In Search Of The Infathomabale

Many of my late night drunkard rants and rampant belligerent scribbling over the years are related to the process of evolution to the point of being accused of racism and fascist barbaric views as I spout selectionism and the survival of the fittest notion that I see segregating a population. I have never been one to bear in mind the possible inferred connotations of a statement before throwing it out there, much more a fan of throwing things up flag poles and seeing who salutes (the nationalist sentiment rearing its head?), I have always been prepared to re-evaluate the notions I hold dear so as to be as bold to say things and then controlled and humble enough to dismiss them and am always aware of new levels of understanding along a path making previous beliefs unfounded yet no less relevant in the process of an idea evolving through this point.

As a species I see that we have reached the point of middle age spread in our evolutionary process we are no longer pushing ourselves forward with the view of survival but are sprawling ever sideward’s with the pursuit of comfort and happiness as our primary goals. What I can’t get my head around is the two dimensional and dumbed down methods we are implementing to try and achieve something while we don’t really understand or appreciate the goal, there is no long term thinking to our acceleration only an immediate quench for our never ending thirst. The Joy doesn’t lie in the knowing all and having all it lies in the yearning, in the beautiful journey. When we are striving we are at our best and as a species we have reached a plateau of complacency in a melodramatic slump.

The alternative, in my humble opinion is a retreat from the material and an evolution of our emotional states to become individually empowered people who measure our success purely on merit not against any tide mark set by others, to become a people who are vital and energetic constantly living the best days of their lives and who are so settled inside the limits and glories of their lives they feel no need to blow their own trumpets. Not adding to the cacophony of desperate needy choruses of self adoration but quietly sitting in the wonder of the whisper of other peoples open love. We would soon learn the deeper meanings in emotion’s that striving towards a notion of bright coloured saccharine happiness is not as rewarding as a path through a kaleidoscope of emotion feeling every one with no exception or exemption will lead to a true appreciation of joy with no need to have it validated or even noticed.

Feeling my emotions like great constellations across the sky, connecting the dots in grand and abstract patterns to create the monument of the heavens. Happy things won’t always make you happy and sad things don’t have to make you sad, the connection between things is never as simple as it seems and cannot be written in stone, it’s as whimsical as clouds and as easy to disconnect as grains of sand falling through our fingers. We have to give up on ourselves to be saved and find ourselves by getting lost.

Well clearly Solstice is coming up and my desire to sing the beauties of the world over the human dominion create this voice inside me that needs to beat drums and celebrate the few pure things we have left, so I’m sure I will get rained on at 4am as a bleak sun rises over a misty skyline and once again I can be refreshed in the knowledge that there are quiet places of being where we can look inside ourselves undisturbed by the trumpet blowing cacophony of the needy masses and we can evaluate ourselves against ancient stone and the life giving power of the sun and see our lives as they are, little more than dust on the wind.

And what better musician to soundtrack this world weary nostalgic melodrama than the new offering ‘Codes & Keys’ by Death Cab For Cutie The me some 5 years ago would have snubbed this music as introspective and wank but like I said we have to re-evaluate the power of emotion and what they can add to the depth of art. This is a very rhythmic album and far less guitar based than previous offerings with the repeated thumping’s of deep piano filling the space with the odd natty little hook that really are quite catchy, I guess that is the love hate appeal of ‘Death Cab’ the large sprawling soundscapes with the repetitiveness that are held together with the crunch of good riffs and some very sound turns of phrase, even if they do come across as a little twee. ‘You Are A Tourist’ is a standout track with a feel good cruising the coast feeling that really captured that feeling in my mind of feeling the happiness in sorrow. The album is a definite entire piece of work with an effortless flow through the pieces making it an enjoyable experience to be immersed in.

