Me along with my friends Aneczka, Sugar and K�dziora took a closer look at what was on and listened to some of albums released this year. Here we are, through blizzards, floods, storms, schools and swine flu presenting you some epic wins, failures and okays of 2009.

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE – LUNGS I discovered Florence and the Machine through MTV2 (there are two more ways I discover bands ; Buzznet and my dad) during summer ‘09. At first I liked her red hair but I hated ‘Rabbit Heart’, which was played on every chart, every hour, couple of times a day. Let’s say two weeks later on Buzznet forum Sugarpunk told me that she downloaded ‘Lungs’. So did I, and this is how it began. Her voice is magnificent, so hypnotic. The music starts so softly and slowly turns into a frenzy. And her lyrics are pretty loveable. In my opinion it’s one of the best albums of 2009. It’s so good I can’t even pick my favorite track. Well, first I liked ‘Drumming Song’, for the drumming line. Then ‘Howl’, for howling. Two weeks later my favfavfav was ’Cosmic Love’. I liked the lyrics The stars, The moon, They have all been blown out, You left me in the dark, No dawn, No day, I’m always in this twilight, In the shadow of your heart. The album is PERFECT as a whole piece though.

JACK PENATE – EVERYTHING IS NEW Even though his previous ‘Matinee’ was not proclaimed as the best album ever recorded, it turned out to be a good lesson for him to turn a little more dance-pop-rock next time. When everyone turns back to 80’s, Jack Peñate pops out with ‘Everything Is New’ which doesn’t sound like being trendy at all. 35 minutes of downtown samba, 9 songs of closely unspecified style. It’s something like indie soul. Jack starts everything all over again. ‘Everything Is New’ is pulsing. Vital. Bursting with life. And most definitely POSITIVE AS FUCK. It’s full of happiness and fun. It’s something you can dance to. He stands up for ‘carpe diem’ against everyone who used to call him ‘nice fatty’.

MASTODON – CRACK THE SKYE It hardly ever happens that a record recommended by someone is going to be loved by me and all that jazz. Recommended by ElRich – Mastodon’s ‘Crack The Skye’ blew me away. The songs are dynamic, powerful, strong and sharp. I honestly lack adjectives to describe it properly. It has the power, it’s great. I really rarely come across something that good, something that made me ‘wow’ in the first minute and kept me in the wow-ness for the next half an hour. It’s the best album of this kind I’ve listened to since Subliminal Verses vol.3 by Slipknot. (released in 2004, so do the math.)

IAMX – KINGDOM OF WELCOME ADDICTION (by Sugarpunk) IAMX is my new discovery. There are many things I’d like to say about this music project by Chris Corner, a former member of Sneaker Pimps, but this review is to be short and informative, right? Electronic is the type of music that, most of the time, allows me not to think about what I’m listening to for a moment, but it’s quite a different story with IAMX. That’s mostly because the hypnotizing, pure and sexual voice of Chris, which is for me like an ice cube melting on fire. What’s the phenomenon of ‘Kingdom Of Welcome Addiction’? It’s not very energetic, definitely not happily optimistic, not the kind of music you’d like to listen to while you’re in a bus to school. I think the power of this CD lies in great lyrics about strange emotional states, drug abuse and sex. ‘Kingdom…’ is very, I mean VERY perverse. The lyrics, music and vocals combined make me feel like ‘oh, I wanna do bad things with you’. Chris takes it to another level, you can either love him or hate him for that, but he gives you various songs, like powerful ‘ Think of England’ or a professional tear jerker, ‘I am terrified’. The new IAMX is like a travel to a fairytale (go, listen to my personal favorite, ‘You Can Be Happy’, to experience that yourself), like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for adults.

WHITE LIES – TO LOSE MY LIFE Even though White Lies is a band from London, their music sound more like a dawn or twilight in a small town. McVeigh’s and his boys’ domains are Joy-Division-like songs about death, passing, loneliness, jealousy and rage. ‘To Lose My Life’ contains songs that are strong and full of passion. I personally love this album. McVeigh’s voice is so deep, it fits the lyrics quite a lot. Plus the music, which doesn’t stand out a lot, but is slightly more than okay. All these ingredients mixed together give an almost perfect record. Almost means it can be better, and perfect means it’s hard to make something better. My favorite track is ‘Farewell to the Fairground. I didn’t like it at first, but the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. You hardly ever deal with a package of such good songs in one album just like in ‘To Lose My Life’.

JAMIE T – KINGS AND QUEENS A good record is when I listen to an album and I push the ‘pause’ button when I walk off the room. A great record is when I’m not able to leave my room because the music is just so good it keeps me there. I have to say hip-hop is kind of out of music taste (The only exception – Eminem). Jamie T’s ‘Kings and Queens’ is something between hip-hop and britpop (or something like that I guess) though. I loved ‘Sticks’n'Stones’ right from the very first listen and it was stuck in my head for like three good weeks. After that ‘Kings and Queens’ was like the most expected (by me) record of the year. After I finally got it, it turned out to be catchy, light, and easy to love. It was one of those records that kept me in the room.

THE FRAY – THE FRAY(by Sugarpunk) Do you have those moments sometimes, when you feel down and you want to feel even worse? When you need a song which is as sad as you? When it comes to what I do then, the answer is simple- I turn on The Fray. They are masters in what I call ‘perfekcyjne zamulanie’- their music makes your head heavy, your moves slow, your eyes full of tears. They put hope into your heart and they take it away, everything in just three minutes. The self- titled CD is a natural continuation of the previous album, ‘How to save a life’. What I didn’t find here is an outstanding song with a greater dose of power (like ‘Little House’ from ‘How to save a life’), but in the end I’ve realized that ‘You Found Me’ brings a good deal of emotions and lyrics that steal my heart every time I listen to it. I also strongly advise The Fray if you’re looking for a perfect lullaby.

