30. Thunder Bay – Hudson Mohawke 

Who rules the Wonky roost? Who is the Aqua-crunk king? Err, I’m not sure… but however you choose to describe this deranged mashing of melodramatic synth blasts and alien-sounding horns, Hudson Mohawke undoubtedly delivered a healthy dosage of immature beats that I could not stop bouncing along to.

29. Told Me So – Socalled 

It’s not the full song unfortunately – and I’ve not the foggiest idea what this makeshift video is up to – but you can still revel in Katie Moore’s fevered vocals for a whole 1 minute 54 seconds. And that is surely more than enough reason to click play

28. Lonely Boy – The Black Keys

It’s not been out long but this song has etched itself deep into my unconscious mind with about as much force as the above geezer’s hip thrusts. Unashamedly catchy.

27. Pushing Onlys – Woods

It’s only taken 5 years for me to discover Jeremy Earl and his merry band of Woods dwellers but in 2011 I’ve been making up for lost time and then some. Pushing Onlys was a marvellous introduction to the easygoing irresistibility of this Brooklyn folk band.

26. The Words That Maketh Murder – PJ Harvey

Despite the sprightly auto-harp strumming this song along, it makes no attempt to sugar-coat its direct confrontation with war imagery – “soldiers fall like lumps of meat” – and swoops effortlessly into a grand finale, where PJ contemplates taking her problem “to the United Nations”. Powerful, blissful stuff.

25. Keep Me There – Nicolas Jaar

Wonderfully unlike anything else I’ve been listening to this year, this as good an entry point into the weird world of 20 year old New York producer Nicolas Jaar as any. I still chuckle along to it now.

24. Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes 

This song from the album of the same name perfectly encapsulates the gelling of their grand, ambitious folk sound with the down-to-earth themes of wanting to be “like the man on the screen”, having an orchard and working till you’re sore. A beast of a track

23. Wildfire – SBTRKT Feat. Little Dragon

Yukimi Nagano might be my favourite female of 2011. Her voice sparks this song into life in flamboyant fashion, slipping on top of SBTRKT’s syncopated beats like gravy over a freshly stuffed turkey

22. Make Some Noise – Beastie Boys

The star-studded video is great in itself, but Make Some Noise is mainly in here because this is the song that announced the Beastie’s comeback after a hiatus that left us with nothing but To The 5 Boroughs for 7 years. Proof that, really, being mature doesn’t have all that much going for it

21. Fuzzy Mornings – Polaroid 85

The title track from their gorgeous debut EP, you can expect to hear a lot more from this London collective in the coming months. The perfect song to stir you back into life after a heavy night on the town. Get their EP for FREE here:

http://polaroid85.bandcamp.com/track/fuzzy-mornings

20. Weekend – Smith Westerns

A song that screams happiness from its very core. Love the riffing, love the energy, love the sentiment. If only the rest of the album was as captivating.

19. Fictional State – To Kill A King

Lead song-writer / urban story-teller Ralph Pelleymounter doesn’t pussyfoot around, delving right into real-life issues like abortion and domestic violence, to a background of graceful acoustics, some marvellously executed swells of cymbals and brass, and then one corker of a cathartic ending.

18. Days Are Forgotten – Kasabian

I liked their 4th album Velociraptor! a great deal and this lead single off it especially.  With its primal Tarzan-like wailing and chugging riff, this is Kasabian in their element; Tom Meighan ranting out the verses in typically boisterous fashion, before rippling guitars underlay the perfectly nailed chorus.

17. You For Leaving Me – Colourmusic 

I would have stuck the official music video for this track in here if I didn’t think it would gross out too many people. I gotta admit, I’m not a fan of it. I am a HUGE fan of this song though. It’s crazy but it just about works. Choirs, unnecessarily long pauses, massive chorus, it’s got the lot.

16. Cruel – St. Vincent

Delightful video, delightful song. Fell in love with her album Strange Mercy and this song is one of the many highlights.

15. White Rune – Iceage

Brash, abrasive post-punk from Denmark. They’ve caused quite a stir this year with their debut album New Brigade and White Rune is the rousing, no-holds-barred opener.

14. Killer – The Canolas

Annoyingly this Leeds blues rock band haven’t uploaded my favorite track of theirs, Killer, so I’ve actually put up a live version of the also awesome, She’ll Leave You Behind. Confusing I know, but just go with it. If you’re a fan of White Stripes or early Black Keys you’ll love these guys.

13. NYC – Burial

Burial can keep making music exactly like this for the rest of his life, I’ll never tire of it. Off the Street Halo EP, this is the pick of a very strong trio of tracks. The vocal samples in this one are so yearning, so utterly distraught, it makes me want to track down the singer and give them a great big hug to make things better. Although, that could just make things worse…

12. Harmony – Dumbo Gets Mad

My obsession with 60s throwbacks Dumbo Gets Mad begins with this song, Harmony. Evidence that effective song-writing can produce the most marvellous effects on even the most budget set of instruments.

11. Mazes – Moon Duo

Talking of the 60s, if anyone is a fan of a small band called The Doors, go right ahead and open up this video and enjoy jamming out with Moon Duo.

10. Wrecking Crew – To Kill A King

The 2nd To Kill A King track to make the countdown. With Pelleymounter’s deep, mournful delivery and the shrill, hurtling guitar solos, this one actually reminds me a little of why I fell in love with early Interpol. The bass is also working wonders on this track, setting the tone for the songs relentless pace, as it crashes recklessly from one chorus into the next.

9. Secret Mobilization – Deerhoof

10 albums down the line and still Deerhoof never fail to engage me. This is a very good song for 2 minutes 40 seconds and then morphs into a bloody fantastic song when the power riff kicks in to clinch the track and see the song out.