Also this week a new offering from the not so young no more scamps ‘Suck It And See’ by The Arctic Monkeys When this band first rose to fame from the depths of the internet to the front page of the NME I was at the centre of the retail industry that pushed them to having the fastest selling debut album to date and was quite taken by their cheeky turn of phrase and hooky riffs that nobody seemed to be able to ignore, 4 albums on and wanting so much to break the American market how can you manage to keep it new and vital without spouting cliché and becoming that little bit too cool for school, how do you escalate yourself to the higher echelons of the rock hierarchy without picking up doubters along the way. This album may have been recorded in the same studio as Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ but by people who were only 5 at the time of its release this is a group with younger influences doing all they can to take it all in and make a style of their own. The Northern charm and rough round the edges charm does endear the album to me but the relaxed swagger seems a long way from the jerky snatchyness that first pushed them towards the mainstream. The track ‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’ is much heavier than anything the group has done before and much more like Turners side project Last Shadow Puppets and while the riff will have you head banging for more, lyrically it pushes the boundaries of cringe worthy almost to breaking point. Is this relaxed or is it coolness boarding on lazy, well like the band prompt you too its worth sucking and seeing.

Without lyrical constraints and with an endless soundscape at their disposal is the second release ‘Gloss Drop’ by Battles this band have a sandbox world where they can play with what they will without fear of reprisal and they use this freedom to create edgy infectious and deeply engaging interesting music. Somehow the chaos of all the noise manages to be reined in and kept consistent by an upbeat swagger and some genuine musical genius, layers of sound placed carefully to compliment and create something much bigger than the sum of its parts. The sounds on this album are much less aggressive and jarring than on ‘Mirrored’ that makes the album much more accessible which seems like a strange thing to say for such an unclassifiable maelstrom of musical movements from gritty gothic industrial sounds to an almost carnival feel of steel drums and samba drums. This is a real collage of an album that is a gripping listen with a surprisingly party atmosphere.

More pleasing electric plinkyness with some nice beats on another second outing by self produced self made man ‘Leisure Seizure’ by Tom Vek I will admit to being a little biased in my review here because I have met Tom and had a jolly good drink with him which instantly endears anyone too me but despite that this is once again a very original sound that is unabashed and compelling. The tight drums really form a solid base for the trill keyboards to spike around and Tom to use his lyrical styling’s to tell a down to earth and realistic story, I am drawn in by his honesty and forced to move by the underpinning groove of this high voltage stylish release. Maybe Tom’s first release was ahead of its time and seen as odd but this style has certainly com in vogue and deserves to be filling the floors at Indie disco’s across the land.

So I’m off for now to ponder the meaning of it all some more sitting in a field under the mysterious monoliths surrounded by the best kind of stinking hippies. So look forward to more new age thinking and a new album from the truly brilliant ‘Bon Iver’. Look after yourselves and each other

30 - Entering The Wilderness Years

So I turned 30 and am being forced into embracing maturity in far too many ways and reflecting on all the ways my life has changed and the ways in which I have changed. Many people see birthdays as no different from one another that every year is just another year but I certainly do believe in the importance of milestones and that certain numbers or events can hold specific significance over us to imbibe them with extra gravitas. I can say with some confidence though that age and maturity do not go hand in hand as I am forced to deal with the immaturity of those much more advanced in years than myself. It’s a funny old game this life we lead and the different hands that it deals to people is the wonder that makes us such a diverse and dynamic species but that at times fails to deflect from what arrogant self involved pricks it can make of people. For me embracing the stories and lives of others is what makes us mature, detracting from yourself and realising there are other plains of understanding that are above our own petty needs and desires.  I remember being in middle school and looking at the sixth formers parading around their common room not having to wear the blazer which was making me look so geeky and uncomfortable, sitting in the library discussing UCAS applications and their plans for the future, I was so convinced that they had it all figured out and that when I reached that age my life too would make sense and be filled with a meaningful purpose. On reaching those same UCAS application forms and still feeling geeky and awkward I realised that this notion that I would have made sense of it all by now was far from the case and started to look at those finishing Uni, my elder brother and his friends, listening to their crazy stories of independence and bold shows of individualism and spontaneity, surely these people have it all figured out and that these lives had become full of the purpose I was yearning for, but again at that age I was left disappointed and still no closer to something I still can’t say truly exists. This forward look to a place that looks secure from the distance then feels just as fragile when you teeter on its edge yourself has continued through my years but has now become more comforting than un-nerving.  I have found great peace in my life, a knowledge of myself that I thought I would never have, I still feel geeky and awkward from time to time but maybe that’s just me, maybe that is just my way of dealing with my projection onto the earth. So as each milestone passes without revelation I think I now know that life is a constant revival that we will always be yearning for a higher understanding and I have the humility to hope that I never find it because the truth is really in the journey.

