Top Records - March/April 2011

I said the same at the start of my last review of my listening habits for 2011, but I'm utterly terrified by how fast the year is moving. It's a matter of weeks until my school life is finished, mere months until I fly the nest and head off to university. Yikes. But let's not think about that just yet!

2011, however fast it's gone for you, has continued to rack up some brilliant releases. There are some releases I've been excited about for months, others I knew nothing about when I first came to them. Here's what's been tickling my musical fancy so far this spring!

Build a Rocket Boys! by Elbow

Ever since discovering them through their last album, The Seldom Seen Kid, my heart has been fluttering in rib breaking anticipation at the thought of this album. I wrote a review of it back in March and my glowing opinion hasn't changed. It's bettered if anything. The whole album just keeps on giving. Words like "beautiful", "startling" and "gorgeous" just really don't seem to do it justice. The whole thing just aches with emotion. It feels so REAL. I think it ultimately comes down to Guy Garvey's heartbreakingly colloquial turns of phrase that make songs like "Dear Friends", "With Love", "Lippy Kids" and "Jesus is a Rochdale Girl" feel so sublimely real that it's as if he's sat across the table from you, sharing a reminiscent, teary eyed pint.

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? by The Vaccines

The Vaccines were always going to find a mixed reception with the album. Discovered and hyped up to the nth degree by the NME, that's always enough to turn a vast amount of the music loving community against a band. However, at the end of the day, all the pretentious twits who want to occupy themselves with over analysing the relevance of guitar bands in 2011, or get hung up on their middle class backgrounds can carry on doing so. I'll be over in the corner singing along to an album where every single song is, quite simply, a cracker. I can't remember the last time I heard an album where every song was as gloriously captivating and singalongable as this. The already popular "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" and anthemic "Post Break-Up Sex" speak for themselves, but even the album cuts soar, especially my personal favourites "A Lack of Understanding" and "Norgaard". Best of all, they manage to perfectly nail catchy guitar pop without ever sounding stoopid or convoluted. Just fun and free. Death to the haters.

Belong by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

I never really got round to The Pains of Being Pure At Heart when they first emerged in 2009. However, the level of excite surrounding the announcement of this, their second album, made me determined to give it a go. My oh my! It's a strong departure from the sound of their debut, anyone could tell you that (and for some, that's enough to put them off of it) but, as far as I can see, this record is, for lack of a better word, majestic. Gleaming walls of keyboards, pounding and and drums, cataclysmic buzzing guitars - this record is huge. It really reminds me of The Cure, circa Disintegration, except with a heck of a lot less self loathing. The breakneck, euphoric energy of tracks like "Heart in Your Hearbtreak" or "Terrible Friend" make this an album to play with the windows down and the speedometer up. It's a relief really that a band can make music in 2011 that's showered in sentiment, distortion and breathy vocals but still sound as if they have some substance.

Wounded Rhymes by Lykke Li

Lykke Li was another act I never really got the first time round. She always seemed like a bit of an also-ran to me, though I don't know why. Therefore, when the excitement around the release of her second album reached mouth-foaming levels, I was pretty intrigued and thought I'd give her a second chance. Well folks, it's albums like this that make me think giving acts a second chance is still worthwhile. This album is full of stunningly penned songs, primarily exploring the darker side of love. The first track I heard was the pounding "Get Some", which storms along over fat, swung drum beats which instantly reminded me of big band classic "Sing Sing Sing". In fact, a lot of this album sounds pretty retro, and I can just imagine it flowing out of a crackly wireless somewhere in the 50s - especially my personal favourite track, the ballad "Unrequited Love". Despite the sadness and melancholy that hangs over the album, Lykke Li always manages to sound effortlessly alluring and sultry - "I Follow Rivers", "Jerome" and the aforementioned "Get Some" being cases in point. This album could become a classic my friends.

