It’s November, middle of autumn, and a time of nostalgia, especially as this year marks the end of the first decade of the 21st Century. The last ten years have been awfully good for music fans. And I didn’t start properly taking an interest in music until at the earliest 2003. Shame on me. But retrospect is a good thing and its been the last few years where I’ve looked back at some of the best albums that I’ve been able to pick the ones that I have for each year. It’s nothing to do with what was popular, critically or chart-wise, but my own favourites. Decisions made by me, and also I’ve collated some lists of friends of mine, for the next post, who share a similiar passion for music. Here’s the choices!

2000: RADIOHEAD – KID A
I didn’t properly get into Radiohead until the release of Thom Yorke’s stellar The Eraser, after that I picked up Kid A from my step-dad, listening to this album definitely made me think about music a lot more deeply and look past the more conventional set up of bands. I just love how this album is set up, the brilliance in the music itself and the sheer nerve or Radiohead to go and make something totally a shift in the opposite direction of what was expected of them. Idioteque is definitely a close second to Reckoner for my favourite Radiohead song ever, its probably their best live track too.

2001: THE STROKES – IS THIS IT?
This is an album that I could probably pick up and listen to at any point in the day/week/month/year, you get the idea. What I’m trying to say is that The Strokes have made an album that is not only one of the best debuts ever, also probably one of the best albums ever made, let alone this decade. Built around solid singles and consistently good tracks, its hard to find a fault, if any, in the album. Last Nite, Someday, Hard To Explain, it contains much too many of my favourite songs ever written to not be included in this list.

2002: THE LIBERTINES – UP THE BRACKET
I love the Libertines, every few months or so there is word of a reform, especially within the british press, the band that would instantly sell out a nationwide tour and are perhaps one of the best british bands of the decade if not ever, their lasting legacy and impact on the indie music scene after two albums and the too many to metion in-quarrels between enigmatic joint frontmen, Pete Doherty and Carl Barat, have made a big impression and any of their subsuqent music projects, with Babyshambles being the most evident and prolific, have gone onto almost instant success. This debut is brilliant. 2002 was a tough choice, not much really came out then, it was either this or Nas’ God’s Son albuim, and after listening to “Vertigo” and “Death on the Stairs” I knew that the Libertines had won out. Fantastic lyricism, sharp and quick guitar hooks that make for charming indie rock songs as well as the odd anthemn with songs like “Time For Heroes” and “Boys In The Band”, this definitely set a precadent and is even better than their subsuqent self-titled follow up in my opinion.

2003: KINGS OF LEON – YOUTH AND YOUNG MANHOOD
This is the album, that started it all. I became obsessed with listening to good music from here on out, Kings of Leon have gone on to disappoint, but look back to the brilliance of their debut album and you can see why they were/are one of the best bands to emerge this decade. The wispy vocals, the sharp guitars, every aspect of each song made this album a classic, for me the only slightly weak track is closer Dusty, but even that is a good song, if you are one of the fools who liked KOL from their last album onwards, do yourself a favour and go and get this now. NOW.

2004: THE FUTUREHEADS – S/T
I chose the futureheads, simply because I remember picking up their album and falling in love with it. It is easily their best work to date, which is rather unfortunate, but nonetheless, they crafted a brilliant post-punk debut that is full of jattery, loud guitars and lovely northern-sounding harmonies with vocals bordering spoken word, not that that is a bad thing though, the way they work together is probably pretty close to the Beatles way of singing, especially evident on lovely single “Hounds of Love” (2005 re-release addition I know, but whos counting) and that cover of Kate Bush’s work not only bettered it, but brought into the indie anthemn’s of this decade. It’s fantastically brilliant. Other highlights, include; “Decent Days and Nights”, “Meantime” and the opener “Le Garage” which has such a bloody good typical english use of broken french in its chorus.

