On The Trail Of The Great

Song of the Week #19: "Pastimes & Lifestyles" by Dogs Die In Hot Cars

2010-05-11T13:33:00.001Z

It's fair to say bands with stupid names have to try that little bit harder to make any impression on me. In the case of Dogs Die In Hot Cars, the turning point came with hearing a fantastic song called Somewhat off The Way on a compilation CD. Sure enough, further investigation into the band's debut album Please Describe Yourself showed a pop band very much in touch with early-80s new-wavers like XTC, best shown on tunes like the brilliant Pastimes & Lifestyles. They seemingly vanished soon after, but better to leave one brilliant album as a legacy than slowly fade, right?

MP3: Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Pastimes & Lifestyles

Spotify: Please Describe Yourself

Song of the Week #18: "A Darkness Now Is Coming" by Hope & Social

2010-05-04T08:29:00.001Z

It seems like only five minutes ago Hope & Social released Architect Of This Church, but they're back with another album already. I could swear there was no mention of it when I interviewed them at the start of the year. As with Architect, April can be downloaded for whatever you want to pay, and while not as strong as its predecessor, if you've liked any of their previous work either under the name Hope & Social or Four Day Hombre, there'll be something here of interest.

My pick of the bunch is the folky A Darkness Now Is Coming. At the recent Cuckoo's Fest (from where I took the above pic), for this song the band members scattered themselves around the crowd to play an unplugged version to great effect.

Head over to their website and chuck some money their way!

MP3: Hope & Social - A Darkness Now Is Coming

Song of the Week #17: "Keep Your Eyes On The Road" by Lone Wolf

2010-04-26T09:42:00.002Z

Some records have more expectations attached to them than others, and this year so far hasn't particularly been full of consistently good releases. I was hugely looking forward to the latest Josh Rouse and Rufus Wainwright albums, and while each has its moments, they're not albums that are finding themselves on the stereo too often. The really big one for me will be the new Crowded House album in June - Neil Finn hasn't let me down yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

One other album I now have high hopes for is the debut from Lone Wolf, which is due in May. There's a couple of great songs on his Myspace page, one of which being the thoroughly brilliant Keep Your Eyes On The Road. It's rare that such a great song would have such a great video to match, but everything about this is genius:

Song of the Week #16: "Word Of Mouth Parade" by Gus

2010-04-19T10:53:00.002Z

Last weekend's Record Store Day reminded me of numerous trips to Minus Zero in London (which I read in the Guardian might sadly be on its last legs). A fantastic little shop, aside from an incredible selection of records and CDs, its key success lay with incredible knowledgeable staff. Reeling off a list of favoured artists to the guy behind the counter, he'd usually come back with a recommendation that turned out to be a winner.

Even in these early days of Spotify, the idea of taking a chance on something unheard and splashing out a tenner on something seems like a very archaic way of doing things. A shame, as the thrill of the risk was quite intoxicating.

One such trip to the shop ended up with me buying a copy of Word Of Mouth Parade by Gus (whose subsequent records came out under the name Gus Black). A lot of the album is standard singer/songwriter fare, but there are some absolute crackers scattered in there too, not least the mesmerising title track.

MP3: Gus - Word Of Mouth Parade

Buy Word Of Mouth Parade @ Amazon

Song of the Week #15: "Nature Of Love" by Waterfront

2010-04-13T08:02:00.002Z

There can't be too many songs from the 80s I had on vinyl that I haven't managed to track down on MP3. Once in a while though I'm reminded of something I'd completely forgotten about, and the rush of nostalgia is a powerful thing. Waterfront were quite a forgettable late-80s pop duo who traded in the same kind of stuff as Johnny Hates Jazz. I remember the excitement of finding a 7" box set of their Broken Arrow single (complete with postcards and badge, naturally) at a car boot sale when I was about 12 or 13. Nature Of Love was the big one though, a cracking tune that still sounds fantastic even though the production has, obviously, aged badly.

I probably wouldn't have given Waterfront another thought if the song hadn't been posted over at the excellent Popdose a couple of weeks back, so thankyou Popdose for the memories!

MP3: Waterfront - Nature Of Love

Song of the Week #14: "Run With Us" by Lisa Lougheed

2010-04-08T14:22:00.003Z

If you recognise the guy above, you probably grew up in the 80s. The Raccoons was almost certainly the greatest cartoon of the decade, although not one that seems to get much retro love nowadays. But aside from being a great show, it had a theme tune that continually pops up on any 80s compilations I put together. Not an obvious kids' cartoon theme tune ("Come with us / I see passion in your eyes"???), Run With Us by Lisa Lougheed is a power-pop masterpiece.

MP3: Lisa Lougheed - Run With Us

Song of the Week #13: "Still Be There" by Alondra Bentley

2010-03-29T14:26:00.003Z

I went to see Josh Rouse play in Manchester last week, a fantastic gig despite his new stuff still taking its time to sink in. A healthy selection of classics helped, especially the encore of Sparrows Over Birmingham, 1972 and It's The Nighttime.

An extra bonus was a fantastic choice of support act. Alondra Bentley is based in Spain, but sings in English, with a speaking voice recalling Bjork and a singing voice somewhere between Charlotte Gainsbourg and Nerina Pallot. Sharing band members with Josh Rouse, she gave a great performance, cute and quirky in equal measure.

Then there are the songs - the gorgeous folky melodies on new album Ashfield Avenue really are a treat, Some Things Of My Own and Still Be There sounding incredibly familiar after just a couple of listens.

Couldn't seem to find a physical copy of the album, so ended up buying it from 7digital. Highly recommended!

Video: Some Things Of My Own:

MP3: Alondra Bentley - Still Be There

Listen to Ashfield Avenue on Spotify

Song of the Week #12: "Blues Run The Game" by Simon & Garfunkel

2010-03-22T11:13:00.004Z

Inspired by Laura Barton's glowing comments on the new Laura Marling album, I had a listen, thinking it'd be very much up my street. Turns out it's not, and it got me wondering whether I *think* I like folk music more than I actually do. Or is it just that, with the exception of one or two songs, the album on the whole just doesn't appeal to me melodically? I don't have a lot of folk music in my music collection, although I was recently sent some Fairport Convention which I've been enjoying a lot. Certainly can't think of much modern folk that's left any impression (apart from maybe Damien Rice's first album, and that's a few years old now).

I do however have a big soft spot for Simon & Garfunkel. Their Old Friends boxset covers pretty much all bases, and favourites change all the time. Right now I'm in the midst of a mild obsession with Blues Run The Game. One guitar and two voices - does it get much simpler (or better) than this?

MP3: Simon & Garfunkel - Blues Run The Game

More of Simon & Garfunkel's greatest hits on Spotify

Song of the Week #11: "Violent" by Stellar

2010-03-16T11:41:00.002Z

Haven't got too much to say about Stellar, although listening to anything off their fantastic debut Mix takes me right back to my Uni days. It was a result of one of those convoluted connections that I'd probably never take a chance on now. As a big Crowded House fan, I'd seek out any spurious link that might deliver something along similar lines. I chanced upon a single by Bic Runga that CH bassist Nick Seymour might have had something to do with. Quickly becoming enamoured with Bic's debut album Drive, I then moved onto... her sister. In hindsight that's not an obvious connection, but fortunately her sister Boh also knows her way around a tune, although the Garbage-alike electro-rock music she made with Stellar is quite a trek from Bic's gentle pop. Anyway, Violent was the opening track and still sounds gloriously spiky.

MP3: Stellar - Violent

Boh Runga on Myspace

Song of the Week #10: "Feeling No Pain" by Jason Falkner

2010-03-07T20:03:00.002Z

I was introduced to the work of Jason Falkner around 2002, and his first two albums completely blew me away. 1999's Can You Still Feel in particular is a genuine pop classic. For whatever reason, he remained pretty much under the radar for most of the last decade, his third full-length record getting a Japanese release in 2007 (and only just getting a US release around now). That record, I'm OK You're OK, is patchy at best - a huge shame, given the long wait.

Saying that though, in 2004 he put out an absolutely sublime 5-song EP, the aptly-titled Bliss Descending, which contained some of his finest work to date. Power-pop at its best, songs like Lost Myself and Feeling No Pain are almost certainly getting constant radio airplay in a more pop-friendly parallel universe.

MP3: Jason Falkner - Feeling No Pain

Spotify: A limited selection of back catalogue

JasonFalkner.net

I'm in hope, I know...

2010-03-03T11:16:00.001Z

If you're in or around Leeds, the new issue of the free music mag Vibrations is now out (in music shops, pubs, and various other locations). Among other things, it has my feature on Hope & Social.

If you know of the band at all, it'll more than likely be from their previous incarnation, Four Day Hombre, who released an album a few years ago in a blaze of next-big-thing press, but which ultimately failed to make much of a splash. A change in outlook later and they reappeared as Hope & Social, with new album Architect Of This Church available from their website for whatever you want to pay.

The article will appear on the Vibrations website at some point soon if you can't get hold of the physical mag.

MP3: Hope & Social - In Need
MP3: Four Day Hombre - Resolve

Song of the Week #9: "Faces" by Nik Kershaw

2010-03-01T09:53:00.003Z

I went to see Nik Kershaw play a solo acoustic show in Holmfirth a week or so back, and was reminded yet again of what a brilliant songwriter he is. There were evidently people there who only wanted to hear the classic hits, proceeding to talk through everything else. For me, his most consistent work emerged with his comeback in 1999 with the 15 Minutes album, but I guess that one passed most people by. The show was a nice mix of old and more recent, the biggest surprises of the night being the inclusion of Faces and Human Racing from his debut album way back in 1984. Always a couple of my favourite Nik tunes, it was a genuine thrill to hear him play them live. Following the show, I dug into my MP3 folder to hear the originals - Faces in particular always impressed me with its cold, clinical paranoia somehow perfectly matched by the almost nursery-rhyme chorus.

The Idiot's Guide To Nik Kershaw I wrote for Jefitoblog a few years ago disappeared when that site crashed and burned, so I might dig it out and repost it here at some point.

MP3: Nik Kershaw - Faces

Spotify: Nik Kershaw

Buy Nik's new acoustic album No Frills

Song of the Week #8: "Someday" by Embrace

2010-02-22T11:50:00.002Z

Embrace's first album was a big player in soundtracking my first year of Uni, bombastic, epic songs like Come Back To What You Know making their mark in those years straight after Britpop. The couple of albums that followed got slowly weaker, to the point that when they returned in 2004 with Out Of Nothing, hopes weren't high. Fortunately it turned out to be a career peak, full of big guitars and immense tunes, of which Someday is a fine example.

MP3: Embrace - Someday

Spotify: Embrace

Song of the Week #7: "Tinsel & Ivy" by Montage

2010-02-14T20:07:00.002Z

A little bit of obscure long-out-of-print, super-fey 60s baroque pop this week, with Tinsel & Ivy from the self-titled 1969 album by Left Banke off-shoot Montage. I randomly found this in a record shop on Bleecker Street in New York, which was a nice surprise (never having seen anything Left Banke-related in any shop ever). By no means the most macho song in existence, but what a tune!

MP3: Montage - Tinsel & Ivy

Wikipedia: The Left Banke

Song of the Week #6: "Hide Behind The Sun" by Natalie Imbruglia

2010-02-08T16:30:00.002Z

Listening to Civil Twilight's 'Human' put me in the mood for further piano balladry, which I've stretched out into a very tasty compilation CD for the car, full of (mostly morose) piano/voice songs (with a little extra accompaniment here and there). Songs with this arrangement have always been hugely appealing to me - not sure why, just something about a well-played piano being a suitable setting for 4 minutes of maudlin beauty. Good examples? How about Number Crunch by Mike Viola, My Blue Manhattan by Ryan Adams, Only In The Movies by David Mead, NY by Frida Hyvonen, Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid) by Sufjan Stevens and Untitled by Tom McRae.

And there's also Hide Behind The Sun by Natalie Imbruglia. Around the time of her first album in '97, a string of singles gave way to a set of cracking b-sides, of which I *think* this was one (I question that statement as I can't remember owning it on CD, but it's sat very nicely for many a year in my Natalie Imbruglia B-sides folder in iTunes). Anyway, this is a real beauty, stark and
haunting:

"Tonight... everything but me /

Taken out to sea /

All gone...

MP3: Natalie Imbruglia - Hide Behind The Sun

Spotify: Check out her back catalogue...

It's all the things you can't explain...

2010-02-03T10:05:00.001Z

Gotta say, I'm a sucker for a bit of melancholy, particularly when it's done by the likes of Leaves or Coldplay. In that vein, some of the stuff on the new album by Civil Twilight has really hit home. My pick would be Human, an utterly gorgeous piano ballad with a keening vocal that, while a more cynical soul might suggest it's been designed by committee to soundtrack death scenes in Grey's Anatomy, has more than enough emotional weight to stand on its own two feet. Other tunes on the album, like the single Letters From The Sky, have studied the Coldplay template maybe a bit too closely (which I guess is only a slur if you think Coldplay are unemotional and overblown), but if a touch of maudlin indie-rock is called for, this record is a good punt.

