bonjour

HELLOIO EVERYONe


3> 3> 3>

= D =D =D

BRILLIAJT

guess who no prizes who guessssses lol =D

hahgahahahahhahaha


much more durnkn thst mmmmaajhbgakejf7yuyugfkyaeykujfbykxcb#
#

dunno yyyyyyyyyyyyyy


but oka




night#


lo0venyou all you're brilliant thnak for coming


:>:>:>:>:>:>

you're all amazing people you know that>?

Because tyou're here it mean you've taken that one risk. To visit this site. And you know?

It means the world to me.

So thankyou. I hope you've enjoyed your sdtay. I hope you continue to. Becaue you peop[le are the reason I still do this crap.

Thankyou. Thank you.

Goodnight.

PS. I'll be back to busniess soon, don't worry.

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

Well, I've already referenced it before, I might as well review the bloody thing.

When I reviewed Begin To Hope, I had no idea Regina was so much of a- well, veteran: it would be her 6th release. Apparently she was that much of a slow burner! And so, of course, when her one-before album, Soviet Kitsch, turned up in Virgin reduced the other day, it was less a decision than an automatic reaction to grab it before anyone else noticed it was there.

A far more moody and sincere album compared to her latest offering, this album focuses on the slow piano tracks I took so much care to dislike last time round. But don't discard the album just yet, because here she treats them with much more care. Here, this is her realm.

This album, overall, actually reminds me quite strongly of a happier Eel's Electro-Shock Blues. The same quiet, understated feeling of futility and resignation. And just like ESB, Regina doesn't mind breaking the tone a little every now and then, like the full-out punk rock shoutathon of Your Honor or the relatively jazzy Sailor Song, which proudly shouts "Maryanne's a bitch" a few times for its chorus.

Ms. Spektor's amazing lyrical skills are far more apparent in this album. Ghost Of Corporate Future is a Dickens-esque analogy of finding happiness in modern life: "well, maybe you should just drink a lot less coffee and never ever watch the ten o'clock news". Meanwhile, the undoubtable centrepiece of the album, the 6 minute long Chemo Limo is a heartrending story of a mother recovering from cancer: "Then in my dream/Crispy crispy Benjamin Franklin and the doctor went and had a talk with my boss/...when they came out they said 'you'll be okay, anyway' and I smiled cause I'd known it all along".

Soviet Kitsch is, way more than Begin To Hope, Regina singing from within herself: and as a result of that, she's much more at home in the sound. For my money, this is my #1 contender for the best Regina Spektor album. And it's official by this point: I'm hooked.

PREVIEW - Us
PREVIEW - Your Honor (live)

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (Sendspace)


-Mike (=

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album

Richard D James Album could well be the most accessable work yet by the drill-and-base pioneer himself. The opener, 4- and expect a lot of track titles along those lines from Aphex, dude wrote an album called "drukqs"- shows this more than anything. The first thing you hear is classical, rising strings. And then what you hear is the token breakbeat drums. They shouldn't fit together so well, but for the first time since Stem/Long Stem, they do.

And this is what Aphex Twin is about: he kinda wants to worry you a little bit! The entire album certainly holds a sort of creepy ambiance to it, throughout: the most commercial, MTV song on the album consists of the lyrics "I would like some milk from the milkman's wife's tits", after all. This the same man who made a video out of bikini'd ladies with his own face morphed onto them. He's a pioneer, but I never said he was easy. This is the Uncanny Valley, put to music: it's right, everything is right in it, but its so right it feels... wrong, somehow. Album covers, evidentally, don't lie.

But even when its unsettling, there is beauty in Richie's work. This is what solely created a lot of the chillout movement, after all. But you won't get breakneck, impossibly cut beats and the world's tightest algorithms with Boards Of Canada. Richard moves faster than the movement can go: and so, what you get with Aphex Twin is view of where music will be in years, even decades time. He is quite literally light years ahead of his time.