8. Ice Cream – Battles Feat. Matias Aguayo

I love everything about Ice Cream, from Matias Aguayo’s grunts and groans that propel the song into its thrusting climax of an intro, followed fast by the twitchy understated kick-in, and then just the way it isn’t ashamed to let its repetitive jittery rhythm ride it out for the next four minutes.

7. Ritual Union – Little Dragon

Yukimi Nagano again, this time with her main project Little Dragon. She’s spent so much time enlivening the work of others (Gorillaz, SBTRKT, Maximum Balloon) that it was about time she took all the glory herself. With Ritual Union, the song and the album, she certainly does that.

6. Under Cover Of Darkness – The Strokes

The Strokes have divided opinion this year with their fourth LP Angles. I love it, even if I can understand why many people are cringing and finding it dubious. But I’m only hearing fun pouring out at me from the record, and from this song in particular. The riffs are edgy and engaging and the chorus is chant-worthy. And believe me, I chant it loud.

5. Lotus Flower – Radiohead

STILL haven’t fully made my mind up about The King Of Limbs. It took a while to warm to it but this song and this video most certainly helped. Together they are unstoppable.

4. Northern Lights – St. Vincent

Actually starts out sounding like a long-lost Rilo Kiley track, with its acoustic downstrokes and Clark adopting a very Jenny Lewis-esque singing style. But then the squishy electric guitar melody plants itself on top and we’re launched full-on into St. Vincent territory. The song builds impressively, with its persistent beat and this escalating ominous buzzing that engulfs the mix, gathering momentum through each manic interlude until we reach the wild rushing ejaculation of electronics at 2 mins 35 that the song’s been propelling us towards all along. It really is awesome stuff, both beautiful and brutal in equal measure

3. Plumy Tale – Dumbo Gets Mad

Love this, love this, love this! The soundtrack of my summer has come from Dumbo Gets Mad. This song actually became known in the middle of last year but because I discovered it at the start of this, and because the album itself was released this year, I’m not embarrassed to whack it in at number 3. A whole host of hilarious effects going on; check out the bubble generator at 2 mins 13.

2. The Bay – Metronomy

I still prefer Metronomy in their Nights Out form over The English Riviera but the beats are strong in The Bay. With synths swelling like surf all around them, they’ve managed to successfully conjure an image of the beach with nothing but cheesy electronics. A proud postcard from the English seaside.

1. Work With What You Got – Socalled

The genius of Socalled knows no bounds. Not content with his Hip-Hop / Jewish Klezmer fusions on the excellent Ghettoblaster from 2007, he’s come back in 2011 mixing all manner of genres into his hyperactive hip-hop melting pot. This song includes female hip-hop pioneer Roxanne Shante going head to head with Calypso legend The Mighty Sparrow… and his lyrical contributions are particularly enjoyable. I could go on about Socalled until I’ve bored you all to tears and and random acts of violence, but please don’t let my ramblings put you off. Click this link and start smiling!

Thanks for reading folks! Albums and EPs next week…

8/10

It’s been a topsy-turvy year for royalty in the world of folk music, and for kings especially. After The Decemberists, newly kitted out in rural country garb, announced with their early 2011 release that The King Is Dead, the band then appeared to do a complete u-turn and resurrect the old bastard for their recent EP release, Long Live The King. But the portents don’t look good for the newly risen monarch – whoever the hell he is – because London-based outfit To Kill A King have come traipsing onto the folk rock scene with seriously crooked intent.

On the surface at least, it might be easy to assume that this latest British folk act owe much to the recent success of the Brit Award winning Mumford & Sons – especially with TKAK actually signing to Ben of Mumford’s Communion Records – but truth be told, one listen to To Kill A King is enough to convince you they’ll be turning heads thanks to a distinctive voice that is very much their own.

Many of you may already be acquainted with these lads, who originally came together up in Leeds, because of the single they dropped earlier in the year, Fictional State. If you haven’t already done so, I urge you to check it out. Lead song-writer / urban story-teller Ralph Pelleymounter doesn’t pussyfoot around, delving right into real-life issues like abortion and domestic violence, to a background of graceful acoustics, some marvellously executed swells of cymbals and brass, and then one corker of a cathartic ending. As introductions go, it’s a belter.

And now, in anticipation of an LP release in 2012, we get this four track EP, My Crooked Saint.

Like Fictional State, these four songs are firmly rooted in English urban settings, brought vividly to life by Pelleymounter’s deft knack for producing poetic, almost Swiftian, observations of the real-life characters in the world around him. His rumbling baritone, accompanied by the band’s rich orchestral surges, bring a certain grandeur to potentially bleak inner-city scenes, as he paints tangible pictures of bloody earlobes and elderly ladies singing songs that resound “down our estate”. This is a band that engage with the people, traditions and tragedies that make up our everyday lives and address these experiences with an endearing nostalgia for the human beings at their heart.

I don’t dare be as patronising as to say To Kill A King sound mature beyond their years but, seriously, when Pellymounter is singing it kind of makes me feel like one of my wise old ancestors has sat me down on his knee to extol a few home truths. When he’s passionately asserting “You are my blood!” on Family, it’s hard not to be suckered into believing him.

In terms of the songs themselves, Bloody Shirt, despite it’s obsession with the gory red stuff, is quite an easy-going welcome into the EP, with its fluttering guitar lines and catchy melodies. And there’s a lovely false ending that places good emphasis on the song’s real strength… the vocal harmonies.

My favourite song though, has to be Wrecking Crew; a song chronicling the effects of alcohol addiction and pushing the band’s sound beyond the folk rock sensibilities that drive the other tracks on here. With Pelleymounter’s deep, mournful delivery and the shrill, hurtling guitar solos, this one actually reminds me a little of why I fell in love with early Interpol. The bass is also working wonders on this track, setting the tone for the songs relentless pace, as it crashes recklessly from one chorus into the next.

