Albums of 2007

It seems fair that on the last day of 2007 that I share with you the ten albums that I enjoyed listening to this year in ascending order.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

It was a difficult call but this, the second album by Montreal group the Arcade Fire, just edges it. Making an album better than their debut album, Funeral, is no mean feat when you consider how much of a great record it was. There's not even an ounce of filler or bad tracks on this album. It is THAT good.

Song of choice: No Cars Go

Radiohead - In Rainbows

I am a huge Radiohead fan and it was tough not to name it the album of the year. Apart from one dud track (House Of Cards) it is a fantastic album and their best since Kid A. Like Neon Bible it doesn't feel overlong and Thom Yorke has written some of his best lyrics for some time.

Song of choice: Videotape (my song of the year)

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

Trent Reznor's sixth studio album is one that is by far the most challenging Nine Inch Nails record. Some will say it is too long and some will say it doesn't match up to The Downward Spiral or The Fragile. Year Zero is just as good as both of those albums, largely because it's a very rewarding listen.

Song of choice: In This Twilight

And here are the best of the rest, continuing in ascending order:

Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times

Song of choice: Knocked Up


Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

Song of choice: The Magic Position


LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver

Song of choice: All My Friends


The White Stripes - Icky Thump

Song of choice: Conquest


Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards

Song of choice: We Used To Vacation


Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

Song of choice: Brianstorm


Jamie T - Panic Prevention

Song of choice: Sheila

And that raps things up nicely. But what do you think? What albums should or shouldn't be on there? What songs sum up your year? Please feel free to comment and tell me.

Somewhat predictably, this is my last blog entry for 2007. Hopefully I will blog more next year. In the meantime, have a safe new year!

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Morrissey and the NME are both wrong

After a brief happy spell of three and a half years, the NME and Morrissey have once again locked horns over an interview that was published in today's issue. In the interview, which details Morrissey's views on immigration in a detailed way, the NME question his views on the subject.

This news story details the whole saga quite well.

To be honest, I have beefs with both subjects.

In regards to Morrissey, I think that some of the comments he made in that interview were very confusing. One minute he was for and then against and then back to being for and then against immigration. His mind is quite muddled on the issue. If he was a British resident, I suppose I could have a level of understanding with his comments. But he isn't.

Morrissey has spend the best part of the 90s and the first half in this decade residing in LA and then last year he moved to Rome. He has essentially been cut off, for the most part, from British politics for more than a decade. So for him to make some of the comments he made is a show of naivety on his part.

But then again, the NME telling me that his views are wrong (which is what they are essentially doing) is plain stupid. I do think Morrissey is a twat, not just for this but for other things too, but I'm sure there are other people who aren't so...politics savy I guess. Basically, it's propaganda on the NME's part to not allign with the Tories.

It's not just this feature that shows their political bias either. It's become a habit of the NME for the last few months and it does feel like propaganda now (anti-racism campaign aside, which is totally justified for the obvious reasons). I allow my friends and other people to have their own opinions - not to force feed them policies.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

True To You - a Morrissey fan website

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Foo Fighters at Wembley? No thanks.

So today, Radio 1 announced that the Foo Fighters will be playing Wembley Stadium next June (the 6th to be exact). You would think that, as a Nirvana, Foos and Grohl fan, I would jump at the chance to get tickets.

Well I'm not.

It is absolutely nothing to do with the band themselves. I'm pretty sure that they will put on a brilliant show at Wembley. Since their brilliant Live Earth performance, I'm sure many will have wanted them to go back for a full-on Foos gig there. It is looking like next year's biggest stadium show in the UK.

And that is the problem. It is a big show. The last time I saw Foo Fighters, it was at Hyde Park in June 2006. Whilst it was a great day and I had a nice time, the setlist was very average and I know a lot of people complained about the sound. And to add that, we all had to endure Motorhead. If I want to see the Foos again, I'll want to see them at a far smaller venue (and unbelievable, an arena gig counts!)