So, even while difficult at times, even while absolutely freaking creepy at other, this album is a masterpiece of sorts. Its a way to phrase some of the most astonishingly impossible music so that its both experimental and accessable: and that, by itself, is a miracle. But its also a showcase of everything Richard James is about: it has the killer beats, but it has the quiet, understated tracks that he'd go on to perfect in Avril 14th. If you only try one Aphex Twin album- and try him you should- then choose this one.

(Just so everyone knows, the videos in these previews aren't usually the official ones- so listen for the music, not the vids. Although I do reckon Divid Firth did 4 justice in today's.)

PREVIEW - 4
PREVIEW - To Cure A Weakling Child

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (Mediafire)

- Mike (=

THE BLENDS

ITS THE BEST RADIOHEAD ALBUM.

IT BELANDS ROCK AND ROLLAND KEYBOARDS

GO THOM JONNY COLIN PIHL ED

:D

xoox Martyn

i'm drunk btw
:D

(Classic Friday) The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

1999 was a good year for The Flaming Lips. Because, after 15 years of trying, they'd finally got it right with The Soft Bulletin. Critics as high up as the All Music Guide (perhaps the most influential music website on the internet- google reckons its 30 times more powerful than those Pitchfork hacks) hailed it as the greatest musical achievement of the decade- and this was the decade that brought us OK Computer and the Britpop race, remember- and one thing was sure: their efforts hadn't been for nothing.

The Soft Bulletin was one of my favourite albums for a very long time, and for good reason: this album will amaze you. It goes from mindless fun to suddenly beautiful, moving scenes in a matter of moments.

And nowhere in between: this isn't an album that will ever be trivial or everyday. The endless amounts of synths and choir voices rise the album to something far more ethereal, even when its at its most whimsical: and believe you me, with The Flaming Lips you will always get the whimsical. This is an album about scientists racing for the glory of finding a cure, and people waiting for superman to save them, and wounded mathematicians in a war. But somehow, in between the phenomenal guitarwork and drumming of Steven Drozd, every one of these sounds epic, amazing, and something far more.

But then, interspaced around the fun and the stories are some far more thoughtful and... well, serious pieces. And this is where The Soft Bulletin isn't just any Flaming Lips album. Suddenly Everything Had Changed is an exploration of how life goes on whether you like it or not. It takes the most mundane acts- putting the vegetables away, driving home- and reminds you how at any moment everything around you could change. And then the finishing dual-song of Feeling Yourself Disintegrate and Sleeping On The Roof is a full-out existentialist masterpiece, making it ever apparent to even the most self-assured person that everyone dances with the reaper sooner or later. It takes its inspiration from the final few seconds of a man's life, and then fades itself out into the conclusion: totally wordless, but a massively powerful piece of music that forms one of my all-time favourite Flaming Lips tracks.

The Soft Bulletin is an album that's more than the sum of its parts. Where beforehand the Lips rested on their wacky, drug-addled stories and afterwards rested on their laurels, this is the one place they got it all right. The music is subtle but massively layered. And the subjects are fun but the lyrics are deadly serious. Wayne Coyne has never been one to shy away from tackling a tough task, and this is where that's more apparent than ever. Its about life and death, love and loss and everything in between.

Oh, and my computer's password is based on it. That's how good an album it is.

PREVIEW (Race For The Prize)

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (Mediafire)


- Mike (=

Metric - Grow Up And Blow Away

Metric - Grow Up And Blow Away

Ahhh, god bless Emily Haines. She's nothing is not adaptive. Give her any opportunity and she'll use it make her very own unique brand of melancholy pop. She's been in more bands than the queen's seen more hot meals and she probably made a lot more out of them. Metric was her first real excapade into the world of Indie rock in '02, and this album, although never officially released, was their real debut.

