If you’d have said to me at the start of the year: “Afront, come December you will be compiling a list of your Top 20 favourite synthpop albums of the year” I would have laughed and said “What, there are going to be 20 new synthpop albums this year?” If you’d then said: “Yes, and the new Depeche Mode album won’t even make it onto your list” I would have assumed you had a loose arpeggiator. But 2009 has been such a good year for music in general and for synthpop in particular that it gives me a rare chance to compile a top list specific to my favourite genre. So following Part I (20-11), here are the albums I thought were the ten very best synthpop albums released in 2009.

Continue reading →

There hasn’t been a year this good for synthpop music since 1981. The 80’s revival started a couple of years ago but it hasn’t been until this year that synthpop has reached a new critical mass. Of course synthpoppers like myself have had some brilliant albums to listen to throughout the decade, but they were always few and far between. This year however saw it reach out into the mainstream once more, with artists like Little Boots and La Roux hitting the headlines, a  synthpop night at the BBC (Synth Britannia)  and a whole host of new bands releasing some fantastic synthpop albums (Northern Kind, Parralox, Tenek). A few of the original masters also released some great records (Pet Shop Boys), some not so great (Depeche Mode), and from a-ha a true masterpiece that surprised everyone. Here then is Part 1 of my favourite Top 20 synthpop albums of the year (with Spotify links available for 17 out of 20!).

Continue reading →