For optimum enjoyment of this EP, you might want to check out the Youtube link below. The videos for all four songs make up some sort of mind-boggling interlinked narrative, which is going to need a few more watches before I finally get my head round it.

Look out for an album release next year.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – British folk rock; Mumford & Sons; Turn on the Bright Lights… for one song at least; the poetry of Jonathan Swift; bleak nostalgia; recalling the colourful characters that have made up your life

My Crooked Saint – Full Length video:

9/10

“It’s a champagne year, full of sober months”, declares Annie Clark A.K.A. St. Vincent on mid-album highlight Northern Lights; a summation that might easily be applied to this attractive set of experimental pop songs which, when you dig a little deeper, is found to be harbouring a darkly brooding core.

Take the track Surgeon for example. If you’re not careful, you’ll be all too easily allured by the playful, fluttering electronics dancing around the dainty vocals, that you’ll completely miss what she’s actually saying. Don’t worry though, it’s only sweet nothings like “I spent the summer on my back, another attack” and “best, finest surgeon, come cut me open”. In fact, there’s so much going on musically all around you as the track plays out that you won’t even notice these lyrics until the 3^rd or 4^th listen, at which point you’ll suddenly recoil from it like from a friendly new acquaintance who has just brought up his harmless obsession with butcher knives. Oh yes, that’s this album for you: a champagne experience, full of sobering moments.

This is Annie Clark’s 3^rd album in 5 years as St. Vincent, since bidding adieu to that amorphous assemblage of artists, The Polyphonic Spree. Free from the smothering effect of a band with more members than hit songs, nowadays her’s are the only two feet standing on stage (bar her backing band of course) and boy, is she revelling in the spotlight.

Strange Mercy is in many ways an improvement on her already excellent second LP Actor, taking what was great about that album – mainly the juxtaposition between loud, rowdy eccentricity and softly sung melodies – and honing this mixture into a potently spiked cocktail of delights.

Chloe In The Afternoon is a weird kick-start to proceedings, sounding like she got Bjork in to lend her warbled vocal stylings to the intro, before the song trudges its way through a grungy guitar swamp and ends up being consumed by a teeming plague of locusts… well, that’s what I’m hearing anyway.

The fun really begins with the second track, Cruel. For me this song strikes that perfect balance between being utterly deranged and yet wholly accessible. After fairy-tale strings welcome us in, a forceful militant beat and Clark’s sumptuous singing take over, leading us up to this marvellously broken-down, grubbily distorted guitar melody, which has me in its thrall still, 10 or so listens down the line. I simply can’t get it out of my head. This one guitar lead has taken over my life. Everywhere I go it comes chirruping out of my face, there’s no way to stop it. And to be honest, I’ve given up trying.

The album marries bold, abrasive sounds with sweet melody to magnificent effect throughout. Northern Lights is the most startling instance of this. It actually starts out sounding like a long-lost Rilo Kiley track, with its acoustic downstrokes and Clark adopting a very Jenny Lewis-esque singing style. But then the squishy electric guitar melody plants itself on top and we’re launched full-on into St. Vincent territory. The song builds impressively, with its persistent beat and this escalating ominous buzzing that engulfs the mix, gathering momentum through each manic interlude until we reach the wild rushing ejaculation of electronics at 2 mins 35 that the song’s been propelling us towards all along. It really is awesome stuff, both beautiful and brutal in equal measure.

There’s a lot to take in on Strange Mercy, with various layers and subtleties to each track that require repeat listens to fully appreciate. But I have no problem with this when the album presents such an instantly engaging and, despite its sombre heart, outwardly fun visage.

And the stripped back, melancholic moments can be just as affecting as the loud and unruly ones. The title track is a sympathecally sung, incredibly moving song hell-bent on revenge and Cheerleader, although deceptive in its softly delivered verses, is uncompromising in its feministic frankness, as Clark claims she has “seen America with no clothes on” and so “doesn’t wanna be a cheerleader no more”.

It seems to me that in a year when returning heavyweight females PJ Harvey and Bjork are the lead cheerleaders drawing all eyes and ears towards them, St. Vincent is the untamed talent at the back of the formation, bearing a half smile, rabid wit and cruel intentions. And, whisper it softly, her record might be the pick of this trio’s 2011 releases. Oh yes, I thank the lord for Strange Mercy.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – pop music that is fun yet dark, catchy yet experimental, abrasive yet beautiful, harsh yet soft; her previous output as St. Vincent… less so Polyphonic Spree; Bjork; Dirty Projectors; raw, grungy guitar leads; picking out layered subtleties through multiple listens

Fantastic Track – Cruel

5/10

I think, given 6 years of hindsight, it might be safe to say that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah weren’t really expecting the critical acclaim they received for their self-titled debut back in 2005. Because listening to the two rather unsure LPs that they’ve stuttered out since then, I get the sense of a band struggling to recreate that magic formula which had us all applauding wildly and nodding our approval. It’s almost as if they threw that endearing debut together on a couple of stoned nights at home – after scoring some seriously potent green – and have been striving in vain to get themselves into that golden mindset of stoner inspiration ever since.

I distinctly remember the joys of being a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah fan back in 2005. Honestly, I used to revel in introducing them to people. Their name alone was enough to prick ears up of course, but after you had set off into that album of effortless, unhurried production and groggy, indecipherable lyricism for the first time, you were hooked on it. It was as good a stoner record as an indie rock band could hope to achieve. It would draw you towards its well-executed eccentricities but still have the subtle craft to work beautifully as dependable background music. And the fact that it sounded like they weren’t even trying was perhaps its strongest quality.

