Maccabees - Colour It In
Maccabees singer Orlando Weeks has an uncomfortable tremor in his voice that makes it sound as if he has inadvertently swallowed a Victoria plum. His edgy melodies - and the band's choppy guitar shapes - are no more easily digestible, but there's more to reward listeners here than you'll find on your average indie boy band album. As suggested by the album's title, lyrically the band is trapped in the preoccupations of childhood, from teenage crushes (First Love, Dumped) to the tribulations of school swimming day (Latchmere). Featuring elsewhere are Scalextric (in Precious Time), the life lesson that "Screaming 'Are we there yet?' doesn't get you there any faster" (in Lego) and the sweetness of a boozy snog (in Toothpaste Kisses). It's easy to dismiss such nostalgic absorption as immature, but the band's eccentric charm pulls them through - and with time could see their character-driven songs acknowledged as the 21st-century successors to The Kinks's.
Colour It In is out on Fiction
Midlake - Milkmaid Grand Army EP
Long before becoming immersed in the folk-rock stylings of Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young and perfecting their own richly-layered world of honest toil, it seems Midlake were much like every other alt-rock US band - they wanted to be Radiohead. Midlake, though, were better than most. This EP was originally released in 2001 and limited to a 1,000 copy run, and has been a much sought-after rarity since the band released their fantastic Trials Of Van Occupanther album in 2006. Built around metronomic beats, guitar fuzz and that singing-down-the-phone effect much loved by The Strokes, this sounds like a completely different band from the one they have transformed into. It's great stuff - especially the jazzy Roller Skate (Farewell June) - but for fans it's a bit like finding a photo of your girlfriend with her ex, except in this case it's a photo of your favourite band with Thom Yorke.
Milkmaid Grand Army is out on Bella Union
Sarabeth Tucek - Sarabeth Tucek
From the Cat Power/Mazzy Star school of smoky, female understatement, Miami-born Tucek has recorded an album of country-flecked, bittersweet beauty - perfect for warming chilly winter evenings. Produced by Bill Callahan, it has the same quiet qualities as his band Smog - slow, aching songs that take time to grab you but once they do, they hook you in like any top 40 pop song. Holy Smoke, Hey You and Ambulance are all sparse, subtle slow-burners topped by Tucek's wondrous voice. Meanwhile, proving she's not a one-trick pony, Nobody Cares is a sparkling melody that recalls Rilo Kiley when they weren't quite so polished. Bat For Lashes and Regina Spektor may be operating more successfully in the same field, but Tucek has some major supporters in Bob Dylan and Ray Lamontagne - both of whom asked her to support them recently. Captivating.
Sarabeth Tucek is out now on Echo
Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
22-year-old Dev Hynes looks on his career to date as a sequence of musical adventures, which explains why his last band (Test Icicles) made art-punk and his current one is a country pop act. It's not that straightforward of course, for while the album sounds like some spangle-booted version of Americana, Dev's lyrics spiral off into all manner of unsavoury places. Simultaneously dreamy and revolting, Midnight Surprise asks us to "wake up and smell the semen", while the otherwise gorgeous Galaxy of the Lost describes a lover's kiss where "I'm sick in your mouth/ I know you want more". Er, no thanks. Elsewhere there is much to admire, thrill and turn the stomach.
Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is out on Domino
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Epic and commercial, BSP's third album has grand musical scope that matches Arcade Fire's. It majors in an odd, arch, English triumphalism that's still uplifting despite the obtuse humour at play. Second track No Lucifer somehow combines a popular football-terrace chant with Pope Benedict XVI's past involvement with the Hitler youth movement and the joys of Raleigh bicycles - and yet it' the catchiest rock song you're likely to hear in 2008. Waving Flags, meanwhile, achieves its goal as an egalitarian anthem, uniting all in a celebration of quality lager. Throughout, there is much to startle and make the hairs on the back of your neck bristle.
Do You Like Rock Music? is out on Rough Trade
Dean Owens -
Whisky Hearts
Recorded in Tennessee with a stellar supporting cast of musicians - most notably guitar legends Will Kimbrough and Al Perkins - this is an album with its boots in Nashville and its hat in Owens's native Scotland that succeeds in blending Celtic soul with country and rock. Beginning with the sound of the producer marking the tape (the kind of thing you're more likely to hear on an Elvis out-takes album), you get the sense that this quality album is Owens's dream come true. It brims with fantastic songs - the opening Years Ago is reminiscent of Springsteen and the E Street Band in their swaggering pomp, Beth on a Trampoline and Sand in My Shoes expertly hit a chilled, west-coast 70s vibe, while Man from Leith is a simple and heartfelt eulogy to Owens's father. The result is an album you'll keep coming back to and sharing with like-minded friends like a prized bottle of single malt.
