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.

New Cat's & U-Turns

So there is a new cat in Downing Street, let’s hope for his sake that he has a healthy appetite for rats because that place seems to be crawling with them, but then again The Fat cat and the Political Rat usually end up getting on famously. It’s been another week of U-turns half measures and distraction as we are goaded into some sort of caring attitude where we will shoulder the burden and basically keep quiet and turn the other cheek for a constitutional bitch slap.

I really don’t know if it’s in our genetic background to be caring for our fellow man and have strong minded community spirit, some will say that we have evolved past the survival for the fittest pattern of self preservation and have developed a moral obligation and the ability to share the wealth’s of the world, to be giving of ourselves. This might be a well and good notion to put forward if we are operating in a fair and meritocratic society in some sort of pluralist quasi reality but for the current administration (it’s getting hard to call it a government) to suggest we band together in some kind of unexplainable sizeable society is too put it quite frankly a fucking insult. This is not blitz Britain where the brave and noble came together to get through hard times, to unite against a shared enemy that was creating the problems that were facing them, because this time the enemy, the problem isn’t a fascist dictator intent on world domination it’s a fascist organisations that we technically own crippling us financially to aid their aims of world domination. Capitalism has created an unfair society where some will have and some will be forced to do without and instead of trying to level the playing field those with the power are taking more from us and then telling us to band together and take it with a smile on our face, all filling our ever dwindling free time involved in community minded projects. The unemployment in the country is forcing people into competition with each other with the youth suffering the hardest, it’s dog eat dog for personal survival and yet the comfortable elite are suggesting we do more to lend a helping hand to be quite frank again, go fuck yourselves.   

Maybe we have some power though maybe we have more than our pointless vote to make a difference maybe protesting and direct action can make a difference as we see a complete U-turn on a policy set out to sell public forests, or maybe it’s a tactical rethink to make us think we have an understanding and open eared government, pick your fights because they will certainly pick their moments to show compassion.

Maybe the answer is to reform the way our voices are heard through voting, to appropriate a system that increases our choice and clarifies our way of expressing our political desires. Or maybe we are having the ropes that bind our democracy pulled like strings on a marionette and the utter futility of it all blatantly paraded through the notions of choice and free will before it crumbles in a sad and tired pile in front of us, leaving its supporters more angry and defeated than ever and giving those in opposition strength to their fraudulent claims of operating in a true democracy.  We can’t seem to motivate the people of this country to get to the ballot box let alone give a hoot about what happens when they actually get there and giving the average Jo more things to decide seems like a pretty poor way of getting more people of getting more people involved. Make it more fun more sensational make it more like ‘It’s A Knockout’ or get large foam cotton bud, physical violence and the noise aghhhh-woooogha! Involved, that's the voting reform we need. Given the chance to have a democratic vote on the multi million pound football transfer deals that take place I’m sure we would have a much greater queue outside the local primary school than that for one to be involved in the multi-trillion pound deals being made with our money, made by people masquerading under the notion that they fairly won the job of making the decisions on our behalf. Democracy is a joke and one that will always be protected by those who can dangle its notions of fairness and morality in our faces as it selfishly serves their interests.

But like I always say there’s always the music. Don’t let the fuckers grind you down, although for one artist it will grind to a halt as he ends his four album reign of thug-laureate in his last outing ‘Computers & Blues’ by The Streets I remember very clearly where I was when I first heard Mike Skinner’s voice invading my ear-space and being instantly dismissing of it but remember it slowly making its way into my musical conscience and as I see the lyrics play out in situations in my own life falling for this loveable rogue. The sound he in part helped to create has gone through a lot since the original pirate material locked down our aerial’s  but Mike has stuck to his guns and delivered an album of tidier but definitely personal sounds with a rare funk that gives him space to use his skill of making the inane seem poetic.  Facebook love affairs and the ever present use of Google to solve all our problems may seem shallow but it’s real and as all his music has been it’s of the moment and full of the heart on your sleeve honesty it’s hard to mock. While so much music gives youth twisted ideas of attainment and a warped sense of values the moral of Skinner is admirable yet always infused with a sense of mischief and fun. “Sometimes you have to find out for yourself, Sometimes you need to be told, Sometimes you never find the answer”, comforting and realistic.