2005: SUFJAN STEVENS – ILLINOIS
Ok, i didn’t actually hear this album till 2008, I’m sorry, but Sufjan is nowhere near as big in the UK, he is fantastic though and by listening to this album, in my opinion the best travelling album, I feel quickly in love with his musical brilliance, it’s an album in which anyone can find something to enjoy, from the sweeping, epic, to the downright soothing and possibly depressing as well as pretty morbid, (John Wayne Gacy, Jr, anyone?) this album has such distinct mix of style, mood and subject that it is impossible not to be impressed, even if the 50 states project was revealed to be probably a joke, this album is one that shows the talent, the amazing talent of Sufjan, his decade long career almost, spearhead by this middle of the road album is a piece of utter brilliance that cannot be missed for any supposed “music lover”

2006: ARCTIC MONKEYS – WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT’S WHAT I’M NOT
I could not ignore this album. What is now one of my favourite albums ever made, one of the highlights of the decade and evident of the change in the music industry in the latter half of this decade is also a fantastic social document of Britain and it’s youth. Listen to the scathing, shallow lyrics, Turner’s voice spitting with a spurned nature, as if not he himself an outcast but his generation as a whole and surely the next ones to come after that. As soon as this album opens with the impressive drum skills of chavviest band memeber ever, Matt Helders, on “The View From The Afternoon”, the songs flow into their gloomy, pessimistic, teenage stance, that hundreds of bands have now tried to copy. They did it originally, and with lyrics like the ones on this debut, they have not been matched or dare I day it, match their own debut.

2007: RADIOHEAD – IN RAINBOWS
Sorry, but I couldn’t help choose Radiohead twice, if Kid A was more a retrospective choice of what was actually good that year, In Rainbows is a choice I made because once I got this album and began to listen to it, I was enthralled. I loved it, every second of listening to it. It was like some own personal discovery for myself as well because it was music that transcended music to be more a state of art and beauty, just fantastic. The way they released it was just convienent, paying nothing was a joy, but that the music itself was as great as it is, makes me go back to this nearly two year old album again and again, I love Radiohead, and their brilliance, live they are just as fantastic, and they have encapsulated this decade for me, with this album, it’s perfect.

2008: METRONOMY – NIGHTS OUT
I love this, I think it’s kind of an odd choice seeing as I first picked Girl Talk as my favourite last year, but that album is so, uh, boring? after the umpteen listen, I love the whole mashup thing, but kind of look on it and think, this is immature and stupid, and I don’t enjoy it like I did, so Metronomy steps in to save the day. Out of all the albums released last year, this is the one I always go back to, always listen to it, it represents 2008 for me in a great way, all the fun/heartbreak/new people etc etc, it was an odd year, but it’s cool, now, looking back. I enjoyed it. Songs like “Heartbreaker” and “My Heart Rate Rapid” are just fantastic and that epic intro itself, leading into “The End of You Too”, I think I kind of slated this album originallly, but I actually adore it now and every little nuisance about it, kind of melted away, as a whole it is fantastic, you can nitpick it all you want but this album to me, signifies a great time of my life. It’s well teenage init?

2009: WAVVES – WAVVVES
This year, I have to go with Wavves, not because I’m some kind of hipster who buys into fads but because I genuinely LOVE this album, yeah it’s distort as FUCK, but who cares? Nathan Williams, he sings from the heart, making anthemns about teenage life, the simplicity of it, the innocence and sense of belonging to, while smoking the obligatory spliff and skating/surfing the west coast. or so that is the picture it paints. The music itself, all recorded by Williams, shows at least promise and a good level of musical ability that althought distorted and crackly still shines through, the sheer under-production which seems to be more than just a lack of effort also makes it excitingly cool. It’s surfer-easy-punk, but that stuff just makes it real listenable for me, easy to understand and to dance to and also to appreciate. Those who slate it just should take a step back and look and think, this is an idealised view on teenage life, don’t take it so seriously!

A few songs to sample;
The Libertines – Vertigo
The Futureheads – Hounds of Love
Metronomy – The End of You Too

You probably haven’t heard of Tubelord I would gather, but they are a band that everyone should listen to, because I’m sure they will become alot bigger than they are now. Recently signed to Hassle, Tubelord are a British band that are simply astounding, I saw them live the other day in Southampton and was totally blown away by how their music transitions to a live environment. Even before I was really into them, I heard praise of them from many of my friends, I picked up the I am Azzerad EP a couple of months ago, which I really enjoyed. The quality even then was fantastic, but the album promises better recordings and a greater achieved sound. Does it deliver? Yes.

