I WANT IT NOW!

Today I had one of those peculiar experiences where something you've known and accepted for a very long time suddenly strikes you or dawns on you in a new way. I think we all have those moments where, it's not like you realise something new, but something that's already a firm part of your life or your mind suddenly becomes highlighted; something which comes into your life frequently, even something important or integral to how you spend your time.

I was suddenly struck by the sheer speed at which music travels on the internet. Now, I'm a music blogger, so flash in the pan, half-baked, over-hyped pretentious twaddle is something I come into daily contact with. I've regularly written posts sharing or ruminating on new songs or videos or artist announcements which have come out that self same day. It's part of my daily ritual to scour the internet to see if Damon Albarn has rush-released a multi-media opera about ninjas, or to see what ignorant, self-involved drivel of Liam Gallagher's the universe is going to be indifferent to on that particular day. It's just standard fare to focus on the latest daily developments in the music industry, and to try and prise some gems from the swirling storm of human detritus that most if it is. When you spend your time writing about new music in the 21st century, and want to make a career out of it, that's your sweet smelling bread and butter.

And yet today it just suddenly struck me that it takes mere minutes for some new release to set the online community of journalists, bloggers and Twitterers abuzz with excitement. A new track or EP or mixtape can be released in the morning and, by dinner time, have everyone straining their keyboards with excitement.

Today, for example, James Blake (English electro/post-dubstep songwriter) and Drake (mellow Canadian rap artist) were the subjects of a new mixtape entitled, surprise surprise, James Drake, crafted by DJs Bombe and Mr Caribbean. Due to some highly unfortunate quirks of online fate, I have yet to hear it. However, I am a bit desperate to, and the pursuit to find a site which will currently stream it to my computer is monopolising my evening. This mixtape has been the subject of blog posts, tweets and news updates all across the music press throughout today, and it's, for this evening, the hottest record around. Just like that, in a matter of hours, its become the thing that everyone in the independent music business is interested in. And that is just mind bogglingly absurd!

The fact that that is possible is reflective of so many things. It's reflective of the spreading power of social networks, which we're all painfully aware of. It's reflective of the hyping nature of the blogosphere, with every electro blogger and his mum flagging the thing up before you can say "chillwave". Also, it's reflective of the opportunities afforded to young musicians these days. True, James Blake and Drake have had plenty of big names and institutions backing them up, but they're only 21 and 24 respectively. Their music's their own, and Drake is signed to Young Money, one of the best and most forward thinking hip-hop labels around. I'll be the first to spit at the trashy, vacuous, Major Label orchestrated, self-prostrating "pop music" that claws its way into our eardrums like some crazy reverse image of the stomach splatter scene from Alien, but that climate has created a fantastic reactionary spirit in independent pop music.

It may also reflect the fact that the internet affords us the ability to create our own channels to access the information relevant to us ASAP. Through the people I choose to dominate my Twitter feed, through the websites I favourite, through the mailing lists I sing up for, I create my own little world. For someone else (most of my friends - hi if you're reading this!), this kind of stuff doesn't travel to them quickly, if at all. Stuff travels super fast on the internet, but there's so much of it that it often only goes to the people who are looking for it. Sure, the internet's this massive universal thing which does - often through Facebook - create an environment where EVERYONE becomes aware of something, but often things actually happen in niches, or separate cultures which have their own place in the online world. And that's, I suppose, why I notice stuff travelling so fast. I'm part of a community which is now built on the rapid spread and acquisition of art and information.

So it's been odd just considering the speed with which music, and pretty much everything really, travels online. You just take it for granted in the world we live in, a world geared towards instant gratification, populated by a generation of perennial Veruca Salts. If people want something, they expect to get it in seconds. Sports results, release dates, new stories, videos, anything. Anyway, I'm sure this observation will become mundane again soon.

Now, let's find that James Drake mixtape.

P.S. I managed to get hold of the tape whilst I was doing the spellcheck on this. Can't be bothered to rewrite the post. Hope I don't undermine my entire stance on the rapid, self gratifying, internet based accelerated culture we live in or anything.

Britain's Got Talent - Hate To Say I Told You So...

Well I've had a highly eventful couple of weeks and so keeping to my resolution to write 2 blog posts a week has been something of a struggle, but here I am once again. It's sad though that I'm writing on such a sour topic today, but it's something I really feel the need to write about.

Towards the end of last year, I wrote a pretty vitriolic post about how Simon Cowell thinks every member of the great British public is a blithering idiot. He sits in his huge, supervillain palace, shaped like a giant X, strokes his fluffy white cat named Louis and cackles maniacally as he sucks money out of our pockets year after year. Anyone with half a brain cell has been able to tell from day one that his "talent shows" - beginning with Pop Idol and now stretching to Britain's Got Talent and its American counterpart - have been nothing but manipulative business moves. But recently I read something which added a whole new, sickening dimension onto the devious git's empire.

Simon Cowell may not be a judge on BGT any more, but the show is still part of his media empire, SYCO. So he's still top dog. I recently read an e-mail, published here anonymously, from an executive of Sony Music UK, who's worked closely with SYCO in relation to BGT.

In it, he reveals how current contestant and hot favourite Ronan Parke, a 12 year old singer, was fist discovered and SIGNED by SYCO two years ago at the age of 10. Over the past two years, he's been groomed to a terrifying degree, trained and controlled in every area in order to get him ready to win BGT 2011. And, as far as the writer of the e-mail is concerned, he WILL win. Simon Cowell has made sure he's been groomed and given a sexualised image to impact on the public and, at the end of the day, to rival Justin Bieber in the pre-teen market. The vote is already rigged apparently, which isn't something that doesn't surprise me and shouldn't surprise you either.

The thing that really gets me here is that, in the 21st century, a company run by a man who has for years been the face of Saturday night FAMILY entertainment, has groomed and sexualised a 12 year old boy. Apparently, young Ronan's always been a bit fey and effeminate, but some kids are at that age. The marketing appears to have been "we can't man him up, so let's start firing G-A-Y on all cylinders". I mean, watch his "audition". What 12 year old kis dresses themselves like that? Children - and yes he is a CHILD - should never be settled on their appearance at that age, and they certainly shouldn't be shoe horned in to a sexuality they're not comfortable with. They've twisted this poor kid's entire life and personality into an image that they want to sell. Regardless of what your views on sexuality are, it is never right, in any circumstance, to take a 12 year old boy who is nowhere near coming to terms with his sexuality, and to purposefully groom his personality, mannerisms and image. It's wrong do that in ANY fashion, not just a sexual one. And it's all made fine and dandy by the fact the Michael Macintyre is a few feet away, bumbling around with his fat, yellow grin like Mr Blobby on a good day at the races.

It was conditioning like this that turned Michael Jackson into a frekish, lonely, highly disturbed man-child. Pressure like this that hooked Judy Garland on pills when she was barely out of her nappies. The 21st century music business is a devious, unscrupulous place, but I really thought that THIS would be below even the scuzziest lizard in a suit these days. But it appears not.

Glamorous child abuse will be pumped into your living room each night this week, surrounded by flashing lights, crocodile tears and two bumbling Geordie idiots who have Simon Cowell's feelers so far up their anuses that he could pull out bush tucker they ate four years ago.

So happy viewing folks.

Rebecca Black - "Friday". Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

If by now you haven't listened to and watched the video for the song "Friday" by 13 year old American singer Rebecca Black then you, my friend, are what we call "out of the loop". Part of me wishes to apologise for what you are about to experience, but it's necessary:



This video went viral last (haha) Friday, March 11th. It's been a while since something that wasn't either purposefully hilarious or Lady GaGa related went full blown viral; and in less than a week it's gained close to 13 million views on YouTube. Why?

Everyone can tell you - it's bloody awful. It has received a universal bludgeoning. Within a week, the song has become the internet's favourite whipping boy (or girl...). I have literally yet to meet a single person who hasn't described it as the worst song they have ever heard. It has been verbally raped. Everywhere.

Now, I don't just want to spend a whole post ranting about the obviously crap things - that devilishly inane chorus, the single stupidest lyric ever in the bridge, the autotune poured on as thick as concrete on Chernobyl. Despite it being a vacuous modern pop husk and the fact that the world's greatest hope is to simply ignore it and hope it goes away, the song and video reveal some tragic truths about how pop music works today.