The other potential problems is going to be a re-occurnace of the niggles I encountered when seeing Muse this year. Only a week before the gig, they'll announce a golden circle and piss off lots of punters. Whilst I can understand why there is a need for it (safety), I still hate the idea. So standing isn't going to be that much fun if you are not in the circle.

After the first gig sells out, another one will be added and then if the gig is really successful then the DVD of the gig will feature the second day, pissing off the fans who thought that their own date would be special.

So the reason I'm not going next year, although if persuaded I might try and look on Scarlet Mist every now and then, is not because of the Foos. I'm just fed up of massive summer gigs.

Foo Fighters website
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Bloody Chamber Music

All-round British eccentric Patrick Wolf sure is busy these days. A few months ago he revealed that he was already working on a follow up for 'The Magic Position' to be released next year. Last week, he announced a special Christmas show at Shepherd's Bush in London. Yesterday, he announced that he now has his own record label.

The label, called Bloody Chamber Music, has one act called The Craig Template and is encouraging anyone to submit music in the hope of releasing music through his label. Patrick also said he plans to release previously un-released material from the days of 'Lycanthropy' and 'Wind In The Wires' digitally through his label sometime in the new year, which sounds very exciting.

Wolf also announced an alternative to the X Factor called the Y Factor. Participants have until November 5th to submit a piece of music with a 200 word description of themselves. Twenty acts will then be asked to write a narrative for a video and the ten most interesting will be given fifty pounds to shoot a video. The best video will be released as a Christmas single, alongside 100 limited vinyls.

Can't wait to see the outcome of the Y Factor and as to what acts Patrick adds to his roster.

Patrick's MySpace
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NIN and Saul Williams 'do a Radiohead'

Yesterday churned out another relatively interesting development in this 'free music for all' period. Saul Williams, whose album was produced and mixed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, is releasing a new album in a similar way to Radiohead.

Trent posted a message on Nine Inch Nail's official website yesterday explaining the details of the release. Like the release of 'In Rainbows' by Radiohead, fans can pre-order the album 'Niggy Tardust' for download on November 1st.

But where it differs to the way that Radiohead did business is in the pricing. There are two purchase options. If you choose to download it for free, you will get the album in a basic 192kbps mp3 format. However, if you choose to 'support the artist directly' by paying $5 (I think that is just over £2 in UK money), you have a choice to download it in 192kbps mp3 form, 320kbps mp3 form or a FLAC lossless audio.

It's a neat progression on what was already a good idea by Radiohead. As Trent said in his blog post, if you can't be arsed to read the link:

I feel we've improved upon their idea in a few profound ways that benefit you, the consumer. You obviously will be the judge of this in the end. One thing that IS very different in our situation is that Saul's not the household name (yet!) that Radiohead is, and that means we need your support on this more than ever. If you like what you hear, spread the word.

I am not totally unfamiliar with Saul Williams. The first I heard of him was when he released 'List Of Demands' as a single back in 2005. I do know that he and Trent have a very solid working partnership. Saul has supported Nine Inch Nails and even performed tracks with Trent's band whilst on tour with them. He also did backing vocals for 'Survivalism', which was the lead single of 'Year Zero'.

One thing that is for sure though is that this is yet another exciting evolution of this so-called 'new business model' - of which Alan McGee, one of the key figures in the Britpop era, is a very big supporter of. I can imagine these kind of things, along with The Verve's releasing of a demo track (which I reviewed yesterday) to constantly evolve as the weeks go by.

In short, it's quite an exciting time for the music industry - as corny as it sounds.

I found this article written a few weeks by a blogger called Maki. Even though her blog isn't music based (it is based on making money through online ventures), it a very comprehensive and detailed analysis of ways that bands are defying the major labels. Well worth a read if you have ten/fifteen minutes to spare, if you can ignore the Radiohead fangirl approach at the start!

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New Verve Demo

The Verve became the latest band to ride the wave of 'free music downloads for all' on Monday when they released their first demo since reforming as a band. If you want to download it, click this link, fill in the form and you'll receive a link to get the download from.

