Bright Eyes - I'm wide awake it's morning

Lenny's songs of the year in no particular order, unless you call alphabetical an order...

Black Cab - Church in Berlin, Boxer Rebellion - Flashing Red Light, The Decemberists - won't want for love, Doves - Jetstream, Florence and the Machine - Dog Days are Over, Julian Plenti - Only if you run, The Maccabees - Love you better, The Middle East - The Darkest side, Mumford & Sons - Sigh no more/Little Lion Man, Owl City - Hello Seattle, Paul Dempsey - Ramona Was a Waitress, Pearl Jam - Got Some, Phoenix - Liztomania, Silversun Pickups - No Secrets this year, Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

The Xx - Xx

They Might be Giants - Flood

White Rabbits - It's Frightening

Puscifier - V is for Vagina

Pulp - Different Class

Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music from the Penguin Cafe

Okkervill River - Down the River of Golden Dreams

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

New York Dolls - New York Dolls

The New Amsterdams - Killed or Cured

Karnivool - Sound Awake

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimist

Dungen - Ta Det Lungt

Bloody Beetroots - Rombomania

Alberta Cross - Broken Side of time

Peter Bjorn & John - Living Things

The Pink Spiders - Teenage Graffitti

The Psychedelic Furs - All of this and nothing

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Patti Smith - Horses

Bob Dylan - Desire

Bob Dylan - Desire

Bob Dylan - Hard Rain

Bob Dylan - Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Bob Dylan - Dylan

Major Lazer - Guns don't kill people..Lazers do

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

Phideaux - Fiendish

Royksopp - Junior

The Police - Ghost in the Machine

Basement Jaxx - Scars

SparkleHorse - Dark night of the soul

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

Brian Eno - Music for Airports

Mono - Formica Blues

Passion Pit - Manners

Shiny Toy Guns - Girls Le disco

Temper Trap - Conditions

Drones - Havilah

Sia - Some people have real problems

Kate Miller-Heidke - Curiouser

Bertie Blackman - secrets and lies

Sneakey Sound System - 2

Ladyhakwe - Ladyhawke

Eskimo Joe - Inshalla

Josh Pyke - Memories and Dust

Pete Murray - Summer at Eureka

Dappled Cities - Zounds

AC/DC - Black Ice

Monster of Folk - Monsters of Folk

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

The Libertines - Up the Bracket

Seaworthy - 1897

Philip Glass - 1000 airplanes on the roof

White Lies - To lose my life

Gillian Welch - Time ( The Revelator )

Broken Social scene presents Brendan Canning - Something for all of us

Coldplay - a rush of blood to the head

Rufus Wainwright - Release the Stars

The Seas and Cake - Oui

Phillip Glass - Music in twelve parts

The Velvet Underground - Loaded

Stephanie Pompougnac - Living on the Edge

Europe - Last Look at Eden

I bet you did not know that Europe have released 8 albums. And i'll double the bet and say that i bet you have not heard one other Europe song that their 'one hit wonder' Final Countdown . Well either had i until i decided to check out this 2009 release Last Look at Eden Listening to it you realise the thin line between making it big and being consigned to the scrap heap of garbage that never gets played on the radio. If triple J played some of these songs and said that it was some new american 80's nostalgia band the kids today would love it. In truth some of these songs sound more like early 2000's songs from bands such as audioslave or velvet revolver, songs built around big power riffs, and cheesy lyrics. In fact the lyrics are so cheesy that it's really the big give away. "Can't recall what set it off, Just how it started, Or how to make it stop, Why is enough never enough
I'm wide awake, We've got lift-off". That's pure gold.

Labradford - Labradford

Fugazi - In on the Kill Taker

Fridge - Happiness

there's an old saying "patience is a virtue, possess it while you can, often in a woman, never in a man" or some variant of that. It's true for me. I am the least patient person i know. I never line up for things, i can't stand waiting for other people and i'd rather go without something that i wanted than waste a second of time waiting for it. Sometimes it's mood dependent, i'm more likely to be impatient if i'm in a terrible mood already. And generally i like to make some form of audible scene in order for other around me to realise just how impatient i am. You know, like a huge sigh, or guffaw, or a muffled "COME ON"! through grtiied teeth. or alternatively a physical sign, like clenched fists, or wide open eyes or throwing something to the ground in anger. The point is fridge have hidden some absolutely gems in between long periods of.., well.., noise. The titles of the tracks should be a warning; Tone guitar and drum noise, drum machine and glockenspiel, sample and clicks they are basically what they say they are, musical pieces created with these instruments or though whether they are in fact "musical" is debateable. There is no question though that amongst it all Five Four Child Voices is a standout track and a few other moments of joy make you twonder whether it's worth sitting through the rest of it to get to. for me it's not.

Coastal - Halfway to you

Phillip Glass - Glassworks

Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky

Poison - Flesh & Blood

Regina Specktor - Far

Brad Meldhau - The Art of the Trio

Elefant - Sunlight makes me paranoid

REM - New Adventures in Hi-fi

a strange beast this REM album. following a run of hits including 1992's smash hit automatic for the people but more importantly 94's faux-concept album and less widely recieved monster REM were at a crossroads of world domination or alienation of a facile and fleeting public. This album, whilst truer to their signature sound than monsters' all distortion and noise, was probably still too left of field to appeal to the unconvinced out of time, atomatic.. hangers on. for their real fans it recalled previous sounds and memories, e-bow the letter is a modernised country leaver, bittersweet me a slowed down version of cant get there form here wake up bomb a sequel to popsong 89. As it turns out REM were to reveal ( pun intended ) that they weren't at the end of their creative road and still had something to offer both hardened fans and the great unwashed with later releases

Godspeed you Black Emperor - lift your skinny fists..

Paul Dempsey - Everything is True

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

The National - Alligator

Cat Power - You are Free

Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand

Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan The Great Lakes State

The Kinks - Arthur, or the decline and fall of the British Empire

Slowly but surely the lenster is catching up. you might notice a few empty posts in the previous months but that is purely because that particular album is still being digested and as you know i like to be thorough in my listening before bringing you my perfectly formed flowing prose. There's a few themes that have been forming over the past few months, the latest being concept albums. but i'm also attempting to make my way through the catalogues of some of the greats of music history, bowie, dylan, the beatles etc. if you have any more ideas of either albums i should be listening to or a range/style of music to look at drop me a line. if anyone is still reading, i thank you and i welcome your suggestions, comments and abuse.

The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society

the Knife - Silent Shout

what a surpise album. this came from nowhere and blew me away. The Knife have been around for a long time but i'd never really recognised that some of the music of theirs that i had heard actually belonged to them. if that makes any sense. what i am saying is that i'd heard knife songs, but the association was not there. This album from 2006 starts off with the cracking title track Silent Shout ( and the worlds scariest film clip ) and the delivers a bunch more electronic gems ranging from the dancy Like a Pen and Neverland to the ambient, blade runner esque The Captain, the intensity of Forest Families and the downright strange Na Na Na and Still light It's not for everyone but its a quirky spacious sound that more recent acts such as crystal castles have tried to emulate with limites success.

Marianne Faithful - Strange Weather

Muse - The Resistance

Pearl Jam - Backspacer

As a big pearl jam fan its always with trepidation that i approach a new album. I mean they didn't put a foot wrong up until 1998's Yield but since then its been a bit of a downward spiral. I mean there is good things to be said for the early naughties releases binaural and riot act but 2006's self titled album was just abysmal and hopes that this new release would be any better were low. perhaps though that is what has helped shaped my opinion of backspacer . coming in with such low expectations this album has surprised in the true fact that at first listen as much as i wanted to hate it i couldn't. i found myself enjoying these songs, from single 'the fixer' to the album closer 'the end.
there are elements of past albums here, while not hitting the originality of early albums ten and verses or the grittiness vitalogy, there are songs reminiscent of their experimentations on 1996's No code and the follow up Yield. the best songs are undoubtably those written by lead singer eddie vedder and guitarist mike mcready. the others while not weak still smack of 'filler' material.
the question remains should a band who have obviously peaked still continue to write music that is never going to come close to matching their best (eg. rolling stones, U2 ) this is not pearl jams best work. this is not even close but it is still enjoyable. the highlights, as mentioned before are the vedder tracks, Unthought known, speed of sound and the end.

The Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow

A Silver Mt Zion - He has left us alone...

This will destroy you - Young mountain

Yes, Yes, Yes. I guess i have a music type and this instrumental, post rock, ambient, experimental style is close to being my favourite. This will destroy you join a growing list of bands that succeed in producing this amazing powerful style of music. If the playbook was written by Mogwai and Godspeed you black emperor then it has been well read by TWDY and used to make a great album. And even if the plays seem simple enough; You've got an opening riff, add a juxtaposing harmony, build it up to a crescendo, unleash all hell, bring it back to the start. it's a real talent to do it well and create something that people will listen to. I mean when it gets to "11" it better be good otherwise its just a wall of offensive noise. That noise had better have come from somewhere and be there for a reason. Cant wait for more from these guys. listen to quiet at their myspace for an idea of what i'm talking about.

