Maximo Park - Interpol - Biffy Clyro - Manic Street Preachers
- LCD Soundsystem - The Good, The Bad And The Queen - Feist - Mumm-Ra
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OUR EARTHLY PLEASURES – Maximo Park
With his guileless Geordie accent intact, Paul Smith may be the most likeable frontman among his immediate contemporaries (sorry, Kele). He's traded-in the signature comb-over for a sharp bowler hat, but the spastic singer is still neurotically consumed by unfulfilling relationships. On early single "Apply More Pressure", he sang, "I hope that I will live to see you undress," to a potential partner. But now that he's seen her naked, it seems, she's gone away.
From the ominous unpacking tale "Books From Boxes" ("You have to leave, I appreciate that/ But I hate when conversation slips out of our grasp") to the anxious aftermath of "By the Monument" ("Posterity has hold of us now/ Am I just waiting for the next chapter?") to the Before Sunset nostalgia of "Parisian Skies" ("I don't think she knew how much I loved her"), Smith chronicles a particularly harsh long-distance split in a style that's part Stipe-ian oblique and part emo confessional. He's prone to the occasional distracting Word of the Day ("I wonder how we tessellate/ It would have been much wiser to allow these feelings to abate," he enunciates on "Your Urge") and his flashes of Cocker-style wit come too few and far between, but the singer finds an affecting comfort zone somewhere between sentimental and nonsensical. And while the optimistic stand-out "A Fortnight's Time" veers from Pleasures' sad script, the hook is a winning example of Smith's quirky expertise: "Would you like to go on a date with me?/ And I know it's old-fashioned to say so/ Five time five equals twenty-five/ Don't you know your times tables by now?" (He may or may not be hitting on jailbait?)
Maxïmo Park's first album featured a hazy, spoken-word anomaly called "Acrobat" that sounded like nothing else on the LP. The song was ballsy and beautiful, and it hinted at an untapped adventurousness, but still fell quite short. There's nothing like "Acrobat" on Our Earthly Pleasures. With their new album, Maxïmo Park avoid both utter disaster and absolute success by playing it safe. Nice and safe.
Download: Maximo Park – OUR EARTHLY PLEASURES
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OUR LOVE TO ADMIRE - Interpol
"I live my life in cocaine/Just a rage and three types of yes/I've made stairways such scenes for things to regret" -Rest My Chemistry. Yep, we've all been there. Ice chinks in the fifth Chivas Regal and you're hitting on the wrong girl again and she's just staring at your nosebleed and all you can think about is the dry cleaning bill for your switchblade-sharp Agnes B suit and shirt combo. Or maybe not.
Okay, some background. Interpol are 4 New York City draculas who sport cufflinks, oversized shades and hip tiepins and make darker-than-the-black death post rock with a thumping core of rainswept romance at the centre. In short they're cooler than an ice pick dipped in liquid nitrogen and stabbed into your ink-black heart.
This is their third album and basically it's the perfect wingman to the other two. More layers, more washy keyboards, more engulfing, chiming reverb soaked guitars and yep, more of the same.
As usual singer Paul Banks sings loads of cool, cryptic lines about time and love and the corruption inside him, in his otherworldly baritone, and the band pound and tinkle and sweep with more elegance and expression than ever before.
Okay so there are a couple of boring bits, and nothing quite as good as "Public Pervert", from Antics, or "PDA", from Turn On The Bright Lights, but what do you want, blood? This band have gotten better - they're tighter than a laser-guided smart bomb, the beats are more swingy, and Carlos D's bass and keys are even more expressive and swooning.
Buy this, sit on a bus in the rain and imagine you're on your fifth Chivas and there's blood on your tiepin.
Download: Interpol – OUR LOVE TO ADMIRE
(available for 7 days from date of post)
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PUZZLE - Biffy Clyro
Puzzle is the fourth album by Scottish band Biffy Clyro, and the band's first album release since leaving Beggars Banquet. The album was recorded in Canada, and produced/mixed in New York. The band said that they had 40 tracks to choose from, and that they had been recording with composer Graeme Revell and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra whilst making the album. Puzzle is noted for its departure from quirky and sometimes unconventional songs as on their past albums, and has a far more straight-forward, mainstream sound.
