This month's round-up

I haven't been around to post whimsy this month, so here's a round-up of the music I'm proffering for your enjoyment.

1) Django Django

Yep, I know Django Django are getting to be irritating: whilst not exactly 'old' news, they are 'particularly-hyped-news-that-we've-heard-enough-about' at the moment. If you haven't heard them, Django Django make playful pop-rock laced with nice harmonies, and it's youthful in a way that's hard to pin down.

2) Radiohead

Another band you've heard too much from - Radiohead have been the object of sustained hype for two decades now. When will they run out of steam? We just can't know. King of Limbs is an awesome an album as In Rainbows, and in my opinion, both of them are improvements on their 90s prog-indie. Over the last few releases, they've perfected the no-mood musical nihilism that puts all the world into perspective; you don't have to be miserable to listen to Radiohead anymore.

(I tried to find you a nice proper video but the only live ones didn't have anything on the album version.)

3) Neutral Milk Hotel

Another 90s band I'm late to add to this blog, but an awesome one worth writing about anyway. I've been entranced by 'Oh Comely'; it has a beautiful suspension in the chord progression, simple and elegant, and it grows into something wondrous.

(By contrast, I think this does the song perfect justice.)

Reporting Back on Carl, Belle and Sebastian and Radiohead

When The 405 originally posted news of Carl Barât's new album and tour dates, following the tumbleweed came the comment, "Who's he?"


Carl Barât was the co-frontman of the influential but sadly disbanded rock band The Libertines. After two chaotically recorded albums and a Hell of a lot of druggery, he went on to front Dirty Pretty Things, whose demise was signalled by arguments and a weak second release well before they ultimately split in late 2008. Recently announced a father-to-be of London singer Edie Langley's baby, Carl Barât released a self-titled album this October.

I have to say, Carl is at his best when playing fast, Django Reinhardt-influenced riffs and snarling into the mic like the Angry Young Man he used to be. This album showcases his softer, piano-lead side. Where Pete Doherty, his recognised other half, succeeded with his gentle poetic lyrics and endearingly idiosyncratic inability to sing, Carl appears lacklustre when he's not attacking a fretboard. The whole album is a little hard to get into, and the lyrics try for archaic and often don't quite hit the mark. Plus, the cover image is the biggest testament to narcissism since... well, The Libertines' 'Narcissist'.


It's not bad though, considering a few years ago, Carl hated going onstage alone. It showcases competent songwriting and some enticing listens, like my favourite 'The Fall' (even if it does contain the lines "upon a sticky nightclub floor, a wilted rose I found, I snatched her from the clutches of an evil-smelling boar"). I don't think I was expecting particular greatness despite being a Carl fan, but I reckon Carl Barât's debut needs a Pete, John or Gary, a Didz or an Anthony, just to take that songwriting and bring it to life.


Belle and Sebastian, songsmiths of the twee pop age, have brought out an album recently too. Write About Love doesn't try for anything pretentious, it's that beautifully melodic, glistening pop that it was predicted to be. Strong like 2006's The Life Pursuit, perfectly produced and intensely listenable, I fell in love with Write About Love on first listen. It has a few more dips in quality than their last album, perhaps, but is just as musically adept: they have really developed their style this last few albums, and it's only got more lovable.

My final comment is probably the most filled with passion. In Rainbows. Yes, I'm incredibly late, don't blame me, I've been busy. Gorgeous chords, ingenious melodies flowing over and under atmospheric vocals, edgy drums, compelling lyrics... Radiohead may have made the news for their innovations in methods of release, but they've also made a brilliant album. There is a reason they're one of the most 'listened to' bands on the planet. Below is an incredibly cool video for 'Bodysnatchers' by Glann Marshall.

Bodysnatchers - Zeno Music Visualiser from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo.

10 Songs I Love Right Now - 23/12/08

The Cribs - Fairer Sex

This song is a Cribs B-side, and though I might be hearing the uninitiated screaming, how could the B-sides be any more underproduced than the albums?!, they manage it and it makes them even better. The raw, well-played guitar, especially in the soft chorus section, just knocks me out. On top of this, could Gary sound any more vulnerable with those lyrics and that voice?