But this half-arsed genius has not embodied their releases since. In fact, they’ve gone completely the other way. Now they’re trying too hard. 2007’s Some Loud Thunder was as boisterous and inconsequential as that title suggests, and in parts was virtually unlistenable. The band didn’t give a toss about re-capturing the laid-back mood of the debut, determined instead to cause a ruckus. It was a bit of a mess in truth. And the negative reaction they received for that album may well have knocked their confidence a bit, because it has been four long years between it and their 3^rd album, Hysterical.

Hysterical sees CYHSY wanting to get back to a more honed and consistent sound. This strategy at least saves the album from harbouring any unlistenable moments but, the problem is, it doesn’t really harbour any notably listenable ones either. The band are clearly trying to get back to that melodious simplicity that had us head over heels six years ago, but there’s something missing; they’ve forgotten the knack for a beguiling hook, and none really catch hold. Moments of note include title track Hysterical, which has a rewarding bassline but is unfortunately smothered by an unmemorable melody, Same Mistake, a happy little jaunt but lacking that knockout punch, and grand finale Adams Plane, which ends on some very David Bowie / Aladdin Sane piano mania.

That’s about it. The rest sneaks on past while you’ve got your back turned, not daring to catch your gaze in case you should react too severely to its presence. Safe, solid even, but forgettable.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – their cult-status debut; one of this centuries most lauded underdogs; Alec Ounsworth’s barely decipherable delivery; a band working to win us back

Fantastic Track – Same Mistake

8.5/10

As a young lad I grew up worshipping dinosaurs and the very ground they stomped on and just recently, I’m delighted to say, I’ve been revelling in a giddy trip of childhood rediscovery. This past month has seen Jurassic Park come roaring back to the cinemas, the BBC unveil Planet Dinosaur, a show all about the newest discoveries from the prehistoric age, and then Kasabian – apparently sensing this would be the ideal time to exploit my hankerings for all things carnivorous – released their 4^th album, Velociraptor!

Of course, there’s not much dino-substance to this album beyond the gimmicky name and that bemusing track that shouts “VELOCER… VELOCIRAPTOR!”, but still, the title alone played on my boyhood passions just nicely.

They’ve always struck me as a bunch of cheeky chappys, the Kasabian boys. I mean what joshers, naming their album after a little feathered dinosaur the size of an over-grown turkey and then unabashedly slapping an exclamation mark on the end for good measure. I admire the jokey way these guys never take themselves seriously when, after all is said and done, they’ve confined themselves to working within the rather tired, limiting and incredibly self-serious genre, British Ladrock.

You know what I mean by ladrock: mindless guitar-chord bashing, Stella-fuelled aggression, horrid karaoke hollerings of Wonderwall. Oasis have been the pompous trailblazers of this particular trend for the past decade and a half, but the likes of The Enemy, The Twang and Kasabian have been striving, for better or for worse, to keep this chauvinistic phenomenon relevant for the masses, whilst the soap opera that is The Gallagher Brothers gradually lost all appeal and they disappeared up their own arses.

Kasabian pander to the ladrock massives around the country, both in attitude and in the musical heritage they draw their influences from. They talk the ladrock talk, spouting out to anyone bothered to listen that this album is going to be “massive” and “change people’s lives”. And their music is predictably indebted to British guitar music through the decades; chiefly The Beatles and Kinks era of the psychedelic 60s and the chant-heavy, riff-laden Brit-pop craze of the mid-90s. All these elements have been integral to the Kasabian image up to this point, meaning that they easily retain the ready-made audience of Oasis fans seeking new cocky role models, and yet inevitably continue to alienate listeners living across the Atlantic, who have never quite got the appeal of this genre loaded with a very British, chav-oriented arrogance.

But what has kept Kasabian interesting is that they have always been more than a one-trick pony. With each new album they have demonstrated a determination to break out of the constricting parameters of ladrock, working commendably hard to push themselves into new, unexplored regions, by taking risks to evolve their sound and test the expectations of their established audience, whilst also luring in a new one. Not a straight-forward task by any means – and despite the generally enthusiastic reception for Velociraptor!, the most positive reviews are still from the British press – so the fact that most of their experiments actually come off deserves hearty congratulations.

They won many new fans with their marvellously deranged last album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. You see, this is what I love about these guys; they wear their eccentricities on their sleeves. Songs like Vlad The Impaler and Fire flaunt the usual Ladrock wares and yet head off down totally disparate alleyways from the slightly unsure, glammed-up forays of previous album Empire.

And I get the sense that the band are loving every minute of it. Compared with the painful desperation of the ever-bickering Gallagher brothers to be the 21^st century Beatles, Kasabian seem content to have fun and just, well, be Kasabian… in as many different guises as possible.

Their mischievous personalities – and especially that of song-writer Serge Pizzorno – come popping out at you throughout Velociraptor!, an album that oozes confidence in the quirkiness of their own behaviour and plays up to it as much as possible. It’s in evidence from the shimmering gong smash that opens the album, the garbled babblings that close Days Are Forgotten and the weird psychotic vocal ramblings in the bridge of Switchblade Smiles.

Like all Kasabian albums, it starts strongly, with a trio of songs that amply show off their various strengths. Let’s Roll Just Like We Used To is an understated opener in many ways, given that they’ve begun albums with the likes of Club Foot and Underdog in the past. It subtly recalls Richard Ashcroft’s Song For The Lovers in its chorus and manages to work all manner of strings and horns into the mix without ever feeling like they’re overdoing it. Next comes the brilliant Days Are Forgotten. With its primal Tarzan-like wailing and chugging riff, this is Kasabian in their element; Tom Meighan ranting out the verses in typically boisterous fashion, before rippling guitars underlay the perfectly nailed chorus. Then we quickly switch into acoustic ballad territory with Goodbye Kiss. I was initially put off by Meighan’s attempts at actually singing a song rather than shouting but, the truth is, this is one well-crafted track, gathering pace through swelling strings and Pizzorno’s timely backing-vocal interjections.