Since 'Urban Hymns' and the band's splitting up, I wasn't that keen on what happened afterwards though. Richard Ashcroft's solo albums were boring and disappointing, and Simon Tong was in the Damon Albarn supergroup The Good The Bad And The Queen, also boring and disappointing.

So you can understand why I've been sceptical of this re-formation. But I decided to hold back my feelings about the re-formation and downloaded the 14-minute long demo, called 'The Thaw Sessions', two days ago. I've had to listen to it a few times to grasp the whole thing.

My opinion? Not too bad. The drumming is steady, the bassline is looping, the guitars, as ever with previous Verve songs in their heyday, are atmospheric and Ashcroft croons at certain moments. It is definitely the sound of The Verve. It gives me some hope that the new album might just be worth listening to.

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SixNationState & Jonquil

I thought I'd recommend a couple of bands. They have both played the Boileroom in Guildford at some point in the last year but that is where the similarities end.

SixNationState

I went into their gig not knowing what they would sound like. I certainly did not expect the explosive energy that they displayed!

Thankfully, this five-piece, originally from Southampton but now based in Reading, do have the songs to match the energy. Songs like debut single 'Fire' and 'I Hate The Summer' rival all the current crop of guitar-pop bands in the charts and have just released a debut album (anonymously titled) on the Jeepster label.

SixNationState MySpace

Jonquil

A band of many talents. Six members rotate between several instruments (including a viola, a double bass and a harmonica) to create a relaxed and atmospheric sounding musical backdrop. It almost sounds like music from a different century.

They just released their second full-length album called 'Lions' through the very small Try Harder label. It's worth getting just for the title track alone, a song that rallies in its chanting but against lush, acoustic music seems gentle.

Jonquil MySpace

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Music & Politics

It seems like a very general subject for a blog post. Perhaps too simple. But please don't click the back button on your browser.

I understand the intentions of musicians who do get political. It's usually either to raise awareness for a certain issue, raise money, represent the so-called 'united' views of a country etc. The people who will tend to believe these artists the most will be the hardcore fans. I mean, let's be honest, no 15 year old Green Day fan is going to disagree with anything that Billie Joe Armstrong says.

Let's also not forget the several music events with the same goals. These benefits range in size - from the 10,000 plus audience of the Islamic Relief-organised Sudan concert at Wembley Arena last night to Live Earth in July, which racked up way in excess of 20 million viewers worldwide - but they all have the same intentions.

But a lot of artists play the political card badly. Some of the reasons why they don't pull it off include:

Lack of knowledge - Artists not actually having a full understanding of what they believe in. One such example is Green Day during the American Idiot phase of their career. In all the interviews they did whilst the album was out, they just said the same thing in every single interview and all of their points were basic points that could have easily been counter-argued.

Sounding preachy - Artists trying to ram information down your throat. It annoys me constantly when bands decide to basically bombard their audience with opinions or propaganda.

Arse-licking world leaders - If artists are asked to talk to a world leader about the issue that irks them, you would at least expect them to really pressure them. But some just don't. The prime example is Bono of U2. If he was so dedicated about getting rid of AIDS in third world countries, then having a cup of tea and a laugh with President Bush isn't the way to achieving your goal.

But some artists can get it right, and can do so in an artistic way, without having the need to voice their opinions in countless interviews. Put simply, they let the music do the talking.

One such example is 'Year Zero' by Nine Inch Nails. It's a vision of the world in twenty years time and spells out the dire consequences that we could potentially face. Trent Reznor, the man behind Nine Inch Nails, said he did not want the album to sound preachy and wanted to express his views in a different way. The result is one of the albums of the year (not just in lyrics but in all other aspects).

It also helps to recognise that sometimes you can be hypocritical about thing. Thom Yorke has openly admitted that whenever he's spoken out about environmental issues (he's also an ambassador for environmental group Friends Of The Earth) that he reluctantly tours, even though to him it feels wrong because of the environmental consequences.

