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I could go into a lot of blather about how much shit has gone down this month, but I think there's a certain YouTube clip that pretty much sums it all up:

And with that, here's my October journal...

Love 2 by Air
Billed as a return to the lo-fi swoonisms of their debut full-length release, 1998’s Moon Safari, Air’s sixth studio album is also the first to have been recorded and produced at their self-built recording facility; and unfortunately that would appear to be where the only vestiges of novelty lie on this release. For ambient, loungified Europop, it ticks all of the boxes, even if most of the tracks here err on the slightly more boring and pedestrian side of elegant levity (hear Be A Bee, which manages to sound like an Air track with none of the warmth or humour prevalent in their earlier work). There are times when the album passes for something more interesting, most arguably on seven-minute centrepiece Tropical Disease which features some nice arpeggios, jazzy horns and chirpy woodwinds, and you can argue that Godin and Dunckel have matured in their sound in their attempt to deliver something a little more understated. On the flip-side of the same coin though, it would appear there is a distinct lack of imagination present, and the album unfortunately does suffer from a lack of guest vocalists such as Beth Hirsch and Jarvis Cocker from previous albums. At its best, Love 2 is a lighter-than-air trifle, but too often, it fades into easygoing non-distinction.

Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know by múm
Arriving amidst the post-millennial rush of Icelandic alt-pop wonderments led by Sigur Rós, múm have held fast on to their international cult following via a charmingly left-of-centre mixture of glitch-infused post-rock that has slowly but surely moved further into the realms of folktronica. With this, their fifth studio album, it would appear they have reached this target head on, eschewing the more overt electronic elements for their most straight-sounding folk outing yet. This means that, fans of their minimal electro beats and warm bass synths are to be a little dismayed, in their place being plenty of lovely acoustic interludes and wistfully sung tunes backed with plaintively arranged string sections and sweet percussive elements, which is never less than lovely, but certainly inhabits a soundscape much more twee and less resonant than previous releases. There are moments where the eight-strong band hit something vaguely akin in quality to their past works with this more streamlined sound, such as the percussive Pong noises found The Smell Of Today Is Sweet Like Breastmilk In The Wind electronically whipping the traditional instrumentation into something almost-frantically cute, but missteps such as The Last Shapes of Never and the glockenspiel-led Prophecies and Reversed Memories stray the wrong side of disarming to almost disappear completely from the memory.

Beauty Killer by Jeffree Star
Self-styled genderfuck drag artist Jeffree Star’s debut studio album has been in the offing for two years, finally seeing release after finding Internet fame via MySpace and two self-released EP’s, having started out as a makeup artist to the stars in his mid-teens. As you can imagine, with an inbuilt obsession with vanity and fashion already dominating his persona, Killer doesn’t go for anything less than acidic, trendy electroclash, Star’s voice electronically altered in almost every instance to wallow in his accusatory diatribes of sexual submission and confrontation, at times coming across as Blackout-era Britney Spears crossed with John Waters’ muse, Divine. Sometimes, as on opening one-two Get Away With Murder and Prisoner, Star strikes his target with some style, even if it is mired in noticeably less substance that what would most likely be coursing through most L.A. clubkids’ veins; but often, some fatal missteps kill the party dead in its tracks, key offender being Love Rhymes With Fuck You, which appears to confuse controversial cool with rampant obnoxiousness. However, the major grind against the album is that Star himself never appears less than rabidly sex-hungry and fame-obsessed, which means he doesn’t come across as the most appealing electro-diva to hit the airwaves; however, you can bet he doesn’t really give a fuck about issues like that.

Rokstarr by Taio Cruz
Not letting slightly-disappointing sales of his debut last year get him down, Mr Cruz has done well to make sure he gets on top this year. Constantly popping up in Internet news with regards to the likes of Tinchy Stryder (with whom he shared a Top 3 UK single earlier in the year), Sugababes (he’s on Keisha’s side, by the by!) and Cheryl Cole (who passed on the single that became his first chart topper, Break Your Heart), Cruz’s profile as the UK’s multi-hyphenate pop star of the moment is more than assured, in time to give his follow-up album a better shot at the charts. However, the fact that he re-named his sophomore effort after his own range of sunglasses probably suggests what kind of a glossy, shiny and ultimately shallow record Rokstarr is. Last time around, Cruz was accused of being a little too schmaltzy on his debut Departure (whose opener I'll Never Love Again bafflingly features here midway through the action), and possibly as a result, there’s a bit more of a shade of the lothario about him here, highlighted by Break and its follow-up Dirty Picture, the latter featuring up-and-coming Lady GaGa clone Ke$ha. However, it’s soon dispelled by efforts such as Best Girl and Falling In Love, and it isn’t helped that Cruz and co-producer Fraser T. Smith are fond of the same production gimmicks throughout. Another notch on the disposable pop belt then...

Overcome by Alexandra Burke
Though it provided an important stepping stone in launching Leona Lewis as an international pop star, success proved elusive for the rest of the winners of UK TV’s ultimate Reality show crown. True, Shayne Ward continues to sell admirably well in the UK, but Lewis’ success across the pond helped transform the show from a national talent show to an important pitching tool for the American market. However, whether last year’s worthy winner Alexandra Burke can crack America remains to be seen because, in spite of proving her mettle as quite an endearingly physical performer on the show, the material with which she has been foisted for her debut album is dispiritingly low on character and soul. They’ve done well to differentiate Burke from Lewis by giving her a more uptempo modus operandi for her wannabe divahood (working best on Broken Heels and standout track Dumb, both RedOne cuts) and her voice shows a more relatable grit on the ballads than her fellow winner’s galvanising trills, but even with the amount of star-heavy assignments from the likes of Brian Kennedy, Stargate and Ne-Yo filling up the credits, Burke never rises further than as a notably capable young singer rather than a star in her own right. The second album better show some growth, girlie, I didn’t finally vote for a winner to see her become an autonomous would-be star.

Straight No Chaser by Mr Hudson
With regards to current trends in popular culture, it would appear that we really ought to be proud to be British. The latest success story to emerge from our humble isles is that of Mr Hudson and the Library, who’ve been snapped up by none other than Kanye West himself in a bid to reinvent their lead singer as a siècle nouveau pop star for the masses after picking up a copy of their humble debut a tale of two cities. Identity confusion aside (according to the albums liner notes, The Library members are still present in their playing on most tracks), what remains is a confusingly odd affair with its share of bombastic moments (second single Supernova and Everything is Broken in particular) with Hudson coming across often times as an immensely Autotune-altered Sting, which is as wary as it sounds! The production, co-administered by West and Hudson themselves, often throws up some nice touches (such as the delicate glitches found on premiere single There Will Be Tears), but its all held together by a leading man suffering from a rather acute case of a personality vacuum; between this and Malik Yusef’s lamentable double-disc behemoth released earlier this year, West’s stock on talentspotting is certainly on the wane.

Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? by Paloma Faith
Sometime actress and full time warbler Paloma Faith is the latest in a longline to court the Winehouse Comparison, with her husky soulful voice at odds with the frankly less-than-disarming daffiness displayed in interviews. Even though she arrives at least two years late to the party (in fact just in time to get a little spotlight space ahead of Amy’s own replacement relative, who features much later in this entry), Faith’s emphasis on theatricality and histrionics is a welcome break from the overrated likes of Duffy and Adele, taking full advantage of a full orchestra to add some galvanising swoon to the proceedings (particularly on previous single New York and the Bond theme-esque drama of the title track). Often times though, it can get the better of Faith’s songs, content to sweep themselves off in whatever superficiality they create, much like Faith’s own skills as a singer. There’s no doubt that hers is a voice that can technically soar past many of her contemporaries and given the right collaborator she can indeed be very good (her track on Basement Jaxx’s recent album is one of its highlights), but here she is prone to too many moments where her performance becomes too much of an act to take her seriously. She certainly can’t be accused of being bland and using cyncial retro arrangements to grab our attention though, which means she remains someone to watch in the future.

Where the Wild Things Are Motion Picture Soundtrack: Original Songs By Karen O And The Kids by Karen O and the Kids
Anyone who knows me personally and has seen the trailer for Spike Jonze’s upcoming adaptation of Maurice Setzler’s classics children’s book Where The Wild Things Are will know how excited I’ve been since first seeing it in the summer months (if you haven’t, find it here). Opening at number one at the American box office with a decent gross for what has been billed as more of a director’s vision than a bona fide blockbuster, distributor Warner Bros. wisely advertised the film towards a more adult audience who would appreciate its earthy charms rather than to tweenyboppers weaned onto plastic paradises of the ilk of Disney and DreamWorks. This has followed through to the musical soundtrack, composed by Jonze’s then-girlfriend Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs (but you knew that!), which works more as a retracing of childhood “rumpuses” and traumas than a straight-up kiddie tie-in. At times brash, unwieldy, whimsical and more than a little noisy (and even committing a cardinal soundtrack sin of featuring dialogue from the film itself throughout), it certainly sounds like the perfect compliment to such an intimately epic visual piece. As a stand alone album, it has its moments (the best being the quieter ones such as Hideaway and the soothing howls found on Cliffs) but may need the film itself to inspire magic within the listener to fully work.

Break Up by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
Though the sessions predate those for her divisive, Dave Sitek-helmed debut Anywhere I Lay My Head, Johansson’s collaboration with singer-songwriter Yorn has now been released little more than three years later; whether this is due to Johansson’s hectic filming schedules or the success (re: failure?) of her debut album is unclear, but the result is rather innocuous and charming enough in its own right to see the light of day. Critics of Johansson’s Tom Waits project will be relieved to find her in a more wistful and sweeter voice here first of all, hers a perfect complement to Yorn’s guileless melodies and strumming, charting with winsome earnestness the twilight of a once loving relationship, a standout being the confused yearning of I Don't Know What To Do. However, one tidbit of trivia about the disc does reveal something about the collaboration itself in that Scarlett’s vocals were recorded in all of two afternoon sessions, which may help to explain the genuinely inconsequential nature of the music itself (and, at 29 minutes, an EP-shaped running time!). Granted, it’s textured and sweet, with Yorn and Johansson providing a likeable foil for each other throughout, but even as a gossamer-light acoustic delight, it falls just shy of being truly memorable, never mind remarkable.

Sub Focus by Sub Focus
Having enjoyed decent airplay on Radio 1 as well as remix duties for the likes of The Prodigy and Empire of the Sun previously, drum’n’bass artist Nick Douwma makes his debut as a solo artist in his own right with his self-titled LP. Now admittedly things get off to a bad start on opening track Let the story begin, where a formidable brass section is reduced to a single, ear-splitting screech from which it cannot recover. Thankfully, the rest of the album takes a more subtle cue with which to blast the listener with resonant bass lines and samples, particularly on the dubstep flirting found on Last Jungle and on Deep Space, a fine piece of dirty retro d’n’b which has the added bonus of being one of the better TV show themes never composed. Another encouraging feature of Douwma’s music is that he’s more than happy to switch up his genres more than once, often, as on the electro-house number Could This Be Real with its oldschool piano line; however, this doesn’t mean that Dowma evades the risk of his sounds appearing more than a little dated as opposed to paying homage whilst pressing his ear toward future dance movements, most tracks here sounding like Liam Howlett cuts before Maxim and Keith Flynt could yell any sort of chant on top of them.

100% by Beverley Knight
Keeping your head above water for over fifteen years in the world of UK soul and R&B is no small feat, but Ms Knight’s success has been hard-fought, bewitching her fans with that hella-wonderful voice of hers. The first album out of the gate of her own record label after eleven years with Parlophone (who most likely wanted to push her towards more classic R&B standards after her last cover album), 100% sees Knight take on more contemporary-flavoured jams than her last two albums and its testament to her musical smarts that, even when she falls on so rare an instance such as the ill-advised Autotune interlude on In Your Shoes, she still dusts off enough charisma and full-throated delivery to let it slide past. Enlisting old friends Guy Chambers and DJ Munro from Affirmation as well as some impressively-established outsiders (Amanda Ghost, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Chaka Khan herself), it’s as solidly entertaining as any of her previous work, if not groundbreaking enough to breakout past her loyal fanbase. Highlights here include Bee Gees cover Too Much Heaven and Gold Chain.

Wordshaker by The Saturdays
Despite having a platinum-selling debut album under their belt, it still doesn’t quite feel as though the Great British Public have taken this hardworking girl group into their hearts quite as much as they should have. Perhaps suffering from the sheer amount of female-fronted power pop that has cropped up on the radio throughout the year (made ironic by the fact that their biggest competition from last year, labelmates Girls Aloud, have been strangely absent for most of it), even the customary glut of superstar producers (The Runaways, Steve Mac, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger) haven’t allowed the girls to make the same impact that the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Jordin Sparks have had this year. Which is a shame, because they’re backed up with better tunes than most popstrels of their profile and know how to sell them better too; it’s testament to The Runaways’ production skills and the girls themselves that lead single Forever Is Over belies its credentials as a James 'Busted' Bourne composition, whilst tracks such as Ego and Open Up are unabashedly uplifting in their sassiness and sold through with enough panache as to not seem gimmicky. They deserve better from their press team, and for a fledgling girlgroup that’s no faint praise!

Origin:Orphan by The Hidden Cameras
Headed by singer/songwriter Joel Gibb, The Hidden Cameras have remained elusive with regards to being embraced by the mainstream, in spite of various alumnus finding international recognition in their own works (the most quoted being one-time member Mike Olsen’s Arcade Fire, whom undeniably draw influences from Gibb’s collective). Celebrated for his prior works’ sexual overtones and raucous playfulness dressed up in charmingly subversive folk-pop, it would appear that this fifth album foretells an upcoming period of jadedness for the Cameras, if the high-drama of the opener Ratify The New and the title track are anything to go by. Which isn’t to say that Gibb has lost his playful touch entirely; highlight Underage is as familiar a kinky, lyrical lightning rod as any other in the Cameras back catalogue, whilst Colour Of A Man and closer Silence Can Be A Deadline in particular play as sweetly and elegantly as anything on The Smell of Our Own. Then again, following an album titled Awoo with one that suggests more than a hint of loneliness and trepidation within a new world was always going to bring its share of changes (Gibb has since moved from Canada to Berlin since the previous Cameras album, Awoo, so perhaps that was a factor?), so let’s hope Gibb rediscovers his playful mojo fully in time for the next Cameras album.

