Prattle

Plus-Tech Squeezebox - Fiddle-dee-dee
Didn’t manage to see them in Japan, but listened to them a lot. This is a particularly manic track from their preposterous second album.

Dan Deacon - Okie Dokie
This album was in my chart of 2007, but it only really made sense once I saw him in the flesh. One of the great live experiences, perhaps, as Deacon took an admittedly willing crowd through a serious of singalongs, dance-offs and party games. All to the sound of a demented Nintendo Gameboy.

Oppenheimer - Look Up
Saw these two on the same day as Dan Deacon, and found that they made a lovely and full sound, while filling our ears with pop tunes. This one’s the finest, I think.

The Whip - Dubsex
Not sure why I’ve included this one. Nearly ditched it in favour of an Envelopes song, but it seemed to fit this list of songs. It’s good, even if it’s got a very crap name.

Frank Turner - Reasons not to be an idiot
Hadn’t heard of this bloke ’til we saw him at Dot to Dot. Very good, though very conventional. Wouldn’t be surprised if this was recorded “as live”, with minimal overdubs.

Lightspeed Champion - The Flesh Failures
I didn’t want to like Lightspeed Champion, but his live show is impressive and enjoyable. He’s tremendously talented, and brighter than both the name and music of his former band (Test Icicles) would suggest. This is an acoustic b-side, particularly enjoyable when sitting under a clear blue sky.

The Little Ones - Morning Tide
Oh look, it’s them again. This is from the album which refuses to come out. Like the band, who refused to turn up to Dot to Dot, for some reason. I was very disappointed by that, and was initially disappointed by the album. But it’s grown somewhat, and this single is particularly and characteristically jolly.

Ida Maria - I like you so much better when you’re naked
Brilliant. Saw her playing at Dot to Dot, and was utterly captivated for the half-hour set. The album has a couple of flat spots, but this is bloody marvellous.

Nada Surf - Whose Authority
The album came out ages ago, and I was a bit underwhelmed by it. But a few more listens, and the many understatements and whispers eventually tapped their way through. This is one of the most instantly appealing tracks, though I’m still not sure about the lyrics. It’s a glorious noise, anyway.

Death Cab for Cutie - Long Division
The new album didn’t impress, sadly. I liked the last one, and I still love the Postal Service album. He appears on the Nada Surf album, and perhaps he should’ve got them involved in his album. Perhaps he did. Doesn’t sound like it, apart from on this track. It’s in no way representative of the album, but certainly doesn’t suffer because of that.

Pendulum - Granite
Dancepopmetalrockno. They’re everywhere, of course. They weren’t when I first put this track into my podcast folder, but that’s inertia for you.

Miles Kurosky - An apple for an apple
Now, I’ll have no criticism of this. Miles Kurosky is something of a superhero, in my eyes. Responsible for some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard, he’s also had seven shades kicked out of him by the music industry and ill-health. Yet here he is, with this masterpiece (ripped from MySpace, hence the crappy sound quality). I may book a day off work to devote the appropriate attention to his solo album, when it’s released. He’s a king, and this song gets better and better with every listen, until it gets dangerously close to usurping some of his finest songs with Beulah.

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There. Now can everyone stop getting cancer, please.

Jakobinarina - This is an advertisement
Went to a 6Music-sponsored gig at the Fleece the other week, which was headlined by the amusingly dreadful Cribs. There were two support bands, of which Jakobinarina were the second and the best. They’re not likely to change the world, but they’re good fun and the album is 20% brilliant, 30% good and 47% OK (3% margin of error).

Soulwax - NY Excuse
An old one, but I seem to have been playing it at enormous volume in the car recently, so I think you ought to enjoy it for yourselves. I seem to remember the woman is Nancy Whang, of LCD Soundsystem (and possibly the partner of one of the Dewaele brothers). I’M GETTING LOUD WITH YOU!

Future of the Left - Manchasm
Hooray! Andy Falkous, out of Mclusky, is back with another noisy band. Ridiculous lyrics remain, including “Colin is a pussy, a very pretty pussycat” or something similar. Great song, I think.

Ting Tings - that’s not my name
Crap sound quality on this one, I’m afraid. I got a clearer version, but it’s a different recording/mix, which I think is weaker than this one. Great song, which only seemed to go out on 7″. No doubt it’ll reappear.

Hoover’s Ooover - something in Japanese
I don’t have a translation of the name of this song. Been listening to them a bit more, due to recent Japanese flight bookings. Liked them since they appeared on the outstanding Adam & Joe Go Tokyo a few years ago.

Little Ones - Lovers who uncover
This has been around for ages, I think. It’s worth it just for that shouty bit in the middle.

The Bravery - Angelina
I was fairly surprised they bothered with a second album. Not many people noticed it was released, it seemed. Among the OK songs on that album, was this rather popmungous tunefest.

