Chromeo – Don’t Turn The Lights on
Seriously, don’t you dare turn that light on. Because tonight Dave1 wants to see you in the dark. I think he makes that point in the video, but I could be wrong.
Double check above, bro.
Alec
Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep (Free Download)
Former Orange Juice frontman, and all round indie legend Edwyn Collins, has had a rough few years of it to say the least, (I highly reccomend watching his BBC Home Again Documentary detailing his miraculous recovery from 2 strokes…), but this his latest single, shows him back to his reliably brilliant best. It exudes everything that makes a Collins classic, trademark brassy soul parpage, the right mix of airplay catchiness and wailing rock sensibility, and of course that enigmatic drawl. With promise of co writing/collaborations from such indie elite as Johnny Marr, Ryan Jarman, Alex Kapranos and *shakes fist* The Drums, I fail to see how Losing Sleep (the album) can be anything other than pure brilliance.
BONUS!? (yes): Download the single here (so you have to sign up for email alerts, just do it you lazy so and so…)
JT
The Golden Filter put together a mix for Dummy, want you to have it free
Put together over 5 weeks whilst living in London, The Golden Filter have gone ahead and made a mix for Dummy mag. Possibly because they’re just nice people or more likely because they were asked politely, either way it’s a collection of bizarrely incompatible genres put at either end of the Large Hadron Collider and then fired very fast at each other. From dance, to shoe gaze, to ambient and all dressed up with more than a liberal amount of disco sensibility. Plus it’s got STEVIE FUCKING NICKS in it, which -as always- is more than necessary.
They’ve also done a short interview, like 4 questions short, which is somewhat (actually not at all) enlightening but if you want a little more background on the mix you can head over here. Regardless, it’s largely glorious and you can download it by clicking on the words below.
Which words? These ones.
Alec
WU LYF – “I Got Dem Wu Wu Busted Teef Spitting It Concrete Like The Golden Sun God”
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Usually shunning any form of publicity whatsoever (WU LYF are known for changing their name every now and then to throw people off the scent…my personal favourite being ‘Vagina Wolf’) here is ANOTHER promo video from elusive Mancunian masters of ‘’sticking it to the journo’s man” (right on!) WU LYF. Glorious as ever, lead singer Ellery’s vocals growl and wail, like a scrapyard dog, with a 40 a day addiction, and a love for gargling cheese-graters. The track itself is especially out of character, channelling much more of a tropical influence, emanating in contorted, world weary version of Wild Beasts. Whoever, or whatever they are, (and despite some Nathan Barley esque websites….) you can hear the throat shredding, ball busting, passion shining through any scenester perceptions…fingers crossed they don’t change their bloody name again any time soon…
JT
(Video possibly NSFW, unless your line of work sees you beating up natives until they bleed paint, in which case it would be just fine…)
Bare Girls – Tran Sister MP3 (FREE STUFF)
Remember the whiter than white polite rap of Will Smith?…Well I don’t care if you did your very best to bleach the thought of Gettin Jiggy With It and Miami from your memories, Bare Girls are bringing the sound of 98 back…in a semi small way. Newie ‘Tran Sister’ sounds like the long lost backing track to one of Smiths songs, thankfully with all the rapping, ‘Woo’’s and ”Haha’’s left out. No seriously its good, in a tenuously bad way. Just download it
JT
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
To say that Arcade Fire have a lot to live up to is like saying Justin Beiber isn’t the musical equivalent of caner – a blatant lie. They’ve made two brilliant albums that put the body of work of many more experienced artists to shame, so in comes ‘The Suburbs’, an album about growing up in The Woodlands in Texas with 16 tracks and none of them instrumental. Sprawling wouldn’t even begin to describe it.
Let just say that The Suburbs is literally made out of great songs, from The Suburbs all the way to it’s counterpart at the other end of the track listing each track has a charm to it that only Arcade Fire could have produced. Stuck somewhere between small town country rock and anthemic stadium classics the tracks on The Suburbs it becomes somewhat of a concept album, each song a statement on the conflicting nature of real life suburbs, close to the country and only a short drive to the city they too occupy something of limbo between two alternate worlds.
That too reflected in the sheer scale of the album, 16 tracks is a hell of a long time, especially when each one averages out at 3:80. A statement on the vast size of a city’s suburb perhaps or an exercise in pure over indulgence, either way it’s impossible to write an album that long without certain portions of it washing over you and not sticking anywhere in your mind, ‘Half Light’ to ‘Sprawl’ being the main offender. So The Suburbs is a either a very clever idea or a poor excuse to fit as many ideas in as possible, personally I’m inclined towards the former, I refuse to believe that a band who write songs like this didn’t have some sort of grand plan when being written. But does it work as an album, a collection of work meant to be heard in one sitting?
No. It doesn’t. The lack of cohesion here is troubling, the track listing is all wrong and in that way it sounds like somebody making a home made best of tape for a friend. Despite having certain songs obviously meant to go next to each other the vast majority of songs stand alone and stick out from an album that seems like it was almost designed to flow perfectly. Because of this it fails to make a point. Littering lines like “Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock” in ‘Sprawl II’ (which is amazing, by the way) works perfectly in the context of a single song but it fails to meaningfully interact with the disparate strands found in the rest of the album.
The Suburbs has all the songs I wanted in an Arcade Fire album, but it’s not the album I wanted. It’s so close to being a masterpiece it’s upsetting but it just doesn’t quite work as a whole and when you’re talking about such vast, internally complex subject matter it’s a sin to talk about it in a way which doesn’t unify it, it fails as an album. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great collection of songs, but it could have been a perfect album if it weren’t for problems so distracting. Maybe next time, kids.
P.S Wyn Butler has turned into Bruce Springsteen, alert the presses.
7/10