Tongue'n'Cheek by Dizzee Rascal
For all of Dylan Mills’ detractors who upon the release of his best-selling single of last year, Dance Wiv Me, began throwing accusations of the East London MC selling out, the title of his commercial breakthrough record pretty much says it all. Mr Rascal has always shown a degree of humour in his rhymes, but he lets his inner prankster loose full blast here, recounting tales of high-flyer clichés of freaky groupies, fly cars and new money wealth that would sound bizarre if they weren’t filtered through aspirational MTV programming every day (Freaky Freaky has been a lightning rod for its apparent misogyny for those who can’t see through the pastiche). Even a passing listen though reveals that Dizzee’s not lost his edge on social commentary, despite what the critics of his singles say, as found on album highlights Can't Tek Me No More and forthcoming single Dirtee Cash. However, there are wrinkles in Dizzee’s self-effacing suit; there is still a frisson running through the entire album wherein the rapper’s intentions may be misinterpreted by some as condoning all of this vacuousness rather than commenting upon it, and tapping the likes of Armand van Helden, Calvin Harris and Tiësto smacks of cynically utilising the UK dance market for some 24-karat hits. Or, you can just let the guy have a laugh at the height of his career, take your pick...

3 Words by Cheryl Cole
And The Award For The Album That I Had No Idea I Was Going To Like Quite As Much As I Ended Up Doing So Far This Year goes to... Seriously though, when I heard that Mrs Cole was going to be the first member of Girls Aloud to dip her toes into the popworld realms as a solo music artist, I was a little confused; Cole has, Aloud aside, always marketed herself as more of a media mogul and a fashion glamourpuss than someone passionate about making music, as her gig as a judge/mentor on TV’s The X Factor has established. But with this solo album, Cole has almost single-handedly raised her game as a pop star in her own right; in spite of there being recorded proof that she isn’t exactly a premier vocalist, she still has enough of an intelligent and classy edge to differentiate herself for the robodivas lying in the wake of GaGa’s all-out pop offensive. Whilst she solidly holds court here and shares a few writing credits, plaudits must also be given to her team at play behind the studio glass; contributions here from Ingrid Michaelson, Taio Cruz and in particular will.i.am, whose 3 Words is quite possibly the most surprisingly great pop moment of the year so far and on. Sure, it’s hard to imagine her crying over anyone like she does in the less-than-convincing Make Me Cry and any album featuring a Bedingfield composition has a strike against it in my book, but Cole may have done the impossible and convinced the music fans she is in fact a star.

My Way by Ian Brown
It takes an artist of either grandly justified confidence or vastly questionable ambition to compare their upcoming album to what is largely considered the greatest album ever made in recording history. Therefore, it says something about Northern monkey Ian Brown that, when he began promoting his sixth album whilst alluding to its inspiration, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, a lot of people weren’t immediately incensed to shocked aghastness. Eye-rolling bemusement, certainly, but reminding the press of mastering said album on the day the King Of Pop shifted his mortal coil didn’t do any favours, surely? Well, Thriller it certainly isn’t, but Brown survives grand pitfall of egotism with some assurance on this LP, the allusion to Jackson’s classic obviously referring to the pop-friendly sounds permeating throughout. Opener Stellify was actually written for Rihanna until Brown claimed it for himself, Vanity Kills features beats that wouldn’t go amiss on a Timbaland record and Always Remember Me is so classily cheesy that, if it weren’t for Brown’s unmistakably tuneless voice lending it something palpably moving, it wouldn’t have gone amiss a latter-day Take That album. Though in the long run the record becomes quite creaky, it’s testament to Brown and long-time collaborator Dave McCracken that they get away with something like this with some panache really.

Monsters of Folk by Monsters of Folk
Four years in the making accounting for its members’ various day jobs, this latest American supergroup consists of some of the finest folk musicians currently strumming their way through America (Yim Yames, Conor Oberst, M. Ward and producer Mike Mogis) carry with them a reputation more high-profile than most. Now, other than Ward, I’m at a disadvantage reviewing this LP with regards to how it differs from each of the components’ solo works; what I can tell though is that there are few supergroups who have gelled together quite so comfortably and enjoyably as these four troubadours, on fine evidence throughout this first (hopefully of a few more) albums. Completely bereft of ego, grandstanding and creative shoehorning, these four peers have come together to craft one of the finer folk albums of the year thus far; according to their website, it was born out of an immense interest on each of their parts to see how each of the other players worked in the studio with the intention of creating their own beast rather than solo spots with cameo appearances. And the results are often rather lovely, particularly on the harmonies of Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.) and the rock-leaning brashness of Losin’ Yo’ Head.

I Told You I Was Freaky by Flight of the Conchords
Better listened to as a commemorative soundtrack compilation to their Emmy-nominated second series for HBO, Jemaine and Bret’s sophomore studio album rather unfortunately suffers from a bit of a slump when compared to their debut last year precisely because it doesn’t hold as well without the second series of the intrepid Kiwi folk duo’s comedy show as a reference point. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a shortage of chortlesome pitch-perfect parody to be had; highlights here include We're Both in Love with A Sexy Lady, with its beats and synths playfully licked from R Kelly’s mixing desk as the guys argue over a girl who may or may not be named “Brabara”, and Sting pastiche You Don’t Have To Be a Prostitute (easy targets, but there you go!) However, the record still feels like it comes up a little short with a lack of tunes compared to those featured in the actual series, which included a paean to psycho-fan Mel’s Conchord-featured dreams and a Magnolia-style reprise of Hurt Feelings, and the visual accompaniment is obviously lost and cannot enhance the comedy (particularly on Carol Brown from the episode directed by Michel Gondry). Still, with tunes as delightfully silly as Rambling Through the Avenues of Time and Petrov, Yelyena and Me (the latter one of the duo’s first ever tunes from years before), there’s still plenty of laughter to be had.

After Robots by BLK JKS
Forming in 2003 and eventually signed on to Secretly Canadian after a successful limited independent release back in 2007 that found their recordings being sold in the trendier music markets of the world, BLK JKS (a sort-of acronym for Black Jacks) are enjoying quite the fine hum of buzz in the indie/prog rock/world music arena for their heady mix of psychedelic rock, ska punk and traditional African music, having already shared stages with the likes of Santigold and Dirty Projectors and being particularly well-received at 2008’s SXSW festival. Co-produced by Secret Machines’ Brandon Curtis in the US earlier this year, their debut long-player does well to incorporate each of those elements and not only give each of the quartet a chance to shine (be it Tshepang Ramoba’s peerless command of the drum kit or Lindani Buthelezi’s evocative vocals) but also not to overegg certain influences for the sake of sounding ‘authentically’ indigenous to their roots in Soweto, South Africa. The album does close on the rather lovely acoustic number Tselane that will play up those cards, but before that we have the explosive charms of Skeleton and Kwa Nqingetje, predominantly surging hard rock performances that present a fine meshing of Western rock and Afrobeat but ultimately transcends both genres to provide something for everyone to listen to.

East Of Eden by Taken By Trees
Taking in a band of Pakistani players for her second album under her solo moniker, Victoria Bergsman’s knowing wistfulness is on full display on this acoustic delight of an album, relocating wholesale to Pakistan to record with Sufi musicians partly in reverence of two of her favourite singers in particular Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and also in an effort to avoid the clinical creative drain from the modern studio recording experience. The result is never less than lovely, not just with regards to Bergsman’s sweet vocals (particularly in fine fetter on her Animal Collective cover, My Boys) but also in her utilisation of the Sufi arrangements, famed for their trance-like qualities and put to beguiling effect here, particularly on Day By Day. In direct contrast to the ambient delights found on the disc, Bergsman admittedly suffered some setbacks on this delicate delight of an album (highlighted in this short film here); it says something though that, even at nine songs long and a running time of little over thirty-minutes, the album represents something of a triumph for Bergsman, not just as a fitting tribute to an often-overlooked genre of world music, but also to her own songwriting pluck and talent.

Declaration Of Dependence by Kings of Convenience
For those who like their folk-pop light as air and sad-eyed as a defenseless puppy that’s been kicked in the gut (sorry for the offensive imagery, but I’m only describing what you’re in for if you listen to this album), the Norwegian duo strike those heartstrings again with their third studio album of wounded acousticisms. Ornate in its simplicity but direct in its emotional attack, brother troubadours Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe take no prisoners with their stripped-bare aesthetic, more often than not eschewing percussiove elements altogether and creating broken fragments of beautifully candid intimacy; this is just two men and their instruments hushedly reminding themselves they are still alive amidst the destruction done unto and by them. At times, the emotionally rich vocals and elegant melodies almost suggest a jazz like quality, further adding to the elegiac effect of the songs on offer here (standouts being Renegade and Riot On An Empty Street, the latter arriving a whole album late, it would appear). For all of the desolation permeating throughout the piece though, as evidenced by the title, these two would appear to have found each other again in time, not only to exchange tales of woe and missed chances, but to ultimately affect a change and start over together.

Kamaal The Abstract by Q-Tip
Shelved over seven years ago because of his then-label Arista’s reluctance to release such a non-commercially viable record off the back of his more mainstream-infused debut solo LP Amplified, Q-Tip’s critically lauded sophomore album finally sees the light of day, no doubt due to renewed interest kick-started by The Renaissance from last year. Following a jazz-funk groove deeper and more, for lack of a better word, abstract than most established rap acts would dare to tread, Q’s lack of artistic restraint and evident love of his jazz influences is laid bare for all to hear and still holds a significant thrall even after collecting dust over so many years. Entirely self-produced and on its nine tracks highlighting a lyrical maturity unheard from most urban musicians in their entire careers (Q’s optimism wins out on opener Feelin' and it’s nice to listen to pro-female lyrics as found on Even If It Is So for once), it represents a minor triumph for Q’s back catalogue, precisely because he doesn’t let his mouth run away from him and the laidback nature of the music proves more uplifting and cathartic than any mountain of petty, speed-of-sound cussing can try to emulate.

Embryonic by The Flaming Lips
Still flying in the face of their critics after twenty-six years together that includes eleven studio albums, eight extended plays and a film score to their very own sci-fi opus that finally saw release in the US last year after spending seven years in the making, it would appear that the Lips have confounded their listeners once again, their modus operandi on this double-disc behemoth being to cram absolutely everything that they couldn’t on their last few, more mainstram efforts. The result is a disjointed, dark journey through some impenetrably forboding psych-rock that either contains the Lips’ finest work or their most infuriatingly puzzling, depending on the mood that you find yourself in whilst listening to it, unless your mood happens to run the haphazard emotional gamut that the Lips are content to throw the listener into (for every sweetly disturbed ode such as Gemini Syringes, there is a ear-splitting rabble of The Sparrow In The Machine). However, one cannot deny the sheer gravitas of what is certainly one of the only genuine event records to see release this year; one gets the impression that, even if you cannot honestly summise the motives behind the Lips anarchic offerings here (featuring Karen O and MGMT as key special guests also), there is still something beyond the usual hard rock tropes at work here... Approach with caution.

She Wolf by Shakira
Given the emergence of electro-pop in its various guises over the last year or so, you can’t really blame Shakira for wanting to take it by the horns and try her hand at it. Now whether its down to her own mercurial likeability (and let’s face it, she’s pretty damned cute!) or her choice of collaborators on this latest effort (which include sort-of past it hitmakers The Neptunes, alongside Santigold’s co-producer John Hill and old friends Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis), she’s hit paydirt with her third English language studio album. Sure, she may be taking cues from prior efforts by Britney Spears (Why Wait borderline threatens to turn into a Gimme More sequel before the maybe-genius Bollywood influence hits), but Shakira’s own influence can be felt here because she isn’t subsumed by the threat of crushing electro beats á la RedOne, rather more content to rely on some exceptional songwriting (The Bravery’s Simon Endicott contributes the two standouts, including the title track and Men In This Town) and imprinting her own sassy Latin roots on the proceedings, heard best here on possible future single Good Stuff. It’s the difference between a good pop star and a great one that can adapt to a new sound without letting it crush them into submission and still sound fresh and interesting; i.e., let’s see if Lady GaGa can pull this off later down the line!

The BQE by Sufjan Stevens
Originally written for a one-off performance run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House in November of 2007, composer Stevens has taken all of two years to put a multi-media package together for those who weren’t able to attend those three sold out nights. Straying further from his established oeuvre of classically-infused folk music, Stevens has delivered what could be described as his Rhapsody In Blue, as the spectre of George Gershwin in particular looms especially large over his almost entirely orchestral ode to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, bar the more electronically inclined Movement IV: Traffic Shock, which provides a quite-awesome break to the otherwise lovely, often beautiful passages illustrated here. Granted, it’s stunted when presented as simply a stand alone disc (the actual package contains an accompanying DVD of the motorway itself as filmed by Stevens, but not of any of the live performances, which featured a full-orchestra and a group of hula-hoop girls choreographed to the pieces), Stevens’ indulgence barrier will have been breached for a few of his less ardent listeners and members of the classical community may turn their noses up at yet another pop artist making an ill-fated stab at contemporary classical arrangements, but even all of that won’t detract from one of the more beauteous curios 2009 will have yet heard.

Introducing Dionne Bromfield by Dionne Bromfield
The phrase “hook ‘em when they’re young” feels semi-appropriate when writing about Miss Bromfield, Goddaughter to one Amy Winehouse and now a fledgling bona fide soul singer, cultivated by Ms Winehouse via her homegrown Lioness Records label. One comparison to be made other than her famous relative also is that of Joss Stone, who similarly set the recording world alight at a tender age with her The Soul Sessions album, a roster of carefully chosen covers that helped catapult her star into the stratosphere. However, whilst Stone came to prominence primarily by covering an indie anthem with a vintage Motown edge, Bromfield and her team have done well to transport her straight into the old-soul aesthetic with some carefully chosen classics, primarily because her voice, for a 13 year-old girl especially, is truly something to behold. Taking such sultry and galvanising command of standards such as Ain't No Mountain High Enough, My Boy Lollipop and Until You Come Back To Me, she strikes a prodigiously appealing chord that puts singers three times her age in her place. However, where she can go from here is an intriguing question (following her mentor’s example has its obvious pitfalls, after all), but for now, we can for once enjoy a kiddie cover album that no hip adult music listener should do without.