MP3: Civil Twilight - Human
Web: civiltwilightband.com

Song of the Week #5: "Love Made A Fool Of Me" by the Carolines

2010-02-01T11:48:00.007Z

It's fair to say my knowledge of 60s girl pop acts hasn't previously stretched much further than the usual Motown suspects and a healthy selection of work by the late and very great Dusty Springfield. Hurrah then for the Eclipse label's 'The Girls Are At It Again: UK Beat Girls 1964-1969', which lays out 20 joyous pop obscurities on one disc.

Some of the names are familiar (Diana Dors, Kiki Dee), but mostly these are presumably one- or indeed no-hit-wonders. Pick of the bunch is Love Made A Fool Of Me by the Carolines. It's a cracking tune, and even though the subject matter has been done to death before and since, the anguish in that chorus vocal is still guaranteed to send a shiver down the spine:

"Love made a fool of me /
What can I do now I've lost you? /
It's over now, leave it that way"

MP3: Carolines - Love Made A Fool Of Me

Buy: Amazon

Song of the Week #4: "Say That Again" by Crowded House

2010-01-25T13:35:00.000Z

Neil Finn is a deity of the highest order, so any decision he makes is likely to be a good one. Like, reforming Crowded House after a decade apart. In the meantime, he'd put out a couple of fantastic solo albums and an even better one with brother Tim, so creatively speaking it's not as though he needed to kickstart the old band. But he did, and 2007's Time On Earth was a masterpiece. My personal favourite track isn't one that got a lot of love in reviews, and it's not one you often hear even hardcore fans discussing, but to me, Say That Again is one of his finest moments yet. It's taut, it's claustrophobic, god only knows what it's about, but it sounds utterly amazing.

I think one reason why musically it works for me is that the chugging guitars remind me of a childhood favourite, Icehouse's 'Great Southern Land'. Now that's a tune and a half.

Fingers crossed Neil will come up with the goods again in the near future, as the new Crowded House album nears release.

MP3: Crowded House - Say That Again

Website: http://www.crowdedhouse.com/s_home/index.php
Spotify: Time On Earth

Song of the Week #3: "Maybe After He's Gone" by The Zombies

2010-01-18T13:34:00.004Z

Obviously, phrases like 'lost classic' and 'underrated masterpiece' are batted around like confetti nowadays (and I guiltily hold my hand up as quickly as anyone), but the fact that the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle isn't as revered as work by contemporaries like the Beatles really is baffling. The story behind its recording and release is a good one (the wikipedia account is well worth reading) and points to reasons why it wasn't the success it might have been, but to me, it might have something to do with the fact the record is so, well, odd. Not musically of course - musically it's of its time while still being hugely inventive, and the melodies flow like they've been beamed in from another planet. But lyrically, it's something else. You have to admire any band who start an album off with a song where the guy is writing to his girl who's in jail, writing pleasantries that we assume probably don't go down too well:

"Saved you the room you used to stay in every Sunday /
The one that is warmed by sunshine every day /
And we'll get to know each other for a second time /
And then you can tell me about your prison stay."

It's such a perky song on the surface, but hugely unsettling if you dig a bit deeper.

Then you've got the sombre organ-led Butcher's Tale, a tale of front-line combat nestled snugly next to Friends Of Mine, an ode to couples in loving relationships: "It feels so good to know two people so in love, so in love!"

In amongst the odd lyrical concerns and baroque beauty is this week's chosen selection, the magnificent Maybe After He's Gone. But even that diverts from any kind of male bravado - "Maybe after he's gone, she'll come back and love me again." You reckon? Typical British restraint and all that, but come on! Then again, this level of coyness makes its appearance elsewhere in their catalogue; Goin' Out Of My Head, which appears as a bonus track on some versions of the album, includes the killer line: "There's no reason why my being shy should keep us apart." Hmmm... Wishful thinking perhaps.

The Zombies then - masculinity issues, but fortunately able to set them against devastatingly wonderful songs.

MP3: The Zombies - Maybe After He's Gone

Website: http://www.thezombies.net
Spotify: Odessey & Oracle

Song of the Week #2 - "1972" by Josh Rouse

2010-01-11T13:09:00.002Z

If I had to pick one artist who stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the last decade, it would probably be Josh Rouse. Not only did he release a heck of a lot of records (by my reckoning there were 6 albums and a handful of EPs), but at least four of those were truly magnificent. The four in question are the run started by 2003's epic '1972', through 'Nashville', 'Subtitulo' and 'Country Mouse City House'. Each of those contains life-affirming pop songs, but '1972' edges it. In fact, if I were making a list of my absolutely favourite albums of the decade, it would probably be right up there at number 1. I bought it on a whim, having read a good review (possibly in Q) and having liked what I'd heard of his previous record, Under Cold Blue Stars. 1972 is very different from its predecessor, from the warmth of the production to the 70s singer/songwriter stylings and arrangements. What really sets it apart though is the tunes, and while Come Back is the perfect pop song, my pick for this week is the title track. So sad and with such longing, but musically so uplifting:

"Spanish girl with a tattoo
Working nights at the drive-through
And she asks herself, could this be all?
Screwing in a motel room
Watching news on channel two
Victoria tell me, where is your dream?

We're going through some changes
Hoping for replacement
Until we find a way out of this hole"

MP3: Josh Rouse - 1972

Here's a live version from Germany:

Website: www.joshrouse.com
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/5SxkCsVQLLCt5edqjNvssO

Song of the Week #1: "Painkillers" by Candy Butchers

2010-01-06T11:38:00.005Z

Okay, so I'm going to make a valiant attempt to blog more regularly (although I've said that on various occasions previously and failed miserably to keep to it). Decided to start a Song of the Week series, writing a few words about something that's had some impact on me. Not a revolutionary concept by any means, but hopefully other people can find something new or interesting from some of these posts...

So, first up is a key track from one of my absolute favourite albums from the last decade, if not ever. Painkillers is a beautiful but harrowing track that appears halfway through the Candy Butchers album Hang On Mike, and tells the real-life story of singer/songwriter Mike Viola's grief over his wife's death from cancer, and how his new partner was helping him come to terms with it. Summarising it as simply as that feels wrong though, and you really need to hear the song for the full effect (and if you have any soul, you can't help but be affected by it):

MP3: Candy Butchers - Painkillers

"To wake up with Kim again
She's as beautiful as I remember
Spying on me through her long brown hair
Walking beside me without a wheelchair
Somehow I think she returns
To show there's nothing to fear any more..."

I get a lump in my throat listening to it even now, after playing the song hundreds of times since its release at the start of 2004.

The parent album is, quite frankly, a masterpiece. Essentially an autobiographical song-cycle, it takes us through Mike's life from his time as a child prodigy up to the mind-numbing mundanities of touring in a rock band, stopping along the way to discuss names for potential children and an ode to his mother. Again, putting it like that doesn't do the album justice, and it really needs to be heard to be believed.

Website: www.mikeviola.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hang-Mike-Candy-Butchers/dp/B00016XO5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1262778893&sr=1-1

Best Albums of 2009

2009-12-14T14:56:00.004Z

Download the MP3 Sampler (.zip)

1. David Mead - Almost & Always

On the MP3 sampler: Sicily

Top of the pile for 2009 is the latest release from David Mead, a set of breathtakingly beautiful songs that barely break a sweat but leave a huge emotional impact. I know I'm not the only Mead fan who thought he'd peaked with 2004's magnificent Indiana - and, to be honest, the two records aren't stylistically comparable - but here the songcraft appears to have gone up several notches on an already pretty high scale. Almost & Always couldn't be more different from his previous release, 2006's Tangerine - itself not a bad record by any means - if it tried. Tangerine was all bells and whistles, a stab at a classic-sounding pop record more in tune with his first couple of albums. Almost & Always is content to let its not inconsiderable but extremely low-key charms work their way slowly into your subconscious until the none-more-gorgeous melodies take up permanent residence. The arrangements are sparse for the most part, occasional flourishes of orchestration broadening the pallet. But ultimately this is David Mead, so it's all about that voice and how it portrays his timeless melodies.

Initially it looked like Almost & Always wasn't going to get any kind of proper release - at one point it seemed as if the only promotional push was Mead himself posting out promo copies to anyone hosting a widget on their website - which would've been a horrendous shame, but at the time of writing it's now available on CD from the likes of Amazon. Picking highlights is nigh on impossible, but the lump-in-throat Sicily and jaunty Rainy Weather Friend are probably the best places to start. All in all, a masterpiece and artistic triumph; how he's going to top this is anyone's guess.

2. Don McGlashan & the Seven Sisters- Marvellous Year

On the MP3 sampler: Not Ready

Someone else hitting major highs this year, this second solo record from Don McGlashan (well, not strictly solo as the Seven Sisters get equal billing) is surely his best set of songs since the Mutton Birds' high watermark Envy of Angels from 1997. A songwriter who's long since passed into the realms of can-do-no-wrong in my book, songs like Not Ready and You're The Song just go to prove his prowess once again.

3. A-ha - Foot Of The Mountain

On the MP3 sampler: The Bandstand

The second phase of A-ha's career has book-ended the decade nicely, this latest record working as a nice companion piece to 2000's excellent Minor Earth Major Sky. The two in the middle (Lifelines and Analogue) got bogged down in unmemorable MOR slush, so it's doubly surprising that Foot of The Mountain is so strong. The synths are back in force, as are the soaring melodies. Accurately described elsewhere as Coldplay meeting the revived Take That, this is the very definition of grown-up pop. A fitting swansong.

4. Regina Spektor - Far

On the MP3 sampler: Genius Next Door

One of the greatest things as a music fan is the surprise of when an artist who's previously occupied a middling position in your record collection (i.e. they've made a couple of decent-ish records but nothing that makes you desperate for the next release) puts out something utterly wonderful. Launching with the very understated single Laughing With was a fine bit of wrong-footing, as this is on the whole a lush, upbeat tour-de-force. Regina's most beautifully-produced record to date, and containing some of her absolutely finest tunes - start with Eet, Two Birds and Genius Next Door.

5. Nerina Pallot - The Graduate

On the MP3 sampler: Cigarette

Like Regina, Nerina Pallot is someone else who's made some records I've really liked in the past but never hinted at the greatness she's achieved this year. In addition to the brilliant Graduate record (on which she's shown some incredible previously unexplored pure-pop nous, e.g. on the single Real Late Starter), there were a couple of preceeding EPs, both containing moments of staggering beauty. Good to see It Starts from the Buckminster Fuller EP making it onto the album, but where's the spine-tingling Girl On A Wire? And how about the Junebug EP's truly heartbreaking This Will Be Our Year? Ignore the year's big-selling girl pop acts - Nerina's the one to track down.

6. Pet Shop Boys - Yes

On the MP3 sampler: All Over The World

Yup, that'll be Pet Shop Boys AND A-ha in my top ten for 2009. Not sure what my younger self would say about that back in the 80s, but the fact remains, these guys are still making brilliant records. Getting Xenomania in was a masterstroke, creating a collection of sublime pop songs with the kind of hooks that really should have been hanging around the higher reaches of the Top 40. On the downside, some shockingly simplistic lyrics (I'm not laying the blame for that at Neil Tennant's door) jar somewhat with the glorious pop sheen.

7. A Camp - Colonia

On the MP3 sampler: Golden Teeth and Silver Medals

I was never a fan of the Cardigans in their twee-pop years, and only started taking notice when they changed direction on Gran Turismo. The couple of records they've put out this decade have been brilliant, a run that continues into the second record from Nina Persson's sideline A Camp. Her voice is still one of the finest in pop, and she gets to put it to good use on late night Radio 2 favourites like Love Has Left The Room and Stronger Than Jesus. The Crowning and Golden Teeth & Silver Medals sound like outtakes from a Broadway musical yet to be written; on the whole, a cracking pop record.

8. The Bee Gees - Odessa (re-issue)

On the MP3 sampler: Lamplight

Christ on a bike, what are the toothsome threesome doing here??? It's very odd to think that less than a decade before their heinous disco reincarnation, the Bee Gees were making glorious baroque sort-of-concept albums worthy of mention alongside the likes of Odyssey & Oracle. Odessa has it all - tunes galore, wonderful harmonies, lovely strings, some rather odd bleating, and in moments like Lamplight and I Laugh In Your Face, songs that can make naysayers completely rethink their opinion of a band. Didn't see *that* coming...

9. Annie - Don't Stop

On the MP3 sampler: Hey Annie

I really feel like I've re-embraced my inner pop kid this year... This is superior pop music, made by someone so far removed from the Britney side of that genre it's almost embarrassing. Straight-up pop masterclasses like Songs Remind Me Of You sit easily alongside quirkier moments like Breakfast Song. It does die on its backside towards the end, but at least the first 6 or 7 tracks here sound like pop gold beamed in from an alternate universe.

10. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

On the MP3 sampler: Travelling Woman

The big initial draw on this, aside from having really liked some tunes off Fur & Gold, was the appearance of Scott Walker actually singing a melody (rather than slapping a side of beef). His contribution is brief but beautiful, and fits perfectly at the end of a set of songs that have accessibility and mystery in equal measure. The vocal acrobatics and tribal drumming on Glass are spine-tinging, offset beautifully by piano ballads like Moon & Moon and Travelling Woman.