Rooney - Stay with me
This came out years ago, and must’ve got some play on radio somewhere, because I remember liking it. Doesn’t do a great deal, but it’s got a nice feel to it. Rooney have returned with another album, which is pretty much 100% pop, and occasionally slightly embarrassing. Still, I’m going to see them play in a few weeks’ time, so I’m revising.

King Jacks - nothing lasts forever
I don’t think they’ve actually released anything yet, but this is a song by a new London band, who will doubtless flower into the latest Libertine Monkeys copyists. Anyway, this song reminds me of Milburn’s “What you could’ve won”, and I appear to be the only person on the planet who thinks that’s a very good thing indeed. Not sure if this is quite as good as that, but I like it anyway.

The Wannadies - Hit
I’m not going to have any argument about this. Hit is one of the greatest singles ever recorded. Its place in the historical pecking order varies on a daily basis, but it remains a brilliant, brilliant song. Included here for no reason other than it’s fantastic.

Pepe Deluxe - Mischief of cloud six
Er, what? (”I say yeahyeah”) Mmm? Sounds like Mike Flowers Pops. Ridiculous thing.

Eberg - Twinkle Tune
Icelandic man whose album features a song about moving to Wales. But it’s this one that really marks him out as being more than just another icelandic bleepyscratchysoundscape merchant. Some lovely noises, and the video features lots of Icelandic landscape shots. Have a look on youtube.

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Zaijian/Sayonara.

Black Francis - Threshold Apprehension
90 seconds too long, but this is the best thing he’s done since Bossa Nova. It’s shouty, tuneful and very silly. The rest of the album fails to match up to it, but is still largely good. I like to shout “Threshold, threshold, threshold, threshold” in the car of a morning. I’ve always done it, but now it makes more sense. hur. pfff.

Polytechnic - Won’t you come around
“Look. We need a bit more top in his voice.” is a sentence the producer of Polytechnic’s reed and nasal debut album will not have uttered during the mixing process. We saw them play, and his voice very nearly disabled the upper registers of my hearing. Still, the album is very good indeed. Reminds me of Pavement at times, were it not for that voice.

Modest Mouse - Missed the boat
They’ve been under-performing for ages, this lot. Many would disagree, but I like them more when they make their concessions to commercialism. The album’s better than the last one, and it seems that they and the Shins are moving in slightly different directions, but towards the same end point.

Voxtrot - Kid gloves
Yeah, I included a Voxtrot track last time, didn’t I? I said I’d dig around for the album, and that’s what I did. It took a couple of listens, but it was worth it. Vocal fragility, but some beautifully constructed songs, making it difficult to choose one for inclusion. But I’ve completely fallen for this one, so I had to share (even if it results in a unanimous reaction of shrugs and blank expressions). Give it a chance.

The Concretes - Keep yours
How will they survive without (”one of”) their lead singer(s)? They’ve pretty much carried on where they left off, only they’re not quite as good as they were last time. This is one of the better tracks on the new album, I think. I’ll give the album quite a few more chances, but it’ll be hard to shift that slight sense of misdirected betrayal.

Mark Ronson (featuring Paul Smith) - Apply some pressure
Let’s face it, this album is going to be everywhere this summer. Songs on adverts, instrumental tracks underneath sporting montages… It’s fun, though. Here Ronson fails to ruin one of my favourite songs of recent years. He makes it more summery, doesn’t really improve it a great deal, but neither does he ruin it. So I’m grateful for that.

Apples in Stereo - The bird that you can’t see
I know I’ve been pushing them a bit, but I’m tremendously excited about seeing them live next month. This track is from their 2000 album, “Discovery of a world inside the moone”. They don’t play it live, it seems, but I’ll be playing it in the car whenever the sun comes out, so I don’t really mind.

Patrick Wolf - The magic position
He supported the Arcade Fire the other month, and put on a reasonably good show, I thought. I was expecting to hate him, on prio reputation, but he seemed enthusiastic and genuine, with more tunes than I thought he’d have. His new album’s patchy, with the best tracks loaded into the first 15 minutes or so. This is one of them.

Art Brut - Direct hit
Fantastic. Art Brut are back, and I’ll be seeing them play in a couple of weeks’ time. Snippets of the new album point to slightly heavier and fuller sound, but they haven’t dumped their sense of fun.

Manic Street Preachers - Imperial bodybags
Talking of fun, the Manics could be making the most unlikely of comebacks, this year. Sample tracks from the new album suggest they’ve rediscovered the kind of form I thought they’d permanently lost. The current single, featuring vocals from the dreamy Nina Persson, as well as a well-placed couple of lines sung by Nicky Wire, is brilliant. They’ve always been pretentious and pompous, but now they seem to have found a sense of fun. It sounds like they’re enjoying themselves again, and are no longer afraid to show it.

