Albums of 2008: #3

Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed



Hold On Now, Youngster... difficult to follow? As if it 2008 wasn't Los Campesinos' year already, they took the almost unprecedented move of going ahead and doing just that, inside eight months. Oh sure, they may try to claim that wab,wad isn't an album, but as well as the previously noted fact that at 32:18 it's not even the shortest on this list, it's way too complete and fantastic for that to fly.

Besides, one of the very minor weaknesses of the actual debut that I carefully avoided mentioning in the previous post was that even 42 minutes was just a touch too long for their huge instant appeal to stretch over in one go. Those who complained that it was all a bit too much to takeor all sounded a bit too similar... well I can understand even if not agree. So a newly trim length and associated total lack of a wasted moment help to ensure that their second is the better (even better!) of the two.

Apart from that it was largely a case of the same again, done every bit as successfully. There was an increased melancholy egde (culminating in that title track and 'my body is a badly designed, poorly put together vessel/Harbouring these diminishing so called vital organs/I hope my heart goes first/I HOPE MY HEART GOES FIRST!') and a slightly less hectic, further developed musical sensibility. Hence the queazy strings of "You'll Need Those Fingers for Crossing" and harmonic backing vocals and hints of actual open spaces in "Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1", although needless to say there were still moments of fleeting glee like "The End of the Asterisk" and crazily fun finale "All Your Kayfabe Friends", Tony Cascarino references and cliff dropping ending and all.

And all that clearly still wasn't enough, as they carried through on their fanzine inclinations to give it the best packagaing of the year. Woo.

Albums of 2008: #4

Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster...



After a couple of years of releasing singles that established their place as the most exciting new thing happening in music, 2008 was finally the year for Los Campesinos!. They could get away without even including two of them on their album, such was the confidence in what they did go ahead with (and perhaps concious that "The International Tweexcore Underground" was too perfect a mission statement for their marriage of twee and punk to slot in).

Not so much inviting devotion as demanding it, this is a band by music obsessives for music obsessives. Rooted in a really specific outsider world of mixes and lists and poring over lyrics (and one where 'four sweaty boys with guitars tell my nothing about my life'), they are convinced of its importance, giving mere love and pain only equal importance. They're also filled with a neurotic lyrical self-awareness that helps to make them the most endlessly funny and quotable band in a long time.

So references to Camera Obscura, Bis, indie festivals, Livejournal, second hand bookshop employees, Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia and so on and on, and lines like 'Conversations about which Breakfast Club character you'd be/I'd be the one who dies (no one dies!)/Well then what's the point?' and 'You said send me stationery to make me horny/So I always write you letters in multicolours/Decorating envelopes for foreplay' to pick two examples of many at random. The sort of thing that makes you go around playing songs to people and saying 'Listen to this bit!' even when you thought you'd stopped doing that by now.

Bands that just get it in the same way are rare as anything (only Art Brut come to mind) but what really makes Los Campesinos! something else is that they go beyond and (successfully) strain at every step to create music to excite people in the same way, with not a hint of the same self-conciousness. Their default setting of gleeful sugar-rush, throwing everything at hand (and some extra glockenspiels) at the song and sticking most of it, is amazingly successful even before you add in the quickfire call and response and moments of expansive genuis like the warm post-rock embrace that offers a quick breather before the hedonistic rush of single of the decade "You! Me! Dancing!" kicks in good and proper.

Sounding completely fully formed and with no end of songs all worth obsessing over and listening to again and again, it's exactly the sort of debut that would take quite something to follow up.

Albums of 2008: #5

The Indelicates - American Demo



One thing I'm sure of - this is the most difficult album here to write about convincingly without sounding like an idiot. I'll give it a go.

Starting proper with a song calling itself "The Last Significant Statement to be Made in Rock'n'Roll" and ending with an emphatic call for no less than the end of all pop music, full stop, it's fair to say that The Indelicates are not ones to shy away from Big Statements. Musically they follow suit, drawing heavily on well-worn stadium rock gestures and the excesses of Britpop in particular - "Heroin" is Suede from the title on in, and when the Oasis-style harmonised guitar solo of "Unity Mitford" kicks in it's difficult not to laugh at the sheer gall on show.

All of which doesn't exactly sound like a great recommendation, except that they have one simple lesson just right - If you're going to proclaim your thoughts about the state of the world at every step, to turn every line into a slogan, they have to be good ones. And, thanks to terrific scabrous wit and ear for just the right phrase, they all are, and all matched by a righteous passion and indignation that says 'this deserves the big musical gestures' with enough force to make them sound fresh anew.

So the aforementioned "Statement" picks out 'the fanzine writers [who] write for broadsheets' with gleeful disgust. "Our Daughters Will Never Be Free", Julia Indelicate's deeply sarcastic protest at the treatment of women, commands 'Lift up your top/Got to use what you've got/It's all tongue in cheek anyway' before escalating to rape, beatings and 'Let's just be pretty/Let's just be beautiful/Let's just be retro and disco and twee!' with such fury that you wonder what exactly her experience in The Pipettes was. "Heroin" somehow delivers the couplet 'She plays acoustic guitar and the flute and the harp and the theremin/On heroin' with a straight face and magnificent centrepiece "New Art for the People" picks out its doomed romantic devotion in terms of 'The dark days ahead and the blood on the bed/And the cover of the NME'.

The picking on easy targets that saw their most prominent early demo being "Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die" is now gone. By contrast, "...If Jeff Buckley Had Lived" is magnificent, similtaneously skewering his revered place as a result of his death and inspiring a great deal of sympathy for the man and the fact that a life lost is worth more than the chance to never suffer 'The weak second album/And the difficult third'.

Albums of 2008: #6

Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Til it Was Light



Now we reach a really cheering section of this rundown. See, in recent years there's been a bit of a lack of new bands capable of making the lists, Guillemots aside, and I was beginning to worry slightly. Now though, we get three* superb debuts from new British bands in a row, and aside from all using alternating boy-girl vocals and being distinctly indie, they cover a fair spread of styles too.

First Johnny Foreigner, whose debut is a lesson in high energy compressed melody, taking handclaps and pop sensibilities and burying them in enough fuzz that you're carried on along on its wave, barely stopping to glimpse meaning here and there. Equipped with some seriously inventive guitar playing and drumming, they frequently change direction completely with barely a pause for breath, or speed up songs beyond what seems like it should be breaking point. Throwing in noises and feedback as punctuation marks, they rush headlong from A to B to A again, coherance sacrificed if necessary - the final thrilling screamed 'IMIGHTBEDRUNKBUTATLEASTI'MSTANDINGUP!' of "Sometimes, in the Bullring" sounds barely human.

As an example of how peripheral the lyrics were to my enjoyment of much of this album, I only just noticed on a listen through before writing this that said song references Jeff Buckley. What still comes through is how grounded they are in a sense of place, and conflicted love for the place, that's easy to appreciate even as someone who's never been to their hometown of Birmingham.

There's also the startling song about being a band "Yr All Just Jealous" which starts off with the lines 'Hot girls know the words to our songs/And I'm terrified of what comes next' and does sound abjectly terrified as it thrashes around before eventually the lights come on and a beautifully sad and melodic chorus of 'One by one will move away for friends or university/One by one fulfils a plan/And leaves three ghosts in Birmingham'.

Special mention also has to be made of almost everyone's favourite "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella". The standout track, it teeters on the brink of falling apart for a couple of comparatively minimalist minutes before 'turn on the real drums!' gleefully announces escapist headbanging heaven.

That they turned out to be big Idlewild fans was a bit of an 'ahh' moment as those guitar sounds and cramming of words into lines reminded of nothing so much as that band's superior early days. Token slow song "DJs Get Doubts" shows a particular spooky likeness to Woomble and co. Even back then they never made an album quite this great, though.

(*four, sort of)

Albums of 2008: #7

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark



Made in the Dark features the best four track opening sequence of the year bar none. From the moment that the forceful, rusty groove of "Out at the Pictures" slams into life, through "Shake a Fist" and its feral menace and playful self-sidetracking onwards, they sound unstoppable, alive with energy and a peerless sense of adventure.

Then it's "Ready for the Floor" which remains one of the best hit singles of the year, building on their ingenious template of hiding bruised soul emoting within playful party music and serving either purpose just as gracefully. "Bendable Poseable" is just straightforwardly huge fun, showcasing Joe Goddard's hard edged vocals by setting them against Alexis Taylor's coo and through a semi rap whose 'tick tick tick... time delay' is laugh out loud funny.

There are even a few more songs throughout that hit the same kind of peaks, with the absurd humour and backwards warping of "Wrestlers" a particular favourite. Though to be honest I would probably love it even more if they chopped off the last three songs and Hot Chip haven't yet found a way to express themselves as brilliantly when they concentrate on their softer side, Made in the Dark still feels like another step on the road to an album that does from start to finish.

Albums of 2008: #8

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping



Last year's fabulous Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? was quite the multi-level pileup of ideas and melodies, but even that was no preparation for this one. Yet although sticking noise-drone "Nonpareil of Favour" in first probably shook off many of the uncommited, beyond that there's nothing difficult about it at all beyond its central motto of 'why have one chorus when you could have five different ones?'.