Download the MP3 Sampler (.zip)

Also worthy of mention.... Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew is a beautiful record, but so quiet and polite it's sometimes hard to remember it exists at all. Five years after the last one, Kings Of Convenience made a new record; maybe it'll be a grower, but it doesn't have anything particularly new to add to their already perfect palette, and aside from the brilliant Boat Behind, the songs aren't a patch on those on Riot On An Empty Street. I Concur's Able Archer is a sturdy indie-rock record, full of intelligent songwriting and big guitars. In the year I finally got into Belle & Sebastian, I very much enjoyed Stuart Murdoch's God Help The Girl record, although it's a bit too sweet to take all in one sitting. Neil Finn & co's 7 Worlds Collide should've been amazing - Neil, Don McGlashan, members of Radiohead and Wilco, Liam Finn, Bic Runga and Tim Finn is pretty much my dream dinner party - but somehow fell down due to its own eclecticism. Don's Long Time Gone and Liam's Red Wine Bottle were the picks of the bunch, proving both to be songwriters willing to generously spirit away some of their best work to outside projects. Spent a bit of time on the epic projects released by Sufjan Stevens and the Decemberists; the neo-classical BQE was an absolute treat for the ears, while I must admit I found The Hazards of Love a bit too much. The Second Howling Bells album was a fine beast, building on the sterling work of their debut from a few years back.

Next year.... Even if nothing else, I'm already rubbing my hands with glee at the prospect of new albums from Crowded House and Josh Rouse...

Leave those decisions to us...

2009-10-26T15:43:00.001Z

My mates in I Concur have just released their brilliant debut album, Able Archer. I interview Tim and James for the Leeds fanzine Vibrations - physical copies of the mag are out around Leeds now (find it in independent record stores, Hyde Park Picture House, various pubs and choice locations), but if you don't manage to find one, the content is also online. Head straight to the I Concur interview here.

Here's the video for the single, Sobotka:

The single and album can be bought from the Club AC30 website.

Too many roads bypass my way...

2009-07-17T12:20:00.003Z

In honour of my car throwing another fit and requiring another day at the garage, here are some motor-related gems...

MP3: Prefab Sprout - Cars and Girls

MP3: The Divine Comedy - Your Daddy's Car

MP3: Citizen Band - Rust In My Car

It's so clear and so true...

2009-07-17T12:15:00.002Z

Hurrah! The best pop band in Leeds have returned with a cracking new record. Have a look at The Lodger's new vid and then grab the EP from iTunes:

Look over there, you used to say...

2009-07-13T14:00:00.003Z

Here's Don McGlashan performing one of the finest songs in existence:

(Envy Of Angels, performed live on Good Morning (NZ TV), 10th July 2009)

Cassingle Revival: Seven - Inside Love

2009-05-28T12:29:00.003Z

Hadn't really thought about uploading random old cassingles before, but I had this song in my head today and figured other people might, at a push, remember it too. This is from somewhere around '89/'90-ish (it surely couldn't be from any later???) and was a single I absolutely adored, and played to death at the time. Think I may have even had the poster-bag 7" version too. I guess musically it hasn't stood the test of time, but as a tune it still pretty much rules.

Not sure what made me think of this song today, but a little bit of searching turned up the video on Youtube:

The audio on the MP3s below is from the cassingle, so probably not the greatest sound quality ever (but better than on that Youtube version...)

MP3: Seven - Inside Love

MP3: Seven - Till Then

It's a balancing act...

2009-05-07T14:50:00.004Z

I've become a bit obsessed with Nerina Pallot's new Buckminster Fuller EP. It doesn't appear to have been promoted much outside of her Myspace, which is a shame as it contains some of her best tunes to date. It Starts is just musical perfection, a fragile statement of intent which sets the tone for what's to follow. Best of the bunch is Girl On A Wire, where the modern-day-Joni vocals and piano are unexpectedly joined halfway through by a synth, to fantastic effect. Some gorgeous chords and the kind of melody that instantly sticks in the head all add up to a dreamily wonderful three and a half minutes. The EP's title track may well (consciously or not) melodically reference Regina Spector's Samson, and try listening to the synths in Better Than Today and not smirk if you're familiar with the theme music from the BBC spoof comedy Look Around You, but all in all this is a fantastic set of songs. Fingers crossed the long overdue album is as good...

Links to buy the EP can be found on Nerina's Myspace page

MP3: Nerina Pallot - Girl On A Wire

You shall go to the ball...

2009-05-06T12:05:00.004Z

Vested interest aside, here's a quick plug for the new March Greens EP, You Shall Go To The Ball. People say it's in a similar ballpark to Belle and Sebastian, so give it a listen if that's your bag. The whole EP is streaming over at www.myspace.com/themarchgreens, and it can be bought on iTunes and various other places - check out www.themarchgreens.co.uk for all the info you could possibly need.

MP3: The March Greens - Family Tree (demo)

My 90s: Pulp - Dishes

2009-04-24T14:09:00.003Z

Paul, my housemate during my second and third years at Uni, was (and possibly still is) a huge Pulp fan. I knew the hits (how could anyone in their teens in the mid-90s have missed Common People?), but listening to Paul's vinyl copy of This Is Hardcore on many a drunken night when it came out in 1998 was a revelation. "I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials / I am the man who stays home and does the dishes," sang Jarvis on what is surely one of his finest songs, 'Dishes'. A song with a guitar solo so brilliant yet so simple even I could play it. A tale of domestic drudgery which moves up a gear to the glorious ending: "And aren't you happy just to be alive? Anything's possible!"

MP3: Pulp - Dishes

Feels like a storm's coming...

2009-02-25T08:42:00.005Z

Don McGlashan is one of a very small handful of songwriters who occupy the highest strata of my music collection. A lot of this is due to the 1997 album he made with The Mutton Birds, Envy of Angels, a peerless collection of perfectly produced pop songs and the kind of melodies you can only dream of.

Following on from last summer's in-depth interview, I had the great pleasure of seeing him play in London last month, one of what were apparently his first ever solo shows, which is astonishing in itself given his lengthy career. At the show, a fine selection of Mutton Birds greats was pulled from the bag, interspersed with selections from his brand new album. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the new one, Marvellous Year, a few weeks before its NZ release date of 2nd March. To say it's a fantastic piece of work would be to downplay it, so here goes nothing: I think it's his finest collection since Envy. This is not to say the Mutton Birds' swansong Rain, Steam & Speed wasn't a fantastic album, because it truly was (and songs like Last Year's Shoes and Winning Numbers are grade-A pop tunes and will continue to be so), and it's not to say that Warm Hand, the intriguing solo debut from 2006, wasn't a satisfying bold new direction (largely eschewing the pop songs of yore for lengthier, more textural compositions) - it's just that Marvellous Year takes the best elements from all sides of his songbook and the result is truly stunning.

Picking highlights is tricky. Parts of Not Ready seems to hark back to one of the Mutton Birds' most sadly overlooked triumphs, No Telling When. You're The Song is a disarming ballad that on first listen sounds too easy but on subsequent plays makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Everything's Broken; Life's So Sweet is just downright awesome. Then there's Bad Blood, one of the story-songs he's so good at; this one finds him travelling on a bus with an unwanted fellow passenger who may or may not just be a malevolent alter-ego. 18th Day is a momentous piano ballad which sees Neil Finn provide beautiful layered harmonies. Don even chucks in his own version of Bathe In The River, after having had such huge success with the Hollie Smith-sung version from the 'No.2' film soundtrack. Radio Programmer flies out of the speakers at a pace even the Mutton Birds rarely hit, a tongue-in-cheek self-referential piece about how the titular programmer works out what's going to sound good on the radio: "Take for instance this one / By the Seven Sisters / It's gonna be a tough call..." Which reminds me, this album isn't strictly a solo record, it being billed as 'Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters', the collective of musicians he's been backed by in recent years.

All in all, it's a phenomenally good record, and one that's going to continue to get a good thrashing on my stereos this year. Hopefully it'll build on the huge boost to his profile that his recent work with Neil Finn in both Crowded House and the recent 7 Worlds Collide project have given him.

Marvellous Year is released on Arch Hill Records in NZ on 2nd March. Get pre-ordering here. Hear Bad Blood on Don's Myspace page.

Crystal moon, the autumn leaves

2009-01-19T10:18:00.002Z

A few items of interest...

Firstly, an album that passed under my radar - it only having been released in NZ, and on a tiny independent label at that - and only brought to my attention recently by a friend with exquisite taste and a good pedigree of recommendation :) Graeme Humphreys and Peter Keen were previously members of NZ indie-rock band the Able Tasmans, but in 2006 made an album as Humphreys & Keen. Called 'The Overflow', it's a truly astounding record, full of the kind of melodies that get under your skin and burrow in deep. Each song seemingly contains a whole barrage of hooks; even when you think you've got it sussed, another melodic twist comes along to sweep you off your feet. The songs are mostly based around a musical bed of rich piano, but wonderful arrangements - augmented by strings here and brass there - ensure a consistently brilliant and shifting musical outlook throughout. It really is a dream of a record. After a couple of months of constant listening, it's still revealing new secrets on every play, different songs establishing themselves as firm favourites. A selection from the album can be found at their Myspace - if you only stream one song, go for You Too, with its gorgeous strings.

If you need any further convincing that this album is an essential buy, here's an MP3 that'll seal the deal:

MP3: Humphreys & Keen - The End Of The Golden Weather

Buy The Overflow

Apologies to anyone who knows me, as the following statement will shock: I've been listening - voluntarily - to the BEE GEES. Oh yes. But wait, it's not what it seems. The ever-brilliant All Songs Considered podcast from NPR (an increasingly reliable source of fantastic new musical finds) played a tune from the Gibb brothers' 1969 concept (of sorts) album 'Odessa', which prompted an immediate purchase from 7digital (given that the only physical release appears to be a £30 deluxe box set - how deep is my love? Not £30 deep, that's for sure). The opening title track is probably the best - and strangest - song on the album, and worth buying on its own, but the rest of it is pretty fantastic. Hints of the Beatles, Love, the Beach Boys, the Zombies and the Kinks nestle alongside a very identifiable early take on the Bee Gees' trademark harmonies. I'm not venturing any further into their catalogue, mind, as I'm well aware of the disco horrors that lurk about a decade further on.

MP3: Bee Gees - Melody Fair

And finally, it's always fantastic when a favourite artist returns with some new material, and even more so when it's with an album so wonderful it puts most of their already-impressive back catalogue to shame. It appears David Mead's big push to be a big player on the indie scene with the potential pop crossover of 2006's Tangerine didn't work out, leading to his latest, Almost & Always, being pretty much given away digitally for free (well, in exchange for some email addresses). This isn't a musical last gasp however - Almost & Always is the classic-sounding album he's been hinting at for years. It's at once recognisably Mead while at the same time going somewhere completely different. Occasionally conjuring up the kind of musical imagery Gershwin provided for Woody Allen, this is a complete and utter triumph of songwriting. As opposed to Tangerine's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink production, Almost & Always sees stripped-back arrangements leaving space for the lush melodies and vocals to shine through. A fellow Mead enthusiast suggested that after just one listen, it was up there with Indiana in terms of being pinnacles of his discography. There's a good chance that after a few more plays it may even surpass that fantastic record. An utter beauty, and an early contender for album of the year.

MP3: David Mead - Little Boats

New David Mead

2008-12-12T08:46:00.001Z

Turn on the Christmas lights...

2008-12-10T21:51:00.002Z

A homegrown melancholy festive moment for your delectation...

MP3: Last Night's TV - Christmas Lights

Visit the LNTV website

Best Albums of 2008

2008-12-10T21:30:00.006Z

1. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

2008 hasn't been a classic year for albums, but a handful of records stood out, none moreso than this brilliant set from Elbow. They've never convinced me over the course of an album before, despite a handful of tracks from each previous release making an impact. This time though, the heartfelt and powerful songwriting of tracks like One Day Like This, Bones Of You and the astounding Mirrorball have made this an essential listen.
MP3: Mirrorball

2. The Week That Was - The Week That Was

Last year's Field Music album was a great pop record, but it didn't give any clue as to the change in direction Peter Brewis would take next. While his brother David put out skewed experimental pop as School of Language, Peter made an 80s-tinged detective novel of an album, full of odd time signatures and cryptic lyrics but retaining his signature melodic nous. A true masterpiece.
MP3: Learn To Learn

3. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes / Sun Giant EP

White Winter Hymnal is one of those songs where the first listen is like being transcended to a higher plane. Many subsequent listens haven't diminished even a bit of its brilliance, and it was fantastic to find the album and accompanying EP were full of similar moments. Stunning melodies and even better harmonies, seeing them do it live at the Brudenell in Leeds confirmed that this is truly a band who are going places.
MP3: White Winter Hymnal

4. Justin Currie - What Is Love For

A 2007 release but one I didn't get til this year, this is a truly jaw-dropping record, the kind that gives fresh life to the singer/songwriter tag. I have Del Amitri's Best Of and knew Currie was a good pop writer, but this collection shows a writer of hard-hitting, mature compositions, shown best on the title track and the heartbreaking Still In Love.
MP3: Still In Love

5. Josh Pyke - Chimney's Afire

A second full-length from Josh Pyke in the space of two years, and once again crammed with instantly memorable pop songs. Maybe not as great overall as Memories And Dust, but the formula is certainly working at full strength on tracks like The Summer, You Don't Scare Me and Eat Me Alive, where he's really perfected his own style.
MP3: The Summer

6. Tim Finn - The Conversation

Yet another cracker from Tim, but this time stripped-down chamber-pop, following on from the polished pop production of 2006's Imaginary Kingdom. The songwriting and voice are to the fore on these guitars/piano/violin arrangements, with a fine set of folky tunes to match. Proving once again that he never makes the same record twice, this style suits his current songwriting perfectly.
MP3: Straw To Gold

7. Robert Forster - The Evangelist

His first new material since the final (and best?) Go Betweens album Oceans Apart, The Evangelist finds Forster still firing on all cylinders, the little vignettes he's famed for making a welcome return. Add to that songs like the gorgeous Demon Days, which built upon ideas from the late Grant McLennan, and this is a stately if understated set.
MP3: Demon Days

8. Republic Tigers - Keep Color

I'd bracket the Republic Tigers in with bands like Guster, who on the surface are just a bunch of blokes making effortlessly melodic pop/rock, but once the songs get under your skin, they're hard to shake. Random Youtube surfing suggests they might not be much cop live, but on this wonderful album they're a fantastic proposition, particularly on tracks like Weatherbeaten and the brilliant Buildings & Mountains.
MP3: Buildings & Mountains

9. Captain Wilberforce - Everyone Loves A Villain

Leeds' primary (and only?) power-pop merchant released his second album this year, a fantastic set of songs that sound like what you might get were you to stick Squeeze, the Beatles and Jellyfish in a blender. Timeless pop melodies and a way with words mark him out as one to keep an eye on.
MP3: Confetti Champagne & Roses

10. Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

Given that the last two Coldplay albums topped my Best Of polls in '02 and '05, I had high hopes for this one. So it was something of a letdown to find they've mostly abandoned their classic songcraft in favour of trying to be experimental. Saying that, Violet Hill and Viva La Vida are cracking tunes, so it wasn't a total waste.
MP3: Violet Hill

And the rest...

