appreciate his skill even more. He was also super prolific, how can anyone produce so much work and still each piece be unique and worth looking at? I lost a lot of money in the gift shop as usual.

Brilliant Event
My lady friends and I took in our first Chap Olympiad. What a day. Gentlemen and Ladies, all decked out in exquisite vintage ‘chap’ attire (and sporting well groomed moustaches, well the men were anyway) enjoying Pimms and tea cakes whilst sheltering under brollies to watch the chaps compete in a number of daring events including ‘Swooning’, ‘Shouting at Foreigners’, ‘Not Playing Tennis’ and ‘The Umbrella Joust’. A top day of japery and high jinks was enjoyed by all. I will see you at the next one!

Alice Parsons - Contributor
Not only is Alice a genius illustrator/artist (she came up with the fantastic blog header at the top of the page), but she can write too and has also been known to do a spot of modelling. Is there no end to her talents?

Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See

Do Arctic Monkeys still matter? In the increasingly fragmented music world, if you're not one of the very biggest pop hitters, you really don't sell many records, so when comeback single Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair barely bothered the charts, it was hard to tell whether it was because no-one buys singles anymore, or because, in 2011, nobody really cares about what Alex Turner and co have to say.

Well, it turns out that maybe people still do want to hear the Sheffield band's wry take on modern life, as this, their fourth long-player, hit the number one spot in the album chart. So, the question is, have they still got what it takes to hold our attention?

The most notable difference between this and their last outing is things here are less heavy as the band move back towards a classic English indie sound. There are several songs, not least final track That's Where You're Wrong, that land remarkably close to Echo and The Bunnymen. Elsewhere, there are nods to The Smiths and to classic guitar sounds of the sixties.

Perhaps the most appealing thing about Arctic Monkeys though has always been Turner's clever wordplay, yet Suck It and See is a little hit and miss on that front. "If you're gonna try and walk on water/Make sure you wear your comfortable shoes," sings Turner on Piledriver Waltz. It's kinda pleasing on the ear before you realise that it doesn't really mean anything. Mainly though, the stories are still boldly painted in the way you would have come to expect from the Monkeys.

Something else largely missing is the classic Arctic Monkeys shot of adrenalin accompanied by the witty slap in the face. Only the thrilling psych-rock of Library Pictures could comfortably slot into their first two albums. However, that's not to say this isn't a good record. It is clearly elegantly crafted and performed and the references are delivered with knowledge and love. The fact that it is slightly more laid-back than we have come to expect is simply because they aren't a bunch of self-assured teens anymore and it would be unrealistic for us to expect them to still be trying to deliver their songs with the snappy aggression of youth.

Simply, Suck It and See is the sound of a band maturing and, while not wholly satisfactory, it's a damn sight better than we could have expected.

The xx win Mercury Prize

London's xx picked up the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for their album xx last night. They held off strong competition from Laura Marling's beautiful I Speak Because I Can and records from the likes of Foals, Mumford & Sons, Dizzee Rascal and Wild Beasts.

In scooping the £20,000 award, singer/bassist Oliver Sim said the band was very grateful and that they'd, "Had the most incredible year."

Previous winners include Pulp, Primal Scream, Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys, Elbow and Franz Ferdinand.

The Rascals - Rascalize

THE RASCALS
Rascalize
You may know The Rascals’ frontman Miles Kane better for recently teaming up with Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner to form The Last Shadow Puppets. Following the acclaim their musical outing has received, it is to much interest that Kane and two other ex-members of now-defunct The Little Flames release The Rascals’ debut album.

Kane certainly has an interesting, textured vocal and a fine way with words. This is best illustrated by Fear Invicted Into The Perfect Stranger, but, despite the obvious talent on display here, the most notable aspect of Rascalize is just how familiar it all sounds. Like The Coral, there is an intriguing mixture of pop melodies and dark weirdness here and, fittingly, swaggering social yarns like Does Your Husband Know That You’re On The Run? are similar to Arctic Monkeys. On top of these reference points, I’d Be Lying To You perhaps trespasses into The Zutons’ territory.

There is certainly an impressive energy about this album, and it gives a good sense of the band’s Northern English roots, but, even with its atmospheric, dark edges and interesting structures, it never reaches the heights that one senses it ought to. At no stage does anything about Rascalize really stand out, and it certainly doesn’t come close to matching Arctic Monkeys, who surely set the benchmark for bands like this. Therefore, we are left feeling slightly disappointed, making it hard to see The Rascals causing as much excitement in the music world as The Last Shadow Puppets. And when your frontman’s side-project is superior to his full-time band, you know you’re in trouble.