Album by Girls
A certainty to feature most prominently on Pitchfork’s Best Of ‘09 list, given their rapturous reception on the alt-music trendniks’ website along with many others, this indie rock group from San Francisco have ticked all of the boxes with regards to breakout success, with lead man Christopher Owens generating plenty of press via his personal history (being a former member of the Children Of God cult) and his blasé admission that the band’s debut disc was fermented via the method of copious drug-taking. Which, in of itself, doesn’t mean the listener is in for an infuriatingly bizarre audio misadventure nor the closest thing to an audio ascension to nirvana possible (the state of being, not the band!), as the quartet have gone and produced an almost-delicate alt-pop record awash in gorgeous feedback and timeless walls-of-noise. Described by the band themselves as a break-up record, it takes in serene psychedelic tropes as often as it does earthy ska punk, examples of each being gorgeous centrepiece Hellhole Ratrace (already earmarked by the ‘fork as a standout track of the last decade) and the joyous rabble of Morning Light, and as a result definitely cements its reputation as one of the more legitimately esteemed releases of 2009 thus far and, unfortunately for Pitchfork detractors, whilst it doesn’t quite scale the heights of hype prescribed, it comes very close!

Warp20 (Recreated) by Various Artists
In order to celebrate releasing some of the best avant-garde electronic/dance/pop/rock/alternative music to have been composed over the last two decades, those fellows at Warp have decided to go all out with a rather delectable deluxe box set in honest, spastic funk celebration. However, for those who can’t afford to purchase said limited edition set, two facets of Warp20 can be purchased individually. The first is a double disc extravaganza of previous releases (disc one by fans on the Warp website, disc deux by co-founding label head Steve Beckett), featuring hits from the likes of Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Battles, Plaid and Squarepusher. Up for review here is the second compilation, for those who probably have most of those tunes already in their previous incarnations, which is essentially a covers album from Warp’s current roster performing their personal favourites from the Warp back catalogue. Of the notable successes here are avant-folk outfit Born Ruffians covering Aphex Twin’s Milkman and To Cure A Weakling Child, Tim Exile’s heavily-processed take on Jamie Lidell’s A Little Bit More and Leila’s gorgeous piano work of Twin’s Vordhosbn. Well worth a look and contender for compilation of the year.

Tarot Sport by Fuck Buttons
After courting generous indie press plaudits for their debut Street Horrrsing last year (and pretty much alienating most readers who tried to listen to it in the process), Bristolian electronic drone meisters Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power have done well to reign in their inner noisenik to deliver an album that develops further from the art noise of their debut and yet retain an air of accessibility so as to endear them to a wider audience. Sure, you wouldn’t think upon listening to single Surf Solar’s frankly insane build which leads into Rough Steez’s reverb heavy power-slog that there was anything less commercial on the electro side of things, but the duo appear to have mastered the slow-build almost perfectly, because by the time The Lisbon Maru has segued into standout track olympians with through a mix of distorted guitar and heavy beats shot through with serene synths, you’re more than likely to be sold on this seven-track gem of an LP. Please bear in mind that for those who don’t like their jams at once trance-like in their ambience and positively ear-ringing in their drones, Tarot Sport will be a little too hard to swallow... For the more adventurous listener though, it’s a sonic highlight of the year!

And that is why Tarot Sport is my Album Of The Month For October...

Am knacked after that! Didn't check for typos this time so please feel free to make fun of any and everything in this journal! I'm game... ;^)

What the fuck happened over the last three months!!??? Moreso over the last few weeks, 2009 has been the year of fucked-up buggery for me personally. At least, I was still able to listen to some gorgeous music to try to alleviate my sorrows... Please find below my own personal favorites from albums past during that period in an as-usual CD friendly playlist. As ever, feel free to call me out on any omissions or quizzical choices:

Dibder's New Music Of 2009: CD 3/4
01. Resistance by Muse
Taken from the album The Resistance
02. Heavy Cross by The Gossip
Taken from the album Music For Men
03. 1000 Dreams by Miss Kittin & The Hacker
Taken from the album Two
04. Heart's A Mess (Supermayer Remix) by Gotye
Taken from the album Kompakt Total 10
05. My Turn (feat. Lightspeed Champion) by Basement Jaxx
Taken from the album Scars
06. Pretty Wings by Maxwell
Taken from the album BLACKsummers'night
07. Heart Of A Lion (Kid Cudi Theme Music) by Kid Cudi
Taken from the album Man On The Moon: The End of The Day
08. In Search Of by Miike Snow
Taken from the album Miike Snow
09. Too Young To Love by The Big Pink
Taken from the album A Brief History of Love
10. from africa to málaga by JJ
Taken from the album jj n° 2
11. Chac Mool by Rodrigo y Gabriela
Taken from the album 11:11
12. Stillness Is the Move by Dirty Projectors
Taken from the album Bitte Orca
13. Trophy Room by Slow Club
Taken from the album Yeah So
14. Basic Space by The xx
Taken from the album xx
15. Light On Water by Jon Hassell
Taken from the album Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street
16. Sacrifice by Clint Mansell
Taken from the album Moon
17. Boy 1904 by Jónsi & Alex
Taken from the album Riceboy Sleeps

And that does it! Keep listening... X

The world of music has been dealt quite a few humdingers this past month, what with rappers humiliating teenage girls, founding members being kicked out of their very own pop institutions, the BBC attempting an X Factor style coup with a glamorous new judge (even giving her the same amazing hair) and Fearne Cotton personally making sure my weekday mornings are groan-inducingly horrible. You'd think I'd appreciate when people talk over the songs they play on the radio, especially the crap stuff, but the fact that Fearne waffles on about nothing and gives inane interviews (along the line of: "What's this?" "Oh, yeah, I loved that!" "I remember, it was great!" "AAAAALLLLLL WWWWIIIIILLLL SSSSSSSUFFFFFEERRRRRR!!!!") in such a grating manner with all of the self-importance of a stage school sixth former is enough to make me scream at the worst of times. Especially when she insists on playing Mika's latest single over and over and demands us to learn each time how much she loves it!

Thankfully, most of the new music I've gotten hold of has been untainted by Fearne's golden-handcuffed appendages; and now my rant is o'er, normal service can resume... (PS, I did post elsewhere that I'd tag a review of Lamb's gig in London yesterday, but under the banner "hangover permitting"... trust, it was fun, even though they sung Gabriel twice without realising and the sound for the first few songs was too loud; Gorecki was fucking ace though!)

I Look To You by Whitney Houston
Her first studio album of original material in seven years, but most prominently plugged as her first album post-divorce from self-proclaimed “thug” Bobby Brown, Houston’s return to the airwaves has been much anticipated, front loaded by a high-profile “first listen” event in London and a revealing interview stint on Oprah. In light of the flood of wannabe divas that she undeniably inspired currently caterwauling through the charts, Houston’s voice is sadly not quite up to the trilling scratch of her early years and is certainly more weathered by experience (a glaring example being ballad I Didn't Know My Own Strength, which at times doesn’t even sound like her!) She can still sell some soulful sass when she wants to (check out the Alicia Keys/Swiss Beatz co-production Million Dollar Bill and Leon Russell cover A Song For You), but the raft of über-producers here (Danja, Akon, R Kelly, Stargate) do well to bury Houston’s voice in the requisite clichés of every pop/R&B album of the past three years, in effect making her sound old and worn when she should sound hopeful and exultant (one such instance being Worth It, which has Whitney singing about soundtracking a night-time love session... Not really!)

Greatest Hits by Aqua
Of all of the successful ‘90s acts to reform before the decade of revisionism peters out, Aqua probably ranked as one of the least excitable prospects of reformation for music fans, even if enough time has passed that classics such as Turn Back Time and Cartoon Heroes should be rediscovered as worthy pop gems in their own right. Treading cautiously before releasing a long-awaited third album, the Danish quartet have plumped for a Greatest Hits package to check their marketability in Europe (though one was already released in Japan and the US years ago), containing twelve of their fourteen singles, three new additions for ‘09 and four album tracks from their two albums. It makes for a less-than-consistent listen but still offers enough proof that Aqua had a lot more promise than the hate Barbie Girl garnered afforded them, particularly on the cuts from the big-budget second album Aquarius (minus the God awful Halloween, obviously!). The new additions vary, hinting at a more rock influenced sound; My Mamma Said registers a nasty blip, but the tongue-through-cheekiness of Back To The '80s and the boisterous key change of Live Fast - Die Young do well to suggest that there’s life in the misunderstood popniks yet.

A Man's Thoughts by Ginuwine
Released in the US two weeks before Maxwell’s comeback record, the rather lovely BLACKsummers'night, Elgin Baylor Lumpkin (for that is his name!) may have pipped his contemporary to the post release wise, but his album pales in comparison with regards to the amount of soul and sultriness within. Granted, Ginuwine’s sound is one that has always flirted with hip hop rather than old school soul, and there are plenty of cuts here where he shows off his pre-eminence in the field of hip pop R&B (even if he’s still using that glass harmonica!) show off and Open The Door find him in fine form with production wares from RL, Oak and Bryan-Michael Cox, and Get Involved is almost poignant when it brings his old friends Timbaland and Missy Elliott herself back into the mix, as well as its being the most banging tune on the LP. It’s all very agreeable and serviceable, with a couple of missteps along the way (particularly the uninspired duet with Brandy, Bridge To Love), but for someone who formerly owned the arena of hip hop soul in the 1990s and helped to inspire the current crop of swaggering upstarts, it’s a little disappointing. If this were a debut album, a star would have been born; for the man who burst on to the scene with Pony in 1996, it’s bland and uninvolving.

Ellipse by Imogen Heap
Straddling the line between twee and swoonsome doesn’t come easy to most, but since the splitting up of Frou Frou back in 2003, Imogen Heap has been steadfast in her commitment to such aesthetics within her nestling electro pop. Often, she strikes just the right gorgeous balance (hear her first Narnia song Can't Take It In for her most sterling example), and there are a few examples of her oeuvre at its best on her follow-up to the well-received debut Speak for Yourself here, one highlight being Wait It Out, which references her only hit single Hide and Seek with her processed harmonies only to open up into a disarming slow burn of synths and guitars. Other forays into self-effacing niceties miss the mark quite bemusedly, particularly Bad Body Double, which charts Ms Heap’s picking out chinks in her physical appearance via a clunky doppelganger metaphor. So, in spite of Heap’s voice being as sweet as it was in Frou Frou and her own composition and production skills in themselves being an expert lesson in homemade production (like Speak before it, Ellipse was written, produced and mixed entirely in her humble abode in Essex), the slighter-than-slight lyrical themes often rob the songs of being able to listen to them without prejudice.

Time To Die by The Dodos
One of the quieter-yet-notable critical successes of last year was rock folk duo Meric Long and Logan Kroeber’s sophomore LP, Visiter, a fine rabble of anti-folk rock made all the finer by its rough-hewn production and excitable noise with its percussion-led music (a key track from that album being Red and Purple). Somewhat novel in their methods of multi-instrumentation in their live performances (Kroeber dutifully tapeing a tambourine to his shoe at the shows being one such quirk), the duo’s third album not only sees them aided with the help of a well-known producer (that’d be Phil Ek, most recently responsible for production duties on Fleet Foxes’ fine debut album from last year) but also, at their own admission, “sounds more like a band”, ironing out most of the leftfield quirks that made their last album shine. Which isn’t to say that Time To Die doesn’t have its moments; Two Medicines in particular benefits from a more refined production with its harmonies and more ornate percussive elements sharing more space with the duo’s established penchant for drumkit-led revelry. It’s just that the refinement in their sound here is just that little bit less charming and immediate than their breakout LP from last year is all.

All Balloons by One eskimO
Brainchild of former homegrown pop-star-that-never-was Kristian Leontiou and drummer pal Adam Falkner, you’ve every reason to feign ignorance at their One eskimO project. It’s actually the soundtrack to an animated film; they’ve been endorsed by Janice Long on her midnight shift show on BBC Radio 2; they’ve listed Massive Attack next to Nizlopi as their musical influences; it’s co-produced by Rollo “Dido’s Older Brother” Armstrong... It doesn’t exactly bode well, does it? Well, in spite of all of this, and even with recognising each of those elements within the music, it’s actually really rather lovely, reminiscent more of Faithless’ quieter moments most likely because of Armstrong’s influence (Astronauts sounds like a long-lost brother of Don't Leave certainly, and is just as moving) and Leontiou’s evocative vocals providing a readily-empathetic anchor to the sweetness, especially on the meet-cute number Kandi, containing a sample of Candi Staton’s He Called Me Baby. It’s lo-fi, it doesn’t draw too much attention to itself and it certainly won’t appeal to the more jaded listeners here on last.fm (particularly with the tag of being a children’s movie soundtrack on it), tracks like Hometime and UFO are creeping high on my Guilty Pleasures ‘09 list.

The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z
Not only is The Blueprint 3 the album that turned Jay-Z into the record holder for the most consecutive Number 1 albums on the US Billboard Chart ahead of Elvis Presley, but most importantly, it is the first album of his to chart within the Top Ten on the UK Albums Chart, most likely helped by his support slot for Coldplay on the final leg of their world tour in the UK last week. If that hasn’t announced how much Jay-Z has been accepted by the UK record buying public (aside from the likes of Eminem, Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder, most urban albums ratchet up Gold/Platinum certifications from the BPI with steady sales and without bothering the Top Ten), then this new album should. Radio-friendly, not without its indulgent egotism (check Kanye West-produced Hate (Feat. Kanye West)) but still chock full of Mr Carter’s skilled bravado as well as some choice cuts from the leading hip hop producers (The Neptunes, Swiss Beatz, Timbaland) alongside some well-judged special guests, the obvious standout being Alicia Keys’ somewhat wonderful appearance on Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys). Other highlights include On To The Next One (Feat. Swiss Beatz)’s neat sample of Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. and closer Young Forever (feat. Mr. Hudson), (even if the featured guest sounds a little like Sting here!)