One of the biggest problems with pop music over the last couple of years is the way that it presents kids at a really immature age (about 12 to 15) with all these ideas about "partying" and being "in the club". I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen 14 year olds dolled up like Bratz dolls on smack, singing and gyrating along to Flo Rida like a bunch of orange, ugg boot wearing marionettes. Now I'm nowhere near saying that Rebecca Black's godless refrain of "partyin', partyin', YEAH!" has propelled a generation of youngsters into a sordid pit of moral abandon, but when someone somewhere thought it was a legitimate idea to have a 13 year old sing that, it proves that, in some way, things have reached rock bottom.

Kids that age have never been in a club! They haven't even been to parties that aren't supervised by mothers voraciously handing out overwhelming amounts of Wotsits and those little biscuits shaped like fish. And yet in this video, you've got a 13 year old and her friends DRIVING A FRIGGING CONVERTIBLE. Then she turns up at some party where all her pre-teen friends are dressed up like slags (with braces) and there are massive, shiny 4x4s parked outside, seemingly being supervised by a bunch of pre-pubescent little waifs whose balls have very low prospects for dropping in the near future. I mean, watch the video and look at the guy she talks to at 1:43-44. Really?

A whole movement of pop songs over the last several years have accelerated the unhealthy preoccupation that kids have with behaving like adults nowadays. They're presented with an adult world and told "this is what you guys should want". They don't know how to deal with it. They're nowhere near ready! They have no idea who they are, and yet they're suddenly surrounded by this inescapable philosophy of waht you should act like, dress like and talk like. Those songs have always been sung by older artists, they just end up marketed at kids and young teenagers. This however is something different. This is actually a kid releasing the track. I hope that the sensory perceptions of even the most repugnant 13 year old can work out that this song is bloody awful, and so this won't inspire kids to think that their fantasies of spending the whole weekend (including Friday) partying are any more attainable. But someone, somewhere thought that it would. Record label bosses somewhere think that the market for pushing adult material (and it doesn't have to be porn to be classed as adult material) onto kids is at a point where it can be exploited at the next level. This may very well not be the last we hear of Rebecca Black. And if the internet achieves the (clearly laudible) feat of destroying the career of a doe-eyed 13 year old girl, there will soon be another on to take her place.

I'm sure plenty of you are going to say "dude, you're reading way too much into this". Maybe. I'm also sure plenty of people are going to say "well, why should I care? Just get on with life!" Maybe. This song's already gone viral and has also already broken the iTunes Top 100. Any popularity it gains however, I think will be purely for ironic amusement. Something of a reverse "Rage Against the X Factor". It's not going to have a sincere cultural impact. But the fact that someone, somewhere thought this was a good idea, that creating a younger, female Justin Bieber (she's been called that as an insult and a compliment) was an appropriate business move, has me worried. And not just because it's sodding awful.

And what's the deal with the middle aged guy rapping, checking his watch and driving along? He's not even with the kids at the party. What the hell is he doing? Going to pick them up I imagine. What a douche.

Uncharted Waters

There's been a mini-furore going on in the UK music press over the last couple of days after the publication of an article in The Guardian which 'officially' declared that "ROCK MUSIC IS DEAD".

Time of death? 2010.

Cause of death? The article cited that the finishing blow administered to rock's allegedly pale, flacid corpse with only 3 guitar based tracks appearing in the UK Top 100 Best Selling Tracks of the Year - one being "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, Hey Soul Sister by Train (haha) and Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine. And the latter two are hardly the personifications of what rock music is all about.

Now there's a lot to be said on both sides of the fence. I agree with a lot of what BBC Radio 1's Fraser McAlpine says here on his tumblr post and there's also been a nifty response posted on The Quietus. But I'm (largely) not here to argue either way as to whether guitar music dead (because it patently isn't).

The thing that The Guardian article seems to say is that the reason rock/indie/general guitar based music is dead is because it isn't making millions of pounds clogging up the singles charts. Now, if you know me well or read this blog in any detail then you'll doubtless have heard me spitting various kinds of venom about the X Factor, deriding almost every "pop star" who somehow worms into the Top 10 - Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, The Black Eyed Peas, continue ad infinitum - and generally getting infuriated when they manage to become so successful with so little talent, selling themselves to a heartless record label that only cares about making money from a population whose creative taste buds have been numbed by over exposure to recycled, repetitive and repulsive pop/R&B/whatever. I felt incredibly pissed off when Matt Cardle reached #1 with his ATROCIOUS Biffy Clyro cover. I've steamed at the ears when I look at the charts and every name is unfamiliar to me, because pretty much any sponger willing to do whatever they're told by a record label can get into the charts.

But thinking about that fact, something occurred to me. Something that was quite a revelation.

The charts used to mean something. No they weren't a pure and blameless land of musical excellence or a continuous jam session between Beck, Damon Albarn and Paul McCartney riding musical unicorns, but still. There were times where brilliant artists, like The Beatles (overly classic example, but roll with me here), were recognised with chart success as well as musical success. But now, in an age where any scrounging bozo who can carry a tune can get a Number 1 single- Olly Murs, I'm looking,at you - the charts are just meaningless. They are devalued. Devalued by a flood of musically, lyrically bankrupt acts who are put there by labels to make money.

Rock's not dead.

The charts are.

The general public have become totally brainwashed to accept music that fits the mould that record companies have laid out. It amounts to a robbing of free will. When the general music buying public are cajoled and led into believing something is what it isn't, then the charts become meaningless. They don't represent what's beloved or inspiring. They represent what's backed up by the men in suits. Which makes them utterly redundant, and any figures in relation to them meaningless. The last time anything really inspiring and organic took the charts by storm was when Arctic Monkeys debuted at #1 with "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" in 2005. Since then, it appears that the grip has been tightened and the asphyxiating plastic bag held over our nation's cultural head has been tightened.

Rock, indie, guitar music, whatever - GOOD, honest music, whatever the genre("guitars aren't a genre" liek Fraser McAlpine said in the post I link to above) - may not be doing well in the charts at the moment. But that really doesn't matter. Because the charts are meaningless. They're as controlled and orchestrated as a cattle herd. So I think I'll just stop caring about it. I will probably still get frustrated at times at the injustice of it all, but I think I'll adjust. It's sad that a lot of the British people seem so subject to whatever is advertised or publicised to them when they gather round their TV screens. I just wish that more people could strike out on their own musical course, finding music for themselves that they love, that's special to them. Not stuff designed for the masses. I know all this all sound a bit Sixth Form, sub-V for Vendetta, pseudo-political, but it's true folks.

I'll leave you with one of my favourite quotes. Made by Tommy Lee Jones. In Men in Black:

Tommy Lee Jones: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals - and you know it."

Can We Get Much Higher?

Andy Warhol (officially the most unnecessarily quoted man in history) is renowned for saying that "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes". It's been repeated ad infinitum that we very much live in Warhol's world now. Big Brother, X Factor, a barren wasteland in the Top 40, the internet and plenty of other 21st century phenomenons have seen to it that anyone can get themselves into the public eye for a brief period of time; whether it be some crazy woman who throws a cat in a bin or some little Canadian ponce who somehow becomes a popstar by flicking his hair around on Youtube.

So in this fame hungry culture in which we live, it's hard to really, truly find a genuine superstar. The kind of person who can casually bathe in gold with winged leopards from Sweden, whilst eating pureed panda cub through a diamond straw. A true pop diva or don. Those who immediately spring to mind in the category - Whitney Houston et al - are aging dinosaurs, washed up and aging, struggling to survive in a new world. You've only got to watch footage of Whitney's recent performances to know that. You can perhaps quote a few others - Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera - but come on. They've never REALLY gone that final mile have they? They're arguably good, very good, at what they do. Album sales are irrelevant - they've never gone truly stratospheric with the whole thing, have they? They typify CELEBRITY as we know it in the 21st century, but they're not really superstars.