Submarine by Alex Turner

Now this isn't exactly an album, but it's still featured extensively in my listening over recent weeks. Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner penned the soundtrack for the recent film Submarine (which I saw - brilliant!), directed by Richard Ayoade, who's directed several Arctic music videos in the past. I posted about my reaction the first track made available from the soundtrack a while ago, and it suffices to say that the rest of the songs didn't disappoint. The breathy and sensual "Stuck on the Puzzle" is a perfect showcase for Turner's ability to highlight the tiny little details in life which are loaded with potency, possibility and personality. The whole song is wrapped up in carefully placed layers of details and metaphor which you can pick away at and think about for hours on end. The other tracks leave Turner alone with just an acoustic guitar, and that's always been a treat over the years. His storytelling knack is as strong as ever on the enchanting "It's Hard to Get Around The Wind" and the gorgeously romantic "Hiding Tonight" perfectly captures the mood of impetuous, impossible promises made in a teenage romance. Not bad for background music eh?

Honourable Mentions
Daydreams & Nightmares by Those Dancing Days
Blue Suicide by Coma Cinema
Smoke Ring for My Halo by Kurt Vile
Tomboy by Panda Bear

There's been plenty of older stuff that's I've had on repeat as well:
- Talk Talk Talk by The Psychedelic Furs
- Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel
- Paul Simon by Paul Simon
- The first 3 Kings of Leon albums. Those were the days.
- Prolific returns to the Arctic Monkeys back catalogue!
- Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan. Perfect for these new sunny days.
- The Carpenters. So much Carpenters. One of the best bands ever, so I was reminded!

There's plenty more stuff to come this year - the new Arctic Monkeys album springs to mind first of all. But there's plenty of unheard of stuff to be discovered. And hey, time may be moving fast in 2011, but we're not even half way yet!

Arctic Monkeys: The Plot Thickens

Well this is my first post in a couple of weeks, after my gallivanting around the USA. If you're bothered, I had a wonderful time. We spent a lot of time singing "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green and, for some reason, "Loving You" by Minnie Ripperton. Well, I did at least. Got a funny look from a rollercoaster engineer for the latter. Go figure.

Anyway, when I returned, I was immediately greeted with something I had been hotly anticipating for some weeks: a new Arctic Monkeys track and video. One tipped to be the first single from the band's forthcoming album, now revealed to be named Suck It And See.

I was worried as soon as I heard about it. I hope you read two of my most recent posts, one about how bloody awful the first track revealed from their new album was, and the other about how sublime Alex Turner's solo soundtrack for the film Submarine (saw it - brilliant) was. The highly disparate quality of the two left me feeling a tad uncertain about one of Britain's most important bands.

So, heart fluttering in desperately hopeful fanboy anticipation, beads of sweat forming under my collar in the harsh, unforgiving glare of the Surrey sun, I sat down to watch and listen to "Don't Sit Down' Cause I've Moved You Chair".



Now, I can't speak for you, but my reaction upon hearing that went something like this:

YES! YES! SODDING YES! THANKYOU BOYS! AAGGHHHHHH!!!

I was overjoyed hearing this. Over the moon. Just like with their last album, Humbug, there's gonna be a whole army of jaded, close minded indie fans who are still stuck in 2005 and never wanted the Arctics to progress beyond the sound on their debut who hate this track and the forthcoming album with no real reason behind their dislike. The band have adapted again, they've moved, it would seem, into even heavier rock territory than on Humbug , but that's not inherently a bad thing. It failed horrendously on "Brick by Brick", but on this track it comes off sublimely well, thanks largely, I think, to Alex's hilariously surreal and nonsensical lyrics. There's something very British about it all. I had a bit of trouble being able to enjoy the "YEAH YEAH YEAH!" of the chorus first of. But it won me over. In a big way.

As I said when I was negatively reviewing "Brick by Brick", one track can't give an indicator of the quality of an entire album, but I'm hoping to high heaven that this one does. Then we'll be in for a treat.

