Free mixtapes

As you may or may not know, this Saturday just gone (18th April) was Record Store Day. An international event, the basic idea was that a bunch of record labels sent out limited singles, live EPs, rarities discs and that sort of thing to independent record stores all over the world. The majority of participating stores were in America, but there was a sprinkling of others dotted about the globe, including, quite incredibly, three in my home county of Wiltshire.

Over the last few years, as I've slowly developed a passion for music, I've come to lament the lack of an independent record shop where I live (there was one in my hometown once, but it closed many moons ago, and there's only HMV where I go to uni). Of course, I don't need one. Through high street shops, online stores and eBay I can get my hands on pretty much any album I want to. All that's really missing is the personal touch. I savour the few occasions that someone serving me in HMV recognises the album I'm buying. In an independent place, you'd likely get that a whole lot more.

So anyway, last Saturday I was heading down to Salisbury anyway, and decided to take a look at the participating store there (StandOut Records - it's a nice place, with a section at the back dedicated to house, techno, DnB and "weird shit" vinyls). I bought a limited Smiths single, had a flick through the album racks and generally enjoyed the atmosphere. I was handed a couple of free CDs at the till as well, which I'll never complain about. It felt oddly sad though, as if I was somehow being bribed into coming back. The truth is that unless I had tracked down something elusive (example: when after a long search I found Person Pitch by Panda Bear in an independent store in Brighton for £12 - happy days), I wouldn't willingly spend £11-20 on an album, and as year by year it gets increasingly easier to find the music you want online, is there really a place for the independent record shop in the modern world? While they still exist, they are increasingly, unfortunately, becoming irrelevant, and I'm pretty sure the mainstream consumer doesn't really care either way. With each passing generation people will care less and less about the plight of these stores - if they are even aware of them at all, and I can't help but feel that gestures like Record Store Day just won't cut it in the long run. Regardless, it's a cause well worth supporting. All I can say is that it'd be nice to someday take my kids to the local record shop.

Comments/thoughts/debate welcome, if you're reading.

Intermission/Recommended listening

It's been a while, I know. I intended to use this blog to write about all the different music I listen to or hear about, which is usually fairly varied. Unfortunately, over the last few months I've pretty much just listened to Animal Collective (with splashes of other stuff I'll detail further down), and since I reviewed their new album for my last post I thought I'd leave them be for a bit.

Anyway, to the hypothetical reader who has spent the last several weeks wringing their hands in despair, I'm back! To my real, admittedly tiny readership, here's another post. Not a proper post per se, more a quick rundown of what I've been listening to of late. I call it recommended listening, because there isn't really a more exciting way of putting it.

Animal Collective
Feels
[FatCat, 2005]
May as well get this out of the way first. Since "discovering" the wonderful Animal Collective late last year, I've been slowly working through their back catalogue. They are a consistently excellent and inventive group of musicians, and Feels is a perfect example of this. Part warped sunshine pop, part drifting clouds of strange sound, the album is built on awkward guitar plucking, bizarre lyrics (all of which are about love, one way or another), bashed drums and of course, copious yelping. A beautiful, atmospheric album.

Deerhunter
Microcastle
[Kranky/4AD, 2008]
If the production on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is a little too dense and murky for you (don't tell Creation Records, it cost them a lot of money), then perhaps Microcastle is for you. Deerhunter's epic shares the soft vocals, flat percussion and focus on guitars that shoegaze music is famous for, but mixes these elements together in a manner rather more palatable for the average ear. Microcastle often soars, and some might accuse it of being overwrought, but it is never anything but an intimate listen.

Neko Case
Middle Cyclone
[ANTI-, 2009]
I'm all for experimentation, weird sounds and ridiculous beats and all of that. Sometimes though, all you really need is a man or woman with a bloody incredible voice. "Case" in point (haha) is Neko here, who sings tales of sentient tornadoes, prison life and magpies with a voice that could make statues shiver (couldn't resist the hyperbole, sorry). More to the point, her considerable talents are not overused like so many supposed "country" singers, but instead weighted just right. Often gentle, she unleashes a full-throated belt very rarely, but it counts when she does.