Fans of her album I posted much earlier, the solo Knives Don't Have Your Back, won't be too surprised with the work. By contrast to the piano ballad led work she did by herself, though, Metric is far more involved, far more upbeat and- dare I say it?- much more of a pop album. It has the mandatory electronic beats and funny pedals, after all. Occasionally, the beats and sampling launch the album almost on the edge of the hip-hop. Emily's half-rap, half-beat poetry of some of the tracks doesn't help that, really. But no matter how you could think this the album could go, it's miraculously kept incredibly classy throughout.

The morose tone you expect from Emily is kept throughout. The lines like "It's not easy she would say, dipping her fingers into the ashtray, it's not easy to erase your blood" or "We saw tall trees and public enemies" bring you straight into the film noir-esque feeling of loathing for everything about. But unlike Regina Spektor, she does take her manic ennui very seriously. She's hardcore about it. So behind the happy beats and crazed guitar riffs there is a real message, and that is that you could always be a lot worse off. No wonder she felt she had to stick the line "With all the luck you've had, why're your songs so sad?" at the end of Knives.

The standout tracks- in particular Parkdale and Rock Me Now- show Emily developing her particular upbeat cynicism and remain some of the best songs she's ever written.

In the end, this is never going to be the album Metric is remembered for: after all, after over half a decade later its only just been released. But this was the origins of one of Canada's greatest achievements to indie rock- she's made 4 different (but great) bands world famous, after all- and for that, its place in the hall of fame has already been secured.

Metric - Grow Up And Blow Away (Mediafire)

Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon

Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon

Tapes are such a "we'll be amazing next album" band. My prediction is to expect them to be big in a year or two. Not that they aren't amazing as they are, now: after all, I wouldn't be posting this up if it didn't get at least an 8/10 from me, and this easily makes the benchmark. But what makes them such a wait-for-it band is the potential Tapes has. The guitars are simply amazing, but just beg for someone to give them a wheelbarrow of money for some better production. And the vocals are powerful and emotional, but just need a little extra time to develop themselves.

As it is, this album is more bound full of energy than Supergrass locked in a roomful of espresso. My first fave of the album, In Housten, is a manic, frantic mix of classic punk (think Sex Pistols, not Greenday) shouts and epically dangerous riffs that kick in and out of the song. And their first single off the album, Insistor, is the same. Something more than a rock opera, but keeping all the feeling of one, it tells the story of a man's journey to find out the truth about an old relationship. As you can imagine, it balances the slow with the fast and everything in between, especially in the mandatory everbuilding conclusion to the song.

This album may have been recorded in 2005, but its roots are deeply in 80s rock: Pixies, Black Sabbath et al. It's in the too-big-for-their-mics guitars, it's in the too-big-for-their-voice vocals. But the best part is this: they take the best of both worlds out of it. This isn't an album that could have ever been recorded before a lot of you were born. Despite its rough-around-the-edges epicity, this is a thoroughly modern album. The songs feel very much like Kings Of Leon or Wolf Parade were sent back in time.

These songs are about an anthemic and you can get. These are songs for singing on the way home from the pub. Even the slowest, most subtle track of Manitoba contains enough gems to keep you coming back. They're fun and they do whatever the hell they want. And it comes across in the music.

So yes, whatever my claims are, this is an amazing stand-alone album that is well worth a listen, and then another one to catch everything you missed first time round. And for another reason: here, you can be part of something that's going to be amazing. My money is on the follow-up, whenever it is, being one of The Greats- OK Computer, Parklife, Agaetis Byrjun and all. We'll see how it goes.

Here's a new feature for ya: if I can find one, I'll grab a youtube preview of my favourite track so you can check out a bit of the album. Think of it as a try-before-you-buy, even more than, like, downloading the album is a try-before-you-buy for the actual thing.

Okay, here goes: PREVIEW (Insistor)

Aaaand Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon (Mediafire)!

-Mike (=

A very special 30th post...

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

Oh, I am so, so annoyed.

