Shiny Happy Placebo

Placebo announced a few days ago the release of a new single from their sixth studio album, Battle for the Sun. The song is called Bright Lights and it's maybe the most unusual Placebo song you ever heard until now (including I Do) – but I guess they already made a passion out of releasing unusual songs, so that shouldn't be very surprising. This version is a bit different from the one on the album – it has been re-recorded with backing vocals towards the end ("Bright lights in black holes").

The song has a powerful drum line, with the guitar and the bass more or less in the background. However, what strikes you about this song is the electronic touch which make the tune sound all happy and optimistic. Yes, it isn't the first Placebo song of this kind, but the main difference is given by extremely hopeful lyrics. It's not the usual, metaphorical speech we got used to; it's more like a confession, and, like any confession, it's put in very simple words. Goodbye to open sores.

This is a song which most old-school Placebo fans won't find very interesting (translation: they will hate it), but new fans will find it really nice. As for me, my only hope is that the video for this song won't be as shitty as the one for The Never-Ending Why. I'm praying for that.

Enough With The Moaning

I heavily dislike this period. Several reasons (all the commercial Xmas stuff etc) actually among which a rather painful one: the fact that as the year ends and January kicks in (ok, some days into the new year) I am one year older, one year closer to being forced to become a responsible adult (I mean, no one actually shoves this down my throat, but I don’t want to end up being a 30-something year-old who dances to ‘Bare Necessities’ at weddings).

But this really isn’t about me, it’s about the end of the year. This being 2009, let’s call this the end of the decade in capitals. Woho! And what do we get as the year (decade in this case) ends? Yes, lists. Best of lists. And, no, this isn’t about some hate I have for such lists. Because, you see, I am one of those weird people who hate lavender and love rose-scented soaps and also love end of the year lists. I don’t care who did it, who put it together, if it’s a list/top we’re talking about, I want to read it. Why? Because it shows what people like, what magazines staffs actually listen to blablabla. Yeah, it’s about opinions (that, according to Larry Flint, are like asshole, we all have one).

What I actually hate is the constant moaning. “Oh, your bands suck, my band is the best and you are all gay”. This sort of things. And the typical ‘Who do you think you are to say which song was the best?’ You know all the lines. They’re used every single year by, I like to believe, the same constant group of virgins.

Here’s news for all of those complaining. Usually, the magazine that does those lists states that this is the best of list as voted by fill in the blanks with staff/artists/etc. So, shouldn’t it be clear that it’s just an opinion, an opinion on a given subject you’ll like or dislike? Lists are not shitty, just view on who is better are different.

It’s like the whole thing with reviews and journalism in general. You know it’s biased or subjective. We give you the impression it’s not, but you have to be an idiot to think this, what we write, is impartial and not influenced in the slightest bit by what we like, what we’ve been through, by our own point of view. Sure, when I write a review I might pretend the world loves or hates the album, but you and me both know it’s just me who loves it.

The same with ‘Best of’ lists. ‘Best Of’ or “Greatest” are used to give the impression of, well, being not so subjective. But it is. Incredibly subjective, actually. Music is something really subjective and we all know that any music fanatic (including myself) has a bad habit of thinking or saying their favourite tracks are the best ever and no one else is entitled to a different opinion (usually the ‘You’re gay’ argument comes in).

So, for once, let’s stop moaning and let’s just admit that all these lists are just a means by which music journalists tell you what they thought was really great that year/decade. Don’t worry, you can still listen to your favourite band and think they are the best and the rest suck. No one’s telling you that you can’t.

I'll Believe In Anything

Now would be the perfect moment to start this post with “They have landed” or something along the lines. Which I won’t cause then you’ll all be rolling our eyes and say “Bu-hu, this is so boring and not funny, I don’t want to read your blog anymore. Go away”. And because we want to be loved by you, our readers (well, hello there), I won’t.

Anyways, I guess it wouldn’t really be accurate. And there, I am going to use a cliché in order to make a joke. You see, Big City, Spacemen 3’s contribution to the spilt 7” I am talking about in this post, feels really otherwordly/out of this world/etc. It’s a great track to listen to while getting high. Actually, to think about it, it’ll do the job (no illegal substances required) thanks to the 80s drone-meets-Kraftwerk overall feeling it has. And no, for your information, I was not high or getting high when I heard this.

The second track on the 7” is by Wooden Shjips (not a typo, not a typo) and is named I Believe It. And here’s the fun part: it feels like it could belong on any Spacemen 3 album. It’s sort of psychedelic and slow paced and has some great chiming guitars. And, yes, the two tracks fit really well together and make for a great musical journey… into space. There, another bad joke, this time about Spacemen 3’s name. Now go away, stop reading this, listen to the 7”.