Although I have become distracted from the news of the modern world by long hours and the drama of peoples personal lives it is hard to escape the tirade of coverage and publicised excitement surrounding the royal wedding that will take place in two days time. So does this event fill me with nationalistic pride or send me into a blind rage of Bank holiday based fury. I am very proud to be English and although sometimes spouting the words of a would be Communist Anarchist I am at least intrigued by the Royal family and the sense of reflection they give us into the past magnificence of our nation. The attention and fawning that the Americans feel towards our royals is an indication of their knowledge that there is something lacking from the nation they often tout as being close to perfection and getting one over on the yanks certainly provokes my national pride. My annoyance does come from The governments notion that by making this day a public holiday it is a gift to the nation that will bring us together in shared pride, for as usual I will be hard at work in front of the stove helping to add to the enjoyment of investment bankers and other vacuous fuck-tard’s who will be enjoying their extra day not sitting on their ass looking for new ways to screw the common man. I am not only selfishly thinking of myself or my hospitality industry brethren across the nation but of all the others for whom a bank holiday’s often mean extra work for no extra reward and to add insult to injury have to endure targeted marketing constantly reminding them how much extra fun every other fucker will be having while they slave away, They are probably all sitting around laughing at us gullible mugs. On the whole I am pleased at the attention that we are getting even if it is for something archaic and outdated but I’m sure that on the day I will be cursing the names of every person I see with a smile on their lazy 3 day week smug faces.

I know I am posting this quite a long time since writing it mainly due to the post 30 malaise that I thought would hit really did and I have been left in a quite torrential rain of uncertainty and good old fashioned hiding from your worries with the ever present help of booze. I know that nobody ever really has it fully figured out and that it would be so dull if we did but that doesn’t stop every decision we are forced to make being harder and harder as the gravity of time grow longer and stronger. But before this becomes some sort of speech given as sharing at an AA meeting I must remember the ropes that save me from the pits I throw myself into, maybe my life is just one long quest to compile the saddest playlist of all time or to find the songs that can save me from any misfortune, this week I was greatly helped by ‘Directors Cut’ by Kate Bush always bringing back memories of inappropriate behaviour in low life drinking establishments in Australia this cool seductress pops into my sound waves with an album of exquisite eccentricity and beautifully controlled and poised sensuality. It’s a tour de force for an artist who knows how to use her voice to invoke a reaction that is both visceral and intoxicating. Lyrically tied up in a world all of her own as she always has been the album creates a world that you are left dying to be part of. Essentially these tracks are reworking and rein visioning of earlier pieces recorded in an analogue studio to recapture the eclectically original sound that first made her such an engaging and vital artist but paired down and laid bare for me it is the honesty and compelling nature of the lyrics and the fantastic use of vocal technique that make this release a compelling and engaging listen

More musical elder statesmen returning to the studio to turn out ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part II’ by The Beastie Boys returning from a health scare Ad-Rock, Mike D and MCA return to finish a body of work they started some time earlier and sound as vital poised and cool as they ever have. The sounds are reminiscent of the jazzier In Sounds from Way out but given a gruff dirty sound that sets them apart as dirty funk masters. How these aging hipsters don’t sound ridiculous I don’t know but they don’t possibly due to the humour and tongue and cheek attitude that they have always had towards an industry so full of fakers and people with small musical minds. Passing the mic to ‘Nas’ and delving briefly into a dub sound we see the boys not stuck in their ways without forgetting what endeared them to us in the first place.