If you know me relatively well or read my posts often (hi if I don't know you personally and you read this regularly. Thanks for coming!) then, if asked about my musical tastes, you'd probably be very quick to say "indie stuff", or something similar. Not massively shy of the mark I'll grant you, which is why a lot of people are slightly thrown when I say that I'm a massive fan of Lady GaGa.



GaGa is one of those people who everyone has an opinion on; from music industry insiders to brainless Capital FM listeners. The woman (or girl - she's only 24. TWENTY-FOUR. Bloody hell) is one of the only true superstars active in the world and the music industry right now. In the middle of last year she was in what Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys called "the imperial phase", in reference to his own band (I got this from a brilliant article by Tom Ewing on Pitchfork, which you can read here) It's basically a period where she can do whatever the hell she likes and it will be gold. In the above article, Tom Ewing mentions that imperial phases inevitably end, but does cite that he thinks Pet Shop Boys went on for about their first 20 singles. GaGa has only had 8, and is only one album proper into her career.

I wrote a post (available here) nearly a year ago on why I fell in love with her eventually, how I was struck with a genuine revelation about what she does.

The Fame Monster was revealed as 2010's biggest selling album worldwide, shifting 5.8 million copies. And she's still touring on The Monster Ball your which started in NOVEMBER 2009 and doesn't end until MAY 2011!

Guys my point is that I am convinced Lady GaGa is going to own this year. Like she did last year and the year before. She is a true superstar, and the world is craving that right now. Via the Lady GaGa persona she creates an artistic distance between herself and the world that is incredibly scarce in our over-Tweeted, over-reported and over-indulged 21st century. I love indie and DIY music and I'm sure this year will be awesome for it, though it will have trouble beating 2010. But a true pop monster/behemoth/leviathan is going to get even bigger this year. Her next album, entitled Born This Way, will be released on May 23rd and the world is already abuzz. She's said it's going to be "the anthem for [her] generation for the next decade". Now, that's a big statement to make - even from a woman who can apparently shoot sparks from her nipples at will and turn herself inside out
. But I can't help but believe her.

Like I've said, I love indie music and stuff that's outside the mainstream, intentionally or not. But I adore putting my trust in the hands of a giant like Lady GaGa. 2010 was a stunning year for independent music, even if the charts went to hell. But I think 2011 will be the year for superstars. It will be almost hilarious seeing GaGa in the charts, clobbering all these crappy little pretenders like Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Bruno Mars etc etc over the skull whilst mocking their whole pathetic, vacuous quest to be famous, no matter what the cost.

And I think there are some stunning lieutenants cantering towards us, ready to flank GaGa. Kanye West and Jay-Z are set to release a joint album entitled Watch the Throne in early March, with a single available on the 11th of January. It's hard to get bigger than that folks. Kanye is for one thing writing tunes that are more epic than Zeus playing the Star Wars theme in an epic electric guitar solo whilst being backed up by an orchestra featuring Darth Vader on the gong, Batman on the bassoon and Aslan on the triangle. As well as that, his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is - aside from being one of the greatest albums of all time - also possibly the greatest meditation on what it's like to be a superstar in the history of music. Kanye is definitely a superstar, albeit in quite a different style to GaGa. This will be his year too. He hasn't even announced any live shows to promote the album yet. It's already massive, and it, almost unbelievably, can only get bigger. He says it himself, as do all of his friends, in his latest single: "I'm a motherf*cking monster".



People like GaGa and Kanye - born to be superstars (born this way, get it? Hur hur) only come about once or twice in their generation. I hope both of them continue to flood the music industry with their incredible presences for decades to come. But I think 2011 will be a gargantuan year for both of them. Onwards and upwards. If possible!

BBC Sound of 2011: Rest in Peace

I'm mad about "Best of..." lists, so December is really when my ship comes in. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm not generally a meticulous, obsessive compulsive kind of person, I just love ranking things in lists. You might have guessed this from my own Top 20 Tracks and Top 12 Albums of 2010 lists.

But soon after we've forgotten the beloved entries into the "Best of the Year" lists and polls we launch into the divisive realms of polls entitled things like "Ones2Watch", "Sound of the Year", "The Future of Music" etc. Some of these lists are derided the moment they're published - and nearly all of them end up being derided 12 months later.

The worst and most criminal of the bunch is the BBC "Sound of..." poll, which is about as cursed as the Defence Against the Dark Arts staffing position at Hogwarts. The poll endeavours to dictate to us the illustrious role call of artists and musicians who will come to define the coming year musically. The winners have almost invariably paled into startling mediocrity, failing to stretch beyond their respective years, and often even failing to see that year out. Key victims/culprits here would be The Bravery, Little Boots, Keane, Corinne Bailey, Rae, Mika, Adele and, most recently, Ellie sodding Goulding. The only one to really escape the curse was the first winner in 2003, 50 Cent. And look what he's become.



Aside from the "winners", the number of bands lower down the poll who fall into the category of mind numbing filler, utterly vanished from memory now, is laughable. The Twang? Sadie Ama? Ghosts? Marcos Hernandez? Audio Bullys? The Dears? The Dead 60s? The Datsuns? Tali? Gemma Fox? Joss Stone? Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong? The Rumble Strips? Just Jack? Kubb? VV Brown? Delphic? The Thrills? Care to name me a song anyone? Any of the band members? No? Heck, most of them didn't even make any kind of impression in their respective years, yet alone do enough to remain in our minds for 2010. I would like to personally point out that I said this time last year that Delphic and Ellie Goulding were gut wrenchingly mundane and would flop, and thus, I have been vindicated!

Then there's the acts who may hang around in our memories slightly more but either because of one unusually popular hit (The Ting Tings, Black Kids) OR because they've been hyped elsewhere, but end up being as anti-climactic as The Phantom Menace(The Drums, KT Tunstall, Kaiser Cheifs, Razorlight)

The acts championed by the poll are almost invariably overly radio-friendly pop acts or supermarket landfill "indie" bands who look like the kind of Topshop boys your mother would be relatively indifferent to if you brought them home. They produce one vaguely hummable hit single in their given year and then bugger off with disappointing album sales and a terminated record contract.

As well as championing bands who have all the staying power of an old woman's fart in a gale, when the poll DOES pick a quality act, they place them criminally low in the list!

2003- Yeah Yeah Yeahs only reach 3rd, Dizzee Rascal only reaches 5th.
2005- Bloc Party inexlpicably lose out to The Bravery for 1st place.
2007- Klaxons only reach 3rd- beaten my Mika and The Twang.
2008- Vampire Weekend only reach 6th and MGMT only reach 9th.
2009- Lady GaGa wasn't first. That is all you need to know.
2010- Marina and the Diamond are robbed of 1st place by Ellie Goulding (whose picture appears in the dictionary next to "underwhelming"), whose biggest contribution to 2010 has been a dreary cover of 'Your Song' in a John Lewis advert, which didn't appear until December.

This year doesn't look that great either sadly - though there are worryingly a couple of acts in there who I'm currently quite fond of, so here's hoping they'll do a Marina & The Diamonds and buck the trend. Either way. The BBC "Sound of..." poll is almost invariably a pathetic, horrendously white middle class, radio friendly advertisement for the Radio 1 January playlist.

I'm not going to compile a list of upcoming new bands that you should watch out for. Who knows what will happen, when they'll release material, whether they'll alter their sounds. I love "Best of..." lists, as I've said, but these lists predicting the rise of new stars often seen to create a touchwood situation. So here's just a few things I'm excited about from already established artists. It's been an awesome year musically, at least as far as my tastes go. What does 2011 have to offer?


- New Radiohead album at some point
- The Strokes FINALLY set to release a new album. This is make or break for possibly the most important band of the last 10 years.
- Kanye and Jay-Z releasing an EP entitled Watch The Throne. Doesn't get much bigger does it?
- System of a Down set to reunite, at least for live shows.
- Elbow set to release new album and your. After their breakthrough with the last album, this should be interesting.
- Lady GaGa has a new album ready to unleash uponm the world. Where is there left to go for her?!
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds set to record new album. Judging by Nick Cave's side project Grinderman releasing another album this year, he's still on top form.
- Pulp reforming for live shows... MUST seeeeee thiiiiiiiisssssssss...
- Blur recording new album in January...

