The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me
One more for the rock camp, this album is another example of how simple elements can add up to make something totally and utterly compelling. It's the storytelling and the passion that really make this work, how Craig Finn conjures up this incredible, literate web of characters and situations and sets it against an unbelievably masculine backdrop. Also, I'm a lapsed Catholic myself, so all that Catholic imagery that runs throughout, and his whole world he creates with (fictional character) Charlemagne, really works for me. It shouldn't grab me but it does from the first track, 'Positive Jam', which I'd quite like as a theme tune. That song is a fuck-you to everything, so ironic and sarcastic and funny. If there was a montage of my life, this would be great to play in the background. Not that the lyrics are really applicable to my life, but he captures some magic in the comedy of it. Normally I wouldn't think comedy and music mix, but when I sit down and make a list like this, a lot of the songs have at least a heavy irony. I think you've got to be so clever to bring in that wry humour. Almost Killed Me is just very satisfying and exciting in a red-blooded way.