Daft Punk
Alive 2007
[Virgin, 2007]
If I ever meet someone who doesn't like Daft Punk, I will.. er, well I'll be extremely surprised. Live album, greatest hits and DJ mashup all at once, Alive 2007 is a great party album. Familiar beats and samples pop up everywhere, tracks wind in and out of each other, songs from opposite ends of their career matching up as if they were made on the same day. What's more, this is one of few live albums where the atmosphere of the captured performance somehow carries through. An addictive, euphoric listen.

So yeah, those are all good treats! I'll be back within less than two months this time, promise.

11

Righto, it's February, and I really need to get on with this blog properly. Firstly, I've given up on posting my top albums of '08, for these reasons:

a) It's taking me far too long to write and I want to concentrate on proper, meaty posts now that we're well into 2009.
b) After doing twenty track write-ups, I'm kinda sick of lists at the minute.
c) There are no albums in my Top 10 by artists not already mentioned in the tracks list, and I would surely end up repeating myself.
d) Hmm.. there is no d.

The scraps of the Top 10 I have written will probably be made into a proper list a few months down the line (likely when I'm stuck for other ideas), by which point it'll be more of a retrospective, but hey, never too late to discover good music.

Anyway, here is the first of what will hopefully become a regular feature in 2009: A record review!

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
[Domino, 2009]

Album titles don't have to mean a lot if you don't want them to. A lot of my favourite albums have bloody stupid titles (I mean, what the hell is a "soft bulletin"?), but as long as the music holds up I can happily forgive it. Merriweather Post Pavilion, however, is one of the most apt album titles I have heard in a long time. Named after an outdoors Maryland venue that the band frequented as teens, they themselves have said that just the word "merriweather" has great resonance for them. It means outdoors music - grandiose and uplifting songs you would listen to while lying in long grass, watching clouds drift lazily past the sun. Animal Collective, you see, have made a beautiful and fulfilling summer record.

This is not to suggest that MPP is a pointless listen during the winter months (I've been listening obsessively for a good two weeks, and as of today I need ice skates to go to the shops), rather it is a record so drenched in sunshine and joy that it brings summer to you, all balmy breezes and fields of flowers.

Opening track "In The Flowers" sets the mood perfectly, a hazy and shimmering vision of dancing in a beautiful field. Avey Tare's yearning vocals intertwine with distant handclaps and twinkling keys, building to an explosion of pounding percussion mixed with pure euphoria. The song eventually calms down again, but it is near impossible not to smile right through to the final beautiful line - "now I'm gone/I left flowers for you there".

If this all sounds a bit wishy-washy to you, then let me reassure you that MPP is rich with emotion. Animal Collective have always been good at extracting beauty and heart from the mundane, and on MPP this is more apparent than ever. "My Girls" and "Brother Sport" (both sung by Panda Bear) are two songs merely about looking after your family, and the importance of keeping them going. "Brother Sport" in particular is a highlight, combining familiar abstract vocal trickery with a full-on sonic assault encompassing sirens, digital squiggles and hypnotic percussion.

Other standouts include "Summertime Clothes" a lyrically bizarre ("my bed is a pool and the wall's on fire") but ultimately very sweet ode to summer love, and the dreamily romantic "Bluish". The latter initially feels a little out of place on an AC album, but it soon feels wonderful and natural.

If there is a fault with Merriweather Post Pavilion, it's that it may initially seem more appealing to newcomers than longtime fans. Coming after an album that included songs about digging up ancient monsters and getting stoned after doing the housework, MPP's simple themes of family, romance and happiness may seem rote and dull. Vocally as well, this album is lacking in the screams and yelps that defined songs like "Grass" and "Fireworks", and fans may miss this peculiar but arresting method of vocal delivery. These differences, coupled with the fact that it's a long album composed of long songs, mean MPP is initially overwhelming and a little trying to listen to. Have patience, though, and Animal Collective's trademark sense of whimsy and relentless shaping of sound into all shapes and colours shines through. Most of all, their sense of awe at all life and the world provides is as prominent as always, and perhaps more potent than ever before.

Jesus Fucking Christ

So I finally got the Best Tracks list up - was only over the last couple of days I managed to knuckle down and do it, and it feels good to have it finished.