Take Your Revelation To The Station

Kumm – Mister Superman

Kumm is a Romanian band which is not very well known outside the country's borders, in spite of its twelve years of musical activity. They have released an album at the end of October, maybe their best album to date, called Far From Telescopes, and the opening song happens to be my current obsession. It starts with a simple guitar line, then you can hear the drums somewhere in the background and after a few more seconds you hear the voice, and you guess from the very first line what it's all about: "We have always been here, we don't wanna fight, the future is so clear, just like a cat in the night". As the song flows, the sound becomes more diversified, with harmonica and tambourine coming in to support the guitar. I listen to it at least once a day, and I haven't got bored yet. On the contrary, I still find myself singing at work the obsessive chorus "It's just another way of falling of the roof if you can watch and see who's choking on your youth". And that's something, considering it has been almost a month since I've heard it for the first time.

Say Yes!

I've recently had the occasion to listen to Snow Patrol's new release, a double album called Up to Now. The band had put together forty songs for this compilation, but they realised eventually that they couldn't include them all – so they had to reduce the number to thirty. Even if the album is called Up to Now, the songs are not listed chronologically, but are chosen in order to represent all the studio albums. And, as the band stated, the title means actually that they have even more to offer in the future.

The compilation features most of the band's singles, including the live version of Chasing Cars, which will always remain in my memory as the song that made me listen to Snow Patrol. You can find here all the singles from Eyes Open (in my opinion, the best album Snow Patrol released until now); and we can't but approve of this decision, considering that Set the Fire to the Third Bar, the sensual (I can't find a more proper word to describe it) collaboration with Martha Wainwright also enters to this category. However, if they would have asked me, I'd have rather recommend them to forget about "teeeeeeeeeeeeeeell me that you'll..." Open Your Eyes and put You Could Be Happy or Make This Go On Forever instead. Uh well. They say you could be happy, not that you will be happy.

Also, I've been kind of disappointed to realise that no, Get Balsamic Vinegar... Quick You Fool! is not part of this release (I guess I'm the only one who thinks that the distorted-voice-weird-instrumental-bitchy-lyrics song should have been a single). Actually they included only two songs from the first album, Starfighter Pilot (what was wrong with them?) and Fifteen Minutes Old (that's more like it). A pleasant surprise has been… no, not Ask Me How I Am (I expected to find this crazy song included here and I wasn't wrong), but Batten Down the Hatch. All the other songs from the second album represent great choices, making me say every time "Good, they put this one too!" Never Gonna Fall In Love Again didn't appear though – why can't things be perfect? But the fact that they included two versions of Run (the original one and a brilliant live version from Union Chapel) brought the smile again upon my face. I won't say very much about the singles from the last album, as it didn't quite impress me – it's good, but not as good as the previous ones. Just this: Crack the Shutters is cool. Enough.

The album also features a few B-sides (Crazy in Love amongst them - yes, that Crazy in Love, yes, yes, Beyoncé's song) and three previously unreleased songs, Just Say Yes (the new single), Give Me Strength (translation: Thank you for buying mah albums and listening to mah music, xoxo Gary) and Dark Roman Wine. All in all, it's a very good release, and if you're not bothered by the huge quantity of honey and sugar ('cause it's all about love, darlings), you'll agree with me.

*photo courtesy of Snow Patrol official site

Fall Was Kind

It’s rather annoying really. There are bands that take out an album every four-five years and you just want that new album and complain every single time you get the chance that the said band hasn’t taken out anything new. And then there are bands that just keep them rolling. Especially mainstream artists, probably in some twist of fate, some new unwritten law of Murphy. Or, if not a commercial artist, one you could give a, as the saying goes, rat’s ass. And here is where I used to file Animal Collective under. Notice my choice of verbal tense when speaking of my relationship with Animal Collective. Yes, past. Bear with me and you shall see why (if you haven’t already guessed).

Eight studio albums, one compilation, two live albums and four EPs in nine years is quite a lot, you’ll have to admit to it. And we’re not counting the five side projects Avey Tare and Panda Bear have. This year alone an album and an EP. The EP which is entitled Fall Be Kind and came out yesterday. It has five tracks and this is where we get down to business.

The first two songs could very well be seen as four songs. Graze is a dream-state-infused, mellow, piano-driven piece until, at about 3:15, a flute kicks in and you could almost swear this is the Shire and all the hobbits are having a carnival. What Would I Want? Sky sets of as a nice piece that seems to belong to that weird new world music that Flaming Lips’ Embryonic was full of, only to shape into a Grateful Dead-sampled spacey and rather stoned piece (the chimes and clapping make it a priceless trip).

