You See Colours

From ILM, a fantastic album cover knowledge game: 'Recognize discographies from their approximate colour schemes'

It uses this handy site, which takes an image you input and returns a set of images with roughly the same colour arrangement. Put each of an act's album covers through it in sequence, and you get an obscured but hopefully recognisiable sequence.

So to start with an easy example, take Belle & Sebastian and this:



becomes this:



To use a few examples from others, this:



is Radiohead.

This:



is Pet Shop Boys.

And this:



...well, you get the idea.

Five of my creations to finish. In some cases the fun comes from making them difficult, but in some it comes from the amazingly close or appropriate matches that come up.

They only sell records that have charted

Freakytrigger on the collapse of Woolworths and their former chart influence brings back memories.

I think their domination of single sales actually predated the complete collapse of the market a little; certainly 2000 and 2001 sales were an order of magnitude higher than those a few years later and with a new-number-one-every-week turnover that must have made stocking the big sellers quite lucrative.

Anyway, as suggested that was where their singles charts of their own invention came in. Despite stocking a top 40 (or possibly even 75?) they wouldn't put anything new in below 20 and were rather selective with those. Well before online midweek charts, a trip to Woolworths was an almost infallibale acid test for chart-friendliness.

Generally whatever I was looking for wouldn't be there, but in the unusual event of the likes of Turin Brakes actually getting a single stocked there (at 19), they were top 10 bound in the real world for sure.

I never actually bought a single at Woolworths in objection to this shocking anti-indie bias, a stance which if widely shared was obviously going to be self-reinforcing. I was glad not to be in one of the towns where it was the only available source of singles, anyway, and a level playing field in terms of basic availability is a major plus to its replacement in power by iTunes et al.

And their particular manipulatory mantle is not dead, but has merely been taken up by supermarkets and their album charts, hence the post title.

If Jeff Buckley had lived...

Strong rumours around that this year's X factor winner will be releasing a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as their first single. Probably this girl who already sang it in her strangled Regina Spektor-meets-Kate Nash style, which has led to outraged allegations of a fix. As if the judges' vested interests have ever been much of a secret.

Anyway, my first thoughts weren't about the fix, or about which verses they're going to include and which not-so-hidden meanings they'll leave in. Instead they were of what remarkably bad (or good) timing this is for Emmy the Great, releasing an album whose title track quotes from the same song while the X Factor one will still be in the top ten. Her staccato "Hallelujah. The orginal. Leonard Cohen version." may well now sound even more pointed than intended.

Presuming that she wasn't hoping for a massive breakthrough with the song (probably not) it at least isn't a disaster of Mylo/Beta Band proportions, anyway.

And it shouldn't be a surprise because the song has slowly been making its way to this particular questionable accolade for a long time, with Jeff Buckley's version the obvious breakthrough and still hitting iTunes top tens whenever "Hallelujah" gets its moment on telly.

Then there's Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, Damien Rice, and its inclusion in Shrek. Fall Out Boy paid tribute on their last album, taking the chorus too which seems to be the simple, universal refrain that does the most to continue winning over new audiences with such ease and will surely survive undimmed.

Emmy the Great at ICA (10/11/08)

Let's get a really strong recommendation in here first. Tonight's support act is Laura Groves, (except it isn't, because she's accompanied by 'one woman band' and they're now going by the name Blue Roses) and she's great.

Having looked her up beforehand I already have positive impressions, but arriving just after her set gets underway there is awed silence all around and it soon becomes clear that this is something rather special. Her keening voice is used to powerful effect, and often stands almost alone with just the tiniest of colour added sparingly across the songs by soft piano and guitar. The songs are grounded enough for it to work and that silence is almost as much a key player.

"Coast" with it's elemental imagery and timeless atmosphere reminds of Wind in the Wire era Patrick Wolf, but as Laura's very audible nervousness between songs contrasts with their assured clarity and beauty, the strongest comparison is to my first encounter of Bat for Lashes first on a bill in early 2006. Similar big things could well be ahead – catching her outside afterwards she says that an album is tentatively due for April.



This leaves me in a somewhat weird position. I'm seeing for the first time a full gig by my current favourite new act by far, the one whose album in February I am hoping will live up to the long wait in a big way. Yet she isn't even the best thing tonight.