Of course, you may have noticed the formatting looks like shit and the font, size etc. is all different to before. That's not intentional, but blogspot has decided to act like a dick and refuse to publish my post the way I want it. If I can ever figure out why then I'll try and fix it, but in the meantime it's stuck that way. Grr.

Still have the Top 10 Albums list to go, hoping to tackle that over the weekend. Have an essay to do now though.

Bye for now!

Best Tracks of 2008 #10-01

Unsurprisingly, I am already way behind schedule, and now hoping to finish these lists before the end of 2009, having missed my previous deadline by over a week. Here we go with the Top 10 Tracks:

10: M83

"Kim & Jessie"

[Mute]
Pretty much everyone who's heard it agrees - Saturdays = Youth is a great album. Similarly, these same people nodded and declared "Kim & Jessie" the finest track on the album. Naturally, and stupidly, it was my first instinct to stick a more left-field choice in the Top 10. Sparse but lovely "Skin of the Night" perhaps, or maybe the sombre "Too Late". I even briefly considered opening track "You, Appearing" (which, while divine, doesn't really work as a standalone song).

It was only after a dig through my recent memory that I remembered it was this song that I first fell in love with - after buying the album on a total whim - and that I still return to time and again. I listen to the whole album lots, of course, but this one song remains a permanent fixture in playlists and mix CDs some nine months on. If this is the "new" sound for M83 - epic, heartfelt, windswept, and very '80s, then "Kim & Jessie" is surely the new quintessential M83 track.

09: Hercules and Love Affair
"Blind"
[DFA]
Before 2008, it was no secret that Antony Hegarty had one of the strongest and most unique voices in modern music. Whether anyone but Hercules creator Andy Butler knew that it was also a perfect fit for disco is another matter, but nowhere is the brilliance of that pairing more apparent than on this single. Most people would agree that great music should either move your heart or move your feet. By this thinking, any song that manages both should be fine indeed, and upon listening to "Blind" you may find it hard to argue. Together, Butler and Hegarty craft a song of such seductive passion and unbridled emotion it is difficult to resist, and once inside you won't want to leave (a good thing for a song over 6 minutes long). What's more, you'll feel like dancing like it's 1979.

08: Animal Collective
"Seal Eyeing"
[Domino]
Animal Collective's brief but gorgeous 2008 release succeeded in feeling as epic as their recent full-length albums. In just under 20 minutes, it winds through breezy meditations on water, wanders down moonlit city streets, dives into echoing caverns, before finally bubbling out into a clear and beautiful lagoon. That lagoon is closing track "Seal Eyeing", a gentle piano ballad comprising melting shores, swimming in sunshine and the fragility of nature. Compared to his usual abrasive style of vocals, here Avey Tare sounds calm and at peace, with the air of someone entranced by a scene of utmost beauty. The combination of fluttery piano, sighing vocals and melted ambient sound will make you feel much the same way.

07: Conor Oberst
"Sausalito"
[Merge]
As an accomplished and experienced young musician, Conor Oberst is no stranger to the road song. 2005's aptly-titled "Another Travelin' Song" from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning proved this. However, while that song was an angry and confused rant from a tormented heart, "Sausalito" finds the songwriter more relaxed. Much like sister track "Moab" on the same album, this is a song all about redemption and healing on the road, and the promise of a new and better life elsewhere. More than just a dream of far-off happiness, here Oberst revels in the beauty of travelling the beaten path, and of escape.

06: Crystal Castles
"Vanished"
[Last Gang]
Much of Crystal Castles output so far is of the shouty variety of electronic music, and that's all well and good. For my money though, their real talent lies in more restrained pieces, the tracks that are more concerned with subtle modulations than shock or impact. "Vanished" is hypnotic in its use of a single sound. Lonely and icy sounding, yet comforting, it is pitched up and down, stretched and punctuated with clear thudding percussion. Beautiful even without the accompanying lyrics, as a whole it is spellbinding to the last desolate line.