Another group who did a lot to push a sound into the mainstream return to the with their star studded aggressive second album ‘No More Idols’ by Chase & Status the dirty sound of dub-step has invaded the bastions of aggressive dance like a plague, a bass driven vomit of power that leaves those swept up in it slightly mocking of everything that came before like Drum & Bass is the cute bunny that has been torn apart by this bull mastiff of new noise. But dance music fans are fickle and the market moves fast, too much of the same and you’re not with the scene, don’t give them what they want and the toy’s are quickly thrown out of the pram. Lots of big names help to keep the attention and though it at times sways well over into melodrama the album has the punch and anger that it needs to push you towards the inevitable drop. I believe there is an appropriate time for most types of music and possibly unfortunately the volume required to do this music justice is rarely appropriate for my life at the moment but this outing certainly makes you yearn to crank up the speakers, I’m sure it will be the soundtrack to many a speeding ticket. The inclusion of a Jim Morrison sample is bordering on sacrilegious but then again the gravely pith of the lizard king’s voice can quite easily brush aside the brash swagger of Mr.Tempah or the high speed ranting of that balance challenged Rascal, and if Morrison could be returned to us I’m sure he would be hugging the speakers and begging for the jump off.

At another side of the trying to make you dance floor giving you some intense eye contact is this offering ‘Blue Songs’ by Hercules & Love Affair  from the first beat this album is very gay, not the happy go lucky, look at me bounce around gay of ‘The Scissor Sisters’, or the high camp super sexy ‘Kylie’ gay this is the two dry fingers straight up there super butch gay, though the strings bounce along nicely there is a cool directness  in the voice that can’t be ignored and is quite intimidating. I’m not using the gayness as a negative it’s just highly evident and hard to ignore, unfortunately the music is as confused as the sexuality and the album tries to be bitter and touching while wanting you to bop your head. With ‘Anthony Heagerty’ the last album was given the validation in the sadness that it needed but the beeps of the house sound are in so many ways just not for me. Reach for the poppers and listen in a dizzy headed state of aural arousal and maybe it’s right up your street but I’m not sure they know where their heads are at anymore which decade, which hole and what sound.

And finally something that is definitely right up my avenue of angst and prompts me to turn up the volume despite of what the neighbours think ‘Tao of The Dead’ by And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead.... The pomp and circumstance of the guitar opera sound get’s dusted off and thrashed around for another dark mystical tale, slaying all in its path. I have loved this band since I first heard them swagger and crunch perfectly time their soar to capture you in the racket and then deliver the pointing finger at just the right time. Swirling grandiose power throws us around like we are being battered by a musical storm and being dragged down into the mind of a deranged clown. Listening to this album makes me think of the strange power in the sky that two star fleet captains are attracted to in the film ‘Star trek – Generations’, I saw AYWKUBTTOTD live once and listening to their music now is like a personal endeavour to get back to that feeling of being there locked inside the experience. ‘The Who’ tried too hard to get their point across and ‘Mars Volta’s’ story was too convoluted for anyone to pick up on it, but with this you can feel the noise or get trapped in the nuances. ‘Muse’ ruined themselves in the waves of the popular and made that space rock sound a dirty word but these guys will take you to the heavens and into the afterlife.

So I’m getting towards a routine and should be connected back to the warming information fountain of the world wide web very soon so I can make up for lost time and keep my finger a little closer to the pulse. Some musical big hitters on the table next week, lot’s to live up too. Keep yourselves beautiful.

The Money Snake the Noises we Make

I have been remarkably removed from the world at large since I last posted, somewhat tied up in an ever increasingly complex set of problems that life deals to me year in and year in, but let’s face it I wouldn’t have it any other way and I’m not going to be the sort of person to traipse my personal problems across the internet, this is not about what is happening to me it’s about all of us.