Essentially I've loved anything that even comes close to pulling off this level of ridiculous ambition since Mansun a decade ago (and doesn't the mocking response vocal at the end of the first part of "Triphallus, to Punctuate!" sound just like Paul Draper??) so the more song sections the better, when they're all wrapped up in such unfailingly catchy hooks and new ideas are sprinkled across them all.

Lyrics that switch between the intriguely abstract, the overtly sexual and the hilarious, or else manage all three at the same time ('Texting your freaky fantasies to my phone/Black condoms on vanilla icecream cones', anyone?) are also welcomed, and have really stepped up a gear even from last time. There there's the ocassional moments of sincere and clear emotion like the lovely nostalgia of "An Eluardian Instance", which thanks to context actually sound like the most bizarre things on the album.

Compressing a large proportion of the history of modern pop into its length, chewing up and throwing out styles as it goes, it's very much to Kevin Barnes' credit that they near enough all succeed and form a constantly engaging whole.

Albums of 2008: #9

Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer


As half of 'caberet-punks' (that's largely a way to avoid saying emo) The Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer was responsible for in retrospect one of my favourite albums in recent years, Yes, Virginia. An album that unflinchingly delved into the dark side of human nature and behaviour, it matched its insights with a black sense of humour and many a theatrical flourish, whilst stretching the limits of the piano/vocals/drums format in ferocious style.

Palmer's solo debut was originally meant to be an album of stripped back songs defined by lack of drums, but with slightly unlikely producer Ben Folds on board she ended up stretching her musical styles in a number of different ways. "Runs in the Family" sounds just like one of the band's punkish blasts with added strings. On the other hand there's the self-explanatory "Guitar Hero", the blaring horns of "Leeds United" (which takes theatricality above and beyond while Amanda stands in Sainsburys counting her change), and a ghostly cover of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "What's the Use of Wond'rin?" which calls in St. Vincent for more fitting vocals.

All of which makes for a less intense and relentless listen than either Dresden Dolls album, but that's very much a relative thing as we are still in dark territory throughout. "Oasis" ties teenage abortion to Britpop fandom and the breeziest, catchiest song of the record - probably the most uncomfortable thing she's written.

"Blake Says" has social inadequacy dead on ('Blake says he is sorry he got through to me/If it's ok he'll call right back and talk to the machine') and treats it with a sympathetic resignation that's particularly heartbreaking. "Strength Through Music" is just plain spooky, starting 'Locked in his bedroom/He saw the world/A web of answers and cumshot girls" over ponderous piano chords and slowly floating away into icy numbness.

All three of those songs illustrate the other main change from the past, which is an increasing move away from the first person and into inhabiting other characters, the better to explore all the other fucked up people out there, I guess.

Albums of 2008: #10

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend



This is the only album on the list that I actually disliked on first listen. There's something about the clean, bloodless feel of it that I wasn't expecting at all and didn't sit quite right, especially coupled with a vocal style that inititally made me think of Razorlight.

Aside from, well, everyone else going on about them it was mainly the lyrics that made me give it another go. A fine mixture of the intellectual and absurd, they don't ever sounding like they're straining for either or trying to exclude anyone, because you get the feeling that that is just the world in which they travel.

After that in the end that same cool, considered sound that initially caused unease is exactly what makes the album so addictive. Nothing is ever out of place, every note sounds like it's been reasoned and argued before being dropped precisely into place to create a relaxed and blissful summer atmosphere. They even manage to sing "Is your sweater on?/Do you want to fuck like you know I do?" without it sounding gauche, which is quite something.

All of which means that the little extra creative touches, the moments when they play near their rigid self-imposed boundaries stand out. The dizzying strings over the end of "M79", the drilled intro of "One" and "A-Punk" where they almost, almost loosen up.

Albums of 2008: #11

Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell



This was a year when my tolerance for album filler reached a new low. Partly it was driven by a regrettable lack of time to listen to as much music as previously - if an album takes the whole of a journey to work and back, it had better be worth it. Even more, though, it was driven by a number of bands who actively demonstrated what a fantastic asset brevity could be to their sound, and none more so than Tokyo Police Club.

Clocking in just north of 28 minutes, this is the shortest album on my list. Even beating one which claims not to be an album, in fact. The complete lack of any moment that isn't vital is a key part of their addictive appeal, lending an urgency to songs that stop just before the point when one of their many hooks begins to los its shine. They're obviously aware of it themselves, with the closing explanations of "Centennial" beginning 'I'm running out of space, so let me sum this up for you...'

Their other unique move is the melding of Dave Monks' fey, literate vocals (think a slightly less sappy Ben Gibbard) to spiky, ultra tight music that's like The Strokes with a touch of post-punk and an occasional sprinkling of softer moments (and handclaps) added. The contrast between the two is played expertly, with lines like 'dead lovers salivate/broken hearts tessellate tonight' coming off much stronger as a result.

Their very specific aesthetic and fast moving nature of the album actually makes it difficult to pick out individual highlights as it works best as a satisfying whole, but I'd go with former single "Your English is Good". It's both the catchiest song and the one where the cryptic, fractured phrases of the lyrics work best. Welcoming on the surface, its mocking but infectious chants of 'give us your vote/if you know what's good for you' give the real thinking behind the patronising sentiments of the title.

Albums of 2008: #12

TV on the Radio - Dear Science



I have to admit to having never got into TV on the Radio before, but this time there was no resisting.

Tying their ocean-deep layered productions to more direct songs, it still didn't always connect right away but always felt worth the effort invested. And when they got it right they sounded utterly unstoppable. "Halfway Home" is one hell of an introduction, tension reverberating and stretching away into the infinite distance for four and a half minutes before finally, finally bursting fully into life. "Family Tree" fits so much sadness and nobility into one beautiful song that you wonder how it can hold it all in.

Then there's those two singles. "Golden Age" had enough feelgood factor that it felt like it had the belief of the whole world backing it up even before events convened. As for "Dancing Choose", it's difficult to know where to start, between its frenetic pace and oddly gorgeous blasts of brass, nimble switches to brief moments of relieved calm and of course 'I've seen you figured in your action pose/foam injected Axl Rose'. Just breathtaking from start to finish, really.

Albums of 2008: #13

Black Kids - Partie Traumatic



This may take a little more explaining than some others, I think, given the early hipster hype and almost as early backlash that don't normally happen to things that I actually feel straongly enough. The approach to take here is simple enough though I think.

My favourite songs by The Killers by some distance are all from the first album - "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine", "Somebody Told Me", and, yeah "Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll". They didn't even show any inclination to make a whole album like that back then, and certainly they're not going to now. So if someone else steps in to do it for them and does a better job with references to Sparks to boot, fantastic!

Thoroughly aware of both their influences and ridiculousness, but determined to be catchy and funny enough to pass by without that mattering, Black Kids made quite possibly the most stupidly, hedonistically fun album of the year.

Albums of 2008: #14

The Hot Puppies - Blue Hands



The Hot Puppies' debut a couple of years ago was chiefly notable for Becky Newman's voice, a powerful instrument that sounded seductive and desperate by turns and lent a touch glamour and high drama to everything they did. Their songs gave her chances to shine but in comparison were a bit too grounded in straightforward retro rock'n'roll. Too often they were in the shadow of The Long Blondes, who did similar but with less of a '50s obsession and, crucially, much better grooves.

This time around they're even less danceable ("The Word on the Street" being an enjoyable exception) but it's a big success as rather containing the drama, they give it full flight. Sinister imagery abounds, with shadows and death around every corner and a sense of powerful destiny behind much of the album. Songs are much longer and more varied, with strings and keyboards often taking the place of jagged guitars that now burst in for emphasis, and songs that take as many twists and turns musically as lyrically.

And while the references to the past are stronger than ever lyrically ('Fred Astaire, Edith Piaf' namechecked a couple of verses in), musically they benefit from no longer being so tied down in time.

Best of all is "Secret Burial", which slowly builds an unstoppable momentum from initial caution to clattering drums, images of "the whispers through the trees, the misslies across the seas" and an uneasy declaration of love. The feeling of something not quite being right briefly retreats but remains in the background through a gorgeous minimal piano ballad before the song takes a final odder turn to a pitchshifted electronic repetition that sounds like The Knife, of all things. It's unexpected and initially almost too much to take in , but soon addictive, like the album as a whole.

Albums of 2008: #15

Bloc Party - Intimacy



"Ares": Floats in the ether for just long enough to give you a chance to prepare, then announces itself rudely with an metallic scrape. Then barrels along on its stolen beat, daring you to say something. If you do, it isn't listening, preferring to launch headlong into an equally confrontational stream of thoughts that stops and starts and doubles up on itself, anything to seize momentum and attention. The discernable message? The world is a fucked up place, we should dance. And here's what to.

"Mercury": Infectious chant slowly taken over by ominously corrosive blasts of brass. Desperately they hold on to a semblance of a normal song as elements conspire against all round. Sort of Radiohead's "The National Anthem" if it had it's sights set on stomping into the charts and living up to its title.