Bleed is probably the EP’s break, with is drone-ish out-of-this-world beat. The reason it’s there, right before On A Highway, is probably because Bleed is the lullaby and On A Highway (with all it’s bleepy sounds) is the dream. Yeah, that’s how a dream sounds, your best dream ever in fact. The closing track, I Think I Can, is most probably the darkest track on the record and it also has the most surreal drums and the most perfect xylophone.

And while the last track ends, I think it’s safe to say I’ve been converted to Animal Collective. Alas, we all give in at a certain point.

Superbe!

I just love French music, and when I get the chance to listen to some good French songs, I don't even think to miss it. Speaking of good songs, I think it is rather difficult to express in words the way one perceives a certain track that feels like flying or dreaming – far away from this world. I just think words are not enough.

And now I am here, in front of you, trying to tell you a few words about Benjamin Biolay's new release, La Superbe. It is his fifth studio album (or better said, double album), and I was really curious, considering the fact that it was one of the most praised new released albums. However, in my mind the verdict was already given: it will be either a complete failure, or a masterpiece – nothing in between. That's how I think when it comes to such releases. And usually I'm right. In a way or another.

At the beginning of the article I mentioned something about songs which make you fly or dream. Well… when you will listen to this album, you'll discover the fact that you don't have one or two songs of this kind here, but an entire collection. And you don't know the reason. Maybe it's just Biolay's voice, warm, tender, soft and seductive at the same time. Maybe it's those hypnotic, slow instrumentals that I cannot describe without feeling I rip them into pieces and ruin all their beauty. Maybe the female voices (Gesa Hansen on La superbe, Jeanne Cherhal on Tout ça me tourmente, Valérie Donzelli on 15 août and Alka on Lyon presqu'île). Maybe the lyrics written in Spanish (sang by Frederico Schindler) from Buenos Aires. Maybe it's you and your dreams. Or maybe… it's everything all together. You simply cannot put your feelings into words, one must hear to understand.

All can I say at the end is that the album title is more than deserved.

*photo courtesy of Banjamin Biolay official site

I'm A Weirdo

I mean… these are weird, man.


1. The Cure, Lullaby (1989)

I don't think any of you would like to wake up covered in web and sweat, and see a strange creature in the corner of the bed with black eyelids and messy hair. And discover afterwards that you have a few more limbs than you should. And to live this nightmare over and over and over again.


2. Klaxons, Magick (2006)

Now, kids, what have we learn today? You shouldn't ever stand in front of a wall writing things on it when you have Jamie and James right behind you. That, if you don't want to end up with your eyes covered, your hands tied and a strange fluid substance flowing on your cheeks. Got it?


3. MGMT, Time to Pretend (2008)

Just Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser pretending to be members of a tribe, hunting some cartoon animals, riding on cats and stuff. And the nice thing is that it starts very normal, with them on a beach, dancing around a fire with some more people. I guess nothing is what it seems to be.


4. Nine Inch Nails, Closer (1994)

Bugs, pieces of meat, a beating heart on a chair, a naked lady with a cross on her face, Trent Reznor in chains, a crucified monkey, a pig head with an apple in its mouth, Trent Reznor with an apple in his mouth... Translation: one of the cutest, brightest and uncontroversial videos you've seen in your life. Some scenes had to be cut so the video could be aired (including the monkey scene).


5. Tool, Prison Sex (1993)

It's almost painful to watch due to the implications. A broken doll, without legs, is imprisoned in a strange place and tortured by another doll, almost ripped to pieces, but never destroyed. The images are very violent, suggesting child abuse – so of course MTV banned it.

When We Were Young

A long time ago (somewhere around 1994), I was watching a French soap-opera on TV (the name is irrelevant). You might wonder what the hell does that has to do with the main subject of this blog. Well, the fact itself has no relevance. The idea is that before the show there were broadcasted a few music videos, every day the same ones. And one of them was Björk's Human Behaviour.

As I didn't know a single English word at that time, for me this song was the-video-with-that-cute-girl-and-with-that-bad-teddy-bear. No, seriously, I hated that bear, and every time I was hoping that the girl will somehow escape. However, there was something more, something that kept me glues to the TV screen. Her voice and the way she sang, with those ups and downs, the bizarre instrumental, the impression that she was saying something very complicated and very simple at the same time. And I remember that at least once the soap-opera started earlier than usual, and the video was cut short – which somehow annoyed me.

Now, as I am a big girl, I know what Björk wanted to say in that song, but… Even now, when I listen to it, I cannot help but think at that little girl who hated the teddy bear rather than meditate to the complexity of the human behaviour.

Sympathy For The Devil

Simple. Some songs that mention the one down there.

1. Biffy Clyro - God&Satan

Simon Neil says he speaks to both of them. So, is the conversation something like 'Simon, would you please tell Satan I'm still not talking to him cause he like disobeyed me’, ‘Simon, please tell God to leave that soul alone, cause like it’s mine?’

