if i was in a band in the south west of england i would be clambering all over the place to get art is hard records to release my music. hell, i would if i was in tasmania. they put so much time and thought into it that even if the music was rubbish you’d sit up and take notice. luckily, the music is always of an equally high standard to the packaging. ‘gorgeous bully’ is possibly my favourite output yet though. as you probably know, i like my music lo-fi and the young obese is certainly that. david from the label describes how “each minuscule of fuzz does nothing but add to the warmness of the recordings” and he’s spot on. this is super stuff.

this time around the cassette (you get the digital download as well of course) is presented in a fag packet. it looks classy to be honest. get yourself a taster in the shape of ‘never cry’ below and then head here to bandcamp and order the full ep.

the kills have been going for ten years. ten years. that’s quite a long time. i love the kills. they’ve got in hollywood start samantha morton to direct the video for the beautiful ‘the last goodbye’. it starts with alison in a photo booth. about two minutes in, jamie pops up as well. not just is alison looking very helena bonham carter, but jamie is looking very noah taylor. it’s uncanny.

album review: the maccabees. given to the wild. 9 january 2012. fiction records
(buy here)

i like it when a band doesn’t just sit back and rest on their laurels. releasing the same album again and again. whether throwing up three albums that you can tell are the same band but are completely different in sound, ala bloc party. or whether it is a natural progression of a band maturing. the latter is the stage at which we find the maccabees today.

listening back to colour it in now you can tell that is the album that was fun to make. whether singing about the, now famous, latchmere swimming baths or complaining about chewed pieces of lego making it tricky to build a castle the band were playing about with their sound. maybe they didn’t think they’d ever make. maybe this was just them having fun with friends. but they did make it. the album was a moderate success. certainly enough of a success to warrant a second album.

suddenly making music wasn’t just a pastime. this was their career. the perfect wall of arms was the album that set them on their way as a proper band. intelligent lyrics. soft instruments. not forgetting orlando weeks’ instantly recognisable voice.

this is of course all guess work. however it came about though, we are now enjoying given to the wild. and enjoying it we certainly are. another step forward and one that throws you around from light to dark from high to low. ‘unknow’ is like nothing they have released before, while ‘ayla’ wouldn’t feel out of place on either of their earlier records. every track is very maccabees but also very different. on ‘went away’ they even bring in vocals from elsewhere in the band. one of the white brothers i think.

what this album has done more than anything though is not make critics pleasantly surprised again. what this album has done has raised expectations in the band everywhere. even if we do a disservice to colour it in and put it down as just a fun debut, the maccabees have still released two excellent albums. that’s not a one-off fluke anymore. that’s a band with real talent.

8.5

this review originally appeared on the 405

how was your christmas? mine has been fun. present wise, i finally own a record player meaning that i can now play the piles of vinyl i’ve built up due to my complete lack of self restraint when faced with a pretty looking 12″. no longer will i have to shift uneasily or change the subject when somebody when i get home from flashback records and emma asks me why i’ve bought another record. having said that, 2011 has once again been dominated by digital music of course. your spotify account now links to your facebook, everybody has their top three played artists of the week feed through from their last.fm to twitter and you can’t move on the tube for people with a pair of beats headphones plugged into their iphone. some artists are fighting back though. it is not unusual to see a band release lovely vinyl versions of their albums with limited edition t-shirts, posters or chocolate brownies. but they still have to include that code for the digital download of course.

enough of all that though. let’s get on with the list. once again, i’ve nominated a top ten, with a single winner and then an extra addition which i simply couldn’t ignore. the 2011 apologies for just missing out go to battles, emmy the great, the kills, pj harvey, the pains of being pure at heart and last year’s winner cloud nothings.

bon iver. bon iver

he’s still a miserable fucker, but compared to for emma, forever ago this is positively rainbows & puppies. let mr iver take you on tour of his favourite places while he sits alone in a vets. (buy here)

girls. father, son, holy ghost

their ep was one of my favourites of 2010 and this full length is a worthy successor. in a year when the beach boys announced they’re reforming for 2012, girls released an album that any californian worth their salt would be proud off. (buy here)

the horrors. skying

i’m still at a loss as to how a band can improve so immeasurably (actually, you can measure it. only in terms of back to the future though). still debating whether it’s as good as primary colours, but who would i have thought they’d be anywhere near this list four years ago? (buy here)

lykke li. wounded rhymes

oh lykke. we all love lykke. her second album ticked all the boxes about growing up and while not as instantly pickupable (real word) as her first is far more accomplished overall. (buy here)