As soon as it begins, you can tell that the band have benefited greatly from an enhanced studio, it’s not just them simply singing in a higher pitch or extended songs, the quality is much better so it becomes fantastic. Straight from the opening of the album, with “Your Bed is Kind of Frightening”, the echoing of ’sleep it’s over’ in the begin and then when it crashes into the sonic disruption practically trademarked by the band. Follows on with the song “Somewhere Out There Is a Dog On Fire”, the ‘Blada bleep, blada bleep’ lyric, they subsistuted for “Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep’ live, that sounded weirdly better. But again the album quality flows through this song, my personal favourite and definite standout, “Night of Pencils” just reeks brilliance, in my opinion the song sounds so much better now, real stand out song from the album and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was headed for a re-release as a single.

Other highlights for me include the eternally awesome “I Am Azerrad” and “Synthesize” both originally from the former song’s EP release. Having the original recordings, the new albums versions are most definitely of a better quality. In conclusion, definitely seek out and buy this album and it is sincerely one of my favourites of the year, I just love it, as much unfounded negative press that this release may have been getting, I can’t help but enjoy Tubelord. Buy it now.

Download Night Of Pencils

The tooth-shatteringly loud Battle For Paris are a band I’ve seen live twice now and been consecutively impressed with. So in your face and confrontational sounding that it belies how good the music is. It’s not just fight music, their sound is awesome. The “With A Gun Between Your Teeth, You Only Speak In Vowels” EP is their debut release, on the brighton based Tangled Talk records and it opens with the frankly fantastic and live favourite of mine, “Fuck Your Deja Vu” which I blogged before in a previous gig review. The song is a perfect choice for the opener, and sets up the second two tracks for the listener really well. It’s loud, abrasive quality to the music contrasting with the shouting/screaming/sometimes singing vocals works really damn well, which follows with a similar fashion into the next song, “Baby, You Are My Ammunition Dump”

My favourite though is the ender, “I Have the Jigsaw Man’s Hands (Download) and its frankly epic bass intro. Which nicely juxtaposes itself against the rest of the song. I do love the band, really do, but there is only one nagging problem I find with this EP, it is essentially fulfilling a void until I actually see them live oncemore, their brilliant and obviously consistent stage presence and live showmanship is a sight overwhelmingly brilliant to watch, something that you need to witness for yourself. This EP IS good, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t help but feel that Battle For Paris lose some of their charm when recording, but nonetheless, buy the EP, check them out, support this great band and make sure you see them live.

Myspace
Tangled Talk Records

Editors have gone all synthpop on our asses. Where the first two albums they were Joy Division, they’ve now become New Order, without the lead-singer suicide. Ok, Editors haven’t just been blatant rip offs of Joy Division, they’ve actually carved a nice little niche for themselves, whilst taking influence from that seminal Manchester band. Their lovingly depressing rock was capitialised with two fantastic albums; “The Back Room” and “An End Has A Start” which were both brilliant and the sophomore effort definitely started the shift towards what this album has granted.

It could be considered more euphoric? I question that, because simply I am undecided, listening to the brilliant first single, “Papillon”, its so uplifting, despite morose lyrics plus, you can hear “Blue Monday”, seriously it’s underneath the song. But that’s irrelevant, they may have had a lot of different points of reference and influence, their music has evolved, yeah you could call it still an aspect of mainstream, but it’s so nice and also refreshing that a band swapping guitars for synths actually can pull it off well! There is also a stronger sense of an industrial sound behind them, ok, the first album with songs like “Munich” pulled that aspect off, but the synth power, reminiscent of Kraftwerk, definitely with the second song of the album “Bricks and Mortar”, a favourite of mine off the album, you can also detect a Depeche Mode influence. Anyway, the song is really like, just happy, yet sombre. It’s the juxtaposition in their songs on this album that really do it for me, it comes across with really contrasting music and lyrics, I adore how the songs do come together in their various elements.