Intimacy's place here is largely down to that fantastic, breathless opening one-two. It's never quite so bold again, but still doesn't feel a disappointment afterwards thanks to a strong set of purposeful songs. "Signs" is possibly their most touching yet and "Zephyrus" makes much more impressive use of a choir than they did in a whole show with one previously. Plus this time even Kele's much questioned lyrics ('You used to take your watch off before we made love/You didn't want to share our time with anyone', etc.) were as adorable as they were clumsy.

Hallelujah post 2

Now it really is happening. X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's version (with added key change!) is heading for inevitable Christmas number one. Jeff Buckley's version, having already become his first top 40 hit ever, is set to follow it into the top 3. Even the original is going to get a look in at the bottom end of the 40!

But anyway, I had to revisit the subject to post a link to a really splendid piece on the song that deserves a read.

Albums of 2008: #16

Envelopes - Here Comes the Wind


Sweden is now surely the world's greatest exporter of indie pop. Envelopes fit into the mould with songs that sound determinedly handmade, and through making fine use of endearingly innocent vocals. In particular, when Audrey Pic sings of loneliness in her father's absence on the simple "Boat" it's incredibly touching. Except that she's actually French. And for all that their sound is lo-fi, even then it's rather more raucous than most as the song ends with layers of echoing guitar taking over and ominous radio samples.

Envelopes show a talent throughout their multifaceted songs of deftly switching between ideas, giving them just enough time to bear fruit before moving on. They apply themselves finely to a wide range of styles, from the Television-recalling cool of "Smoke in the Desert, Eating the Sand, Hide in the Grass" to the answerphone atmospherics of "Put On Hold".

That the album moves so quickly and that do it all with a certain looseness and roughness makes for an exhilarating feeling as each new idea successfully strikes, and there a couple of moments of surreal songwriting genius that go beyond even that. Best has to be the foul-mouthed adaptation of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" that graces "Party", with the backwards nonsese chorus of "Freejazz" a close second.

As they end the album with plans to go 'anywhere we want to go, anywhere we want to', you believe them.

Albums of 2008: #17

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs



There are a good few 'return to form' albums this year that haven't made this list. Coldplay's and R.E.M.'s, to take two well known examples. The point being that while both were massive improvements, it was a little difficult to espouse their appeal without gauging it against the sheer dullness of their predecessors.

Death Cab For Cutie's last album was every bit as bad as X&Y or Around The Sun, but they've sidestepped the return to form thanks to the fact after Narrow Stairs it now feels like Plans never even happened and Narrow Stairs is just an effortlessly logical continuation from better times.

In fact, they've ever sounded more confident and comfortable in their own skin than now. Still as sincere and plangent as ever, the considered build up of newly dense songs keeps all of their emotional heft while adding a lot more to repeated listens. "I Will Possess Your Heart" is a particularly great choice of single, gradually issuing a welcome into their world as you follow the thread of its beats through echoing vistas.

Albums of 2008: #18

Guillemots - Red



Guillemots' follow-up to Through The Windowpane, their debut and my favourite album of 2006, mystified at least as many as it pleased. While Through The Windowpane was incredibly ambitious and very occasionally suffered for it, its ambitions were for the 'epic' within relatively traditional rock song structures. Red, on the other hand, has as many nods to '80s pop and more recent R&B than to anything within their previous sphere.

From the metallic funk bounce of "Big Dog" to the sharp electronic pop of "Last Kiss" and slick falsetto "Standing on the Last Star", they repeatedly confounded expectations and seemed to get little but flack for it. Which is a crying shame because at its best, at the moments when there's nothing to do but grin and think 'did they really just pull that off?', Red even outshines the debut.

The thundering eastern strings and ever expanding reach of "Kriss Kross" make for an awe-inspiring opening. "Get Over It" successfully tied cool and bubbly pop with an undercurrent of improvised madness better than anything since they first announced themselves with "Who Left the Lights Off, Baby?" and when "Don't Look Down" takes a sudden left turn from superior U2 ballad into skittering electronic chaos, its dramatic lyrical images of the sky falling make a vivid kind of sense.

The reason that this record is only 18, then, is actually because the regret here is that they didn't completely follow through on their new ambitions. A handful of slow songs retread old ground overproduced and unsatisfying style and add to the fatal impression that the whole thing is a bit of stylistic mess. It will be even more interesting then to see where they go next.

Albums of 2008: #19

(Yes, this is meant to start at 19. That will bring us to the end of the year and it's the exact number of albums that I can sufficiently support to want to write about.)

Aidan John Moffat - I Can Hear Your Heart



Bar one very long closing ramble, nothing on I Can Hear Your Heart stretches to the 2 minute mark. Track one of this CD is an instruction to make sure that you read the booklet before

beginning. Never mind the mainstream, this stretches the definition of an album. It's certainly one of the more wonderfully unique recordings this year.



Back in 2003, Chemikal Underground released a compiltion album with a spoken word secret track called "Cunts" ('by Aidan Moffat aged 29 1/2'). Back then it was an amusing afterthought, but newly reprised with a crackly, dusty musical accompaniment it sounds as tired as it does funny, a fitting start to a very dark listen.



Free of even the limited shackles of Arab Strap, Moffat has fully taken the freedom to be as crude and frank as possible, and certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture of himself or anyone else around him. Barely anyone you meet isn't manipulative and weak and the everpresent sex is full of regret and uncertainy more often than it is joyful. In one of the most amusing moments, "Hopelessly Devoted" specualtes on the future of relationships of characters of Grease and assumes it to have probably been 'a sexless pretence dragged out too long'.



But for all the darkness there is redemption in the droll humour and in the beautifully ancient sounding string arrangements that perfectly offset the words and link together the little vignettes into a really satisfying flow of ideas. Albeit one that's ocassionally interrupted by screeching answerphone messages from someone saved in Aidan's address book as '4SEX'.



Not an album I've returned to as often as any above it in the list, but every time I do its ambition and candour is freshly pleasing.

You See Colours

From ILM, a fantastic album cover knowledge game: 'Recognize discographies from their approximate colour schemes'

It uses this handy site, which takes an image you input and returns a set of images with roughly the same colour arrangement. Put each of an act's album covers through it in sequence, and you get an obscured but hopefully recognisiable sequence.

So to start with an easy example, take Belle & Sebastian and this:



becomes this:



To use a few examples from others, this:



is Radiohead.

This:



is Pet Shop Boys.

And this:



...well, you get the idea.

Five of my creations to finish. In some cases the fun comes from making them difficult, but in some it comes from the amazingly close or appropriate matches that come up.

They only sell records that have charted

Freakytrigger on the collapse of Woolworths and their former chart influence brings back memories.

I think their domination of single sales actually predated the complete collapse of the market a little; certainly 2000 and 2001 sales were an order of magnitude higher than those a few years later and with a new-number-one-every-week turnover that must have made stocking the big sellers quite lucrative.

Anyway, as suggested that was where their singles charts of their own invention came in. Despite stocking a top 40 (or possibly even 75?) they wouldn't put anything new in below 20 and were rather selective with those. Well before online midweek charts, a trip to Woolworths was an almost infallibale acid test for chart-friendliness.

Generally whatever I was looking for wouldn't be there, but in the unusual event of the likes of Turin Brakes actually getting a single stocked there (at 19), they were top 10 bound in the real world for sure.

I never actually bought a single at Woolworths in objection to this shocking anti-indie bias, a stance which if widely shared was obviously going to be self-reinforcing. I was glad not to be in one of the towns where it was the only available source of singles, anyway, and a level playing field in terms of basic availability is a major plus to its replacement in power by iTunes et al.

And their particular manipulatory mantle is not dead, but has merely been taken up by supermarkets and their album charts, hence the post title.

If Jeff Buckley had lived...

Strong rumours around that this year's X factor winner will be releasing a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as their first single. Probably this girl who already sang it in her strangled Regina Spektor-meets-Kate Nash style, which has led to outraged allegations of a fix. As if the judges' vested interests have ever been much of a secret.

Anyway, my first thoughts weren't about the fix, or about which verses they're going to include and which not-so-hidden meanings they'll leave in. Instead they were of what remarkably bad (or good) timing this is for Emmy the Great, releasing an album whose title track quotes from the same song while the X Factor one will still be in the top ten. Her staccato "Hallelujah. The orginal. Leonard Cohen version." may well now sound even more pointed than intended.

Presuming that she wasn't hoping for a massive breakthrough with the song (probably not) it at least isn't a disaster of Mylo/Beta Band proportions, anyway.

And it shouldn't be a surprise because the song has slowly been making its way to this particular questionable accolade for a long time, with Jeff Buckley's version the obvious breakthrough and still hitting iTunes top tens whenever "Hallelujah" gets its moment on telly.

Then there's Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, Damien Rice, and its inclusion in Shrek. Fall Out Boy paid tribute on their last album, taking the chorus too which seems to be the simple, universal refrain that does the most to continue winning over new audiences with such ease and will surely survive undimmed.

Emmy the Great at ICA (10/11/08)

Let's get a really strong recommendation in here first. Tonight's support act is Laura Groves, (except it isn't, because she's accompanied by 'one woman band' and they're now going by the name Blue Roses) and she's great.