05: Kings of Leon
"Sex on Fire"
[RCA]
Perhaps in thirty years' time, music historians will examine 2008 and note it was the year that Kings of Leon transformed from popular rock band to global phenomenon. The reason is "Sex on Fire". While the Tennessee quartet have rarely been a band of subtle pleasures, this single takes the latent epic quality of their music and kicks it into overdrive. While not their best song, it outstrips the rest of their discography in terms of pure fun, practically commanding the listener to jump around and shout along. Their new glossy production style may not work on every track, but here it is perfect, bringing Caleb's vocals high up in the mix, while the backing instruments lock together in brilliant unison. Yet despite the rigid production, it is not a boring song. In fact, it's one of the most exciting of their career.

04: Hot Chip
"Ready for the Floor"
[EMI]
Hot Chip started their career with an endearing take on hip-hop, and on second album The Warning they successfully applied that same style to electro music. Twin singles "Boy From School" and "Over and Over" successfully proved they could conquer both the heart and the dancefloor respectively, but "Ready for the Floor" is perhaps the ultimate combination of the band's two distinctive sides. While there is nothing overtly emotional about this track, it is perhaps the sweetest and most earnest dance song you will ever hear. While many tracks on The Warning were tongue-in-cheek aggressive, here Hot Chip remain confident but dispose of the threats, instead offering a wholly charming pop tune that not only commands you to dance, but also to smile. No.1 guys indeed.

03: Four Tet
"Ribbons"
[Domino]

Much of the music that comes under the broad ambient/techno/IDM/downtempo umbrella works well as both background sound and something to be actively listened to, and while "Ribbons" is certainly dreamy sounding, its gentle layering and building of different sounds demands to be unthreaded and picked apart in your head. Kieran Hebden is an expert at sprinkling his tracks with delicious blips, bubbles and drips of noise. On "Ribbons" though, the listener is positively spoilt. Each bassy thud, every ambient splash is a joy for the ears. A piece of music to be savoured.

02: Vampire Weekend
"M79"
[XL]

Despite having gone on for decades, it still feels somewhat novel to hear a rock aesthetic paired with sweeping strings. When done as effortlessly as Vampire Weekend manage, the result is positively delightful. A brilliant song in its own right, it is the giddy string refrain that makes "M79", swooping in and out of the track with a heady joy. Combined with the four-piece's remarkably full sound and Koenig's colourful lyrics, it provides the apex of the album and an undeniable statement of talent. Mediocre indie bands, pay attention.

01: Fleet Foxes
"White Winter Hymnal"
[Sub Pop]

The best song of 2008 isn't an indicator of musical trends, nor is it a cultural or political signpost. Like the rest of the album, "White Winter Hymnal" seems to almost exist outside of our time. Not only does it sound like it could have been made at any time since the advent of popular music, it sounds like it could have existed at any point in human history. The lyrics, abstract though they may be, are truly universal - the joy of life, the passage of seasons and the inexorable encroach of death. Everything passes, all things die, singer Pecknold seems to suggest, and yet he and his band have crafted a song so achingly beautiful and essential that its own end seems impossible. Here is a song that soundtracks human existence, and deserves to last just as long.

Best Tracks of 2008 #15-11

15: Fleet Foxes
"He Doesn't Know Why"
[Sub Pop]
Fleet Foxes invest their music with such emotion and grandeur that merely a whisper or a pluck is enough to make me shiver. Their debut is an epic canvas so awash with feeling it sometimes threatens to overwhelm, and nowhere is this more apparent than in this beautiful track. Like most of the album, it paints an abstract narrative without piling on unnecessary detail, the backbone provided by Pecknold's moving refrain, "I didn't understand". From the first verse, it builds and builds, until finally you feel cleansed and happy. Cathartic.

14: Bloc Party
"Ion Square"
[self-released]
It's ironic that, in an album where Bloc Party pushed both their musical and lyrical boundaries more than ever before, it is the track that sounds most like "old" Bloc Party that is also the best. Like most of their best songs, "Ion Square" is about love. This time though, it's the happy side. For over 6 minutes, Kele sings with palpable love and affection of a relationship that, oddly, appears to be going just fine. That may sound boring to you, but chances are if it does you wrote off Bloc Party a long time ago. Lyrically, this is as beautiful a song as Okereke has ever written, even if the most affecting line is cribbed from an E.E. Cummings poem.