The Who - The Who Sell out

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

The Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (3)

Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (2)

Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (1)

Johnny Greenwood - There will be blood

Grand National - A drink & a quick decision

Ghosts - World is outside

Genesis - The Lamb lies down on broadway

Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

Four Tet - Rounds

Listening to Four Tet reminds me of two things. One, the audio galaxy days, and two the tedious tape loop projects we had to do back at uni. Four Tet was one of the first "artists" to provide 'legal' content on audio galaxy that didn't actually suck massive amounts. Most of the other legal stuff was uploaded by garage bands and/or mental patients and was excrutiatingly painful to listen to. When AG went the way of Napster and removed all their copyrighted material the only decent thing that remained was four tet. It's all instrumental electronica using a technique called tape looping. for those unfamiliar this involves stringing sections of pre-recorded audio tape together and playing them repetitively and/or in reverse at different speeds and pitches to create a beat or musical pattern. One of our first tasks in music 101 at uni was to create a song using this technique. And boy wasn't that fun. cutting tiny strips of magnetic tape and sticking them together in order to create 90 seconds of some of the worst "music" you've ever heard. I'm pretty sure mine ended up sounding like a cross between a kitten being hacked to death by a blind samurai and a giant redwood being fed into a victor lawn mower while the vienna boys choir sung the halleluiah chorus with a mouth full of yoghurt and marbles. Of course nowadays computers allow us to create similar sounds electronically so students of the future may not get the pleasure of learning this technique. Brian Eno would be spinning in his grave...wait..what do you mean he's not dead.
listen to this off second album Pause And for a modern example of tape looping look no further than radioheads like spinning plates

Placebo - Black Market Music

I'm a huge fan of Placebo's second album Without you i'm nothing I reckon it would sneak into my top 100 all time. Brian Molko has the sort of voice that you either like or loathe. there is no in between. it's certainly unique, and its special whinyness adds to the urgency and desperation of most of Placebo's songs. Molko seems to be protagonist in most of his lyrics and his subjects are love, loss, life, death and drugs not necessarily in that order. This is the "big hit" album with 3 singles "taste in men", "slave to the wage", "special k" and concert favourites "passive aggressive" and "black-eyed". But i still thinks it lacks the intensity and passion of the previous lesser embraced release.

Van Halen - 5150

It's hard not to smile/laugh when you listen to Van Halen. they are so ridiculously cheesy that's it's impossible not to get caught up in that head nodding feeling. I mean just listening to Sammy Hagar's opening "wooooaaaaaaah" on the album's opener Good Enough is enough to shake your head in amazement that this music was once 'cool'. Of course this was Hagar's first album with Van Halen after taking over from the irrepressible David Lee Roth. And he takes on the role well managing to start 7 of the 10 songs with a "wooaahh", "yeaaaaahh" or an "aaaaarhhhhh". Of course band founder, the modest Eddie Van Halen is still there making his guitar sing, or vomit, it's hard to tell some times. His Guitar skills are unquestionable, his use of distortion and delay and pedals, matched with his signature airy synth sounds of the keyboards. Amazing. There are some chestnut tracks, the Wide World of Sports friendly Dreams, The AC/DC meets Rolling stones Best of Both Worlds, and the power ballard love walks in and my persobal favourite and karaoke special Why can't this be love? Why can't everything just be as fun as a Van Halen album.

Pearl Jam - Ten (Redux)

When is a re-release of an album not a cynical ploy by music companies in order to make more money on a previously massive album whose sales have gradually fallen off but may be revived if the public are given the right nudge. such as "New tracks" or "new re-mixes" or "green cover instead of a red one". Is it ok when an artist dies to re-release their works? i mean it's really a public service making the artist's work available to the masses in shiny gold packing with the words "limited edition" and "special once only release". ( well you assume the artist cant die twice ) what about an anniversary of the release of an album? forty years is a long time, maybe people have forgotten the beatles existed? better re-release their albums so the public know that their music is still around. can you imagine if the didn't - customer: excuse me i'm after the beatles abbey road - shop owner: sorry sir that album is over forty years old. There is actually no more copies in existence and they burnt all the music and lyrics so no one can ever make those songs again. Have you heard Nickleback? I suppose twenty years is a long time two, although here's the kicker, this album was not released twenty years ago. The anniversary is 2011, but the record company is getting early. apparently they are starting now so that all pearl jam albums can be re-released by 2011, the 20 year anniversary of the band. Quite brilliant really. We need money now so lets get started on the whole 20 year anniversary so we can spread it out of the next 2 years. As for the album, is it different? well yes, the remix does make the album sound better. advances in engineering mean that an album recorded today has the benefit of 20 years of audio processing technology. but it was brilliant to begin with. the new mix has cleaned up some of the rough edges of the album. It sounds polished. which is the sound of today. the sound of 1991 was raw original Ten which shouldn't be tampered with. Eddie Vedder would be rolling in his grave....what...he's not...oh..

Norah Jones - Feels like home

My wife calls norah jones, borah jones. she's quite clever. but then again her attention span for music is about 2 minutes long. Generally she'll put a cd on in the car and bop along to the first verse and chorus of a song before calling out "boring" or "next" and skipping to the next track. She'll find this one equally as enjoyable for about 120 seconds before the enthusiasm will fade and we'll skip right on to the next track. when we reach the end of the cd we'll most likely go back to the least boring of the tracks and listen to that one again. needless to say i have to make a lot of CD's for her to keep her interested and me sane. So norah jones wouldn't make it past the 5 second mark if ever a song of hers dared to be on while my wife was in control of the cd player. My feelings are that she has an amazing voice, picks some great song writing partners and has surrounded herself with quality musicians. This album has more of a country feel than her debut and features writing credits for Adam Levy, Townes Van Sandt and Tom Waits amongst others as well as a duet with Dolly Parton. The best songs are the simplest, the ear candy of Sunrise, the bluesy be here to love me and the meandering the prettiest thing

The Meat Puppets - No strings attached

The Lemonheads - Lick

We all know about 90's Lemonheads. Evan Dando and a revolving door of band members had commercial success with songs such as "into your arms", "if i could talk i'd tell you" and of course their cover of "Mrs Robinson" which to this day is played regularly on at least 3 of sydney's 5 main radio stations. This is early lemonheads, punky, grungy late eighties lemonheads. Sounding like a cross between the Ramones, The Cure and early Nirvana. This is as far away from "Mrs Robinson" as you can imagine. A hastly put together album that actually screams "band problems" from the outset. There are two bands making this album, the one led by lead singer Evan Dando, and the one led my lead guitarist and singer Ben Deily. In fact it can't really be called an album so much as a collection of each artists songs, with the other reluctantly playing along. Deily left the band straight after this album was release, and Evan Dando went on to annoy the shit out of many more band mates over the next two decades.

Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti is...Skyscraper

For those of you not in the know Julian Plenti is a pseudonym of Paul Banks of Interpol fame. If you don't know who interpol is then the rest of what i'm going to say wont make much sense. I'm not going to analyse the whole 'side project' angle of this album to conclude whether it is paul banks who makes interpol or interpol who makes paul banks. Many will disagree but i think the first four songs off this album could be drawn straight from an interpol album. Only if you run, Fun that we have, skyscraper, and games for days all share similarities with that interpol sound. having said that i think only games for days is in the same class as an interpol song. The album fades a bit in the middle for mine but is salvaged by the most unique song on the album Fly as you might near the end. Don't get me wrong this album is son much better than most of the offal out there but when you're dealing with the lead singer of one of the best bands in the world your expectations are high. It's still on high rotation on my playlist.

Leadbelly -Easy Rider

Does it offend you, yeah? - You have no idea what you're getting yourself in to

In case you didn't already know, at the top of all blogspot pages ( this blogging site ) there is a tab that says "next blog" which apparently takes you to the next blog in a randomly organised list of all the blogs on the blogspot domain. Initially, and somewhat naively, i thought that all the blogs were arranged like rows of houses, so that my neighbouring blog would always be my neighbouring blog, so it was with some trepidation that i clicked on the "next blog" tab for the first time. I mean what if my neighbour was a white supremacist site, or cat murders of the world site, or worse still another album a day site? I have sinced realised that there is no "neighbourhood" in blogland and that clicking on the tab merely takes you to a random blog that changes each time you click. but the first time i clicked this is what came up. The ever reliable translation service Babel fish tells me that the name of the site in English is "Thickly without stupid on discovery route: One year New Zealand and other liquor ideas". From the pictures it appears to be a blog based on the travels of a young german girl who was living in NZ and is now travelling throughout the US..even without knowing what she is talking about it is completely fascinating and i'm a relying on my learned father to translate what is happening so i can fully understand this adventure. Anyway, it's a pity their is no neighbourhood in blogland because "Thickly without stupid" seems to be a very apt slogan for our street.

Aril Brikha - Deeparture

The Beatles - Let it Be

The Beatles - Abbey Road

The Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles - Help

The Beatles - A hard days night

Wolf & Cub - Science & Sorcery

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

Ah, the concept album, when's the last time you heard a really good one? Radiohead's OK Computer Sufjan's C'mon hear the Illinois Arcade Fire Funeral and Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral are the few i can think off from the last 10 years (and i refuse to acknowledge that Green Day's American Idiot is a concept album) I did a search for best concept album of all time and came up with Rolling Stone's list of the top 14 which i will make my way through over the next few months. Anyway as far as this one goes it's a beauty. It's got a folky medieval minstral vibe with some tea party style middle eastern sorcery and some queen crashing guitars mixed in. It's one of the few albums i've heard that follows a narrative the whole way through without straying too far from the imagery and artistry. The fact that some of the songs stand alone as great tracks is a big help too. Hazards of Love 1, Wont want for love and Hazards of love 2 are standouts. A truly great release for the fulfilling of the concept, and the quality of the songs that do it.

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Handsome Furs - Plague Park

Chicane - Far from the maddening crowd

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever ago

brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant,

Johnny Cash - The man comes around

This was an interesting cash album to pick i know, as it is an album of covers, but as i looked through cash' back catalogue ( of over 90 odd releases ) I realised that perhaps the "best of" triple CD of his i own( borrowed/stole ) was as much Johnny as i could take so thought i would give this one a go. Another reason is that i heard the cover of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt" recently and was absolutely blown away. ( yes, i realise it was released 7 years ago ) There is something about the frailty of Cash's voice, something honest, something that conveys pain, sorrow and hurt so eloquently. I'm not going to bother going into a history of all the pain in Johnny's life that gave him this colourful voice as i am not knowledgable enough and could not do it justice ( for a brief rundown try here ) or try steve turner's biography for a complete and precise account of his life. The covers on this album span many genres, as well at the NIN track, there's sting's murder ballad 'hung my head', depeche modes 'personal jesus', beatles 'in my life' and american classics 'we'll meet again', 'desperado' and 'bridge over troubled water'. As good a voice as Cash' is, it's also the arrangements of the songs that make this album extra special, with great acoustic reworkings of all the songs and some guests vocals from Nick Cave, Fiona Apple and Don Henley.