Aside from Captain Wilberforce, there was a fair bit of other good stuff coming out of Leeds this year. The Rosie Taylor Project's debut album This City Draws Maps is a mellow pop album centred around the brilliant single Black And White Films. Benjamin Wetherill made a top-notch folk record, Laura, in Hungary, making good on the promise of previous singles and EPs. Duels' second album, The Barbarians Move In, was an all-encompassing brooding monster of an album, taking the pop stylings of their debut and making something altogether darker and more sinister. A great collection, and in Regeneration they had one of the year's finer singles too. Originally from the Leeds area but now based in the States, Your Vegas's debut A Town And Two Cities was full of bombastic stadium rock but with tunes to match. The Research also returned this year, and despite no longer having EMI to bankroll them, The Old Terminal sounded in many ways more accomplished production and arrangement-wise. Song-wise it maybe wasn't as satisfying as 2006's Breaking Up though. The Lodger also returned with a second album of effortlessly brilliant indie-pop, which is well worth seeking out.

Further afield, Jaymay's elegant folk-pop on Autumn Fallin' perfectly captured the feeling of Autumn in New York, her wordy and literate lyricism suggesting a Woody Allen fan. Great tunes too, the gorgeous Blue Skies being the pick of the bunch. Jenny Lewis's Acid Tongue also had some fine tunes, Black Sand and the title track being particularly good, but the album felt a bit weak toward the end.

Eric Matthews released the excellent The Imagination Stage this year, probably the best work he's put out since 1995's It's Heavy In Here, with the usual compliment of intricate instrumentation and breathy vocals very much in place. The Magnetic Fields' Distortion was a great set of songs too, assuming you could get past the production quirk. Would've been a more sustainable listen without the distortion, but that would defeat the objective.

Stinker of the year? That'll be Ben Folds with Way To Normal. I'm a huge fan and was very much looking forward to this, and I can't recall being more let down by an artist. Okay, so Cologne is wonderful, and You don't Know Me an okay single, but the rest of it is substandard at best. I eventually got round to picking up Ben Folds Five's Unauthorised Biography of Reinhold Messner this year, which kind of illustrated just how far his songwriting has sunk. The brilliant Rockin' The Suburbs increasingly seems like a solo fluke.

Live event of the year: Nothing could possibly come close to Crowded House and Don McGlashan at Sherwood Pines Forest back in June. Having free tickets and backstage passes were a bonus, of course, and getting to have a good chat with Don was the icing on the cake. Don's back in the UK in January for a one-off London gig, which I can't recommend highly enough, and both he and Crowded House have new albums scheduled for 2009, which will be essential purchases.

Great Closing Tracks: Playlist #1

2008-09-30T12:46:00.009Z

It could well be due to the kind of artists I mostly get into, but there does seem to be a trend in my record collection for closing tracks to be the emotional heart of the album. So how about an album's worth of closers for a reflective hour's listening, eh?

We kick off with Envy of Angels, from the same-name album by The Mutton Birds, and a song which may well be the greatest 6 minutes in songwriter Don McGlashan's back catalogue. If the descriptions of the New Zealand countryside in this song don't make you instantly want to get a plane ticket to Auckland, you truly have a heart of stone. I've just had chills down my spine listening to this tune for the first time since June, when I had it on loud it in the car having just interviewed Don after his gig with Crowded House in Sherwood Pines Forest. A lovely guy and an immense talent whose forthcoming second solo album is hugely anticipated around these parts.

Other highlights include possibly the greatest moment in either of the Finn Brothers' back catalogues, some acappella loveliness from The Research, Darren Hanlon's magnificent piano-led Old Dream, a brilliant dash of Jason Falkner (with a fantastic Beach Boys 'Til I Die'-inspired coda), and a drop-dead classic from Scott Walker. Enjoy!

MP3: The Mutton Birds - Envy Of Angels
Info -- Buy Envy Of Angels

MP3: The Finn Brothers - Gentle Hum
Info -- Buy Everyone Is Here

MP3: Darren Hanlon - Old Dream
Info -- Buy Fingertips & Mountaintops

MP3: Bic Runga - Gravity
Info -- Buy Beautiful Collision

MP3: Candy Butchers - Hunker Down
Info -- Buy Hang On Mike

MP3: Josh Rouse - Snowy
Info -- Buy Country Mouse City House

MP3: Hunters and Collectors - Long Way To The Water
Info -- Buy Juggernaut

MP3: Jason Falkner - Goodnight Sweet Night
Info -- Buy Can You Still Feel

MP3: The Starlets - Firestorm
Info -- Buy Surely Tomorrow You'll Feel Blue

MP3: Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Info -- Buy Weightlifting

MP3: Scott Walker - Rhymes Of Goodbye
Info -- Buy Scott 4

MP3: The Research - Splitting Hairs
Info -- Buy Breaking Up

Too much time to find for ourselves...

2008-07-18T09:30:00.003Z

I fancied a trip down memory lane recently, and dug out a Pet Shop Boys compilation I put together a few years back. Some great stuff, and a reminder of what a brilliantly consistent singles band they were (and still are, to some extent, although their last two or three albums haven't really registered on my radar). They always stood out, largely due to Neil Tennant's ability to spin the kind of intelligent lyric that really shouldn't have fitted comfortably with the 80s/90s pop scene, but somehow did.

I remembered seeing this site a while back eulogising Being Boring as the most beautiful song ever written - how many songs have a whole website dedicated to them? Whether or not it's *the* most beautiful is obviously questionable, but listening to its lyrics can certainly send a chill down the spine. Especially the last verse:

"Now I sit with different faces
In rented rooms and foreign places.
All the people I was kissing,
Some are here and some are missing
In the nineteen-nineties.

I never dreamt that I would get to be
The creature that I always meant to be.
But I thought, in spite of dreams,
You’d be sitting somewhere here with me."

I love a good reminiscing lyric, and it's rare to find one as eloquent and resonant as Being Boring. Truly heartbreaking stuff.

MP3: Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring

And to prove they can do upbeat as well as reflective, here's a later cut from the mid-90s.

MP3: Pet Shop Boys - Se A Vida E (That's The Way Life Is)

Come around to my way of thinking...

2008-04-24T15:15:00.003Z

Anyone who knows me will know about my affection for the NZ pop band The Mutton Birds. With my co-conspirator Dave Thake, we've in the past been responsible for gathering together the band's long out-of-print b-sides and rarities for an audio project (the results of which can be downloaded at A Religion Of A Kind), and now we're turning our hands to the band's video work.

The above video, for should've-been-a-hit Come Around is one of a vast array of promos, interviews and live clips we've gathered together for a YouTube channel called Mutton Birds And Beyond (and all of the clips are also embedded for easier navigation at A Religion Of A Kind). The archive also delves into frontman Don McGlashan's work away from the band, from his time in NZ theatre duo The Front Lawn up to his recent solo record Warm Hand. From the latter, here's the stunning I Will Not Let You Down:

Don is touring with Crowded House over the summer - fingers crossed for some UK dates...

About to go down like a domino...

2008-04-11T14:15:00.003Z

I've had a bit of a Squeeze-fest in the last few weeks, digging out the brilliant Big Squeeze best of and making inroads into the back catalogue. I've started at the end and plan to work backwards, so I have a newly acquired copy of Domino, the band's final (to date) record from 1998, while waiting the postman to drop 1995's Ridiculous through my letterbox. The singles off the latter were stellar, so I have high hopes for the rest of the album.

As for Domino, it's far from a classic album, but it has some very fine tunes indeed. Whether or not either Glenn Tilbrook or Chris Difford do any of these songs in their solo sets remains to be seen, but I won't be complaining if Glenn drops one of the following into his set when he plays Leeds in October...

MP3: Squeeze - Domino
MP3: Squeeze - Sleeping With A Friend

Buy Domino

No negotiation or debate...

2008-03-14T11:37:00.004Z

A quick plug for my mates in the Leeds-based post-rock band I Concur, who seem to be doing very well for themselves at the moment. Their fantastic new single, Lucky Jack / Build Around Me is out now, and a Radio 1 session is booked in for the end of March.

Take a listen to (and buy) the new single over at www.myspace.com/iconcurband, and while you're there have a listen to some tunes from their EP, including the spectacular Oblige.

If you want, we can get together...

2008-02-19T09:22:00.006Z

Great Overlooked Albums #3

Astrid - Play Dead

Whereas nowadays the likes of Sons & Daughters and Camera Obscura see their wistful indie-pop on fashionistas' must-have lists, their fellow countrymen Astrid didn't have it so easy in their heyday at the turn of the century. Headed by frontmen Charlie Clark and William Campbell, Astrid had a pop sensibility that in any right-thinking society would've seen them propelled onto any radio playlist worth its salt.

Debut album Strange Weather Lately was a masterclass in short, sharp pop songwriting, and a slew of singles were spun from it, suggesting that their label Fantastic Plastic thought they were on to a winner.

I first came across the band when they were promoting the record on a free tour sponsored by Melody Maker, and would, in the following couple of years witness many more brilliantly energetic live shows which belied the fact there weren't actually many people in the audience.

When it came to making the follow-up, rumours abounded that after a chance meeting, Adam Schlesinger from Fountains Of Wayne was heading for the producer's chair. It would've made perfect sense if he had; in hindsight, Astrid's first two records echoed the FoW model of a blistering pop debut followed up by something that dug a bit deeper and revelled in mellower moments. But even by the high standards set by Strange Weather Lately and the mass of fantastic b-sides from its singles, it would've been hard to foresee a follow-up as fantastic as Play Dead.

The focus was still on the insanely catchy singalong melodies, but nestled in among the powerpop of It Never Happened and the singles Tick Tock and Modes Of Transport were chilled out moments of beauty, such as the wistful Alas, the countryfied Taken For Granted and - possibly the best of the bunch - the hidden bonus track We'll Drive Away.

A third album, in 2004, had a limited release in some territories, but inter-band conflict meant it was only a matter of time before it all came tumbling down. Charlie Clark was last seen in Cold Night Song, while William Campbell appears to be working with poet Kevin MacNeil.

MP3: Astrid - Modes Of Transport

MP3: Astrid - Wrong For You

MP3: Astrid - We'll Drive Away

Buy Play Dead

So much better with the past behind you...

2007-12-20T13:44:00.000Z

Just when you think 2007 is done and nothing new will emerge til the new year, along comes Mike Viola with his new self-released record, Lurch.

Despite staying under the radar most of the time, he's released a record a year for the last few years - 2004's Candy Butchers masterpiece Hang On Mike, 2005's Just Before Dark, 2006's compilation of early Candy Butchers material Making Up Time, and now his new record, which stylistically is a mix of Candy Butchers indie-rock and the 70s singer-songwriter style he's favoured more recently.

Most excitingly, it includes So Much Better, a cracking Beatles-y pop tune that's been streaming on his Myspace page for what seems like years.

MP3: Mike Viola - So Much Better
Buy Lurch

MP3: Candy Butchers - Unexpected Traffic
Buy Hang On Mike

Video: Mike Viola - Number Crunch (right-click and save)
Buy Just Before Dark

And as a bonus, a song I posted last Christmas, but figured it's well worth posting again - one of the finest contemporary Christmas tunes...

MP3: Candy Butchers - Give Me A Second Chance For Christmas
Buy Let's Get Christmas

Best Albums Of 2007

2007-12-07T13:16:00.000Z

01 - Crowded House - Time On Earth

While not being in the 'Paul-Hester's-not-around-anymore-so-how-dare-they-call-it-Crowded House' camp, I can see why there were doubts as to whether the reformed House could live up to previous highs (this is, don't forget, essentially the follow-up to 1993's masterpiece Together Alone). So does it live up to the legacy? Well, it sounds exactly like the record Neil Finn was always likely to make at this point in time, whether released under his own name or not. Stylistically it's a cross between his own last solo album, 2002's One All, and the wonderful Finn Brothers record from 2004, Everyone Is Here. And if, like me, you found him to be on top songwriting form with those records, there's nothing to disappoint on Time On Earth.