Dirty Pretty Things - Deadwood

The little guitar solo that appears a few times in this song is an absolutely perfect thing to wake you up and cheer you up. With Dirty Pretty Things playing their last ever gig a few days ago in London, I felt it necessary to put a DPT track in here, and Hell, this is a VERY good track. It's hyper, well-written and you can't tell me it's not about a certain Mr Doherty in concept at least.

Sonic Youth - Reena

From the most recent of twenty albums (!), Rather Ripped, Reena floats along, carried by a brilliant dizzy riff and ambiguous lyrics about a new 'friend' who showed the breathy singer how to 'live in the end'. It's very beautiful, and it hits a chord with the dreamer in me. It is a very pretty, uplifting track.

Idlewild - No Emotion

No Emotion is a gorgeously melancholy and melodic track which you can play when you're happy or sad, because it spans such a huge range of emotions. The lyrics and some of the melodies are quite sad, but the playing is exuberant and aggressive and the vocals are often quite uplifting. Competing to get in here as well was In Competition for the Worst Time which is a brilliant song containing the lyric "In competition for the worst first line I could use in conversation for the first time". The internal rhymes in there are genius. ;)

Janis Joplin - Down on Me

This has to be one of the most uplifting of Janis Joplin's tracks. The version I've got is a live one, and that she could pull off that skill in her singing live quite bemuses me. It helps that the pretty conventional 60's backing with raucous guitars and jazzy bass is brilliantly played too.

Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien

While the progressive giddiness of Paranoid Android is the most startlingly enthralling on OK Computer, I have recently been very impressed with this track. It's soft guitar entrance is just the most wonderful thing, and is followed by a witty but rather sad description of what humans would be like from the opinion of an alien (Think the Savage from Brave New World seeing humanity after he's let loose).

Robin Williamson - Black is the Colour

Suddenly this harp-endowed love song holds more meaning for me. I think you have to relate to love songs, but even if you don't, this masterpiece of harp playing and beautiful story about a lost love makes lovely listening. He was in The Incredible String Band...remember? Hmmm, maybe not.

Sonic Youth - Rats

I have been obsessed with this song for about 2 weeks. It's dark, sultry intro with cross-rhythms and raw guitar distortion sends a shiver down my spine. Then when the vocals enter, deep, angry and saying the most wonderfully paradoxical lyrics, I am just lost. I showed my friend and she said it was amazing how he managed to sound so hurt. "If you're ever feeling low down in the fractured sunshine, I'll help you feel the noise" is a very very atmospheric lyric indeed. In fact, 'atmospheric' sums up the song.

The Specials - Little Bitch

Ska passed me by a bit, probably because I wasn't born. This track sums up The Specials so simply - you can hear rock in the intro and then it breaks into goodtime reggae. It's also a great angry and mocking track; the chords in the intro are great, and then the nasty lyrics and shouting of 'ONE TWO!' and of course 'I know you know you're just a little bitch!' make the song.

Suede - Can't Get Enough

This sounds like a lost Britney track: you know, the one which all the rockers secretly like but won't admit to it, dance around the bedroom to but turn it off when their parents come up the stairs. The best thing is that you don't have to turn it off because it's under the guise of being a nineties Britpop track. Get that hairbrush and start spinning round that room.

Thanks for reading...and please do have a little look at the songs, they are all very good. Have a great Christmas if you celebrate it, a great New Year too. Consume too much alcohol and listen to too much music - too loud. ;)

10 Songs I Love Right Now - 28/09/08

Biffy Clyro - Buddy Holly (Weezer Cover)

I actually heard this cover before I heard the original. I assumed that the original would be pretty out there too; I went looking for it and found a sweet American pop song. Biffy have magically transformed this track into something very impressive. Built around ridiculously complex time signatures and shifting melodies, this is an amazing musical masterpiece. Then the Scottish voices singing the lyrics over the brilliance, following the original tune but fitting it very loosely around the backing just make the song what it is. They made it better. Obviously I'm biased, Biffy being my favourite band, but seriously, this would be a good cover either way.