There's also been a wee bit of controversy about the newly unveiled album cover for Suck It and See.

It's been variously called lazy and genius. Some people love the simplicity and think it's a bold statement, bidding you not to judge it by it's cover but just "suck it and see". Other's think it's a cop out. I think everyone just needs to chill out. So they've opted for a minimalistic album cover. And? There's plenty worse out there folks.

Hey Hey, USA.

Well tomorrow is the big day folks. The day we've all been waiting for. Well, the day I've been waiting for.

Yep, tomorrow I will set flight for America. Land of the free. I've never been before, so I'm rather excited. It's a school trip, touring round California, Nevada, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, all that jazz. There are prolific amounts of fun and banter ahead I imagine.

This post then is to say two things.

The first is that I'm suspending my still kept new year's resolution and now general principle too of publishing at least 2 blog posts a week. I get back on Saturday the 16th so it's highly doubtful I'll fit 2 in at the end of next week amidst vast swathes of trans-Atlantic jetlag.

The second thing is to give you a little insight into what I'm probably gonna be listening to as I blaze across the desert in a coach. From the looks of the things, there's gonna be as many iPod playlists as there are people, so it could end up as a very unsociable coach journey. But hey. We'll see.

This is what I've got lined up for my eardrums. I've been striving to slam some psychadelic desert sounding stuff together.

- Crosby, Stills & Nash. Hendrix described them as "groovy western sky music". Hell yeah.
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- The Doors. Lots of The Doors.
- Queens of the Stone Age. It's the desert, how could I not?
- John Lee Hooker
- The Great Society Mind Destroyers
- Cream
- Paul Robeson
- The Decemberists
- Credence Clearwater Revival
- Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde era)
- The Rolling Stones
- Arctic Monkeys (Humbug)
- Nick Drake
- The Stooges
- Iggy Pop
- Inverness
- America ("A Horse With No Name" of course)

So there you have it. I imagine that, if there are any "big tunes" to be had on the trip, they'll make themselves known. Fill you in when I get back!

ByeBye LCD Soundsystem.

I've been thinking quite a bit recently about the relationship between age and music. It stems a lot from looking at my parents and older people in general and wondering why there is, almost universally, an age you reach where you stop being primarily concerned with new music. Witnessing this, I wonder to myself if that will happen to me when I'm settled down and middle aged.

Then I start to realise how my relationship with music has changed even in the few short years I've been alive and the even shorter number of years I've been properly listening to music. Now I'm getting older and edging towards the terrifying edge of adulthood, I've been around long enough to see things change for me musically. Not just in terms of what I listen to, but in the goings on of the musical world. I've been able to watch bands emerge from the underground and release a debut (Warpaint). Or change their sound (Arctic Monkeys). Or sell out (Kings of Leon). And, sadly, I'm now seeing bands calling it a day.

Last night, Saturday, 2nd of April 2001, LCD Soundsystem played their last ever show at Madison Square Gardens in New York. The band was the project of James Murphy, the coolest middle aged man ever (I don't think he's got to a stage where he stops listening to new music) Since they first came about in 2001, the band were one of the most exciting, innovative and insightful bands on the planet. I was blessed enough to see them play live back in November and it was one of the greatest gigs I've ever been to.

So saying good bye to them is hard. For me and, I imagine, for a lot of people. James Murphy has called it a day because he feels the band has run its natural course.

So why is it hard for me to say goodbye? I wasn't around when they exploded onto the scene in 2001 so they're not a bad who've soundtracked my life. I only got into them about 18 months ago. But in that time, LCD Soundsystem have influenced my ideas about what music in massive ways.

