Eels - Baby Loves Me video

Excellent new video for Baby Loves Me from Tomorrow Morning by Eels.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network Free 5 track EP

The soundtrack to David Fincher's new film The Social Network by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross is out soon. But until then you can get a free 5 track EP featuring music from the soundtrack.

Check it out here.

The 2010 Q Awards have been announced. Here they are in full:

Breakthrough Artist Presented By Red Stripe
Ellie Goulding
Laura Marling
Lissie
Plan B
Villagers

Best New Act
Mumford & Sons
The Drums
The xx
Two Door Cinema Club
Wild Beasts

Best Video
Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait
Biffy Clyro - The Captain
Chase & Status - End Credits (ft. Plan B)
Gorillaz - Stylo
Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun

Best Live Act
Green Day
Kasabian
Lady Gaga
Muse
Pendulum

Best Album Presented by Ravenswood Wine
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation
Plan B - The Defamation Of Strickland Banks
The National - High Violet

Best Track Presented By Barclaycard Unwind
Biffy Clyro - The Captain
Florence And The Machine - You've Got The Love
Mumford & Sons - The Cave
Owl City - Fireflies
The xx - VCR

Best Female Artist (New for 2010)
Corinne Bailey Rae
Ellie Goulding
Florence And The Machine
Lady Gaga
Laura Marling

Best Male Artist (New for 2010)
Brandon Flowers
Dizzee Rascal
Paolo Nutini
Paul Weller
Plan B

Best Act In The World Today Presented By RSV
Arcade Fire
Green Day
Kasabian
Kings Of Leon
Muse

It's not usually like Q Magazine to be behind the times but can anyone tell me how and why Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons are nominated in Breakthrough Artist and Best New Act respectively? They have not just appeared from nowhere. Arcade Fire and The National get my votes for best album in a short list of awards that has Arcade Fire also listed (rightly) in the Best Act In The World category. Laughably so have Kasabian and Kings Of Leon. As always, great work Q and keep up the irony.

The xx win the Mercury Music Prize with debut album

On the quality and depth of music it was a surprise that this year's prize went to The xx and not Mumford & Sons or Laura Marling. That said, I thought it would be Paul Weller's year but I would have not been dismayed if Dizzee Rascal took top spot. But the judges went with a new band and a début album.

The short list was:

Biffy Clyro 'Only Revolutions'
Villagers 'Becoming A Jackal'
Corinne Bailey Rae 'The Sea'
Mumford & Sons ‘Sigh No More’
Paul Weller 'Wake Up The Nation'
Wild Beasts 'Two Dancers'
Kit Downes Trio ‘Golden’
Laura Marling 'I Speak Because I Can'
Dizzee Rascal 'Tongue N’ Cheek'
Foals 'Total Life Forever'
I Am Kloot 'Sky At Night'
The xx 'xx'

Mogwai - Special Moves (CD version) Album Review (2010)

A ‘live’ album is always a tricky thing. Fans have been waiting for Scotland’s Mogwai to release a live recording for years and now it has arrived in the form of Special Moves, the band’s first collection of live performances taken from their US tour in 2009. The issue here is if the band are able to translate the carefully choreographed music not only onto the live stage but into a live package. This is a review of the CD/digital version of the album.

The set list for Special Moves is eleven songs with three over nine minutes. So with space and time limited, the band has picked the chosen few from the entire back catalogue. There are two from début album Mogwai Young Team, one from Come On Die Young, two from Rock Action, two from Happy Songs for Happy People, two from Mr Beast and two from The Hawk Is Howling. So no room for the mighty Auto Rock, no room for the wonderful Kids Will Be Skeletons, no Stanley Kubrick or Ratts Of The Capital and no Kings Meadow. Given the quality of Mogwai’s last three albums, this could have been a four hour 3 CD box set but credit is due for making this an aural account of three gigs across three consecutive gigs in Brooklyn and not a mash-up of six or seven to create a huge lumbering behemoth. Likewise it is not just stacked with ‘recent’ songs. Yes, Mogwai’s last two albums have been their best but many of their most arresting songs were conceived earlier. So the noticeably absent New Paths To Helicon Part I, Batcat and Scotland’s Shame are included as part of Burning, the eight track film DVD included with the physical album.