Things Are What They Used To Be by Zoot Woman
So after new work from Fischerspooner, Peaches and Miss Kittin & The Hacker, the electroclash cadre continues with the new release from Zoot Woman who, thanks to founding member Stuart Price’s commitment to all things Madonna since her Re-Invention Tour in 2004 (as well as production duties for the likes of New Order, The Killers, Seal and Frankmusik, amongst others), have finally followed up their eponymous sophomore disc from 2003. It’s safe to say that, compared with the unholy trinity previously mentioned, Zoot Woman’s sound is more streamlined and less inclined to take in lyrics about Oedipus complexes and dead swingers, but it doesn’t deter from the retro delights to be had here. Essentially one-upping La Roux’s debut for electro pop glory (if falling behind Little Boots, in my opinion), songs such as the unrequitedly longing Lonely By Your Side, the kick-ass More Than Ever and the gorgeous slow build of the title track boast enough synergy between the synths, guitars and beats to suggest an ever-so-slightly more well-adjusted Depeche Mode, even if the edge has been dulled ever so slightly.

No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories the World… by Mew
Some self-proclaimed “pretentious art rock” now from this Danish trio, who’ve enjoyed plenty of cult success worldwide (this, their highest charting album in the UK, peaked at 110) as well as recently supporting Nine Inch Nails on their European tour alongside Jane's Addiction. Quite what most NIN fans would have made of material from Mew’s latest fifth album at least beggars certain questions, as this dreamy adventure of an album inhabits a heady atmosphere that, whilst not without its moments of exuberant rocking out (check the finale of Repeaterbeater), is content to take in piano-led moments accentuated by childlike vocals and harmonies (hear Silas The Magic Car). Stark, infantile imagery and wounded naivety is prevalent throughout, encapsulated best near the end of the tumultuous journey with the penultimate track Sometimes Life Isn't Easy, which has one of the most unsettlingly beautiful moments of the musical year in having a children’s choir sing along to a monologue of piteousness and mutilation. A rewarding listen for those who dare and an impressive feat for an outfit that’s still going after fifteen years.

Logos by Atlas Sound
Bradford James Cox is certainly a busy man of late. Not content with working with his band Deerhunter on the release of two of their albums last year, 2008 also saw the debut album of his solo project Atlas Sound, an exercise in ambient music that gave birth to the critically-lauded Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel. Helping to bolster a running theme with popular alternative musicians this year by following up with new material the following year, Logos differs from Cox’s former piece firstly in its more mainstream sensibilities. Whereas Cox’s solo debut felt more like a concept album telling a Gothic story of ghosts and past traumas, Logos is a little more ambitious with its templates, taking in guest stars Panda Bear of Animal Collective and Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier to offer some tripped out mellowness (Quick Canal in particular is hella gorgeous with its Boards of Canada-style beats restless underneath Cox’s indecipherable vocals) as well as some more acoustically informed pieces (hear Criminals and My Halo). It might not create as cohesive another world as his previous disc, but it still has its moments of gorgeousness.

For Lack Of A Better Name by Deadmau5
Joel Zimmerman enjoyed a certain degree of breakout success earlier this year with the minor chart hit I Remember with Kaskade, as well as a fine critical reception from its parent album, Random Album Title, and a raft of recognition from his peers, including a Grammy nomination. The party continues apace to lesser effect on his latest release, only because there’s nothing quite as awe-inducing as I Remember or Slip from the aforementioned Random here (besides the closing ten minute swoon of Strobe). Zimmerman also commits a couple of cardinal sins in dance music studio albums in letting a few of the jams go on for too long (Word Problems in particular grinding to a halt far later than it should do) and including a somewhat pointless instrumental version preceding a superior track with vocals (that’ll be highlight Ghosts N' Stuff featuring Pendulum’s Rob Swire). Still, there are some mighty fine tunes to be had barbed with a couple of leftfield turns, such as the one-two of Soma’s elegant piano solos puncturing the electronic glitch jams followed by the string-led wonder of Lack Of A Better Name.

The Revolution Presents Revolution by The Revolution
There will be those who disapprove of the ethics imposed on the formation of The Revolution, a collective of vibrant young Cuban musicians put together by producers Zack Winfield and Ado Yoshizaki to collaborate with the finest (re: some of the more popular) producers of the Western world. Whilst issue may be taken to claim that the idea of Westernising these indigenous musicians’ sounds robs them of legitimate authenticity, it take just a few bars of the opening track Shelter to not only be swept up by the collective’s evident talent, but also how impressively respectful the producers have been in their roles, whilst still imprinting the tracks with their own sensibilities. Of the assignees, Marius De Vries (helped in no small part on the gorgeous Yellow Moon by Róisín Murphy in particular) and UNKLE’s Rich File should be the most proud, despite fine work from Guy Sigsworth and Jan Kybert also (the latter’s You Wouldn’t Want To Be Me is the stuff of Latin dreams). However, it doesn’t take absolutely anything away from The Revolution themselves that the album can be qualified as nothing less than a success, adhering to each respective genre (tortured trip hop, sassy bossa nova, boisterous Latin hip hop) these producers throw at them with graceful ease.

A Brief History of Love by The Big Pink
The BBC Sound of 2009 strikes again with electro-rock duo The Big Pink, London-based, former indie label runners-turned-Next Big Things with a debut ready to be embraced as much by popular music fans as it will by snooty musos. Although with regards to tone and the amount of abject drama they are completely different, Pink’s debut album could be seen as a companion piece to The Horrors’ Primary Colours from earlier this year, if only for the overt shadow of Joy Division hanging over it, though Pink are more ambitious to take in more than relentless miserabilism. Positively drenched in reverb and as anthemic and rousing as it can be mournful and disturbed (for the former hear recent single Dominos, the title track for the latter), it’s the kind of album that has the music press practically salivating all over it but for once it’s almost entirely justified, at times sounding like early Nine Inch Nails or Depeche Mode, but entirely its own beast of twisted beauty (Too Young To Love being a perfect highlight). A shoo-in for a nomination for The Mercury Prize 2010, methinks!!

Man On The Moon: The End of The Day by Kid Cudi
And yet AGAIN with this BBC Sound of 2009 business... I guess they ought to be very pleased with themselves in picking out so many featured in my listening schedules, if they gived a damn about one of about a million lonely music blogs on last.fm. But I digress; signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music label in 2008, CuDi has enjoyed increasing amounts of hype since his A Kid Called CuDi mixtape hit and had a profound effect on Kanye in particular, even soliciting a guestspot on his curate’s egg of an album, 808s & Heartbreak, not to mention the airplay assigned to the Crookers remix of lead single Day ‘n’ Nite (Nightmare). Not as emotionally desolate as West’s piece from last year, Man On The Moon still takes cues from a more experimental palette than your average hip hop album, taking in guests as leftfield from the rap scene as Ratatat and MGMT alongside the likes of West and Common, mixing in resonant synths and effects than crunking beats and polished old school arrangements and samples. CuDi himself doesn’t disappoint either, his rhymes and cadence a welcome breath of fresh air from the boisterous motor-mouthing prevalent in the less-inspired hip hop world, fine examples being Heart Of A Lion (Kid Cudi Theme Music) and Enter Galactic (Love Connection).

11:11 by Rodrigo y Gabriela
I may be flirting with disaster when I opine this sentiment, but if the Great British Public can’t get their record-buying faculties in the right place (Lady GaGa holding Doves away from the top spot by a handful of copies being one such criminal happenstance this year), Lord know about the Irish music-buying contingent. However, one rogue act that launched their impressive rise to fame from the Irish shores were Rodrigo and Gabriela, former members of a metal band in Mexico who upped sticks to Europe to broaden their musical horizons, welcomed with open arms for the virtuoso guitar-playing, be it tradional, pop or samba music. As a result, their second album debuted at Number 1 in Ireland and beat away competition from Arctic Monkeys and Johnny Cash to hold on to it. Their follow-up is essentially half-tribute album, each original track dedicated to the one of the duo’s most highly regarded muses (amongst the more recognisable names being Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd). Exclusively made up of the duo’s remarkable guitar playing, it transcends the commonly placed world music label to deliver something more passionate and alive than most music with hundreds more effects and sequences happening at once.

The Resistance by Muse
So I finally got hold of it... And, you know, if anything it’s even more ridiculous, bombastic and stridently composed as the fake copy I found myself hawking in my last update (before removing all evidence of my deaf assumptions in the edit, obviously!) You’ll have heard Uprising already, with its pseudo Doctor Who theme ominously dancing in the background as Matt Bellamy’s voice rides all manner of surging guitars and yell-along anthems but the album confounds still with some of the most bonkers grandstanding that rock music has to offer this year. Undisclosed Desires opens with a staccato string arrangement and backbeat reminiscent of turn of the century two-step garage before sidestepping into Depeche Mode territory (and it’s very good!) whilst United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) is the sequel to Bohemian Rhapsody that Freddie Mercury never finished (beyond amazing!) Resistance contains one of the most rousing choruses of the year thus far and the three-part orchestral work that closes the album is still as demystifyingly gorgeous, and the perfect gracenote to end such an excessive, relentless explosion of an album.

And that is why The Resistance is my Album Of The Month For September... so good, it was a whole month late!!

And that's me for another month; will be posting my CD3 of the year's best tracks so far next week and then, the final quarter. Christmas is coming; be prepared!

(And a brief apology to brennivin85 for not including the Spotify links where appropriate just yet... will get around to it at some point!)

So, in spite of drinking myself silly and being hospitalized on Sunday night/Monday morning, I live to write another journal. August has been a little better on the home front for me, despite the incredible lack of funds to which I've become accustomed. Still, this has meant I have stayed home most nights listening to music and such. But enough about that, time I cracked on with this month's reviews...

Two Dancers by Wild Beasts
One of the most heavily praised albums is first on my list this month, courtesy of these Kendall-based alternative Next Big Thingers. Credit where it's due for wheeling out their sophomore effort in little over a year, but the result is at times leadenly over-earnest and too eager to please, particularly from the band's lead singers' ungainly diving between affected falsetto and impassioned yells, more often within mere moments of one another (one noteable lowlight being All The King's Men). It will certainly impress those that it means to though and maybe I'll just take it lightly that even indie-lovers can be blindsided by pretentious imposters as much as regular pop music...

Catch 22 by Tinchy Stryder
Judging from his continued success this year on the UK singles and album charts, Mr Stryder has done incredibly well to eschew his grime credentials with an unabashed pop influence reminiscent of his US contemporaries. And whilst there's plenty of genial slow jams and some proof of his performance skills present on this big-budget major label debut (and the album reps an admirable showcase for co-producer Fraser T. Smith as hitmaker deluxe), there's a distinct lack of lyrical depth and showmanship that characterises some of the better rappers in the spotlight now, Lil' Wayne and his East London compatriot, Dizzee Rascal being a couple of them.

One Love by David Guetta
Love Don't Let Me Go (Walk Away) (Famous Radio Edit) rather convincingly won the battle for UK Club Anthem of 2006 for David Guetta, launching his profile as one of the finer dance music producers working today, evidenced by the genuinely impressive featuring credits on this fourth album (Black Eyed Peas in particular seem to love this guy). However, despite luminous appearances from Kelly Rowland and one-to-watch Wynter Gordon (and lesser spots from Ne-Yo and Mr Autotune himself, Akon), Guetta's repeated innovations of glitch, electro and hip hop don't serve the album for the better in the long haul (though he gets kudos for making a Black Eyed Peas song listenable!)

Unforgettable by IMRAN KHAN
Another dance tune that enjoyed much success in 2007 was Imran Khan's debut single Ni Nachleh, a fine, guiltily pleasurable mix of bhangra, garage and Eurobeat that attained the premier spot on many UK Asian radio stations. Two years later and the Pakistani-Dutch singer follows suit with a debut album that pretty much picks up where that song left off, slickly produced and inoffensive party bangers bopping alongside typical gossamer-lite ballads. As a result, the louder moments, such as Nazar and Chak Glass, fare better than the allegedly more emotive ones, but those keen to excuse the autotuning can have a diverting, if unremarkable, time.

Years by Years
Also the stagename for Canadian multi-musician Ohad Benchetrit, who also happens to be a member for post-rock band Do Make Say Think, as well as frequent collaborator with Broken Social Scene, Feist and The Hidden Cameras amongst others, this debut album sees Ohad collate all of his solo instrumental works into one of the most studiously enriching albums of the year. Standouts Are You Unloved? and A Thousand Times A Day (Someone Is Flying) betray his evident skills as both musician and arranger beguilingly, taking in plaintive guitars, noble string sections and diverting brass, but some of the album can be accused of being a little too slight for it's own good, not to mention a little short!

Conditions by The Temper Trap
Earmarked as Australia's next big rock export and the natural successors to Kings of Leon with regards to their meter in classy stadium rock, The Temper Trap have been riding a crest of keen hype after being featured on the BBC's Sound Of 2009 list. And whilst they fall somewhat easily into the more acceptable part of that lists inclusions, their overall sound isn't too distinct enough to draw significant comparisons away from most rock outfits these days. In spite of this, some rather are still rather lovely songs, one particular highlight being Sweet Disposition, which transcends the obvious U2-style arrangement to drum up some credence to the hype.

Arecibo Message by Boxcutter
My dubstep adventures continue now with Irish producer Barry Lynn, who takes as much from analogue techno of the early '90s and trippy sci-fi inflected interludes as he does distorted R&B/garage vocals and jungle-style samplings. Whilst perhaps not as gorgeously wrought as the likes of Burial or Moderat (Lynn's jams are less mournful and claustrophobic and trade more on euphoric fantasy), it's still a diverting and funky listen for anyone interested in the burgeoning scene. Highlights here include the heady S p a c e b a s s and Mya Rave v2, the latter in particular infusing all of the above sounds into a very headnodding whole.