That being said it does make me look, as I too often do, at the staggering levels to which Capitalism consumes us all and in some way succeeds in making an ass of all our achievements.  However much we may try to avoid involvement in the system it tends to jump up and bite us in the ass, whatever artistic holes we try to hide ourselves in it somehow smokes us out and puts a price on our head. When we interact with the world we have to play by its rules and its controlling systems and the odds are stacked high against us and when you have learned this, been burned a few times its hard not to want to build a wall around yourself to protect yourself with the only thing the system understands – Money. I was put in a tight spot, one that required me to make quick decisions and step out from the comfortable bubble that I had been operating in and throw myself into the fray, how quickly the vampires smell fresh blood. If I had been in a weaker state I would have been eaten up and left in a very uncomfortable position, I only made it through because I have managed to operate on the level, not a conscious player but a person accepting of my unavoidable involvement in a tour de force of control that infiltrates every part of our day to day existence. Now I am forced to measure my worth in money when what I really want is artistic ambition, I have to set a level of what I feel would be underselling myself to accept, to become a commodity that is to be traded and vied for, all so I can get back to the level and find another artistic hole to hide in. Our economy is awash with scared faces unsure of their futures and unguided on the first steps into an unfair system and they have no clue what to be proud of, we don’t need to re-strengthen the faith the world has in our currency we need to re-shape and support the populations faith in themselves. Making people feel valued as individuals and like their endeavours are meaningful makes it a lot easier to swallow the bitter pill of realisation that we will not all live the blessed life we see portrayed across the popular media, that maybe the whispered mantra of ‘you can be whatever you want’ was a misguided and rose tinted white lie that holds little weight in a world creaking to overload with want to be millionaires. Accepting one’s position in life is less harrowing when you feel you can take pride to the bank.

I did mightily enjoy David Cameron’s somewhat badly timed attack on multiculturalism the sort of rhetoric that manages to point fingers at everyone involved and end up making them all look like fools. The Left get very uppity every time anyone says anything that could half be taken as possibly maybe offensive to one social grouping or another but I always feel this may sometimes be a huge barrier to discussing things that might actually becoming an issue. The tie in with the largest rally to date of the mask clad hooligan group ‘The English Defence League’ is really not as stirring as they would have us believe, to make these nationalist parties seem ridiculous all we need to do is give them airspace and they will do it fantastically themselves, in paper there words of disenfranchisement and lack of identity might strike a chord but in pictures it becomes a much less appealing group to corner with. The right on the other hand love railing against the liberal establishment and all that it is doing to dilute our national spirit (Cameron is far from a Euro sceptic) but when there is a quarter word of support they are embracing them and him as a figurehead of a wave of national patriotism, take your eyes away from the news’s of ridiculous football transfer fee’s you lager lout fascists look to the schools to the hospitals to the dissent and disillusionment and then tell us we are a nation brimming with patriotic pride.

But as always the stereo is the last thing to be packed and there is always time for new music especially when it is a as hotly anticipated (by me at least) as ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’ by Iron & Wine it’s very hard to listen to anything completely subjectively and I go into this album already liking it and have my faith affirmed at every track. When you love the tone and meter of a group it’s hard to not like anything that might come out of their mouths and with Iron & Wine I have been thirsty for more of the same for a while and they deliver and add in new sounds that delight to boot, not to mention a stunning front cover artwork that has me aching to press play. There is assured folk quality with a dreamy use of backing vocal to surround the clear quality of voice throughout, it all seems to come so naturally I’m relaxed by how easily it all seems to come together, but there is a funk to this album as well an uplifting bounce that comes to the fore with great saxophone breaks and a deep rolling bass tone, as with all their work it’s a thing of beauty that can pick you up from the biggest of knock a welcome tonic in an uncertain world.