Special Moves opens with the delicate piano intro of I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead and slowly builds to a multi-layered swathe of guitars, more entwined than the original and swamping the piano in a buzzing electronic swarm. The precise arrangement is now replaced with a free-flowing louder liberated and feedback-infused sound. The majestic Friend Of The Night is given a kinder treatment, as the piano is allowed to breathe within the murky sea of crashing cymbals and guitars. Without this, the song’s important central core would be lost. The sound mix is perfect. Hunted By A Freak is excellently delivered, complete with vocoder vocals that breathe and flow through the spine of the song.

At nearly twelve minutes, Mogwai Fear Satan is the longest song on Special Moves. The two minute introduction shimmers with subtle ambience before drums kick in and the guitars build for what is the high point of the first half of the album. At three minutes the sound is complete and the arrangement swirls like an open sea before a storm. Into minute five and the sound steadies and calms, drifting quietly away. Those who know the song are waiting for it to return and as expected, it does, after what seems like an eternity, for a final three minute blast of noise. The guitars squeal and strain through the relentless pounding drums then gradually subside. An exhilarating performance.
Cody, the only song in the set with ‘proper’ vocals (a rarity in the Mogwai repertoire) works to a point as the words add context to the sad guitar arrangement. But it’s not a great rendition and would benefit from a smoother softer production. You Don’t Know Jesus follows the more typical Mogwai formula: start quietly and deliberately then build over two minutes into a crescendo of guitars, a central riff piercing the surrounding chaotic soundscape. The song predictably slows and quietens again only to return for a second defiant last stand. It is almost the ‘complete’ Mogwai song and is executed expertly within the now familiar ‘live’ style. And this brings the album to the only song that doesn’t work when the creative forces of the stage invade the original intention of a song. I Know You Are But What Am I? is over a minute shorter than the studio version and is given a space-aged feedback guitar treatment during the ordinarily melodic sections. And the whole song feels uneasy and rushed.

Thankfully this is not the signs of wheels coming off and the whole thing descending into and exercise in self-indulgence as I Love You, I’m Going To Blow Up Your School is near-perfection. With a louder introduction leading to the menacing build-up, this is an example of focus and control throughout the eight minutes as one of the best tracks from The Hawk Is Howling becomes a standout song on Special Moves. Every note and arrangement is given an extra burst of energy, an extra notch on the volume control. After the second build-up and with just over a minute to go when the explosive (pun intended) ending arrives, the barrage of noise is spectacular.

The quality continues into the final three songs. 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, an early favourite and second song to use vocoder vocals, quickly becomes the most mellow chilled-out song on the album. This is Mogwai at their most pleasant and their most pleasing, even if things do start to break up towards the end. The second ‘epic’ Like Herod is another huge master class of noise control; the song is soft and delicate one minute and explosively unpredictable the next as it fuses stabbing guitars and feedback. This is the big brother of Mogwai Fear Satan, taking a similar path from loud into spine-tingling ambience only to return suddenly, more ferocious than before. The final three minutes is a torrential downpour of sound. Excellent. Mogwai end Special Moves with Glasgow Megasnake which is an odd choice that leads to a relentless charge to the finish instead of a subtle sign-off. That said, it is a perfect execution.

Special Moves is a fantastic snapshot of a band performing a wide ranging collection of songs with precision and skill. Mogwai’s music is intricate and complex and the band show this through their live performances of songs that build to rousing finales or burst into explosive torrents of guitars and drums. There is delicacy and poise within the layers of sound. Mogwai are not the most vocal of bands (as in their music) when performing live and there is very little atmosphere between the songs - a simple introduction to namedrop Glasgow and a few thanks to the (mostly) respectful crowd. But no signoff or extended applause which is a shame. You don’t always feel like you are part of the experience which is a point of a live album. This is minor discretion as the music more than makes up for it. Special Moves is an excellent addition to the Mogwai catalogue.

- CS

Thea Gilmore - Murphy’s Heart Album Review (2010)

Thea Gilmore has been making music for twelve years in a career that now includes eleven albums. Thea is very much an album maker, having only released nine singles in the same time, and chooses to promote her music through gigs, festivals and radio performances rather than embracing the usual tedious channels as is the nature of popular culture. In 2009 Thea embarked on an ambitious, although not entirely original, venture to further promote and fund her art, entitled Angels In The Abattoir. This is designed to provide fans, in exchange for a yearly subscription, direct and exclusive access to new music (mostly low-key simply produced and more intimate recordings), signed lyric sheets, demos, videos, Q&A etc. But within all this have been two new commercially released albums: last year’s seasonally themed Strange Communion (which works as an alternative leftfield Christmas album) and now Murphy’s Heart.