Far by Regina Spektor
Spektor's reputation as one of the leading stars of the anti-folk scene appears consolidated with this release, her fifth solo album and follow-up to her 2006 breakout success, Begin to Hope. Retaining the same winsome qualities that saw her fanbase grow exponentially then, Far may appear to be more of the same from the charismatic chanteuse, but songs such as Eet and Dance Anthem of the 80's are keen to prove that Spektor really need little more than a piano and her titular trill to win over a discerning crowd. There's enough percussive staccato rhythms, elegantly wordy ballads and Spektor's own rather sweet star quality to keep fans entertained at any rate.

A French Kiss In The Chaos by Reverend and The Makers
Given his reputation as a political human megaphone, Jon 'The Reverend' McClure's musical exploits are similarly infused with the frontman's grim estimations on the state of the world, whether it be the apathy of the youth in Silence Is Talking and or the consumer brainwash-bash of Hidden Persuaders. However, don't be affronted by the pessimism, as McClure and his Makers tow the line between worthy guilt trip and punkish rabble with enough buoyant riffs and exultant orchestrations to offset the mean streak prevailing throughout. It might be worth catching some of their acoustic car-park based gigs after all for some good-natured anti-authoritarianism.

The First Days Of Spring by Noah and the Whale
It's either rather charming or incredibly misguided when a folk outfit releases an album concerning a certain part of the seasonal calendar amidst its polar end. I'm still in two minds as to whether this English quartet's album is a success or failure though because it captures the forlorn mood of the tailend of winter so perfectly, not to mention the ashen-coated hope of regeneration. Album notes in the press declare it as being the soundtrack to a painful rupture of a relationship, with a film accompanying the LP's release in the deluxe edition; those made of emotionally impenetrable steel, or gluttons for punishment, should be thrilled... others, be warned.

Creaturesque by Throw Me the Statue
Some warmly performed indie pop now, courtesy of four Seattle-based musicians keen to offer politically barbed tirades (hear Pistols) and distinctly cynical personality-dissections (hear Noises) as joyful ditties, mixed into the kind of gossamer-lite lo-fi buzz that encourages further listens. The key addition here, alongside frontman Scott Reitherman's charmingly disenchanted vocals, is a reliance on a warm electronic bass-buzz that helps to subdue the subject matter into something made enjoyable, nevermind listenable. Quibbles can be made that it doesn't capitalise on their hype-inducing debut well enough, but then disarmingness never announces itself, does it?

Broken by Soulsavers
Known by their friends as Rich Machin and Ian Glover, Soulsavers are credited as being electronica producers/remixers, though you wouldn't have guessed this from their third album, which sees them take in myriad influences from rock, jazz and classical worlds to create an exquisite soundtrack to a downer in 2009. It actually shares a lot of similarities with Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse's collaboration earlier this year, not least in its employment of guest stars (Mike Patton and Jason Pierce feature, though Aussie one-to-watch Red Ghost fares best) though the production is less galvanising and more subdued. However, it still more than merits a worthy listen as one of the year's best kept secrets.

Humbug by Arctic Monkeys
So, almost after their record-breaking debut hit the top spot on the UK album charts, the Monkeys have had much more to prove than most other alternative-pop bands this young in their career. With Humbug, benefiting from co-production from Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme as well as regular collaborator James Ford (fresh from Alex Turner's sojourn with The Last Shadow Puppets), they may have answered with their most consistently dark and lyrically bombastic work, eschewing the earlier jovial rabble-rouse with something fast approaching formidable in its authority, exemplified best by lead single Crying Lightning. Much to the snooty's chagrin, the Monkeys may be here to stay.

I Love You by Amanda Blank
I'm a little surprised by the amount of unimpressed stick Ms Blank has taken for her debut album. Understandably, it falls a little short from the hype propagated by the likes of Diplo and XXXchange on production duties, but there's no denying some of the pure fun to be had here (hear the impressively filthy Might Like You Better). Compared with her more raucous peers (M.I.A., Yo Majesty, to name a couple), she pales a little in the confrontational stakes, her finer moments find her exhibiting a touch more humility and soul as opposed to outspoken attitude, probably the finest example being A Love Song, featuring a resonant sample of Santigold's I'm a Lady.

See Mystery Lights by YACHT
Please understand that this album would be far better rated if it weren't for the final track; average wise, the rest of it is brought down that much. Otherwise, this is as fine a major-indie label dubet from an alternative-electro-pop-performance artist that you're likely to come across. Trading in tuneless spoken vocals, über-geeky effects that emerge as über-cool from the other side and a dab hand at finding the kind of hooks that bury themselves within your head, it's certainly one of the most recognisably-hyped records of the past year (I'm a little obsessed with We Have All We Ever Wanted at the moment)... but that final version of Psychic City is irredeemable!

Temporary Pleasure by Simian Mobile Disco
Another dance/electronica outfit whose latest release is positively bursting with special guests now, this time courtesy of British production duo James Ford and Jaz Shaw. Whilst prior collaborators Klaxons and Peaches do not appear on their sophomore studio LP, they receive rather gorgeous help from the likes of Gruff Rhys (leaving me wanting for a sequel to his Neon Neon side project on Cream Dream), Beth Ditto (fulfilling Debbie Harry comparisons with dreamy effort Cruel Intentions) and underserved uber-cool disco duo Telepathe. The main misgiving here though is that the guest spots are that much better than the duo working solo, but as long as they're inspired, they're in fine fetter.

Shortcuts by Trip
For those still waiting on the Jamie T follow-up, if they chanced upon this debut from Alex Child there's a very good chance that wait would come to an abrupt end. Produced alongside those who've had hands in the likes of Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Ladytron previously, Child's LP takes in typical tales of teen romances, hangovers and youthful bravado, but avoids likenings to Jamie T and The Streets' Mike Skinner before him on account of the fine musical intelligence on offer, nevermind the acutely observant lyrics. Opener applecheeks charts a romantic night out sweetly without resorting to cliché and Who's That might be the funniest single of the year, if only for daring to put Bono in his place.

BLACKsummers'night by Maxwell
Those with eyebrows arched at the eight year wait for Maxwell's follow-up to 2001's Now have every right to have them so. Let it be said though that, whilst I'm still adverse to the questionable misogyny prevalent in male-fronted R&B in general, when Maxwell asks his muse to "prove it in the nude" in achingly swoonsome falsetto on opening track Bad Habits, it takes a less-than-hot-blooded person not to be energised, or at the very least impressed! The first of a duo-disc concept release (blackSUMMERS'night is due for release next year), Maxwell ingratiates himself back into the upper echelons of nu-soul R&B with nary a bead of hot sweat broken.

xx by The xx
After the successes of Burial and Hot Chip, and now the arrival of this quartet of infuriatingly talented 19-year-olds, Putney's Elliott School may well become the successor to Croydon's BRIT School. The kind of dream-pop/indie rock debut that merits repeat listens even after those post-night out sessions with close friends, it's the first album I've come across that has done well to stay homegrown rather than spun into something recognisably hip for fad-listeners (they politely refused Diplo's help!) However, at least on the evidence on the Wicked Game-licking Infinity (how's that for being standard-defyingly good!?), I can't help but agree with this brightly-futured quartet.

Total 10 by Various Artists
2009 marks the tenth anniversary of Kompakt, the German electronic music label that has brought us some of finer examples of ambient dance music of the past decade, including new releases from Gui Boratto and The Field's Axel Willner from this year. Their Total series collates the best remixes and selected tracks over the past year from their roster and the setlist here is nothing short of lovely. Highlights here include the beauteous crescendo of Shumi's The Wind And The Sea, Ada's Ibiza anthem for the intelligent Lovestoned, Justus Köhncke's minimal electro funk session You Make It Easy and Michael Mayer's heartrending remix of Gotye's Heart's A Mess.

Two by Miss Kittin & The Hacker
After new releases from the likes of Peaches and Fischerspooner earlier this year and now the return of DJ duo Caroline Hervé and Michel Amato, it would appear that electroclash is aching for a return to the airwaves nearly a decade after its prominence on the UK club scene. And whilst both prior acts have noticeably calmed down and grown a fancier sheen to their rogue electro jaunts, credit Caroline and Michel for sticking to their guns and kicking a party into ignition to better their debut offering from 2001. Sure, the beats sound that much more polished than they did eight years ago, but the slithering debauchery is still there, offset by some gorgeous electro ballads (hear single 1000 Dreams).

Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street by Jon Hassell
Taking in world music, classical composition, avant garde electronica and freeform jazz, 72 year-old trumpet player Hassell has enjoyed a noted if curiously quiet reputation over the last forty years, not just as a trumpet player par excellence, but also for his wondrous evocations of pre-existing musical genres across the world. His fifteenth release plays like a troubled score for a lost film concerning a lonely figure wallowing in an alien world, characterised by Hassell's own instrument that is at once fearful, respectful, inquisitive and sensual in its improvised nature. A beautifully tortured piece from an auteur long overdue for some breakthrough recognition.

jj n° 2 by JJ
One of the alternative music world's worst kept secrets following glowing reviews from the likes of Pitchfork and NME is this Swedish indie pop group, whose reputation remains infuriating in the ether. Little is known, except their releasing this debut album from the Sincerely Yours label; mind you, with harmonies and buoyant melodies this lovely perhaps a visual identity isn't necessarily needed. At once uniquely exotic and yet composed with such a winsome pop sensibility as to make it immediately refreshing (best example being [track artist=JJ]From Africa To Málaga), it takes someone of emotionally stunted growth not to be swayed by how good this album is.

Scars by Basement Jaxx
So, in accordance with the unofficial theme this month of dance outfits with ridiculous amounts of guest stars on their LP, the Jaxx win the battle both figuratively and impressively. Kelis, Chipmunk, Santigold, Sam Sparro, Yo Majesty, Yoko Ono, Paloma Faith... it promises to be the most eclectic mix to be heard this year, and some tracks here promise to give the Jaxx their best single chartings in years (particularly Sparro's uplifting feelbad ballad Feelings Gone). As a Jaxx album though, it's their most emotionally downbeat yet, attested not just from the ruminative title track, but also how comparitively stripped down the arrangements are to albums past. It could even be their best...

And that is why Scars is my Album Of The Month For August...

Sorry if there are any typos on this as my Internet is playing up at home and I need to do all I can to stop it from cras-

XX

(P.S. It was brought to my attention that the Muse album I had previously heralded as the album of the month was in fact one of those dodgy leaks, so the real version of that album will be reviewed at a later date... Sheepish doesn't even come close to how I'm feeling, still...)

(XX{PDP}XX)

What a month it's been. Personally, without going into too much detail, it's been one of the roughest I've ever had. So much so, I even feel a little bad commentating on the new music I've managed to grab since arriving back from San Francisco. But if anything, it's rather nice for me to get back into the routine of things. So here goes...

Firstly, a brief mention about the Mercury Prize 2009 nominations, a little ceremony here in Blighty that used to hold a high amount of professional clout to homegrown musicians, honouring the best album of the last 12 months as voted for by a bunch of industry professionals. The nominees are listed below:

Friendly Fires by Friendly Fires
Glasvegas by Glasvegas
La Roux by La Roux
Lungs by Florence + The Machine
Primary Colours by The Horrors
Sea Sew by Lisa Hannigan
Sensible Shoes by Led Bib
Speech Therapy by Speech Debelle
The Invisible by The Invisible
Twice Born Men by Sweet Billy Pilgrim
Two Suns by Bat for Lashes
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum by Kasabian

In what the press is calling the closest competition in years, my smart money is on Friendly Fires or Bat For Lashes scooping this one. The former has been building up a fine head of steam since their release last year and the Mercury could help boost their profile, whilst some may honour Natasha, who was the dark horse to win back in 2007 when Klaxons pipped her to the post. Personally, I'd be happy for Glasvegas or The Horrors to win (conservative agenda, be damned!), but let me know of your personal favourite, who you'd put money on and, more controversially, who has been unfairly ommitted from the final roster.

And now, July's albums...

Battlefield by Jordin Sparks
Being the clearly-telegraphed winner of America’s most glorified singing contest can bring its own ungainly setbacks, such things clearly felt when Miss Sparks' debut CD barely made a dent on the charts compared to the assaults made by the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and her successor David Cook. In an effort to swing her sophomore effort more towards the radio friendly pop/R&B of worldwide hit No Air with Chris Brown, Sparks' team have called upon the likes of Ryan Tedder and T-Pain, amongst other qualified hitmakers, to load the album with as many hits as possible. Unfortunately, besides the convincingly strident title track and the album’s premier ballad No Parade, nothing comes close enough to announcing Sparks as a star in her own right, partly due to the album’s lack of revelatory material; she needed at least one RedOne cut on here, execs, as opposed to pieces sounding like the songs Kelly Clarkson left off of her latest a few months ago!

UN by Dan Black
The BBC Sound Of 2009 poll strikes again with former indie band frontman Dan Black, back from obscurity with his first solo album decked out in the kind of glamorous disco-pop that has left highbrow critics swooning. Quite how it has done so remains a little bit of an enigma though; aside from the canny marrying of choir and strings to Umbrella’s reversed drum beat on lead track Symphonies and the warm synth bombast of U + Me =, the rest of the album doesn’t fare nearly as well, coasting on Black’s well-suited trills and evident songwriting and arranging ability rather than sucker-punching us with popstruck awe and needless to say, fans of The Servant will be doubly dismayed by his embracing of Timbaland-style beats and effects as opposed to the cinematic rock featured on cult hit single Cells. After Frankmusik’s undeserved lack of success, it would appear to be up to Mr Hudson to give us a UK male electropop star to rival La Roux’s success...

Let the Truth Be Told by Laura Izibor
A whole 22 years of age, Laura Izibor is something of a revelation in the world of old-school R&B, composing and arranging the entirety of her debut effort herself with enough light incandescence and headswaying niceties to soundtrack the next romcom, women’s health food adverts and Starbucks outlets the world over (and with Grey’s Anatomy and Special K already snapping up single Shine, it will only be a matter of time before the coffeehouse behemoth follows suit). It’s also striking that at such a young age, Izibor has such a firm grasp of what her music should sound like and the listenership she is singing for (she’s already supported the likes of Aretha Franklin and John Legend). It’s not a bad thing, and her voice has enough rustic elasticity to provide a revelatory collaboration/guest spot at some point in the future, but it’s not nearly striking enough or swoonsomely heady to cut through the current crop of retroverts... Watch her space though!