My favourite song on the album sounds to me, alot like New Order’s “True Faith” and by taking a leaf out of Radiohead’s book with a bizaare song title (“Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool”, I mean what is up with that?) Editors have a song here, being the penultimate of the album, which stands heads and shoulders above the rest of it, in my opinion. It is brilliance. Pure brilliance. I saw this live on Jools Holland a few weeks back and it was just a fantastic performance from the band, so outgoing, bold and the music just stood out strongly.
I heartily recommend this change of direction for Editors, it has proven a brave and great move, the songs sound good and as ever lead singer Tom’s almost monotonous voice, which has definitely improved, sounds ever more brilliant. Get it now, my favourite track for download below
Editors – Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool

….this time it’s BLAKROC.

I’m pretty sure I’ve watched that trailer about a million times already. Ok, exaggeration slightly, but the prospect of this album coming out very soon (26th of November to be exact) is very exciting, I literally cannot wait to hear the full deal.

Simple enough, the premise behind this immense collaboration is lovely indie-blues band The Black Keys have made an albums worth of rap-worthy instrumentals, what do they do? ONLY GO AND GET SOME AWESUUUHMM RAPPERS TO LAY DOWN SOME RHYMES! Mos Def, Raekwon, Ludacris, RZA and an inclusion of the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard amongst others, it’s a pretty stellar list and judging by the trailer the sessions in their might fine studio (lovingly covered wall to wall in vinyl and equipment) went seriously well.

Once I watched, I probably watched a good few times more and then watched the webisode series, currently running on blakroc.com which have subsquently got me hyped up even god damn more. The most recent has RZA’s explain his use of weed to get into his “spiritual place” before he puts down some “awkward licks” and “spits” on the track, which is pure brilliance.

One track has leaked out already, the fairly impressive “Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)” (Download) which features Mos Def and Jim Jones on vocal duties.

I CANNOT WAIT!

Finally, I get round to writing my review. I need to write this, it’s the best weekend I’ve had this year and as well as the lows, it needs the glorification for the definite highs.

FRIDAY
I started the Friday morning ridiculously anxious for the music to start. Thursday night is so downright boring because nothing is happening, only the drink and company kept me going. But for the first band, I chose to head over to the NME tent and see Dananananakroyd. The Scottish rockers were simply fantastic, I don’t know all of their stuff, but was quite blown away by the really good atmosphere and being really close, actually saw them rather well. They were only let down by their rather futile attempt of a crowd running and hugging game, WAAAYYY too early in the day for it to work.
Dananananakroyd – Hey Everyone

I saw a little of The Ghost of a Thousand next, heard of them through a mate of mine, being kind of labelmates as his band, on the lovely Holy Roar, which are doing a Ghost of A Thousand release later this year. I thought they sounded shit. We were standing outside the lock up tent and quickly decided to not bother and look around the arena site.

We then saw the brilliant Virgins after I picked up a nice checked shirt from the vintage clothes stall. Another good set and brilliant opening with Teen Lovers, which i love, being possibly my favourite song of theirs. Overall it was good, but not knowing all the songs was a downside and I couldn’t sing along to my heart’s content. After this I’m sure we saw New Found Glory, just so my mate Tom could see them play Kiss Me. I’m not a big fan. We then met HUW FUCKING STEPHENS as we were walking to the NME tent. He is a well nice guy to talk to and after shouting his name in his general direction, he approached us and we got to have a chat with him. He thinks New Found Glory are shit, word up Huw!

Got to see Little Boots and despite what you say, she was actually really good. It was just an incredibly bizaare thing to witness and be part of. Literally everyone in the tent was dancing (I heard there was moshing? WTF?) and singing along, especially to CHOOONS like “Remedy” and “New in Town” Yeah, it could be considered shitty electro-pop but Little Boots put on one hell of a show. Sticking to the NME tent, we got to see The Horrors after. I enjoyed it, the others I was with did not. They played all new material and the electrifying, moody, brilliant music just made me pretty happy, the album just sounds even better live. I love their new direction and to see them on such good form was the icing on the cake, tooooooo good. Was even better when I noticed a reasonably hench security guard singing along to them.
The Horrors – Three Decades

Jack Penate was the next act to see, his brilliant dancing and dancable tunes, like Little Boots made the friday a little more fun. And his second album material, which I’m not fond of, sounded alot better in the tent. Be the One in particular raised the roof. I think he opened with “Torn on the Platform” which was a very good choice, it was that or “Second Minute or Hour” but either way, I was dancing away to the music whilst drinking over-priced cider.