‘Native Speaker’ by Braids is another wash of warm welcoming sounds that sway in-between inviting and soothing and pointlessly vague. There is definitely a musical landscape being created here with counterpointed and contrasting subtle riffs in plinks and occasional plonks that run over the large swooning drones and atop this landscape is a series of long notes of vocal which don’t give away any clue as to which nation she might be a ‘native speaker’ of for I can’t distinguish a single word. At times this album vies into the Uber cool indie version of wale music relaxation tapes, but in others it has hints of the loopy brilliance of African jazz and the modern purveyors of this such as ‘Mouse On Mars’ or like ‘Welcome To Mali’ has been piped into drainpipe jeans and been given a quiff.

Now this next album was a surprise much hyped by the ‘cooler than cool’ American press but quite unlike what I was imaging when I heard the name ‘Kaputt’ by Destroyer I like the feeling of not knowing what to expect when hitting play, its half of the fun of new music, stripping away preconceptions and let the music do the talking, this album quickly yell’s ‘Belle & Sebastian’ but I’m sure that is a comparison this group would be familiar with and happy to garner. The loneliness and self deprecation in the vocal the bitter sweet occurrence of a twee female voice and the drum beats that are half Casio demonstration and half ‘New Order’. The appearance of Saxophone  and  nylon string guitar gives the album a not dated but timeless sound which make it a work aside of all these comparisons you might throw at it. Lyrically and melodically the vocal blends with the music doesn’t try to stand ahead and compete for attention which gives validity to a wonderfully subtle venture.

Already with this blog I have been accused of being a miserable ‘emo’ sympathiser who is scared of anything that might raise a smile, in part this is true I am drawn to a style of music that has an emotional resonance but I don’t want to get closed in to one style of music so let’s take a spin through ‘Gutter Rainbows’ by Talib Kweli  with all the swagger you would expect from someone who is on the cusp of being a rap heavyweight, the macho talk in skits of a rise from the ghetto and the high life are with Talib set against the innocent sound in his voice and the reluctance to just sound like a bark like somewhat of the more bulldog rappers. There are some great soul drops and gospel sounds that mirror the religious confusion in the lyric. At times I feel the production could be cut back that there is a richness to the sound that deflects from the tightness the warmness of the sound  can take the edge of the deliverance but I have to remember this is made to cater to a very different rap market than we have in the UK.

So I will be back when I can, no Internet in the house is driving me up the wall and keeping me out the loop but I will keep my ear to the ground and keep it vaguely imaginary.

It's No Time To Be Young

It aint no time to be young kids. In the last year I have regularly been heard complaining about getting old, be it the stiffness in my bones or an increasing propensity to wear cardigans I just don’t enjoy the feeling of losing my youth. It’s easy to become distanced from this idea of what is fresh and new by the simple additions of all the trials and boring mundanity that adult life throws your way but with the new found maturity that growing older has granted me I can honestly look back and see that being young aint really all it’s cracked up to be and in this day and age they really are gunning for you. With the proposed raising of the fees chargeable to students we saw an uprising of the youth and with the planned scrapping or at least reorganising of the EMA scheme the young un’s where once again left hopping mad. But I don’t really have a heartfelt compassion for the plight of the student and some of their arguments where laughable and unsurprisingly childish, it’s the bleakness of the future I empathise with them about. I know it’s the same future that we also share but we have chosen our paths and are fighting through the storms cast on the industries and careers we have chosen but to be at the start of it all trying to choose between the devil and the doomed now that could be worse than the occasional mug of coco and the wearing of slippers.

It seemed like everyone had their hands out this week squabbling for scraps from the table of a government with a dwindling budget and a insatiable desire to cut, every day there was a different organisation, service or lobbyist popping up to tell us how jolly well important they are and how chopping their money would be of grave danger to us all. I soon became de-sensitised to the bleating and moaning even more than my callous self usually is, I mean you can’t please all of the people all of the time and as much as It pains me to agree with ‘The Man.Plc’, no I don’t think the £30 a week to poor students will be being spent appropriately I mean notebooks I ask you. But the poor mites there is a damned if you do damned if you don’t kind of feeling about growing up today and it seems no matter who you are or what decisions you make your going to get screwed maybe this is a sad and bleak outlook or maybe it’s a real education in how life will feel.