Having looked her up beforehand I already have positive impressions, but arriving just after her set gets underway there is awed silence all around and it soon becomes clear that this is something rather special. Her keening voice is used to powerful effect, and often stands almost alone with just the tiniest of colour added sparingly across the songs by soft piano and guitar. The songs are grounded enough for it to work and that silence is almost as much a key player.

"Coast" with it's elemental imagery and timeless atmosphere reminds of Wind in the Wire era Patrick Wolf, but as Laura's very audible nervousness between songs contrasts with their assured clarity and beauty, the strongest comparison is to my first encounter of Bat for Lashes first on a bill in early 2006. Similar big things could well be ahead – catching her outside afterwards she says that an album is tentatively due for April.



This leaves me in a somewhat weird position. I'm seeing for the first time a full gig by my current favourite new act by far, the one whose album in February I am hoping will live up to the long wait in a big way. Yet she isn't even the best thing tonight.

At moments it's a different story. Emmy is as engaging and funny as anyone could hope for, offhand witticisms between songs too many to recall. Some of the things she's now doing with a full band are beyond the scale of her previously intimate modern folk in a fine way – the whip crack bitterness of "First Love", memories unspooling like the chewn up Leonard Cohen tape its tale centres round, could well be the finest thing she's yet done.

"Short Country Song", the (I thought) insubstantial B-side to the current single, is suddenly deeply heartbreaking, one of a series of songs that skilfully picks out everyday minor details and laces them with an underlying sadness.

The standard bearer for that type of song, "M.I.A." is the opener and the best example of what doesn't quite sit right. Its desolation of sitting in car-crash aftermath, with only mixtape for company, is particularly undermined by the melodica and backing vocals that are now
brought in. although just about any moment when the rest of the band are singing feels imperfect.

It might just take some getting used to, after too long listening to acoustic recordings, but even on the new songs it's those that take the extremes of noisy clatter or of space that are the most
impressive.

Still, there remains oodles of promise, the violin led folk cover of "Where Is My Mind?" goes down a treat and we get a solo encore (chosen by consensus) of "Canopies and Grapes" that shows Emmy's still happy doing stream of conciousness strumming with S Club 7 and Magnetic
Fields references too.

Sweet release

Today is the 27th of October 2008, and by coincidence it is the release day for two different albums worth celebrating, not for their music (though one and a half are excellent) but for how they were have been released.

First of all, the picture you see above is of the lovingly crafted package that is Los Campesinos!' We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. It comes with:

• Two badges
• An amusing DVD documenting the band's international summer adventures (which sadly doesn't get as far as Lowlands)
• A foldout of that robot attacking drawing
• A booklet with both the lyrics to pore over and decipher at length, and a whole set of poems, drawings and ruminations on such things as the fruitfly issues around kitchen compost collection.
• Oh yeah, the actual CD, sounding rather punchier than certain unmastered versions *cough*

The only downside there is how to fit the thing in a CD rack. They haven't quite gone as far as the Laura Marling route of including a gig ticket, but then that one did have the unfortunate effect of making a probably still worthwhile package look a lot less like good value for money if you were in the wrong town or just couldn't make it.

Anyway, one of the best things about this is that this is no expensive special edition, but the standard and only version that you get for your 9.99 or so. Assuming that they're still making a decent profit on it, you wonder why more bands can't make a bit of an effort to turn release day back into an event again and to build up a unique identity for themselves beyond the music.

Album number two of today is Bloc Party's Intimacy, which comes in much more practical packaging although also doesn't say its name on the spine anywhere. I say today, but then I actually got it in the post on Saturday. Plus of course, I got the high quality download of it back in August, not long after they'd finished recording it. Again, all for a just about standard price that I was more than willing to pay upfront.

Far more so than the 'Radiohead model' which rather relies on being Radiohead to work, this has got to be the best way forward for a lot of bands with any kind of following. The people who want to get the album as early as possible, and the people who want to actually own a physical product are often one and the same. Why not build some loyalty by giving them both at no extra cost bar a bit of infrastructure? I'm guessing someone will be able to point out that the download+later physical release has been done before, but this is the first mainstream example that I can think of.

The initial non-inclusion and later free release of "Talons" to anyone who had already bought the album was an interesting extra which helped keep attention on the album after initial reactions had already passed, although probably was responsible for its dismal chart showing as much as the song's comparitive unremarkableness. A far cry from "Flux" last year being done the old fashioned way with the album re-released so that early adopters paid more, too.

It remains to be seen whether the album goes the same way as "Talons", although frustratingly as with Radiohead the chart system is not a sufficient tool to really determine it. I very much hope that it has worked and will inspire others, anyway.

A few gigs

Apart from being kept away by trying to cope with way too much work, I've also attended three gigs in the past week and a bit.

First of all, The Indelicates at Metro. Now, four bands for £6 is great value and main support The Last Republic were actually really good in an overblown Boxer Rebellion style. However, when said support bands overrunning means the headliners get barely half an hour to show off their fantastic and rather lengthier album, it's not so great.

The Indelicates undoubtedly made the most of the situation but didn't seem to grab much of the audience beyond the front. They are a rather difficult proposition to explain, playing music that could almost pass as stadium Britpop but with a dark and cynical bite that's a long way from any such thing. Julia's apoplectic rage through a "Our Daughters Will Never Be Free" was quite something to behold. Actually the fact that her position seated at piano means that very few can properly behold may be part of the problem. Bigger stages may hopefully yet help.

Then Los Campesinos! at the Electric Ballroom, which looked like this:




Basically as a first chance to see much of We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed live it was almost guarenteed to be great, although a surprising number seemed unenthused by the new songs (it is already out properly! On downloads at least). And yeah, they lived up, with bonus speaker stack climbing and double Kenickie references. Even the Aleksandra songs work properly this time! No "We Throw Parties" though, sigh.

Last, Africa Express at Koko. Only stayed for three hours out of the seven or so that it apparently went on for(!) but had a great time. It was a lot less patronising than I unkindly imagined, there was a party atmosphere throughout and the constantly changing musicians on stage, with no one staying for more than two songs kept things interesting where attention may eventually have strayed with some unfamiliar material.

Highlights were Hard-Fi's unexpectedly great cover of The Chemical Brothers' "Push The Button" and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (below), who played with fantastic energy and matched it with impeccably synchronised moves to boot.

Chartsengrafs 12/10/08 - You're a tool, so

This week I don't really have a chance to listen as I would like, and more exciting stuff is happening next week anyway. So I'm turning this item over to the fine people of SongMeanings to provide some great insight into what all these songs really mean.

Still at number 1 for a second week is P!nk. 'I think she has to realize she's so much more than just a rockstar, so much more than the things she does'. Kings of Leon are still at 2 with "Sex on Fire". 'lol it's about condoms'. Sugababes climb up to 3 behind them. The only one on that is 'The more i listen to this song the more i luv it', which is one fewer entry than your average Emmy the Great demo has. I think I may have stumbled upon a problem with this tactic. Damn. The top 5 is finished off by Rihanna ('i think that maybe this song was up against "rehab" the lyrics are kind of similar. could be why it didn't make the album?') and a downloads only Kaiser Chiefs - 'hes paying out the kids who dont go to school because they think that it's uncool. and that they get up to crazy shananigans.'

Snow Patrol's "Take Back the City" is also in at 15 ahead of full release next week. 'I think the city is metaphor for a relationship'. Of course. Jordin Sparks off American Idol gets back into the chart at 30 with "Tattoo", and attracts some scorn. 'This song is a bullshit song for them to leave guys. Okay, so she loves him, she wants him, she can never replace him, she wants to be with him, she needs him. But she leaves him because...of..."other things". Um...yeah, that's called a bullshit excuse'.

MGMT sneak their way up to 35 and 'Neeeeeeeed Treeeee's - subliminal message maby'. Oh and The Courteeners have got in just below them. 'liam said it's about campbell, cos he kissed a girl and he liked it and never saw her again'. Well, that didn't go so well.

In the album chart my anti-Oasis hopes don't really prove founded as Dig Your Own Up Your Soul hits the top with the usual 200,000+ sales. Bob Dylan is the other new entry in the top ten, Mercury-boosted Elbow continue to hold firm at 12, Chicane's best of is at 16 (possibly a triumph for not releasing their new single properly any other way?) and You Meat Six (well, that's how I read their album cover) and The Clash live are also in there somewhere.

Are we having the time of our lives?

Elbow at Camden Roundhouse, 11/10/08

Jesca Hoop initially gains a crowd silence almost unprecendented for an unknown acoustic support act, but it's probably mainly due to the singer of tonight's headliners putting in a (quiet) word before hand. Mr. Garvey also comes out to duet with her for a song, but it's not so easy to see what he sees in her as on record.

Her songs are fascinatingly snaking things, never repeating a melody or lyrical phrase when they can take a new twist instead. But they are also too abstract to really get a grip on when supported by only an acoustic guitar and gradually start to merge into one.



I have talked about seeing Elbow in a 'what more is there to say now?' type way the previous/10th time that I saw them.