Download: Biffy Clyro - PUZZLE
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SEND AWAY THE TIGERS - Manic Street Preachers
Send Away the Tigers is the 8th studio album from the Welsh rock group. Eighth. E-I-G-H-T-H. I don't mean anything by it, I just think that the word eighth never looks like it's spelled correctly. The album itself is a veritable feast for journos worth their salt. The title 'Send Away the Tigers' refers to something comedian Tony Hancock used to say when drinking alcohol to 'chase the demons away'. The photos used on the sleeve are taken from the photography book Monika Monster Future First Woman On Mars by Valerie Philips. The album sleeve features a quotation from Wyndham Lewis, here misspelled as 'Wyndam Lewis'. Nina Persson from The Cardigans shares vocals on "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough", the first proper single from the album. The song "Rendition" concerns the act of extraordinary rendition, which has been described as a global system of human rights violations. The song is partly inspired by the academy award-winning 1982 film Missing starring Jack Lemmon.
"I'm Just a Patsy" is a direct quotation from Lee Harvey Oswald - who is referenced in the song - upon his public denial of the murder of JFK.
The album is widely seen as a return to the more harder-edged sound of their earlier releases: the band itself has described it as a mixture of Generation Terrorists and Everything Must Go. The album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, whose brother Tom provided the US mix of The Holy Bible.
Download: Manic Street Preachers - SEND AWAY THE TIGERS
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SOUND OF SILVER – LCD Soundsystem
Sound of Silver isn't far removed from LCD Soundsystem's eponymous 2005 debut. While it makes no bones about James Murphy's well-known appreciation of Brian Eno's pop vocal affectations ("Get Innocuous", "Sound of Silver"), the Velvet Underground ("New York I Love You"), or new-wave ("Watch the Tapes"), it never feels like a paste job, but rather just the well considered work of someone connecting the dots between the past and the present.
There's not a single weak track here, and many more already feel classic. "Sound of Silver" is a seven-minute suite that morphs from a rumbling, ice-cold, no-wave groove into a liquefied jumble of kalimbas, pianos, and fizzy synths. "All My Friends" begins with a piano riff that sounds not unlike a speeding train (or, at least, Steve Reich's approximation of one) and rolls downhill into fireworks. And then there's the song that precedes it, and with which it combines to form the record's center. A sleek, delicate, and effortlessly melodic sliver of electro, "Someone Great" is one of my favorite songs of the year so far, and constitutes new ground for Murphy both in terms of prettiness and poignancy. It's about loss, but the lyric remains tantalizingly ambiguous. As with most great songs, its best lines buzz around the edges of the story: "The worst is all the lovely weather/ I'm stunned it's not raining/ The coffee isn't even bitter/ Because, what's the difference."
Murphy used to court spontaneity by refusing to pre-write any of his lyrics before going into the vocal booth, claiming in interviews that they were all ad-libbed. It's a strategy he's evidently abandoned on Sound of Silver, and the record is much better for it. On "All My Friends", for instance, he tackles a favorite subject (getting older) from the wrong end of an all-nighter: "You spend the first five years trying to get with the plan/ And the next five years trying to be with your friends again." On "North American Scum", he tackles continental divide with straight deadpan: "Well I don't know, I don't know where to begin/ we are North American/ And for those of you who still think we're from England / we're like... 'No.'"
When it's all said and done, Murphy's real legacy to dance music will be his production sense. He's an analog obsessive with a general aversion to software, and Sound of Silver reflects that. Far removed from the compressed, trebly, and overmastered paradigm that's gripped electronic music in the last decade, Sound of Silver sounds deep, rich, and full-blooded. (Like, um, an old vinyl record or a nice bottle of Rioja.) It's an absolute joy to listen to, for every possible reason, not the least of which is because, these days, those epiphanies feel like they're coming fewer and farther between. And I like Rioja.
Download: LCD Soundsystem – SOUND OF SILVER
(available for 7 days from date of post)
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THE GOOD THE BAD & THE QUEEN – The Good The Bad & The Queen
This is a collaboration between Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve) and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti), qualifying them as a supergroup? The Good the Bad and the Queen is in one sense a concept album, as it’s songs are all themed around modern life in London. It was described by Albarn as "a song cycle that's also a mystery play about London". And as if to add the proverbial cherry, it was all produced by the ubiquitous Danger Mouse.