Florence and The Machine next, i had a good spot sitting on a metal fence near the side of the stage, and their performance was alright, a suitably mad Florence livened it up a tad and the inclusion of a megaphone, but her lame-ass stage climbing was pathetic. After they finished it was time for Friendly Fires, who were too good! More dancey incredible hip shaking and the electro wouldn’t stop. They were damn near irrepressible on that stage and they got huge cheers for Kiss of Life, Jump in the Pool and my favourite, Skeleton Boy. I really enjoyed their set, but not being ditched by mates who wanted to see Kaiser Chiefs. Idiots.
Friendly Fires – I’m Good I’m Gone (Lykke Li Cover)

I then got to see half an hour of Jamie T (only knowing one song, luckily my favourite with “Operation”, as he opened with all new material) before heading back to the main stage to watch Kings of Leon. To be honest, I was blown away. They topped off the first day for me. Played some mega hits, as well as lesser-known classics, a setlist enjoyable to all, but nonetheless they got a bit of the hump, not sure what arrgavated them so much but whatever it was they were annoyed majorly yet the songs they played was a good pick, a good and broad selection of the discography. Can’t remember if they played Red Morning Light or not any more? But nonetheless, an amazing set to hear and I’m probably wont get another chance to see them apart from a huge stadium which I am not keen on to be fair, yeah a festival isn’t much different, perhaps worse, but they seemed right at home playing.

To conclude, friday was an awesome first day, though how the weekend was staggered meant that it was consecutively topped twice.

As far as Instrumental bands go, there isn’t really that many that I know, other than the sublimely brilliant Brontide, (sometimes) the awesome Hella and other bands like Metronomy who dabble in instrumentals similiarly to Sufjan Stevens, I admit I knew of no others than those, until I had heard Talons and their brilliant track, “Comiserations Buff Orpington” as part of the bloody fantastic Holy Monsters 20 mp3 compilation that came with the 10″ vinyl split between Holy Roar and Big Scary Monsters record labels.

The Pearl is their latest 7″ single, released on Oxford-based record label Big Scary Monsters. It features The Pearl and brilliant B-side Manatee, as well as a remix of the titular track by Richmanu. It’s a brilliant little collection of tracks I whole-heartedly recommend. I was lucky enough to arrange an interview with Oli from the band, read it below.

Real Horrorshow Tunes; What made you guys decide to be an instrumental band? Was it a tough choice to make, or did you always know you wouldn’t include vocals in your music?

Oli from Talons; Well in general I’ve always been into bands like Mogwai who essentially are a lot of peoples starting points in the ‘post-rock’ and instrumental genre of music. However my band previous to Talons was a more standard affair, with a singer, so its not as if I’m opposed to vocals really. I think at the time of starting this band, it was more a case of not being able to find a singer, or at least a singer that I felt would be well suited to the style of music I had begun to write. We listen to pretty much any type of music going, so when you’re pooling so many influences into the writing process, finding a vocal style that sits well can be pretty tough, so in many ways it was almost easier to let the instruments dictate the sound and not restrict ourselves to making a vocalist fit in.

Violins also, and I don’t mean to sound like some sort of ignorant twat, but they aren’t the usual sort of instruments included in most bands, you have people like the Arcade Fire, but the music you make is very different, how vital are the Violins to the sound of Talons?

No, you’re right there, violins aren’t necessarily the first thing you think of when you start talking about math-rock and post-hardcore I suppose! But almost because of that I think it adds a really quite intriguing element into the mix. I mean violins have certainly been utilised extensively within the more classic ‘post-rock’ genre- bands like Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Mono and Yndi Halda have all done it- but the way in which we try and use them is perhaps a little less soothing, and infact quite abbrasive. Inevitably there are some parts within our music whereby they are used to create harmonies- the fact we have two violin players works really well in this respect- but equally we find ourselves using them to create quite awkard, dischordant passages in the songs, almost wrestling with the guitars and drums. For that reason I feel that the violins are really quite a vital part of our sound, and the more we write, the more the violin lines become as integral to our music as any other instrument within the band.