Well forget that, because tonight is defintiely different, and produces something special and rare. The first of 3 (three!) sold out shows at the Roundhouse opens with the blinding romantic fanfare of "Starlings" and a beats-heavy "The Bones of You". And then Guy Garvey stops to ask if we are ok, and just can't wait to tell us how happy Elbow are. 'Some very good things have happened to us in the past few months. I won't say any more because I don't want to be smug'. Cheers and grins all round, and the beginning of an delightfully celebratory night.

He goes back on that intention numerous times, but the most notable is when he stops before "Mexican Standoff" to happily point out: 'It just occurred to me. This sold out before we won the Mercury prize'. Massive cheers. That's it. This feels like a turning point, a lenghty, heartfelt thank you to everyone who believed in them all along, from a band who now justifiably completely believe in themselves and are ready to embrace newcomers and the Wembley Arenas of this world. No one here begrudges them that, because it's how we've felt that things should be all along, and because they've made no compromises to get there and are in some ways better than ever. Certainly no one begrudges them playing eight out of eleven songs from The Seldom Seen Kid.

It's the first time I've seen them do "Some Riot", and it's breathtaking, pared down to deeply menacing strings and raw anger no less vital than "Coming Second" of years ago. Then there's "Weather to Fly", a warm little song about the potential of bands. It's begun acoustically with all five gathered in a huddle, hugging on the way. 'One little room and the biggest of plans' it says tonight, and look, look how those plans finally paid off! "One Day Like This" as the party finale completely makes sense after that cynicism destroying number, freed from highlights-reel soundtracking by force of singing, balloons and confetti everywhere.

For the encore? A rare and heartbreaking "Scattered Blacks and Whites", and before that "Station Approach", dedicated to their mums. It's that sort of night.

(thanks to A for bizarre cameraphone photo! Some more photos here)

I could just have first album syndrome

Given that I can’t find a video from The Research’s new album on YouTube at all, alongside its long gestation and their exit from EMI, I may be kicking a band while they’re down a little here.

I have to say, though, that I can’t remember the last time I was as nonplussed by a band’s new album as The Old Terminal. Plenty take their questionable turns (see Guillemots’ Red for a recent example) but none manage to so thoroughly and deliberately remove everything that previously made them stand out.

Breaking Up had songs, sure – no way it have could been so good without – but it was also a total triumph for a consistent, clever aesthetic that fitted exactly right. Its cheap keyboards, wobbly harmonies and miniature songs turned their weaknesses into strengths, lending an enormous immediacy that felt as if what Russell or Georgia were singing in their thin voices was too important to wait for anything more substantial. And when they sung of fragile relationships or lives that could fall apart at any moment you believed it because they sounded like they could, too.

So I go to listen to the new one and the first song goes from a familiar keyboard hum to a slowly strummed acoustic guitar, which over a drawn out build up is joined by a decently played electric and drums and strings. I presume that it’s a bit of a ‘look what we can do now’. No-one wants to be boxed into that small an identity after all. And it’s definitely The Research. Look at the references to Piney Gir and all. Except, of course, that it’s not a one off but a sign of what’s to come. Every song is just as competent and layered and sounds like it could be by any number of different bands. Russell is now the only singer for the vast majority. All bar two are longer than three minutes even!

Which is not even to say that they are bad as such, cos their songwriting ability has not deserted them and there’s some great touches in there, especially in “All My Love” which has the best sadly wheezing brass since early Badly Drawn Boy. Just that the spectre of individuality lost hangs over The Old Terminal to such an extent that it would surely be better to listen without having ever heard them before.

Chartsengrafs 05/10/08 - Waiter just took my table

Getting a number one single is a major achievement, however it feels otherwise at times. More than one, even more so. And a whole string of them? Well! Still, though, there are some chart certainties over the last 10+ years. The first single from a new Madonna album will go to number one (unless it's "American Life"). The first single from a new U2 album will go to number one (unless it's "Stay"). And the first single from a new Oasis album will go to number one...

...unless it's "The Shock of the Lightning". In fact, their new one can only make it as far as 3, behind Kings of Leon at number 2 in their fourth week. Which may quite neatly answer where all those previously reliable Oasis fans have gone. The signs have been there for a while - look at last year's ignored one off single barely making the top ten - but this is still quite a big deal. If this is not a one off exception like the above then, regardless of the actual quality of the song (better than "The Hindu Times", worse than "Lyla", which is an extremely narrow gap in which to fit), signs that the drudgery of their dominance and influence over the rock scene may be finally be coming to an end have to be welcomed.

So, what of the actual top song of the week? It's "So What" by P!nk, who has managed a slow but impressive turnaround after seeming to blow it completely with third album Try This and it's rubbish singles "Trouble" and "God is a DJ". Sadly while it has the usual rock hooks and gloss, she's taken the success of "Stupid Girls" as a sign that it's great to be super mad zany!! and meta and to insert references to the press and , oh my god, Jessica Simpson! How 'contraversial'! That's before we even get onto the video, which is a whole lot worse.

Sugababes climb to 4, poised for a full on assault of the top next week, and Boyzone are somehow at 5. It's going to take years for everyone to realise that the Take That thing was a complete one off reliant on the fact that their new songs were miraculously quite good, isn't it?
Almost nothing else happening in the top twenty bar Platnum brining bassline in right at the bottom. "Love Lockdown" makes an almost apologetic fall from 16 to 18 and "Paper Planes" seems to have peaked as it slips to 21. At least Faith Hill follows it out.

What else? Erm, Kings of Leons' second entry stays firm at 29, Biffy Clyro's horrible "Mountains" has now been around for seven weeks, N-Dubz and MGMT sneak in at 37 and 39 and Gabriella Cilmi's "Sweet About Me", probably the third best song to have come out of the whole Winehouse-Duffy-etc. thing is for some reason back in again at 38.

In the albums Kings of Leon are unsurprisingly still at the top. Could they possibly hold Oasis off next week? Surely not?
Will Young gets a things-aren't-so-bad-after-all 2, James Morrison picks up anyone who bought his album and still had a tenner spare just behind at 3, and Andrew Johnson at 4 briefly had me thinking on my first scan through that Antony Hegarty had managed a top five album. Seasick Steve's I Started Out With Nothing, and I've Still Got Most of it Left reaches 9, possibly on the strength of that title alone.

Further down it continues to be a long way to fall for Travis, who nine years on from Coldplay-like album chart/festival dominance find their new album entering at 20. That's one place ahead of Ironik, but three behind Trivium and one behind the Jonas Brothers.

Short stories

Jessica Popper calls Hello Saferide's Annika Norlin her 'favourite lyricist in the world'. After a week and a bit of getting to know More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide, I think she may have a point.

Musically, the second album by the self-proclaimed country singer reminds me repeatedly of Travis' The Invisible Band. Simple, inobstrusive arrangements, guitar sounds produced to sound big and warm (in a really good way) and sporadic inspired touches, especially the big number with strings at the end. The real difference, and why the not completely flattering comparison point is unimportant, is that everything else in her songs just there to support the words within.

I can even prove it pseudo-scientifically, since unusually there's actually a control sample to test against. Säkert! features all of the above but, since I don't speak Swedish, effectively no lyrical goodness. And as a result I've barely listened to the thing since getting it in a desire to seek out everything she'd recorded.

"I Wonder Who is Like This One" sets the stall, spinning the observation that 'people are like songs' into an incredibly sweet and witty story of how love doesn't quite live up to The Beach Boys. The same intelligence and emotional honesty shines through every song alongside an amazing observational eye for how and why people act how they do. "Overall"'s skewering of the sensibilities of over-anxious middle class parents and "Travelling With HS"' admission of inability to relate to other people are both perfect, among many others. There's not many single lines of amazing poetry to quote, but the combined effect is brilliant.

"Parenting Never Ends" catches that nagging feeling on becoming an adult that you aren't quite ready yet and are stringing everyone along - 'People give me work and money/They depend on me now/If they only knew how thin the ice they walk on is'. As it takes its wish to return to simpler times to an illogical and culminates in requesting to rerurn to her mother's uterus, it also sets up one of the a
smartest bits of sequencing in ages. As its reverie gets cut off by the opening chords of "Anna", one of the more straightforward songs, whose child never born ending is obvious from the start, is lent a big dose of added poignancy by the contrast.

The fact that so much of her work is grounded in the ordinary means there's a contrast to be made with the increasingly popular Kate Nash 'I use mouthwash/Sometimes I floss/I’ve got a family/And I drink cups of tea' school of lyrical banality. The idea somehow gaining in popularity that songs referencing everyday things for the sake of everyday things is inherently a good thing. The idea that millions of people out there who also drink cups of tea will be deeply touched by the fact that someone is just the same as them, and has said so, in song!

When Annika gets to specifics of the mundane, on "X Telling Me About the Loss of Something Dear, at Age 16", when the song's character is at work at a shoe shop after her regretted first experience of sex and she sings 'Do you want those in red, I said/Two fifty with laces, I said' it's to hammer home that she vividly remembers every moment of the unfairness of normal life having to carry on. It doesn't matter that I've never been in remotely the same situation because the ability to relate to eloquently expressed emotions completely transcends where those emotions come from. Sort of an obvious lesson but it would still be great if it was more widely realised.