Bryan Ferry - Boys & Girls

Guilty pleasure number 2. I like Bryan Ferry. And who couldn't after listening to this brilliant first solo effort. Sure it's basically just ( previous release from former band Roxy Music ) Avalon rehashed, and sure most of the songs are just meandering empty vessels, but that's what i like about it so much. Not since Kokomo have i wanted so much to be lazing back on a Caribbean beach wearing a sarong and drinking out of a coconut. That's how this album makes me feel. It's relaxing, adult contemporary. Opener "sensation" could be ( and probably was ) the opening song in an 80's john hughes movie, "Slave to love" is hands down one of the best songs ever written, "don't stop the dance" is cheesy bowie style synth pop, "windswept" is an even cheesier, flamenco/spanish moody slow dancer, "valentine" is all rocky/rasta/funk, and title track and closer "boys and girls" is airy art rock goodness. couple all this with Ferry's brilliant voice and Mark Knopfler on guitar and you have a classic. well for me at least. And Dad, if you're thinking of putting on your "Best of Bryan Ferry" CD to reminisce, don't bother. I stole it many year ago.

REM - Accelerate

M.I.A - Kala

The Panics - Sleeps like a curse

Clap your hands say yeah - Some loud thunder

It's very rare that i have to turn off a song because the sound is so distorted and grating that my ears start to hurt. I'm used to distortion and grating. The fact that i have sat through many mogwai concerts is testement to this. The first song of this album though just does my head in. I dont know what they were thinking. I guarantee that no person of sound mind could have sat down and listened to that track and said. "yes, that's good, lets put it on the album. track 1, title track". Then again producer Dave Fridmann, responsible for many Flaming Lips releases, isn't of sound mind. And there are many 'Lips-esque moments on this record with frenzied barrages of sound invading every corner of tracks such as "Arm and Hammer". At some points it's like listening to David Byrne on acid, on acid. It's hard to like a lot of this album, probably because of the fact that it is so busy. Standouts "yankee go home" and "Satan said dance" are good but not good enough to carry this over the line.

Yo La Tengo - I can hear the heart beating as one

She Wants Revenge - She Wants Revenge

the album was a lastfm recommendation. "if you like interpol you'll like...." which normally doesn't mean much. It's usually just a wild stab in the dark based on lose genre associations of acts. "If you like Echo and the Bunnymen, you'll like...Creed" but in this instance if you weren't concentrating and clicked on one of their songs you'd swear that you were still listening to interpol.
Vocalist Justin Warfield has a ridiculously similar vocal to Paul Banks, albeit without the range, nor the nuance or tonal exaggeration that Banks possesses. The music shares similarities, especially in the opener Red Flags and LOng nights, but as the album progresses, the increased use of electronic beats and instruments starts to open the gap between these two acts and allows SWR their own identity. I much prefer interpol, the songs of SWR don't grab me the same way, they seem without energy, perhaps more in keeping with the early 80's sound of their hero's The Cure or the pure dissassociation of Warfields other vocal comparison - Joy Division's Ian Curtis. It keeps the album dark and moody, which is obvioulsy their aim but it also makes each song sound too similar too lifeless, and means that nothing stands out amongst the melancholy.

Jayhawks - Smile

Josh Ritter - Hello Starling

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatmans Call

New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom

Donavon Frankenreiter - Move by yourself

Lamb - Lamb

An album that i'm familiar with from years gone past, but downloaded with some trepidation as i know it contains one of my favourite songs of the past and that the rest of the album surely could not live up to that. Gorecki is one of those songs that calls up good memories and reminds you of a time in your past that inspired you, it may have been a time of trouble, or confusion but there was also a feeling of hope or change in the air, and at the time this song epitomised that feeling. It's hard to say why, it's a simple tune, a simple lyric, perhaps even cliched and way too grown up for the young voice of singer lou rhodes. But it was a stand out of its time and a stand out on this album. It's a familiar trip-hop formula, live and electronic beats, mashed up, with samples and tape loops, creating a backbeat to which a vocal track and simple melody are added. The only other tracks of note are the opener Lusty and the Portishead inspired Transfattyacid the rest just kill time until Gorecki comes and blows you away.

The Gossip - Music for Men

Decoder Ring - They Blind the Stars, And the Wild Team

Holy Freaking Shit! this album is good. it's a friggin work of art. to be absorbed not listened to. Much like their amazing Somersault Soundtrack this is an epic journey through a musical universe of distorted caressed guitars, strings, piano and percussion, of soaring highs and intimate lows, of exhilarating crescendos and torturously beautiful lulls. Decoder ring are Australias answer to Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and Explosions in the sky all rolled into one. Sorry for waxing lyrically about this but, i'm just so excited by this album that i'm ready to burst. This really just makes every other album i've listened to this year seem like a giant dog turd in comparison. I'm speechless. I am without speech

Dead Weather - Horehound

My apologies to Florence but i think i may have been too hasty naming 'Dog day' the "best 1st song from a debut album in 2009". Because if that award was given tomorrow then the opener off this album '60 Feet Tall' would win hands down. Not that you could really call this a debut in the full sense of the word. The Dead Weather are made up of none other than Jack White ( from a little band called the white stripes )Dean Ferita ( from another small band you may of heard of; Queens of the stone age ) Jack Lawrence ( from White's other side project 'The racontuers/sabotuers' ) and led by The Kills lead singer Alison Mosshart. Hardly a lack of experience there. But technically this is the first release from this band so i guess you have to call it a debut. There's always some trepidation with a collaboration like this, particularly as this is Jack White's second side project, there is a chance that the meeting of minds and ideas wont work to produce anything coherent or different from the norm, The opener i referred to is a bluesy rocker that puts such fears to rest. The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to that first track but there are other good moments that makes it worth the while.

The Boxer Rebellion - Union

The amount of good music that i seem to be stumbling across is actually astounding me. I suppose because after years of being on the front edge of music ( i.e actually going to see new bands play, buying cd's and reading music press ) i have spent the last 5 or so years in wilderness my only contact with music being the replaying of my favourite CD's and the occasional burst of FM radio. So i'd become very skeptical as to there being a lot of good music out there. Add the boxer rebellion to the shortlist for album of the year. Whilst this is an album with many obvious influences, Muse, The Editors, Kings of Leon, Placebo, the songs are all unique, catchy, enjoyable. The first 3 tracks are all high paced, textured and emotive, and when the tempo slows for tracks such as misplaced and silent movies the decrease in speed doesn't drop the intensity. It's a simple but expansive sound. Play, repeat, play, repeat.

Bob Evans - Goodnight Bull Creek

Architecture in Helsinki - Places like this

I had a strange confrontation the other day walking through pitt st mall. I was on my way back from nowhere in particular when i saw walking towards me a dishevelled man carrying a colourful square box. As we got closer to crossing paths i tried to figure out what it was that he was carrying. I finally figured out that it was the packaging for an Xbox360 console, a green white and orange striped motif kind of like a rainboe for irishmen. At the exact moment i figured this out the gentleman carrying the box looked at me and exulted "i didn't fucking steal it ya dickhead". and kept on walking past me. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked back at the man who had turned around to mutter some more words over his shoulder at me. I was speechless. I mean what do you say to that? should i have tried and explained that not for one second did i think, just because of his ragged clothing, that he had stolen the item he was carrying and that i was merely trying to work out what it was. And that i wasn;t trying to work out what is was purely so i could estimate the likelyhood of him possesing the item without some form of theft involved. And that really even if i was thinking that he stolen it, why did he chose me amongst the hundred other people he had passed to hurl his abuse at? So the moral of the story is don't look at people. and secondly if someone if so quick to be defensive about stealing something, they have either been accused one too many times, or they've stolen it.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

Soulwax - Much against everyone's advice

yeah, see earlier blogs about one song albums and times it by a thousand. I love the title track much against everyones advice but just dont see how the rest of this album fits around it. it's like those albums they release of fairly famous bands where they put one of their hits on the end of it so people who dont know their stuff will at least have something to listen to. i.e skip the first 10 songs to get to it. at least this is track 2 so you don't have to skip far. Ok i should cut them some slack, there are a few other decent tracks on the album, too many DJ's and when logics die And they are Belgian, and i like their chocloate but I dare you to listen to the whole album through. Sorry Soulwax, it's not you it's me.*





*it's you.

Whiskeytown - Faithless Street

Flaming Lips - Yoshimi battles the pink robot

William Orbit - My oracle lives uptown

Happy Mondays - Pill 'n' thrills and bellyaches

Lisa Mitchell - Wonder

back in the good old days of cassette tapes there used to be an interesting phenomenom known as the "cut off song" this was the song at the end of one side of the tape that got cut off half way through when the tape flipped over. the song would then return on the next side of the tape generally about 20 to 30 seconds later meaning that a fair portion of the song had been missed. i had this happen on so many of my cassettes that there were times when i heard a particular song on the radio i had no idea what it was because i had never heard that 30 second period of the song before. Then when listening to it on CD i'd be so used to the song cutting off at a particular time that i'd be prepearing for it and then shocked when it didn't actually occur. I mention this because one of the songs on this album just cuts off halfway through, and i'm not sure if it's supposed to be like that or if its a victim of the digital equivalent of "cut off song" phenomenom. It's actually quite annoying too because it's a brilliant song on an album of many brilliant songs, from this one time wannabee australian idol. Lisa Mitchell may end up being the most successful of any idol contestant (and no i don't count shannon noll or guy sebastian as successful ) because she's escaped the pre-determination and pigeon holing of a record label and her audience is far enough removed from the typical Aus idol fan that she can make an album of her own songs that doesn't have to cater to mainstream tastes. That's not to say this album is ground breaking in any sense, her voice is a mix between sarah blasko and new buffalo and her songs are layered in a silimar vein. But it's sweet, it's textured and it's damn fine to listen to. she also does a mean dire straits cover.

