Get the Elbow album a week early!

This is very cool, I just found out you can get Elbow’s ‘Leaders Of The Free World’ available a week before the official release date! Its a cracking album, which I managed to get a listen to some time ago – I blogged about it here. I’m going to see them at Koko next week….I’ll be reviewing that gig here of course.

The press release says : On 12th September, elbow will release their eagerly anticipated third album, “Leaders Of The Free World”.

Elbow’s label, V2 are offering the album exclusively a week before release through TellJack. By visiting TellJack you have the opportunity to pre-order the upcoming album in digital or physical format receiving the content anything up to a week before the official release date. They have packages including free bonus material like the videos for ‘Station Approach’ and ‘Forget Myself’

They write this about the Album:

Twelve months in their very own Blueprint studio in Manchester, with a little trip to LA to mix with Tom Rothrock and some finishing off mixing with Marius De Vries in London, has produced an album that the band feel is their very best yet. With production duties shared amongst the band and an all pervading sense of their home town seeping through the tracks, this is an album that fully justifies all of the claims made on Elbow’s behalf in previous years.

Or you can read my review – which is posted here

Stephen Fretwell – Magpie

This was released in 2004 – and completely slipped under my radar, despite being absolutely fantastic. I was browsing an HMV recently, and saw the cover – with snippets of reviews from Elbow, Athlete and Snow Patrol, as those are bands I like, I guess I picked it up on the strength of those. Its a mellow affair, almost folky in some parts – and full of melancholic, well contsructed songs. In some parts I can hear early Springsteen and even Hothouse Flowers – in other places its in a world of its own…dark and brooding with lovely vocals throughout. Its a superb album – and highly recommended. To add to the great news, I managed to get tickets to see Stephen Fretwell at Kings College in September…its sold out, but I’ll be there to report!

Sigur Ros – Takk

Takk means ‘thanks’ in Icelandic apparently, although personally I think that the thanks should be going in the opposite direction – because this is the best thing that Sigur Ros have given us so far. I managed to get two complete listens to this yesterday, and it truly is a stupendous album. They haven’t taken much detour from their usual paths and soundscapes, overlayed with great vocals (in whatever language they call that these days – Hopelandic?). The stand-out tracks for me are the single glósóli, and the last track which could be called heysatan (my tracklist is from the Sigur-Ros website) I will be buying this on the day of its release, 13th September, you should too. Its very very close to being perfect.

Pendulum – Hold Your Colour

I don’t usually do drum and bass, but after hearing two tracks by these guys on the excellent Fabio & Grooverider show on Radio 1 (when coming home from the club) – I had to check out the full album. This is drum and bass at its most fun loving…14 tracks of some of the most jump-up, dancefloor friendly DnB tunes, from the amazing Slam, through the monster collaboration with the Freestylers – Fasten your Seatbelt and my personal favourite ‘Another Planet’, sampling War of the Worlds and delivering blistering beats. Drum and Bass currently belongs to these guys, have a read on what they say over at breakbeat.co.uk - and buy the album, if you only ever buy one Drum and Bass album, make it this one.

We are young…

…we can break waterfalls. Today – a story, when I was 11 I was taken to my first ever concert – Gary Numan at Hammersmith Odeon in 1980. I was lucky, they released it on vinyl later – and called it Living Ornaments 80, I had it in some kind of box set – and am wondering now where it might be. I listened to it for months and months, till the point where I knew every word.

Today – I am 11 again, and I can break waterfalls…as the sounds of that first formative gig tumble through my headphones again. This music was the beginning of the journey that has taken me through nearly 20 years of DJ’ing, making music and buying and listening to more vinyl and CD’s than is really healthy. The Living Ornaments 80 CD has been rereleased, alongside a recently unearthed mixing desk copy of a gig that was done in the US around the same time. Theres no 1 – 10 score for this, its truly off the scale – and unscoreable for me. Big thanks to AJ for making that gig happen all those years ago

Engineers – Engineers

Engineers by Engineers. I was recommended this album at a dinner in Seattle – and hunted round to find a copy in the UK – its been on heavy rotation since I found it. Full of slowly building, almost anthemic tunes that creep up on you. Kind of like the Beta Band crossed with Boards of Canada – but in a place of their own, they certainly don’t compare well to the current crop of artists around. Standout track for me is ‘Thrasher’ which really doesn’t live up to its title….apart from maybe the bassline which saws away, its certainly an album well worth listening to. Great stuff.

The lesser-spotted Dears video

I tuned into VH2 at the weekend halfway through the video for The Dears – 22:Death of all the Romance, an excellent video – with animated sequences cut together with some live footage of the band. I’m certain it won’t get played on heavy MTV/Box rotation – but you can view it here – its worth watching.

Elbow – Leaders of the Free World

I’ve waited for this one a long time, but yesterday I got my first listens to the new Elbow album – Leaders of the Free World (V2 – September 12th), its the successor to Cast of Thousands – which has been one of my most listened to albums of the last few years.  The new album doesn’t disappoint, with typically excellent songwriting from start to finish. The album opens with some truly anthemic tracks, Station Approach, Picky Bugger and Forget Myself which blend huge sound with great lyrics and construction. Theres some nice edits between the tracks that build the atmosphere for the title track which is huge stomping 6 minutes that should suit the festivals they play at in late summer. The CD winds down towards the end, with some mellow tracks that might follow Ribcage from the last album onto some chillout mixes this year. I said I waited a long time for this album, and hasn’t disappointed me – superb release. I’m double excited that it has will be released on DVD simultaneously, which should make some amazing watching. 10/10 from me!

Still a genius…

you i have found, i hope you’ll always be around
and though nothing lasts forever, say you’ll always be my pleasure
you i have found, i hope you’ll always be around
and if everything lasts forever, say you’ll always be my pleasure

i feel fantastic, you make me feel majestic
your sweet fantastic,
your love is hypnotizing
your love, is mesmerizing

deep in my heart, i’m going right back to the start
and if everything lasts forever, say you’ll always be my pleasure
what ever you turn your hand to, when ever you follow your heart
when ever you turn the heat on, kick start to my heart

i feel fantastic, you make me feel majestic
your sweet fantastic,
your love is hypnotizing
your love, is mesmerizing

Ian Brown – The Sweet Fantastic (from Solarized – 2004)

Best. Gig. Ever.

It maybe morning after euphoria, but I don’t think so – last night saw me at The Dears gig at the Astoria in London (rescheduled from May) – regular readers will know that I’m a huge fan, and I went to see them back in february, and while I enjoyed the gig it certainly wasn’t the best.

Last night – was the best - they played a great venue, big enough to show that the critics have got it right -but small enough for us to see the sweat on Murray Lightburns brow. What an excellent set – they opened up with some jaunty thank you music and then an excellent ‘Gang of Losers’, this really set the tone for the whole set, superb versions of ‘We can have it’ and ’22:Death of all the romance’ were key moments for me, before a new track ‘Mountains’ which was really good, and maybe a little more accessible (and commercial?) than the stuff from the last album. Then my favourite tune ‘The Second Now’ – which last night was truly mindblowing. There was a one song encore – ‘Heartless Romantic’ which sent us home with smiles on our faces. I managed to snag a setlist at the end – its here to view. 

Oh – and if you are the 2 irritating bitches that stood in front of us, getting drunk and jabbering all the way through the gig, a small message : "Next time…go to the pub, or better still stay at home and talk all night, you’ll save £12 and let music fans enjoy the gig a bit more, k…thx…bye"