La Fee Verte makes me uncomfortable because it’s the most blatant Beatles homage on here, directly referencing Lucy In The Sky and sounding very reminiscent to that song in its laid-back beat. It provokes unwelcome reminders of Oasis and Beady Eye efforts to ape The Beatles… and yet, against all odds, it’s strangely winning me over. (As a sidenote, I have a major beef with antagonistically-inclined modern-day bands trying to pull off the acid psychedelia of the 60s, mainly because their aggressive attitudes are completely divorced from the goodwill sentiments that brought about the mood of music they’re trying to imitate. When Liam Gallagher sings ‘Let There Be Love’ it’s not him trying to liberate and unite his listeners; it’s just Liam Gallagher wanting to be this generation’s John Lennon. And he would probably punch you in the face if you dared to disagree. I don’t detect this cringing self-importance in Kasabian.)

There are Eastern sounds woven into this album too, just to tick another Beatles box. Prime example of this is the baffling Acid Turkish Bath, which comes across as a bizarre crossover between themselves, Kula Shaker and the strenuous ascending riffs of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir. I kid you not.

Kasabian are also developing a habit of holding a killer tune back until the penultimate track. Fire was that song on their last album, this time it’s Switchblade Smiles; a song I wasn’t too keen on when I heard it in isolation a few months back, but springs out at me to glorious effect at the back end of the album. The first minute is fantastic, with droning electronics building up to a deep, throaty riff; my favourite riff on here. And it all ends majestically with Neon Noon, a mellow closer and another song that showcases the ever more impressive song-writing talents of Pizzorno.

With Velociraptor! Kasabian continue to prove themselves an unpredictable force working within a very predictable genre. They will undoubtedly still be pigeon-holed with the likes of Oasis by those who simply cannot warm to the ladrock aspects that underpin their sound. And can I understand that. But Oasis, the dominant, lumbering tyrannosaur of ladrock are now extinct. And, I’ve got news for you ladrock lovers: The Gallagher brothers have been nothing but crumbling fossils for the best part of 15 years. Kasabian, with Velociraptor!, are the rightful kings of the ladrock landscape now. An ever-adapting brute, they will endure as long as they retain their wilful enthusiasm to keep scampering energetically off into pastures new. It’s been a pleasure keeping up with their clawed footprints so far.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – ladrock, but you’re sick to death of Liam’s whiny, raspy drawl; references to The Beatles, and the legacy of British rock music in general; manic wailing; a band still in their element after 4 albums and playing to their strengths; inexplicable chantings of dinosaur species; drinking Stella

Fantastic Track – Days Are Forgotten

Well, how about it folks? Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band once famous for going on stage and wrapping socks around their nobs, are still gamely bashing out rock numbers in the 4th, yes 4th, decade of their existence. You’ve got to admire their stamina, if nothing else.

I know this will come as news to no-one but I might as well spell it out… the Chilis of 2011 are far from the attention-arresting, sock swinging band they once were. Yep, I’m afraid so. These days you’ll find those socks are safely tucked away inside their lavishly expensive footwear. In fact, I bet there will be many listeners that, after dozing through their latest marathon of a record, will be calling for Kiedis and his Californian cronies to just put a sock in it altogether.

But since there is no sign of them doing that, we might as well get stuck into analysing their 10^th studio LP, I’m With You.

I’ll be honest, there’s not much I can say about I’m With You that hasn’t been said elsewhere. Phrases such as “playing it safe”, “overly polite”, “inoffensive”, “wearing thin”, “business as usual”, and “going through the motions” say it all; the Chilis are just not as vital as they used to be. They may sound pretty much the same – they still build staggering rock tracks and Kiedis still makes about as much sense as a street-bum who has necked off five too many Special Brews – but they seem to have absent-mindedly misplaced the gripping immediacy that marked them out in the high points of their career.

And, before you say it, I don’t put this down to the testing loss of acclaimed guitarist John Frusciante. I was already yawning to the Chili Peppers back in 2006, during the long hard slog that was Stadium Arcadium, and Frusciante clearly featured heavily on that.

I’m also keenly aware that RHCP are, and always have been, a majorly divisive band. For all their millions of followers, I also know a ton of people who have been especially irritated by them for well over a decade. Well, I’m here to tell you, I’m no hater. I can’t hate a band that made an album as uniformly good as Californication, it’s just not possible. Feel free to balk, but I consider it one of the best rock records of the last 20 years. And By The Way was none too shabby either, if inconsistent and, at 68 minutes long, somewhat of a chore to get through… a maddening feature of all Chili releases this century unfortunately.

I mean, who the hell keeps deciding these RHCP records have to be so long anyway? I’m With You clocks in at 60 minutes when, really, its most interesting moments total a mere quarter of this time.

Chief among these better moments is Brendan’s Death Song, which builds stirringly as it moves through various verse and chorus progressions, starting out with a graceful acoustic intro and climaxing on some creditable guitar shredding from new member Josh Klinghoffer. Apart from that, Monarchy of Roses is a sprightly, purposeful opener and Flea’s squelchy bass solo during Goodbye Hooray also summoned me out of a slouch, but the rest of it I was content to snooze through. There are moments where they experiment with the likes of pianos and trumpets – someone please tell me what they were aiming for with piano plonker Happiness Loves Company – but backed by their tried and tested rock formula, even these efforts feel too safe to inspire much emotion.