Those are jsut a few of the should-be-amazing musical events coming up in 2011... we'll just have to wait and see...

Any tips for 2011?

Summer Camp - "Christmas Wrapping"

First of all, sorry it's been a good while since my last post! A mixture of end of year business and laziness has been responsible I'm afraid. I'd been planning a run of Christmas related posts and it's a bit more short notice and slap-dash than I'd have liked sadly, but oh well. Onwards!

Summer Camp have quietly grown into one of my favourite new acts of 2010, and they haven't even released an album yet. Their song "Veronica Sawyer" kicked off my Top 20 Tracks of 2010, and it's the perfect showcase for their echoey, melancholy yet heartwarmingly twee indie-pop. Now they've recorded a cover of The Waitresses' mildly popular festive hit "Christmas Wrapping" as part of a Moshi Moshi Christmas compilation entitled A Christmas Gift For You - available for purchase here.

It's fairly faithful to the original but has definitely been reworked with their trademark bouncy synth mannerisms, with chiming Christmas synths that sound just like the ones in "Last Christmas". Elizabeth Sankey's vocal delivery is as warm and natural as ever. The whole thing feels like warm cuddles with the one you love by the fire, under the mistletoe, wearing ghastly Christmas jumpers but not really caring because, hey, it's Christmas.

Click here to download it on Pitchfork. Hopefully should have a few more Christmas posts over the next couple of days!

Simon Cowell Thinks You're An Idiot

Simon Cowell does not like you. Simon Cowell does not care about you. He does not care about you as a person. Simon Cowell does not want to make your life better. He does not want to make you think, grow, rejoice or change in anyway.

Simon Cowell thinks you are stupid.
Simon Cowell thinks you are weak.
Simon Cowell thinks you are easily pleased.
Simon Cowell thinks you have no taste.
Simon Cowell thinks you have low expectations.
Simon Cowell thinks you don't have a brain in your head or a soul in your chest.
Simon Cowell thinks you have the memory span of a goldfish.

To Simon Cowell you are not a person.

Simon Cowell only cares about your money. Via the whole X Factor brand, every year, Simon Cowell and his massive gang of producers spend all of their time and energy working out how to get as much money as they can out of your pockets as possible.

Every year, a dozen or so vaguely "talented" people are trotted out onto our TV screens on Saturday nights for live performances for eight weeks or so. On their way there, they are hyped up everywhere - radio, TV, posters, magazines, newspapers - so that you are fully aware, fully prepped and informed for their arrival. All of it is an attempt to draw you in, to make you feel as if you have to be involved in this, you have to be informed, you have to have a say in how it all pans out.

PLEASE think about it. How many X Factor contestants from the live shows can you remember? Half a dozen at most. Nearly EVERY X Factor contestant is painfully, heartbreakingly AVERAGE. There are a million and one backing singers, musical theatre performers, cruise ship entertainers and more, all around the world, who can sing just as well and probably better than the dull, mediocre zombies who are slapped in Topshop gear week after week and shoved into your face. And because they're so average, and Simon Cowell KNOWS that they are average, what does he do?

He puts on the biggest, most absurdly over the top stage shows he can afford. He advertises them everywhere he can. He underscores every moment of the contestants backstories with Take That hits to tug at your heart strings. Why?

Because all he wants is your money. And Simon Cowell think that you are so stupid, so weak minded, so uninspired, that you will be willing to watch, pay to watch a dozen painfully average, unoriginal, uninspiring, uniteresting individuals "perform" a narrow group of pop songs every week just because he's battered you round the head with flashing lights and media coverage.

Simon Cowell thinks that you don't deserve good music. That's why he insists on putting on a TV program that has produced a tiny amount of sub-average pop "stars". That's why he gets his contestants to perform covers of songs that are ALREADY in the charts so that you then go and buy those songs which are put out by record labels which he has shares in.

Simon Cowell doesn't want you to start thinking independently about the music you listen to. He doesn't want you to develop your own tastes which could stray away from the charts and his own label. He wants to numb all of your musical tastes so that you only end up recognising and listening to the songs and "artists" that he puts out. He doesn't care about making music that can stir your soul, make your overjoyed, make you really dance like your feet are on fire, make you leap and jump around like you don't care because you're so happy, make you roll down your car windows and belt your voice out with your friends because that song on the radio is so awesome. Simon Cowell doesn't care about any of that. He wants to control you, and what you like and what you buy. Most of them time, when a person votes for someone on the X Factor, it's not really their choice. It's not them controlling the program. It's Simon Cowell and his whole empire controlling them.

Simon Cowell thinks you're so stupid that he's changed the name Matt Cardle's dire cover of Bify Clyro's "Many of Horror" to "When We Collide", so that the title matches the chorus. Because that's what the kind of uninspired, reproduced, cheap pop songs that he puts out do. He didn't think you were clever enough to handle a song that had a title that wasn't related to the first few words of the chorus. He thinks you are that stupid. To him you are a big, throbbing wallet which he just wants to take money from. His view of you is no better than a mugger's, a con artists, or any other devious little criminal you can name. To him you are a big, fat cow that he's doped up to the eyes with tranquillisers, and he's viciously and deviously squeezing your tired, weary and bruised udders.



People who slag off the X Factor nowadays are normally fobbed off as indie/rock/metal/whatever snobs, and called old misery guts who just can't switch off and enjoy some pop music. But this shouldn't be what pop music is like. Pop music shouldn't be something that treats you stupidly. "Pop" comes from "popular" - music of the people. But it's not popular if it's not really chosen by the people. It isn't. It's chosen for you by a bunch of greedy, selfish businessmen who want to batter you down and make you submit to their own selfish plans. Plans which involve creating "music" that is easy to replicate, control, reproduce, digest and cover in cheap gloss. "Music" that disappears within weeks and leaves no real imprint on your life - just an empty space in your wallet.

Please, don't give Simon Cowell the satisfaction this year. Don't buy Matt Cardle's appalling, soulless cover. He'll vanish overnight, and next year some other talentless bloke or blokette will find themself in the same position. Don't let Simon Cowell and his money grabbing empire get the better of you. That really is what it will be and I'm not exaggerating. Simon Cowell wants to make you a dumb little zombie who is entertained by whatever he decides you will be entertained by. Because he wants your money.

I don't vastly care if you join one of the various "Get such and such to Christmas #1" campaigns. Just don't let Simon Cowell con you out of your money. Because that's what the whole thing is.

A filthy con.

My Personal Favourite 20 Songs of 2010 1

Honourable Mentions
'All of the Lights' by Kanye West
'Hollywood' by Marina & The Diamonds
'Heartbreaker' by Girls
'Romance is Boring' by Los Campesinos!
'Sea Talk' by Zola Jesus
'Giving Up The Gun' by Vampire Weekend
'A More Perfect Union' by Titus Andronicus
'If You Wanna' by The Vaccines
‘Walk in the Park’ by Beach House
‘O.N.E.’ by Yeasayer
'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains' by Arcade Fire
'Hologram' by These New Puritans
'Butterfly House' by The Coral
'Blackberry Stone' by Laura Marling
'Goodbye England, Covered In Snow' by Laura Marling
'The Calm Before the Sword' by Captain Ahab
'Summerblow' by Chief Black Cloud
'Have a Heart' by Lonely Galaxy
'The Withering Giant' by Ghosthorse

20. 'Veronica Sawyer' by Summer Camp
Summer Camp are a band to watch in 2011, and their Young EP from this year shows why. This standout track is a melancholy, slightly twee indie pop number that has one of the most addictive choruses I’ve heard all year. It’s a detailed, engrossing account of teen loneliness, bittersweet in lyric and melody. There’s a very individual sound to this song and the band as a whole, and a convenient opening in the indie pop market.



19. 'This Orient' by Foals
For me this was immediately the standout track of Foals brilliant album, and still is. I love “Spanish Sahara”, but this blows it out of the water as far as I’m concerned. A spliced, breathless info gives way to an inspired mix of guitar, bass, drums and vocals that sweeps you away into a cinematic journey of a song, with a massive chorus, boasting one of the most romantically grandiose lyrics I’ve heard “It’s your heart that gives me this Western feeling”.