13: Foals
"Big Big Love (Fig. 2)"
[Transgressive Records]
After being the British band to watch for at least a couple of years, everyone seemingly stopped caring about Foals the moment they released an album. A great shame, as they all missed out on gems such as this. Odd title aside, "Big Big Love" is a spare, hypnotic track. Yannis spins an abstract yarn of love and towers, of electric shocks and cracked hearts. His voice is distant, as if singing from another time. The instrumentation remains sparse throughout, only as clear as it needs to be. The result is a mesmerising song that will hold you in its thrall for far longer than its running time.

12: Kings of Leon
"Closer"
[RCA]
I shouldn't have been surprised by Only By The Night. In hindsight, the line from lo-fi southern kicks to stadium anthems is straight and clear as an arrow. All the same, Nathan Followill's opening drums - crisp and clean as a full moon - initially took me aback. Luckily, it also enthralled me, and combined with understated guitar and frankly epic lyrics made it into both a fine first track and a decent statement of intent. While I'm still not entirely sure about the Kings' new direction (for my money, their best work was on albums 2 and 3), if they continue to write songs like this then I'm behind them all the way.
Plus, it's about friggin' vampires. Need I say more?

11: MGMT
"Electric Feel"
[Columbia]
I don't believe MGMT are pioneers, saviours, geniuses, or any of those other hyperbolic terms the NME wheel out every five minutes. However, on occasion they can bust out a bloody fine song. While their epic, anthemic side is well-demonstrated on singles "Kids" and especially "Time to Pretend", second single "Electric Feel" was unfairly left on the wayside. A great shame, as it combines the widescreen quality of the rest of the album with a thoroughly danceable tune. Much like the video, it is beautifully hazy - the kind of song you would dance to in a dream - with enough kick to the percussion to be energetic. Finally, like all the best music, it sounds incredible when played as loud as possible.

Best Tracks of 2008 #20-16

Well hey lookit that, it's Xmas Eve already. Without further ado, I present my 20 favourite tracks of 2008. Hopefully I'll be done by New Year's Eve.

To ease my hands and head, this list will be split into three or four bite-size chunks. First up is numbers 20-16.

(Yes I did steal the list format from Pitchfork)

20: Islands
"Creeper"
[ANTI-]
It figures that Islands' first dance song would be about being stabbed in the night in your own home. Despite the macabre subject, "Creeper" is an agreeably catchy tune. Opening with menacing, thumping bass, the song quickly winds through several verses of brisk guitar lines with eerie half-whispered vocals. Like much of their discography, what initially appears to be uncomplicated pop soon reveals itself as a multi-layered track, forever unwinding and always revealing new depths.

19: Los Campesinos!
"Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats"
[Wichita/Arts & Crafts]
Of all the giddy sugar rushes on Los Campesinos!' debut album, this is surely the most exhilarating and fun. Shocking you into submission with an amusingly shouty opening (1!!2!3!!4!), you are dragged with breakneck speed through a maelstrom of angular guitars, pounding drums and earnest vocals. Beautifully loud and passionate on its own, in the context of the album its like eating a stick of pure youthful joy.

18: Santogold
"Lights Out"
[Atlantic Records]
On a debut where Santi White bent her distinctive voice around any number of genres, it is oddly fitting that the best track is also the most back-to-basics. Despite being licensed to advertise pretty much anything you care to mention, "Lights Out" is still pleasantly arresting, with nicely heavy-sounding bass and Santogold's multi-tracked vocals ooh-ing and ahh-ing in the background, while the central vocals stand up front clear as crystal. The song is a simple drums 'n' guitar affair, but it proves a very effective vehicle for this artist's many talents.

17: Autechre
"Tankakern"
[Warp Records]
An IDM track you can almost dance to? Well, not quite. Like most of Autechre's back catalogue, you'll likely end up a twisted mess on the floor if you try and bust a groove to this. That doesn't stop "Tankakern" being thoroughly fun to listen to, and increasingly so on every listen. Where this track (short by genre standards at just under 4 mins) succeeds is in evoking a palpable industrial atmosphere with little more than percussion. Muddied squelches of bass, skittering cymbals and a constantly wavering central drum line combine to do what IDM does best - immerse you in strange worlds for a few minutes at a time.