Travelling Like The Light by VV Brown
Spending her formative years as a songwriter/session singer in LA (she/her PA namedrops that fabulous post-feminist movement Pussycat Dolls in interviews constantly) before retreating back to her humble Islington after a particularly nasty break-up, Vanessa Brown has threatened the charts with her presence over the past year with a commercially mouth-watering mix of striking model looks and pop songs that attempt to defy specific genre classification and provide something both popkids and indieheads can dance to. Which would have held true if some of the album didn’t come up dispiritingly short and Brown herself didn’t at times sound so disconcertingly like Kate Nash being swallowed by a hyperactive Mark Ronson arrangement (a personal thing for me, yes, but listen to Leave! and try not to get slightly annoyed!) Single Shark in the Water and Crazy Amazing prove the girl’s got something special in her midst, but the next album better be pretty awesome!

Welcome To The Walk Alone by The Rumble Strips
Proof that Mark Ronson’s credentials as a record producer have not yet begun to sound so over familiar as to pall the albums on which he appears, his collaboration with these Devon-based indie rockers (ignited into fruition after lead singer Charlie Waller sang Back To Black for Ronson at the 2007 BBC Electric Proms) benefits greatly from both Waller and company’s winning chemistry and Ronson’s uncustomarily restrained arrangements given the clipped length of some of the pieces on offer (by Version’s standards, anyway, though Back Bone’s opener suggests Ronson should score the sequel to ‘50s melodrama throwback Far From Heaven if ever it happens!) It isn’t going to set the world alight by any stretch of the imagination nor threaten the upper echelons of radio-sponsored rock royalty, but it remains a small glint of a gem, undone perhaps by its very inoffensiveness, and likely to be swallowed by the glut of higher profile releases this year.

True Romance by Golden Silvers
More throwback indie rock now, this time of the psychedelic variety from London trio Golden Silvers, whose songs are just as informed by Greek mythology as they are by liver flaps after a typically booze-soaked night out (hear standout track Shakes). It’s a head-turning mix of warm harmonies and synths at times and sold through with an infectious charm by the talented troika, particularly on Queen of the 21st Century, which throws in every thing the band has of their mettle, bar the kitchen sink. Like most modestly ambitious bands, they sell themselves short on first listen, clearly feeling their way through the big shiny studio for the first time, but it says something that even the faintly ominous moments such as the cleansing drone of My Love Is A Seed That Doesn’t Grow do well to earmark them for possibly greater things the second time around; for now though, an entirely disarming debut.

Quicken the Heart by Maxïmo Park
Since signing with Warp Records in 2004, the gentlemen in the Park have gone from strength to strength, managing to avoid outright breakout success but still achieving significant enough attention for fans to still get excited by their latest output, evidenced by this, their third album’s Top 10 placing in the UK Album Chart and their upcoming tour selling out completely. Governed by lead singer and lyricist Paul Smith’s charisma, Quicken offers more of the same for Park’s fanbase and little else to truly get salivating over, the five-piece admirably holding fast onto their art-pop-punk identity rather selling their way towards a trendier destination. And even though it doesn’t get tongues wagging as much as their earlier releases, there’s still enough here to keep fans sated, particularly the playful The Penultimate Clinch, the ambivalent Calm and callout to elitism In Another World (You Would've Found Yourself By Now).

Rated O by Oneida
Part dubstep nightmare, part hard rock masterpiece and ten times as pretentious as both of those genres could possibly be combined, this New York band take pride in avoiding easy categorization and this tenth album could be their most ungainly attempt at aural assault yet; a triple-disc behemoth that takes in 20 minute tracks of looped beats, distorted guitars and screeching vocals that very much defy conventional listening never mind criticism. The first disc fares better than the rest, wrestling relentless dubs with guitars and walls of noise to create a fine texture of hard rock crescendo as you’re likely to hear. It all starts going downhill once the more overt rock influences kick in for disc two, which happens to also be the longer of the three discs, so much so that the return to sublime discordance on disc three doesn’t sort things out well enough. It’s certainly an experience I would wish on to any music fan though, regardless of what they’ll get out of it...

The Bridge by Melanie Fiona
As proven with Malik Yusef last month, endorsement from Kanye West doesn’t always guarantee a solid gold promise of a Star On The Rise; thankfully, West has more or less got it right with Canadian songstress Melanie Fiona, whose debut single Give It To Me Right has given 2009 one of its finer examples of sampling, looping the opening bass, drum beat and piano of The Zombies’ Time of the Season whilst turning it into the best kind of radio-friendly R&B jam that positively simmers under Fiona’s resplendent voice. The rest of The Bridge follows suit to lesser effect (worryingly common on most albums here this month), but is carried through with enough clairvoyant sass and sultry shades by the star centre-stage to register enough presence to sit up and take notice; testament to her skill and warm vocals, she even gets away with the blatant Valerie rip-off Johnny rather fabulously, which after suffering through so many karaoke renditions and televised auditions, is no faint praise.

Speech Therapy by Speech Debelle
As much an introspective poet as she is a rapper of uniquely hard-hitting cadence, 26 year-old Debelle’s debut is the kind of critic-friendly work that encourages admiration from listeners rather than bona fide unit shifts, which is a shame, because her lo-fi charms herald far more enriching musings on urban life than the brash posturing propagated by her contemporaries. Her voice at once tough, wounded, soft and sweet, with low-key arrangements fleshing out the stories being told rather than blindsiding the listener with ingenious sampling and heavy beat signatures, Debelle’s tales of homelessness, unhappy home life and hard-fought inspiration are unlike those found in moments of conscience on bigger budget rap albums because of her searingly honest lyrics suggesting self-doubt and insecurity as well as inner strength. She may do well to lighten up a little next time, but not at the cost of the lovely charm permeating throughout this album.

Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do by Major Lazer
Nary a day goes by now that some sort of dream partnership in the arena of dance music releases an album that takes their respective wares into all sorts of bemusing directions. The latest collaboration comes from two of M.I.A.’s more frequent cohorts Switch and Diplo, who’ve enlisted the customary typically impressive roster of guest stars (the ubiquitous Santigold and dancehall star Vybz Kartel amongst them here) to aid in their genre infusions of electro, reggae, hip hop and jungle to create a homogenous gumball of raucously humorous beat-mashing. Highlights here include Mr Evil and Mapei's (hot) ode to the green stuff on Mary Jane (complete with Mini-Me sample) and Keep It Goin' Louder, a genial club banger featuring Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze. Special mention must also go to Baby featuring Prince Zimboo, for featuring the single best use of Autotune in any song in the history of pop music ever (and Zimboo’s gorgeously inspired response, of course!)

Midlife: A Beginners Guide To Blur by Blur
Released on the back of their reformation for Glastonbury and their performances in Hyde Park, Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree are reverentially celebrated with this double disc package, which features hand-picked album tracks (and in Popscene, a rare single) alongside some of their finer singles as opposed to a chronologically-presented retrospective of all of their single releases. So, no Country House, Charmless Man or even There's No Other Way (though Song 2 still squeezes itself in there!), rather a credible “guide” that illustrates why everyone fell in love with these Britpop prognosticators in the first place and goes some way to showing why their reunion has caused so much fuss. Girls And Boys and The Universal still stand out, but She's So High and Tender rank highly here also... It’s the perfect two-hour answer to that next person who tries to tell you that Oasis are and always will be the better band.

Totems Flare by Clark
Still keeping it real for the IDM heads out there, Chris Clark delivers his fifth album wrapped in the kind of gorgeous analogue samples and sequences that had the world swooning loftier aficianados of dance music in a spin during the mid 1990s. Curiously enough, what with all of the ‘80s powerpop/’90s Eurobeat pillaging currently prevailing in the charts right now, and with Clark taking just as many cues from trip hop signatures as well as those pioneering metallic IDM sounds, replacing the infamous drill ‘n’ bass passages with more distorted beats, it comes as a refreshing change to the norm, even if the more dedicated fans will most likely feel they have heard these kind of pieces many times before. Which isn’t meant to take anything away from Clark’s otherwise fine album, as getting away with paying homage to a genre as oft-intelligible as IDM is no mean feat by any standards, and even the hardcore fans will find much to enjoy here.

LP by Discovery
Another mash-up between musical contemporaries now (sort of an ongoing theme for this month’s journal really), Discovery is a homemade R&B/funk duo comprising of Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles and Vampire Weekend jack-of-all-trades Rostam Batmanglij, composing the kind of adorable blogpop that no doubt will leave a lot of Weekend fans scratching their heads. Nestling themselves inside warm bass synths and Kleerup-style keyboard flourishes, it’s the kind of lo-fi delight that takes pleasure in its own humble nature and could likely spread like wildfire on the Internet, especially if their cover of The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back merits even half of its deserved success (in light of the half-baked tributes from the likes of will.i.am et al, it’s rather cool hearing someone take lovely liberties with something so sacred). As a backhanded celebration to the autonomous joy of the current spate of electro R&B, it’s a subversive delight.

Shakedown 2 by Freemasons
On the back of their success with a remix of one of my favourite Alanis Morissette songs (which has since turned into one of my top karaoke choices), I was initially unfairly dismissive of what the Freemasons stood for, despite their steadfast following and continued chart success. It is with this double-disc set in mind, however, that I finally surrender my qualms and join the party, because taking control behind the decks is both what got this duo noticed in the first place and why they continually sell out their DJ sets across the UK. Even those exhibiting a disdain for popular dance music would find it objectionable not to be swayed by the set here, taking in hits from Moby, New Order and Justice alongside the more commercial pop tastes of Ultra Naté, Kylie Minogue and Eurythmics, but its Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer) and Ring The Alarm (Freemasons Remix) that provide the most virile fuel to the fire.

More Heart Than Brains by Bike For Three!
A few months ago, we had Thunderheist release their debut disc, one comprised of songs performed, mixed and mastered before the duo had even met each other via the beauty of the Internet. This month, performing the same trick with a wider geographical gap (Canada and Belgium) are Rich Terfy and Joëlle Phuong Minh Lê, collectively known as Bike For Three!, who’ve been collaborating over the web via MySpace for the last two years without a single meet 'n' greet. And in spite of the physical distance, both are clearly on the same wavelength sonically, as the chemistry inherent as Terfy’s rhymes swiftly rise and fall over Lê’s at times superlative electro-loaded production is too sublime to dismiss. Tracks like One More Time Forever and the title track in particular highlight how well this duo works together; it’s certainly a good thing that they’re adamant that this collaboration will not be their last!

Ambivalence Avenue by Bibio
Though he’s often tagged as an electronic folk artist, UK producer Stephen Wilkinson’s fourth album certainly goes some way to dissociate himself from any discernible genre, the music within taking a direct cue from the title with regards to the sonic space it inhabits. At once taking in quaint bucolic guitar cues, faint memories of funky disco in the late ‘70s, early hip hop breaks from the late ‘80s and electronic blips and beats (for a fine summation of all elements, check out S'Vive), it’s certainly the first album of the year that everyone can enjoy, not just drawing on enough influences to provide signifiers of specific movements but enmeshing it all into a lovely concoction perfectly tailored for the tailend of summer and the first sighs of autumn (and no, I can’t believe I just wrote that either!) Sure, the mood is slight and delicate throughout, but that’s precisely why it’s one of the more disarming releases of the year thus far.

La Roux by La Roux
One pop star who doesn’t get by on simply being disarming however is Elly Jackson, lead singer of the vociferous electro duo who, alongside co-writer/producer Ben Langmaid, have turned into homegrown stars and the closest our pop contingency has got to rival Lady GaGa in the Breakout Stars of 2009 stakes. Their eponymous debut certainly betters GaGa’s release for sheer attitude and pop power on key tracks taking their cues from past masters and fleshing their sound out with subtler shades (Vince Clarke in particular can be heard all the way through this release and it’s no bad thing!) Attention must duly be paid to Jackson’s vocal authority all over the album though, which portrays a versatile dexterity unheard in most pop chanteuses these days (from the just-shy of shrill In For The Kill and to the spiky, justly-deserved chart topper Bulletproof), even if her reputation in interviews betrays an overabundance of confidence (as if the ‘80s never happened... AGAIN!)

Lungs by Florence + The Machine
Of all of the pop acts emerging from the British music scene this year, Florence Welch’s solo project has courted more plaudits and attention than others, buoyed along by well-received singles from last year as well as the Breakthrough BRIT Award that provided the same first stepping stone to mainstream success to last year’s transatlantic darling, Adele. Rest assured though, Welch’s hype is somewhat justified on her major label debut disc, convincingly veering between indie anthems of earthy rock bohemia (current single Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)), evocatively simple moments of tender admission (hear I’m Not Calling You A Liar) and dreamy cosmic balladry (the relevantly named Cosmic Love), all held in place with a voice that is authentic without sounding ridiculously mannered or overly quirky. Even if it doesn’t quite supersede the comparisons to Kate Bush or the relentless PR machine charting her meteoric rise, it’s still a mighty fine disc in its own right.

Yeah So by Slow Club
For those still pining for She & Him’s follow-up to their debut who’ve exhausted their M. Ward album from earlier this year, this Sheffield-based folk-pop duo could easily be drawn up as a suitable replacement for tiding over. However, once the charming opener When I Go has segwayed into the jovial rabble of Giving Up on Love, you’ll find that Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor are their own beast entirely, as much into forlorn acousticisms as they are on their rockabilly pop riots, evidenced by the yell-along crescendo of the latter song. Surely it says a lot not only about the musical intelligence but also the warm chemistry between the duo when the slower, intimate moments on their sharply realised debut are just as swoonsome and listenable as their louder ones with all of the bells and whistles. It comes this close to making me proud of my Southern Yorkshire heritage, it’s that good!