18. 'Undertow' by Warpaint
When this one his the internet blogs, there was a little bit of an online orgasm. And rightly so. This song from my favourite new band of the year is captivating and alluring on absurd levels. It boasts a chorus that worms its way into your head, ingeniously hijacking a Nirvana melody, laced with sultry, slinking bass and echoing guitar lines. The gorgeous female vocals croon about ensnaring a lover, and ensnaring is certainly what this song does.



17. ‘We Want War’ by These New Puritans
Often toted as the prime example of the brilliance of my album of the year, We Want War is a sublime piece of music. It bursts open with a massive drum beat, freaky synths and terrifying bass drone. It splices epic percussion with dark, entrancing vocals. It sounds like its tital- looming, violent, aggressive, huge and brilliant.



16. 'The Wild Hunt' by The Tallest Man on Earth
The opener of my #3 album of the year, this is just a fantastically written folk song. It whisks you away in a world of evocative images, earnest vocals and warm, embracing acoustic guitar. Kristian Matsson’s voice leaps and strains upwards then drops down in pitch and delivery for brief moments to beautiful, emotional effect. It's a lyric about wonderfully carefree resignation to the inevitabilities of life, surrendering the pointless things and seizing life by it's gorgeous throat. Oh this song just overflows with life in every possible way!



15. 'Not In Love' by Crystal Castles ft. Robert Smith
This song had “BRILLIANT” written all over it from the moment the very idea was conceived. This icy synth pop song was so good that it made us all forget that a) it was a cover and b) there was a Smith-less version on Crystal Castles album. This song is massive, uplifting, emotional. It feels like your heart beating inside your chest at a moment of emotional fear and anticipation, perched delicately between euphoria and despair. Masterful.



14. 'The Oh So Protective One' by Girls
Girls made the song “Heartbreaker” available for free from their “Broken Dreams Club” EP and, again, the blogs went crazy (as did I!) But for me, this is the strongest song on the EP. Lead singer Christopher Owens somehow manages to sing and write from the point of view of a loverlorn teenage girl and make it sound tear jerkingly genuine and emotional. Musically its pure 50s guitar band, like The Shadows or something. But its superb indie guitar music, and lyrically brilliant. It makes me feel warm inside.



13. ‘I Want the World to Stop’ by Belle & Sebastian
I wrote a post on why I love Belle & Sebastian and their new album a while ago, and so it only makes sense for a track from it to make this list- but fairly so. This song is absurdly addictive, the melody genuinely intoxicating. The chord progression is just sensational, a genius piece of songwriting, and the contrast between chorus and verse inspired. Lyrically, it’s a fantastically human account of modern alienation and loneliness, yet still manages to be captivating indie pop. It’s just lovely everyone.



12. 'Alley Cats' by Hot Chip
Hot Chip’s album One Life Stand hasn’t quite made the cut across lots of end of year lists, and I can see why in part, but its full of some brilliant songs, a lot of them tender and emotional and- for me- none more so than this. Simple keyboard and drum open up the track, and Alexis Taylor’s distinctively light voice is so soft and tender that I can’t help but give myself over to it. The whole thing is comfy, warm and affectionate and just makes me think of home.



11. 'Power' by Kanye West
The first big indication that Kanye was soon going to the rule the whole damn world. This distils a lot of what his new album is about. It’s Kanye rapping about being Kanye. Its huge, ostentatious, cinematic. It’s boastful and grandiose. But lyrically it’s a masterpiece. A full West dissection. It’s a confession of his failures, his idiocy, but a slap in the face of haters and sceptics. This is the sound of triumph.



10. 'Girls' by Marina & The Diamonds
I adore Marina Diamandis. I confess, I love everything about her. Including this song. The vocal delivery is so absurdly individual and distinct, I can’t help but adore it. She just fires on all cylinders on a superbly vicious and sarcastic attack on superficial, vacuous modern girls. The lyrics are detailed and specific, yet never come across as cluttered or dated. Maybe I’m just so absurdly attracted to Marina that my judgement has been clouded. If so, I don’t care. Not when pop music this good is involved.



9. 'Tell 'Em by Sleigh Bells
One of the best riffs ever. Fact. Too soon? Maybe. Wrong? No. There is no denying the riff on this song is INSANELY awesome. And that’s just the start. MASSIVE drum beats. HUGE whirring sounds. GORGEOUS and sweet vocals that shouldn’t work against the intense heavy metal guitars and mammoth drums, but they do. And the melody is as insanely addictive as the riff. This song is twisted pop brilliance that just whacks everything up to 11 and is about nothing other than making as much brilliant noise as possible.



8. 'Rambling Man' by Laura Marling
Laura Marling cemented herself fully as one of the best (if not THE best) songwriter in the UK with her second album, and my favourite track from that album has got to this one. The melody is just so superb and the song builds and grows so much that, with its sentiments of identity and independence, it’s something ‘epic’ (though using that word doesn’t seem quite right). Brilliantly arranged, lyrically masterful and beautifully delivered. This is just a brilliant song.



7. 'The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future' by Los Campesinos!
Los Campesinos! are one of those bands who are able to tell entire stories and build entire, believable characters in the space of one song, and the most effecting example of that is here. An engrossing guitar line and tragic, brooding cellos draw you into a tragic tale of anorexia , bereavement and reflection. Probably my favourite song as a lyrical whole from the whole year, which is only helped by the chillingly detached vocal delivery. And it all crescendos into a sublimely noisy chorus. This song hits an emotional chord and draws me in in a way that I don’t experience very often.



6. 'I Can Change' by LCD Soundsystem
Despite the fact that it’s now used in adverts on Dave, this song has been one of the best pop songs of the year since it first appeared. It’s probably one of the best James Murphy has ever written. It uses his classic trick of repetition with subtle variation to create an addictive and engrossing piece of pop music. The melody is quite beautiful and I really can’t say enough about the chorus. That itself is an example of the repetition with a little bit of variation, and its AWESOME to belt out. Lyrically, it is spectacularly vulnerable and human, qualities people very often don’t seem to associate with James Murphy, and it contains some of my favourite lyrics of the year.



5. 'The Suburbs' by Arcade Fire
I find it difficult to believe that anyone who truly likes rock music could not love this song. The inspired mix of honky tonk piano, guitar, plodding bass and steady drums creates a disarmingly simple underpinning for a truly brilliant track. This song was a statement of intent as the opener of Arcade Fire’s sublime album. The lyrics veer from cinematic and grand in feel to beautifully specific details about learning to drive and your mother’s keys. Beautiful.



4. 'Runaway' by Kanye West
This song was how Kanye decided to announce his public return, at the MTV Awards. This song is similar in a lot of ways to “Power”, but in my opinion is the greater of the two. It sounds MASSIVE and pompous, like some imperial vessel moving onwards… imperiously. But its coupled with a melancholy chorus that is probably my favourite individual lyric of the year. Kanye wraps up his own self loathing and the loathing he feels for his critics and exorcises the two with a stupendous and actually quite amusing chorus. The whole of the new album is about what it’s like to be Kanye, and I think that this track nails that on the head as well as everything else you could possibly want in a pop song.



3. 'I Don't Have a Dick' by Captain Ahab
This track is so high on my list purely because it is genuinely unlike anything I have ever heard. Lyrically, it is hilariously, unbelievable absurd. It is the arrogant, ostentatious first person account of the mythologised Captain Ahab who spends most of the track rapping over a constantly shifting background about how he doesn’t have a dick, and what that means for him exactly. This song is overflowing with grandiosity, absurdity, EVERYTHING, in a way that Kanye or even GaGa can’t possibly hope to rival.



2. 'Trainwrecks' by Weezer
Unless you’ve bought Weezer’s most recent album, you probably won’t have heard this track. It’s not a single, at least as of yet. Lots of people have said that Weezer returned to form this year and for me the best example of that is Trainwrecks. Guys this song is just amazing. It’s a massive rock ballad. Heartwarmingly unpretentious, euphoric and rebellious, I have lost count of how many times I have belted this out in my car. It has “Season Finale” written all over it in a way DOESN’T seem crap. Lyrically its disarmingly simple, it’s honest, self aware. Rivers Cuomo’s vocal delivery is emotional, raw, varied and just bloody awesome. If you fob this off as uninspired, uninventive rock then you’ve missed the point you pretentious twat.