That’s all for today folks keeping it short and sweet and trying to keep my head together, the broom cupboards of my life are being cleared out and I am trying to return to a more creative and inspirational place so watch out and keep it vaguely imaginary.

A Higher calling? Taste and Morality

Sometimes it seems as if the world is falling in on itself, and some of those times it gets you to thinking how it doesn’t happen more often, how the complex situations and tenuous bonds that we rely on don’t spiral into chaos on a more regular basis. The world itself seems to be giving us a continuing demonstration of its power over the lives we have built on its vast and varied surface and yet we as a race are still vying for control and are forced into positions where we feel we must risk our lives for the ideals of freedom. Think what you may about the increasing frequency of natural disaster’s spreading their destructive fingers through the world, think Mayan prophecy, think El Niño, think a vengeful god repaying us for our glutinous expansion or just think plain cold hearted bad luck, but please think something, please take stock and let it sink into our brains that maybe all we have isn’t a given and could well be taken away at any minute. Yet no, as a country we still seem resigned to repeating past mistakes and waltzing around another Middle Eastern country under the banner of democracy executing our own special brand of justice for all. Now I’m not pro or con war in general but I am fully against hiding behind one agenda to achieve another, if we want to go back to some good old looting and pillaging taking what we need from the people who have it with the fear of military might to bolster our claim then “fuck the morals does it make any money” but let’s not get in to another complicated deception trying to achieve a supposed good dead while reaping in the benefits through the back door, especially while the people of Libya are speaking of “needing to die for their cause” because that level of devotion to the fight for the most basic of democratic freedoms makes our petty whinging and complaining look pathetic.

From that straight to some whinging of my own which of course is totally pathetic and ultimately still very irritating, my gripe is with taste. Whenever you start a new job there are many things to learn and to get accustomed too, people’s names, where things are, how to make the best coffee and questions of actual work. There is a process of fitting in with the accepted norms of the new place and possibly starting to make your own. It’s easy to forget how the little things make up the feel of a place and how having to deal with something new can be quite a challenge. I am speaking primarily of the stereo. Now in The Three Tuns the little sanctuary of a kitchen Simon and I would always have the radio tuned to ‘Classic FM’, the sounds were inoffensive and filled the room with a comforting noise that would never really draw a line between us never really peak a change to our mood to add any inconsistency to the tone of our work, the same cannot be said for my new place of work. The I-pod dock that looms its musical dominion over the prep area has been an offense to my senses and definitely not a neutral and entertaining comfort. M People at 8am followed by an entire Robbie Williams live at Knebworth and without a hint of irony a “sticking with a live theme” Nickelback concert. Of course there are positives an afternoon making Crab cakes with Coltrane to while away the hours or peeling a sack of spuds with ‘Dub Side Of The Moon’ to help me through, but ohh the inconsistency. Is there such a thing as artistic superiority, I have always believed that there is, that while there are merits in all music we cannot deny that there is a higher artistic pursuit in the music of Radiohead than the approach of Take That, that while Jack Johnson may be bright and breezy he can hardly match the emotional significance of Bill Callahan. Here in lies the problem, music is drawing a line between people rather than being a unifying force, my musical snobbishness forces me to look down at the foolish cretin who just pushed play on James Blunt and they look at me with confused distain when I have finished playing a Frank Zappa album. Maybe the radio is for the best because no matter what rubbish blurts out at least it’s someone else’s fault.

