Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem are both strong contenders for my favourite band of the last decade, so when I heard James Murphy was producing the new Arcade Fire album I was very excited. I was also very nervous that it wouldn't work, as I found the UNKLE collaborations often sounded like 2 separate very good things shoved unsuccessfully together. But as soon as I heard this, I loved it. It's got driving indie rock bits! It's got plinky dancey bits! it's got bits sung in French! And then, if that wasn't enough, ...David Bowie turns up! Nearly 8 minutes in length but never outstaying its welcome, it even features an Anton Corbijn-directed video full of intrigue, glitter balls and papier mache heads. Song of the year.
The Uncluded - Delicate Cycle
My second choice is another coming together of 2 great artist(e)s: the rapper Aesop Rock and singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches. Aesop delivers, over an acoustic guitar backing, a potentially psychopathic rap about sending people body parts in the mail, while Kimya sings a touching tale about growing up in a laundromat. Perhaps these are even two halves of the same story, who knows. Then the two come together on the chorus and it manages to sound both sweet and sinister at the same time. It possibly shouldn't work at all, but it really, really does.
Iain Lordhunter
DJ @ AAi, and pub landlord at The Bannister & Shamrock.
