The train keeps a-rollin’, though with no Rolling Stones in sight. Three more reviewers are emerging out of the dust like ‘Nam veterans, and they’re willing to tell you their side of the story for music in 2009.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino Records)

By Stephen Jones

What’s my album of the year? The most compelling answer to that is that not another album this year, or any year, will sound like Bitte Orca. Dirty Projectors have been building up to a moment like this for some time. No more Black Flag covers – this is the moment when they really, really got it right.

As any previous followers might have expected, there are no discernible boundaries here. What is startling, though, is that the shifts in tone are equally seamless. From pounding tinpot pop (‘Stillness is the Move’) to lush folk (‘Two Doves’), it’s an album that restores faith in difference at a time when re-recording a tired 90s dance single is apparently pioneering. No offence, Florence. Actually, f*** it, lots of offence.

Anyway, there’s no danger of DPs (teehee!) doing something so obvious, and clearly it doesn’t hurt when you have the most innovative guitarist since Jonny Greenwood. From opener Cannibal Resource, Dave Longstreth is toying with rhythm like a cat with string. Nowhere is this more evident than ‘Temulca Sunrise’; anyone who can listen to that song and not reflect on their own lack of talent is utterly soulless. Or Jonny Greenwood.

So, musical spaffery aside, it’s time for a neat, pretentious conclusion. So here goes: The choruses aren’t leaps from the stereo, they’re explosions in the sky. The melodies counter, counter and then counter again. There’s a whole cacophony of fuzz and jerks and squeals and yelps, and somehow (though not in any way by chance) all this mess comes together more beautifully than Jackson Pollock or, er, Steve Reich, or anyone could ever have wished for themselves.

Best track on the album: ‘Temulca Sunrise’
A difficult pick, but this one is possibly the best representation of everything you’re going to get on Bitte Orca. It makes confusing, even intimidating listening at first, but give it some time and you’ll find yourself forgetting to breathe for a glorious 5:05.

Stunningly complex and impossibly twiddly 12-string riffery: check.
Time signatures that would baffle Stephen Hawking: check.
Reference to popular isotonic drinks: check.
The sound of genius at work: double check.

Any improvements that could have been made
‘Flourescent Half Dome’ sees the album dribble to its conclusion slightly, depriving us of the epic finale we might have expected after 40 minutes of shock tactics. Petty grumbles, however.

The best of the rest
Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers

Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers (Columbia)

By David Ellis

To briefly recap the story behind the Manic Street Preachers, if indeed there is anyone who is not aware of it. In the early 90s the Manics emerged from Wales in a cloud of furious intensity, plying a line in political and metaphysical sloganeering to a sound that sat in the unnerving and occasionally menacing territory between post-punk and punk. At first, the central figure of the bands folklore was lyricist, muse and guitarist of sorts: Richey Edwards (who famously used to play with the volume turned down). He cut an enigmatic and flamboyant figure out front at live shows but also cast a dark and brooding shadow behind it.

Despite a devout cult following, the Manics only found significant commercial success after the disappearance of Richey in 1995 abandoning the hard industrial sound in favour a more melodic rock output. No one begrudges them this, indeed the Manics later incarnation produced some of the better indie rock albums of the latter 90s, but few claim this Manics had anything near the difficult emotional depth and traumatic lyrical imagery.

2009′s Journal for Plague Lovers turned out to be a last hurrah of sorts for the old Manics, using a notebook of lyrics written by Richey which was given to his childhood friends and bandmates Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield weeks before his disappearance. The band constructed an album around them. The marriage of Manics old and new proved to be a great success, similar in musical style to 1996′s Design for Life (their first album after Richey’s disappearance) but with its unsettling quotes between songs, aural ticks and track titles such as ‘Jackie Collins Existential Question Time’ and ‘Virginia State Epileptic Colony’ (the former with the memorable chorus “Oh mummy, what’s a Sex Pistol?’), it immediate evokes comparison with arguably their finest work, but undoubtedly darkest, The Holy Bible.

While the Manics may not carry the same righteous fury of old, no-one has really come close to replicating it in the 15 years since, which is why Journal for Plague Lovers is the best album of 2009. It’s dark and intense, from a band unequalled in crafting music to those criteria.

Best tracks on the album: ‘Peeled Apples’ and ‘Jackie Collins Existential Question Time’
These two tracks are both excellent but probably the best thing about the whole album was dusting out and rediscovering The Holy Bible straight after.