It's mostly mid-tempo ballads, but there are also a handful of tunes where the band ups the pace a bit. Highlights are many: witness the Icehouse-meets-Radiohead stylings of Say That Again, the heartbreaking lyrics of Silent House, the stunning Pour Le Monde and the Don McGlashan-aided lament English Trees. It ends on the marvellously moody People Are Like Suns, which would rank as a fine slice of melancholy any day, but they then went and released a stripped down version on a subsequent single release that took the song to a completely different, much more vulnerable place. An utterly magnificent return.

MP3: Crowded House - Say That Again
Buy Time On Earth

Bonus MP3: Crowded House - People Are Like Suns (piano version)

2 - The Shins - Wincing The Night Away

It looks like the only way is up for The Shins, who've somehow succeeded in making an album that's even better than their fantastic previous one, Chutes Too Narrow. James Mercer is still writing the best lyrics around, but the production values have been upped significantly and the tunes are now gold-plated. Picking highlights is hard, as this is a phenomenal record from start to finish, but Phantom Limb deserves special mention while Sea Legs, Turn On Me and Spilt Needles all push the standards of contemporary indie-pop ever higher.

MP3: The Shins - Spilt Needles
Buy Wincing the Night Away

03 - Josh Pyke - Memories And Dust

Out of the blue, this record appeared on my radar in the first half of the year, and within days of buying it, I was sat in the Faversham in Leeds watching it being played out live in front of me. My initial assessment of Josh Pyke's songwriting - as being a cross between Neil Finn and Darren Hanlon - still holds true; his way with an instant classic sounding pop tune (as on Private Education and the sublime title track) and clever wordplay (best shown on the stream-of-consciousness autobiography of Middle Of The Hill) mark out his place among the great pop songwriters. He does melancholy well too, and makes depression sound positively life-affirming on the glorious Vibrations In Air. Debuts don't come much better.

MP3: Josh Pyke - Memories And Dust
Buy Memories And Dust

4 - Josh Rouse - Country Mouse, City House

The man with the most frighteningly consistent release schedule of the last five years returned this year with another brilliant album (oh, and an EP with his partner under the name She's Spanish I'm American). At a rate of an album and standalone EP every year, you'd think the quality rate of Josh Rouse's output would be dropping by now, and while Country Mouse City House isn't as 100% satisfying as last year's Subtitulo, it does contain a handful of his finest tunes yet. Witness the lazy summer vibe of gorgeous opener Sweetie, the jazzy Pilgrim or standout track God Please Let Me Go Back, which rewrites It's A Wonderful Life, with Josh's afterlife alterego wanting to come back and make amends (or at least see off the guy who's making moves on Josh's grieving girl). Marvellous stuff - and here's to whatever he's got planned for 2008...

MP3: Josh Rouse - Sweetie
Buy Country Mouse City House

05 - Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedela

This third full length album from the scarily talented Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman takes in Scott Walker-like orchestration (And I Remember Every Kiss), twee europop (Into Eternity), Motown-influenced pop (The Opposite Of Hallelujah) and what resembles 70s disco (Sipping On The Sweet Nectar). And that's not even mentioning the skewed genius of Your Arms Around Me (how many other pop songs released this year deal with the subject matter of slicing off a fingertip?) and the stunning Postcard To Nina, in which our hero poses as his lesbian penpal's boyfriend at a family gathering. At times heartbreaking, but mostly just euphoric, this album need to be heard to be believed.

MP3: Jens Lekman - The Opposite Of Hallelujah
Buy Night Falls Over Kortedala

06 - Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full

While 2005's Chaos And Creation In The Backyard had a nice bit of sonic magic courtesy of producer Nigel Godrich, this year's follow-up (although apparently for the most part recorded before Chaos) is very much back to basics - great songs and great performances. Obviously being Paul McCartney, certain expectations will always abound, but seriously, for anyone with a back catalogue as impressive as his to still be adding to it is pretty damn amazing. Dance Tonight is naggingly brilliant in its simplicity (and kudos to Sir Paul for getting Natalie Portman to appear in the video), while Ever Present Past and See Your Sunshine sound like classic Wings. And then there's the great character piece Mr Bellamy, which is what a modern-day Beatles record would surely sound like. Forget all the tabloid nonsense, this is why everyone should still be talking about Paul McCartney.

MP3: Paul McCartney - Mr Bellamy
Buy Memory Almost Full

07 - Field Music - Tones Of Town

One of the more pleasant surprises of the year was this January-released second album from Sunderland's finest pop trio, Field Music. Trying to categorise it is hard, but the brilliant Closer At Hand and Place Yourself touch on chamber-pop while Give It Lose It Take It is a belting prog-pop opener. Three wildly different but equally jaunty singles were taken from the album, including the string-laden A House Is Not A Home and the edgy guitar-driven In Context, but check out if you can the title track, which is a multi-sectioned mini epic that clocks in at just over 3 minutes.

MP3: Field Music - Closer At Hand
Buy Tones of Town

08 - Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning

As if one member of the Finn family in the top ten isn't enough, here's Neil's eldest son Liam with his debut solo record. While the couple of albums he released with Betchadupa were patchy at best (teenage angsty rock usually winning the battle over the more overtly melodic fare of the kind his dad knocks out), I'll Be Lightning is a fine collection of highly hummable songs. He sounds most like his dad on the acoustic strums of Fire In Your Belly and Gather To The Chapel, but he really comes into his own on the eccentric arrangements of Second Chance and Energy Spent. Not a perfect record by any means, but his family history suggests the best is almost certainly still to come.

MP3: Liam Finn - Energy Spent
Liam Finn's Myspace

09 - Fountains Of Wayne - Traffic And Weather

While it's fair to say that a merely 'good' Fountains Of Wayne still trounces 99% of most other bands' best work, this, their fourth album, is more than a little disappointing. It's their own fault of course - their first three albums, along with 2005's round-up of b-sides Out Of State Plates, pretty much defined what a power-pop act should be doing in this day and age: classic sounding singalong melodies, inventive lyrics, a wry sense of humour and yet a fully functional set of emotions. All of these elements are here - '92 Subaru, Yolanda Hayes and This Better Be Good are up there with the best of the back catalogue. And then there's the brilliant Fire In The Canyon, vocally aided by the always dependable Mike Viola. But then there are the songs that don't really go anywhere - the title track and Strapped For Cash are nicely played out scenarios but lacking in tunes, and Planet Of Weed is abysmal. Luckily the good outweighs the not so good, but they must try a bit harder next time.

MP3: Fountains Of Wayne - Fire In The Canyon
Buy Traffic and Weather

10 - My Friend The Chocolate Cake - Home Improvements

A welcome return for Melbourne's My Friend The Chocolate Cake, who are still mixing pop and folk in such a way that it falls slap bang in the middle of those genres whilst sounding completely and uniquely like no one but themselves. This is their strongest record since the 1994 masterpiece Brood, and finds David Bridie and friends on absolutely top form. As always on Chocolate Cake albums, sprightly pop songs rub shoulders easily with folky instrumentals, the former best exemplified by Pentecostal Girl, She Dreams All Different Colours and the brilliant title track, the latter by the dramatic and beguiling Opus Lagarulin. Add to that Bridie's knack of nailing a gorgeous melancholic ballad - shown here on Hymn For The Carnies and Let's Go Walk This Town - and you've got something very special indeed.

MP3: My Friend The Chocolate Cake - Home Improvements
My Friend The Chocolate Cake's Myspace

And the best of the rest...

While I can take or leave his self-titled debut, the last three Rufus Wainwright albums - Poses, Want One and Want Two - suggested an upwards arc towards producing something that would not only blow the rest of his back catalogue out of the water but truly make the breakthrough to superstar status. Release The Stars is not that album. It's not without its great moments - Going To A Town is a rousing call to arms, and Nobody's Off The Hook sounds exactly like what Woody Allen needs to soundtrack a future film. On the other side though, Not Ready To Love goes on forever without actually going anywhere, and Between My Legs pushes the boundaries of good taste. Following the Want records was always going to be a challenge, so here's hoping the next one sees him back on track.

Similarly disappointing was Feist's follow-up to the brilliant Let It Die. Despite giving her a massive UK hit single with the excellent 1234, there's really not much more on The Reminder to entice more than a couple of listens.

As amazing as it seems, it's been a whole 8 years since the last full length Jason Falkner record, the power-pop masterpiece that was Can You Still Feel. I'm pleased I wasn't waiting patiently all that time (only discovering him about 4 years ago) as I'm OK You're OK is something of a letdown. In 2004 he released a brilliant EP, Bliss Descending, but the album that's limped out three years later (in Japan only, at this stage) really is a missed opportunity. It's got some great songs of course - NYC, Anondah, Hurricane and I Don't Mind rank up there alongside his best, but Can You Still Feel Pt.2 this definitely isn't. Maybe he should try and tone down his perfectionism and get records finished quicker - a set of demos from 2002 that were doing the rounds show a much more focused collection, and while he's had issues getting the right record deal, there are other options for getting stuff out nowadays that he might want to look into...

Not having been a Suede fan, I can safely assess Brett Anderson's self-titled solo debut without the weight of his former band's back catalogue. Which is nice, as this is as far removed from glam indie-rock as it's possible to go without getting the lute out. It's full of slow-to-mid-tempo ballads, mostly string-laden, piano based mini-epics that go to make up something completely and utterly satisfying. There's nothing fancy, just straightforward laments which in cases like Song For My Father really tug at the heart strings. Even better is the dramatic To The Winter, complete with a string section straight out of am as yet unmade James Bond soundtrack.

A young British female singer with a decidedly retro musical outlook, Candie Payne must be seething that it's Amy Winehouse's motown-lite that grabs all the headlines while her own Dusty Springfield-inspired pop doesn't get a look in. It's probably down in part to the fact that Winehouse is living the rock & roll tabloid lifestyle while Payne is the sweet girl-next-door. Whatever, I Wish I Could Have Loved You More is a great debut album, from the trippy title track to the classic pop stylings of All I Need To Hear and the Mark Ronson-produced single One More Chance.

One half of a lavishly packaged 2CD set of the Go-Betweens' songwriters' solo outputs between phases 1 and 2 of the band, the Grant McLennan disc from Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997 shows that even away from the band, he was capable of knocking out classic pop songs. I was always more a fan of his straightforward pop songs (this is, after all, the man who wrote such utter classics as Streets Of Your Town, Bachelor Kisses and the more recent Finding You) than of his erstwhile partner Robert Forster's more arty output, so this is a nice way of being able to separate the two and see how they worked when left to their own devices. Highlights of this collection are many - the brilliant Haven't I Been A Fool and Easy Come Easy Go kick the collection off in fine style, before taking in the Paul Kelly-like Lighting Fires and possibly the pick of the bunch, the wonderful No Peace In The Palace: "Now that you have gone for good / There is no peace in my palace now". Nice one Grant, RIP.

Sondre Lerche's Phantom Punch is the power-pop record that Jason Falkner probably wishes he'd made. Building on the promise of his Two Way Monologue record from a couple of years ago, he's turned in a fantastic set of singalong hits-in-waiting. Pick of the bunch is the brilliant Say It All, although The Tape, Well Well Well and the action-packed title track also pack quite a (phantom) punch if you're into the Elvis Costello school of clever lyrics and punk-pop musical persuasion.

Fields released a strong debut record, Everything Last Winter, doing the boy/girl vocal thing perfectly and ticking all the right boxes along the thin line between great songs and noisy dynamics. Song For The Fields was re-recorded from the early version that had been floating around the web for ages, with even more gutsy guitars, while Schoolbooks finds a mellow port in the storm. Skulls And Flesh And More and Charming The Flames both build to brilliant crescendos, while the equally fantastic Feathers ends in a cyclone of controlled guitar chaos.

I don't think Radiohead's In Rainbows requires any more column inches than its release has already received, but I'm pretty sure the current fawning praise will die down in the weeks ahead when it'll slot into its natural place in the Radiohead catalogue - better than the last two or three albums but not a patch on OK Computer. Having said that, Reckoner and 15 Step are almost certainly among the finest tunes in their occasionally mighty canon.

Forget ELO or the Bee Gees - my guilty pleasure band are Hard-Fi. I know I shouldn't like them, but I can't deny that Richard Archer knows his way around a tune, best shown on Once Upon A Time In The West by the brilliant Tonight and The King. Suburban Knights is a great big dumb pop song with a naggingly catchy chorus, and while the rest of it is pretty good, it's maybe not as strong as the majority of their debut from a couple of years ago.

Having seen her support Sufjan Stevens in '06 and been very impressed, it was great to see St Vincent turn in a great debut album, Marry Me, full of skewed pop songs like the brilliant Paris Is Burning and abrasive Your Lips Are Red.

Song of the year comes from Okkervil River's The Stage Names - Savannah Smiles (MP3) is a heartbreaking ballad about the passing of time.

A great find was the 2005-released Room Noises by Eisley. A bunch of young Americans with a knack for sublimely gorgeous melodies and similarly wonderful harmonies, it's an absolute knock-out collection. The follow-up, Combinations, released this year, doesn't sound quite as promising.