16: Laura Marling
"Failure"
[Virgin Records]
It wasn't at all easy to pick one best track from 18-year old Laura Marling's stellar debut. I eventually settled on "Failure" because it pretty much ticks all the boxes that make the entire album great. Delicate, simple and elegant guitar strumming? Check. Subtle but gorgeous backing instrumentation? Check. An abstract narrative that combines melancholy, loss and happiness? Check. Beautiful voice? Check. A brilliant song by one of the most promising young artists of the decade? CHECK.

Just don't mention Creed

I am a very lazy man. Luckily, a small part of me is pro-active and creative (not to mention gosh-darned handsome), and he managed to jostle me into a writing position.
So, here we are once more. To ensure I don't waffle on, I'm going to jump straight into a list. Sorry to fall back on the old standby once again, but this should be fun. Join me!

4 Enjoyably Overblown Modern Songs

I don't tend to care much for supposedly epic, pretentious and downright ridiculous rock songs. I'm not in the business of making enemies, so lets just say I'm not a fan of Queen and leave it at that. However, some lucky artists have the talent of being able to create 10-minute long epics, lush with church-filling noise and laden with gravitas, without sounding like idiots. Here's four:

"The Gash" by The Flaming Lips (from The Soft Bulletin)
Get past the unintentionally hilarious (or perhaps intentional - who knows?) title and you will be in for quite an experience. If you're already familiar with The Flaming Lips, then this song probably won't overly surprise you. If not, well hey - listen to it on headphones first, and ensure you're sober (to be fair, probably good advice first time you listen to any Flaming Lips album).
Try not to snigger when I say "The Gash" is wondrous. The sort of song that sounds like the soundtrack to an exploding star, it sucks you in with thunderous symphonics, before harmonised falsettos describe a seemingly epic battle, and the soldiers at it's heart. It is Wayne Coyne's earnest vocals that provide a heart to go with the bombast, and ultimately it is the band's masterful juggling of so many musical elements that saves this beautiful track from ridicule.

"Genesis" by Justice (from †)
It's not hard to make assumptions about a band that uses a symbol for their album title, and brazenly slips biblical references into their tracklistings. Despite all that, Justice are really all about highly danceable fun, and nowhere is this more apparent than the brilliantly extravagant opening track, "Genesis". Beginning with deep, imposing synth lines, the track eventually breaks into an epic dance number. While the synths rise and fall, waver and stagger, the backing drum programming stays firm and steady. It's just unpredictable enough to make it brilliant to dance to. Oh, and it ends with near-isolated, dramatic piano, before lurching into the frenetic intro of Track 2. Dance music for midnight mass? Perhaps.

"Swans (Life After Death)" by Islands (from Return to the Sea)
While it would be a stretch to call Return to the Sea a concept album, it's generally accepted that 10-minute opener "Swans" is a sequel of sorts to the last track of The Unicorns 2003 album, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?. The two bands are virtually the same, give or take a few members.
Still with us? Good. So while Unicorns' track "Ready to Die" describes.. yep, death on a desert island, "Swans" returns to what we can only assume is the same beach, with the same guy.
However, while "Ready to Die" was a simple (but no less poignant) affair about a man coming to terms with the end of his life, part two paints an epic picture, taking in endless seas, waking up after death, climbing through the insides of whales, and so on.
Some might argue that Islands overstretch themselves in the final few minutes of "Swans". I would say that the ridiculous running time is key to this track's appeal. The story may make little sense, but I can think of few other songs from the last few years that fire my imagination so.

"For Reasons Unknown" by The Killers (from Sam's Town)
Back when I was still fairly "new" to music, The Killer's debut Hot Fuss was one of my favourite albums. Fast forward two years of joyous discovery and I was pretty underwhelmed by the follow-up. While I was a big fan of the breezy, synth-laden debut, this one was too full of hollow bombast for my liking.
On the other hand, there is a part of my brain that will always crave widescreen rock such as this, even if it is devoid of true emotion. Sam's Town is great in this regard, offering several gems of desert rock excess. "For Reasons Unknown" is truly the best example of this. While the lyrics are merely examples of generic yearning, Brandon Flowers' unabashed passion is highly infectious. Best listened to at top volume in your room, when you think no-one can hear you singing along, hand on heart.

