10. Of Montreal - Satanic Panic In The Attic
This is an amazing collection of psycheldelic music with all sorts of twists and turns along the way to keep the listener interested the whole way through.9. The Sinking Citizenship – Broadcasting Germs
This is a powefully bleak album that will get right under the listeners skin. In the vein of bands like Joy Division and early Public Image Ltd, the Sinking Citizenship produce some powerful droning music. 8. Mark Lowrie – Motel After playing with various bands around Melbourne, Mark Lowrie has gone solo and in this record has played every instument bar the drums. Using mostly guitars he has put out all sorts of interesting sounds making an album that is fast and rocking in some parts and dark and atmospheric in others. 7. Sophie Koh – All The Pretty Boys Sophie Koh shows a lot of promise in this her first album as she puts forward 11 diverse, colourful and atmosperic tracks. Not only does she have a brilliant voice but she also has a great talent in playing a large number of instuments from the guitar to the piano-accordian. 6. Mike Oldfield – Light and Shade I’ve lost count of how many albums Mr Oldfield has put out but he’s been doing it since his masterpiece “Tubular Bells” back in 1973. In this album Mike Oldfield further explores the ambient “chill out” style, and once again he achieves results with a very beautiful and relaxing long-player. 5. Clinkerfield – Teason Season Clinkerfield once again demonstrate their ability to take on musical genres at will and produce something fantastic. This album covers everything from dark melodies to bright pop tunes as well as a punk-rock send up showing the boys also have a sense of humour! 4. The Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart This is album number three from the Go-Betweens since they reformed and shows that both Grant McLennen and Robert Forester both still have the ability to write stunning atmospheric songs. 3. Bernard – Trail of Tears Two years after their awesome debut EP Bernard are back with their first full length album. There is no holding back here as the band pour all their emotion into a very loud and heavy collection of songs that are also lyrically challenging and thought provoking! 2. The Unseen Guest – Out There One of the most unusual duos around with Ireland’s Declan Murry and India’s Amith Narayan. Together the two use a range of Eastarn instuments while taking on the Western music style, the result is not only an album that is original but is also astoundingly beautiful. 1. Eels – Blinking Lights and Other Revelations The Eels have produced some amazing music over the past decade and this their 6th album is a major highlight. This is The Eels at their darkest and most beautiful as Mr E goes though the many stories of his life covering all sorts of musical styles from disco to country to rock and anything inbetween. With two CDs and 33 songs worth of quality music this album was a clear standout for Album of the Year!