It was a pretty good year for my home turf of West Yorkshire too. The Lodger's debut album Grown-Ups was one I was very much looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. Leeds' finest exponents of the 3 minute pop song have seemingly perfected their art on these 14 tracks, which includes the stellar singles Many Thanks For Your Honest Opinion and Let Her Go. There's not much variation instrument-wise (aside from some nice brass on Let Her Go), but The Lodger's shtick was never about musical experimentation - it's all about Ben Siddall's tuneful tales from the bedsit, exemplified brilliantly on Unsatisfied, Simply Left Behind and the frantic Watching.

A shining light in Wakefield's burgeoning singer/songwriter scene, Will Richards released his debut album Ready To Talk Now, which is well worth checking out if well-crafted Jeff Buckley-inspired tunes are your bag.

Leeds mainstays Shatner returned with the stellar follow-up to 2005's Energise, Thirteen O'Clock, with frontman/songwriter Jim Bower proving once and for all that he's one of the finer pop songsmiths around - think 80s-era Squeeze for a pretty accurate comparison (and try and not be put off by the ultra-proggy titles of Space Cathedral Parts 1 and 2).

Kaiser Chiefs also released their second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, which was a mix of classic-sounding Britpop - Heat Dies Down and Thank You Very Much - and a worrying amount of distinctly average cuts that reek of difficult second album syndrome.

Short back and sides...

2007-11-08T10:18:00.000Z

Songs about hairdressers can only surely exist in the world of indie-pop. It can, after all, only be the preserve of the particularly sensitive songwriter to wax lyrical on the subject.

Take Darren Hanlon and Jens Lekman for example. Both have a fixation with a hairdresser and each deals with it very differently. This may of course all be down to their intentions. Darren has romance in mind, but is initially wary of making any kind of move:

"Some days I make it my mission
To drive right past her salon
I prefer to worship her from a car"

Jens's relationship with Shirin, on the other hand, appears to be purely platonic, aside from when he's in the chair:

"When Shirin cuts my hair
It's like a love affair
Let those locks fall to the ground
Or let them stay there"

Darren attempts to stalk the object of his affection, despite advice to the contrary:

"A mutual friend tells me,
"Aww, she won't go for you Daz"
But I say I couldn't care"

It's not as though he's unaware of the risks:

"If I offered my love and kisses
Would she come at me with her scissors?
Love's declaration could be bad for my health..."

The risks in Jens's salon are a little more deep rooted:

"But what if it reaches the government
That you have a beauty salon in your own apartment?
I won't tell anyone!"

Still, at least in the meantime it's all going well, and he gets the cut he wants:

"I show her my passport
What I look like
But she just smiles and lets me know
It's gonna be alright"

The same can't be said for Darren, who doesn't so much as end up in the chair:

"As the town hall clock struck three
I delivered my soliloquy
She wouldn't give the time of day to me
But she gave my pride
A short back and sides"

MP3: Darren Hanlon - She Cuts Hair
(Buy Early Days)

MP3: Jens Lekman - Shirin
(Buy Night Falls Over Kortedala)

2007-07-10T12:20:00.000Z

Vastness, there's a vastness...

Move over Mr Rouse, there's a new Josh in town vying for stereo time chez On The Trail.

I first heard about Josh Pyke a few months back, when someone on the Michael Penn mailing list (a source for many of my musical finds over the last few years) tipped everyone off about a tune called Middle Of The Hill:

I'm guessing the above version was created to accompany the UK release of the single, as the original one from a couple of years ago is also floating around.

As fate would have it, when I had another look at his Myspace page a short while later, it turned out he was playing at a venue just down the road from me that very weekend. One fantastic gig later and the acquisition of his recently released UK debut 'Memories & Dust', and I was convinced I had stumbled upon an artist who's got a great future among my personal list of songwriting gods if nothing else.

The album is a must for anyone with a love for hook-laden pop gems - a cross between his fellow Antipodeans Neil Finn (melodically) and Darren Hanlon (for the occasional quirks) is the closest I've got to a decent summary of his songwriting prowess.

Such is the wealth of possible hits on the album, the record company has seemingly got around the problem of picking just one or two by releasing all of the radio-friendly fare as singles. Hence alongside Middle Of The Hill, there are similarly inventive videos for Private Education, Lines On Palms and my personal favourite, Memories & Dust:

The brilliance of the Memories & Dust album was hinted at on his previous release, the mini-album Feeding The Wolves, the original home to Middle Of The Hill. However, while much of the material on that record can tend to wash over you without leaving much trace, there is one absolute belter, in the shape of 'Goldmines'. The Finn and Hanlon comparisons drop away at this stage and we enter into the territory The Mutton Birds' chief songwriter Don McGlashan laid out on his classic songs such as White Valiant and Too Close To The Sun - driving through a barren countryside to a backdrop of some unspoken darkness:

Vastness, there's a vastness,
and it looks empty... but it's really full up to the brim.
And you can taste it, like a battery on your tongue,
electricity passing particle, to particle, to particle /

Car ride, we'll take a car ride,
out to the country, to see the goldmines.
See where that hill ends? That's where it all began,
and it was teeming then, now it's a fucking wasteland.

Add to that a melody to die for, and that glorious descending waterfall of vocals that close the song, and you're left with something very special indeed.

MP3: Josh Pyke - Goldmines

Buy Memories And Dust

Buy Feeding the Wolves

Do me a favour, open the door, let 'em in...

2007-06-05T12:52:00.000Z

Blimey, is it June already? Must be time for a few random thoughts, this time prompted by some upcoming action from some old favourites.

The new Crowded House album is less than a month away, which is of course a fine, fine thing indeed. Anyone who knows me will appreciate how exciting the prospect is of a new set of songs from the master himself, Mr Neil Finn. The brilliant video for the comeback single Don't Stop Now is a work of genius. I'm desperately trying to avoid the leaked album tracks that are doing the rounds - this is going to be one those 'event' releases, one that demands a sit-down-in-a-darkened-room-with-the-volume-right-up, listen-from-start-to-finish kind of attitude. I don't find the need to do that too often nowadays... But if the idea of a Crowded House revival floats your boat too, here's an old rarity to tide you over til 'Time On Earth' hits the shops at the start of July:

MP3: Crowded House - Most Unwanted (live)

Pre-order 'Time On Earth' from amazon.co.uk

Macca's back as well, and, given how fantastic his last record was (2005's 'Chaos & Creation In The Backyard'), expectations are high for 'Memory Almost Full'. Hoping for a career best is obviously a little optimistic, but here's the standard he needs to look at trying to match:

MP3: Wings - Let 'Em In

Buy 'Wingspan: Hits and History' from amazon.co.uk

Or indeed pick up 'Memory Almost Full'

Or even treat yourself to 'Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard'

And last but by no means least, a little bit of Scott Walker activity, as the hugely anticipated '30 Century Man' doco eventually comes to Leeds for a handful of showings at the Hyde Park Picture House in the middle of June. An edited version was shown on TV recently, which whetted the appetite. Just acquired a copy of the lost classic and nigh-on impossible to find 'Till The Band Comes In' (occasionally referred to as 'should-have-been-Scott-5'), which has some crackers on it, not least the stunning title track:

MP3: Scott Walker - Till The Band Comes In

Amazon can sort you out with a copy of 'Boy Child - the Best of 1967-1970'

One day they'll go faster than Superman...

2007-05-25T13:03:00.001Z

So... I wasn't going to use this blog for plugging my own music, but seeing as Last Night's TV have just unleashed a track that we're all incredibly proud of, I thought it worthy of a mention...

Funnily enough, on the very weekend we're playing a gig to plug our brand new free download-only single 'Monaco', the actual Monaco Grand Prix is taking place. I should mention at this point that no one in the band has even the slightest interest in motor racing (hence the timing being a mere coincidence), and the song only uses the race as a backdrop to a romance. Not particularly macho, but there you go. If you like your indie-pop a little melancholic and string-laden, give it a go.

Download MP3: Monaco (right-click and save as)

Alternatively, have a listen over at the Last Night's TV Myspace page, where you can also find details of upcoming gigs etc.

Hello traffic helicopter morning...

2007-05-15T08:31:00.000Z

Great Overlooked Albums #2

The Exponents - Better Never Than Late

If known outside NZ at all, The Exponents (or Dance Exponents as they were originally known) are probably best known for 80s hit 'Victoria', which found itself in the top 10 of APRA's recent 100 Best NZ Songs vote.

My knowledge of them extends no further than a handful of hits and, more importantly, an absolute gem of an album called 'Better Never Than Late' from 1997. This being around the time when I was still in my mildly obsessive phase of anything linked to the Finn Brothers and their erstwhile Split Enz colleagues (no matter how vague the link), this album, produced by none other than Enz keyboard maestro Eddie Rayner, was pre-destined to have a place in my CD racks.

Song-wise it's a fantastic collection, from the sleazy rock of 'Shouldn't Be Allowed' to the Mutton Birds-y radio-friendly 'One In A Lifetime', through drop-dead gorgeous ballad 'Come And Go', to the almost Crowded House-like 'You Started Me Thinking' (well, Crowded House in 'Locked Out' mode perhaps). Great songs, great album.

I found my copy in a second-hand shop in Reading, so presumably it had a UK release of sorts. A quick spot of Googling throws up very little about the album, and none of the obvious online retailers (even eBay) appear to have any copies. If you can track it down though, it's definitely worth a listen. More info on the band can be found here, and singer Jordan Luck's latest project can be found here.

MP3: The Exponents - One In A Lifetime

MP3: The Exponents - Come And Go

RIP Slough Record Centre

2007-04-23T12:21:00.000Z

Despite moving away from my home town of Slough a decade ago to the slightly (ha!) more vibrant charms of Leeds, I'll still be mourning at the end of this month when my number one childhood haunt, the Slough Record Centre, closes its doors for the last time.

Pretty much the only even half-decent independent record shop for miles around, heaven only knows how much time I spent in there when I was young.

The earliest purchase I remember making in there was the Shakin' Stevens single 'Lipstick, Powder and Paint', but the shop would later give rise to my Crowded House and Fountains Of Wayne obsessions, among other things.

I popped in for the last time when I was down south at Easter, and overheard one of the staff telling a customer that the downturn in trade was all down to the internet. While this may be so, I can't help but think they didn't really try and do anything to combat it. A quick Google search suggests that they've never set up a website to try and diversify a bit (although is there actually a music scene in Slough you can, say, sell tickets for?) - the likes of Crash and Jumbo in Leeds are fantastic examples of how indie stores can exist and maybe even flourish in the current climate, but then Leeds has the student backbone that Slough doesn't.

Aside from one major rejig of its interior, the SRC still resembles something from the '70s, and I suspect a fair amount of the stock hasn't changed since then either.

As in my schooldays, my last visit focused on the bargain bin. I picked out some good stuff, including the Divine Comedy's 'Diva Lady' single, a Finn Brothers single I didn't have (yup, the b-side was probably the millionth live recording of 'Weather With You', but, you know, for the sake of completeness and all that...), and a very unexpected find in the shape of Sondre Lerche's 'Two Way Monologue EP'. I've been very much enjoying Mr Lerche's new album, so it was nice to get hold of some older stuff. Among the tracks is, aptly for this post, the excellent Days That Are Over.

Nice one SRC, and thanks.

MP3: Sondre Lerche - Days That Are Over

Buy the Two Way Monologue album from Amazon.co.uk...

...or, er, alternatively from your local record store!!!

I will carve you in marble...

2007-03-27T11:19:00.000Z

After the positive feedback from the recent Nik Kershaw piece, my next Idiot's Guide is now online. This time I've looked at the career of someone I consider to be one of the true demi-gods of pop, Tim Finn.

Head on over to Jefitoblog to read the article.

I'll shake the dust off of my feet...

2007-03-15T11:48:00.000Z

Great Overlooked Albums #1

Geneva - Weather Underground

Having appeared at the tail end of Britpop with their debut Further, Geneva immediately stood out as a result of the extraordinary vocal talents of Andrew Montgomery and a bucketload of amazing songs too - singles Into The Blue, No One Speaks and career best Tranquillizer more than equalling anything else to be released in those heady times.

So how come their follow-up, 2000's brilliant Weather Underground, was so overlooked? A concept record in all but name, the themes of space travel and the state of the world give the songs a poignant edge, and their previous straightforward indie-rock stylings - seen here on single Dollars In The Heavens - are balanced out by the more reflective likes of If You Have To Go.

While their fellow countrymen Travis were selling millions of albums of by-numbers guitar pop, Geneva were producing tracks like the stunning Museum Mile, the album's centrepiece and beating heart. It didn't catch on, and they split up soon after.

Thankfully, the now Brighton-based Montgomery is still putting his choirboy voice to good use in St Famous

MP3: Dollars In The Heavens

MP3: If You Have To Go

MP3: Museum Mile

And as a bonus...

MP3: Tranquillizer (from Further)

A couple of other tracks from the debut album can currently be found here

Near a tree by a river...

2007-02-13T15:16:00.000Z

I've just contributed my Idiot's Guide To Nik Kershaw to the ever growing collection of Idiot's Guides over at the brilliant Jefitoblog.

Go over here to read it

As an additional bonus, here's another fantastic tune from Nik's career-best 15 Minutes:

MP3: Nik Kershaw - Made In Heaven

Buy 15 Minutes from amazon.co.uk

It's good to love, for love is hard to find...