Well, that about does it for now. Next post I will try and come up with something more original. More importantly, I will attempt to come up with something that doesn't end up with just talking about my favourite music! Meh, we'll see.

05

Man, am I ever sorry. It's been a good three weeks since my last post, and I started this blog with the intention of updating at least once a week! Damn you, life and laziness, for getting in my way all the time.
Anyway, to make up for it I'll try and make this a sizeable post. Do not worry! I will cut it up into bite-size chunks for your convenience and enjoyment.

So, I downloaded iTunes 8 the other day (my 4G iPod is looking increasingly rustic with each update), and after shifting the new-fangled library system out of the way it err.. well, pretty much looks the same as iTunes always has. It has this new feature that caught my eye though, the audaciously-titled "Genius". Basically you select any track in your library, click the Genius button (which inexplicably has a picture of an atom as its symbol) and Apple will helpfully give you twenty or so similar tracks from your library. The idea is, of course, that you can make spanking playlists instantaneously. Could actually be pretty useful and cool, though it's yet to offer any truly wacky combinations. Less impressive still is when it simply matches one song to another by the same artist. Yeah, cheers for that. Think I'll stick to doing it myself when it comes to the annual "Best Of" playlist. Opening and closing tracks are just too important to leave to chance, dammit!

I'll try and keep this next bit short, as I pretty much spent the whole last post talking about Bloc Party. In short, I really like the new album, though I appear to be largely alone in that sentiment. My enjoyment of Intimacy has only been dulled by the recent unveiling of the lyrics on their website. While a great deal of Kele's writing on this record is remarkably solid and affecting, the few clunkers are a lot harder to ignore out of context. Opener "Ares" in particular is an absolute blast so long as you can disregard Kele awkwardly imploring you to "get out the way, or get fucked up." As I said, aside from that, it's a storming track and easily one of their most exciting.
Other highlights include "One Month Off", a pleasingly rawking track that recalls Silent Alarm with a few Korgs thrown in, and exhausting but beautiful closer "Ion Square". Aside from its length (over six and a half minutes) and instrumentation, it's very much standard BP fare. However, it is standard BP fare done extremely well, and for that it goes down as one as my favourites.
One more note, what bizarre track titles they've chosen! With a couple of exceptions (notably "Better Than Heaven", in which Kele is seemingly trying to outdo both Talking Heads and The Cure), these all sound like game console code names. Still, makes a nice change I suppose.

I spent last weekend on the Isle of Wight, enjoying the quite wonderful Bestival. It was my first festival, so I can't really say how appropriate the title is. Suffice to say it was a brilliant time, despite it raining like a bitch on the Friday and Swamp Thing apparently throwing a tantrum the day before the festival. It would be pointless for me to list all the bands I saw, however I will say that Foals, Laura Marling and The Specials (a surprise act - my God did the crowd go nuts) were definite highlights. I also really wish I'd taken some wellies, and that I'd had the energy to stay for Aphex Twin's entire set (sorry, Richard James, but I was just too sober and aching to enjoy two hours of acid techno). I may well do a proper write-up of the whole event sometime soon, but I don't want to make this post too bloated and rambling.

Well, that about does it for now! Unfortunately I can't say for sure when the next post will be, as I'm moving into new student digs on the weekend and will likely be without Internet for a week or so. Rest assured, as soon I have consistent access to Blogger, I will blog once more!

"If you're a member of the BNP, don't bother listening."

If all goes to plan, the new Bloc Party album will sit snugly on my hard drive in a little under nine hours. What's more, I'm pretty excited. LP2 didn't really have anything on the modern indie classic that is Silent Alarm (at least as far as I'm concerned), but "Flux" was a fun and thoroughly danceable twist on the regular BP formula. "Mercury" made me frown at first - are Kele and co. merely being experimental for the hell of it? Then I remembered that Kid A is a strong contender for Radiohead's best album, and a few listens later the new single grew on me.