Portishead - Third

Why did Portishead wait 11 years between their second and third album? I mean they haven't exactly been out in the world experimenting with new sounds. And they're not the most outgoing people, notoriously camera and interview shy, so they haven't missed the fame. They've pretty much stuck to the formula that made their first two albums Dummy and Portishead so popular. But that was the 90's. is it still relevant today, can Portishead "do a" Portishead and pull it off? can i ask anymore stupid rhetorical questions? Anyway, if you liked the previous two albums, you'll love this. perhaps even more so as there is an added emphasis on the bass lines, and the introduction of some more synthesized sounds. "The Rip" could be the simplest yet finest song they have ever done. The sort of song that portishead and radiohead would have if they procreated and made little baby songs. "Hunter" and "plastic" follow the formula that made their first two albums so successful. And, well, if you're onto a winning formula, stick with it. if it works for nickelback...

Angus & Julia Stone - A book like this

These guys are so good they make me angry. Both talented musicians with amazing voices, multi-instrumental, good looks. Some people get all the luck/have the tenacity to work hard at something and not give in. I first saw them as a support act a few years back at the annandale hotel and was instantly hooked by Julia Stone's sweet, rolling, almost purring vocal. She has a strange sound, reminiscant of Catatonia's Cerys Matthews. What makes it even more strange is that Cerys is Welsh and Julia is as Aussie as Vegemite. But hey, whatever works. Most of these songs are soft and sweet, but it's not to say they are not still powerful. The musicianship is flawless, the vocals defined and determined, polished but emotionally raw. When Julia sings, nay pleads "Hold me, Hold me, tonight" on title track 'A book like this' only a lifeless, soul-less inhuman monster could not feel their heart strings being pulled.Amazing live performers as well their skill and passion translates well to the stage

Tom Petty - Wildflowers

Jose Gonzalez - Veneer

It's a chestnut statement but this is the album i wish i had made. And i say this for several reasons. Great guitar songs, simple vocals, a killer cover. It's quite rough, it's meandering in some stages, it's the sort of messing around on the guitar i used to do at home in my bedroom as an angst ridden teenager. The other thing is that i have no illusions about being able to sing, and neither does Jose Gonzalez. His is not a strong voice, there's not much too much range going on there, but it still conveys emotion, and rather than carrying the songs becomes one of the instruments. You'll probably recognise Heartbeats from a Sony commercial from a few years ago ( think it was the one with all the coloured balls bouncing down the street ) and i don't know whether its a help or a hinderance to a career to have something of that magnitude attached to your resume. Do people think of you as 'that guy with the song from the commercial' or do people remember you because you did 'that song for the commercial' believe it or not there is a difference. Anyway the album includes my new favourite cover of all time, just pipping foo fighters version of 'baker street'.

Red House Painters - Ocean Beach

Sarah Blasko - As day follows night

Sarah Blasko can do no wrong in my eyes. Sarah and i once crossed paths as we walked down a city street and she gave me a look that, although fleeting, said 'hey, whats up, you seem like kind of a cool guy, i know you recognise me, but you're acting cool and trying to pretend you don't, hey, thats fine with me, anyway, see you round'. a lot can be said with a fleeting glance. If sarah had've read my thoughts it would of gone something like this 'i think that's sarah blasko, oh my god it is. it is sarah blasko, oh shit, she just looked at me, look away, look AWAY!, run get out of here, jesus..'. I can sense several of the songs on this most recent album are about that chance meeting.I get the feeling sarah remembers that day as fondly as i do.

Josh Rouse - Country Mouse City House

funny story, first listen of this album was on my post work semi-comatose drive home. when the second song kicked in there was a certain familiarity that led me to the conclusion that i must've heard the song on a compilation album at some stage. but when i instantly recognised the tune to the third song i started to wonder, well surely both songs wouldn't have been on a compilation, how is it possible that this song sounds so familiar? i dont own any josh rouse albums do I?? where do i know these friggin songs from?? it was only when i checked my Ipod to see if it actually was a josh rouse album that i realised that the first song had been set on repeat, and my familiarity with the second and third songs was due to the fact that it was the first song being played again and again. I am officially a moron. here's another funny story

Triffids - Black Swan

Tim Buckley - Goodbye & Hello

I've been meaning to give tim buckley a serious listen for a long time. As a huge HUGE fan of son Jeff's music i thought i owed to the man who brought him into this world to have a listen to his own creations. I decided to start with his second album Goodbye & Hello released in 1967 and embracing the neo-folk style of the time, with lyrics touching on war, politics and relationships. It's a tough listen at times, a hard voice to get used to, part troubadour, part screaming banshee, reminiscint of Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick. It starts to grate after a while, as does the experimentations with a plethora of different instruments and background noises, often pushing past the vocals and just becoming plain annoying. I'm not dismissing it outright, it was an amazingly bold album to be released at that time, one of the early experimentations with psychedelic rock. It has lit a flame of interest and i will be checking out the rest of his work

Indochine - La Republique Des Meteors

Florence and the Machines - Lungs

I really think that the opening song on this album 'dog days are over' could be my favourite song of the year so far. Big call i know but i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say there will be none better in 09. Ok..maybe i'll change that slightly. You will not find a better opening song on a debut album for the rest of 09. The rest of the album is no dogs breakfast either. falling somewhere between sarah mclachlan, lou rhodes and Moya Brennan, Florence Welch's voice is brutally powerful and sublimely subtle at the same time, with kate bush/tori amos like flourishes she owns every song on the album and even if the backing music might become a bit samey Welch's vocals dominant to the point that the music is irrelevant. This is a brilliant vocal display and a definite contender for album of the year. ok..., contender for debut album of the year. and don't be surprised if it wins a grammy for best pop vocal next year.

Belle & Sebastian - Tiger Milk

A friend of mine once had a cat named sebastian. i thought it was an awesome if somewhat hilarious name for a cat. the cat was also deaf and we used to make jokes about it to my friend, who justifiably got upset whenever we did. I dont know why i thought making fun of a deaf cat was funny, i guess it just was. It was a cute cat though. anyway, i mention this because i think of that cat whenever i listen to belle & Sebastian. Their later albums were definetely more polished and stronger works but there is a pleasant simplicity to this their first release. Opener 'the state that i am in' is still probably my favourite B&S song. They're simple folky songs, think nick drake with a bit of sufjan and cat stevens.

Highway 61 revisited - Bob Dylan

Bringing it all back home - Bob Dylan

Another side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

The times they are a-changin - Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Sebadoh - Bake Sale

I've never (gulp) owned a sebadoh album. Although i was very much a fan of other lo-fi artists such as pavement, weezer, dinosaur jnr and yo la tengo, i never actually went out and bought a sebadoh album. I think it's because i was always put off by their album covers. They're by no means horrendous, but they just make me feel ill looking at them. I mean why is that baby looking in the toilet? has he just done a poo and now reaching in to touch it? worse, has someone else done a poo and he's reaching in to touch it. who puts a photo of their naked child on an album cover anyway? This is the album i should've owned, it's their most acclaimed and has most of the songs that i have heard or listened to when younger. It's also probably most in tune with the sound of Dinosaur Jnr, of which Sebadoh Bass player Lou Barlow was also a member. Songs like 'Not too amused' and 'Skull' showcase this perfectly. It's an album worth a listen, and good for reminiscing and at least now i don't have to look at the frigging baby on the cover whenever i want to play it.

La Roux - La Roux

This is going to sound really horrible. I liked La Roux more when i didn't know what La Roux looked like. Am i the most horrible person in the world or what? I mean it's not that she's hideously unattractive say beth ditto unattractive it's just that anyone who looks like ziggy stardust david bowie is bound to freak you out. I'm also wary of albums that get so much praise and are publicly heralded as album of the year seemingly before the reviewer has even heard the album. It seems that longer it goes the less appealing this album has become to reviewers as some of the more recent ones i have read have slammed the album as just another 80's synth pop rehash, with irritatingly repetitive vocals. perhaps those ealry reviewers are just so scared of missing the 'next big thing' that they'll happily jump on the bandwagon as a a safety measure. Anyway, it's all subjective and just as irrelevant as this blog is so let me leave you with the only opinion that matters.., mine. This album is worth a listen, but don;t be shocked if you think you've heard all the songs before. because you probably have in one form or another. she may look like him, but she's not a patch on the thin white freak.

Built to Spill - Perfect from now on

I defer to my japanese residing friend, Raoul Duke for a suitable description of this album; "Best album of all time? Close. Their gig at Petersham Bowlo in Jan 08 was as close to heaven as I have been. It's hard to imagine a better progression of songs than Randy Described Eternity, I Would Hurt A Fly, Stop The Show, Made-Up Dreams, Velvet Waltz, Out Of Sight, Kicked It In The Sun. Made-Up Dreams is the highlight in the middle"

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

Sonic youth have a new album, Sonic youth have a new album, Sonic youth have a new album, Sonic youth have a new album, Sonic youth have a new album, Sonic youth have a new album. Did you know sonic youth have a new album?? well it's probably not that new anymore but anyway it's been three years since their last release Rather Ripped which was awe-some ( said with zach braff style high intonation on the 'awe' ) I'm not sure if this album has yet reached the heights of a braffish style complement, but it's certainly up there. Reviews will tell you that the albums highlights are the rocky, punky, so sonic youth it hurts songs such as openers 'Sacred Trickster' and 'Anti-Orgasm', but thats a sonic youth so overdone that Kim Gordon's voice starts to grate, and you really do see them as 50 year olds trying to pretend they're teenagers. The real goodstuff comes when they forget about making a slogan song, and just concentrate on the music. 'What we know' and 'poison arrow' will make you think it's 1992 again. Although maybe someone can explain to me why track 3 'Leaky Lifeboat' has a near exact intro to 1998's 'Sunday'. Maybe i'm missing the meaning behind the reference

Spiritualized - Laser Guided Memories

I'd never heard of spiritualized before this album was suggested to be by one of this blogs most loyal devotees. ( i know, i know, what a sheltered life i lead. did i have me head in the ground during the 90's?) I should've heard them before, ( NME gave them album of the year for 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating is space) they make the sort of music i like; slow building, atmospheric rock which moves through the realms of relaxed, to urgent, intense and then calm, the way some of the best albums do. They start off slow, build up to the point of explosion, hold you there for a few moments and then bring you back down. It's influence on bands like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky are obvious especially in songs such as Angel Sigh, which would fit in comfortably on any Mogwai Album.