Whisky Hearts is out on Vermillion Road Records
Wu Tang Clan -
The 8 Diagrams
Getting the eight surviving members of Wu-Tang Clan together again (Ol' Dirty Bastard died in 2004) must have taken some doing. The original business model, based in part on organised-crime families, was that they worked as a collective of individuals who helped each other's solo careers as well as their joint project - but the group itself has been largely forgotten in the past decade. The 8 Diagrams is an incredible return, mixing dusty thriller movie dialogue with their trademark grime beats and violent rap narratives to stunning effect and proving that they're still a step above their hip-hop peers. The Heart Gently Weeps brilliantly builds around a sample of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, while elsewhere White Linen Affair and Walk Around demonstrate that they remain a unique force.
The 8 Diagrams is out on Bodog
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
Lupe's 2006 debut saw the emergence of a rapper with a positive mindset that made Kanye West sound like Morrissey, a flow reminiscent of hip-hop's pop years in the 80s and a Muslim upbringing that gave him a different spin on American life. The Cool is goofy enough to quote Inspector Gadget ('Go Baby Go') but amid slick pop cuts like Superstar, there's also brilliant social commentary in Little Weapon and an articulate, damning attack on cliched gangsta culture in Dumb It Down. Like every rap album, there's a slew of guest appearances but only one is from the predictable A-list roster as Snoop brings some doggy style to Hi-Definition. Instead, collaborators like UNKLE (on the tense and atmospheric Hello Goodbye) and Fall Out Boy's Matthew Santos (on Superstar and Fighters) make The Cool a genuine step forward.
The Cool is out on Atlantic
Tom Baxter - Skybound
Unlike James Blunt and David Gray (both of whom share some vocal similarities to this artist), Tom Baxter seems to really love and believe his own music. It's humourless and soppy for sure, but Baxter's sincerity is the thing that pulls Skybound above many of his British male singer-songwriter peers. A Night Like This is the first of many lively excursions that come within a whisker of over-indulgence, while Tell Her Today will tempt you to whisper 'Suffolk's answer to Jeff Buckley'. But it's the soaring ballads that have made Baxter a star and white-vest model. Skybound is a brilliantly arranged song that features flamenco guitar and dark strings but with a chorus that lifts the spirit, while Better is like an acoustic take on Coldplay but without Chris Martin's questionable falsetto. Those tempted by the hits will discover a serious, talented artist with plenty of musical depth but lacking in any edge whatsoever.
Skybound is out on Universal
Kylie - X
Following the format well trodden by Britney, Fergie, Gwen - and before them all Madonna - X teases cutting-edge dance sounds and production techniques into a shiny box and ties them all up with a sparkly bow. It doesn't really work. Kylie is at her best when setting out to make feel-good pop rather than a cool statement, so it's the more simplistic tracks that work best here - which means that the camp disco of The One and Wow, the kitsch Like a Drug, single 2 Hearts and Sensitized are all fabulous. But, sadly, like an under-stuffed Christmas stocking, there are plenty of fillers to pad out the treats. All said and done, though, a solid comeback from the popstar's popstar.
X is on Parlophone
The Little Ones - Ordinary Song
A great pop song about great pop songs, Ordinary Song recalls the days when we'd fall in love with music through the crackle of an AM radio station. Like all of this wonderful band's tunes, it's wrapped in 60s innocence and is as catchy as hell.
Ordinary Song is out on Heavenly
The Wombats
This Liverpool trio is following its sell out December tour, Liverpool Capital of Culture show and NME Brats shows with a major nationwide tour in May. It'll be the sparkling, stupidly-catchy indie pop from the album A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation that everyone will have bought tickets to hear, but if they're lucky they might also witness Tord Overland Knudsen singing the theme tune to Postman Pat in his native Norwegian.
The Wombats play Norwich UEA on 27 April and then tour nationwide. For full dates and ticket details go to thewombats.co.uk/gigs
Scotch Mist
Watch Radiohead's complete New Year's Eve webcast featuring every song from In Rainbows performed live with Thom York in top wobbly-head form.
Tags: Scotch Mist Film Radiohead
The Metros
Depending on your age, you might be impressed to learn that The Metros used to go by the name of The Wanking Skankers. Add to this their humourous song-smithery and cock-er-nee accents and this lot could be shaping up as one of the most annoying novelty acts of 2008. However, these likely lads rather charmingly bash their influences - ranging from Grange Hill to The Blockheads - into an enjoyably rough-and-ready, knockabout pop riot that works because the tunes are smart. It's a bit like The Libertines with a rocket up their arse.
See more of the band at myspace.com/
themetrosband
Reviews by Johnny Dee
FIRST POSTED JANUARY 18, 2008