People who know me know firstly my uncontrollable, unmeldable, unmalleable HATE for all things Arctic Monkeys. Alex Turner is a bit of an... arrogant, self-obsessed twat? I heard I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor years ago and I hated it then and it hasn't got any better in its unending reign of terror on every radio station. I gave their debut a chance with "at least it can't be worse than Dancefloor" and it turns out I was surprised! Because it was. Basically, in a list of people I would wish out of existence forever for their effect on the world... they're not far behind Peter Kay and Vic Reeves.

So, naturally, when their followup leaked, I was the first to download it! I couldn't wait to be the first person, and worst person, to hate it. I mean, they say there's two kinds of people who write biographies: people who loved the person they're writing about and people who hated them.

At first, I wasn't surprised. Brianstorm was an unimpressive track, and its followup wasn't much better. So far, so generic noise charismaless tuneless rubbish. It was like The Fratellis, except without any charm, style, atmosphere, energy, strength... It was like The Fratellis, except crap. By track 4 I was happy as Larry because I hadn't been surprised at all by the album. NME got it wrong again. Arctic Monkey were still awful. Figures.

But then.

Then, somewhere around midway, came the track Only Ones Who Know. You can tell its different straight away: it doesn't launch straight into tuneless drivel. Completely apart from it, actually, it was... well, slow. Well, I'll be. Instead of finger-tearingly fast riffs it was all reverbed guitars and synths. And suddenly, a completely different side of Arctic Monkeys showed: on one site, I saw someone compare this track to Radiohead at their most beautiful, or something ethereal from late Beatles. Although I wouldn't exactly go that far- think The Killer's finale Everything Will Be Alright for a similar track- suddenly, this album had at least one great track. Em. Bugger.

And after that, I swear just to annoy me, it just got better.

Do Me A Favour lead on in the same vein from Only Ones Who Know, except with the furious drums and wonderfully evil bass suddenly making it so much more desperate and dramatic. Midway, everything drops and leaves you with just vocals and a sparse guitar. Nice, some quiet, you think, until everything stops to launch into possibly one of the best comeback riffs in the past few years- and come back it does, with a vengeance. It is loud. It is Mew on steroids. And it is amazing.

This House Is A Circus is the third track in a row that keeps the bar set and kept high. I don't know why Alex Turner saw fit to open his album with the 4 worst fast tracks ever, because this track shows that he bloody can write a fast song well. It's epic, it has more layers than the Queen's wedding cake, its louder than Frank Black at Glastonbury, and its more fun than a party with Eugene Hutz and Jarvis Cocker.

I'll go straight to the finale, but not because the tone drops. Everything from that midpoint is solid gold. And then, 505 begins. From the beginning, it sticks out: for the big generic guitar-riff-verse-chorus band of their debut, it's certainly something different. For one, the only thing keeping the song going along is a few synth pads- because they're still too good to use strings, of course- but instead of being the everyday happy we're-good-aren't-we, its massively subtle and, seriously, sad and regretful. This is Pulp in This Is Hardcore. This is Radiohead in Exit Music. This is Interpol, well, anywhere. This is something quite special. The reverb is kept up to the maximum as it continues on. And it builds and builds until the climax rushes in and- and I don't say this often when it comes to Arctic fucking Monkeys- it is one of those moments that completely change your view of the entire band. It is the best song they've ever writen, and probably the best song they ever will. The choice to have it end the album was inspired, because there's nothing you can put on after that will do it any justice whatsoever.

So, much as I hate to say it, this is an amazing album and it hasn't been off my iTunes since I got it yesterday afternoon. Arctic Monkeys genuinely have developed their sound and maybe they even live up to their name... possibly.

So all I really have to say is that I'm...

...

...I'm...

...

...alright, alright, I'm a fan.

Bloody hate to say it, though.

Em, Arctic Monkeys have been doing a few deals with Very Important People and the short story is that the existance of a link to Favourite Worst Nightmare on the 'net for very long is very, very rare. Kinda ironic for a band that owes their entire success to, hey, the internet, huh? I haven't checked these links to see if they're a better version than I have- where tracks 4 and 5 glitch quite a bit- but needless to say if they are then you're in the same position as I am. So enjoy, and, like, buy the proper version when it comes out?