JoFo in Soho

Johnny Foreigner at Madame JoJo's, 30/09/08

First of all, despite their name and hearing positive things about them in all the right places, I don't really get Dananananaykroyd, and seeing them did nothing to change that. Their levels of energy were pretty amazing and a couple of songs that locked into a noise section and then pushed and pushed it (twin drummers and all), persisting way past expectations, impressed. That was brief though and left looong sections where none of the multitude of ideas presented connected at all, not helped by frankly baffling between song banter. Perhaps if I'd been down at the front among the hug-outs I would have understood better?

Johnny Foreigner I definitely do get, in that their debut Waited Up Til it Was Light is one of my favourite albums of the year. I love its thrilling combination of Los Campesinos!-esque spiky boy/girl indie pop with twisty guitar noises straight from early Idlewild, and the way they their songs each hurtle through a vast maze of interconnecting ideas and hooks. Thing is that despite listening to the album a great deal, if you ask me what much of it means, or what most of the lyrics actually are, I'll be a bit stuck. In fact, ask me to even name half its songs on hearing, and I'll be a bit stuck. So I might not be best placed to talk about their show in a particularly authoritative way.

This fact made me stand out almost as much as my friend who had never heard of them, becuase Madame JoJo's was packed with fans prepped for every moment. A lot of people who on being told that "Cranes and Cranes and Cranes and Cranes" was next could produce its opening 'baba bababababa!' with no further prompting rather than scrambling to catch up. Who could be relied on to fill in lyrical gaps in non-album tracks as well as to catch crowdsurfing singer Alexei at the close. This is a band already inspiring remarkable loyalty, clearly.

The resultant atmosphere definitely helped the band but it's not hard to see why they've reached such a position. Some of the finer detail and dynamism of album versions was lost as songs become uniformly faster, louder, scrappier, but it was worth it for the power added, for the sight of Alexei wrestling every out there sound from his guitar and Kelly and him joyfully trading alternating lines and even words across stage. When they did they sometimes even resembled a beefed up version of The Delgados circa Domestiques, which can only be a good thing. And though fantastic current single "Salt, Pepa and Spinderella" no longer started in as itchy a state of suspense as on record, they raced through it to 'turn on the real drums!' and lit up the room more forcefully than I'd dreamed possible.

They even managed to keep the momentum going through ever lengthening gaps between songs as they fought technical problems and Alexei's admission that he is too unfit to play without gaps 'like a proper band'. New songs were as intruiging and exciting as old and seemingly everyone went away with a smile on their face. Even the people who repeatedly shouted for "Sometimes, in the Bullring" and didn't get it. At least I think they didn't.

Chartsengrafs 29/09/08 - Head while I'm driving

I missed last week, but honestly not much happened anyway. Kings of Leon presumably continue to baffle onlookers from their own country, having extended "Sex on Fire"'s run at the top to three weeks and added a fairly massive selling number one album. Oh and (next single?) "Use Somebody" is in at 29 too. I must have heard it as I heard the whole album at the weekend, but don't really remember much past general professional likableness.

"Disturbia"'s long life on music TV channels allows Rihanna to reach a peak at 3 after twelve weeks, at the expense of Pussycat Dolls. Biggest climber near the top is Iglu & Hartley, up to 5 and a total mess in far too knowing a way, like they thought for a long time about being this lazy.

James Morrison is 6 (bad luck, Scottish international footballer James Morrison), although "You Make It Real" is still behind "You Give Me Something" for top YouTube result on him. About right since it is basically the same song, except with added slickness. Which is about twentieth on the list of attributes that it needed more of. I never got "About You Now" as anything other than good but too safe, and "Girls" at 8 definitely isn't that, whacking great well known sample nonwithstanding. But they seem to run out of song just as they get into their stride, with that sample just taking up way too much space for how much at adds to the song. The top ten closes out with evidence of the horrors of a downloads based chart as someone singing Faith Hill's sub-Dion "There You'll Be" on The X Factor is enough to return it.

Will Young stalls at 13, down from a mere 10 last week. A shame because "Changes" is the first thing that I unreservedly like so far, doing a good job of easygoing soul with its strings and falsetto deployed for an actual reason beyong usually being in this kind of thing. You can't record an album as fanbase-losing as his last one, go away for years and only come back with this amd expect them to come back though. At 16, Kanye West's continuing bid to be the biggest pop star ever gives us "Love Lockdown"! I have read much but not listened to it til writing this so don't know any comparisons with live versions or uninished versions or whatever, and the first thing is to be a bit surprised by just how bare it is. Second thing, those drums! The autotuned vocals do leave a bit of a feeling of just hanging in there, waiting for the drums and bass to kick back in, but it's worth it. "Paper Planes" glides into the top twenty at 19 and is still on it's way up, maybe? Is Pineapple Express actually out yet? Don't know my films I don't care about very well.

At 26... OK, I know there's Bond traditions to uphold, but "Another Way to Die"? Could you get any more generic a title? Surely Jack White could have managed a "Quantum of Solace", and if he couldn't then Muse probably already wrote one. The intro to the song almost singlehandedly redeems it though, throwing all the best recognisable bits of White Stripes and Bond together and implausibly making it stick. The piano's good too, shame that Jack and Alicia shouting at each other seems such an afterthought.

At the bottom of the top forty there's two (??) entries by Jonas Brothers, still taking the McFly model, diluting it down and then selling it back to us. Plus all that purity stuff of course. Hopefully it won't get any further than this but I'm not optimistic. Ditto for DJ Ironik's follow up single at 35. Pink is at 38, we'll talk about that a lot more next week. And Elbow's "One Day Like This", having taken a week's break, pops back up at 39 just in time to get in the way of the release of its follow up.

In the albums, beyond the aforementioned Kings of Leon, there's entries in the top ten for Pussycat Dolls (with a large number of songs that were meant to be on Nicole's ill-fated solo album, apparently), Bette Midler (ah, Strictly Come Dancing, so much to anwer for), McFly (inconclusive as to whether a mere 8 is due to giving it away for free with the Daily Mail, their fanbase deserting them, or both) and Dave Gilmour. Live in Gdansk!
Katy Perry appearing on albums-oriented Later (watch and note Pete and Guy of Elbow nodding along politely) isn't enough to get her beyond 11.

Mobiles skwrking, mobiles chirping

Wasn't my idea and definitely not something I'd inflict on anyone other than close, similarly musically aligned friends, but Radiohead's "Idioteque" turns out to be a surprisingly great karaoke choice.

(I'm neglicting because I've been away every night, not because of actual neglect like usual. Hopefully to continue tomorrow with a gig by Johnny Foreigner, will report back on it if so!)

Play thoughts

Belatedly catching up on posts on Rocktimists (featuring a couple of much missed Stylus writers, among others), I was particularly interested by this one.

I instinctively wanted to disprove its comparison of the current positions in the video games market to thoughts on music compression, largely because I'm on different sides in each case (Nintendo and Elbow, in short). But the more I thought about it the more it seemed to fit. Is wanting more dynamic range and being able to hear little details in records really all that different from people getting fussed about framerate and polygons per second?

I tried to think that the first is a far more intrinsic part of music, but can that really be the case? Video games are different from the passive experience of watching TV/movies (even if you're playing Metal Gear Solid 4) but isn't the image with which you're interacting about as intrinsic as you can get?
On the other hand, is there a music equivalent to outdated games with comparatively basic graphics that remain fun to play? Production techniques can definitely lead songs to sound of a time (even if that time isn't their own). And early uses of synths, for example, don't do all that could be possible with improved technology, but listening to a song the primitive nature of the technology would hardly leap out in the same way as someone playing twenty-year-old games. I suppose if you go back to the earliest days of recorded music you would get to something similar, but there is no retro scene that I am aware of celebrating such recordings in the same way as Commodore 64 games. Which maybe proves something.


These kind of issues have been interesting me ever since getting back into video games a couple of years ago, and discovering an internet community on the likes of NeoGAF that is not dissimilar to the music one (except even more male, American and filled with in-jokes) and useful for finding the really good stuff out there.
One of the most striking differences is how bloody positive people tend to be. Hit your average music discussion and chances are high of finding biting dislike of whoever is being discussed, especially if they're popular. It's not like that doesn't happen with games but on the whole people seem to be much more likely to be actually happy with what's successful! To the point of developing strong loyalties to the multinational companies that provide it, no less.
I think the key thing here is the fact that an objective review is a lot less of an oxymoron when it comes to games. If a game just isn't fun then chances are it isn't fun to anyone else either. There are exceptions but given the level of effort required in making a game, a big budget really does make it likely to be better. You won't get everyone to agree on the merits of Shadow of the Colossus, much like you won't get everyone to agree on OK Computer, but you'll get much closer. The effects of this particular type of groupthink can be peculiar at times. Stylus never had to deal with anything compared to gaming sites getting crazed reactions to a review giving only 8.8/10. But every time I see a comments page full of genuine, deservedly positive replies it does make me a little happy.


Incidentally, while we've mentioned the subject of compression and video games, this is pretty amazing. Not in a good way.

Ten favourite moments on Los Campesinos!' We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Since even more than their debut, songs as a whole seem less important than the number of amazing, distinct hooks that they can cram into half an hour or so.