1. 'Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk' by The New Pornographers
I raved on Twitter a while ago about how much I love this song. Unless you read that then you probably have no sodding clue about it. This song isn’t a huge statement. It’s not a game changing pop revolution. It’s not a social diatribe. This is just a genuinely PHENOMENAL indie rock song. It has one of the best riffs I have ever heard. It’s vaguely off key, an inspired use of semitones, and thus has something I find so attractive – the twisting and warping of pop music. The melody is mind blowingly catchy. Genuinely. From the moment I heard it I haven’t been able to shake it. The chorus still just blows me away every time. It’s just amazing! I can’t tell you why, it just is. The way this song chops and changes into different repeated sections, the beautiful interplay of lead male and female vocals, the vulnerable lyrics. Good grief, this is just such a perfect song. I love it. I really love it. It has decimated every other song in my iTunes play count. It got me into this band. In years to come few will probably rave over the album, let alone this one track. Well screw them. This is my favourite song of the year, because it is just hits the mark in untold ways on every level that a song should.





So there you have it! My top songs of the year. Whaddya think folks? Hope to hear from you soon :) have a merry Christmas!

My Top 12 Albums of 2010: #6-1

Click here for #12-7.

6. 'The Fool' by Warpaint


If you have talked to me AT ALL about music in the last few months then you'll have known that I have fallen head over heels in love with Warpaint. The all girl American four piece entranced the world with their SXSW performances earlier this year, and their Exquisite Corpse EP became the record to own. Anticipation about their debut album was high. And they delivered in a gorgeously superb fashion. This album is a dark, sinister yet alluring journey. Menacing drums, throbbing huge bass lines, creepy guitar echoes and ghostly, sultry female vocals weave together to create a genuine experience. The songs veer in multiple directions at times ("Set Your Arms Down"); lending it a proggish air, but it never loses focus or drifts into aimless twiddly wankery. The engrossing music is coupled with simple yet evocative lyrics. This album is all about getting lost in emotion, weighed down by the dark underbelly of love and desire ("Undertow", "Lissie's Heart Murmur", "Baby", "Bees") I have fully given myself over to this album's enchantment, and I don't think I'll ever regret it.

5. 'This Is Happening' by LCD Soundsystem


LCD Soundsystem may very well appear in the musical dictionary next to the term "critic's choice". I have yet to read an "Album of the Year" list that doesn't feature this album, and a lot of people may think it's been included across the board purely due to expectation and a degree of entitlement. Well you're wrong. This is a genuinely brilliant album, and, if it IS James Murphy's last effort under the old moniker, a perfect swansong. Musically, the album retains a classic LCD template - epic dance tracks that use repetition to stunning effect. True. But there's a distinct sound to this album. It's probably more electronic than its predecessors and definitely a lot cleaner production wise. But the music is still sublime. Like lots of entries in this list, James Murphy takes pop music and shapes it into his own subversive image. Intoxicating pop hooks abound, especially on killer singles "Drunk Girls" and "I Can Change". You can't NOT sing along to those songs, the former being one of the most absurdly fun things ever. The whole album is just so danceable, and James Murphy nails the thing that I find so amazing about him. He takes dance and pop music and combines it with lyrics that are perceptive, honest and clever, covering paranoia ("Dance Yrself Clean"), vulnerability ("All I Want", "I Can Change") and, as always, his unique relationship with the music industry ("You Wanted A Hit"). A stunning record. Musically, sonically, lyrically and emotionally it's triumphant on all fronts and, at the end of the day, friggin' brilliant to hear.

4. 'The Suburbs' by Arcade Fire


I'll be honest. It took me MONTHS to get round to buying this album. I watched on as the hype and praise was heaped upon Arcade Fire, constantly dogged by the knowledge that I really SHOULD buy this album. It was an event. It would probably be looked back on as a classic in years to come. By the time I got to it, I was expecting either to be let down or to end up feigning appreciation to save my indie cred. But this album. This album. It broke through anything else I had heard or soaked up about it and, as I sat in my room listening to it, it was as if I was being introduced to a total stranger who instantly captivated me. Charmed me. Made me fall in love. The themes of this album are obvious - varied reminiscences of the bands suburban upbringings in the light of their adult lives. But that subject matter involves so much - a whole spectrum of recalled childhood emotions and experiences that spirals through the bittersweet, the triumphant, the defeated, the ignorant, the romantic, the disappointed, the broken. This is a true ALBUM. It covers all the angles of its subject matter, but not in a business like efficiency. In a way that genuinely reflects human experience. Whether it's fear ("The Suburbs"), insecurity ("Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"), loss of innocence ("City With No Children"), loneliness ("Ready to Start") or a million and one other subtle feelings and emotions, this record overflows with humanity and lyrical beauty. Musically, it flows and varies and enters numerous new territories for the band, whilst always maintaining that enchanting, cinematic quality Arcade Fire pull off earnestly in a way Coldplay and U2 never will. A lot of people will be put off now by the fact that they're playing stadium shows. Screw 'em. This music was made to be huge. The word masterpiece is bandied about a lot nowadays, often with no justification. Not so here.

3. 'The Wild Hunt' by The Tallest Man on Earth


I'm confident that most of you won't be familiar with this record, which kind of makes me glad. Not because I want to inflate my pretentious, musically informed ego (well, probably) but because I hope I'm telling your something you haven't already been told. The Tallest Man on Earth, a.k.a Kristian Matsson, possesses the enviable ability to do untold amounts with simply his voice and an acoustic guitar. This album is a stunning, genuinely stunning, collection of songs. The sparse arrangements create an album that is warm, organic and inviting; and to put it simply Matsson is a superbly talented acoustic guitarist. Regardless of the fact that English is Matsson's second language (he's Swedish) this album is one of the most lyrically beautiful I've probably ever heard; full of emotional confession as well as vivid imagery. He covers mortality ("The Wild Hunt"), unrequited love ("A Lion's Heart"), playful fantasy ("King of Spain"), guilt ("Kids on the Run") and more. Those may sound like weighty, depressing lyrical themes but this album is beautiful and welcoming, like lullabies with well worn but effecting morals. A timeless gem of an album.

2. 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' by Kanye West


The world of Kanye, and the world WITH Kanye, is an insane place to be. Rather then repeat myself, read my previous post on why this album is so amazing. And really. It is amazing. It is a stone cold, terrifying classic. I can hyperbolise and dish out superlatives as long as I want. There really aren't words. Massive. Sublime. Bizzarre. Historic. I don't know. Just listen. Listen and marvel.

1. 'Hidden' by These New Puritans


Well here we are. For me, there has never really been a threat to the top spot for this year since Hidden was released. We've had nearly the whole of 2010 to digest this album. NME crowned it their album of 2010 and I anticipate an immediate wave of scepticism as a result of that. But if that is you: get stuffed. There really is no other option for album of the year. This album gave me the amazing experience of hearing something genuinely NEW. Sonically, nothing has been done like this album before. Chief song writer Jack Barnett has been open about his influences, and they're there if you listen, but they've been stripped, dissected, atomised and shaped into a terrifying, triumphant and sensational piece of work. The musicianship on this album is genuinely phenomenal. As a musician, it just blew me away. The percussion throughout is textured, varied and adventurous, both underpinning and at times dominating proceedings. They accompany throbbing, monolithic bass sounds to create the mind blowing "We Want War"- a mysterious, shadowy beast. It's a prime example of the inspired and mind boggling use of hip-hop beats and rhythms throughout- evident on equally dark "Attack Music"- and the aforementioned beats are combined with intricate and thoughtful arrangements for a woodwind ensemble. Bassoons and big beats? The thought is, and always was ridiculous. But it has been pulled off. And not JUST pulled off. It's unbelievable. The album experiences soft, vulnerable beauty as well- "White Chords" and "Hologram" are supremely beautiful and vulnerable, as well as stunningly textured. Nearly every track is a revolutionary piece of pop experimentation, bastardised and reshaped into something that I still cannot describe. This album is a true leap. Jack Barnett has said himself that this album is not experimentation for experimentation's sake. This music is sincere people. It's real and revolutionary, a towering example of just how original and exciting music can still be in 2010. But this isn't just a flash in the pan. Even if These New Puritans all die tomorrow, this album will stand as one of the most accomplished of the decade and, years from now when I can say this without being torn down, one of the most accomplished in the history of popular music. And the best part? The whole thing is overwhelmingly enjoyable to listen to.