2. Future of the Left - You Need Satan More Than He Needs You

Especially if you're a sad 14 year-old who wants to scare some old and really religious ladies.

3. Sonic Youth - Satan Is Boring

On the other hand, I heard God will be going to the NY Public Library to see Lou Reed, Moe Tucker and Doug Yule talking about The Velvet Underground. How cool is that?

4. Morrissey - Satan Rejected My Soul

Yeah, Satan rejected your soul because you're too cool for Hell.

5. Beck - Satan Gave Me A Taco

True story apparently.

6. Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan

Smart boys the guys from Mogwai.

7. Teenage Fanclub – Satan

It actually features Satan on guitar.

(As it happens, some of us get sick. In this case, yours truly which means that you shouldn't expect reviews or any serious articles written by me anytime soon. A high fever usually affects one's capability of concentration and creativity. )

Reality Might Kill You

Okay, so bad boy Robbie Williams released a new album. I must recognize he's not one of the artists I listen to every day, but hell, he had some great songs in the past, so why not? The fact that this album was presented as "the fabulous comeback yadayada" was another reason to make me want to listen to it, even if my mind was whispering to me that usually "fabulous comeback" equals crap. "Shut the hell up, we'll see!"

The title is very interesting: Reality Killed the Video Star (of course it's inspired by Video Killed the Radio Star, which is a song I truly like, and it's certainly more inspired than the first title, Il Protagonista). Morning Sun, the first track, is pure love, the piano line is just great, so it doesn't really matter that it reminds you (strongly) of Elton John. And… now I guess I should say something about the other tracks too? Ummm. Well there are some slow songs and some songs you can dance to, and… that's pretty much all I can say about this.

Don't get me wrong, the album is actually quite enjoyable (especially the slow tracks) and Robbie's voice is great as always. However, there's not too much out there to make you jump off your seat or close your eyes and think "Oh my God, how could he write such an amazing piece?" No, you won't find anything similar to She's the One, or Feel. And certainly nothing that'll make this album a "fabulous comeback". I guess the assumption that "fabulous comeback" is usually a synonym for "No, it's not that great, but maybe if I'll go and tell anyone it is wonderful they'll believe me" is proven to be correct.

However, I still love Morning Sun.

*photo courtesy of Robbie Williams official site

Primary Colours

They kinda sound like Echo and The Bunnymen, they look really cool in those black outfits and they lights used in the video are a very nice effect. Nothing more, nothing less. Ladies and gents, this it Running Away by Goldhawks.

'Head down to the town to get on this puscifer!'

Maynard James Keenan. When hearing his name, some older people’s thought flies simply to Tool, while the younger bunch’s towards A Perfect Circle or Puscifer. I consider Mr. Keenan to be that kind of people – packed with a tone of talent. Like Trent Reznor. That can’t simply display their imagination through a single band. They need a couple projects and countless albums. And like Johnny Depp at looks, this case in musical value, they are like the wine – better in time!

Tool was and most likely is a brick in the international pyramid of musical valor. If Tool was strength, A Perfect Circle was pure boldness. With a clear objective to surprise the audience and people to experience more of its work at a completely new approach, Maynard then emerges in 2003 with Puscifer and a song called Rev 22:20 on an entirely cool soundtrack of a rather cool movie called Underworld. The song stood out clearly marking the bloody, dark revolution that the movie aimed to be for the fantasy genre. The second part of the installment was granted with another center piece for its soundtrack, The Undertaker (Renholder Mix). After V is for vagina, the debut album from 2007, this end of year Maynard throws and hits (and it hurts so well) us with C is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here) – long but mad funny.


This EP is magical. This girl (me) adores it. Polar Bear is a good teasing of a foreplay. Its composition, voice and negative flows and scratches in the speakers in such a suave manner. The Mission is the It thing without a doubt. I’m a fan of Milla the actress and now the singer, here the lady proving to be perfect for the chorus of this masterpiece song. Never ever like Maynard, has anybody asked “What do you know?” in such a fine and horrifying way. The high and low timbre alternation of voice for the sentence is what I call pure fantasy land to my ears. The sedated pace of the tracks continues boldly with Momma Sed and this “momma” said wisely: “where the light don’t shine, son/ take it like a man”. Here the guitar is the queen and the drumming is its consort prince. Vagina Mine, a live performance like the previous track, sways and enchants with its loveliness, especially lyrical: “This vagina mine teach ya patient diligence/Keep the chain-gangs waiting, make a cat-bird sing”. And with a chorus full of intelligent sounds and the drums as queens this time, the track is brilliant.

And still, I am not bored. Potions Deliverance fastens the pace a bit and presents one of the finest mixes that together with Maynard’s voice can co-exist. It’s not stellar but not mediocre at all. The final track The Humbling River is the ultimate ballad and lyrical chanting. It excellently concludes the EP, bringing the closure to the magical/ fantasy feeling of this entire musical material.