2007-02-12T14:05:00.000Z

A Valentine's Day Playlist

Declarations of love, lost love, love that never was and love that might be. Valentine's Day may be greatly improved by giving these a spin.

MP3: Bic Runga - When I See You Smile

Buy Beautiful Collision from amazon.co.uk

MP3: A-ha - You'll Never Get Over Me

Buy Minor Earth Major Sky from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Darren Hanlon - He Misses You Too You Know

Buy Hello Stranger from Candle Records

MP3: David Gray - This Year's Love

Buy White Ladder from amazon.co.uk

MP3: David Mead - Breathe You In

Buy The Luxury of Time from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Josh Rouse - 100m Backstroke

Buy Home from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Rufus Wainwright - Natasha

Buy Want from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Split Enz - Message To My Girl

Buy Spellbound from amazon.co.uk

MP3: The Divine Comedy - Everybody Knows (Except You)

Buy A Short Album About Love from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Tim Finn - In Your Sway

Buy Before and After from amazon.co.uk

Slow down, there's gonna be trouble...

2007-01-19T11:31:00.000Z

Well, I certainly needed cheering up, having been off sick with some manifestation of a cold. So news of a brand new Fountains Of Wayne album in a couple of months is a tonic and a half.

Exponents of the some of the finest power-pop on the planet, the new record will hopefully see them build on the success of 2003's Welcome Interstate Managers, which even snared them a big UK hit in Stacy's Mom.

For now though, take a listen to this - an absolutely wonderful acoustic version of early album track Everything's Ruined. The original is taken from the rather excellent self-titled debut album, which you should probably buy from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Fountains Of Wayne - Everything's Ruined (acoustic)

I said it's like the soundtrack to our lives...

2007-01-05T08:56:00.000Z

To kick off the new year in style, here's an absolutely amazing performance from the Divine Comedy of Our Mutual Friend on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (2004):

Buy Absent Friends at amazon.co.uk

The moon is right, the spirit's up...

2006-12-19T16:41:00.000Z

Ah, Christmas music.... I'm sure I'm not the only one with an utter hatred for the inescapable 'classics'. Everyone knows my hatred for Slade, right? Good to see that this year there are some new genuine alternatives, whether they be fresh takes on old chestnuts or wildly inventive contemporary offerings. However, there needs to be a serious sea-change if we're ever to be freed from the kind of nonsense that keeps Jona Lewie or that guy out of Wizzard in royalties cheques.

Ol' sourpuss Tom McRae has his own way of dealing with the chirpyness of one such heinous musical crime, as his gorgeous re-telling of Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime shows. Knowingly or not, McCartney's horrific original evoked nauseating scenes of the happy-clappy Christmas from hell; McRae's version sounds like it's sung by someone whose idea of a wonderful Christmastime is sitting alone by a fireside with nothing but a glass of brandy for company. Chuck out Macca's terrible synths, bring in a mournful piano, and here's a version of the song that can rightly be regarded as a genuine festive classic.

MP3: Tom McRae - Wonderful Christmastime

Tim Finn, on the other hand, plays his festive cover - the equally loathsome Lennon/Ono standard Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - with reverence to the original, and it's a great success largely due to... well, largely because it's Tim Finn.

MP3: Tim Finn - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Does anyone actually know anything about Freiheit other than their classic late 80s Christmas hit? I have a vague feeling they represented Germany in an early 90s Eurovision Song Contest - not that I used to watch it or anything... ahem, but aside from that....? Join with me in keeping the dream alive for those wonderful one-hit wonders!

MP3: Freiheit - Keeping The Dream Alive

And finally for this festive selection, possibly my favourite Christmas tune. Mike Viola, of Candy Butchers fame, is no stranger to my stereo generally, with what can only be described as a seriously above-average back catalogue of amazing guitar pop, most notably 2004's Hang On Mike. A few years ago the Candy Butchers released a Christmas EP, from which Give Me A Second Chance For Christmas is taken. Long since deleted, copies are occasionally available from his website. If the lead track isn't enough for you, the EP also contains covers of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You and the Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way. Yes, really.

MP3: Candy Butchers - Give Me A Second Chance For Christmas

And finally, to continue with my recent musings on learning piano, a quick update - I've conquered the arrangement of Good King Wenceslas we looked at in the last lesson of this term. Thus, Christmas will be spent going over the stuff so far, along with the previously mentioned extra-curricular Sufjan and Regina tunes. I'm even going to have a crack at trying to figure this out - a gorgeous (and manageably short) instrumental from Neil Finn's soundtrack to the 2001 NZ movie Rain:

MP3: Neil Finn - Shower

Top 20 Albums Of 2006

2006-12-15T15:55:00.000Z

1 Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55

So then.... take Serge Gainsbourg's daughter and stick her in a studio with Air, Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon and Nigel Godrich, and what do you get? Well, I wouldn't have expected anything as great as the record that tops my list of the year's best albums. To try and figure out why it's so good, it's worth taking the constituent elements apart.

While in no way a fan of ambient dance music, I'd be the first to admit that Air have proved themselves capable in the past of knocking out an occasional pretty melody - see Cherry Blossom Girl or All I Need for examples. I was never a massive Pulp fan either, but respect Mr Cocker's way with words. So putting Jarvis's words to Air's music was always going to be an intriguing prospect. Getting Neil Hannon in to wrote additional lyrics was merely an added bonus.

But it's Ms Gainsbourg herself who's the real surprise here. I'd not encountered any of her previous work, and so had no preconceptions when I first heard a couple of these songs during the summer. The melodies are astoundingly pretty, and Gainsbourg's breathy vocals, coupled with the sumptuously polished production (take a bow Nigel Godrich) all end up making something classy yet wonderfully accessible. You do get the impression on a few occasions - not least the dramatic AF607105 - that she's taken Jarvis's demos and sung them exactly as he did, so similar is her phrasing and whispering. But then, blaming an actress for taking on someone else's persona is a bit rich, right? Especially when she does it so well. In The Songs That We Sing, we have a genuine pop classic about, er, pop music - "and the songs that we sing / do they mean anything / to the people we're singing them to?" A lot of the songs are built around spiralling piano motifs, and while some of the backing tracks are recognisably Air, they've restrained themselves enough to let the song be the focus rather than bleepy synths. Neil Hannon only gets a co-writing credit on a couple of songs, The Songs That We Sing being one, the drop-dead gorgeous Beauty Mark being the other, but both can rank highly on his song CV. All in all, an essential addition to any CD collection; an astounding record full of tunes to die for.

Key tracks: 5:55, The Songs That We Sing, Beauty Mark

MP3: Beauty Mark

Buy 5:55 from amazon.co.uk

2 The Research - Breaking Up

Here's a pleasant surprise - a pop trio from Wakefield who prove themselves not only capable of knocking out a string of fantastic singles, but also of turning in one of the best albums of the year. Constantly in danger of stumbling over the line marked 'twee' they remain just on the right side. This keyboard-bass-drums outfit's musical outlook resides in a world wholly of their own making, and there's no tricks, nothing fancy, just brilliantly catchy songs played with real heart. Frontman Russell (The Disaster) comes across as an utter loser (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) - all his songs see him as unlucky in love or losing out on life's riches, and whether it's inspired by real life or purely fiction, it's all great material. Also an amazing live band, and well worth checking out should they play nearby.

Key tracks: The Way You Used To Smile, When You Get Home, Splitting Hairs

MP3: When You Get Home

Buy Breaking Up from amazon.co.uk

3 Don McGlashan - Warm Hand

Anyone who knows me will know that along with his fellow elder statesmen of NZ pop/rock such as the Finn Brothers and Dave Dobbyn, the music of Don McGlashan has played a significant part in soundtracking my life over the last ten years or so. The Mutton Birds were a truly fantastic band, combining Crowded House-esque tunes with lyrics that play out like the best short story collection that's never made it to the bookshop. 1997's 'Envy Of Angels' still stands as the highest of watermarks in my music collection - the very definition of what literate yet monumentally melodic guitar pop should sound like. Since the Mutton Birds ceased to be at the turn of the century, the hardcore following have been waiting with baited breath to see what Don would do next. He's certainly taken his time, but 7 years after the last Mutton Birds album - the excellent Rain, Steam & Speed - this year he unleashed his solo debut, Warm Hand. Interviews he gave in the lead-up to the album suggested he was no longer chasing the '3-minute pop hit' that he'd so beautifully mastered previously. And while that's true to an extent, the gorgeous chiming melodies of This Is London or Harbour Bridge wouldn't be out of place on the playlist of any sane pop radio station. The album's first single, Miracle Sun, wasn't exactly a slouch in the singalong department either. Longer narrative songs such as Toy Factory Fire and Passenger 26 recall earlier material like A Thing Well Made and White Valiant, but funnily enough the beating heart of the album is a song Don didn't even write. I Will Not Let You Down, written by his bassist (and solo artist in his own right) Sean Donnelly, is the kind of song the James Blunts of this world can only dream of writing. Emotional, poignant, and performed and produced in a typically understated fashion, this is a track that could melt the hardest of hearts. They've even made a perfectly judged video for it that genuinely does bring a lump to the throat.

Key tracks: This Is London, I Will Not Let You Down, Miracle Sun

MP3: Queen Of The Night

Buy Warm Hand from Arch Hill Records

4 Josh Rouse - Subtitulo

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a more prolific character than Mr Rouse. Not just in terms of actually putting out records at regularly short intervals, but in the fact that those records are always uniformly brilliant. His sublime 1972 album from 2003 was followed last year not only by the equally brilliant Nashville, then at the end of the year with his self-released Bedroom Classics Vol.2 EP. Straight away at the start of 2006 he released Subtitulo, a more stripped-down record than the last couple of full-length releases, but nevertheless full of his usual songcraft genius. So here we have the shuffling acoustic pop of Quiet Town, the swoonsome string-laden Wonderful, and the pop-py Givin' It Up. Another astounding collection of masterful songs, heading down more of folk-pop route than his recent alt.country efforts, but losing none of their charm and style. And now he's releasing stuff on his own label, he might end up releasing stuff even more regularly - if that's possible - which is a win-win situation however you look at it.

Key tracks: Quiet Town, Wonderful, Givin' It Up

MP3: Quiet Town

Buy Subtitulo from amazon.co.uk

5 Tim Finn -Imaginary Kingdom

Seemingly on a creative high following the success of the fantastic Finn Brothers record from 2004, Everyone Is Here, Tim returned this year with his first major label solo album in over a decade. And while he's lost the experimentation of 1999's Say It Is So and the urgency of 2001's brilliant Feeding The Gods, Imaginary Kingdom might just be his strongest set of songs since his self-titled album from 1989. The biggest joy to behold is the return of 'the voice', which I'd feared had been frittered away by the drink and the cigs during the 90s. Heaven knows what he's done to get it back, but it's worked - Astounding Moon soars away to its titular destination, while Midnight Coma and Still The Song are sung with all the bravado of his heyday. It's an absolute treat from start to finish - those of us (the minority I'm guessing, even for hardcore Tim fans) who love his mid-80s output will adore Horizon and Dead Flowers, while fans of his ultra-poppy early work such as Fraction Too Much Friction will be bopping around the kitchen to Couldn't Be Done. Show Yourself even gives us a glimpse of the soul-tinged material he's occasionally put out (see early 90s b-side You've Changed). A remarkable return to form, and with a world tour reaching the UK in March, this may just be a welcome renaissance for his solo career.

Key tracks: Still The Song, Astounding Moon, Horizon

MP3: Astounding Moon

Buy Imaginary Kingdom from amazon.co.uk

6 L.E.O. - Alpacas Orgling

At some point around the start of the year, I succumbed to the genius of Jeff Lynne and E.L.O, after hearing some songs over the PA in Borders. I bought their All Over The World best of compilation, and soon realised they're one of those bands whose songs you know from the radio without always knowing who the artist is. Anyway, that CD has since abandoned its long-term residency in my stereo, which I'm guessing isn't the case for L.E.O mainman Bleu. L.E.O is a loose collective of power-pop maestros - including ex-Jellyfish-er Andy Sturmer, the always brilliant Mike Viola, and, er, the guys from Hanson - who've come together in their love of E.L.O, and ended up with the glorious collection Alpacas Orgling. On first listen, it's easy to see it as a tongue-in-cheek pastiche, the production quirks that Jeff Lynne dressed his own songs up in recreated in vivid retro-modern colours. And if it was purely a case of style over substance, this collection would be dead in the water. As it is though, the songs, all originals - mostly written by Bleu, with occasional co-writes from Sturmer, Viola et al - are a melodic tour de force from start to finish. Each seemingly takes an E.L.O tune as a starting point, but then throws in some new tricks so that familiar melodic phrases come across as something completely fresh.

Key tracks: Distracted, Goodbye Innocence, Ya Had Me Goin'

MP3: Distracted

Buy Alpacas Orgling from amazon.co.uk

7 Guster - Keep It Together

Okay, so I have a feeling this may be as much as 3 years old, but in my defence the UK release was only last year and I only got hold of it a few months ago. Since then, it's rapidly become a big favourite. On the surface, Guster come across like any average middle-of-the-road indie-rock band knocking out no-frills pop-rock records every couple of years. As a reference point, they come across perhaps like a less sardonic Fountains Of Wayne, but with an equal talent for memorable melodies. Amazingly the extra tracks on the UK release are on a par (if not better) than some of the standard album tracks, which is something of a bonus.