Envy & Other Sins - Help Yourself

This song is so damn happy. I bought it on the Prodigal Son single at a gig in Stratford, a self-released venture by Envy & Other Sins which didn't really get anywhere, but which is really quite brilliant. Two days afterwards I fell madly in love with them on stage at Birmingham ArtsFest, and for days after that I was playing Help Yourself on repeat in blissful retreat from the world around me, and for that time I was happy. So it's a happy song for me now, very happy.

Caetano Veloso - Irene

I can't explain my love for this song very well, it's all emotional. For a start, it's my dad's music, which brings an element of guilt into it for me, but I can't deny how great it is. It's a love song with quite melancholy lyrics (when translated from Portugese) but the tune and the rhythm is so uplifting and cheerful. It makes me want to skip down the street, it's so beautiful and carefree.

Radiohead - Planet Telex Ah Radiohead. I suppose I'm late to discover Radiohead - it's not my fault I was born at the wrong time! This song is everything at the moment, eerie and sad but also perfect for encapsulating everything I feel. "Everything is broken." It's a dreary lyric, but it fits my mood - the rest of the words are generic enough to capture hundreds of people's feelings, but specific enough to feel like they apply to me only. It's set to very moving music too. My Iron Lung is also capable of this, the funk-rock heaviness towards the end giving me something to mosh to in my front room. Love.

Blur - Wear Me Down

This song is a bit dull to be honest. It's a twisted love song with sweet but predictable melodies and very little lyrical or rhythmic interest. But it's sexy, I suppose, the sleepy, deep vocals compelling and disobedient; the song is gorgeously morose and angsty, and when I don't want to hear something happy and I don't want to hear something sad, it's the perfect compromise. Damon's voice always gets me too. It's special.

Flight of the Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)

I don't know, this song is just hilarious. The lyrics are hilarious and very cruel ("You're so beautiful like a tree or a high class prostitute, you could be a part-time model but you'd probably sitll have to keep your normal job"), but beneath them there's a very sweet tinge to this song which makes anyone with half a heart go 'awwwww'. He really seems to want to be with this girl, just has no tact whatsoever. It's cute and sweet and outrageously funny.

Biffy Clyro - Stress on the Sky

I love everything about this song. I love its name and its lyrics and the cover of the album it is on (Blackened Sky) and its screamo patches and quiet patches, its intro and its beautiful harmonies, and most of all I love the quiet, considered riff after about a whole minute of heavy guitar and aimless shouting. This song is tied to a very depressed few months in my existence, and whenever I listened to it, it took the world off my shoulders and made me sink into bliss for 4 minutes. The need for that has passed now, but I cannot help but feel a ridiculous attachment to the beauty of it.

Blur - Blue Jeans

This song is a very pretty melodic slow one about the mundanity of modern life (Blur's favourite topic) but I find it more attractive than others they have done of the same type. It brings up images of a failing relationship, going so well, so much love being lost to a tide of boredom and repetition. The chorus has such lovely harmonies and melancholy sweetness. It's an emotional sigh of a song.

The Cribs - Baby Don't Sweat

It's mostly the intro to this song which makes it great. It's sexy and raw and the whole track is upbeat without being too upbeat to listen to when you are miserable. It's simple but attractive, and best of all, I can play it on my guitar!

Marmaduke Duke - The Beaver and the Rabbit

Finally, Marmaduke Duke. Simon Neil's side project, I was bound to like it really. This song is angry and it doesn't fit into any of the usual structures songs have. There's no time signature that you can stick to, it's always morphing, the guitar work is simply amazing, and while the screamo bits are almost TOO experimental, it works. Stunning moments of harmony puncture the very hard and rough tune and it's impossible to listen to it without an open mouth.My 10 tunes of right now, explained.

Go and listen, go and explore, they are all mind-blowing.