And also, some of the best music ever made has been political. 'Imagine' by John Lennon is the best example of such art. Because that is what music is - art. Art should not be restricted and anyone who performs an art should have the right to express whatever views they want in whatever way they want.

So, in short, politics in music is good. Just make sure you do it properly.

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MTV Europe Music Awards rant

I'm sure you'll know about the MTV Europe Music Awards. It's another one of those music awards that claim to be worth it but is clearly not (although if you were lucky enough to see lasers during Muse's performance of 'Starlight' last year then at least four minutes of it were).

To make it even worse, they've re-named the awards. And they sound so bad. Rock Out. Ultimate Urban. Inter Act. I mean, seriously, who in the name of all that's Cribs invented these names?!? The person(s) responsible were either stoned to high hell or they just thought it would be a laugh.

And then there's this 'New Sounds of Europe' category. Basically, the jist of it is that it's MTV's version of Eurovision. Five bands in each country's pool and the winner gets put forward to an European knockout contest. The three top bands get invitied to the ceremony where the winner gets decided by public vote.

This is something I find to be very long-winded in all honesty. I also don't see the point of it. Do we really need two awards to recognise each country's talents? And the whole 'voting on the night' thing is such a homage to reality TV that it hurts.

And in case you are wondering, Klaxons are the UK's nomination for the award, but only after James Morrison pulled out. Well done James.

MTV EMA 2007 Nominations
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Maximo Park cover Justin Timberlake

The song in question is 'Like I Love You' (his breakthrough solo song I think) and I don't like it. Justin Timberlake is a pop artist who I find credible. I don't have any of his albums but some of his past singles have been great and 'Sexyback' is an amazing pop song.

The cover by Maximo Park features on the Radio 1 Est 1967 compilation. The premise is that a top artist of the current day gets a year and they have to choose a top 20 hit from that year to cover (e.g. - The View covering The Libertines' 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun' from 2003). NME gave it a 3/10. A really shitty review score and with a cover like Maximo Park's, it's not hard to see why.

I'm going to throw this open to you guys. Download it and tell me whether you like it or not.

Maximo Park - 'Like I Love You'
Maximo Park's official website
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An In Rainbows review

It came out smoothly on Wednesday. Here is my track-by-track verdict:

15 Step
The recorded version is not really changed from the live versions. It's a good thing because it was one of the new songs that probably didn't even need changing. As good as it ever was and perhaps the most danceable song on the album.

Bodysnatchers
Would quite possibly be the first single if there were any for this record. It's the most 'rock' sounding song on the album and it's been given a sort of raw sound on record - the guitars that now sound incredibly fuzzy. If anything, it reminds me of a next-gen version of Electioneering.

Nude
The first real indicator of the difference between this and all of Radiohead's other albums. Jonny's only gone and done string arrangements. 'Nude' has been ten years in the making and they have utterly nailed it. Which is just as well, because I wasn't the biggest fan of the song originally, especially after the version they did live last year which was a bit boring.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Like Bodysnatchers, they've managed to add something to this song in the studio. The guitar effects on it really add to the atmosphere of the track. The drumming of Phil Selway on this is fantastic too.

All I Need
My favourite off the album. The song is one that gradually builds - starting with drums and a very scary-sounding bass line, then moving to xylophone and piano and then an explosion of sound towards the end. If you liked anything like 'Climbing Up The Walls' then you will love this track. They've done so much to it and have totally surpassed my expectations.

Faust Arp
The only new song that no one that heard and it turns out to be a short acoustic guitar and strings song. It doesn't serve as an meaningless interlude though as the strings are fantastically hypnotising and really compliment Thom's guitar playing and vocals.

Reckoner
It has to be a totally different 'Reckoner' to the one that debuted in 2001, which was far more rockier. This version reminds me of 'Analyse' off of ThomYorke's solo album 'The Eraser' and totally threw me on first listen. Upon further listens, it is a nice and gentle song.