The band, which formed in 2006, released their first single, "Herculean" in October 2006. Three interestingly located warm-up gigs in East Prawle at the Pig's Nose Inn, Ilfracombe’s Marlboro Club and The Exeter Cavern Club preceded their gig on the BBC's Electric Proms, where the entire album was performed in order, with two other songs inserted, "Intermission Jam" and "Mr. Whippy"; the latter was a B-side for "Herculean".
Albarn is still partial to his "Feel Good" vocal effect from Gorillaz days, and some tracks are definitely reminiscent of his Demon Days with Danger, but everything from Allen's deep pocket drumming to the haunting and hypnotic backdrop of Tong’s and Simonon’s guitars make this album rife with great songs.
In April 2007, The Good, the Bad and the Queen became the first EMI album to be made available for download in the new DRM-free, high quality MP3 format (320 kbit/s). It was also the first EMI record to be released DRM-free on iTunes.
Download: The Good The Bad & The Queen – THE GOOD THE BAD & THE QUEEN
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THE REMINDER - Feist
The Reminder is the third full-length album by indie rock artist Leslie Feist. In March 2006, Feist rented a 200-year-old manor house outside of Paris for two weeks, where the bulk of the album was completed, although some subsequent recording took place in Toronto.
It’s funny, because I was actually starting to get a little bit sick of Feist. Everytime we went to anybody’s house, “Let It Die” was playing over the speakers. “Mushaboom” was getting killed on mainstream radio, and her music just seemed to follow me around everywhere I went. However, listening to “The Reminder” has rekindled my liking. She may just have the most unique female voice in indie-rock at the moment (well, at least until Neko Case releases another one). The album opens with the breathtaking “I’m Sorry”, which takes off from where “Let It Die” ended. It has an acoustic French-pop style to it, designed to immediately calm the savage beast that the working week may have bred. The next cut has Feist rocking out ever-so-slightly with “I Feel It All,” a jumpy little number, complete with chimes and harmonies. “The Park” is especially for those who still are not sold on her amazing voice. If the vocals towards the end of this song don’t induce chills, then, in the words of Harrison Ford, you may just be the world’s only living heart donor. “Intuition” is another very moving number that has surfaced on a bootleg or two in the past already, but is finally here in its completed version. And “1,2,3,4” just proves again that Feist’s remarkable abilities as a singer, songwriter, tunesmith, etc obviously comes very naturally to her. Everything she does seems effortless, and if that’s the case, in the next few years she will no doubt be considered a Canadian music legend.
Incidentally, track 6 of the album, "Sealion", is an adaptation of a song by Nina Simone. The original title was "See line woman" (a reference to sealions was never intended), and refers to the life of an upper class prostitute.
Download: Feist – THE REMINDER
(available for 7 days from date of post)
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THESE THINGS MOVE IN THREES - Mumm-Ra
MUMM-RA are often credited with being indie eccentrics (especially since their name originates from the main villain of the 1980s cartoon, Thundercats). But they’ve quickly emerged as one of the most exciting bands of the moment, having cut their teeth and even emerged from the shadow of bands such as The Automatic, The View and The Horrors while taking part in this year’s NME Awards Indie Rock Tour.
Opening salvo Now Or Never lulls you into a false sense of security, featuring James “Noo” New’s vocals over an acoustic guitar being lazily strummed, before suddenly exploding into beautiful, epic life at about the 40-second mark. Former single Out of The Question follows, complete with swirling keyboard melodies, a driving bassline and euphoric vocals from New that really get your feet tapping. Next up is title track These Things Move In Threes which confidently delivers more livewire electronics over the top of some really appealing guitar riffs.
By the time you’ve reached She’s Got You High, Mumm-Ra should have you addicted. It has all the hallmarks of classic indie-rock material, beginning with a soft and deeply melodic guitar riff and then building emphatically towards a rousing chorus and some Beach Boys-style vocal layering. Thereafter, the tunes are belted out in style and seldom miss a beat.
Starlight is another instant hit, a rousing blend of handclap beats, wailing guitars and sing-along choruses. And so to the epic final track Down, Down, Down, surely the album’s crowning achievement – a seven-minute opus that slow-builds moodily and magnificently to deliver one of the most mature and ambitious songs on the LP. It’s a magnificent end to a brilliant debut album and one which will leave you totally smitten.
Download: Mumm-Ra - THESE THINGS MOVE IN THREES
(available for 7 days from date of post)
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