Now before I get to music I must praise one bit of cinema and one bit of TV, firstly my first visit to the big screen to see 'The Kings Speech' although the hordes flocking to see this film would usually put me off I’m very glad I ignored my usual  frowning at whatever popular culture is up too and got in on the action, this film was a real joy a genuine, interesting and very engaging story that got people in a very real and sympathetic way, and odiously no surprise that Colin Firth has been nominated for an Oscar, I mean he didn’t go 'full retard'. And on the smaller screen we had the start of the eradiate witty and brilliant '10 O'clock Live', with the pithy banter of Jimmy Carr, the scalding cynicism of Charlie Brooker, the Kid in a sweet shop politician come geography student David Mitchell and Some Blonde useless baby bag filling segue. The tone is so left wing it occasionally flicks right over into fascism and points the finger directly at 'The bad people' but I always revel in the fact that we live in a country where such political dissent is not only broadcast but is so entertaining.

Now I have been finding it hard to listen to new music this week, not only because of the misplacing of my headphones but mainly due to the state of my life making me need old friends, I needed Biggy to cheer me up, I occasionally needed to wallow in Mr. Cohen and sometimes I needed to thrash angrily to The Volta. But there has been some great releases firstly and mostly ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will' by Mogwai Nobody holds bombast at their fingertips like these boys, the deepness of the sound they have always created gives them a quite addictive quality and when you've bought into it your clucking for more and hanging on each fraction of riff like it could be your last. Atmospherically they are the kings and this album doesn’t disappoint, there's a warmness to the sounds that is very comforting and the songs are as massive as they are delicate. Describing Mogwai albums is like trying to put into the words the feeling of riding a train when you have no idea where you’re going and you’re loving it, stepping out into the cold night with the sounds in your ears making you feel invulnerable. Put on some headphones and walk in the night even if you haven’t got anywhere to go and this album in your ears will make you feel like you can break through walls - its powerful stuff

With great power comes great responsibility and here are another bunch of Celts wielding power and volume with reckless abandon 'The Big Roar' by The Joy Formidable after the start of the first song you can see that the title is no lie this is indeed a wall of sound something big full and possibly scary. The shallowness and breathiness of the vocal does help to cage the beast but when the full force of the guitar halo is unleashed it really is something to behold. I like it, I like it a lot but at times I can’t help feeling that it lacks direction which is fine if they aren’t searching for any but I think there is a hint of the poet being hidden behind the roar, but what a roar. In Guitar terms it’s very textural with layer upon layer of repeating patterns soaring together towards cataclysm. Even in the more lyrical moments the guitars seem to hum in the background like angry indie punk bulldogs waiting to smash everything else out of the way and administer their dominance.

To continue the theme of overpowering noise we have 'Rolling Blackouts' by The Go Team! Don’t adjust your stereo's ladies and gentlemen the lo-fi dance crew are back to pump you continually up into some kind of modern soul bloc party frenzy. I can see why this is good, I can see why you might like it but I just don’t, I feel like I’m a fish being forced to listen to Junior Senior 'Don't Stop' over and over again through the glass of my tank. They do make me want to party and have a good time but not listening to their music, whack on some Budos Band or go back further and get The Furious Five out on vinyl and listen to the crackle and pop of music originating not stagnating - actually fuck I’m halfway through the album now and I feel like I’m stuck on a very long journey with 'The Wiggles' and they have been fucking cheerful for hours and all I really want to do is reach over to the car stereo put on 'Debaser' and smack them all in their grinning gobs.

On that note i will leave you for now, in the process of sorting out a brand new life for myself so i will return when the dust has settled and the internet connection has been returned with more ranting and possibly even a little bit of raving. Be good to each other.