The first thing to note about Murphy’s Heart is the musicianship involved. Unlike recent albums, Thea has includes thirteen other ‘band members’ including, of course, Thea’s partner and stalwart producer/player Nigel Stonier, playing a plethora of instruments - including bizarrely table tops and flight cases, as is the folk tradition. The effect is a much bigger pop-folk sound giving the music a lighter easier feel. Not that Thea doesn’t include the occasional moody waltz - something she does so well - but Murphy’s Heart veers away from this ‘safe’ territory to take risks, most of which pay off. Importantly the album contains two of the best songs Thea has made. Early on is the gorgeous God’s Got Nothing On You, re-exploring a favourite theme of religion but masking a deep dark secret and juxtaposing the obvious with images of power, corruption and fame. Couple this with a beautiful swirling arrangement and a superb vocal chorus and you have an instant slice of perfection. The second obvious standout song is the overtly poppy commercially friendly You’re The Radio - a blatant attempt to create a big hit with all the boxes ticked. A brilliant guitar-led arrangement around Thea’s bittersweet delivery: ‘I’m the heart and you’re the soul, I’m the part and you’re the whole, I am stronger than you think, the spike that turned up in your drink’ is clever and edgy. The song even gets a cliché pop fade.


But around these obvious moments are other more subtle gems of genius. Love’s The Greatest Instrument Of Rage is right on the button and has distinct echoes of teenage rebel Thea banging out her pain and frustrations. Proof that there is an old fighting political spirit inside the new: ‘Oh I don’t know its name baby but it keeps me up at night’ and the wonderfully direct: ‘It’s taken 30 years, and a little pill to learn…’. Opener This Town, kicking off the album with the line ‘well hello my little train wreck’ before laying on the grim reaper treatment, is a warning sign for getting trapped not only physically but also mentally: ‘and soon you’ll be a memory of a shadow of a lie…’. This is more darkness within the light. The flip side of these is a different approach entirely. Automatic Blue and How The Love Gets In are both gorgeous ballads, the latter providing a lift in what turns out to be a weak ending to an otherwise strong album (with the exception of the dark frantic brilliance of Not Alone). There are only a few moments of unsteadiness: the overtly ridiculous cabaret of Jazz Hands and the uncharacteristic uncomfortably sultry Teach Me To Be Bad which suffers from a drawn-out nursery rhyme chorus and kitchen-sink production. With risk comes reward but also the inevitable misgiving.

Motherhood and companionship has certainly changed Thea. One would expect nothing else. Gloomy naysayer and wide-eyed dreamer has been replaced with grounded-realist and a calmer more measured approach. She is certainly loving where she is and those around her and has new inspiration to take care of and inject into her music. Those expecting another Avalanche or a Burning Dorothy (or ideally a hybrid of the two) will be disappointed but Thea’s music can still pack a punch, and Murphy’s Heart continues to mix sharp lyrics with cutting arrangements to keep things unique and characteristic, as Thea continues to tackle serious themes, weave important metaphors and make good music.

-- CS

2010 Music Chart - August

Four excellent albums this month. First up is Hawk by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, one of the best musical collaborations in a decade. Second is the mighty Arcade Fire back with The Suburbs - a more sedate and light follow-up to Neon Bible but with all the charm and spirit of début Funeral. And third is the new Thea Gilmore album Murphy's Heart - one of her best with twists and turns, highs and lows and a full-band sound. Last up is the cream of this month's new albums: Special Moves by Mogwai - Scotland's finest back with their first live recording and new film Burning. Best month of the year so far.

1. I Speak Because I Can by Laura Marling
2. The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
   
3. Brothers by The Black Keys
4. High Violet by The National
5. This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
6. Special Moves by Mogwai
   
7. The Betrayed by LostProphets
8. Hawk by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
9. The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit
10. Murphy's Heart by Thea Gilmore
11. The Place We Ran From by Tired Pony
    
12. Acolyte by Delphic
13. The Courage Of Others by Midlake
14. Close-Up Volume 1: Love Songs by Suzanne Vega
    
15. July Flame by Laura Veirs
16. Further by The Chemical Brothers
17. Sea Of Cowards by The Dead Weather
18. Year Of The Black Rainbow by Coheed & Cambria
19. How To Destroy Angels EP by How To Destroy Angels
20. Sky At Night by I Am Kloot
    
