Prattle

Envelopes - Free jazz
Now, the Envelopes are great. They sound exactly how a Franco-Swedish, farm-based indie-punk collective should sound. Any band who elicit that number of hyphens while reminding me of the Pixies has got to be good. In concert, they were bonkers and hilariously brief.

Boy kill boy - Suzie
They look quite silly, but all of the songs I’ve heard by them so far have reminded me of Gene. Not as much as We Are Scientists do, but there’s still a Smithsy, Geney thing going on. I’m at an age where I have no problem admitting that I quite liked Gene. People seem to think it’s acceptable to own up to liking Duran Duran or A-ha, these days, so take that into consideration.

Raconteurs - Hands
The Raconteurs are less than the sum of their parts. Do I mean this? Well, their parts are Brendan Benson, Jack White and two blokes from a band that relatively few people cared about until recently. So, I suppose adding those parts together, you’re left with half of the White Stripes, a powerpop singer whose best work seems to have been heavily influenced by a co-writer, and two blokes from a band which may or may not be any good. So, I suppose, it does add up to the sum of those parts. It’s OK.

Brendan Benson - Folk singer
This is what Brendan Benson sounded like before he teamed up with the rest of the Raconteurs. Also, it’s worth noting that this (along with almost all of his other good songs) was co-written by Jason Falkner. Much better than the Raconteurs, basically.

Morning Runner - Gone up in flames
They sound a bit like the Longpigs. Is an admitted penchant for the Longpigs better or worse than one for Gene? I don’t know. Initially, I wrote off Morning Runner, because I thought they were trying to be Coldplay. But the album is full of noisy guitars and howling. So I’ve grown to like it.

Secret Machines - Lightning blue eyes
Secret Machines are the current torch-bearers for prog, while Muse are locked in a cathedral with 850 guitars and a delay pedal. They go on a bit, but there’s the occasional flash of excellence. I liked this song when I first heard it, as it slowly develops into something memorable. But when I saw the video, it came together in a more convincing way. It’s worth watching, as it’s a little out of the ordinary. Not amazingly brilliant, but certainly noteworthy.

Presets - Are you the one
The Faint failed to follow up a decent album with another one, so it’s left the door open for the Presets. Patchy, but this track’s pretty good, in a Nine Inch Nails disco sort of way. Repetitive; good.

The Knife - Neverland
Spooky, anonymous Swedes. Alright, this isn’t their best album. But there’s a couple of good tracks, and they still sound a bit edgy.

Ananda Shankar - Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Getting ready for another trip to Iceland, this track reminds me of a night in Kaffibarin when we were last there. It’s a ridiculous thing, and yet it made total sense to hear it blaring out of the speakers while I was chugging on a £6 pint of local lager.

Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs - Care of cell #44
Included for the purpose of reminding people that Susannah Hoffs is still out there. I’ve liked most of Matthew Sweet’s stuff over the years, but the covers album this is taken from is a bit too sugary for me. Still, there are a few good choices, and a couple of dreadful ones. This is one of the better ones, I think, originally performed by the seemingly underrated Zombies.

The Timelords a.k.a. The Jams - Doctorin’ the TARDIS
I think I’ve made it fairly clear that Bill Drummond’s “45″ is one of my very favourite books. Its tales of contrast between high art intentions and largely underwhelming/underachieving reality stand many repeated readings. After enjoying 45 so much, I got myself a copy of the fabled The Manual: how to have a number one hit record the easy way, which Drummond and KLF-collaborator Jimmy Cauty claim to have written about the process behind creating this song. It’s an interesting work of art, rather than a great book. But the song itself remains as catchy and amusing as it was first time round. “Doctor Whooooo; the TARDIS”, indeed. And, of course, Doctor Who returns to BBC this weekend.