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (Rapidshare mirror 1)

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (Rapidshare mirror 2)

-Mike (=

Evening, all.

Liars - Drum's Not Dead

People go watch horror films to get themselves scared. And there's the entire horror genre in books, too, and TV programs and even plays. And then they go home and play Resident Evil to get the same cathartic experience. Like it or not, horror is everywhere, in every form of media.

So why, somehow, is music somehow restricted from that? People just don't seem to want to listen to an album made with that senseless fear in mind.

So if you're still one of those people who think songs should all be human and personal, then this album is certainly not for you. Just a forewarning. This album is 12 tracks of every kind of terror known to man, condensed, distilled, and put to music. The effect is, to say the least, startling. The notes jarr, the vocals howl hauntingly or shreik maliciously, the drums creep up behind you before you notice them.

In theory Drum's Not Dead is a concept album, at least according to the band. It's based around two characters that every track is named after. First is Drum, who represents every good kind of inspiration: everything productive and positive. Then, on the flipside is Mt. Heart Attack, who is everything negative and destructive. The struggle between the two is the centrepiece of the album, and gives it a desperate energy that really makes the album unique.

What I can't really put out to you is how many different kinds of horror they put in the album. The opener, Be Quiet Mt. Heart Attack, is all tribal drums, dissonant chords filling the space and choruses of shouts and screams. Every gap in sound is filled up with something, making an incredibly busy, openly scary song. And then there's the later song, The Wrong Coat For You Mt. Heart Attack, which is entirely sparse. It's just a muffled piano, some synths and a voice. A bizarro version of Blur's Battery In Your Leg. And the difference is massive. Whilst the former makes no mistake about trying to throw everything at you, the latter is... well, creepy. It's talking in a cell with Hannibal Lector. It's that shiver in your back when someone's just behind you. The lyrics slowly come out in a way that's oddly disconcerting: "When they discover you, drawn in your living room, time won't have altered you". "Who is this captain and where do his friends live?" They don't sound like particularly creepy lines, but in the music every line is twisted round.

But despite all this, there are some tender moments in the album. The first is Drum Gets A Glimpse, and the difference is clear: out are the dissonant chords and shouts. Instead, it sounds almost sad: the man behind the monster. It's a wonderfully different song. The point is: Liars aren't just doing this whole creepy gimmick because they can't do anything else. The final track (The Other Side Of Mount Heart Attack) is proof of that. Like the end of the slasher flick, it's the hopeful, happy end. And god knows we needed it! I would go as far as saying it is one of the great beautiful tracks and the entire album is worth it for the ending. This story has a happy ending, y'all.

Drum's Not Dead was voted best album of 2006 (beating Flaming Lips and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, along with other tough competition) in quite a few music mags. If you fancy something a bit different, then this album is something that nobody is going to- something that nobody could- repeat. It's a one of a kind, stand out in a genre of its own. It's creepy, terrifying, not something you wanna play in the dark, and it's lush as. A love letter to a missing genre, and a niche filler, all in one. Like it or hate it, nobody can say its not unique.

Liars - Drum's Not Dead (Mediafire)


Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope

If for nothing else, just to prove that there's more to them ex-Soviets than Eugene Hutz shouting PARTY over a few gypsy fiddles and an overdriven guitar. Mandatory Soviet Kitsch reference: done. Right, moving on...

Well, a friend of mine (Yes, you get a shout-out, Harri! Happy?) has been trying to get me give Reggie a listen for the last few weeks- completely coincidentally, ever since this music blog began. Since 90% of the girl's music taste is "do they look good? They're not ugly, are they?", I was pleasantly surprised with how good this album is!

Regina Spektor is one of those artists that takes folk music and brings it into the new millenium. So it's completely familiar but at the same time, the quirks are there so you're not about to bore yourself to death listening to it.