House Of Cards
I've always hated House Of Cards. Last year I complained about it being overlong and incredibly boring. And Radiohead haven't changed it really.

Jigsaw Falling Into Piece
Formally known as 'Open Pick' and now featuring some nice acoustic work from Thom. A fun track that's fast, doesn't rest and has some excellent string work towards the end.

Videotape
I expected so, so much more from it. It's still a very good track but when they played it live it was far more epic as it just kept building and building. On record, it's just Thom on the piano with an unorthodox drum loop. It just didn't grab me really. A good song but it could have been a lot better.

So overall, I'd give it an 8/10. It was never going to be their best but they still 'have it' and are miles better than anything else that British music has come up with this year.

Buy 'In Rainbows'
Dead Air Space
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Green Day hit middle age

Finally, Green Day have broken their silence and have spoken about the recording process for their 8th studio album. Billie Joe has said in Rolling Stone:

We have a lot of music - something like 45 songs... It's total chaos... I want to dig into who I am and what I'm feeling at this moment - which is middle-aged.

"We've been doing this for almost 20 years now. You want to make sure you're being honest with yourself. I also have to ask myself 'what's real out there?' Right now, it seems stagnant."

"I had some kid come up to me yesterday. He goes, 'When's your next record coming out?' And I was like, 'God, I don't know'."

He also added that the songs were written on piano instead of guitar. So what clues does this new information give us? I personally think it's going to be heading towards the direction they went for 'Warning', but perhaps more mellow and reflective.

It should be an interesting listen...whenever it comes out.

Rolling Stone feature
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Q Awards 2007

A list of winners:

Breakthrough Artist - Kate Nash
Q Icon - Paul McCartney
Best Act In The World Today - Arctic Monkeys
Q Idol - Kylie Minogue
Q Inspiration Award - Damon Albarn
Q Legend - Ian Brown
Q Classic Songwriter - Billy Bragg
Best Live Act - Muse
Best Album - Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black'
Q Hero - Anthony H. Wilson
Q Lifetime Achievement - Johnny Marr
Q Merit - Ryan Adams
Q Innovation In Sound - Sigur Ros
Best Video - Kaiser Chiefs - 'Ruby'
Q Classic Album - The Verve - 'Urban Hymns'
Q Classic Song - Stereophonics - 'Local Boy In The Photograph'
Best Track - Manic Street Preachers - 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough'
Best New Act - The Enemy

The kindest thing you can say about that winners list is that Mika didn't win anything. Totally pointless.

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News In Brief: Broken Social Scene, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and more

A quick round up of things that I haven't yet wrote about this week...

Broken Social Scene are to release a book. It's going to detail their rise to indie fame and will feature contributions from Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Jason Collett and other band members. These kind of books tend to be very interesting reads, so watch out for it next year hopefully.

There was a nice article in the Independent yesterday about the new Radiohead album and the unique way it was being released. Well worth a read, and if you're a Radiohead newbie it has a nice brief history of the band.

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor is to split up his current band of Aaron North, Jeordie White, Alessandro Cortini and Josh Freeze. He wants to look at new ways at performing his music live. A bit sad really, since Aaron North was hugely entertaining to watch and he captured the whole spirit of Nine Inch Nails live. Will be interesting to see what Trent does next though.

Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers is a first time father. Hopefully the young child, Everly B, distracts Kiedis so much that he doesn't have time to make another pointless double album.

Modest Mouse head off on a North American tour this Autumn. The dates are here.

The most pointless best of ever - The Libertines: Time For Heroes - gets released. The tracklisting is awful, people have most of the tracks already and it's just a greedy idea by the record company. Just don't buy it.

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Arcade Fire & LCD Soundsystem to team up?

Arcade Fire have been updating their website, and at the same time are being very cryptic. All that is on the homepage is a message that tells visitors to come back on October 6th (that's tomorrow). The Internet has been buzzing with guesses as to what the band are going to reveal.