Well there we have it! My top albums of 2010. You probably disagree with some if not not all my decisions. In years to come, I may look back and heartily wish to rearrange. Who knows. I just know that this year, I have loved each of these albums. Bring on 2011.

Kanye West: Remember His Black Balls

I, like the rest of the world, have had a chequered relationship with old Kanye West. First time I heard "Touch the Sky" back in 2005I loved it. I borrowed Graduation from a friend when it came out and listened to it pretty much non-stop. Then I started to branch off into other realms of hip-hop- mostly early 90s stuff like Arrested Development, A Tribe Called Quest etc. but more recent and more intense stuff like Immortal Technique. And I began to doubt Kanye. I thought that, in comparison to the happy, chirpy early 90s rappers and the serious, political stuff I was listening to, Kanye seemed a bit juvenile, shallow and commercial. He was one step close too Jay-Z (who, contrary to popular belief, is not the best thing to happen to hip-hop ever). This probably also came at the same time as when I started getting into alternative music and made the childish mistake of rejecting ANYTHING in the charts as inherently crap. Also, I was in a phase of listening to almost EVERYTHING my brother said about music, and he is DEFINITELY no Kanye fan.

Then of course came Kanye's classic moments- saying live on TV that "George Bush doesn't care about black people", and then of course THIS. That started an internet meme. No one has ever recovered from an internet meme. And there was just a general load of what one may fairly describe as "douchebaggery". Plus, the release of 808's and Heartbreak, a huge departure for West but, to be honest, it didn't set the world on fire. It was met with a universal shrug, despite or maybe because of the personal nature of the songs.

So Kanye, about a year ago, was incredibly low in my estimations. And probably in all of our estimations.

But things changed.
OH how things changed!

First of all, Kanye rose rapidly up through the ranks of Twitter. His feed became one of the most popular on the network, and it made (and still makes) fascinating reading. Most artists and musicians on Twitter generally just tweet about gigs, releases, thankyous to fans and casual banter. Kanye was different though. Kanye was wearing his heart on his sleeve. Following Kanye on Twitter, you got a play by play rundown of what was going on in his head and his heart, 140 characters at a time. It was truly astonishing. He poured his heart out over the Taylor Swift thing- see here for the top tweets from that. I was genuinely shocked and moved by that. Since when does a musician- especially in a genre so egotistical and self aggrandising as hip-hop- come out and hands down admit they were wrong, without needing to it through music, and just publicly dress themselves down?! Kanye went up in my books.

And yet there were still seemingly contrived tweets saying things like "Let me be great!" We just couldn't get it! Was he humble? Arrogant? I don't know. I don't think the guy was striving to create a consistent public image. He was, in his own words, "human" and "real". Kanye gave us a living, breathing picture of the real person behind the media images, behind the furore, behind the meme. I think doing that really is the only thing that has saved him from forever being a raging internet joke.

So. Was it just the tweets that meant Kanye started going up in my books again? No. Kanye launched his "G.O.O.D Fridays" project- a vow to release a new piece of music every Friday until Christmas 2010, just because he loved his fans and wanted to give them something. I know that all great bands and artists love their fans, and their albums are for them, and lots release EPs, downloads etc, to give something back. But Kanye's was just on a such a grand, frequent and sincere scale. The first track I heard form it was the fantastic "See Me Now" featuring Beyonce and Charlie Wilson. I loved it. A couple of my favourite lyrics of the year actually:

"I'm like Socrates, 'cept my skin more chocolatey!"
"I'mma let you finish but I got Beyonce on the track y'all!"

That last lyric is just hilarious! It just showed me that Kanye was incredibly self aware- he knew exactly what people thought of him. But he'd apologised. Now it was time to move on. It was time for business.

And business has been good.



This week, Kanye's much hyped new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted fantasy was unleashed upon the world.

My first reaction?

W

O

W.

Guys, let's break the fourth wall for a minute. This album is amazing. Really. It is OUT OF THIS WORLD good. It's a hip-hop MASTERPIECE. It's a pop MASTERPIECE. Buy it. You can't not listen to this album.

It's not that Kanye has re-written the hip-hop rule book- but he doesn't bloody need to! There is just everything good to say about this album. It's got blanket sensational reviews and Pitchfork- either the Holy Grail or the height of pretension to many- gave it the site's first 10.0/10.0 rating for a new album in a good few years.

Now, I don't need to sit here and write about how huge and epic each of the tracks on this album are, without sounding gross and hollow like a Kings of Leon or U2 track. You can go (and really DO!) and listen to "Power", "All of the Lights", "Monster", "So Appalled", "Runaway", "Lost in the Woods"... hell the whole sodding album, and realise that every track is- for want of a better word- BANGING! Every track is pop perfection.

But I just want to say, having had a few days and a good few listens, why this album just works.

I've read a few articles that have been sceptical of the universal praise for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Not that many, but they are out there. A common criticism I've found is that, apparently, reviews have spent more time talking about Kanye's past controversies and his Twitter account than they have actually talking about the album. A slight exaggeration probably, but every review I've read (and this article!) has spent a decent chunk recounting the gaffes and the Twitter rants? Why?

You've got to think about context! How many great albums lose something (or all) of their greatness if you remove them from their context? Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, Nevermind by Nirvana, Is This It? by The Strokes. Those albums mean so much more, and gain their status in history, because of their context. And this record is contextually perfect! Though not on a societal level- it's not London Calling or anything. But in the context of everything Kanye has done and said- and had done and said to him- this album is perfect. It is a totally spot on response to everything Kanye related over the last couple of years. He's become such a sensation, such a figure, that he's just created this whole context around himself and risen gloriously out of it.

This album is jointly a humble confession, an audacious statement of self belief, a huge middle finger to a media that totally turned against him, a massive a acknowledgement of his own precarious stardom, an insight into grandiose life of a pop superstar that is at times stunningly rewarding yet at others lonely, vacuous and heartbreaking. The two sides of the coin are best seen in the absolutely stunning chorus of "Runaway", featuring Pusha-T:

"Let's have a toast for the douche bags!
Let's have a toast for the ass holes!
Let's have a toast for the scum bags!
Every one of them that I know!"

When Kanye sings that, he's singing about all the haters who've been on him for the last two years- but he's also singing about himself! He's saying "you guys, you're douches, screw you!" and at the same time recognising "I'm a douche bag too. I screw up. I have screwed up. So screw me I guess". The way he's captured that duality is just mind blowing! He's captured two disparate emotions and blended them together in a way that even great literature probably can't. Plus- what a chorus to singalong too!

Also, I think this album really turns Kanye into a mainstream superstar who's a true artist. Aside from creating brilliant music that will find its way into the charts, he's made some stunning lyrical insights into the life of someone as insanely famous as himself. Rhianna sings on her guest spot on the PHENOMENAL "All the Lights":

"Turn up the lights in here, baby
Extra bright, I want y'all to see this
Turn up the lights in here, baby
You know what I need, want you to see everything
Want you to see all of the lights"

Kanye's got this desire to be exposed! To just bleed and wear his heart on his sleeve. Yeah yeah, he's rolling in it- but he's a human being. He's got a mother who loves him. "All The Lights" goes on to give insights into the troubled life of being a rap superstar- "Restraining order/ Can't see my daughter/ Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order" being a choice line Perhaps a nod to Eminem, but still a stunningly human, truly emotional insight into the life of the superstar. And what I love is also is that the album is in one way very Lady GaGa- it is ostentatious, it is pop music on a totally new level- but the music is pure, raw Kanye. I love GaGa- but we never see Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. We only see the facade, the front, the creation- brilliant as that is. Kanye has all that- but it's him. Pure, raw, flawed, conflicted, unadulterated human being. I think Kanye himself had a bit of a revelation in regards to this a while ago when he Tweeted (and I paraphrase from memory): "It just hit me- I make commercial art!!!" Oh you do Kanye. And it's stunning.

