2006 was a good year for British music. Hot Chip released The Warning, which remains their best album to date, Patrick Wolf made a break for the mainstream with The Magic Position, The Long Blondes released the excellent Someone To Drive You Home, and The Young Knives brought out the equally impressive Voices Of Animals And Men. Sure, there were good records from the Americas, most notably The Hold Steady’s Boys And Girls In America and the Liars’ Drums Not Dead, as well as the infectious début from CSS - but for me 2006 will be remembered by the great albums released on this side of the Atlantic.

Whilst all the above were great the cream of the crop was Making Dens, the début album from Mystery Jets. Before they found some shit clothes in charity shops and had the highly original idea of going 80s, resulting in 2008’s disappointing Twenty-One, Mystery Jets purveyed gleeful, messy pop without any need for sax’s and synth’s and the result was a truly superb record.

Opening track You Can’t Fool Me Dennis, kicking in after a 40 second intro, sums up the band’s ethos perfectly in it’s claim that “You can do anything you want as long as it makes sense”. The album flits from straightforward acoustic balladeering on Soluble In Air to the complete mess of Zootime with surprising ease. Slower numbers like album highlight Little Bag Of Hair sit comfortably next to indie anthems such as Diamonds In The Dark and The Boy Who Ran Away. For an album with so many ideas crammed in, Making Dens flows almost perfectly.

In fact everything about this album is great. Blaine Harrison is an amazing vocalist, and the rest of the band complement his singing with some awesome harmonies. The production is perfect - tracks are never overloaded with ideas and the numerous quirks and little touches add to, rather than detract from the album’s charms. And in title track Making Dens Mystery Jets supply a suitably epic album closer which still manages to tug at the heartstrings. This is that rare example where a début album arrives fully formed, encapsulating everything great about the band who make it. For all these reasons, AGCS is happy to name Making Dens an Album of the Decade.

Jed. x