Key tracks: Careful, Amsterdam, Ramona

MP3: Ramona

Buy Keep It Together from amazon.co.uk

8 David Mead - Tangerine

Years of being messed around by the likes of RCA and Nettwerk led Mead to forge his own way ahead with the self-released Tangerine. The latest in a stellar catalogue, it follows on from the polished pop of 2005's Wherever You Are EP and the gorgeous americana of 2004's career best Indiana. If anything, Tangerine is most reminiscent of his debut, 1998's The Luxury Of Time, what with the playful pop soundscapes and quirky edges of songs like Hard To Remember and The Trouble With Henry. Mead's voice is, as ever, a thing of absolute beauty, swooning and soaring away to higher stratospheres. On Tangerine he applies it to a set of pop songs that recall McCartney circa Wings, with a touch of Beach Boys thrown in for good measure. Whether his budget stretches to an international release and wider exposure is anyone's guess - for now it looks like he's destined to stay under the radar for most people, which is a huge shame.

Key tracks: The Trouble With Henry, Chatterbox, Hallelujah I Was Wrong

MP3: The Trouble With Henry

Buy Tangerine from amazon.co.uk

9 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

So we can all relax - signing to a major (in the US at least) hasn't smoothed over the quirks and turned The Decemberists into Snow Patrol: The Crane Wife still sounds like a proper Decemberists record, full of Colin Meloy's usual wit and wisdom wrapped around their patented twisted folk-pop. In fact, stylistically it's a natural follow-up to 2005's glorious Picaresque, Yankee Bayonet (I will Be Home Then) possibly even surpassing that last record's We Both Go Down Together as the numero uno Decemberists pop tune. And given that it's one of three genuine classic pop hits-in-waiting on here (see also O Valencia and Summersong), that's really not bad going. Even the less instant ones reveal their charms after a few plays; When The War Came takes things in a distinctly darker direction than the band's usual fare, while the 11+ minutes of The Island sees the return of the prog-folk last seen on The Tain.

Key tracks: Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then), Summersong, Shankill Butchers

MP3: Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

Buy The Crane Wife from amazon.co.uk

10 The Feeling - Twelve Stops And Home

Unashamedly commercial, yup, but if you're going to listen to one chart-bothering guitar outfit, it may as well be the one with the best tunes. Finding myself increasingly drawn to records that evoke the sound of 70s soft-rock (hey, it's the only guilty pleasure I'm owning up to at this point!) - Josh Rouse's 1972, Candy Butchers' Hang On Mike - and my recent 'discovery' of ELO, this record ticks all the boxes, and then adds another layer of polish until it comes up positively gleaming. It's feel-good music, which maybe isn't usually my forte, but when the songs are as strong as this, resistance is futile. It didn't grab me initially, despite the singles having set up camp in my head, but after a few spins, the magic of the record as a whole kicked in. It feels like they've released about half of the tracks as singles now, but there are still some gems that radio hasn't got its hands on yet - the straightforward rocker Anyone and more restrained Kettle's On and Strange are the ones to seek out.

Key tracks: Sewn, Anyone, Strange

MP3: Kettle's On

Buy Twelve Stops And Home from amazon.co.uk

And the rest...

11 Calexico - Garden Ruin

A much more straightforward set than 2003's equally excellent Feast Of Wire, Garden Ruin saw Calexico turn in a consistently brilliant set of americana-tinged rock. Not much evidence of their trademark widescreen desert music and mariachi brass, but in their place are melodies galore and a Wilco-esque vibe.

Buy Garden Ruin from amazon.co.uk

12 Roger Joseph Manning Jr - Land Of Pure Imagination

Power-pop, for whatever reason, is possibly the least cool genre imaginable, a fact lost on this ex-Jellyfish songwriter whose love of a good hook and a chorus that slaps you round the face is in evidence here. Too Late For Us Now is a hit looking for a radio, while Sandman and Dragonfly are soundtracks to Disney films that'll probably never exist. Like the poppiest Beatles moments with a dash of Elliott Smith and Ben Folds, blended with prime Jellyfish, it's a record for pure pop lovers.

Buy Land of Pure Imagination from amazon.co.uk

13 Duels - The Bright Lights And What I Should've Learned

Following on where the Kaiser Chiefs left off, this should've been the next Leeds band to make the big break-out. The fact it didn't is a little baffling, as in many ways it's superior to the Chiefs' Employment album. Certainly more thoughtful in its approach, and a bit more arty, which may explain why it didn't quite catch on. Maybe another marketing push in the new year will get it to more receptive stereos.

Buy The Bright Lights and What I Should Have Learned from amazon.co.uk

14 Darren Hanlon - Fingertips And Mountaintops

A real slow-burner of a collection, this is a side of Hanlon that he hasn't really shown before. Previous records have been full of instantly hummable melodies and wry lyrics that stick in the head after the first listen. This one has been approached completely differently: first single Happiness Is A Chemical is one of the least catchy songs he's released, let alone the oddest choice of single. There are some fine songs here, but they take time to make themselves known. Elbows is a tale of brushing elbows with a famous film star on the dance floor, and has the usual Hanlon observations - "we only touched elbows, and I still haven't showered" - while the title track ups the momentum a touch. The major highlights are the piano ballads - Manilla NSW is a touching elegy, while closer Old Dream is one of his finest songs to date. A good album then, but not his best - newcomers should head for 2004's Little Chills instead.

Buy Fingertips And Mountaintops from Candle Records)

15 Mike Viola - Just Before Dark

Okay, so strictly a 2005 release, but as it only saw the light of day in the last couple of weeks in December, we'll count it as this year. How was Mr Viola going to top the 2004 Candy Butchers record Hang On Mike? By going back to basics of course. Thus he recorded his first proper solo album live and acoustic. It does have a feel of being a bit half-finished, and the fact there's only nine songs doesn't help; a couple more would've rounded it off nicely. There are some stunning songs on here though - Rowing Song and Hair Of The Dog rate among his best, but best of all is piano ballad Number Crunch, with its gorgeous melodic twists and turns.

Buy Just Before Dark from mikeviola.com

16 The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes

Sadly looking like remaining a cult act even despite a couple of chart hits, The Pipettes were one of the brighter pop hopes of the year. And while the kitsch nature of a modern interpretation of the 60s girl group sound could've been completely throwaway, at least half of the album was sublime. Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me and Tell Me What You Want, for example, are perfect pop songs.

Buy We Are The Pipettes from amazon.co.uk

17 Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope

Without a doubt one of the greatest gigs of the year was Regina Spector at the City Varieties in Leeds, where with just the aid of a piano (and an occasional stick hitting a chair) she held the audience absolutely spellbound with her own very unique brand of quirky pop. The first half of Begin To Hope is fantastic, and the likes of Fidelity and Samson have been doing the rounds on MP3 blogs pretty much all year. The second half drags somewhat though, which is a shame. Also this year I've just got round to picking up Mary Ann Meets The Gravediggers, home to Us and the jaw-dropping Chemo Limo, among other gems. Pick and mix from the two albums (yes, I realise that Gravediggers is itself a compilation anyway) and you'd have a belter.

Buy Begin to Hope from amazon.co.uk

18 Roddy Frame - Western Skies

Solid record from Roddy with some utter gems nestled away among some more average selections. Stylistically a mid-point between The North Star (1998) and Surf (2002) but on the whole not really reaching the heights of either.

Buy Western Skies from amazon.co.uk

19 Nik Kershaw - You've Got To Laugh

The butt of music papers' jokes since the beginning of time, it seems to have escaped most peoples' notice that Nik Kershaw is an uncommonly good singer/songwriter, and the fact that it's a minority who now know about and enjoy his work is a massive shame. This new record follows on where his 2001 effort To Be Frank left off, and while it's not as good as that (or his career high - 1999's stunning 15 Minutes), You've Got To Laugh has its highlights: All About You is one of his finest tunes to date.

Buy You've Got To Laugh from nikkershaw.net

20 Scott Walker - The Drift

I don't tend to buy albums that I know will terrify the living daylights out of me, but having heard Clara before purchasing The Drift, I had an inkling of what I was letting myself in for. The very antithesis of 'easy listening', ol' Scott can't get further away from his glorious 60s catalogue if he tried. There are no melodies, no choruses, no real structures, but somehow it all adds up to something truly special. Listen to it in a darkened room, and you'll be checking for monsters in the wardrobe for the rest of the week. Or heading off to Galway to slap some donkeys.

Buy The Drift from amazon.co.uk

The world has changed, it's obvious...

2006-12-12T13:17:00.000Z

It might have escaped your notice - I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere other than their own website and newsletter - that Australia's fine, fine indie label Candle Records is to close in March 2007. Hopefully there'll be a bit more of a fanfare when the end actually comes, but then doing things quietly has served the label well, building a loyal fanbase for its uniquely Aussie slant on indie-pop.

Such is the magic of Candle that it's managed to maintain the quality control over the decade or so it's been in existence, and that the bands mostly have a unifying je ne sais quoi about them without sounding same-y. Needless to say, if astute lyrics and jangly indie-pop are your bag, Candle will have the goods for you.

I'm a relative latecomer to the label and its charms, having only really got into the likes of Darren Hanlon and the Lucksmiths in the last 3 years or so, but even with my very limited knowledge of what the label and its artists have achieved in Australia and internationally, it's worth shedding a tear at the loss. I've had the pleasure of seeing Darren Hanlon in concert, playing with all the humour and grace you'd think it'd be hard to muster having travelled halfway round the world to play to about 30 people in the tiny upstairs room of a Leeds pub. The Lucksmiths too, playing another local pub with labelmate Anthony Atkinson, to even less of a crowd. Why do they do it? How do they fund it? Who knows, but that quiet determination to slowly spread the word seems as much a part of Candle's modus operandi as much as the reliance on a good tune and a well-told story.

Personal recommendations from the catalogue include The Lucksmiths' Warmer Corners, The Dearhunters' country-tinged Red, Blue And Wine (scroll down), and pretty much the entire Darren Hanlon canon (maybe start with 2004's Little Chills - the perfect blend of his funny-yet-touching lyrics and pop nous). Also do yourself a favour and seek out what is perhaps one of the most heinously overlooked albums in existence, The Guild League's 2004 collection Inner North. The Guild League are a collective who, in Inner North, put together a sumptuous package of acoustic guitars, cellos, and tunes to die for, all set off by Lucksmiths singer Tali White's ever-gorgeous vocals. Can't think of an easy comparison off the top of my head. Let's just call it classic pop music and be done with it.

Even though these great acts will very shortly no longer be gathered under the Candle umbrella, they'll always be united by that unique Candle vibe. We haven't seen the last of any of them.

MP3: Darren Hanlon - Old Dream (from Fingertips And Mountaintops, 2006)

MP3: The Guild League - Scientists (from Inner North, 2004)

MP3: The Dearhunters - Mr Katherine (from Red Wine & Blue, 2002)

Snap up a Candle classic while you can

Tell me now, what more do you need...

2006-12-12T12:50:00.000Z

2005 saw Michael Penn release his fifth album, Mr Hollywood Jr, 1947, although to make such a comment in Britain would understandably be met with a shrug. A shame, as it contained some of his finest songs to date, opener Walter Reed possibly standing out as his finest pop melody to date. Something about the album - littering it with throwaway instrumentals perhaps - suggests he didn't really have one eye on the kind of success that would return him to the mainstream audience he enjoyed with his classic No Myth single, but the songs are generally pretty damn good. Denton Road, On Automatic and You Know How are truly fine examples of songcraft, in a similar vein to the Neil Finns and Paul McCartneys of the world.

Since his chart-bothering days, he's been in and out of public consciousness due to troubles with many a record label. However, there's still a lot of love there for Penn. It may well be a smaller fanbase than what it was at the end of the 80s, but it's one with a passion for the subject's material that puts many other artists' followings to shame. In the summer of 2006, members of Penn's mailing list recorded a 40-track tribute to the singer, taking his songs into previously unknown territory and generally making a fine job of it. The full collection can be downloaded from here, but special mention should be made of The Breakups' take on Mary Lynn (right-click to download), which transforms the hippyish original into a foot-stomper of the highest order.

MP3: Michael Penn - Walter Reed

Buy Mr. Hollywood, Jr. 1947 from amazon.co.uk

Crispy Crispy Benjamin Franklin...

2006-11-29T15:25:00.000Z

Hmm. Inaugural post. What to talk about....?

Well, I've just started taking piano lessons, which are going very well. Years of shunning musical theory (I taught myself to play guitar by ear) have come back to bite me as I now immerse myself in crotchets, quavers and semi-tones. Currently learning to play a mean version of When The Saints Go Marching In at college, while at the same time trying my hand at some rather more tasty test pieces at home - Flint by Sufjan Stevens and the jaw-dropping Chemo Limo by Regina Spektor. The Sufjan track is coming along nicely, as are the verses of the Regina tune - trying to crack the rest of that one may well take a fair few months however.... Try not to imagine anyone mangling these great songs as you immerse ourself in the joy of the originals:

MP3:
Sufjan Stevens - Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid)

Buy Greetings From Michigan from amazon.co.uk

MP3: Regina Spektor - Chemo Limo

Buy Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories [CD + DVD] from amazon.co.uk