• "Miserabilia" - The heavily distorted, disgusted '...for a better understanding of my dietary requirements' leaping suddenly but appropriately into an off-kilter, violin led riff that feels like the onrushing waves of nausea hitting.
• 'Shout at the world because the world doesn't love you!' - So musically triumphant and uniting as to completely turn the sentiment around; yelling loud and clear that we don't need the love of the world.
• The amazing sounds behind the second verse of the title track, where the guitar sounds like it's methodically chopping the song into pieces with the reaciton of an adorably sad and confused little sigh (of violin? synth? It's beyond recognisable).
• When the violin comes in after 'I hope my heart goes first!' and everything is briefly beautiful, a wash of calm contemplation after the frenzy.
• "It's Never That Easy Though..." - the squelchy keyboard that takes the opening line 'This one time, I kissed a girl for class war' and turns it into a mischievous comic adventure. If there's one thing that raises this album more than anything else, it's their amazing knack for fitting musical punctuation marks to their lyrics in a way that magnifies the power of both.
• That perfectly executed stop and start at about a minute in that doesn't need to be there for any reason at all but knocks me sideways every time and makes the start of the following joyful whirling build up even better.
• "The End of the Asterisk" - 'Your parents, your disgusting parents'. Gareth's punk scowl is great, and all the more so for being relatively rarely used.
• "Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time" finally reaches an unambiguous, genuine positive sentiment and it immediately gets drowned in feedback and chopped off. Really affecting and still totally Los Campesinos!.
• "All Your Kayfabe Friends" - 'You asked if I'd be anyone from history/fact or fiction, dead or alive/I said I'd be Tony Cascarino, circa 1995' - destined to be their most quoted line ever, I guess, but it really is that amazing. Like the Breakfast Club line from the debut, but five times as bloodymindedly logic-free and with even better timing.
• The ending. I'm a sucker for songs suddenly cutting off (better than a fadeout every time), especially at the end of albums. As pleasurably disorientating as most other things here.

Chartsengrafs 15/09/08 - Soft lips are open

Welcome back, all. Things to note about the UK charts in my absence - now that downloads have all but completely taken over, they move very, very slowly. Not quite US-like Mariah Carey at number one for 200 weeks slowly, but certainly there's not going to be quite so much happening in any given week as used to be the case.

It's a rare week then this week as we see new entries on both the singles and album charts!

Straight in at number one on the singles are Kings of Leon, somehow. Their previous highest was a 13 for "Fans" which I have no memory of whatsoever. Follow up to "On Call", apparently. Having said quite a few times over the summer 'forget Jay-Z, what the hell are Kings of Leon doing headlining Glastonbury??' their new position is dismaying. As a result it's secretly disappointing that "Sex on Fire" completely fails to live up to its hilarious title and turns out to not bad, if not exactly setting anything alight (sorry). Certainly there seems to be a lot more to them than the likes of Jet, and a few comparisons seen elsewhere to "Dakota" (ie previously terrible band comes good for once) are equally as unfair on Kings of Leon as on "Dakota".

Removed from number one after 5 weeks is Katy Perry, who I am way too late to have much new to say about. I'll try anyway - if you try really hard to ignore the lyrics and keep the bile down, doesn't "I Kissed a Girl" sort of sound like The Bravery? From the ridiculous to the equally ridiculous, at number three is Cliff Richard, who missed his chance to carry on that number one every decade record that's obviously a great source of pride and publicity. He needed to go for it a couple of years back when he would only have needed to sell half as many copies, really. Pussycat Dolls and Rihanna follow at 4 and 5, and then lower down the top ten is horrorville. Take your pick from The Script, Kid Rock or Biffy Clyro-ironically-gone-Busted-ballad for biggest crime against music there (hint: it's still The Script).

What else? Flobots make it up into the top 20, probably more to come on them once I've heard more than the chorus on endless adverts (that is not helping their cause). Iglu & Hartly and McFly are new at 21 and 23 and at 25 Keane's silly big 80s pop moment "Spiralling" continues to follow Coldplay in demonstrating that giving away your single for free won't stop people paying 79p for it for months to come. Basshunter (he's sold 130,000 albums, you know) gets a third but rather lesser top 40 hit at 24, ditto for Flo Rida at 29.

At 33, watch your back cos Paul Rodgers has got Queen on this track; a Mercury win is enough to put Embrace Elbow's "One Day Like This" up to 36, three places higher than first time round; there's an end to 'Lowgold have had more top 40 hits than M.I.A.!' zings as "Paper Planes" gets to 37 on its way to bigger things; and Sonny J closes things out at 40.


In the albums, Metallica rush out late in the week to snatch the top spot from Glasvegas. It's a bit surprising - St. Anger was only number three. That was in part due to releasing alongside Hail to the Thief, but I still didn't think that they had quite such clout anymore. Especially when releasing an album with cover/title that surely shouldn't have made it past the inside cover of first year science exercise books. No other big new entries, but the aforementioned Mercury effect pushes The Seldom Seen Kid from 61 to 7, and past Asleep in the Back (and Basshunter) in lifetime sales.

Lowlands Day 3 (17/08/08)

Sunday's music starts off with a disappointing moment. Rushing back from a very necessary packing trip, we arrive at the (tiny) Lima tent just in time to hear the last two bars of Lykke Li's cover of Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". Had been looking forward to that being the finale and highlight of her set, but alas no. There is still an enjoyably taunting "Complaint Department" although a couple of others fall into being a bit too loose and diffident, much like the album.

Next are a couple of bands that I know nothing of in advance. Pivot offer some interesting though slightly unengaging experimental electronica. Yeasayer go for psychadelic leaning rock that has some nice harmonies in places but occasionally veers into horrible falsetto/wah-wah boogie. They spend a surprising amount of their time on stage talking up the next band, MGMT.
They needn't have bothered, as MGMT are already clearly the hype band of the weekend, going as far the previous day as to fly over a plane with an advert for their set, and attracting a crowd thats packed even twenty-deep outside the sizeable India tent. They completely fail to do anything to justify this position, starting by arriving about fifteen minutes late. Announcing that they will play the whole of their album isn't a bad start (although they don't play it in order anyway), but within thirty seconds of a foolishly thrown out "Time to Pretend" it's clear that they intend to not only play the whole album but also replicate the gratingly horrible and compressed sound of it, only even more so. Every keyboard sound is a deafening scrape and the rest is barely better. I still think that they probably have some good songs, but it's not too easy to tell. I leave after two, not least because there are more important places to be...

...namely the Grolsch tent for Elbow! Good thing to get in there too, as after a weekend of (sometimes uncomfortably) sunny weather, a torrential downpour almost perfectly coincides with their set. Guy Garvey is quick to make light of the fact ("Consider yourself lucky, in Manchester it rains for 200 days a year") and it actually lends a bit of a communal huddle air to proceedings, especially once we reach the somewhat ironic climax of "One Day Like Today".

Before that is a set that's, well, as reliably fantastic as any Elbow set of the past few years - that I can't be more enthusiastic about it is more down to it being my tenth time seeing them than anything else. That and the slightly short set (no "The Fix" or "Grace Under Pressure") and slightly too high and far away stage, although Guy does everything in his power to overcome that short of actually climbing down, and that's only because he'd probably never make it back. He sings almost every heartfelt word leaning forward and physically reaching out in an attempt to connect that works remarkably well for its simplicity. Even on the rare occasion when he falters, voice straining and flirting with out of tune for a couple of verses of "Great Expectations", the warmth of feeling and beautifully soft pattering of piano easily carries him through.

Special mention as ever to "Newborn", the only track from their debut played, which remains just as gobsmacking in scale and power a tenth time as it did the first, and surely will a fiftieth.

How to follow that? Well, if there's one band who can match or better them musically for sheer beauty it's Sigur Rós. They begin with a massive "Svefn-G-Englar", building up to a bow on guitar frenzy that seems to almost swallow the whole tent in its depth of primordial, unnameable feeling, and everything that made them such an important band to me many years ago makes total sense again. A barely less epic "Glósóli" later and they play a (possibly new) song that I don't know, and things get really magical as it softly flutters and a brass band, dressed all in white, emerge to march in slow motion across the stage, a delightful visual that matches all the pomp of the music but also injects a touch of humour and a human element that doesn't always translate amid their towering music.

Next: Time to blow all that away with a thunderously crashing "Ný Batterí"! Holy crap. About half an hour gone and an hour left (they presumably insisted on the longest slot of the festival) and their set his been faultless and made me want to fall in love with them again, and yet... there's a reason why all that was needed. So getting out while they're ahead seems a good bet, and as I walk out to the sound of the opening chords of "Hoppipolla", the usual sinking feeling sets in and I feel like I've made the right choice. That one is more the assorted documentary soundtrackers of the UK's fault than theirs, but still the prospect of the goo of the last two albums is too much to face.

So instead I finish up Lowlands 2008 with The Dresden Dolls. Their edgy, witty and almost uncomfortably insightful Yes, Virginia... has crept up to become one of my favourite albums of recent years, so I'm rather excited to see them for the first time. And that excitement reaches fever pitch as they open in style with its frenzied "Sex Changes", keyboard and drums pounding in unison.