Music For Men by The Gossip
To the untrained eye, Beth Ditto would simply come across as Tracy Turnblad on acid, replacing the irrepressible chirp with a malevolent misanthropy. And whilst it’s certainly true that Ditto’s presence in the present day fashion-curio glitterati has generated more press and interest than that of her band’s actual work, it should be noted that she really is quite the fabulous singer and they offer up some of the finest anti-authoritarian pop rock on any side of the Atlantic. Working with rock production god Rick Rubin for their sophomore album after their admittedly patchy debut (Standing in the Way of Control still nearly justifies its existence though), the improvement is startling; Ditto’s voice is more riveting than it was on their breakout single and the closest this generation will have to an iconic punk reference point (check out Heavy Cross) and the band are clearly embracing more unique styles with impressive flair (check out the piano-led disco vibe of Love Long Distance).

Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors
Given the collective’s being a brainchild of founding member Dave Longsreth (who also composes and produces all of the songs) and its impressive turnover with regards to former members, you’d be forgiven for assuming Dirty Projectors were akin to The Polyphonic Spree. Truth be told though, no such levels of cynical accusations could possibly be levelled at Longstreth and his followers for one given the sheer collaborative delights to be found in their music, as their sixth album demonstrates quite peerlessly (plus, you won’t find any song on here used for a supermarket advert!) All acoustic rabble and sophisticated harmonies (the kind that would sound completely random and freeform if it didn’t all fit together quite so elegantly), Longstreth’s current collective is on fine form, particularly on the pieces led with female vocalists (hear Stillness Is the Move), and the perfect hip experimental outfit to impress your musicmates with.

Miike Snow by Miike Snow
An album from the guys responsible for winning the Britney Spears Empire its one (and likely only!) Grammy was always going to court my attention, but being the forward-thinking musical prognosticators that they are, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (neé Bloodshy & Avant) have really outdone themselves with their first album with US producer Andrew Wyatt (Daniel Merriweather, Ebony Bones), awash with plaintive, elegant and sophisticated pop that seems to be running throughout most Scandinavian musicians’ blood these days. Though named after one of Japan’s most prolifically nasty directors (he had a cameo appearance in Hostel, don’t you know?), Snow’s eponymous first release only shocks in how wonderfully wrought some of these pop masterpieces are (check out the slow-burn of Silvia). On this evidence, and prior releases from The Knife and Kleerup, God only knows what Max Martin and Stargate would offer up given their own release.

Moon by Clint Mansell
Now, I normally wait until I’ve seen a film before purchasing (tee hee!) the score, but with Clint Mansell, I always seem to make an exception (as I did with his score for The Fountain, which is fucking beautiful!), and I’m glad I took the plunge with his latest for Duncan Jones’ criticially-acclaimed sci-fi drama Moon. With subtle electronic effects, a quietly devastating string motif and moving piano pieces, Mansell has crafted his finest score yet; obviously I’m hamstrung as to how it soundtracks the images of its inspiration having not seen the movie yet, but I’m going on the proviso that a score this rich with tenderness, melancholy, fear and sheer beauty must have been based on something akin to those adjectives. Not exactly the cohesively sound review, but then, I still haven’t seen The Fountain either... ,’:^/

Riceboy Sleeps by Jónsi & Alex
And finally, we have these Icelandic lovebirds (lead singer of Sigur Rós with one half of indie band Parachutes), who, not content with being one of the cutest couples in the alternative music world, have decided to release an album dedicated to their multimedia Riceboy Sleeps art project. The resulting music is indicative of their past work, particularly Rós’s ( ) album instrumental pieces of tortured twilight, but the focus is more on childlike wonder than gothic tales of wind and ice, with frequent Rós collaborators Amiina providing their customary exultant string sections (hear Happiness, which found its way onto the Dark Was The Night compilation earlier this year) as well as some stirring choral arrangments. For those who prefer their alternative music curios funky and headturning, this will do little to abate the Rós backlash inevitably mounting after their last album; but for those who enjoy beautiful music, it is essential!

And that is why Riceboy Sleeps is my Album Of The Month For July!

And now, to the bank... then karaoke... then the rest of my life! Take care everyone; be sure to leave a comment below and look after one another!

xx

So, we're halfway through the year already, and some pretty fine new music has been flooding through the gates over the last three months. Please find below my own personal favorites from albums past during that period in an as-usual CD friendly playlist. As ever, feel free to call me out on any omissions or quizzical choices:

Dibder's New Music Of 2009: CD 2/4
01. tale to tell by The Mummers
Taken from the album Tale to Tell
02. 4 3 2 1 by k-os
Taken from the album YES!
03. Bubblegum by Thunderheist
Taken from the album Thunderheist
04. Better Off As 2 by Frankmusik
Taken from the album Complete Me
05. Symmetry by Little Boots
Taken from the album Hands
06. The Best Revenge by Fischerspooner
Taken from the album Entertainment
07. Rome by Phoenix
Taken from the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
08. Perfect by Depeche Mode
Taken from the album Sounds of the Universe
09. Help I'm Alive by Metric
Taken from the album Fantasies
10. Who Can Say by The Horrors
Taken from the album Primary Colours
11. Everytime I'm With You (feat. Jason Lytle) by Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
Taken from the album Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse present: Dark Night of the Soul
12. Indiana by Cymbals Eat Guitars
Taken from the album Why There are Mountains
13. With Twilight as My Guide by The Mars Volta
Taken from the album Octahedron
14. The Sun Is Often Out by Patrick Wolf
Taken from the album The Bachelor
15. Boy Vertiginous by British Sea Power
Taken from the album Man Of Aran
16. I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet by The Field
Taken from the album Yesterday and Today
17. Slow Match (feat. Paul St. Hilaire) by Moderat
Taken from the album Moderat

And that does it! Keep listening... X

Hello everyone! Am currently nursing one of the worst hangovers I´ve ever had and have the apartment to myself whilst my good friends Kevin and Alex are out, so it´s the perfect opportunity to update my journal. San Francisco is lovely by the by, have met countless lovely people, been invited to parties, got a little stoned and the Pink Party on the Castro was HUGE! The actual Pride March was something to behold too, far outclassing the English ones I frequent whenever I can. The old adage about America being that much bigger and better than everywhere else certainly held with regards to how huge it was...

And on a personal note, I just want to dedicate this journal entry to my dear friends Pandora De Pledge and Alison Dale, the latter unable to be sunning it up over here as originally planned. Nothing but love for the two of you girls.

G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night: Dawn and G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night: Dusk by Malik Yusef
After the rather lovely star-laden contributions from N.A.S.A. and Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse this year, I’d surely be forgiven that another celebrity-consumed affair would tickle my interests, particularly one endorsed by Kanye West? Well, poet/actor Malik Yusef’s second album served to remind me why I should be so sceptical of these kind of event records in the first place. Inconsistent (probably thanks to the amount of producers present on the album), leaden (most likely thanks to his monotone delivery) and prone to repeating the same sentiments regarding poverty, sex and religion in his fabled Chicago without enough complexities and out-of-leftfield quirks to make the two-hour-plus duration bearable, Yusef’s effort convincingly vies for the most misguided attempt at music of the year thus far, with most of his guest stars failing to make much of an impression to the less-than-inspired material (bar Jennifer Hudson’s classy guest spot on Too Knight (The Underworld)).

West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum by Kasabian
Following through are these Leicester-based rock swaggerts, who have courted the music press pages in anticipation of their third album with a case of the “misunderstood blues”, lamenting the fact that their blend of confrontational stadium rock and nu-rave swathes has often been linked to rightwing groups and thugs (though surely soundtracking movies like this would only enhance such a reputation!) With this in mind, Asylum’s concentrated efforts to embrace a more acoustic aesthetic than their previous work is a little harder to swallow, even if some efforts pay off more than pleasurably (especially on the duet with Rosario Dawson, West Rider/Silver Bullet, and lead single Vlad the Impaler). Personally, I never thought I’d see the day a rock band named after the getaway driver of Charles Manson bemoaned their rock-star credentials or make such a conscientious effort to impress their critics... Keep rocking guys, it’s what you’re good at!

Yours Truly, The Commuter by Jason Lytle
Following the breakup of Grandaddy in 2006, for whom plaudits and awards were seemingly easier to attain than any sort of credible unit shifts over their fourteen-year career, frontman Jason Lytle has taken three years to release his debut solo album at the ripe age of 40, taking in supporting gigs (wherein he’s performed re-arranged songs by his former band) and a couple of compilation appearances (including a couple of tracks on last month’s Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse extravaganza. Those expecting a change of meter from Lytle on this disc though will be quite disappointed, as Commuter very much plays like vintage Grandaddy, all subtle electronica mixed indelibly with slow acoustic alt-rock and Lytle’s breathy vocals awash with detached melancholy that are hard not to fall for as ever. It’s also hard not to read a little into Lytle’s moving sense of abandonment on tracks such as Ghost Of My Old Dog and the mournful Fürget It.

Technicolor Health by Harlem Shakes
Currently supporting next-big-things Passion Pit on their US tour, it would appear that this winning five-piece from New York are nothing more than yet another indie-band ready to take all they can from the initial smash ‘n’ grab before sinking back into obscurity. Unfortunately, Harlem Shakes’ debut album is certainly one of the better ones to be released this year, so such a facile indictment should be written off irrefutably. Taking in fuzzy indie pop, Bob Dylan-style troubadouring, barbershop harmonies and subtle synths that complement the action rather subsume it attention-seeking gimmickry (an accusation often levelled at Passion Pit, but unfairly so seeing as their debut album is just so funky!), the Shakes’ premier disc invites the listener into a pleasant rabble that stands up to a second listen on account of the sophistication of the music inside as well as the positive vibe permeating throughout.

Mind Chaos by Hockey
In a month peppered with premier releases, Oregon natives Hockey are in possession of the one causing the most excitement at the moment, thanks to generous airplay from Zane Lowe on Radio 1 in the UK and a huge bidding war that saw them being signed to Capitol in the US and Virgin here in the UK. From the opening bars of lead single and album opener Too Fake, it’s really not that hard to see why; these guys have plenty of chemistry when they play and the requisite feelgood factor on their pop-rock ditties is borderline inescapable, making it perfect fodder for the end-of-summer parties. It’s a buoyant light set that, musically with regards to instrumentation and genre quirks, doesn’t strictly offer anything new (The Strokes can be heard all of the way through this record, certainly!); but, as you’ll find further down this list also, just because an album isn’t all doom and gloom in the name of art, doesn’t make it any less of an artistic achievement.

Two Fingers by Two Fingers
It would be fair to say that, were it not for the recommendations of friends here on last.fm, I would not have ingratiated my own listening to an album like Two Fingers, the first collaborative production from dance producers Amon Tobin and Joe "Doubleclick" Chapman and the latest enjoyably-genreless dance effort to see a 2009 release. With award-winning rhyme-smith Sway providing pointed commentary nearly half of the LP (with welcome guest spots from Ms. Jade and Ce'cile contributing wonderfully to the fray also), the album is fraught with the kind of paranoid fluorishes and production gambits to make fans of Burial and Martyn happy, inhabiting a soundscape that ducks and dives with regards to genre classification and one that remains intelligently urban and sophisticated. Examples of the album at its most inspired include the space-station alarms rifling through Better Get That and the frenzied horniness of That Girl (Sway’s finest moment on the whole LP).

Blood by Franz Ferdinand
Originally released as a special edition extra to their delayed third release earlier this year, Franz Ferdinand’s latest EP sees producer Dan Carey (whose credits include La Roux, Lily Allen and Hot Chip), re-spin nine of the eleven tracks he helped co-produce for Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. The results should sate the appetites for those who felt the Scotch metrosexuals’ third effort relied too much on their established swagger-sound to justify a four-year gap between You Could Have It So Much Better, as well as fulfil the wantonly curious who got a little too excited over the fruitless Xenomania sessions. Presented as different titles from their previous incarnations as opposed to having cute parenthesised (Mix)’s at the end, Carey’s skill as a remixer/producer is in bountiful evidence throughout (particularly on Can't Stop Feeling-retread, Die On The Floor) but his dubs do well to enhance the already-rather-good pieces he and the Franz had wrought previously.

Octahedron by The Mars Volta
So after years of celebrated cult success since their 2003 debut De-Loused in the Comatorium, prog-rock duo Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala finally received breakthrough mainstream recognition this year when they picked up a Grammy for Hard Rock Performance on last year’s single, Wax Simulcara. Not of the ilk to rest on their laurels (Rodriguez-Lopez claimed recently in an interview that “the next two albums are already recorded and and waiting for a release date”), they’ve released their fifth studio album little over a year after their last effort. But this is no rush-job, in fact it stops just short of being one of the better rock albums to be released this year, laden with enough languid psychedelia, hard rock-chord chaos and blistering vocals from Bixler-Zavala (particularly on the centre-piece duet With Twilight as My Guide). Yes it’s all rather arty with a track duration average of 6 minutes, but well worth the listen against most rock pretenders these days.

Hands by Little Boots
It takes a lot for an album from an established star to survive six months of overbearing hype, never mind a seemingly innocuous, bright ‘n’ shiny pop debut from a lovely young girl from Blackpool. And, on the eve of Victoria Hesketh’s premier release, it appeared the press were more than willing to pounce, bestowing reviews with ratings significantly lower than those prophesized by her placing atop BBC’s Sound of 2009 poll. Taken in perspective though, Hands is actually quite the fabulous pop gem of an album, one of if not the best of the year; if Girls Aloud released it, it would be hailed as their best album yet. Awash with pretty pop ditties that forgo vacuous fame-pillaging (*cough-with-a-bit-of-phlegm-in-it* like, Lady GaGa!), utilising some of the finer electro-motifs heard yet this year and with a star performance front-and-centre by its chanteuse, this is dance-pop for people with taste... Which may not bode well commercially for Hesketh, but hey, pop with integrity is hard to find!

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
It would appear that it isn’t just pop music experiencing its own little revolution in all things electro, as French alternative-rockers Phoenix’s fourth full-length album arrives amidst a veritable sea of similarly themed electric-rock opuses (it’s almost as if these guys had only just started listening to Who's Next or something!) However, we can give these noiseniks the benefit of the doubt with regards to fad-chasing profiteering, not only because they have been riding this particular tide since their debut in 2000, but they have also come up with their most accessibly lovely album of their career, apparently inspired by their favourite classical composers, as per the albums title. More tolerable in its perky pop riffs than Passion Pit, whilst certainly being more adept at harnessing the electronic signatures that permeate throughout, Phoenix guilessly straddle the line between sophisticated indie and dancey rock to offer up a swoonsomely sonic treat (hear 1901).