Stereolab - Dots and Loops

Ahh, sparkling, cheesy, sunny, euro pop. If this album is not the perfect example then i'm Connie Chung. This should be played on your walkman whilst roller skating through jardin des tuileries ( if people roller skate through there. and if not they really should ) Otherwise it should be played at loud volumes at madame brussels, because it fits that garden party, summer flirting, white shoes and socks, pims and lemonade, jumper round the shoulders kind of vibe. It's the perfect start of the night party album and doesn't have a dull momement. Many have tried to emulate this vibe since but stick with the best. it's impossible not to bob your head or click your fingers to these songs. Right, Flirtinis all round eh?

The Dirty Three - She has no strings Apollo

There's not many bands that you can play air fiddle to. Fortunately Dirty Three is one of these and even more fortunately i've had the pleasure of seeing one of my friends stand in the middle of a crowded concert manically playing air fiddle in time with the Dirty Three's Warren Ellis on stage. Of course by doing this he created a large circle of space as the surrounding concert goers slowly moved away from this obvious lunatic. this in turn created an even more surreal experience as suddenly said friend was standing on his own with no one whithin 5 metres of him still blindly flaily away with his imaginary bow and fiddle. This only enhanced my enjoyment of the concert and if you've ever attended a Dirty Three concert you'll know that they are mentally and physically exhausting experiences. Mentally because the music of D3 is so intense, so emotive and so loud that it consumes every part of you. The fact the it is all instrumental heightens your senses as you have no vocal lead to tune into. Your brain gets slammed from all sides with ellis' wailing violin, jim whites thrashing guitar and mick turners manic drums. Physically because some of this becomes a matter of endurance, D3 songs are built around intros and crescendos, and the cresendos can be extreme and lengthy. The violin is not always your friend at such decibels.She has no strings Apollo is the Dirty Three's sixth album ( of 7 LPs ) only 6 songs long, but boy, the intensity of those songs. bookended by the absolute corker of an openener "Alice Wading" and the rough and tumble closer "Rude" it's as good as any of their previous 5. if you're not familiar and want to get an idea this is not off this album but one of my favourite songs of all time here

Death in Vegas - Dead Elvis

Tipsy - Triptease

Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway

Well it has been a long time between blogs and for that i apologise. blame internet providers, telcos and my work for making it impossible to have the means or the time to blog. I have been managing to continue the download stream and the listening process so it's just the writing process that i need to catch up on. but of course, you all know that i wouldn't be happy with just sitting down and typing out a few lines of meaningless garbage. My standards are just too high and i work tirelessly trawling through music literature, referencing reviews, writings and interviews on artists and albums before i dare analyse them myself. or at least i skim read wikipedia for a few interesting facts that i can add to my blog to make it look like i know more than i do. so more coming shortly, until then just read the wikipedia page of each artist and you'll pretty much get what i would've written anyway. including the same bad grammar and questionable factual statements that you've come to know and love from me.

Unkle - War Stories

I made a point a few years back of getting rid of all my 1 song CD's. that is all the cd's i had purely because of 1 good song surrounded by loads of offal. I burnt all these "good" songs onto mix cd's so that i could at least listen to 10 or 12 good songs in a row without having to skip through the rubbish. Now the question i pose to you is this.. are the rest of the songs on these '1 song albums' so un-listenable because a) the good song is just so so good everything else pales in comparison or b) the band just got lucky with one good song and wrote 10 complete pieces of tripe to fill out the album. the reason i ask this is because i cant decide whether the songs of war stories are just filler around the standout track 'burn my shadow' or just that that song is so good everything else sounds lame. OK maybe i'm being a bit harsh, there are a few decent tracks, opener 'Chemistry' sets the scene for a dark moody thrashy album but it's not until track 5 that we get that feeling back. in fact the sequencing of the whole album is strange with the more upbeat songs annoyingly dispersed evenly through the album destroying any theme that was trying to break through. And it is a theme of desolation and desperation that is captured by these stronger tracks, 'keys to the kingdom', 'price you pay' and 'burn my shadow'. Anyway, if burn my shadow is the only track that comes out of the album it was well worth the listen.

David Bowie - Space Oddity

Neil Young - Neil Young

TV on the Radio - Dear Science

you know that feeling when you come up with a really good idea, or write a really good essay, or make an really good dinner and then someone comes along and absolutely smashes you out of the park with their far superior idea, essay or dinner. that makes your idea look like it was thought up by a lunatic, your essay written by a brain dead monkey and your dinner taste like a dog vomited a dead rat onto a plate? well this is my version of that feeling. it's hard to think about continuing when someone does it so much better than you. but anyway enjoy my sister blog while i try to come up with something slightly more interesting...

Sia - Some people have real problems

This album went straight onto the background music player at work. Also known as the Muzak player. Should i bother writing any more? why did it go on? well it's harmless, and by harmless i mean it has no swearing, it has no real peaks or troughs, it has no spikes in decibel level, it has no weird instruments, no sitar, banjo or bagpipe solos, the vocals are mellow, there's no screaming, no wailing, it's all slow tempo, there's no thumping bass drum, and the vocals and music blend into one, so that all you get is a nice pleasant background hum. it's music to sit down and wait to, music to go to the bathroom to, music to..dare i say..forget. Wow. that all sounds so harsh. This isn't a bad album, Sia has a wonderful voice and in the past she has written some great songs. there's some very beautiful moments on this, but unfortunately it also fits perfectly into my criteria for acceptable BGM. So this means i'll get to hear this album many times over the next few months, which is ok. it's nice and pleasant and..oh..well you get the idea.

The Middle East - The Middle East

This is a sneaky effort because i didn't quite download this one, but due to the non-australian bias on my dodgy russian mp3 site i thought i should get in some local talent to balance things out. Anyway, check out these little babies from townsville here it's like early Art of fighting meets fleet foxes meet Explosions in the sky.

Throwing Muses - In a Doghouse

Throwing muses was the first project for two of musics most accomplished female artists, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly. Hersh would guide the band through several line up changes from 1981 to now, form the indie punk band 50 foot wave, whilst also releasing several solo albumns. Donelly would go on to join The Breeders, form the indie band Belly, and then release a number of solo works. Throwing muses would pave the way for many female led rock/punk groups in the late eighties and nineties such as L7, sleater kinney, juliana hatfield trio and liz phair. This is their first 'official release' a 1985 self distributed cassette of early recordings ( later released as part of a compilation ) and it packs a serious punch. It is raw, it is rough,it is angry, it is in parts brilliant and in others scary. The most amazing thing about this album is the number of current artists that can be heard in the repetitive single chord strums, the basic reversed arpeggios; the yeah yeah yeah's, interpol, the white stripes, they all owe something to this melding of new wave post-punk meets the ramones, iggy pop and siouxsie sioux. It's a hard album to get through, some of it is just too raw for my liking, sort of like when kate bush goes crazy or when sonic youth start wanking over their guitars. "look how much noise my amp can make!". But this was early experimentation, and the end result is some classic tunes that formed some iconic bands.

St Ettienne - Foxbase Alpha

Tegan and Sara - So Jealous

These canadian twins have been writing catchy indie pop tunes for ten years now and have always been around the edge of my music radar without me ever managing a serious listen. but there's something comforting in the simplicity of songs such as 'back in your head' off 2007's "the con". as well as the three opening tracks on this 2004 album - "So Jealous". It's simple guitar, bass, keyboard/synth with well delivered harmonies and mirrored vocals. ( most songs have a dual vocal line sung by both tegan and sara, matched with harmonies in the chorus or verse or both ).The vocals may take some getting used to, there's a certain grating to the voices ( think Gwen Stefani or Veruca Salts' Nina Gordon ) that one must get past to enjoy this music. but after that it's very approachable pop with lots of lyrics about former requited and current unrequited love as well as some internal soul searching about the suitability of themselves as lovers. And interestingly both tegan and sara write the songs independently of one another and only collaborate on the actual recording. It might get a bit 'samey' but there's enough good songs on here to make it worth your while.

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

Here's a case of taking a good idea and then re-using it to the point of mis-use, and
alienating the listener in the process. I get the idea, this is computer altered music taken to the next degree. The introduction of sampled 80's computer game sounds into a
somewhat blondie, somewhat daft punk sound is cute and it's clever....for about one song. then it becomes annoying. oh yeah and by song 15? then it's just ridiculous.
And whilst some of the songs tred the electro-pop lines of the previously mentioned bands and contemporaries the ting tings and santogold, most degenerate into a storm of electronic feedback that leaves you searching for the skip button to move onto the next song. If i wanted to be blasted by incomprehensible video game noise at extreme decibels i'd go back to work at timezone. The album is worth a listen because there are some well structured, well made, catchy songs but be warned that it's hard work and i'm yet to decide whether there is enough reward for the effort.

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principal

Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

Oh Eno, you freaky bastard. I really don't know who was scarier, Eno, Bowie or Numan. they were all freaks, and amazingly talented ones at that. Eno and Bowie are the sound of Glam Rock. and this album ( Eno's first solo, after leaving Roxy Music ) has all the good and bad of that Genre. The good being the rocky guitar driven "Needles in the Camel's Eye", The laid back, echoey instrumental piece "On some faraway beach" The bad being the weird, disjointed, wall of bizarre that is "Blank Frank" and the scary spoken word of "Dead finks don't talk". Having said that these aren't necessarily bad songs and the album over all is a triumph, and one that is referenced by almost any affecionado of the glam, art and post rock scene. It's amazing that this album and the Siouxsie and the Banshees album still stand the test of time and could easily be mistaken for a current release. Whether this says something about the cyclical nature of music or just that fact this is still relatable quality music i'll leave up to you to decide.