Another album just for the connoisseurs, this is an album with class. Maynard doesn’t just shine (again), he simply reigns. I have found the album that I can say, with hand on heart, that it educates top to bottom. This is indeed music, with the heavenly M.

I'm Medicated, How Are You?

Danger. Addiction.


1. Blur, Beetlebum
Blur (1997)

The song's title seems to be a reference to "chasing the beetle" which means to inhale the smoke from heated heroin that has been placed on a piece of tin-foil. Lyrics are strongly related to drug abuse ("Beetlebum, get nothing done, you beetlebum, just get numb") and sex. It is believed by many that the lyrics are about heroine experiences lead singer Damon Albarn shared with his former girlfriend, Justine Frischmann (ex-Elastica).


2. IAMX, Nightlife
The Alternative (2006)

The drug use is presented here as being part of the nightlife, some kind of a mysterious and daring element that keeps you alive and helps you to see the truth. However, this (somehow) positive approach is attenuated by the phrase "I want to know how to survive in the nightlife", which implies the idea that things aren't actually what they seem to be.


3. Jesus and Mary Chain, Some Candy Talking
Psychocandy (1987)

At first sight, it seems that the lyrics are about heroin use, but lead singer Jim Reid denied that, telling it is just a misunderstanding. Hm, let's see.
"I'm going down to the place tonight
To see if I can get a taste tonight
A taste of something warm and sweet
That shivers your bones and rises to your heat"
No, this has nothing to do with drugs. Right.


4. Nick Drake, Been Smoking Too Long
Time of No Reply (1987)

This is not just about drug abuse, is more about the feeling one has after the drug effects end and he's again all alone with himself. Drug is seen as a shelter, but the hero knows that this shelter is only temporary, and he'll eventually have to face reality again. It's a very pessimistic song; the way Drake sings it makes it even darker. Don't try this when you're too depressed, it might have very negative effects.


5. Placebo, Special K
Black Market Music (2000)

"It's comparing the rush with falling head over heels in love or being infatuated with someone and coming upon controlled substances of any kind." says Brian Molko about this song. This parallel between ketamine and love got the single banned in UK; however, it remained one of the most famous Placebo songs to date. It's such a strong piece, that even the pa-dam-pam-pam-padadadam thing becomes pure perfection.


6. Queens of the Stone Age, Feel Good Hit of the Summer
Rated R (2000)

"Nicotine, valium, vicodine, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol… Co-co-co-co-co-cocaine" – now that speaks for itself I'd say. The band managed to convince their record label to let them include this song on the album, saying that it doesn't actually have references to drug use. Americans didn't buy that one and the song hasn't been released as a single in the US.


7. Suede, Heroine
Dog Man Star (1994)

This one is even more interesting and poetic than Special K. At the first listening, it seems that it's nothing more than another obsessive love song, but Anderson & co go farther away than that. A double addiction, to the loved one and to the drug, is suggested not only lyrically ("I'm aching to see my heroine"... "I'm with her and nobody knows") but also through the title (heroine, which is very close to heroin).


8. The Velvet Underground, Heroin
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

The band had been accused of glorifying drug abuse on this track. However, the song is actually descriptive rather than glorifying; lyrics are written from a junkie's point of view, presenting the feelings he has every time he uses the drug ("Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life"). Not only journalists misunderstood the meaning of this song. Lou Reed was hesitant to play it live due to fans that were coming at him and saying they "shot up" while they were listening to Heroin.

Please, Please, Please

Well, hello, Monsters Of Folk! Are people skating in your new video? And are M. Ward, Mike Mogis and Jim James dressed-up like WWII soldiers ? And is that Conor Oberst playing guitar in a beginning-of-the-century-southern-town outfit? And I who thought Patrick Wolf had weird videos.

You'll Hear About These Guys Again

A band formed of three musicians who happen to be part of three of your favourite bands is quite certainly a success… or a complete failure. Some of you who read this blog often will probably remember I have already said that in a previous post, so I will not insist on it. Let's talk about what makes me say it again instead.

The subject is a band, called Them Crooked Vultures. The members are three young debutants on the music scene: Josh Homme on vocals and guitar (known as the singer of the obscure band Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl on drums (he also drummed for Nirvana and sang in Foo Fighters, if you ever heard about them) and John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards (a former member of a rather unknown English rock band called Led Zeppelin).