21. The Quickening by Kathryn Williams
22. Hearts & Minds by Seth Lakeman
    
23. Immersion by Pendulum
    
24. Handmade Life by Chris Wood
    
25. End Times by Eels
26. When Colours Flow by Ambeson
    
27. Crystal Castles (II) by Crystal Castles
28. When This Was The Future by Lisa O Piu
29. Fire Like This by Blood Red Shoes
    
30. Graceful Bow (EP) by Jason Ward
    
31. Rotten Pear by Andrew Vincent
32. Renegades by Feeder

New Arcade Fire 'interactive' film

Check out a wonderful new project from Arcade Fire called The Wilderness Downtown. Type in your home town (or where you were born) and it adapts to your life. It's made for Google Chrome but runs ok on Firefox.

The website is here.

Philip Selway solo album Familial

It seems as if it's not just Thom Yorke who is branching out from Radiohead, now drummer Phil Selway has a new album called Familial.

Interesting stuff and as you would expect: this is acoustic, reflective, haunting and thoughtful.

Check out the website.

Thea Gilmore - Angels In The Abatoir (August 2010)

This month's Angels In The Abattoir song coincides with the release of Thea Gilmore's new album Murphy's Heart so it's been a busy time for an artist who is making so much new music. So I'm not that surprised that the song for August, entitled Got To Run is about flight over fight. Thea describes it simply as 'an abstract song about flight and hiding'.

Got To Run is a stripped down, single guitar and vocal piece that has a work-in-progress demo feel about it, at least musically. Lyrically it hits the mark with some good lines and the production is deep and clear. But it would be too rough around the edges to be an album track of any note and possibly an out take from Murphy's Heart. Not bad...but can do better!

Find out all about the Angels scheme here.

Springsteen confirms Darkness On The Edge of Town boxset

Bruce Springsteen has confirmed the release of a new Darkness On The Edge Of Town (his best album imo) box set featuring a remastered album, live footage and plenty of unreleased stuff. Excellent news.

Rolling Stone has all the details here.

Natalie Merchant gets poetic on new album

Former 10,000 Maniacs lead singer Natalie Merchant has a new album Leave Your Sleep. The album is an interpretation of nursery rhymes and poems set to music. An interesting concept that has taken Natalie seven years to complete. You can hear it all on the website.

Dear New Orleans - 5 years on benefit album

Dear New Orleans is a new album released to commemorate the 5 years since the New Orleans floods. Artists who donated tracks include Laura Veirs, Steve Earle, Tom Morello, Mike Mills and My Morning Jacket.

The website is here.

Track listing widget:

James Murphy - Never saying never to LCD Soundsystem

James Murphy is not ruling out more material from LCD Soundsystem but it is the end of the band as a 'professional entity'. Whatever that means.

From Drowned In Sound.

Brandon Flowers goes solo!

Brandon Flowers, front man of The Killers has a new album Flamingo and lead single Crossfire next month.

Crossfire is a bit more poppy than The Killers usual stuff but follows on from the recent sound from the Las Vegas band - a bit 80s retro but still modern. It's instantly likeable and radio friendly.

Hear the single on Spotify here and check out the website.

Barenakedladies Video-fest

John Mellencamp - "The internet has destroyed music"

The story is here. It would be useful if this stalwart of American music explained himself. He obviously doesn't realise how the internet and technology is revolutionising music and the way it is made and marketed. This makes him sound like he's out of touch which is unfortunate.

Thea Gilmore - You're The Radio Video

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs Album Review (2010)

I don't like reviewing Arcade Fire. I don't know why but I just can't write good reviews of their albums. I don't mean positive - I like the band and the three albums, I just can't explain why. Anyway, here is the (rather convoluted, over-long and confused) review:

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

When Canadian multi-instrumentalists Arcade Fire released their début album Funeral in 2004, it was hard to see how it could be beaten. Easily the best music of the year and one of the albums of the decade, it propelled the band from the shaky start of the self-titled EP to global stardom. Six years later and after extensive touring to follow a blistering second album - the wonderfully huge and dark Neon Bible, Arcade Fire, lead by the duo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, are back with The Suburbs.