The first few plays, she seems to have the same slow-piano-and-vocals melancholy of Emily Haines and Camille, and they do make up most of her act. But don't go thinking Reggie is the kind of artist that cries a few tears into her morning coffee to get ready for the day, because here is one artist that knows not to take herself too seriously. So you get your everyday depressed scribblings like "I am awake and feel the ache" and "You are my sweetest downfall", but they're cut off before they get too self-pitying. And the album is all the better for it.

Neither should you think Ms Spektor- incidentally, that is actually her actual name. She has, like, the best name in the world ever- is too samey, either. The standout tracks set the piano ditties into place: in particularly, the straight-out heavy punk rock distorted-geetars-and-all funfest of That Time is more remeniscent of Feeder or- dare I say it- Gogol Bordello than Emily Haines. The dramafest that is Apres Moi sounds like something lifted straight from the opera stage. It wouldn't be out of place in between The Ride Of The Valkyries or Phantom Of The Opera, and spans just as many languages- I count at least 3. When you have an album that appeals to the young rocker crowd and the classical culture vultures at the same time, you know you have something special.

Regina Spektor is more than your everyday singer-songwriter that makes nice little songs. Although the album itself is great, it's the little tracks spaced out around it that make it amazing. Somewhere on the album, there is a track for anyone. With that in mind, chances are this won't go wrong with you.

Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope (Mediafire)

-Mike (=

Erm.

Sorry about that, people. We're leaving it up as a warning to you all of the dangers of drink.

Also, I fuckin' preached it. That was pretty great new age garbage!

We will now continue with your scheduled program.

-Mike (=

PS Last night in my stupor we came up the greatest word in the world, just so's ya know: Indienesian. Y'know, it's where you talk indie trash in front of someone who doesn't know anything about that kinda music.

Last night, me and Martyn spoke a lot of Indienesian.

I AM DRUNK

B LOG EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

TYES

INDIE
:D

I HATE LIFE
sfdgohfdlgoahfdlgiuhdgdf
sfghsfgphsf

help





me





martnyxox

OKAY ITSMJIM MIKE


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

MArtyn may hate life bnut I FUCKING L:OVE TIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :>:>>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>>:>

Lifes done nothig wrong to me and I have nothing agsainast it!

I'm doing well and evetryting is GREWAT! :>:>>:>>:>

Y'know, all the necessary emoticons there and EVERYTHING




tooo drunk to but emotions in and everytihng 6 ciders I haven't feel that drunk in months but I quite like it I'm sorry people who can't drink oft the world but ehy at least like your liovers won't explode at ages 30 or sometihng opur generation is pretty much gonna be like thatr :>:>:>:>:>

Okay AWESME

right what next!

Okay our generation wtf a re you doing? DO better at it and everything! You're gonna be the leader of the world sooon enough

so pull your fingers out and DO SOMETHING!

stop procrasdtinating!

visit a town you've never been you before!

visit a hobbuy you'be never had!

pick up a s[port you never knje existed!

learn about a culture you don't know anything about!

eat a food you never thought you wou.d!

fucking DO SOMETHNIF! It's driving me mad, this culture of stagnation and boredom. Do something! Make the entire world poroud!

But in the end people are al pretty great so patr yourself on the back so bewing you. And thanks a lot. So keep doing it. Nothings wrong. So have fun and make the most of life.

You only life once, after all.

Mike (=

Just wanna follow what Mike said....

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank.

AMAZING.

Martyn xox

Okay, okay, back. It's been a good holiday?

Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning

In January 2005, Bright Eyes simultaneously released 2 records which were the exactly polar musical opposites of each other: one was the sepia-toned, warm record, wheras the other was digital, futuristic and cold. Looking at the cover, I'll give ya 3 guesses which one of the 2 this was.

I'm Wide Awake It's Morning is a strange record. At first glance it seems to be a very subtle, simple, back-to-basics folky record. But the more you listen to it the more you realise than under the surface is something far more loud and vast. Take the ending of Old Soul Song (For The New World), for example, where the electric guitars kick in and the strings pick up wherever there's a gap over Conor's "Yeah they went wild!" Or the penultimate track, Poison Oak, where layers and layers of extra strength stack on each other as the song goes on.