At moments it's a different story. Emmy is as engaging and funny as anyone could hope for, offhand witticisms between songs too many to recall. Some of the things she's now doing with a full band are beyond the scale of her previously intimate modern folk in a fine way – the whip crack bitterness of "First Love", memories unspooling like the chewn up Leonard Cohen tape its tale centres round, could well be the finest thing she's yet done.

"Short Country Song", the (I thought) insubstantial B-side to the current single, is suddenly deeply heartbreaking, one of a series of songs that skilfully picks out everyday minor details and laces them with an underlying sadness.

The standard bearer for that type of song, "M.I.A." is the opener and the best example of what doesn't quite sit right. Its desolation of sitting in car-crash aftermath, with only mixtape for company, is particularly undermined by the melodica and backing vocals that are now
brought in. although just about any moment when the rest of the band are singing feels imperfect.

It might just take some getting used to, after too long listening to acoustic recordings, but even on the new songs it's those that take the extremes of noisy clatter or of space that are the most
impressive.

Still, there remains oodles of promise, the violin led folk cover of "Where Is My Mind?" goes down a treat and we get a solo encore (chosen by consensus) of "Canopies and Grapes" that shows Emmy's still happy doing stream of conciousness strumming with S Club 7 and Magnetic
Fields references too.

Sweet release

Today is the 27th of October 2008, and by coincidence it is the release day for two different albums worth celebrating, not for their music (though one and a half are excellent) but for how they were have been released.

First of all, the picture you see above is of the lovingly crafted package that is Los Campesinos!' We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. It comes with:

• Two badges
• An amusing DVD documenting the band's international summer adventures (which sadly doesn't get as far as Lowlands)
• A foldout of that robot attacking drawing
• A booklet with both the lyrics to pore over and decipher at length, and a whole set of poems, drawings and ruminations on such things as the fruitfly issues around kitchen compost collection.
• Oh yeah, the actual CD, sounding rather punchier than certain unmastered versions *cough*

The only downside there is how to fit the thing in a CD rack. They haven't quite gone as far as the Laura Marling route of including a gig ticket, but then that one did have the unfortunate effect of making a probably still worthwhile package look a lot less like good value for money if you were in the wrong town or just couldn't make it.

Anyway, one of the best things about this is that this is no expensive special edition, but the standard and only version that you get for your 9.99 or so. Assuming that they're still making a decent profit on it, you wonder why more bands can't make a bit of an effort to turn release day back into an event again and to build up a unique identity for themselves beyond the music.

Album number two of today is Bloc Party's Intimacy, which comes in much more practical packaging although also doesn't say its name on the spine anywhere. I say today, but then I actually got it in the post on Saturday. Plus of course, I got the high quality download of it back in August, not long after they'd finished recording it. Again, all for a just about standard price that I was more than willing to pay upfront.

Far more so than the 'Radiohead model' which rather relies on being Radiohead to work, this has got to be the best way forward for a lot of bands with any kind of following. The people who want to get the album as early as possible, and the people who want to actually own a physical product are often one and the same. Why not build some loyalty by giving them both at no extra cost bar a bit of infrastructure? I'm guessing someone will be able to point out that the download+later physical release has been done before, but this is the first mainstream example that I can think of.

The initial non-inclusion and later free release of "Talons" to anyone who had already bought the album was an interesting extra which helped keep attention on the album after initial reactions had already passed, although probably was responsible for its dismal chart showing as much as the song's comparitive unremarkableness. A far cry from "Flux" last year being done the old fashioned way with the album re-released so that early adopters paid more, too.

It remains to be seen whether the album goes the same way as "Talons", although frustratingly as with Radiohead the chart system is not a sufficient tool to really determine it. I very much hope that it has worked and will inspire others, anyway.

A few gigs

Apart from being kept away by trying to cope with way too much work, I've also attended three gigs in the past week and a bit.

First of all, The Indelicates at Metro. Now, four bands for £6 is great value and main support The Last Republic were actually really good in an overblown Boxer Rebellion style. However, when said support bands overrunning means the headliners get barely half an hour to show off their fantastic and rather lengthier album, it's not so great.