Far from blurting rubbish we see the appearance of the much talked about, raised on the shoulders of the NME release of  ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines’ by The Vaccines  with last year’s explosion of Surf-pop/rock who would have thought that a bunch of young Londoners would have a pop and not only succeed but manage to imbibe the release with the sense of English pessimism and fatalistic grumpiness. The album is catchy, very catchy starting with the one minute excellence of ‘Wrekin Bar (RA RA RA)’ we are left pumping our fists in the air and eager for more. There are some lovely turns of phrase in the lyrical style that is honest and quite cheeky while the music manages to draw influence from up-tempo and the more morose end of Punk without seeming cliché. Big shouty choruses and flag waving rhetoric, coming to a summer festival near you.

higher up the bill at those same festivals but I’m sure with a more nonchalant attitude will be these won’t give it up ‘Angles’ by The Strokes  They possibly could be called Indie elder statesmen now but without any of the good charm of growing up or showing any sense of musically moving on. Heralded as the saviours of guitar music some 10 years ago now the band have been bickering and bitching through 4 albums without ever really capturing any of the exciting freshness of their debut while there are brief moments of plinky plonky face grinning loveliness on this album it really doesn’t gel together at all, very little cohesion between the songs and very few new sounds to make us think that these stroppy new Yorkers have anything more to offer. 5 years since your last release and let’s face it you’ve hardly re-invented the wheel, I didn’t hate First Impressions of Earth as much as everyone else seemed too but it would appear my patience has run out.

Coming back from a critical slating with much more swagger are the Canadian miserablists with their new offering ‘Degeneration Street’ by The Dears  after getting the old band back together again after a hacked together version of the band delivered a disappointing last album it seems the united front has learned from past squabbles and are back on form. Being labelled as miserable might not be the greatest accolade but The Dears wear it well and have always been a fan of melodrama and at this album they stretch it to its limits with songs such as ‘Galactic Tides’ a mammoth Muse esque titan of a song that soars higher and higher into the impossible eater but then is brought back down to earth with the uncharacteristic bounciness of the next track ‘Yesteryear’ which tempers the head over heels full on wackiness that they are prone to soar into. The band seems unified and has touches of Springsteen and The E Street Band about them and on a whole is a joy to listen to.

I’d like to finish with a short live review of ‘Elbow’ at The Brighton Centre   I had already laid down the warning to my girlfriend that this is not the most inspirational of venues but with an excellent weekend behind us we headed to the sports cavern with a smile on our faces after all this is the triumphant Elbow and my 14^th time seeing them live. The crowd are most certainly getting older although we do see some unlikely youngsters hanging around. It’s disappointing that we heard one women casting off the support act ‘Villagers’ as teenage angst as it reminds us that Elbow are now in the territory of the Radio one crowd of musical close mindedness, and the last I heard teenage angst didn’t include myopic tales based on ancient Greek myths but there you go. Garvey and the boys take to the stage and it is immediately evident that Garvey’s voice is stronger than ever as he effortlessly delivers ‘The Birds’ the opener from the new album with a charismatic clarity that is him all over. The Banter is great and the show is imbibed with a panto style to and fro between the audience and Garvey who is a natural at setting the tone and speaking of love without making you want to scratch your eyes out. Jutting into the crowd the stage allowed Garvey to interact and make the venue seem small and as Guy and Craig Potter decamped to a piano in the middle of the audience to play ‘Puncture Repair’ and ‘Some Riot’ back to back I could almost forgive them for not playing anything from the first album. This band clearly belongs to the people now but they will always have a special place in my heart.