Having said that, I’m sure the Chili’s legions of die hard fans will revel in listening to Flea’s trademark bass tuggings and a fresh dose of preposterous rambles from Kiedis. And I don’t begrudge them their fun in the slightest. I’ve no beef with the Chilis continuing to release middle of the road rock records like I’m With You. They’re free to cruise along on the wave of their own popularity, without pushing the boundaries of their hard-earned image all they want… I just won’t be cruising along with them, that’s all.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – championing the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the very end; their last two lengthy LPs; some real lyrical head-scratchers from the king of lyrical head-scratchers, Anthony Kiedis; one of the world’s biggest bands who have lost their edge; a band with their socks where they should be

Fantastic Track – Brendan’s Death Song

Hopping onto the back of the electro-pop bandwagon that the likes of Metronomy, MGMT and Yeasayer have been busy boy-racing around the music scene in the past few years, Hooray For Earth nevertheless bring some freshly pimped synths to this psychedelic shindig.

But it would be an injustice to dismiss them simply as exploitative copycats of this in vogue, synth-obsessed genre. For a start, they’ve actually been plying this particular trade on and off for around 5 years now, including prime support slots for the likes of Architecture in Helsinki and Surfer Blood, yet strangely True Loves is the first full length to emerge from Hooray For Earth during this time.

The music itself is based around the home-recordings of singer and multi-instrumentalist Noel Heroux and, out of the bands name-checked at the top of this review, they come on most like a grown-up version of fellow Brooklyn boys Yeasayer. The catchy hooks are there, the heavily processed stomps and beats, but unlike Yeasayer’s fabulous Odd Blood from last year, Hooray For Earth don’t lark about as if in the thrall of some ecstatic sugar rush, instead swamping their album in some seriously dense and throbbing soundscapes.

Oh yes, they’re definitely less hyperactive than Yeasayer, but what True Loves lacks in playful party abandon it more than makes up for with beefy, anthemic pop hooks. The album bulges with them.

Take Sails for instance. You’d be forgiven for thinking the synths darting hither and thither in the opening seconds of this one are beckoning us towards a euphoric celebration of Ibiza club classics, but then the band barge in with some fine, leisurely pop verses and a stadium-chanting chorus instead. Sounds very confusing but trust me, it works.

And, like I say, it’s all very unhurried, all very precise; you can’t cut loose and go leapfrogging about the place the way you can with Yeasayer or Metronomy.

You’ve also got the song No Love. This time the synths are busy slamming ferociously around in the background when, out of nowhere, comes a most unexpected brass section; as if on a whim someone has come hurtling into the recording studio sporting trumpets for all band members. Again, I make it sound all mental and off the wall, but the band’s blatant deliberation in their approach means this is never the case.

And that is why, overall, the album doesn’t quite grip me in the same way Odd Blood does. True Loves is no doubt a commendably consistent album, which never gets too carried away with its own eccentricities (a bullet of criticism Yeasayer can’t dodge away from) but ultimately you take your thrilling highs alongside your cringing lows with Yeasayer. And because of the striking similarities between these bands, I do find myself craving the same rollercoaster of reactions from Hooray For Earth.

However, there isn’t a bad song in this bunch, and if you’ve knackered yourself out prancing manically to the likes of Ambling Alp and ONE all night, Hooray For Earth will be just the tonic to keep you chanting on into the early hours.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – synth-pop; bombasticness; (judging by the shameless amount of times I’ve mentioned Yeasayer, I’ll have to say) Yeasayer; MGMT’s Congratulations album; chanting out a good chorus; ear-piercing noises at random moments… seriously, watch the video below; a band with a big future

Fantastic Track – True Loves

7.5/10

Many people – myself included – will probably know Little Dragon less for their own music, and more for what their music does when complementing the output of others. In fact, such is their propensity for collaborations recently, it’s tempting to assume that the title ‘Ritual Union’ is actually describing the band coming together to make an album all of their own creation at last… a customary return, if you will, to recording their own stuff after all that fun breathing life into other artists’ efforts.

I was alerted to the presence of this Swedish electro-pop outfit only last year, when I bought Gorillaz’ orgy of artists, Plastic Beach. Finding the album tough to warm to initially, I returned to it in dribs and drabs, but mostly I kept coming back because I was utterly enamoured with the two Little Dragon contributions, To Binge and Empire Ants. My curiosity in the band thus piqued, I nevertheless completely failed to follow up this interest.

Then, just a month ago, I was nodding absent-mindedly along to SBTRKT’s snappy, syncopated beats when, lo and behold, Little Dragon’s firecracker vocalist Yukimi Nagano arrests my attention and steals the show again, this time over the wob-wob-wobby bass of album highlight Wildfire. Now I was definitely keen to know more about these enigmatic Swedish guest stars, who have a funny knack for popping up and enriching my experience of other musicians.

Lucky for me, just a week or so later, out they came with Ritual Union. Done with bringing the best out of others, it was time for Little Dragon to try and bring the best out of themselves. And I gotta admit, given the anticipation brought on by my long overdue unearthing of their solo material, I was not disappointed.

Ritual Union is Little Dragon’s 3^rd LP, and one that in certain respects bears traces of the acts they’ve been associated with in the past 12 months; particularly the smooth, calculated dance-beats of SBTRKT. (The best evidence of this is the song Precious, which veers almost unexpectedly towards dubstep, whilst somehow also being the most blatantly RnB inflected song on here).

But fans expecting a bold, forceful re-affirming of Little Dragon’s identity, and a return to the hyperactive, smash ‘n’ grab electronics of 2009’s Machine Dreams, may well come away disappointed. On this album Nagano and her cronies have stripped their sound right down to the bare essentials: often just one single groove or rhythm, iced over with minor tweakings of synths and, of course, Nagano’s irresistibly emotive vocal delivery.