On the ever-helpful myspace page, you list Sufjan Stevens amongst a diverse set of influences, Sufjan is very different to Talons but with tracks like Manatee I think I can hear some of that influence rubbing off, is the music you’ve listened to in the past very important to you when writing music or do you strive to be very different to everything else when writing songs?

Absolutely. All six of us have quite different tastes in music, and so when it comes to writing stuff together, there is a such a collision of entirely different styles and influences, that we never really know quite how the end product is going to sound- which I for one absolutely love. Almost every time I’ve brought a song or idea to a practice, even with a pretty well formed sonic direction, the guys will nearly always add their own tag onto it, almost entirely changing the way it sounds at times. To a certain degree all of us have our favourite bands, or most influential bands when it comes to writing our respective parts for Talons. Its funny that you mention Sufjan here actually, as Reuben cites him as one of his key influences when it comes to writing his violin lines within the band. Its also worth noting that both he and Sam, our other violinist, come from a classically trained background, so they bring with them a certain level of rigour and musical knowledge that the rest of us (probably) lack. In general though, the bands we list as influences are perhaps more a list of bands we like than anything. Whilst some of it affects the way, and the sound of what we write more than others, we constantly strive to listen to as much music as possible, and then almost pick and choose ideas and themes we like. By sticking everything together, overlapping, layering, and then adapting it further, we’d like to think that we are able to come up with something that is quite new, and different to anything else.

Have you been pleased with the release of The Pearl? I got one of the very nice limited screenprints, to me Big Scary Monsters have handled it with special care and attention, and what of the two tracks themselves, are you pleased with them?

Yes, I think we’re all pretty happy with it. It feels great to actually have a proper physical release in our hands at last, not just one of our own homeproduced CDs. I take care of all the artwork and design relating to the band, so it felt great to see something I’d initially just drawn for fun actually properly printed and on the front of a ‘real’ product. Glad you like the print that came with it too- a fun, headache filled evening on my part was spent making all of them, the day before we set out on tour! Kev at BSM has been really supportive and has been keen to get involved with various people and contacts, not to mention random ideas etc, so it does feel like he’s paid a lot of attention to the proceedings, and we’re glad at how things have been going. The music itself is also something we’re really happy with. We wrote and recorded those tracks awhile before the release, so it was quite frustrating in a funny sort of way to have to hold back on playing them to people- other than in a live situation of course. It did give us time to re-work certain parts though, so before we actually released it we went back into the studio and tweaked a few things here and there. As a pairing they work quite nicely- the Pearl is perhaps one of our most frenetic songs to date, whilst Manatee has some more expansive and serene parts to it, so overall you get the full scope of what we’re about. The 7″ also comes with a remix which is quite alot of fun- we had no idea how it would turn out, but we’re pretty happy with the end product!

Thanks for that Oli!

Buy The Pearl 7″ here and possibly get a limited screenprint, whilst stocks last of course.

Here is the demo version of Comiserations Buff Orpington (Download) Enjoy!

Despite the hype surrounding the debut of perhaps rap’s brightest star and lots of mixed opinions from the blog world. I love this album. Simple as, just big love for Kid Cudi as far as I’m concerned. Other than the basically mediocre opener, “In My Dreams (Cudder Anthem)” the rest of the songs are actually mostly brilliant. As soon as the second song, “Soundtrack of my Life” opens with possibly the best opening line of any rap song since Jay Z layed down the same song it talks about on The Blueprint, Cudi raps; “I got 99 problems….and they all bitches” in a highly relatable, grounding move, Cudi puts him and the listener on the same page. The majority of the opening is just as depressing, being really slow, cold raps laid down, but in my opinion it is final half of the album that is the best.

Basically, from “Day ‘n’ Nite” onwards, the albums is killer. That song is irrepressible and the original, being much slower is in my opinion better than the infamous Crookers remix single version. But it’s definitely Ratatat who steal the show. Their production is just bloody brilliant to say the least. Just as good as I would have expected from the electro-instrumental rockers. They put down the best beats for Cudi on the whole album, especially on “Alive”. It is practically just a Ratatat song being rapped over. But that’s only half the point, Cudi brings the songs alive, his actually impressive singing makes these songs pop, indie, alternative, electro and most importantly hip hop. It’s the closest amalgamation of genres present on any album since I heard Girl Talk’s last mashup album Feed the Animals.

