1. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis: Carnage / 2. Nik Bärtsch: Entendre / 3. Valerie June: The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers / 4. Fire!: Defeat / 5. Trio Tapestry: Garden of Expression / 6. Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis: She Walks in Beauty / 7. Arab Strap: As Days Get Dark * / 8. James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra: The Wide, Wide River / 9. Mapstation: My Frequencies, When We / 10. Tindersticks: Distractions / 11. Kari Ikonen: Impressions, Improvisations & Compositions / 12. Sleaford Mods: Spare Ribs
* The slick pair of motherfuckers have littered the album with these momentous touches, as though, in mapping the contours of desire they’ve inadvertently resurrected the dread spirit of a yuppie ad man’s idea of desire, all lurid neon and sprayed-on sweat. And they’re totally in earnest – it’s often like listening to Arab Strap reimagined as a mid-80s Ridley Scott thriller – you can hear it in the sax and strings that haunt the protagonist of „Kebabylon“ on his nightly investigations, in the goth rock opera that churns behind „Here Comes Comus!“ and the Berlin-period disco architecture of „Compersion Pt. 1“.
(Colin Band on Arab Strap)