This album is an event as far as I'm concerned. It's not just empty grandiosity and bluster. It demands that you listen to it- as a musical event, a pop culture event, a collection of unbelievable songs, a frank and honest confession of one man's beautifully flawed humanity. If you harbour bad thoughts or feelings to Kanye, listen to this. It's his side of the story. And you'll be surprised at just how engrossing the world of Kanye is.

I'll leave you with the lyric that this post draws its title from, from the track "Gorgeous" featuring Kid Cudi and Raekwon:

"You blowin' up, that's good, fantastic
That, y'all, it's like that, y'all
I don't really give a fuck about it at all
'Cause the same people that tryna blackball me
Forgot about two things- my black balls!"

Just Lovely: Simian Ghost

Sometimes you just want to hear something that's lovely. Something that's disarmingly soft and lush and tender that warms the cockles of your heart like Christmas. There are a number of bands who possess that quality- Belle & Sebastian being a prime example. The other night I was scouring music blogs and felt my heartstrings being tugged as if my small, gorgeous child, when I came across Simian Ghost. These guys tick a lit of the boxes on the adorable tweeness criteria. They're Swedish. They have arty, cryptic song titles like "All I Know is But A Fog". The lead singer sounds a hell of a lot like Jonsi. But it works!

I've mentioned Belle & Sebastian and Jonsi thusfar, but Simian Disco don't bear a vast resemblance to either band. If you've heard The Postal Service, I guess they're quite similar to them. The three piece have a very layered sound, and everything is blended so well that on the first few listens of their album Infinite Traffic Everywhere- available to stream for free here- I didn't notice everything that going on. Gently fluttering synths, guitar parts ranging from dirty guzzlign riffs to echo drenched lines that soar up and down to sprase and lonely acoustic pickery, drum machine beats, classic indie guitar pop "oos" and "aaas"all deftly woven together into something that at times really is enchanting.

These guys aren't the saviours of music, but that's besides the point. They're another example of Scandinavia's uncanny ability to create intelligent, glimmering music that, if you let it, will pick you up and drift you off into a gentle, beautiful state of mind.

Click here to go to music blog Tympanogram and grab a free download of their new single "Transparent is OK", or here to go the their MySpace, or here to stream the album! Hope you enjoy!

Damon Albarn: King of the Jungle

There's a long roster of unsung heroes in musical history. People who died long before their time, leaving small, unheard bodies of music that change the lives of those who hear them- Nick Drake, Elliott Smith. Bands who totally changed the way modern music works but are probably entirely unknown to the audiences of the bands they influenced- Kraftwerk, The Velvet Underground. Cult heroes who inspire worrying but euphoric devotion from their fans- Pavement, Big Star. These guys are often little known, little heralded and only gain respect and recognition as time passes on. You could find hundreds of die hard 30-somethings who will spend hours telling you why Stephen Malkmus from Pavement is the greatest lyricist of the past 25 years. Or why Nick Drake is probably one of the greatest guitarists of all time (I'd be one of those). I love it when people are devoted to someone who is totally unknown, even sometimes by the indie community as well as the mainstream.

But Damon Albarn- frontman of Blur and Gorillaz, two of the world's most critically and commercially successful bands- is, I think, a criminally unsung hero. Even in the indie community. Like I just said, the list of unsung heroes who disappeared without a trace goes on and on. Damon has the peculiar position, I feel, of being a musician who has hardly left the charts or public eye for the past 20 years, and yet remains unsung in the way he should be.

This post has been prompted by the release of the video for new Gorillaz single "Doncamatic (All Played Out)";


Doncamatic (feat. Daley)

Gorillaz Featuring Daley | Myspace Music Videos

I took a few listens but I've quite warmed to it actually, even if Daley does look like a horrendous Topman clad indie Cindy. But watching this video and thinking about the sheer scale of Gorillaz right now, I realised that- even in the midst of Blur reuniting last year- no one seems to have ever really said that Damon Albarn is one of the most gobsmackingly brilliant musicians, not just of the past 20 years, but ever. He is up there. He really is a genius.

Just think about it! Blur. Blur really were (and hopefully still are!) a sen-SATIONAL band. First album Leisure was pretty standard as debuts go, but starting with an ok debut isn't a bad thing. It gives us a marker for how far Blur and Damon went and have gone. Damon himself said it's "awful", so the bloke's got some self awareness! Plus, it had "She's So High" and "There's No Other Way", which are still awesome.



Modern Life Is Rubbish was the first major event of Britpop, and is still a phenomenal album and showed that Damon Albarn was a mastermind. He oversaw a total makeover for the band, both in sound and image. And by gosh it worked. That album is where Damon started to exhibit that stunning quality possessed by few other musicians- Blur and Thom Yorke being good examples- of being able to cast his keen, magpie eye around and pick the most sublime influences, then bleed them together into a cohesive whole that has a single idea and tone, but has reference points coming out its ears- and it still very much his own. Parklife did that as well even more so, to produce a definitely superior album. Some of the songs on that album just blow me away every time. "Parklife". "This Is A Low". "Girls & Boys". "Bank Holiday". "Badhead". "Tracy Jacks" (I'm slowly doing the whole album...)

The Great Escape was a bit messy, but still full of fantastic, very distinct songs, and on the albums after that- even when Graham Coxon (most underrated guitarist ever) left on Think Tank- it became clear what a powerhouse Damon was, even though Blur relied on the individual talents of all the members.

And after Blur? Damon devoted himself to Gorillaz. Some people have been getting sceptical of Gorillaz recently, citing that for a group so large, they lack any real resonance or soul (that particularly came up during their last minute Glastonbury headline slot) I firstly would disagree but also say that that's slightly not the point. I don't think Gorillaz are, were or ever will be a massively life altering band. But I do know that they make stunningly good, epically subversive, unremittingly original pop music.

The first album, Gorillaz, is a fascinating melting pot of sounds and genres, and produced some great hits. Demon Days was Damon's attempt at full world domination, and it came off in spectacular style. Exepertimental, funk infused, pop hook laden hip-hop? This from the same guy who pretty much started Britpop, arguably one of the whitest things ever? Genius. Pure genius. It is in no way too much to call Damon Albarn a pop Mozart.



And now Plastic Beach has made us all realise that this is Damon's world and we're just living in it. Oh and he wrote an opera. And he's just recorded an album on an iPad. And Blur are probably doing something again next year. Does the man sleep?

So why is Damon an unsung hero? Well. He's a household name. He's all over the radio. Yet I think familiarity and his constancy has led to us forgetting that despite his huge presence and commercial appeal, he is making, and always has made, music that pushes boundaries. That's one of many phrases that gets batted arounded so much that no one give a toss when they read it any more and probably assume that whoever it's being applied to is just messy and pretentious. But not Damon. He's always been one step ahead. Always grabbing hold of whatever influence fills his beautiful head and reshaping it in his own image. That inventiveness, which he pulls off with an almost elf like mischief, is what has made him probably the most important figure in pop today. I mean is there really anyone else? And it's definitely what has helped him adapt and survive unlike ex-rivals-but-not-really-rivals Oasis who made crap then, made crap for the whole of this decade and are now making crap in their new projects. But it's not like Damon has adapted for adaptation's sake, just to be able to survive and carry on his career. This guy cares. Really. In every interview I've seen he's always been 2 things.

1) Potentially a wee bit drunk
2) Earnest. So, so earnest.

And that just gives him the perfect cocktail of everything which I think you need to make good music. True musical ability. Musical knowledge. An awareness of the times. A heart for what you're doing. A desire to communicate. And earnestness.

Damon Albarn is a genius. He is a national treasure. He really is an unsung hero. I was blessed enough to see Blur at their reunion gig on the 3rd of July 2009. It was the best gig I've ever been to. And Damon had me in the palm of his hand. He had that crowed in the palm of his hand. And right now, he's got the whole musical world in it too.