But this doesn’t mean they’ve sacrificed creativity for the sake of minimalism. It’s a sparser experimentalism than they’re accustomed to, but still one brimming with nimble shifts in mood and tempo, all cunningly orchestrated by Nagano, whose voice scampers over the mix like a wily fox out on the prowl, teasing melodies out of the electronic ether.

It’s not an instantaneous listen, needing a few repeats before taking hold, but once these hooks start prancing about inside your head its tough to get shot of them. I especially found this the case with the title track… I’m not sure my random aping of Nagano’s high pitched vocals is winning me a lot of friends at work.

So, rank this one alongside Metronomy’s The English Riviera and Radiohead’s King Of Limbs, as one of 2011’s real growers. Little Dragon’s ritual union was well worth the wait.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – the collaborations they have done with Gorillaz, SBTRKT, Jose Gonzalez, Maximum Balloon; Yukimi Nagano’s wonderful voice… I like her, she’s ace; Electro-pop, of the minimal variety; a good grower; not being let down

Fantastic Track – Ritual Union

8/10

For Robin Pecknold and his Seattle-based folk band, the arduous making of Helplessness Blues has hardly been characterised by rising suns, Quiet Houses, and red strawberries in summertime. A quick glance at its title is enough to tell you that.

But I guess a lot can happen in 3 years to change one’s perspective on life. Back in 2008 a happy-go-lucky Fleet Foxes captured the world’s imagination with their sparkling self-titled debut album, brimming with cheery, highly inventive indie-folk. So powerful was its effect on me back then I even recall, at the tail-end of one particularly late night, sinking into my duvet with the album strutting its merry way across my consciousness and vividly seeing these simple tales of woodland folk come to life in front of my very eyes. Oh, the wonder of dreams eh?….

Pecknold had planned to follow up this surprise hit in quick-fire time, and recording began for their second album the very next year. However, such was Pecknold’s strict perfectionism, he came away utterly dissatisfied with these sessions and ended up scrapping them at a cost of $60,000. Next came the strain Pecknold’s painstaking efforts put on his relationship, which ultimately resulted in his girlfriend of 5 years deciding to walk away from it all.

It really shouldn’t be this stressful, coming up with such elegant and uplifting melodies as these.  But maybe, on the evidence of Helplessness Blues anyway, it hasn’t been such a bad motivation. The struggle has meant Fleet Foxes have come back with extra steely resolve, keenly felt in Pecknold’s meditations on the topics that were plaguing his mind in the build-up to this release.

First song Montezuma lays down this new, deeply contemplative tone right from the get-go: “So now I am older than my mother and father, when they had their daughter, now what does that say about me?” The title track, grandly anchoring the centre of the album, is another prime example, with Pecknold lamenting how he grew up believing he was somehow unique, “like a snowflake, distinct amongst snowflakes”, but now merely regards himself as a cog in some great machine. Much weightier ponderances than those of three years ago and they load this album with a much darker and self-critical core.

The sumptuous harmonies we all fell in love with are still there of course but, rather than follow Pecknold’s lead word for word, they now take more of a back-seat, supplementing his melodies with a back-drop of oohs and ahhs. And we still get the evocative swellings of strings, but sounding fuller and more expansive than on their debut. I see them as the folk-rock equivalent of Arcade Fire these days actually, unleashing these splendidly structured juggernauts, laden with nostalgia and deeply personal meaning.

There are many moments to savour; the violin interludes in Bedouin Dress, Pecknold’s stunning vocals in the opening to The Shrine/An Argument, fragile instrumental The Cascades, and the enticing nature of Loralai’s central hook, to name a few.

All in all, it’s as enriching as we all dreamt it would be. But here comes the $60,000 question: is it as good as the first? I’m going to say noooooooo, not quite. The debut incorporated a blissful escapism that the potent and very real dilemmas being touched on in Helplessness Blues naturally don’t provoke. Yet it was the debut’s very escapism that won me over initially and, after being an attentive audience for Pecknold as he gets things off his chest here, I do often find myself fleeing to the innocent, stress-free forests of the first album for relief.

Still, an incredible achievement, considering all the strife involved in its creation, and easily the best folk outfit around right now. Oh, and apparently Pecknold’s girlfriend was so won over by her ex’s efforts in her absence that she has since come scuttling back. So in the end, it seems, everybody wins.

Ch-Check It Out If You’re Partial To – barnstorming indie-folk; their debut; albums with a troubled back-story; hearing what definitely sounds like seals being massacred (the climactic stages of The Shrine / An Argument); albums with the power to win back women

Fantastic Track – Lorelai

Smother – Wild Beasts                                 

6.5/10

If ever you’re asked to provide a solid example of a band maturing as their career has progressed, I strongly recommend you use Wild Beasts. Smother might only be their 3^rd album in a fledgling career still a mere 3 years old, but they have already mellowed out considerably in this time. The difference between the restrained reflections on display in this album and the hyperactive mania of their 2008 debut Limbo Panto could not be starker. They’re still concerned with the same central theme – sex, sex, and more sex – but gone are the playful metaphors flaunted on the likes of The Devil’s Crayon and She Purred While I Grrred, and in their place are more shadowy and sinister ruminations. The new level of maturity comes into play through their cunning weaving of these darker thoughts into a softer and more intimate sound.

My problem with the album is this ambitious formula isn’t captivating nearly as often as I would like it to be. However, the tracks that do nail it are superb. On Plaything the seductive bongo beat coaxes you in to begin with, only for you to be suddenly confronted with a morally questionable relationship characterised by chauvinistic dominance: “You’re my plaything, yeah I’m wondering, yeah I’m wondering, how cruel I have been”. The soft piano keys that usher us into Lion’s Share are equally deceiving, but as soon as Hayden Thorpe’s trademark falsetto has started reassuring his partner that “it was a terrible scare, but that’s why the dark is there”, presumably after he’s finished taking his “lion’s share”, you discover you’ve unwittingly entered some decidedly dodgy territory. Second single Bed Of Nails is another notable highlight in this mould.