Elbow - With Me Through Thick & Thin

Reading festival 2001 was a scorcher of a weekend, right slap bang in the middle of my Ecstasy honeymoon, when chemicals where never far away from my person and I was surrounded by like minded drop-outs trying our best to live the bohemian dream. This weekend all my groups of friends would collide in one sweaty field and life would never be the same again, the metal heads, the indie kids, the dance fiends and the grunge crew all raised to another level with the help of amphetamine and alcohol, some people for the first time, and all united in a desire to push the limits and embrace life as hard as we could. Friday afternoon I had literally rubbed shoulders with the great Iggy Pop as he hurtled through the crowd, nobody can inspire the pursuit of excess like this die hard party survivor, for me the weekend really kicked off then and I tested the level of my bodies resilience to intoxication to the very limits and by Saturday afternoon I was a bedraggled mess, my heart was beating irregularly and the chills where running down my arms as the powder blocked the effects of the liquid and allowed me to drink rum continually. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead... on the main-stage blew my mind, transported me to another cosmic place that I have long been trying to revisit. I was with my girlfriend at the time who pleaded exhaustion and the need to lie down, now many would have taken this as a nudge nudge wink wink and jumped at the chance to return to the camping area intent on getting intense in a tent but my devotion to music exceeded my sexual desire and I suggested we go and lie down at the back of The Radio One Evening Session Stage and listen to whatever was happening there. Musically this was the start of a love affair that has continued to thrill and excite me ever since, the sounds entering our tired and drug addled brains as we lay in a daze at the back of that stage that seems to conjure darkness even in the middle of summer played in my mind for the rest of the week, even through the intense craziness of System Of A Down the next day and my ridiculous antics prior, during and after Queens Of The Stone age’s set the music I had felt a dreamy part of in that tent struck me as the most poignantly beautiful music I have ever heard. I vividly remember checking my program post festival when the come down had finally finished and realising who the band where then trudging into town to buy their album, then to find out the album was called ‘Asleep In the Back’, that was me! Half asleep at the back of a tent witnessing this music for the first time. Since then the words of Guy Garvey and the music of Elbow have felt intensely personnel to me and as is their talent they have tapped in to the personnel and the beauty in the simple and have become a wonderful part of my and many other people’s lives, each one believing the songs where written for them and them alone. This close, intimate relationship with the music has lead this band to be with me through some of the deep lows and dizzying heights of my life and I can link many situations in my history directly and pointedly with lyrics and themes in the band’s music. As the band have gained critical and popular applause over the years I have been rewarded with the opportunity to share that experience with crowds of varying sizes from the up close and intimate of under 500 in ‘The Angel’ in Islington to nearly 13,000 fans in the Wembley Arena and each time spied the look on people’s faces, eyes closed, voice raised, hands in the air revelling in the effect these tunes have had on their lives. I have stumbled down the hill from my Brighton flat in the dark days of living alone, sat with my fourth bottle of wine of the evening  staring out at the sea wallowing in ‘Powder Blue’ wondering how I will carry on. I have sat on the front of a boat at sunset staring across The Timor Sea and soaked up the beauty and the memory of being’ five years ago and three thousand miles away’, And now I am facing the impending approach of my 30^th birthday with less trepidation as before as I am reminded to remember my glory days fondly and be proud of the person you are by the not surprisingly wonderful new album ‘Build A Rocket Boys!’ by Elbow  After finally gaining the recognition for their work with the massive critical and popular acclaim of their last album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’, Elbow have become a household name, so much so that if you’re watching the BBC and the program producers wants to convey triumph and/or jubilance then you are probably listening to ‘One Day Like This’. The band are now a stadium act and have supported Rock heavyweights U2 and thrilled crowds of thousands at premium festival slots, so as the band retreat to write an album they know will sell for the first time expectations run rife between die-hard fans as to what direction they will take, how they will cage or exploit their new power as their ability to write anthems has been taken so close to the great British public’s heart. Garvey had mentioned in interviews that it seemed some fans would rather they fail than become an act churning out a full album that would deliver purely on chest beating and fist pumping musical leviathans. We need not have feared.

Elbow’s strength has always been tempered by the fragility and with the core of bittersweet and wonderful lyrics they have managed to resist the saccharine lure and produced an album that again is deeply personal and instantly engaging. Throughout the album the melody is strengthened by its repetition and underpinned with simple yet effective harmony, the band run along with Garvey’s silken voice to show a unified group singing and sounding out proud of their hometown and looking back on their lives and to the future with a mature approach that it is so easy to forget.

The album is thematically strong and imbibed with a very strong sense of Englishness that although is in this case a very direct homage to the bands Manchester home’s, we can all draw from and take stock against the stories presented to us, demonstrating brilliantly the bands ability to wear their hearts on their sleeves but have the listener wanting to wrapped those sleeved arms round them in a hug rather than pushing them away as smug or sanctimonious.