Now, after we smiled a little bit, let's be serious. Not only these guys started to sing together (which is great and beautiful enough) they actually decided to record an album, called (fairly enough) Them Crooked Vultures. It has thirteen tracks, and two of them had already been released as singles, namingly Mind Eraser No Chaser and New Fang. Very Queens of the Stone Age like – and this impression is given not only by Homme's voice, but also by the instrumentals, mostly. You get the same refreshing, kick-your-ass-baby feeling you have when you listen to a QotSA album. Powerful guitar riffs and some drums lines which invade your ears and your brain, making you want to shake your head until your neck will break.

And, of course, due to Jones' presence, we have also some Led Zeppelin moments mixed in the whole thing, the most noticeable ones being Reptiles and Elephants. One of the most interesting tracks is Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up, and please don't think it's just because of the title. It's very long and it has a very, very elaborated instrumental (which brings us back to good-old-Led-Zeppelin days again).

If you expect to hear something new, then… better don't. Them Crooked Vultures don't try to make something innovative or to enlarge their (or our) musical perspective. They do what they know and they do it good. That should be enough.

*photo courtesy of Them Crooked Vultures official site

Commercial Breakdown

Back in 2007, probably fueled by Klaxons’ success, there was an invasion of ‘Rock taking over the dancefloor’ cd stickers. This was, of course, no news. It was just some people pointing out something going on since the Hacienda days. Or, if you have the combo ‘cowbells, triangles and neon skinny jeans’, LCD Soundsystem and the whole DFA label. The Sunshine Underground didn’t escape this tag. Cowbells, triangles, neon skinny jean (worn by the audience, not the band, they’re a bit chavish actually) and a certain love for Summer of Love ’89 were of help.

Today (actually the new EP came out on the 3^rd of November, but you get it), The Sunshine Underground offer us what should be a more mature studio effort. We wouldn’t want our public to wear neon skinny pants forever. The EP, which is titled Everything, Right Now, features the first single off their upcoming album and four non-album tracks.

The first song, Coming To Save You aka the single, sounds like the future hit of 2010. It’s just as catchy as the band’s debut album, it features an incredible riff and some epic keyboards. What’s interesting is that none of the other songs sound like a classic b-side, meaning something that was ok but not really so it didn’t make the album. Dark Days is groovy and sexy, Animals sounds a bit like Kasabian back on their debut, Everything Right Now (Sounds Of Sirens) sets off as a monster electro rock piece with a lovely web of feedbacks, while Standby For Nothing is slow-paced and has some incredibly grand drums.

There is but one thing that comes to mind after hearing this EP: God, these are non-album songs and they kick ass, maybe the album will turn out to be an instant classic. All the songs actually sound fresh and like something that hasn’t been done (in ages), while you do know that’s maybe now the case. So, 2010, new album,we’re waiting for you.

Just Listen

Biffy Clyro's new (and fifth) studio album, Only Revolutions, came out yesterday. If the title sounds familiar to you, then yes, you got it right – it is inspired by Mark Z. Danielewski's novel with the same name. Regarding this, bassist James Johnstone said "A lot of it is about trying to take arguments from somebody else point of view and be able to see two sides of the picture".

Now, I'm not so good at hidden meanings, but I know a nice song when I hear it – and that was the case with The Captain, That Golden Rule and Mountains, the first three singles on this album, let's call them "the prelude", if you'd like. However, they're not enough for you to make a clear idea about this album as a whole. Actually, not even a first listening is enough. After you listen to it, you remain with just one idea: "God, it was crazy!" You just start to listen to it again, to try and decompose the sound into the most elementary parts, to try and listen to the lyrics as carefully as you can. Before you realise it, it's all over again. And you're addicted at least to one of these twelve tracks.

Instrumentally, the album experiments a lot. You'll have the chance to pass from melodic, acoustic tunes to things more sophisticated and elaborated (at a certain point, you'll hear even a synth out there). This is mostly responsible for the chaotic feelings you have after you hear it for the first time. From this point of view, Johnstone's remark suits just fine. Two sides of the picture. Or, as they say on God and Satan: "I talk to God as much as I talk to Satan, because I want to hear both sides". And that's exactly what the guys do on each and every song.

Now stop reading this review and go and hear it for yourself.

*photo courtesy of Biffy Clyro official site

New Album, Please.

Seven bands whose follow-up albums are long overdue

Really, self-explanatory

1. The Strokes

Remember 2005? Doesn’t it just seem like ages ago? Well, it is! Enough with the break. Sure, each year, after each new solo project of a member or another, they tell us the follow-up to First Impression of Earth is on its way. By now, we somehow don’t believe them anymore.

2. Klaxons

This is typical for a bunch of jokers like these one. Create a scene, kill it. Tell us your sophomore is ready, tell us the label is unhappy with it and you’re re-recording it. Take a trip to Ibiza instead of actually working on the album. I see you, Jamie.