Siouxsie and The Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse

It may appear that i'm quite behind on my schedule. but i'm merely behind on the posting part rather than the listening. You'll be pleased to know, my quintet of readers, that more insightful, intriguing and incoherent musings are just around the corner. I've been given a time frame of 5-15 working days for delivery of my spanking hot ADSL2 connection, and preparations are already in place for its arrival. I have removed the old virgin modem from the spot where it sat sniggering at me for the past year and beaten it to death with a sock full of 20 cent coins. I've created a nice home for the new modem, clean and dry with plenty of fresh air and some snacks in case it gets hungry. I've decided i'll give it a few days to get settled before i start thrashing it to within an inch of its life. But boy, i hope it comes prepared because i am going to beat the living hell out of this thing. Today's album and the following are connected in one way or another so i might just mosey on through them with the odd comment or two and then by the end it'll all make sense. well at least to me. I would say that around 80% of the bands i know and love owe someting to Siouxsie and the Banshees. Pioneers for their time they made music that influenced not only the style of future bands but also for their creativity, their almost arrogant flair and their raw power on stage. Lead singer Siouxsie Sioux is an icon of female vocals and has inspired the likes of PJ harvey, Peaches and Karen O. This album is thought of by music critics as their finest.

Songs:Ohia - The Magnolia Electric Co.

Jason Molina aka songs:ohia aka Magnolia electric company is an intriguing man. he's got one of those love it or hate it voices; think tom waits, paul demsey, that moron from nickleback. so his fan base is quite limited. that's a shame because his music is quite amazing. I would be hard pressed to leave Ghost Tropic, Axxess & Ace, and The Lioness from any list of favourite albums. These albums were full of simple songs, with desperate, heart broken lyrics. The songs of a man on love's death row, a heart so full of love, destroyed over and over its only outlet in song. I adore those songs, their simplicity, often just simple muted chords, their honesty, he's a man not afraid to share his hurt with world. This is the final album he recorded under the name Songs:Ohia before forming the Magnolia Electric Company referenced in the title. It's the first to include a full band on every track and whilst not as good as the earlier work, or the Magnolia Co. albums it is still a fine piece of work, the band allowing Molina to experiment with a number of dynamics and styles that he develops further on the later albums. This is a good bridge between the old and the new Molina. But really, if you care even a little about music you should check them both out.

The Black Keys - Big Come Up

ok so i've been getting pretty lazy lately and haven't been keeping things up to date. But in fairness to myself, i have no internet access at home at the moment meaning the only time i get to post is at work. and of course i'm not going to waste company time with a frivilous thing such as a blog....am i....? And in all seriousness no one is actually reading this anyway so i can pretty much write whatever i want. purple, monkey, dishwasher. This is the first Black Keys Album and my first Black Keys album but it pretty much feels right at home in my collection already. It's stripped back bluesy rock, it's dirty, dusty and distorted. There's nothing really cutting edge here, it's a sound familiar to fans of muddy waters in the 50's, hendrix in 60's, lynrd skynrd and cream in the 70's, but the beauty of it lies in its simplicity, the fact that it could be a 50's or 60's blues record ( if not for the rather random bursts of electronic beats throughout the album )

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms

The astute amongst you may have noticed that i've let a few posts go by without actually mentioning the album of the day. No, this is not an oversight on my part, and all will be revealed in good time. In the words of the great man John Bongiovi ( yes this is his real name, look it up ) you gotta keep the faith. So my good friend Dick Kingsmill told me that if i like Arcade Fire then I'll love the Maccabees. Immediately this puts me on the back foot because from the first bar of the first song all i can hear is Arcade fire and from lead singer Orlando Weeks first quivering, sighing vocals all i'm getting is Win Butler. Add to that the fact that the album has the same producer as Arcade Fire's Neon Bible and really my judgement on this whole album is going to be clouded. Not that i need to pass judgement, hey i'm just here to listen, not to review so i take a step back, i empty my mind of all these thoughts ( not hard when your mind is pretty empty to start with ) and i give this album another unclouded listen. What i find is some great music in its own right, a coming of age from a band previously lost in the sea of british indie, it's gloomy without being mundane, it's certainly the style of arcade fire, moody ambience, strings and brass, passionate lyrics, and choral reprises; and like Arcade fire remains upbeat for the most part. The opener 'Love you better' is a cracking start that locks you into focus for the first 5 or 6 songs, the closing tracks "seventeen hands" and "bag of bones" wind down the album in a way that makes you reach for the repeat button for another listen. Is it to early to start talking album of the year? this'll be in my top 10 at least.

Gui Boratto - Chromophobia

Continuing on from my rant that ended quite abruptly in the previous post ( i tend to experience periods of intense rage that cloud my judgement and render me unable to speak, the mental equivalent of what artic explorers would call a 'whiteout' when coming across an incapacitating snowstorm ) i'll try and get to the point, if i even have one. Music critics and reviewers refer to alot of the music they listen to as sounding like, or being a version of or having that "insert band name here" sound. They're not usually suggesting that the music is a copy of or just another version of a previous band. they're just using another band as a reference point as you may not have heard the band before. But what happens when an influence becomes the defining point for a band. When does a band stray from sounding like, to just being a blatant ripoff?
Because a band came first does that make their sound more original than a band that started later with a similar sound? Or can we only make judgements if the musician has heard the other bands music? Are two people on opposite sides of the world capable of coming up with the same song without hearing the other? If a tree falls in the woods, and i stop writing this blog would anyone care? so many questions....
I downloaded this album after hearing Gui Boratto's latest song on the radio. It was quite sensational, this is his previous album, and it's not quite so sensational. Apparently his new album is more ambient, and laid back, minimalist house, whilst this album is more your, chillout room at a night club, still enough beats to keep your drug riddled heart pumping, bleeps and blips, electro. Whilst in the past i may have preferred the later i'm now very much more jean michel jarre, than armand van helden. So rewind 10 years and this album would've been a regular on my post night out playlist, but now i think i'll wait for the more lamo friendly recent release to come out for my electronica hit.

M Ward - Transistor Radio

I once wrote an essay on the theme of musical derivation. that is that all modern music is derived from 50's and 60's music, and all 50's and 60's from the 1800's and so on an so forth. The general idea being to state that no music made today is original, it has all been done before, and everyone who writes music today is just stealing from Mozart or Stravinsky, or Duke Ellington or John Lennon... Even taking into account that music has evolved over the years, and new genres and style have been created that move away from normallity on such random tangents that they appear to have no connection to standard musical scales, they fact is music is made up of rythym and melody and these are standard elements. these are elements that can be gauged. There are only a certain amount of notes than can be heard by the human ear, there are only a certain amount of times that a beat can be played within a minute. This is mathematics. So surely if the creation of music is limted to a combination of a number of definable elements, repetition, whether purposeful of not, is going to occur, and the more likely occur in popular music as this seems to be the type of music that is most created... Anyway, i got a C for that essay. it was a load of crap. As i do here, i finished an extraordinary amount of sentences with a question, leading most of my university teaches to wonder why i bothered writing essays when i never had answers, just more questions. But then again University is a load of crap. Why do i need to show in 2000 words what i could happily describe to you in a 5 minute conversation? Why does writing down on paper prove that i understand a concept? why the F*&^ should it matter if i forget to underline or italicise in a bibliography? and why can't i ask more questions than i have answers to? that's what life is about.

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

There are chestnut singers in every country that personify a vast majority of that population or at least are representitive of beliefs and values that the country holds most dear. Some are iconic in that they are recognisable worldwide as an artist from a particular country. Others whilst well known within their own borders don't translate to other cultures. Australia has Paul Kelly, England has Billy Bragg, and America has Springsteen. All completely different in their approaches but all similarly balanced in their appeal to their audiences, producing songs that are uniquely nationalistic, even when many of them are protest songs of sorts, the underlying them us that i love my country which is why i'm allowed to question it. Which is why i can point out its flaws. This goes someway to explaining the longevity of these artists, themes of love, hope and desire set against a backdrop of working class society add a sense of the believable, of the shared experience. Whilst Springsteen's songs are very much love songs, his imagery always conjures up middle america, and his characters are always working class heroes experiencing the loss, pain or joy and hope that the end or start of a relationship bring. Springsteen has about 15 albums, most of which have reached number 1 on the american chart. 2002's The Rising was released in the haze of the 9/11 attacks and contains several references to the events, and effects that this troubled time had on the american psyche. There is no cliches though, it it a reverent, realistic, and reserved approach to writing songs about an incident that angered so many americans. It is patriotic without being jingoistic and allows the listener to reflect rather than become suggestive of emotions. It's chesnut Springsteen.

Spoon - Kill the Moonlight

Stories regarding my demise are premature. Being the staunch monarchist that i am i was just merely giving the queen's birthday weekend the reverance it deserves by not posting for a few days. Perhaps a more likely reason is the fact that my god damned home internet connection no longer works. I have suffered through 18 months of the slowest, most unstable, useless piece of shite internet for the sole reason that i stupidly signed a 24 month contract with Virgin( i mean who signs a 2 year contract for ANYTHING these days ) and that paying it out would cost me $60 for every unused month. And if there's something i hate more than paying good money for a pathetic excuse for a service it's paying good money for the privilge of NOT having a pathetic excuse for a service. Last week the interenet, which had at best been intermittent just stopped working altogether.So now i have nothing. Thanks Virgin. you assholes. if you want any more money from me you'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hand. I'm moving on though. I've ordered a service from internode that promises one billion gigabytes of nano speed high tech futuristic thingamigs at a minimum speed of twenty trillion parsecs. But more importantly, no contract. more power to the people. peace out.

Manchester Orchestra - Mean everything to nothing

To paraphrase the start of every review of Manchester Orchestra ever written, No, they are not an Orchestra and no, they are not from Manchester. Instead they're an indie rock band from the states, that shift between making Pavement style slighty loud, busy and dirty rock songs and Shins like heart-felt, stomach-jerking, ballads. The single off the album 'Friends in all the right places' is the sort of song that would be blasting out of any angry teenagers bedroom while their parents wondered what passed for music these days. It's a teenage anthem of sorts, a mixture of all the right elements of punk, screamo and good ole rock'n'roll. It's surrounded by similar tracks, with the occasional slow restrospective, tapping into the listeners angst, grief or heartbreak. It's not a knock out album, but there are many that have come before Manchester Orchestra and built their success on this formula so two albums in this might just be the beginning of bigger things.

Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyle

This was a recommendation from one of my loyal readers. To say he has an eclectic taste in music is an understatement. You could say this album personifies what he likes in his music; to be challenged by extremes, of pitch, of tempo, of decibel levels, but ultimately to be rewarded through revelations of beauty and power within the aural chaos. I'll be honest and say that the first listen through i was struggling, i'm not the biggest fan of noise rock. sure i love sonic youth, the pixies, dinosaur jnr but the more extreme purveyors of this craft ( black flag, the melvins, white zombie ) i never really got. This is an album of severe pitch changes, tempo changes, and alternate tunings. It is a sonic youth style wall of noise in some parts, it is a stratching, screaming, wailing, teeth grinding, fractured mess in others. But out of this comes some great music, songs such as my 'kimono' and 'time isn't on my side' reward the listener for braving past the initial onslaught of distorted jangly guitars in opening track 'Thermal Pleasure'. It's a thumbs up from me which means that now i have no reason not to brave the remaining albums of the recommendation list. If they are all as good as this then i am a happy man, but i'm worried about the next one already. very worried

Elliot Smith - Either/Or

Aha! cheating already you say. A day gone, an album downloaded and nothing to say! well to the two people who care, you can both calm down because all i've done is combined the two albums into one post. An ingenious idea i know, which will help no end in getting through the remaining 9000 days of albums or whatever i have left. On a sadder note i missed Elliott Smith when he first came along. I was wearing flannelette shirts and listening to eddie vedder garble on about whatever the hell it is he garbles on about when Smith released these two albums. Of course i wasn't the only one, they snuck under the radar a bit and it wasn't till his more commercially successful album Figure 8 in 2000 that a lot of people became interested in his previous releases. His untimely death three years later ( age 34 ) led to the interest becoming an obsession in some and he has a legion of insane fans who now treat his music as some sort of religion. Oh yeah, and i'm thinking of converting. Elliot Smith is a genius. He is brilliant. In fact stop what you are doing right now and go and listen to either of these two albums and tell me otherwise. I wont write another word until you do.

Elliott Smith - Roman Candle

At the drive in - Relationship of Command

Well i've been given my first sledge by one of my readers, which has now made me completely paranoid about checking everything i write twice. In case you hadn't noticed i'm quite a sloppy writer, i never use spell check, and i rarely re-read what i have written given that i hate reading anything that i write. sort of makes it hard to proof when you can't stand reading your own thoughts. I prefer the whole stream of consciousness style which is why i'm a big fan of Kerouac, Burroughs and Faulkner. Anyway i'll try to keep the mistakes to a minimum to give my readers less chance to poke fun at me. And because of that i'm not going to write anything at all about At the drive in I'm not going to tell you that there are some great hardcore post-punk inspired tunes, with some brilliantly phrased, desperate and angry lyrics delivered by a screaming, wailing Cedric Bixler. You don't need me to tell you that you will hate most of this album, you'll realise that after about 50 seconds. but it's worth hanging in for 'pattern against user', radio hit 'one armed scissor' and Quarantined. It's anti-establishment rage for smart young people, and i'm not any of those things so the rest of it is wasted on me.

Empire of the Sun - Walking on a dream

Look, i know you're suprised that i would download this album. I was too. But i have to like you're at a beaadmit i quite like all the Empire of the Sun singles that i have heard so i thought i'd give this album a go. And, due to the non-australian nature of the MP3 site i download from opportunities for local music are rare so that gave me another reason. Overall, i'd have to say i was pleasantly suprised. The album starts with the three radio singles 'Standing on the Shore', Walking on a Dream' and 'We are the people' and a fourth equally good track in 'Half Mast' possibly the best on the album. It's a strange album, a concept album of sorts, there's a tropical, eastern feel to the album, almost seaside ambience, with a very similar sound and concept to Chicane's year 2000 Album 'Behind the Sun'.There's also a homage to 80's space synth pop throughout the album with various well known 80's synth lines, not so much sampled as re-imaged within a number of songs. Lead singer Luke Steele's voice ranges from Bowie to Gary Numan to Gene Ween, whilst the music slides between the 80s' hooks, the ambience of Air and catchy dance pop similar to EOTSs second collaborator Nick Littlemore's other band Pnau. And i apologies for that being the worst constructed sentence of all time, but it's late and i want to go to bed.

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By

Look i have to admit first up that i don't own a PJ Harvey album. Thought i'd get that off my chest. I don't know how i've gone all this time without one. I had 2000's Stories from the city.. on mp3 at some stage and gave that a good flogging until it disappeared in the ether. And i'm familiar with 1993's rid of me but for the most part i'd have to say that i'm not even close to being a PJ harvey expert. What i do know though is that her vocal can range from beautiful and breathy, to a tortured wail, and everywhere in between. A Woman A Man... re-unites Harvey and John Parish who collabarated once before on 1996's Dance Hall at Louse Point ( Music by Parish, Harvey Lyrics and Vocals ) It's an interesting album that spans a various range of influences and styles that both artists have experimented with in their careers. The Opener 'Black Hearted Love' is a cranking sonic youth style angst ridden anti-ballad. 'Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen' Melds Middles Eastern style strings with Harvey's on edge semi-shouts. There's traces of Fugazi, The Pretenders, Goldfrapp ( who Parish has also collaborated on ) on the remainder of a well put together album that starts big but fades towards the end. If anything the title track is the biggest let down of the album, Harvey's spoken and ( screams ) vocals seem forced and Parish's dynamic experimentations seem to go too far. But overall its a good start to my PJ Harvey collection.

Beck - Seachange

I should've mentioned at the start that while there is a long list of reasons relating to why i personally wont complete this project there is a big blog ending possibility that sits out of my control. That is the future of my generous and slightly dodgy russian MP3 provider. If the offer of unlimited downloads was not a blatant grab for quick cash before shutting down its doors forever than i don't know what is. Of course these suspicions should've stopped me from handing over anymore cash in the first place but if you can't trust the russians who can you trust? The bottomline is any day now i could log into the site to find that the url no longer exists or that it has moved to evendodgiermp3.com and that unfortunately my previous account is no longer. In the meantime i'm downloading like Mad Jack McMad so that i at least get some value out of this while it lasts. So filling up my library with never owned gems is one of the main tasks in these early days. The weird stuff can wait. I've always been a Beck fan, he is quite the musical genius and has made some cracking songs. But i have to admit that some of his stuff has gone over my head and other stuff has just, well, downright annoyed me. Seachange is a Beck i very much get. It's a beautifully orchestrated album, the use of a full string section ( real, not electronic ) on some songs gives it a big band feel whilst remaing intimate and personal. The slide guitar on 'guess i'm doing fine' and 'end of the day' melds perfectly with Beck's slow almost country drawl. It's a quiet album, with none of the electronic 'noise' that Beck likes to meddle with, but it still has some oomph to it. For me it's an instant classic.

Badly Drawn Boy - One plus One is One

I've been raving on a lot lately about my love of the folk/alt-country genre and expected that this album would give me more things to bore you with on the subject. I haven't heard much badly drawn boy ( aka Damon Gough ), but what i have heard i have really liked. The film score for About a Boy is a pleasant, country-tinged, wistful experience, and with this album from 2004 i was expecting more of the same. What i got, though musically similar, was a lacklustre snore-a-thon casued by a voice that sounds completely disinterested in what it is singing. It doesn't seem like Damon Gough is trying to put any feeling in his vocal. It's an externely monotone performance. Yes, Gough does naturally have a baritone range, and yes this is his 'sound', but the fact is his other work has feeling to it, where as this album sounds like he is just spitting out the words without any meaning. Compared to this even Nickelback sounds interesting..... ok i take that back.

Iron & Wine - The Creek drank the Cradle

The amount of new music i'm subjecting myself to now means that my brain needs to be some sort of sponge in order to absorb as much as possible. Unfortunately all sponges have a capacity and after taking so much, some starts to leak away. Couple that with the fact that my brain feels more like a cinder block than a sponge and you will start to realise that a lot of the stuff i'm listening to isn't sinking in. It's just merely passing through, across the surface and then sliding off the other side. There are exceptions of course. I've already waxed lyrically about some of the great music i've come across. The kind of music that just feels good to listen to, and takes over from anything else in your day. I have my guard up for most new albums, not prepared to let anything through unless it does something special. Then i usually listen to it again, and again to the point of obsession until i know it back to front and have to stop myself from listening to it further for fear of ruining it. When i first heard Iron & Wine's "The Shepherd's Dog" in 2007 it instantly became one of those albums. It's rolling, warm, muddy sounds were so different to everything else i was listening to ( and becoming disheartened by ) at the time. So i've gone back to where it started for Iron & Wine ( aka Sam Beam ) to see if i can find some more inspiration to continue this process. The Creek drank the Cradle is a much simpler, stripped back album than Shepherd's dog. There's no band, no backing vocals, and only a guitar, occasional banjo and Beam's vocal. It's a folky, alt-country sound reminiscent of Nick Drake, that i know and love. The finger strummed guitar and double tracked slightly distorted vocals give it that dulled, soft edged sound ( that some may call snooze inducing ) that makes you close your eyes and think of being somewhere warm and calm, somewhere in the outdoors with the sun on your face, kids playing in the distance, not a care in the world. At least that's what it does for me. and that's all that matters

British Sea Power - Do you Like rock music?

Some of my many, many readers have been suggesting albums which i may wish to listen to for which i am thankful. I have no real plan at this stage for the remaing 340 odd days of listening so any ideas are much appreciated. Of course the chances of me staying the distance are very very slim. I don't have a big track record on following through on things and am possibly one of the laziest people ever when i put my mind to it. I have a list in my head of albums i should listen to but when it comes to the crunch sometimes i can't bring myself to listen to something with enough of an open mind to not skip to the next track halfway through a song i don't like. Whilst some albums grow on you the more you listen to them, others grate more and more the longer they are played. I find i get very angry at music ( one time i threw Powderfinger's Vulture Street out the window of my car on Parramatta Rd i was that annoyed by how bad it was ) probably because it irritates me when a band that i know is good releases drivel, Or people who try to make 'arty' music just make 'crappy' music. So when British Sea Power ask me Do i like rock music? my answer to them is, well give me about 45 minutes and i'll be able to tell you. This is your standard British Indie fair ( think infadels, detroit social club, artcic monkeys ) with some standards (Waving Flags, Lucifer ) and some stand-outs ( Great Skua, Open the Door, Lights our for darker skies ) It's good indie rock and it doesn't try to be anything it's not. While not quite reaching the standard of 'bloc party' or 'the rakes' British Sea Power do make some good music, i don't find myself needing to skip songs halfway through, and it doesn't make me angry listening to it, so i suppose if this is rock music, then yes, i do like it.