This could well be the secret. James Murphy, the man behind LCD Soundsystem, has expressed an open desire to produce an album and has remixed the track 'Black Mirror'. There's two likely possibilities:

a) a remix album/EP of sorts.
b) perhaps far off, an album of new material.

Either of those two options would make sense. LCD Soundsystem recently played the Hollywood Bowl with the Arcade Fire and the two bands seem to be good friends. The remix album/EP looks the most likely though.

I'm a fan of both bands. Arcade Fire have released two outstanding albums that pull the right emotional strings, whilst LCD Soundsystem are the leaders in their own genre by a long country mile (only Hot Chip could potentially rival them). I can't wait to hear the news tomorrow morning.

Us Kids Know - an excellent Arcade Fire fansite
LCD Soundsystem
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Radiohead make new album, Internet has a heart attack

Anyway, the big news in music is the new Radiohead album. I'm sure most of you know the deal but I'll summarise for those who don't.

'In Rainbows' is out on Wednesday 10th October through Radiohead's site as a download-only album. However, the band has let the consumer choose how much they want to pay for the album. You could pay a tenner, a fiver or a quid for it - it's up to you.

Fans can also choose to pay £40 for a discbox which includes the album as a download, the CD version of it, a bonus CD of extra new material, a vinyl copy of the album and extra artwork. This will all be shipped in December.

Radiohead are also doing this as an unsigned band with no record label backing. It's astonishing and it's challenging the way the music industry thinks about distributing music. It also asks the consumer a question, simply: 'How much would you want to pay for a CD?'

It also supports the model of Alan McGee, who nows manages The Charlatans (who incidentally are giving away an album for free). He believes that the current business model for selling music is redundant and believes that concerts and merchandise are the only ways that bands could get income. In the case of Radiohead, whose tours sell out in roughly under five minutes, it's an extremely accurate theory.

As for the music itself, the tracklisting sounds promising. I saw some of them in demo form live last year and they certainly had promise. I'm really looking forward to hearing 'Videotape' on record. It's as moving as 'Exit Music (For A Film)' and features some of the best lyrics ever written by Thom Yorke.

Music aside, the idea is great and I wonder what will come out of it.

Radiohead
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Johnny Borrell frustrated with US record label

Looks like Johnny Borrell has found something new to whine about – his record label. He is quoted in The Mirror newspaper to be unhappy, saying only "We pretty much had no effort whatsoever. It's been very frustrating." Ok, maybe The Mirror isn’t the best source of news information but Borrell perhaps has a good reason to be angry.

Here’s a link to a post by Lyndsey Parker in her blog on NME’s website. In it she sums up the general attitude towards Razorlight in America – there isn’t one. To me, it’s very puzzling because someone at Universal must have realised that Razorlight are doing pretty well over here at least. A number one single, two solid-selling albums, lots of radio play and a headline appearance at Razorlight (however crap that performance was) is surely enough reason to market the album?

As much as I hate Borrell’s ego sometimes, maybe, on this occasion anyway, he has a point…

Razorlight
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Radiohead's worm buffet

After months and months of waiting, we may not have to wait too long for concrete information about the next Radiohead record. Over the last few days on the band's official website, they've been posting very cryptic messages using what they call the 'worm buffet'. Predictably, Radiohead fans have been spending day and night decoding these messages. So far, this is what has been seemingly 'discovered':

· 'Bodysnatchers' could be the first single off the new album.

· The way the record is put out may be far less than conventional.

· Radiohead are currently in a meeting with an unknown record label.

· 'Up On The Ladder,' a track that debuted live in 2002 but has since then sunk without a trace, could feature on the album.

· The release date could be March 23rd/24th.

It's all fascinating stuff. I've been waiting a good year and a half since hearing some of the new songs live and am very excited now that Radiohead seem to be on the home stretch. Expect any other exciting updates to be posted here (I can't help it, since Radiohead are probably my favourite band ever).

Radiohead’s official wesbite

At Ease fansite

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