3. These New Puritans

Brilliant debut in 2008, outstanding lack of information on these Southenders afterwards. Last week, they announced the tracklist for the second album. It also seems they were able to do what other have been struggling for year: get a release date, the 25^th of January 2010

4. System Of A Down

We bet they are true role models for The Strokes. It’s pretty much uncertain whether they still are together or if a new album will ever come out. All we know is that they still love each other and that the thing that’s going on right now is a hiatus.

5. Justice

Like Klaxons, they are one of the most overhyped acts of 06/07 (this doesn’t mean that they aren’t one hell of a band). Like Klaxons, their debut † was listed amongst the 1001 albums you have to hear before you die. Like Klaxons, they enjoy playing with our feeling and not taking out that sophomore album already.

6. Interpol

One can anticipate a Strokes-like situation here. Paul Banks already has a solo project (Julian Plenti) which he has to promote endlessly, their latest album, Our Love To Admire, came out three years ago and our waiting for a follow-up will probably last 213098 years

7. The Rapture

Here’s the thing: if this lot doesn’t take out an album soon, I myself will put together a band that uses cowbells and triangles like they do. And now that Matt Safer left the band, you can bet everyone is curious how the band will sound.

You're A Crocodile, I'm An Alligator

Being a Londoner has its perks. Any band will play there, the music scene is ace, you have four H&Ms on Oxford Street etc etc. Now we can add a new thing to the list: Hatcham Social took out an exquisite new disc, Sidewalk EP, as a vinyl. Wait, there’s more. There are only 100 copies to be sold in London each with a different artwork done by fans, members of the band and fellow bands (yes, the name ‘The Horrors’ pops up at about this time).

The title song is by no means a new one: it was featured on Hatcham Social’s debut You Dig the Tunnel, I’ll Hide the Soil. Those passionate of the London Scene should know it by now: a shoegaze-titled bass-driven gem. As I was saying, this is an EP so there are some more songs on it, five to be more precise. There’s the Echo&The Bunnymen-scented Wild Creatures, the 60s pop-tastic King Kong, a Josef K-infused lo-fi cover after Beach Boys’ Surfin’ Safari (a great rendition of a mediocre track, if you ask me). We also get two remixes, both as haunting as the originals: one for Hypnotise Terrible Eyes (that isn’t really all that different, just has some added woho’s) and a borderline industrial rework of the title song done by.. here we go… Horrors’ very own Tom Furse.

So I guess that all that’s left to do is to either move to London or order this EP off the Rough Trade site. If there are any left.

Lucid Dreams

If you don’t know Camera Obscura’s music, you are such a fool. If you do, you know the title is a perfect description of this over four minutes piece of sheer wonder. And you also should know it by now, as The Sweetest Thing is taken of their exquisite April release, My Maudlin Career. In a perfect world, we’d all know this and I’d end my review here. But, sadly, Camera Obscura are somewhat of a underrated band, if not among music journalists, then among listeners. So this is for the many, many fools amongst us.

Like most of their songs, The Sweetest Thing captures effortlessly 60s girls groups pop: Tracyanne Campbell’s kind of blaze and, yes, adorable vocals, the drums that make your heart pound, the sugary keyboards. Hell, the entire song, every note, every chord shift is not recommended for people with diabetes. And that chorus (“When you’re lucid/You’re the sweetest thing/I would trade my mother to hear you sing”) is so pure genius and so heart melting you know you would trade you mother to hear this playing endlessly

The Never-Played Symphonies

I love The Smiths. Strangely enough, I've never been so interested in Morrissey. Yeah, I know, that's kind of a blasphemy for a person who pretends to be a Smiths fan. The release of his compilation, Swords, gave me the chance to listen a few of his not so well known songs. I said "not so well", because Swords is a compilation made entirely of B-sides, but die-hard fans should know about them.

The collection features eighteen tracks that can be found on Morrissey's singles from his last three albums, You Are the Quarry, Ringleader of the Tormentors and Years of Refusal. As every compilation, it has some ups and downs (I guess it's inevitable, even if we talk about Morrissey). The good news is that there are more ups than downs. Even if you might feel the urge to push "next" when you hear Sweetie Pie (ok, it's slow, it's sad, we know you're broken, but sometimes too much "ahaaaa" can ruin a song), you cannot help but smile when you listen to Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice. "Don't make fun of Daddy's voice because he can't help it, when he was a teenage boy something got stuck in his throat" – now can anyone be more (auto)ironical than that?

At certain points, it is confirmed that sometimes B-sides can be at least as (or maybe even more) good than singles – Teenage Dad on His Estate and Children on Pieces are only two examples; let's not forget Friday Mourning which is a very powerful piece, lyrically as well as instrumentally. Speaking about instrumentals, my favourite from this point of view is My Life is a Succession of People Saying Goodbye, due to its piano line. Count in the cover made after David Bowie, and you'll came to the same conclusion I did: this compilation is a really nice one. Morrissey's music will probably never reach the brilliancy of The Smiths, but what the hell, if you don't like him, don't look at him!