As a result of all that, I'm confident that the new album should be damned good. Bloc Party wouldn't be the first band to hit upon a masterpiece with their third LP, but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself..

As before, I'm not so sure about the title (Intimacy), but hey, with previous titles like "Waiting for the 7.18" I guess I should just be grateful we didn't get something like "I love romance and tenderness but isn't it just so hard to get it right in this suffocating modern culture?" The post title is a suggestion for Intimacy's liner notes. Believe me, I am emphatically not a member of the BNP, and in fact would be all too happy with such a bold-faced statement.

Anyway, since I've been listening to a whole lot of Bloc Party the last couple of days in preparation, I figured I'd knock up a quick list of 5 of their best songs. Not in order, 'cos that's just too bloody hard to decide. If somehow you've never heard these folks, I recommend you start with these.

Ahem, you may have figured out I like lists by now.

"Helicopter" (from Silent Alarm)
The first Bloc Party track I heard, and a perfect example of a song I initially found irritating becoming a favourite. Some people reckon it's about George W. Bush, but I'm not so sure about that. Political subtext aside, it's a storming track with awesome, quirky guitar lines. Great fun to sing along to as well.
However, I could love this track 'til the day I die and I doubt I'd ever crack it on Guitar Hero.

"Flux" (standalone release, later included on a re-release of A Weekend in the City)
I guess Kele and pals (I'm running out of different ways to say Bloc Party, so guess I may as well use up awesome foursome now before I embarass myself) got tired of twisting drums and guitars into tracks you can move to, and instead opted for a full-blown dance number. Luckily, they pulled it off with aplomb, and also achieved the admirable feat of changing their entire instrumentation while retaining their signature sound.
Lyrically, "Flux" is fairly standard stuff. On the instrumental front however, it's sublime. A 4-minute adrenaline rush that practically demands you to get jumpin'.

"SRXT" (from A Weekend in the City)
Being a big fan of Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Bright Eyes and the like, I've been accused more than once of being into depressing music. I'm never been quite witty or clever enough to come back with anything more than mumbling "hmm, well they're only depressing if you don't listen to them properly.." However, there's no denying that the closing track of AWitC is a thoroughly morbid and downbeat affair. That's right folks, it's about suicide! Tricky territory to cover without sounding overwrought or, at worst, whiny (I do love a bit of alliteration). Bloc Party's effort is instead sparse and lonely, featuring some of their most affecting lyrics to date.

"This Modern Love" (from Silent Alarm)
I chastised Kele Okereke earlier for going down the romance route in his lyrics a little too often. On the other hand, he can do it very well indeed on songs such as this. Further proof that Bloc Party are very handy indeed at getting more from less, "This Modern Love" gently teases out a tale of frustration with modern romance. Accompanied by drums and guitar slowly building, the layers of instrumentation stack, then finally collapse. "This modern love breaks me". He's given up.

"So Here We Are" (from Silent Alarm)
My only problem with what I consider to be the highlight of Silent Alarm, is that it sets such a high benchmark that it can be hard to enjoy the following three tracks. Such is my love for this song that I firmly believe it could be a contender for my Desert Island Discs. I'll never detail the others in the same post, as I'd run out of superlatives fast.
Often I find it hard to accurately describe why a song is among my favourites without resorting to woolly stuff like "oh, well this song just soothes my soul" (a very difficult sentiment to pull off in everyday conversation without sounding like a complete and utter twat). However, it's pretty simple here. Bloc Party are one of my favourite bands, and "So Here We Are" displays them at their best. Spare, abstract lyrics, Kele's voice at his strongest yet most delicate, thickly atmospheric, layered guitars, and a beautiful culmination of all these elements at the close.
Plus, it provided the basis for a quite excellent remix by Four Tet.

Yawn, I'm really quite tired. Hope the post was enjoyable. I'll be away from teh internets over the weekend, but will hopefully have time to digest the new album over several bus and train journeys, and will post my thoughts next week. Fingers crossed they'll be uber-positive.

Until next time!