The large sound is still present with rich vocal underscoring but then there is also the fragile sound of a whistle making us feel like we too are walking the northern streets with a poignant glances seeing things now that surely would have been invisible at the time we were the same age and in the same position as those we are now viewing. The album is about growing up, about all the warmness that perspective can give us, about the conquering of teenage angst and about being achingly proud of the person that you are, so much so that you want to be pointing your fingers to the sky and telling these stories till your old and grey. It’s an album that encourages you to go up to your best friends and grab them and tell them how much you love them and how much they enrich the life in which you are proud to live in.

The album has really delivered on all fronts calling on musical nuances from the bands earlier career and coupling this with the notion that these are songs that will be filling large auditoriums very shortly. There is a strong sense of story and place to all the pieces of music and the album is tied together with a strong bond of love that is impossible to miss whatever environment it will be played in.  My musical love affair continues and I am once again strengthened in my resolve by having this music in my life. Thanks guys!

Empathy & The Head

This week I was struck with a worrying and relatively uncharacteristic bout of empathy, a near 'Amnesty International’ fit of concern for the welfare of my common man. Ranting and raving about the woes committed unto us is more a vitriolic spill of anger for me than anything rooted in any sort of actual concern for others, so this lapse into the world of the international heartfelt worrier was quite unsettling. The catalyst for this was what initially seemed like quite a hum drum television program on the BBC where a London bus driver journeyed to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to live the life of a bus driver in this sprawling mega-city and live with this man’s family to get a measure of his life. My Communist spirit was distressed by the notion of the effort to reward ratio of these two men the lack of equality of opportunity available to global citizens and the ugly reminder of what lazy, pathetic, whinging pricks we have become in our comfortable society. Seeing families of 14 living in shanty housing measuring less floor space than that of my bathroom and eating stew made from the leftover bones of other people’s chicken dinners soon starts to put my little gripes into perspective. I very nearly actually voiced the annoyance that the water pressure in our Kitchen sink is less powerful than I would like – I mean what an unimaginable prick I am.  But don’t worry it didn’t last long, this blog is not about to become a wanky love letter trying to buy your concern for one disenfranchised nation or another, good old fashioned cynicism soon prevailed as I realised what a great distraction pill I was being fed by the popular media box. Try to make me feel bad for being unhappy with my lot while you bury your un-lubricated fist further up our rears.

And as usual there was plenty to try and distract our attention from this week, mainly the Melted wax figure of John Travolta ranting about the evil oppressors as his country burned, his people became as revolting as his face and Mr. Cameron popped into the region to sell some guns. The Middle East is something I’m never going to understand, I try to follow but the reasoning’s are as complicated as they are shallow. All I can see is legions of brave and tired people who have taken it and taken it for far too long and have risen up to try and claw back some dignity and democracy whatever the cost, the question that vexes me is why are we there. Why do British Politicians feel they need to head to this country in turmoil what are they really bringing to the table except another example of how you can fool the population into believing in the democratic lie that you are force feeding them. Enough of this endless toil and human oppression there is far too much to say about the wonder of music to get bogged down with despots.

Sneaking in early and quickly throwing the music press in a spin is the long awaited new release‘The King Of Limbs’ by Radiohead I can remember when I first bought a digital cd player, spending far more than I really should compared to what I earned and having that guilt in my stomach as I unwrapped it from its protective casing, the people I owed money too would surely demand an explanation for this shiny silver disc I was now clutching in my hands. I can also remember the first CD I listened too on that player, it was ‘Kid A’ and as the music bleeped into my headspace in delicious stereo all guilt was gone and I was transported to another musical plane that Radiohead have delivered me too on so many occasions prior to that. As with so many avid fans this band have a special place in my heart and to all intense and purposes I think they can do little wrong.

