Winner – Morrissey – The Guardian’s Stuart Maconie called Morrisseys “Autobiography” ” exasperating, coruscating, thrilling and deflating as its creator”. OK, I’ll decide what’s coruscating and what isn’t once I get my hands on a copy. After Amazon US ran out of third party copies, I contacted my sister Nadia in Scotland and she is forwarding Helen and I our own copies!!! Till then, that isn’t why he is a winner, Morrissey he is a winner because the bio outsold Bridget Jones Diary to take first place on the UK bestseller list.
Loser – Arcade Fire – With the potential to have made the best album of their career, if not indeed the year, they do neither with this overlong, spral of a mess of an album. Two experimental songs will have you heading for the exit signs and well before even then you are wondering when the hell it is going on. For all I love about it, the band didn’t need a producer, they needed an editor. My God, leave the extended versions for the remix album, if you wanna make a pop album, get to the point and leave.