V.A. – TRUE BLOOD I’m not sure if you know, but I simply adore ‘True Blood’. After watching first season somewhere by July, I thought that if the opening song ‘Bad Things’ by Jace Everett is that awesome, the rest of the soundtrack may be as well. And I have to say I was right again. ‘True Blood’ was something different from things I listen to everyday. In some places it sounds country. I liked the little change. Apart from ‘Bad Things’ I really loved ‘Golden State’ by John Doe and Kathleen Edwards. For me, the soundtrack is almost as attractive as Eric.

DROWNING POOL – LOUDEST COMMON DENOMINATOR I have to confess, I’m kind of a stalker. I have been spying on a boy called Tomek from my high school on Last.Fm. He happens to enjoy a band by the name of Drowning Pool quite a lot. And since our music tastes are pretty similar, I decided to research the band. The good thing is, they have made a record this year, and I can share my thoughts about it with you. The bad thing is… It’s a concert album. I honestly have no idea why, but I just can’t stand concert albums or watching concerts (I mean on TV). Everything just doesn’t sound clear, and that happens to piss me off. I got to listen to ‘Loudest Common Denominator’ anyway. I have to admit that despite all, I really liked it. The music sounds really great. I have never listened to Drowning Pool before, so I can’t judge if the song sound similar to their studio versions, however ‘Loudest Common Denominator’ is certainly a good reason to get to know them. The only thing I didn’t like is vocals. Voices hardly ever sound good on live performances though. Of my personal experiences I know only two exceptions : Beth Ditto and Caleb Followill.

BREAKING BENJAMIN – DEAR AGONY (by KÄ�dziora) Breaking Benjamin is one of the bands I got to listen to only because one of my friend says it’s good. When I downloaded ‘Dear Agony’ I expected something more… more… oh, don’t know, I just expected it to be better than it really is. I was so excited that I was able to find some good bands, I was excited they had something fresh that I could get to know But it’s just not so good I thought it would be. Maybe it would grow on me if I listen to it again and again, but, well, maybe. Honestly, I doubt that. Songs that got stuck in my head just a little bit are ‘Without you’ and ‘Dear Agony’. The rest is not more than average. The whole record is nothing special.

MUSE – THE RESISTANCE Muse is a band that I love no matter what kind of music they play (not just because it’s MUSE, but because whatever they play, it sounds good). That’s why level of their awesomeness did not drop (I would say it grew), however, I was expecting (or rather hoping) that ‘The Resistance’ would sound just a little bit like ‘Absolution’. So I am a little disappointed it didn’t .. but I guess that’s just my personal defect. ‘The Resistance’ is indeed great. It’s an explosion. It’s something unpredictable. It’s Muse. Bellamy’s [moment of silence aka I don't know what to say] WHOA. ‘The Resistance’ is grown up. It’s not entirely what Muse used to play. The greatest rock heretics – someone called them once. And nothing describes them better. My favorite track is ‘I Belong to You/Mon Coeur S’ouvre A Toi’. It’s not typical of Muse. And Bellamy singing in French sounds even sexier. Muse gives me a reason to belong to them once again.

LA ROUX – LA ROUX La Roux is once again something called revelation of the year, OMG so 80’s, OMG so great, OMG so original, and a lot of more OMG’s. Well, it might be a revelation of the year, because it’s just so damn catchy. Do the math. OMG so 80’s? I can’t judge, I’m not really a fan of music which is older than myself. OMG so great? Have you listened to ‘La Roux’? It’s nothing but average. OMG so original? Say what? Every friggin’ new band wants to be original in that way. I can count at least ten more bands that I listen to who play similar music to La Roux. Even my dad said it sounds like Duran Duran (I don’t know Duran Duran, it was my DAD). Or maybe I just messed up the definition of the word ‘original’. Anyways, ‘La Roux’ wouldn’t be that bad if all the songs didn’t sound the same. After five tracks the album just gets boring.

KASABIAN – WEST RYDER PAUPER LUNATIC ASYLUM Some people just don’t like them. They weren’t liked by my-main-source-of-music-reviews-magazine reviewers. Well, when I gave a first listen to ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’ I was slightly amused. I realized that I hardly ever agree with grown-up working people when it comes to music (or actually anything else). ‘Vlad the Impaler’ is a perfect example of what I call electro-rock. The rest of my favorite songs : ‘Underdog’, ‘Where Did All The Love Go?’ or ‘Fire’ are strictly the Kasabian style I personally adore. All that remains are not necessarily the best songs that Kasabian have ever recorded (perfect are ‘LSF’, ‘Cutt Off’ or ‘Empire’), but fit the album nicely as breaks between the smash hits. Amen.

LILY ALLEN – IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU Lily Allen is a very memorable person. She’s got a cute appearance, a vivid personality and finally a very pleasantly sounding voice and songs that get into your head and just won’t get out. She said she’s not going to spend a half of her life in school just to be able to spend the second part of it working in an office. That’s why she left school and started making music. Why do I mention that? Well, it’s because I thing her lifestyle might be the reason why her music sound so carless and light. This is what we love about Allen – she doesn’t care what will people think if she sings a song with a chorus ‘Fuck you, fuck you very very much’. ‘It’s not me, it’s you’ shows that she could have grown up a little (only when it comes to music, obviously). I think it’s a little bit more in my taste than ‘Alright, Still’. And even though I like Behemoth, I think she did a great job on ‘It’s not me, it’s you’. Expect more soon.