U2 - No line on the Horizon

I feel bad because i'm about to say some very mean things about a band i love. I was brought up on U2, they are my rolling stones. I have every U2 album and some of those albums define perfectly particular moments in my life. I probably know the lyrics of more U2 songs than any other band and could list the tracks in order off every album. I rate their 1997 concert at the Sydney Football Stadium as the best live performance i have ever seen. Having said all this i would never describe U2 as my favourite band. I have always enjoyed their music and a few albums would be in my top 100, but perhaps the fact that they are still going, and making music that nowhere near compares to what they have done in the past has tainted my opionion of them. U2 have had several re-births, their early work was raw, angst ridden rock'n'roll, and some of bono's ( a notoriously bad lyricist ) best lyrics. Then came some more polished pieces in the Bian Eno produced masterpiece Unforgettable fire, and then the bluesy Joshua Tree. They re-invented themselves with 1991's Achtung Baby embracing industrial distorted sounds and then 93's Zooropa a concept album of sorts based around Bono's Mephisto character from the Zoo TV tour. With Pop in 1997 they continued further into the realm of electronica and created another different sound that polarised their audience and had low sales but critical acclaim. Their 10th Album in 2000 was a return to their late 80's sound that for most has become synonomous with U2. Followed up 4 years later by a very similar album that despite some power chords in the singles maintained that soft rock jangly guitar sound. So here we are 5 years later with No line on the Horizon and well, nothing much has changed. Bono is possibly writing the worst lyrics he has ever written ( if you don't belive me listen to 'cedars of lebanon' ) the edge is running out of ways to make 3 chords sound exciting whilst larry mullen and adam clayton may as well be studio muso's such is the lack of oomph in the rythm section. Whilst there is some radio friendly, typical U2 in 'Magnificent' and 'get on your boots' It takes till track 10, 'Breathe' for the album to actually give you something to sit up and take notice of. The introduction of keys, strings and a punchy rythym give this a bluesy feel reminiscent of 'manic street preachers' or more recently Jack White's 'Racontuers'. Why they couldn't tranfer this enthusiasm into the rest of the album i don't know. Everything else just meanders by, and if i hear one more chorus of ooohs or ooowws from bono i may scream. Apparently a follow up album with songs that didn't make the cut for No line.. is due later this year. Hopefully it's more songs in the style of 'Breathe' otherwise i shudder to think how much worse it could get.

Bjork - Volta

I should mention here, in case anyone stumbles across this blog accidentally, that i don't claim to be a music expert, i don't claim to be a good writer, i don't want you to agree with everything that i write and a certainly don't want you to take anything i say as the absolute truth. All i am trying to do here is listen to music and give you my interpretation of it. Having said that i am trying to make sure that i do a bit of research on the artists i'm writing about before i bring you my thoughts. In fact my main problem with this whole album a day concept is not the downloading or the listening, but trying to read as much as i can about what the music meant to the person who made it, why they made it, and what it's supposed to mean. The great thing about music is that interpretation varies from person to person, and for some things i'd prefer to not know what a song is about, as i've given it my very own personal association of what it means and don't want that to be ruined by the truth. Sort of like when you read a book and have a picture of the character in your head, and then they come along and make a crappy movie version and it ruins that book forever because the character now looks like jude law or matthew macoughnahey ( who am i kidding what book would i read that he would be in the movie version? ) I don't know what the hell Bjork is on about most of the time, here lyrics are so expressive and explicit yet sometimes so bizarre that you can't quite get a handle on whether she is using amazing metaphor or just a mad woman. Most people would suggest the latter, as she is probably more famous to the gen pop as the zany swan dress wearing pixie woman who punches photographers. She is however responsible for some of the most brilliantly written music you're ever likely to hear. Songs like Human Behaviour, Big time Sensuality, Hyperballad are thick, layered, intelligent songs, with Bjork's voice turning every word she sings into something of Beauty. Her two early 90's album's Debut and Post are usual inclusions in any top 100 all time album lists. This is her 6th album following on from 2004's mainly acapella Medulla and possibly her most collaberative. 2 duets with english singer Antony Hegarty and 2 tracks produced by Timbaland. It's no departure from her normal style, but perhaps the inclusion of some more industrial style electronic tracks is a re-visit to early experimentations in 1997's Homogenic In the main though Bjork can pretty much do what she wants because her brilliant vocal range ( how is it possible to get so many itonations out of a one syllable word? ) means that any music plays second fiddle to what she is doing up front. and that is bewildering you with her madness, or is that genius..

Bonny 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go

I go through times when in just hate music. I can't find anything that i want to listen to. The radio angers me, as everything on it is garbage. Even the stuff i love seems somehow tainted or stale or i don't know what, it's unexplainable. Nothing is inspiring, music is dead, there will never be another good album. etc. etc. Then there are times when i hear something that changes everything i ever thought i knew about music. Like when i first heard a Bob Dylan Album, David Bowie, Radiohead, Arcade Fire or Tool. All different types of music all completely shattered my perceptions of what good music was. All made me love music, all made me want to listen to everything these artists had ever made and to everything that inspired these artists to make this sort of music. I cannot believe i had never heard of Will Oldham ( aka Bonny 'Prince' Billy & Palace Music )until recently. He has almost 15 albums to his name and he writes the sort of music that astounds me. how can someone be this good? how can someone just write simple music and tell a story with that gets you caught up in the journey and forget about whatever it is you were thinking about previously. This is music for late at night, with a bottle of red. Or for cold winter afternoons. It's earthy and warm, its tone is soothing, its melody is medicinal.

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Methodrone

It's funny how some music just allows you to instantly recall a particular period or moment in your life and bring back not only memories but actually feelings and senses of that time. I find that some music actually produces tastes and smells and knots in my stomach or heart when i hear it. When i hear john farnham i think of primary school and the playground at lunch time prince or billy joel i think of being a fat little kid sitting in my room playing video games on the pc, guns and roses makes me think of high school ( and shudder ) red hot chilli pepper's 'one hot minute' was the album that summed up the end of school for me. and so on and so forth...Even though i've listened to those albums and artists countless times since then i still remember a specific time or occasion when that album was lost in a 'moment' and that means even if i don't want to, i get that image or sensation when i listen. The music has become a package and if i want to listen to it i have to accept the feelings that will come with it. I never really got into Brian Jonestown Massacre and listening to them now i really struggle to understand why. I mean this album 'Methodrone' pretty much made me fell like i did in 1995 ( the year it was released ) when i was heavily into pearl jam, nirvana, soundgarden etc. Whether intentional or not, this album lives up to its sarcastic name, and encapsulates the feeling of being on heavy pain killers or sedatives. It's not a bad thing, it just gives you that warm feeling, that humming inside that you get when all your senses have been dulled, and you absorb the music more than listen to it. If i had've listened to it years ago i just know that this album would be in my top albums of time.

Depeche Mode - The Story of the Universe

I start this blog with some reservations as one of my readers has told me that he will only remain a follower if i never review another pet shop boys album. as i only have 4 followers this equates to 25% of my readership and therefore is a threat that must be taken seriously. So i'm wary as i don't know how close Depeche Mode falls to PSB on the 'little fat kid from Hey Dads' do not review list. Both seminal 80's synth pop bands, both have continued to make music over a 20 year span, both have many albums to their name ranging from god awful to critcally acclaimed, and both are very old and should've probably stopped years ago. Depeche Mode has had a few hits since their peak period in the 80s and early 90s. Moving towards a more electronic, house feel they've had a few dance floor hits via remixes, Kruder and Dorfmeister's remix of 'Useless' a prime example. I know this because i had a brief dalliance with club culture in the late 90's. There's some good songs on this album, the opener 'In Chains' is a fine example of how to write a spacial, atmospheric, interesting song and is a great start to the album, 'In Sympathy' is a perfect example of the new wave style that a tonne of artists have recently tried to re-create. I mean these are the original masters so surely they have a head start.. However tracks such as 'Wrong' ( while i get the concept it fails miserably ) and 'Corrupt' ( trying for Pink Floyd, but sounding more like Primus ) stop this from being a great concept album. But it is a good one. And worth a listen. Well for some of my readers...

And You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead - So Divided

Ever have one of those one song albums? you know the ones i mean, there is one really good song you like from a band, so you go buy the album, but end up listening to that one song you like over and over and ignoring the others. Fortunately this digital age means that there's less 'musical waste' floating around because we have the option of only downloading the songs we like, cos we get to preview them all first online in some form or another. To me 'And You will Know us by the Trail of the Dead's' 2002 album 'source tags and codes'was a one song album, i could not get past the brilliance of 'another morning stoner' to take in the remainder of the album. So i was a bit hesitant to download this album, their 5th, as i wasn't particularly sure that i even liked the band. I mean how can you base your assumption of an artist on merely one song? This is a good album, it's punchy, it's rocky, it's a good variety of sounds, there's some great moments, but over all there's no stand out song that you want to listen to over and over again. So what is it best to be known for? Having that one song that was amazing in a bunch of mediocre, or having some decent songs and producing a quality album?? what would an artists prefer? I'd hate to be one of those bands that have people shout out at concerts for the one hit, whilst they trawl through the 900 other songs they have written. But then again i'm never going to be on stage let alone have a hit so i'd take what i could get. I'm not at all saying that AYWKUBTTOD ( good acronym huh? ) are mediocre, they have many fans who probably think all their songs are 'standouts' and received critical acclaim for 'source tags and codes' but to me there's nothing there that makes me sit up and listen. and i wouldn't be shouting out at a concert for them to play my favourite song, because i wouldn't be there. i'd be at home listening to it on repeat.