Any improvements that could have been made
There are a couple of weaker tracks, such as ‘All is Vanity’ and ‘Pretension/Repulsion’, but they simply don’t add anything noteworthy, rather than detracting from the aura or flow of the album. Ignorant cynics may also point the finger of prejudice at an ageing band trying to recapture their glory days; lest they forget that this is entirely new material from a band who are far too decent to merely attempt to imitate their former selves.

The best of the rest
The Maybes? – Promise
Okay, so it was technically released at the end of 2008, but since no one seems to have paid the Maybes? The attention they deserve, worthy of a mention. Chirpy jangling Merseybeat guitar pop with an 80′s rock flourish, seemed destined for radio ubiquity, but obviously didn’t, excellent album all the same.

Charli 2NA – Fish Outta Water
The former Jurassic 5, Ozomatli and Breakestra MC is a living legend, and has a voice so deep it registers with local seismologists. His first full solo album is full of cheeky, swaggering brilliance and ‘Graff Time’ is an immense track that equals any of his past achievements.

Fat Freddy’s Drop – Dr Boondigga and the Big DW
With the exception of rugby players and epic fairytale film backdrops, FFD are easily New Zealand’s finest export. A rich and amazing mix of dub, reggae and electronic, and incredible live, Dr Boondigga was a long overdue second studio album but well worth the wait.

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die (Take Me to the Hospital/Cooking Vinyl)

By Lucy Clapham

You hit play and a dirty bass begins to bellow through the speakers, building in volume slowly. A guitar hook kicks in, playing a simple repetitive rhythm, followed by a guttural, fast-paced beat.

The bass begins to rise as the beat gets faster – suddenly your stereo announces: “We are The Prodigy”, and you’re smacked in the face with the full-frontal, hard-edged energy that is the opener of the Essex boys’ fifth album.

Invaders Must Die is a super-charged, bass-filled electro/rave/rock mash-up welcome return to form, which harks back to the Fat Of The Land glory days.

The wailing sirens, jagged synths, rough breaks and heavy, grimy bass combine to make a 46-minute mix of classic tracks that demand to be listened to at maximum volume.

This album has remained steadfastly in my CD player/car stereo for the majority of 2009 because it has been a pleasure to hear Maxim and co doing what they do best – creating an album of powerful dance anthems, guaranteed to have you raving like a loon.

And, indeed, the four singles from it have had the desired effect considering what I’ve witnessed on a night out.

The first single, ‘Omen’, is a seamless blend of staccato gunfire drums, a juxtaposing pounding xylophone and Keith’s trademark vocals, which propelled the band back into the musical spotlight after a five-year silence when it was released in February.

While the whirring of a distorted ambulance siren, combined with an incomprehensible jungle-style rhyme on ‘Take Me To The Hospital’, almost compels you to put on a pair of white gloves and reach for the whistle with its reminiscent 1990′s rave sound.

And the opening brassy notes of ‘Warrior’s Dance’ are like a call to arms for clubbers everywhere. The beckoning command of the female vocalist on this stomping five minutes of musical adrenaline certainly compelled me to join her on the dancefloor, whether I was in a club, my bedroom or my car at a red light.

La Roux (along with her gravity-defying quiff), Calvin Harris and Lady GaGa have been tearing up the charts this year with their melodic offerings, and rightly so – who can resist singing along to ‘Bulletproof’? Still, for me, the deep, dark, menacing sounds of Invaders Must Die has always been my choice of Friday night tunes.

And for all its throbbing guitars, industrial bass and crunching beats, Invaders Must Die did contain a little surprise. ‘Stand Up’, the album’s final track, has a jazz twist to it that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mark Ronson album. ‘Stand Up’ provides the perfect, almost chilled-out ending to this stonking, heart palpitation-inducing, bassline junkie’s wet dream of an album, which I defy anyone not to listen to at bone shaking volume.

“We are the Prodigy”, they announce 47 seconds in. Yes they are, and haven’t they done well?

Best track on the album: ‘Warrior’s Dance’
Five minutes and thirteen seconds of pure energy. Powerful bass, driving synths and pounding beats, best listened to loudly.

Any improvements that could have been made
Cut out the space-age influenced Omen Reprise – it was great the first time round.

Best of the rest
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug

Jamie T – Kings And Queens