1. Sarcasm, irony, knowingness and bluntness
Before I started listening to LCD Soundsystem, I didn't really have any sense of how much a band could use the above notions in their music. James Murphy is one of the few special lyricists who make me laugh out loud. He burst onto the scene in 2001 with "Losing My Edge", a hilariously blunt, self-mocking confession of how, as he became a 30-something DJ, he began I'm "losing [his] edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties". He's so full of hilarious self-analysis, and it comes across in his delivery as well as the lyrics. Everything's just laced with irony and insightful sarcasm, and I was blown away to hear it for the first time, which I think was on the title track from Sound of Silver: "Sound of silver talk to me, makes me want to feel like a teenager/Until you remember the feelings of a real live emotional teenager". Very few people can pull it off without sounding either desperate or arrogant. The only other person who's up on the same levels for me is Morrissey with The Smiths - and I think my appreciation for his sarcasm/witticisms (which I now adore) is a direct result of gaining an appreciation for it via LCD Soundsystem.

2. Singing about other music
There's a dude on Twitter who goes by the name of Discographies, because he wittily sums up an artist's entire discography in 140 characters. This was his for LCD:

'LCD Soundsystem: 1 "Music about other music..."; 2 "...acquires unexpected resonance..."; 3 "...if you explain the trick and then vanish."'

LCD Soundsystem were, in a lot of ways, a band concerned with other music. It comes across in the lyrics immensely. The lament of competitive DJ life in "Losing My Edge", the hilarious proposition of a Daft Punk hosted house party in "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" or the more subtle moments. One of my favourite lines for some reason has always been one from "All My Friends": "That's how it starts/We go back to your house/We check the charts/And start to figure it out". That image of checking the charts with someone and trying to figure out what it's all about, why it's all so messed up, really resonated with me. It was amazing to hear an artist singing about other music and his relationship with it, at a time where I was really starting to realise how seriously I take music and the part it plays in my life.

The way Murphy makes his influences clear in the music itself was fascinating for me as well. He does it whilst always sounding so gloriously original, at every turn. He wears a love for Can, Kraftwerk, David Bowie and countless others proudly on his sleeve, but he never gets drowned in his influences, only pays homage to them - a fact which has massively shaped my expectations of how a band should relate to its influences.

3. Helping and caring about the music industry
A dude as concerned with music as James Murphy could never resist having his say in the industry at large. In 2001, he and some colleagues set up DFA Recordings, a fantastically consistent record label that's home so some of the most innovative and individual bands around. I love it when artists start their own labels and really nurture them and have a clear purpose for them (there's a lot of shared sound and influence in DFA bands).

Also, when scalpers started selling tickets for the last LCD shows at extortionate prices, Murphy had this to say: "i will try to figure a way out to fuck these fuckers. NO MATTER WHAT WE DO, IT IS NOT WORTH THAT KIND OF MONEY TO SEE US!...1500 for a single ticket? Fuck you, scalpers. You are parasites. I HATE you."

4. Making music that's intelligent, danceable AND rock n roll
LCD Soundsystem have been a band who've carried the torch of "dance-punk" throughout the past 10 years, and they really do the term justice. They combine lyrics which are constantly spot on with music that you could pour onto the dancefloor until sunrise, and it's all done with an attitude of screwing everyone else, and often delivered with some hilariously earnest screams to make the point even clearer - "North American Scum", "Drunk Girls", "Dance Yrself Clean", plenty more all clear examples. LCD Soundsystem taught me that a band shouldn't just be limited to making music that fills one particular criterion - being rock and roll or being intelligent or being danceable. All three can co-exist seamlessly, if you do it right.

5. They're a kick ass live band

Just watch and wait for 4:20:




6. They're just so real
At the end of the day, James Murphy and everyone who's ever contributed to his group, has exuded in interviews, on stage, on record, in videos, that they love what they doing and that they care so much about getting it right and giving it to the fans. Most artists love their fans but I have yet to see anyone who's really as clued in about how music works in and affects someone's life as James Murphy. He is a once in a generation kind of guy. And I'm glad he was around in mine.

Bye James.