As you might expect, The Suburbs is a concept album centred around growing up and the childhood experiences of Win and William Butler. Most notably the music is more uplifting that the previous album while retaining all the energy, exuberance and charm of Funeral - an album that managed to find hope from despair and joy from misery. The Suburbs, which combines the good and bad with chaotic abandon, takes a similar approach and is, importantly, equally expansive. Sixteen songs spanning an hour sounds a daunting prospect but Arcade Fire manage to keep the listeners’ interest, with only one obvious downturn, for the entire album.

The delicate country lilt of the title track introduces The Suburbs. A very strange way to start an album, almost understated, as a prelude to the music that is to come. This is followed by an early highlight Ready To Start - an excellent example of harnessing far too many sounds, concepts and ideas and controlling the song. In a teasing first half, there is no chorus at all, just a drawn out hook followed by a empty spaces in what is a beautifully constructed piece of pop music. In contrast to the upbeat music, Butler warns “Businessmen will drink my blood, like the kids in art school said they would”. A last minute forms with a lull and builds to a sudden climax swathed in electronica.

Modern Man, with its stuttering ’missing note’ arrangement continues the sedate start and has echoes of fellow kinsmen The Tragically Hip (see Trouble In The Henhouse). Butler’s vocal floats high one minute and is dramatically forceful the next. And the guitar work in the last thirty seconds in breathtaking. The second highlight Rococo (most likely referring to the social ethos that developed from the ‘late Baroque’ style, than the interior design and fashion) is seeped in the usual deep vibrant string, guitar and vocal arrangements but also an explosive nature, developing from a beguiling looping hypnotic chorus. This is the first time Chassagne adds her vocal and the band lose themselves in the wonder of their own music in the second half.

Opening with more glorious guitars, Empty Room has Chassagne on lead vocals for the first time, slowing down what is a frantic arrangement until the short chorus. This is far removed from the raw outpouring of emotion of In The Backseat but does build to a rousing finale. City With No Children, after another great intro, suffers initially from clumsy vocals/lyrics from Butler in what could be a deliberate attempt to sound childlike, reciting some naïve and amateurish poetry. It quickly recovers into another solid highlight, with some smart observational lyrics, great backing vocals and consistently good guitars.

In one of the album’s more mellow moments, Half Light I is a delicious blend of strings and soft vocals. Butler and Chassagne combine perfectly. Part II (subtitled Celebration) replaces strings for shimmering synths with Butler reminiscing on the past . As the album becomes more ambiguous and obscure, “Now that you have left me here, I will never raise my voice. All the diamonds you have here in this home that has no life” is some of the most interesting and beguiling lyrics on the album. Brilliant stuff and a song that would not be out of place on an Editors album.

Into the second half of The Suburbs, Suburban War is one of the album’s darker moments. The song veers between two arrangements and two moods - one reflective and one aggressive, paralleling the concept of moving away from a childhood home and returning to being drafted to fight for your country - “…my old friends, they don’t know me now…”. From this highlight, the album takes a sudden unexpected move. Why Month Of May wasn’t dropped is anyone’s guess but it does not work, revisits old ground and would benefit from a completely different tempo, arrangement and sound. The second half sounds like something even The Jesus And Mary Chain would reject.

Thankfully this is a minor glitch as Wasted Hours gets The Suburbs back, almost where it starts with the feel of the title track, and the piano-led Deep Blue is more musing through the ages. Only when We Used To Wait starts is there a real sense that The Suburbs has more to offer. “Now our lives are changing fast…”, sings Butler as the songs takes shape and the story unfolds through the five minute epic. Sprawl, in two parts: Flatland and Mountains Beyond Mountains, completes the odyssey in some style. Butler handles part one, a subtle melancholy introduction, for Chassagne to take over for part two - Kylie-esque disco-pop that is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Her vocal is over-produced but it’s a great song, even when Jean Michel Jarre keyboards bring in the final verses. Yes, really.

As the last indulgent final minute and a half - revisiting the title track in a slower arrangement - fades away, it is clear that The Suburbs isn’t perfect. But music never is. Anything that is inspired by, formed from, and chronicles, life is by definition, flawed. It is as if Arcade Fire have deliberately fused this imperfection directly into the heart of some of the songs, to highlight the experiences that are so central to the music. The overwhelming euphoric emotion of Funeral is replaced here by a more reflective sound. The band sound more in control of their music, something evident on the previous album - this is light and airy compared to Neon Bible, more focused and multi-dimensional than Funeral - but with, importantly, all the quality, ideas and brilliance of both.

-- CS

A-Team Theme played by Mark Kermode's band