Bawley (Hearts) 2010: Top 5 concerts of the year: Nick

Despite being sadly absent from a certain double headline show , I've enjoyed a great year for live music. Here were my favourite shows:

5. The New Pornographers, Manning Bar, Sydney, 10/11/2010

The Canadian collective travelled to Australia complete with all their vocalists, (including the brilliant Neko Case) which is something of a rarity. As a result we were able to enjoy the full force of their their complicated vocal (and whistling!) harmonies, and super-catchy pop tunes. The band's rhythm section also treated to a spontaneous cover of Rush's 'The Spirit Of The Radio'. Result!

4. Blind Boys Of Alabama, Opera House, 5/6/2010

Complete with guest vocal performances from a suitably cantankerous Lou Reed, and an enormously pregnant My Brightest Diamond, this bunch of 80 something year old blind men made a glorious noise, and put many a much younger band to shame with the energy and passion of their performance. Properly life affirming.

3. British Sea Power, Manning Bar, Sydney, 20/02/2010

Any show that ends with members of the band attaching themselves to members of the audience with long stands of gaffer tape, accompanied by noisy guitar feedback, is a good one in my book.

2. Pavement, Enmore Theatre, Sydney, 4/3/2010

It was the band's second show in ten years (following the first date of their reunion world tour in New Zealand, a couple of nights earlier) - but they looked and sounded exactly like no time had passed (by which I mean 'endearingly shambolic').

1. Decemberists, Beck's Festival Bar, Hyde Park Barracks, 20/01/2010

Perfect confluence of band and venue, audience participation and a perfect set made for a hugely memorable performance. FasterLouder review

Runners Up:

Al Green, The Domain, Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard, Oxford Art Factory, Datarock, Metro Theatre

Coming soon: A reason to buy the NME

Not many details yet, but it seems the NME are putting together (another) Cure tribute CD, which will be mounted on the cover of the magazine, presumably around the time that the band collect their Godlike Genius award and play their Big Gig in The O2.

So far, British Sea Power have announced (via their mailing list) that they have recorded a version of 'A Forest' and Eddie Argos has revealed on his blog that Art Brut have recorded 'Catch'.

More news as and when we have it.

Bawley (Hearts) 2008: Bawley crew albums of the year: Nick

5. MGMT 'Oracular Spectacular'

The latest in a long line of masterpieces bearing the signature of super-producer Dave Fridman (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Delgados, Mogwai...). This album was everywhere in 2008: In every shop, every radio and TV station – but deserved to be.

4. British Sea Power 'Do You Like Rock Music?'

'Waving Flags' was the year's best pro-immigration song, 'No Lucifer' borrowed a slogan from notorious British wrestler Big Daddy and 'Canvey Island' drew a complex analogy between a bird flu virus and a devastating flood. Really, what more do you need from a rock record?

3. Lambchop '(OH) Ohio'

Approximately the 10^th (depending on how you count) album from The Best Band In The World That Nobody Has Heard Of. Not a radical departure, more an amalgamation of all the styles the band has toyed with over the last two decades. Wonderful, as ever.

2. TV On The Radio 'Dear Science'

Sharp, funny, angular, joyous, intense. Very, very nearly album of the year....

1. Elbow 'Seldom Seen Kid'

...But in the end it was the songs that won it for Elbow. Guy Garvey writes lyrics that you could write essays about, without a single word out of place, and they work brilliantly. Heartbreaking, life affirming, devastatingly beautiful and utterly essential.

Runners Up:

Bloc Party, 'Intimacy'; Delirious?, 'Kingdom Of Comfort'; Vampire Weekend, 'Vampire Weekend'; Dodos, 'Visiter'; My Morning Jacket, 'Evil Urges'; Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 'Dig Lazarus Dig!!!', Half Man Half Biscuit; 'CSI Ambleside'

Mercury Prize Shortlist Announced. And It's Quite Good.

The twelve albums shortlisted for the Nationwide Mercury Prize have just been announced. The award, now in its seventeenth year, is for the best British album released over the previous twelve months, and is known for its unpredictability, with the winner normally alternating between a bland and obvious choice or something completely obscure. But unlike poor Kele's Mercury, this Mercury is not in retrograde, indeed the 2008 shortlist is probably the best, in terms of its strength, breadth and depth, for years:

• Adele - 19
• British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
• Burial - Untrue
• Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
• Estelle - Shine
• Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
• Neon Neon - Stainless Style
• Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep in the North Sea
• Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - The Bairns
• Radiohead - In Rainbows
• Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
• The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

There certainly don't appear to be any duds on the list, or any obvious omissions. It's particularly pleasing to see British Sea Power receiving their first nomination - they're a wonderful but often overlooked band, and their third album, 'Do You Like Rock Music?' is a thrilling piece of work. The Last Shadow Puppets' nomination means that for the third year running, an Alex Turner album will be on the list, and maybe Radiohead will finally win their first Mercury Award for In Rainbows, easily their best in years.

If it was up to me, though, I'd hand the award to Elbow. 'The Seldom Seen Kid' is a magnificent epic of an album, made as a tribute to a dear friend of the band, and is in equal parts desperately sad and gloriously joyful.

The winner is announced on September 9th. What do you make of this list? What was missed off? Do you even care?