Overall though, I just haven’t taken to this album the way I have with their previous two. The voices of the two male leads are still a delight – especially live, I urge you to see them live – but I do prefer the more arresting sound and barely containable enthusiasm of their earlier material. An intriguing change of direction nonetheless, which aptly demonstrates how versatile their sound is, but I’ll be hoping for more energy next time around.

Fantastic Track – Lion’s Share

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Gangs – And So I Watch You From Afar                         

8.5/10

Yeah, I know. Worst band name ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER………………EVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRR.

HowEVER, and this is what it really comes down to, not the worst album ever. Not by a long shot. I don’t band 8.5s around lightly you know.

Hailing from Belfast in Northern Ireland, ASIWYFA are an instrumental rock four-piece with a penchant for edgy, racing guitar leads and furiously pounded drum-beats. Gangs, their second studio album, might be a bit hell-for-leather and absolutely bloody knackering by the time it’s through with its 45 minute onslaught, but it’s only this exhausting because I’m so thoroughly caught up in it from the first minute to the last.

And man, are this band tight. I derive genuine pleasure still, on my 9^th or 10^th listen, from trying to keep up with the meticulously structured interplay between the various instruments. All of these tracks move so organically through their various phases and I get the feeling any band member can trigger these changes of direction on impulse. On recent album Gloss Drop, Battles displayed their knack for spell-binding interplay during their own epic instrumentals, and I have now taken to viewing ASIWYFA as Battles’ rowdier, heavier siblings… with the added frenzy of Holy Fuck… and the frantic guitar leads of Dragonforce also thrown in. Don’t worry though, they don’t ever threaten the tedium of Dragonforce’s power metal wankery. In fact, they keep themselves well reined in, and I’ve been genuinely surprised by how often I’ve returned to this album for my fix of wordless pandemonium in the past few months. Gloss Drop, as it good as it is, has barely had a look in.

Fantastic Track – Think: Breathe: Destroy

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New Brigade – Iceage                                  

7/10

These 4 young punk rockers from Denmark have slowly been drawing all eyes and ears towards them as the year has gone on, since dropping their debut album New Brigade back in January. I call them punks, mainly because of the short, snappy nature of these tracks and the sheer raw, messy energy that comes spitting out of my speakers every time I brave putting it on, but they could just as easily be labelled post-punk.

This is because there is something decidedly British-sounding about this band. The singer, who bounces his voice all over this crackling mix, at times reminds me of Ian Curtis, at others of The Cure’s Robert Smith and, if you want a modern comparison, The Horrors’ Faris Rotter. Iceage have a lot more charm than The Horrors though and, despite the directness of their delivery, display a commendable amount of invention on this impulsive blast of an album.

Way more fun than all that Fucked Up, hardcore nonsense doing the rounds at the moment.

Fantastic Track – White Rune

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Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra                    

7.5/10

The story of Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a curious one; mainly because no-one had the foggiest idea who the band were and what their story might actually be when the track Ffunny Frends appeared out of the blue on Bandcamp last year. This song drew a lot attention to itself but no explanation was forthcoming regarding who was behind it.

Now, having cleverly kept the world hanging on with baited breath, we know more. UMO was founded by Ruban Nielson, a New Zealand native who transported his band Mint Chicks (yeah I know, a much better name) over to Portland in the States last year. Getting vague Flight Of The Conchords connections here.

Having changed their name to Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Nielson released this self-titled debut last month and has mostly found the enthusiasm for Ffunny Frends has not quite translated into a similar excitement for the entire album. Personally I think it’s a shame, as I’m rather partial to it. I’m very fond of the lo-fi, crackling production that gives it that retro, vinyl quality and this particularly works well when comparing their style to the likes of Captain Beefheart and Sly Stone.

There is an inherent tunefulness embedded beneath these acid rock flashbacks that means I often find myself humming the melodies as I’m shooting out e-mails at work. The guitar playing is so lovingly lethargic too, like the guitarist managed to pull his finger out just long enough to flap his fingers over the strings a few times before he sits right back down on his arse again. Expect Unknown Mortal Orchestra to get steadily more known as the year goes by.

Fantastic Track – Ffunny Frends

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SBTRKT – SBTRKT                                  

5/10

Another one whose very anonymity seems to be a strong pulling point, SBTRKT is a London-based electronic producer who keeps his true identity hidden behind some very funky looking masks.

Having listened to his debut album, I wouldn’t be surprised if the mask is whipped off his face one day to reveal a very sheepish looking James Blake underneath. The reason I say this is that, for a lot of this album, SBTRKT has employed a guy called Sampha to do his very best impression of James “I must sing every syllable as soulfully and emotively as I possibly can” Blake, and is so comparable to Blake I could easily believe this is all one big marketing promo for him. I have to admit, I’m not a fan. This singing style really grates at me actually, veering way too close to contemporary RnB for my liking.

I am a fan of the music that’s beneath it though. And, when Sampha isn’t crooning, SBTRKT invites some far more agreeable female guest-vocalists in to elevate his 2-step reminiscent, heavily syncopated beats to another level. Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano provides the pick of these on album highlight Wildfire; her passionate, shrill delivery dovetailing well with the scuttling electronics beneath her. There are also thrilling moments, like on the excellent Sanctuary, where the layered electronics remind me a little of Flying Lotus, but overall Sampha’s yearning delivery dominates too much of the album for me to be doing any more than plucking the best tracks out for my playlists.

Fantastic Track – Wildfire (Featuring Yukimi Nagano)