Feck it, this is an album that ends with pure guitar trash and the line "Let's fuck it up boys, MAKE SOME NOISE". Evidentally, this is more than just a quiet folk romp.

A Bright Eyes album has always been about the lyrics, and this is no exception. Conor's skills at storytelling are second only to Colin Meloy, and every track here is something new. The witty little one-liners like "Set fire to the preacher who's promising us hell" and "She said these bars are filled with things that kill" keep the songs interesting, but the wider picture is just as interesting: painting a million different moods. It opens with the invincible attack on the American ideals, but then leads on to a scope of different stories: of hopeless alcoholics, or revolutionaries, or new couples, or cocky soldiers. You'll find a song for most of your moods somewhere on the album.

Finally, it has to be said that this is such a clever album. This is an album that holds off saying the actual title until the very final line, which finishes off the entire explosion perfectly. It's one where the final track is a rock reinvention of Beethoven's Ode To Joy. Or the little recurring references: one of the first tracks finds Conor looking for his little yellow bird, and then you think nothing more about it until the end, which has him finally find it. It's the things like that that make this more an album than most you'll listen to. This isn't just a collection of songs. It's meant to be taken as one whole just as much as your average Mew album is.

This album is something quite special: it's epic and massive like your average album on here, but it's done so delicately and subtlely that you probably couldn't guess at first. This isn't a quick-burn album that you'll love for a week and then throw away. It'll hang around for months and every now and then you'll remember it and it'll be better than you could ever remember it being.

Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning (Megaupload)


Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel The Illinoise! (Illinois)

Sufjan is another one of those big untouchable indie rock gods, and its easy to see why. After growing up in a postmodern cultist commune, he made his rise to fame off releasing a million albums a week. Or so it seems. He's one of the most profilic artists you're going to ever find. He famously promised to make an album for every single one of the states of America- a big claim from anyone else, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Sufjan. The man's released five christmas albums alone, after all.

Illinois was his sophomore venture into the state albums (after the first about his native state, Michigan) and his strongest album yet. It's not just a short trip, either: at 22 tracks long, this is going through the state with a fine-toothed comb and still managing to fill every track with a very personal feeling. As a Brit, a lot of the references went straight over my head the first few times but believe you me that this album is packed full of them, whether it's an idle mention of Egypt or namedropping Casimir Pulaski. There are the more obvious ones, too, like "Chicago" and "The Seer's Tower" (the sears tower, gettit...? Em?). The point is, the name isn't just that: this is a comprehensive, complicated web exploring what exactly the place is.

Don't think this is some tourist-board built flight round Illinois, though. Although on the outside the songs are about the state, Sufjan uses the features as a facade for his own feelings. John Wayne Gacy Jr is an exploration of how anyone could be a killer under the right circumstances, wheras Night Zombies plays off our existentialist fears of being forgotten after we're dead. As a result, the albums comes off as less of the state itself but more of Sufjan's life being played through it.

The songs' styles themselves vary as much as much as their subject matter. There's the banjo-plucking folk of Decatur, or if you fancy a change there's the straight-out lo-fi rock of Chicago or The Man Of Metropolis. Or the apocalyptic doomsday kickassery of Night Zombies. Or elsewhere you could relax to the soulful, ethereal dream of The Seer's Tower. Interspacing them all are a selection of little instrumentals to break everything up, like the almost bond theme-esque To The workers. Don't even once think you're going to get anything the same in this album.

Basically this album is one of the greatest by one of the best folk artists to come out of America. If you miss out on it, then you're missing a heck of a treat. So stick it in iTunes, put your best headphones on and visit Illinois for 74 minutes. It's the trip of a lifetime.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (Megaupload)


-Mike (=

What is beauty??

Massive Attack - False Flags

Martyn xox