Their show in some ways gets no less impressive from there, from the sheer noise somewhow generated by only two people on in. Amanda Palmer wrings a huge range of sounds from her keyboard with furious, rapid fire succession, and Brian Viglione is equal parts drummer and mime, with comic and dramatic timing down perfectly. Of course, for that to work rather than being a distraction they need to have the songs to match... and that's where they fall down with a bizarrely misjudged setlist.

I know that there are always people who are there for the early stuff (see Sigur Rós review above) but failing to play any more songs from their second album at all is inexplicable. Their debut was full of potential, but it lacked a lot of the songwriting poise of the second and there's only so many of its overwrought issues songs (yay, self harm) that can be taken in one go. Only a blistering "Girl Anachronism" and "Coin Operated Boy", with its clockwork stop-start sections drawn out til they go through bizarre into funny and back again, are up to the job. The latter also gets a just about funny enough to work lyric change from 'I can even take him in the bath' to 'I can even fuck him in the ass', which says, er, something. Anyway, their wasted potential is a disappointing way to end, summed up no better than by a drawn out closing cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" that we are instructed to sing along to but no one knows the words to.

Yay!

Lowlands day 2 (16/08/08)

I really mean to start off Saturday with Laura Marling in one of the event's smaller tents. But in even more oppressive early afternoon heat than the previous day, sitting down in the shade seems a good idea. And then suddenly getting up again doesn't. Before you know it, it's an hour and a half later. Apparently she was good though.

NERD are playing the festival's enormous arena sized Alpha tent but it's still way too crowded to get in. Instead we take up stations at the somewhat smaller stage opposite, the closest to an outside stage there is. Can't tell you much about NERD despite the proximity as they get drowned out by soundchecking for Los Campesinos!, eagerly awaited by a small cadre of dedicated fans.

Gareth begins by thanking NERD for supporting them, later going on to attack a lengthy list of targets including the Sex Pistols (playing later; we should see No Age instead), British festivals (full of drunken idiots) and Belgium's rival Pukklepop (a popular one, this). Fortunately there's still enough manic energy and creativity left over for their songs. The power of the unique worldview invested in them comes through even more while watching various members of the band throwing themselves around and at each other, helped by the fact that with no second album songs yet essentially every song is a crowd favourite. It doesn't make for a perfect set quite. Gareth's female cointerpart Aleksandra is near inaudible for much of the set, giving "The International Tweecore Underground" in particular a weird one sided conversation feel. And when my friend complains after about not being able to tell the difference between many of their songs they have somehwat of a point at times. But when LC! team up a blistering "My Year in Lists" to a cathartic "Knee Deep at ATP" for a sub five minute double feature, or when a chaotic "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" coda coalesces behind Gareth as he theatrically checks his watch for the correct mid-August date, or they line up on upturned monitors for the final trimphant bellow of "Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks" there is nothing remotely like them. That's even before we get to the euphoric madness inspired by "You! Me! Dancing!"

British Sea Power were never likely to live up to that but disappoint a little nonetheless. Matters definitely aren't helped by the smallest crowd of the weekend, who aren't even roused by "Waving Flags", aside from a couple of people with (Spanish/pirate) flags of their own. But even beyond that, good but slightly airy songs come off as even airier and only "It Ended on an Oily Stage" comes close to moving. Maybe I missed the best bits by arriving halfway through.

A quick stop for food later (uitsmijter, a bread and fried egg/cheese combo that definitely beats British festival food) it's back to the huge tent for Franz Ferdinand.

They make for a slick and relaxed contrast to the overstretched band that I saw at Glastonbury and Ally Pally a few years ago. A carefully picked set shows off the best side of the mixed second album, and there are few moments of half-surprised memory along the lines of 'oh yeah, "Walk Away" is quite the fantastic drama, huh?'. They also trial quite a few of those long overdue new songs which are promising if not completely convincing.

What makes the set so much better than that quick overview makes it sound is just how on their side the crowd are. There's a celebratory atmosphere even before they become the only act I see to make a stab at (I presume) Dutch that goes beyond 'dank u well'. "Take Me Out" is of course welcomed with open arms, even the guitar part sung along to, but it goes well beyond that and makes an event of almost every song. Somehow even "This Fire" gets turned into a barnstorming finale whose chorus is still being sung well after the band has departed.

Rather different in feel but nearly as enjoyable are headliners Underworld (the other two days had Editors and Anouk if you're interested). It possibly helps to go into the show with virtually no knowledge of their material, as the slowly unfolding intricate rhythyms are all the more hypnotic with no idea where they are heading next. They're helped too by some excellent projections and some fantastic props, in the shape of blow up pillar things that are blown up and pushed over and around and look from a distance intriguingly like spotlights turned solid. And then after about an hour slips by gracefully, there's the inevitable conclusion of "Born Slippy" and the moment that it kicks in and the lights turn on and we all stand arms aloft, grinning broadly. It's the sort of moment that it would be difficult to get wrong at this point, but they make thoroughly sure they don't.

Lowlands Day 1 (15/08/08)

I had no idea til I came here to post and looked that it's been almost exactly a year since I last posted here. Weird stuff. <--- Was true when I started writing this. Anyway, starting things off with something that actually gives me quite a bit to say. Last weekend I was at Lowlands festival in the Netherlands.

Left home about 2pm on Thursday and, 3 train journeys and a coach ride with a bunch of drunken Irishmen later, arrived a bit before midnight. Not much worse than Glastonbury really, especially considering the lack of queuing and that my fantastic friend had set up a tent for us in prime position. Hooray!

Ways they do things differently than UK festivals I've been to - Rather than outside, near enough all the music is in tents of varying sizes, from cosy to enormous. Rather than starting at 12, things gradually get off to a start rather later, which coupled with a standard-to-early finish means seeing 7 bands a day is out of the question. On the other hand, rather than the usual UK policy of giving the interesting acts early slots that barely stretch to half an hour, just about everyone gets at least an hour. This is pulled off by having a really large number of stages in a small space, and there's some clever scheduling going on to make unwanted noise from other stages a rarity.

So, Friday, first day proper, starts off for us as late as 4pm, not a bad thing considering the stifling midday heat. To see - The National. Opener "Start a War" eases gradually into their world, where every word seems to come cloaked in unspoken regret or horror, and also introduces their excellent brass section, who really add something over the previous time I saw them. The interesting thing about The National live is that much of the time the emphasis of their sound is completely reversed from on record. Normally Matt Berninger's vocals are the focus, but live, it's much easier to appreciate the way that the rest of the band build up those tense, subtle backdrops. Even when he gets into full on mad pacing mode for "Mr. November", it's the fantastically agile drumming that stands out. Older songs than that don't get a look in and there's a disappointing lack of "Ada", but as a showcase for Boxer they couldn't do much better.

I've seen Hot Chip before. But that was a show supporting Athlete (!) in 2004 and it's fair to say that they're a slightly different band now. They no longer shake bananas and don't play anything at all from their debut, understandably. Their two uneven albums since have enough top material to make for a uniformly fantastic set and they blast through it in a determined effort to keep everyone on an unending high. It's two songs in when they switch seamlessly from a manic "Shake A Fist" into a burbling "And I Was a Boy From School" that it becomes clear just how fantastic they have got at what they do. Somehow the latter is played at twice the speed but remains every bit as haunting as ever while totally dancable. "Bendable Posable" is the unlikely biggest highlight, showcasing Joe Goddard's unique rapping skills and the most joyous random noises in a strong random noise field.
After the rush through every great song from the last too albums, they then go and show that they can make even (slightly) less glittering material shine with an energetic reworking of "No Fit State" that melds it with New Order's "Temptation". And it turns out that they haven't already played every great song because I have somehow completely forgotten that they still have "Ready for the Floor" up their sleeve! Best surprise of the weekend.
And even that isn't enough as they finally let up the pace and take full advantage of their accumulated power over the crowd to play a spot on cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" and a similarly swaying "In the Privacy of Our Love". Still not sure this is the best direction for them to go in, but they sure earned it.

Santogold was meant to be next, but turning up almost half an hour late means that it's time to leave before she gets there. Oops.

We have to make sure that we get our place in plenty of time for The Flaming Lips. After all, if you're not within confetti cannon distance you'e going to miss out.
It's no surprise that when everything switches on and they launch into "Race for the Prize" with massive balloons bouncing everywhere, massed ranks of dancing teletubbies dancing, the aformentioned confetti, and the lights and the energy, it remains one of the most life-affirming gig experiences possible. I would almost go as far as recommending seeing them for that alone.
Thing is though, I last saw them five years ago and this is almost exactly the same show. Wayne now rolls around the crowd in his giant bubble for a bit before they begin, and they've acquired a massive green laser. But the only other real change is to the set list, and that has somehow got worse - "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is a great addition but there are now uncomfortably long patches where the music comes nowhere near to matching the spectacle. No more "Lightning Strikes the Postman" or even "She Don't Use Jelly" either, although perhaps advocating them making even fewer changes is not the way to go. Still, a bit of a conflicted experience overall, though as I said has its share of brilliance.
See "Do You Realize??" here, where as an added bonus (??) you can see me blowing bubbles at 2:42.