The Album is a deliciously dark blend of syncopated beats and soaring tender melodies that twist a bitter tale and transport us to the artistic world that the band have been creating and working towards for twenty years, it’s dystopian governments, it’s ancient tree’s, it’s English customs and folklore, it is eerily wonderful. Short but perfectly formed the album creates a sonic sound space that has been evident in their last three releases but whereas the guitars and gritty crunch had returned on ‘In Rainbows’ here we see a smoother tide and it is the melodic tide of the vocals that really pull you in.  The drum beats dart quickly between machine and man and flick between styles, at times promising ‘a drop’ something from a modern dance genre and then delighting us with its jazz syncopation and fractured edginess. The band clearly have nothing to prove and this has freed them up to produce music that defies expectations and can concentrate fully on the warmness of the sound and creating something that represents men who have been playing music together for most of their lives and have grown with their success rather than grown to further their success.

I feel I must address the doubter’s because this has made me angrier than the ranting of Gaddafi not only at the shallow mindedness of the music listening public but at the cretins who get paid to review music and somehow manage to listen to everything else except the album itself. The release of the album was early and relatively unannounced, there is initially no physical format and yes it is not a guitar album. Most reviews initially concentrated on these facts rather than the music and when it did talk content it was more in a context of comparison to earlier works and telling us all what we wanted from a Radiohead album that somehow what we really wanted from the group was ‘Karma Police II’.I think it is true Irony that a band that at the same time can have foolish dullards make comments about their 'off the wall lack of tunes' and then be called predictable. Radiohead have amassed a body of work that will dwarf the creativity and ingenuity of most recording artists in the last 2 decades, this is a continuation of the cosmically organic growth of an ego free group of Oxford legends. A true definition of irony is somebody who doesn’t know the difference between a definition and an example.

If Guitars and simple melodies are what you want then this band has given them to you, if it’s an indication and insight into what is happening inside the heads of these musical maestro’s now then here it is laid bare. This is everything I could have wanted from them and more and although its slightly galling maybe it makes me happy that it has pissed some people off because they don’t deserve it, what do they know and after all, ‘Anyone Can play Guitar’

All this musical drama in a week that also gave us the much more timed and media friendly release of           Let England Shake’ by PJ Harvey this album is much more than media friendly it is a part and tied up in the reporting of facts in a poignant and poetic way, written as if it was war correspondence. “Can anyone write a protest song?” they asked, well apparently this chameleonic indie icon most certainly can. This is a pointedly honest and straight look at War’s carried out in the good name of England that has the duality that Harvey’s work has always produced being at the same time damming and harsh and also being achingly proud. Quoting words written by soldiers at the sight of their fallen comrades may sound like the album will be heavy and morose but it is quite the opposite it deals with the dark with light touch that is much more revealing than the bulldozing approach. The mature way in which the subject matter is handled is embroiled in the spirit of Englishness in the album. This is not a look at what you wish had been but a reflection of what truly was and what we can learn from that. I think she has really come into her own on this album but at the same time don’t expect we will see anything remotely similar from her again as is her way.

And finally for me and apparently for him in this guise we have ‘The People’s Key’ by Bright Eyes As a scratchy voice begins to deliver a monologue about extra terrestrial beings in the shape of reptilian monsters invading our history strangely we feel to be stomping familiar ground.  The theme of earth and humanity as a small and inconsequential dot is one that seems to weigh heavy on Conor Oberst’s mind and while the cosmic gate of the previous album ‘Cassadaga’ was balanced with pithy folk songs with a balance of swagger and frailty I just don’t feel this offering has the heart to pull it off. Conor’s voice can be disconcerting but in his earlier work while it was heartbroken and forlorn or as part of a big band folk revival it blends nicely but here it seems jarring and stunted. I’m sure that this album will be received well by the many faithful who see that this Nebraskan Folk Pixie can do no wrong and I do believe that he is making music that he loves and is raw but for me I feel that a break would at least do him well to embrace this other worldly image more fully and who knows maybe return as the next Ziggy Stardust.

Thanks for reading and do join me again as I get to blush and swoon at the appearance of a new album from my very favourite band ‘Elbow’ and hope that it can carry me through the pains of returning to being a working man.