And that is why Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is my Album Of The Month For June!

Thanks for reading, and hopefully see you soon... now I just need to find my jock strap and feather boa and I should be all set! ;^)

Thu 30 Apr – the mummers

On a personal note, it is with great excitement that I write this journal, as the next installment will be published whilst I am ensconced in the sunny environs of San Francisco! Provided I get around to writing it, obviously... So, as you can understand, new music and gigs won't exactly be on the agenda over the next couple of months! An incredibly special thanks to Omissi0n for setting this whole jaunt up is in order also, as despite being a dispiritingly crap year at home so far, I now have something rather lovely to look forward to! X^D

So, joygasm over, back to my monthlies, and a quick little blurb about up-and-coming pop folkers The Mummers, whose debut album received a rather glowing rating in my last entry. They'll be hitting the festival circuit this year and are well worth checking out, their sunny songs and laidback demeanor a perfect soundtrack to the (hopefully) good summer weather. Lead singer Raissa's prior stage experience is a welcome feature too, mixing it with the right amount of detached whimsy and audience interaction; best example of which was when she introduced Wonderland, she dedicated it to "everyone in prison", after receiving a fan letter from someone detained at Her Majesty's service, one of many nice touches throughout a delicately lovely gig.

-------------------

And now, to the albums; thankfully a little lighter on the ground this month, as even I was getting fatigued by all this journalising!

Braveface by Esser
Whilst Lily Allen was putting together her second album, she reportedly invited Damon Albarn to try and write a few songs with her, but the resulting session ended leaving neither party particularly inspired enough to lay down a single tune. The reason I open the May album round-up with that tidbit of info is because the debut album from Ben Esser sounds remarkably like what those sessions could have thrown up if Lily and Damon clicked (indeed, the bequiffed popstar has been compared to both artists many a moment in the press and there is an unmistakably Gorillaz-style sound permeating throughout). Since inheriting Next Big Thing plaudits a couple of years ago thanks to some well-received gigs, Braveface can’t help but come up a little short on those awfully imposing expectations on account of its at-time banal lack of subtlety (hear I Love You), even though the album boasts its fair share of pleasant-enough ditties and winning personality (such as on mid-tempo ballads Bones and Real Life).

The Plot by WhoMadeWho
Now we’ve officially hit the umpteenth ‘80s redux in pop music, WhoMadeWho’s late ‘70s house disco homage comes frustratingly late in the game. I say frustratingly, because, if this were released about five years ago, it would have sat nicely alongside the Scissor Sisters’ debut as a revisionist pleasure, but now, especially after Hercules and Love Affair’s gorgeous effort from last year, the otherwise-fine pop fluff found on the album is stifled and stale. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a dearth of danceability to be found on their third album (particularly on the middle one-two of keep me in my plane and This Train) and there are phenomenally more acrid/successful dance outfits you could be listening to (for instance, can you believe this went double-platinum in America??), there just happen to be a few more exciting things happening with dance music this year, as we are sure to find at the end of this very journal.

Songs About Dancing And Drugs by Circlesquare
Quoted as saying he was taking cues from the likes of Leonard Cohen and Talking Heads with their succinctly descriptive album titles, one man band Jeremy Shaw’s third album easily wins this month’s “Does What It Says On The Tin” award. Albeit, this isn’t a happy, summery dance record, as its sonicspace traverses minimal electro and spaced out eeriness to summon up the darker side of dance culture, i.e. the dreaded comedowns, the aimless conversations and aching worthlessness. And whilst you certainly cannot fault Shaw and company for following through on their singular trajectory based on artistic merit (and often giving the listener some subversive delights, such as on the sinister Music For Satellites), the album isn’t nearly as revelatory or distinct enough to summon more than an occasional listen, often succumbing to uninspired indulgence (hear Bombs Away, Away). It’ll be interesting to hear what tee-totallers make of the record, though!

Further Complications by Jarvis Cocker
If I had to pick a Britpop hero from the mid-90s, spindly poet Jarvis Cocker would take the title over Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher certainly, if only because without him, we wouldn’t have had William Shatner’s incredible Ben Folds-produced cover of Common People. However, there happens to be a lot more to respect the shuffling Pulp frontman musically and Further Complications, incredibly only his second solo album to be released, is such an artifact and finds him in a spikily rancorous mood to say the least (interviews have said that this album was fresh out of the gate just after an acrimonious break-up). Stripped bare of many a stylistic flourish and content with a simple guitar-based sound, Cocker’s music still manages to serve up something special, predominantly thanks to his self-effacing lyrics and musical wit; I Never Said I Was Deep and closer You’re in my Eyes (Discosong) in particular are highlights, summoning up as much charisma as he did nearly fifteen years ago.

Manners by Passion Pit
A bright blast of incandescent synth-rock now, featuring five young Massachusetts natives playing the kind of songs that define summery goodness. One reason why this debut album works as well as it does above many other young upstarts debuting this year though is the Pit’s unabashed willingness to play it charmingly straight, or rather their appealing lack of a cynically engineered cool veneer to earn plaudits with those fickle indie kids (unlike, say, The Ting Tings). At once chock full of modern dance signatures and chopped up beats, whilst at the same time retaining enough funky melody lines and frankly adorable quirks to win over pretty much anyone within earshot (I dare you not to grin when the children’s choir chimes up on highlight Little Secrets’ chorus!), the sheer amount of good feeling bursting through each of these songs is impossible to ignore, even on slower affairs such as Swimming in the Flood. Moodier folks be wary though; unless you’re naturally “up” most of the time, some of the falsetto vocals/shrieks can err on the wrong side of irksome.

Duke Pandemonium by Marmaduke Duke
So, The Atmosphere (AKA Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro) and The Dragon (AKA JP Reid of Sucioperro) continue afoot with their conceptual album trilogy and their second release, which just so happens to take a more dance-heavy direction than their previous effort. The shamelessly pretentious genre traverse of the prior album is nowhere to be found and a more conventional, tighter set is the result (a trim 35 minutes actually), but rest assured, their is still a thick air of inscrutably arty chaos, particularly on the gorgeously bonkers centrepiece Demon, which segues from punkish rabble to one of the finest slow burn sequences to climax a song this year. It could easily attain the title of being the most annoying album of the year, precisely because it’s hard to tell whether songs like Erotic Robotic or Je Suis Un Funky Homme are being played straight or for Flight of the Conchords-style laughs. That said, any album with the finale called Skin The Mofo is worth at least one listen.

Epiphany by Chrisette Michele
Following on from her success at the Grammys this year for the track Be Ok with will.i.am, Michele follows on the promise of her well-received debut I Am with what at first appears to be a rather severe case of “sequelitis”. Gone is the jazz-influence that helped ignite her listenership’s attention in the first place and welcomed into her discography are big-name producers responsible for every single lead-off track from every hip hop princess’ debut album over the past few years. Which would be crushingly disappointing if it weren’t for the fact that Michele actually utilises these production tricks from the likes of Ne-Yo and Stargate as opposed to being swallowed whole by them, making each song her own with that rather beautiful voice of hers. Moments like feelgood break-up ballad Blame It on Me, the old school flavour of Mr. Right and sassy anthem Porcelain Doll confirm that Michele could take over the world of R&B anytime she wanted.

The Bachelor by Patrick Wolf
With his genres of choice spanning between romantic folk and techno pop music, especially given the fact he is comparatively a lot younger than most prolific multi-instrumentalists working today, you’d be forgiven for finding Wolf’s talents more than a little precociously annoying. It must be said though, that Wolf simply has whatever it is, and this fourth album provides plentiful evidence of this, mixing earthy organs and quaint folk arrangements with enough distorted electronic feedback and fuzz to make Black Cherry-era Goldfrapp jealous. Insofact, The Bachelor (like Relapse and Junior earlier this year, the first of a two CD work released little under a year apart) could be seen as the darker counterpoint to Alison and Will’s Seventh Tree from last year, albeit even more contemplative and moody. And whether you like him or not, convincing Tilda Swinton to feature on one of his tracks (Oblivion) is nothing less than impressive.

Man Of Aran by British Sea Power
It goes without saying that, with regards to the spectrum of artistry involved, singers/rock stars make better fists of their forays into celluloid fancies than actors do of their often misguided attempts at musical dominance (between Jennifer Lopez and The Disney Channel roster of squawking starlets, no argument is necessary!) It’s also often heartening when some popular musicians receive accolades for their scoring duties on said films; following in the more loftily credible footsteps of Jonny Greenwood and Björk over recent years, Brighton rock group British Sea Power have seen fit to supply a brand new score for the 1934 documentary Man Of Aran, highlighting the poverty of a pre-modern Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland. The result is at once classical and rock-oriented, admirably almost-entirely instrumental and further proof that some UK acts aren’t all redundant swagger and facile chants (especially on the frankly beautiful Boy Vertiginous).

Big Science by Bodies Without Organs
Another act for whom international success seems to remain frustratingly elusive is Alexander Bard’s present pop project, the pop trio self-described as the missing link between ABBA and Kraftwerk. However, even that description doesn’t come close to how irresistibly catchy Bard and company can be, that particular facet being found in fine fetter on this their fourth LP, especially on opening salvo Right Here Right Now (which is basically Clocks re-worked as a gay disco ballad... FUCK, YEAH!) It’s all fabulously critic-proof, enviably straddling a gossamer-thin line between awesomely sophisticated "synth"phonies and unabashedly camp joy pop, the kind that has you singing along by halfway through the first chorus without a care in the world. Yes, there are infinitely more zeitgeist-floggingly swoonsome pop acts out there right now, but I’m firmly on the side that the world is nothing less than lucky to have a band like BWO around.

Intimacy Remixed by Bloc Party
Another year, another major release from the Bloc, this time enraging their indie fans further with more glorious electric carnage by having the whole of their previous album remixed by various danceheads, featuring both up-and-coming and more commercially established acts behind the decks. So we have Armand van Helden whipping Signs (formerly one of Intimacy’s softer tracks) into a lovely frenzy, Hervé actually bettering the original version of Mercury in terms of paranoid audio onslaught and album producer Paul Epworth remixing sophomore single Talons under his newfound Phones pseudonym. Some pay dividends more than others (No Age’s re-work of Better Than Heaven being the lesser assignment found here) and fans of the Party’s earlier indie delights will be dismayed to hear the final nail in the Party’s indie coffin being hammered in; but anyone else who has a pulse and looking for a party can do a helluva lot worse than this!

Yesterday and Today by The Field
In spite of the platinum-certified horridness of the likes of Basshunter and Scooter, dance music continues to throw many a delightful surprise these days, the better efforts tending to follow on from its revolutionary progenitors in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s period that heralded the birth of IDM. Alongside the more reputable examples of Deadmau5 and Gui Boratto, Finnish one-man arsenal Axel Willner is another such hero, though his chilled-out opuses take more of a referential cue (check out the subversively poignant cover of Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime). Nothing on his sophomore effort quite betters the minimalist sophistication on his debut (which managed to find warm dance fuzz with samples from Lionel Richie and Coldplay!), but it certainly demonstrates that Willner isn’t afraid to incorporate more live percussive elements in his work, typified by his duet with Battles drummer John Stanier on the title track. Expect this to be played at A LOT of chill-out sessions this summer.

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse present: Dark Night of the Soul by Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
I do confess with a smidgeon of embarrassment that perhaps I was a little over-excited about this month’s premier audio curio, courtesy of producers Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. In a year seemingly teeming with out-of-leftfield collaborations and celebrity-packed compilations (surely earmarking the end of the Noughties era of revisionist genre-blending... ,';^}), ‘mouse and ‘horse’s event record promised the most with regards to its mind-boggling audacity, taking in star turns from the likes of Gruff Rhys, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson, Suzanne Vega, The Flaming Lips and the film God himself, David Lynch (who also provides the 100+ page artwork). Like Lynch’s films, the album confounds, enthrals, offends and entertains in equal measure, taking in moments of rough-hewn alt-rock, distortedly ravaged beauty and discordant sound design, alongside the more melodiously tuneful compositions; in short, it makes a thoroughly convincing first stab for Curio Of 2009.

Fantasies by Metric
Canadian indie rock hipsters Metric have been bubbling under for over a decade now, not least thanks to their side-projects as well as their own work, hampered publicity-wise thanks to promotional shake-ups at their label. However, upon the release of their fourth LP (and swiftly following frontwoman Emily Haines’ well-received solo project, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton), it would appear that the band are more eager to grab the brass ring of international breakthrough status than ever before, Fantasies being chock full of rock pop ditties that do well to sate appetites of both respectable genrehounds and the more passing listener. Be it with the incessant clash of Stadium Love (with its siren-like whoops spearing your head instantly) or the more reserved swoon of Collect Call, Metric do well to lay down the gauntlet for forthcoming pop-rock albums this year.

Moderat by Moderat
Debut albums that have taken a whole seven years to get made and released should always be greeted with more than a modicum of suspicion; unless you are electro-dance troika Moderat, it would appear, in which case you should readily prick up your ears for the finest dance album of the year so far. Splitting in two before delivering on the promise of their 2002 EP (during which time has been spent on extremely high profile remix duties and tour support), noisenik dance duo Modeselektor and solo instrumentalist Apparat finally got back together in 2008 to craft this stellar gem; at once unremittingly grimy and urban (check out Slow Match), urgent and primal (hear Porc # 2), with some unquantifiably fabulous dance-rock thrown in (Seeed vocalist Dellé contributes mighty fine to Sick With It), it’s the most consistently brilliant work of the year so far...

And that is why Moderat is my Album Of The Month For May!

Usual gubbins and comments at the bottom please, if ye can be bothered. Don't despair if I take longer to reply, have to get my suitcase sorted... well I've only got three-and-a-half weeks!!!

Take care and easy listening! xxx