*photo courtesy of Morrissey official MySpace

Hymn

There are times at which music starts playing a different role than the one all of us usually know. There's a certain thin line between the relaxing, uplifting type of music, that we listen to only in order to forget about our mostly boring daily routine, and the pure sounds belonging to the music that doesn't simply stop at diverting us, but in fact manages to deepen our life experiences. A normal, happy guy would have mentioned just around here the name of U2. I won't.

Obviously, Brett Anderson isn't anymore the skinny, pointed face, sexually uncertain individual that years ago was indirectly begging the media for attention, through his excentric appearences. The change has been proved by his first solo release, and strengthened with Wilderness, last year. Those carefully planned orchestrations that made out of Suede the famous group that they were in the 90's, they gradually disappeared in his solo career. So comes that on Wilderness you can actually hear a certain noise in the recording room, before the piano and the violin, as single instruments, start constructing the track. With that in mind, the expectations for the next material were approaching to 'almost nothing coming out of the speakers, except maybe his breath'.
But Slow Attack only preserved the previous features, adding to them a drop of understanding. The radical sentences, pronounced for example in A different place, disappeared completely, being replaced with simple, epic descriptions of facts. One could say that, at some point in the year that passed between his latest releases, Anderson lost his rebel feelings and started to adjust himself to the fixed situations around him. Even so, there is still something to his music, so that, no matter how sad or depressing may seem at a first listening, will never get the listener deeper into these kind of feelings. The only thing his music deepens is the actual sensation of life, with its goods and bads. And that is what music, in general, should be all about.
Slow Attack isn't the kind of album for which you can make a track-by-track review, as it's more of a compact collection of songs. Of course, you can put yourself bits like The Hunted or Frozen roads in the cd player and wonder how a man can sing about these things in a way so natural that would make Bono choose a living in the mountains, but the full effect can be achieved only by playing all of the 11 tracks: life, at a lower speed, in order to give you the perfect occasion to analyse it.

To all Jonas Brothers fans out there, it's a good thing to realise that there is no greater proof of truthfulness in matters of music than giving a chance to the 'grandfathers'. You can ultimately do that by supporting Brett Anderson's slow attack. Literally.


"Slow Attack", Brett Anderson, BA Songs, 2009
*photo courtesy of brettanderson.co.uk.

What Else?

Table Manners – East Is The New West

Minimalist post-punk via London. And when we say ‘minimalist’, we mean these lads have been listening to too much Einstürzende Neubauten and bottled it all up in one track. A haunting, really addictive track. Probably one of the few times a band can get away with having a French accent.

Suicide Party – Paranoid

Your typical uber cool band: from their leather jackets to their shades to their music. Paranoid, a four minutes gem, oozes that Sonics meets Cramps meets Fuzztones vibe that’ll make anything else sound… get ready for it…lame. The riffs are mighty raw, the voice is pure rockabilly. From what we’ve heard, these British boys are famed for their live performances and when we think of how Paranoid sounds on record, we can but pray we’ll get to see them on stage.

Echoes

I think it’s only fair that we should get something out of the way: post-punk bands are always going to be influenced by Joy Division. Even more so if they come from Eastern Europe (as someone who lives here and is aware of some bits and pieces of eastern indie, I can say it as a fact). Yes, they are all sucking on the corpse of Ian Curtis and they are all trying to reach the other three while their blood is still warm. And even if this is not a stated influence, some cunning music journalist/blogger/fanatic will say there is a bit of the four Manchurians’ music hidden somewhere in the instrumental.

Motorama came from southern Russia (Roston-on-Dov for those of you who are huge nerds and need to know the exact place) and play post-punk. Traditional post-punk. By saying this, I can actually end my presentation of this band and invite you all to visit their official Myspace/site. Alas, I feel obliged to continue and mention the exact Joy Division period. For Motorama’s major inspiration comes from early Joy Division, when the music was not suffocating and it incorporated danceable bass lines and drum patterns combined with echoing vocals.

Now, I know you might think that maybe I just see this Joy Division influence because, like most music journalists/bloggers, this is all I can think of. So this is when I invite you to listen to the four Russians music and try to ignore the vocals, which sound exactly like Curtis’s voice. So all that’s really left is to keep our fingers crossed they will get big enough to tour outside Mother Russia.

I should also point out that you’ll be able to find many songs to download on their official site, including early demos and a live version of their song Somersault (the lead singer, Vladislav, sounds even more like the ghost of Curtis). The English accent seems perfect so this gets them extra points (rarely do Eastern European bands have a good accent and I fail to see why as I know plenty of Eastern Europeans who have great English accents).