I’m consciously restraining my language in relation to this album, because splurging out my unadulterated joy at hearing The Manics Of Old blaring through my speakers will only make you think I’m drunk. Basically, considering how long I’ve been following their ever-worsening career, this kind of quality is very nearly enough to bring a tear to the eye.

Richard Cheese - Welcome to the jungle
Silly. Been around for ages, but the woman taking a class at the gym a few weeks ago played a Richard Cheese track as a sort of cool-down thing at the end. Prompted me to go back and listen again.

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C’mon, the Ospreys.

Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism
Good, reasonably funky return from NIN. Silly, silly lyrics, but I’m a fan of nuReznor. I’d like to hear Pretty Hate Machine with the production values of his latest albums.

Voxtrot - Wrecking Force
Look out, it’s another Cure-fixated bunch of American janglemasters. Good, though. Stumbled across this in a newsgroup, with little explanation. A fairly good EP, so it should be interesting to hear an album. I’ll do some digging.

Euros Childs - Bore Da
A Bore Da i chi, Euros. Dydw i ddim yn hoffi coffi ar y bws, ond mae ceffyl yn siarad ffrangeg yn y cae. Fluid, I am. It’s not Gorky’s, but it is quite sweet. “Bore Da” means “Good Morning”, by the way.

…And they will know us by the trail of dead - Relative ways
Saw them playing a pretty heavy set a few weeks ago, and made numerous mental notes to go back to previous albums. This was particularly good, with its deafening crescendo.

Maximo Park - Karaoke plays
They’ve come back with a belting new single, but the forthcoming album also contains this almost glorious two-parter.

The Rakes - Suspicious eyes
I thought the rap was done by Mr. Plan B at first, but it’s not. I thought he’d finally come full Ali G and claimed to be “brown”. But he didn’t. Still, this isn’t a bad way to write about the 7th July bombings, even if the rap is a bit ham-fisted.

Switches - Drama Queen
E.L.O. again, from the energetic tykes with too many tunes. Great, this.

CSS - alcohol
Everyone fancies her, don’t they? And this one sounds like the Sugarcubes, I think.

The Aliens - Rox
I absolutely love this. It’s almost a reprise of Robot Man on the album (borrowing, as it does, some of its lyrics and hooks) but it doesn’t need its more familiar donor to prop it up. There’s more than a whiff of Madchester about it, and that synth sound gets better with increased volume.

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Apples in stereo - 7 Stars
It is technically impossible to over-play the new Apples In Stereo album. It is as close to pop perfection as I’ve heard in… ever. Yes, it’s making me incomprehensible. This song, like many others on the record, also features a vocoder, which makes it worth loving on its own.

Of Montreal - A sentence of sorts in Kongsvinger
Tough choice between 3 tracks, but this one gets included on account of its excellent opening lyric. Catchy 70s disco feel to the music, combined with lyrics about Nordic black metal.

Gruff Rhys - Candylion
The wrong time of year to be listening to this gently piece of summertime, I suppose. It’s light, sweet and memorable. Will there be more Super Furry Animals albums? Dunno. I ought to look it up, really.

Dears - Above a lake of fire
Why would you tuck this away on a b-side? Great song, which I think they played at their last triumphant gig in Bristol. Their live shows always leave me feeling drained, but this is a much easier affair.

Number One Cup - Divebomb
Strange. I was sat in front of the telly, and some music was playing. Might have been on MTV2, or it might have been background music for rugby highlights, or something. Whatever it was, it went “dum dumda dududu-dum.” and I thought “nyeeeeeeerm”. So a few days later, I went and found the Number One Cup album and listened to Divebomb. Here it am. Nice to hear it again.

Brakes - Hold me in the river
Last year’s album didn’t really impress me. It’s slowly grown on me, however, so I’m glad I kept going back to it. They’re composed from the remnants of other bands, and often sound like someone else. Bits of Mclusky in there, amongst other things.

Shins - Phantom Limb
I like the fact that the Shins are out there, making music and being heard be relatively small numbers of people. They’re loved by few, but have now produced three very pleasing, gentle albums. The new one has a bit more energy than the previous two, and perhaps a bit more breadth to the sound.

L.E.O. - Make me
Absurd. Something of a temporary project, featuring various powerpop luminaries, the Alpacas Orgling album contains numerous loving tributes to E.L.O. and any other things Jeff Lynne has touched in the last 30 years. Wilburyesque at times.

Arcade Fire - Black mirror
I’ve had this for a while, and still haven’t listened to it. I don’t really want to hear any of the songs from the new album unless they’re in the context of the whole album. Sounds like a big crescendo, which is nice.

The Good, the bad & the Queen - The Good, the bad & the Queen
Cheer up, Damon. This song ends the album with a dEUSesque racket. Reminds me of Instant Street, which is always a good thing. The album’s very downbeat, but more tuneful than I anticipated. Bit like Blur’s 13, in some respects. He does talk bollocks, though.

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