m+a. things.yes

this was the album that i could just put on this year and drift away. what a a truly beautiful album. (buy here)

metronomy. the english riviera

what isn’t to love about this album? nothing. the perfect advert for tourism of the english coast. (buy here)

times new viking. dancer enquired

there are lots of bands producing that lo-fi sound that i love so at the moment. the greatest example of the year though came not from a teenage genius in his bedroom, but a five-album veteran three piece. (buy here)

tom vek. leisure seizure

so excited i was about the release of this album that i dedicated a day to tom vek day. any other year he would have probably walked off with the winner’s badge. tom vek is back in a big way. (buy here)

yuck. yuck

the first new album i listened to of the year. a great start it was too. especially for a sonic youth and cajun dance party fan like myself. (buy here)

so, who wins? if you’ve been an avid reader of this blog over the year i’m sure you already know. a couple of years ago nobody knew whether they were a swedish collective or an east london teen. it transpired that they were in fact a guy who was already established as solo artist in his own right, and a girl who was a music journalist – and had in fact been asked to cover the band before people knew their true make up. i’ve seen them over a dozen times live and i hoped the album would live up to the high standards they’d set. it more than did.

summer camp. welcome to condale

summer camp introduced us to the fictional american town of condale. with teen crushes, a burgeoning rock band and ultimately death, welcome to condale and the accompanying fanzine takes us through an americana dream. it isn’t just the story that makes this album so good though. elizabeth has the sort of voice that is recognisable and easy to listen to. jeremy knows more about electronic instruments and how to use them than i know about cheese. the songs have more variety than early releases did and straight away remove the risk of becoming bored of the sound. this is a worthy winner. as an aside, if i was writing a list of my live performances of the year, i fancy summer camp’s gig at efes would top that too. (buy here)

alex turner. submarine original songs

i couldn’t complete the list without giving a shout out to alex turner’s soundtrack to submarine as well. my favourite film of the year was also my favourite soundtrack. just six tracks long, but it was pretty much all i listened to for a period earlier in the year. superb songs, brilliantly performed. (buy here)

in case you’ve ignored all of my subtle hints to buy the albums mentioned, you can listen to them all on this handy spotify playlist.

i would hope that nobody reading this blog doesn’t like bos angeles. i’m not in the habit of trying to shed readers, but if you do dislike them you have two choices. listen to ‘days of youth’ on repeat until you can’t enjoy life without hearing it or kindly leave and never return. i’m sorry to be harsh, but sometimes it is the only way. what a band bos angeles really are.

as an early indication of why 2012 will be the year of the niki & the dove, here’s their brand new video for ‘dj ease my mind’. another soaring synthy pop single with that little bit of je ne sais pas, malin and gustaf have yet again struck gold.

live review: atp, nightmare before christmas. butlins, minehead. 9-11 december 2011.

And the live tweeting of #atpnbc begins. In fact, it begins with a coach transfer between Taunton and Minehead

— Tim Brown (@sockformation) December9, 2011

when i first posted a review based solely on my tweets it was basically a lazy way to review field day a couple of years ago. i developed the idea and wireless 2011 was what i perceived was the pinnacle. now, with the ability to embed tweets (you may have always been able to do this but i’ve only just found out), we’re taking it next level motherfuckers. you can reply, retweet and favourite. go fill your boots. it seems to slow down the site a bit though, so you’ll have to click to read… (more…)

if i was in the habit of tipping bands for 2012, san cisco would be right up there. how fucking catchy is this? i think i even prefer it to ‘golden revolver‘, which i loved (loved so much in fact that i almost used capital letters there). seriously, what a song. i suppose you could compare them to metronomy in that this is very simple but effective pop. also they have a female drummer who sometimes sings. if you delve a bit further into the band though, you’ll find that there is a whole lot more to them than just an australian metronomy and i look forward to seeing what route they take. i also really like the lead singer’s shirt. i think i might be a little chunky to pull it off though as it looks quite thin and has a straight cut.

get people have released the dreamy ‘macaw’ as a free download as a prelude to next year’s third ep. it’s all about leaving summer behind and moving to venus and mars. as i look out out of the window at the frosty morning, i can only wish it was that easy. grab the track below and join in the dream.

my reasons for posting this are numerous. firstly the song is pretty much brilliant. beautiful in fact. beautiful. also it is produced by gold panda. who doesn’t like gold panda? nobody. it just helps make the song as beautiful as mentioned just a few words before these words. the only reason is that it is the directorial debut of joshua kissi from street etiquette. you’ll know him from the cooler.blogs.than.this link over to your right. the video looks just as good as you’d expect.