I can’t profuse how much I love this album, songs like Pursuit of Happiness, featuring MGMT are also fantastic and the ingenious sampling of an acoustic Lady Gaga on the song “Make Her Say” which is still as good as when it was called “Poke Her Face” on that mixtape and Cudi caps off the album with the brilliant ender “Up Up & Away” which to me sounds like nothing I would of imagined to be on here. First off, it is so much more happy and upbeat than the rest of the album and secondly; THAT CHORUS! You know you’re listening to a brilliant album when a rapper basically sings his last song and pulls it off. Definitely one of the best pop music songs I’ve heard all year. And where The xx’s “Intro” is possibly my favourite opener, this is now my favourite ender.

Just get the album and make sure get it as soon as you can.
Kid Cudi – Alive
& there is also this brilliant mixtape song to hear, with Cudi sampling LCD Soundsystem;
Kid Cudi – Can I Be

In 2007, in the legendary Southampton pub The Joiners, I went and saw Pull Tiger Tail live. It was a great show, in which I got to see a band I had obsessed over in a live environment and it was a brilliant show. And it was understandably en-saddening for me to hear of their fate over the time period from late 2007-early 2008. Dropped by a label which refused to release their album and plunge again almost into obscurity, it was definitely some of the worst treatment I’ve heard of from within the music industry. But in the last couple of months, the band has resurfaced. After a long struggle to get their album from their former label, they have finally released it themselves. Two years late.

It would be a lie to say that the album doesn’t feels out of place, or hasn’t aged. But admittedly, being rather nostalgic when hearing it, I was inevitably surprised to really enjoy it. Some of the older songs are hear, bettered with re-records and the album tracks I hadn’t heard are also pretty brilliant, like the opener; “…For No One” (Download) with it’s addictive repetition of the line “No, I wouldn’t say no” lyric. It’s my favourite song for sure. I will admit that if you know you don’t like them at all, you will be disappointed. It’s more of the same from the Tigers, but this is definitely sufficient closure for a group who’ve been looking to release the album so they can finally dissolve and do as they will. Their final show is planned for sometime later this year, and regrettably they mean it.

But do not fret. Go buy PAWS. right now, get the mp3s sent to you then receive the vinyl/CD in the post when they are finally printed. I can’t wait to get my hands on my physical copy. Or go look on the itunes store if you are a freak who solely buys mp3s.

The best album artwork of the year? I’d go as far as to say yes. The simplistic X in white on black, it’s highly evocative and definitely helps to paint a picture as to what the album itself actually sounds like. It’s got a sense of purity amongst darkness, a high contrast in music that is beautiful, an oft-times downright dirty bass line and vocals that hiss at and soothe the listener simultaneously.

The highly sheened and polished low key beats work well together to produce an actual pitch-perfect, thoroughly brilliant album. Songs like “VCR” and the first single, “Basic Space” are both fantastic in their lyrics as well as in the painfully slow and beautiful music. This is music to cherish, to revel in it’s upmost importance and brilliance. Even the first, nearly-instrumental song, “Intro” is brilliant, in fact I would go as far as to say this the best opener I’ve heard all year. It’s like listening to most over-produced R&B act and whilst listening to a band with lyrics as depressing as The Maccabees or Noah and the Whale.

My favourite song however, is probably the one I heard first, given away as part of itunes free single of the week deal. It is the frankly exceptional Crystalised (Download) It begins perfectly and doesn’t crescendo in a wall of noise like you’d expect from the opening because it doesn’t need to! The xx’s two vocalists sing in and around each other like warring ex-lovers. But ones that are totally calm. It’s like recalling a past argument, going other what happened and telling someone else. The last lines of “Go slow” repeated too, are utterly chilling.

To conclude, this is an essential album of the year, undoubtedly will be a Mercury come the 2010 competition. It’s also the perfect antithesis to the emergence of noise pop and lo-fi. I love bands in those genres, but this album shows the deep quality of high production values. Get it now, you’ll be missing out otherwise.