The Indelicates undoubtedly made the most of the situation but didn't seem to grab much of the audience beyond the front. They are a rather difficult proposition to explain, playing music that could almost pass as stadium Britpop but with a dark and cynical bite that's a long way from any such thing. Julia's apoplectic rage through a "Our Daughters Will Never Be Free" was quite something to behold. Actually the fact that her position seated at piano means that very few can properly behold may be part of the problem. Bigger stages may hopefully yet help.

Then Los Campesinos! at the Electric Ballroom, which looked like this:




Basically as a first chance to see much of We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed live it was almost guarenteed to be great, although a surprising number seemed unenthused by the new songs (it is already out properly! On downloads at least). And yeah, they lived up, with bonus speaker stack climbing and double Kenickie references. Even the Aleksandra songs work properly this time! No "We Throw Parties" though, sigh.

Last, Africa Express at Koko. Only stayed for three hours out of the seven or so that it apparently went on for(!) but had a great time. It was a lot less patronising than I unkindly imagined, there was a party atmosphere throughout and the constantly changing musicians on stage, with no one staying for more than two songs kept things interesting where attention may eventually have strayed with some unfamiliar material.

Highlights were Hard-Fi's unexpectedly great cover of The Chemical Brothers' "Push The Button" and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (below), who played with fantastic energy and matched it with impeccably synchronised moves to boot.

Chartsengrafs 12/10/08 - You're a tool, so

This week I don't really have a chance to listen as I would like, and more exciting stuff is happening next week anyway. So I'm turning this item over to the fine people of SongMeanings to provide some great insight into what all these songs really mean.

Still at number 1 for a second week is P!nk. 'I think she has to realize she's so much more than just a rockstar, so much more than the things she does'. Kings of Leon are still at 2 with "Sex on Fire". 'lol it's about condoms'. Sugababes climb up to 3 behind them. The only one on that is 'The more i listen to this song the more i luv it', which is one fewer entry than your average Emmy the Great demo has. I think I may have stumbled upon a problem with this tactic. Damn. The top 5 is finished off by Rihanna ('i think that maybe this song was up against "rehab" the lyrics are kind of similar. could be why it didn't make the album?') and a downloads only Kaiser Chiefs - 'hes paying out the kids who dont go to school because they think that it's uncool. and that they get up to crazy shananigans.'

Snow Patrol's "Take Back the City" is also in at 15 ahead of full release next week. 'I think the city is metaphor for a relationship'. Of course. Jordin Sparks off American Idol gets back into the chart at 30 with "Tattoo", and attracts some scorn. 'This song is a bullshit song for them to leave guys. Okay, so she loves him, she wants him, she can never replace him, she wants to be with him, she needs him. But she leaves him because...of..."other things". Um...yeah, that's called a bullshit excuse'.

MGMT sneak their way up to 35 and 'Neeeeeeeed Treeeee's - subliminal message maby'. Oh and The Courteeners have got in just below them. 'liam said it's about campbell, cos he kissed a girl and he liked it and never saw her again'. Well, that didn't go so well.

In the album chart my anti-Oasis hopes don't really prove founded as Dig Your Own Up Your Soul hits the top with the usual 200,000+ sales. Bob Dylan is the other new entry in the top ten, Mercury-boosted Elbow continue to hold firm at 12, Chicane's best of is at 16 (possibly a triumph for not releasing their new single properly any other way?) and You Meat Six (well, that's how I read their album cover) and The Clash live are also in there somewhere.

Are we having the time of our lives?

Elbow at Camden Roundhouse, 11/10/08

Jesca Hoop initially gains a crowd silence almost unprecendented for an unknown acoustic support act, but it's probably mainly due to the singer of tonight's headliners putting in a (quiet) word before hand. Mr. Garvey also comes out to duet with her for a song, but it's not so easy to see what he sees in her as on record.

Her songs are fascinatingly snaking things, never repeating a melody or lyrical phrase when they can take a new twist instead. But they are also too abstract to really get a grip on when supported by only an acoustic guitar and gradually start to merge into one.



I have talked about seeing Elbow in a 'what more is there to say now?' type way the previous/10th time that I saw them.

Well forget that, because tonight is defintiely different, and produces something special and rare. The first of 3 (three!) sold out shows at the Roundhouse opens with the blinding romantic fanfare of "Starlings" and a beats-heavy "The Bones of You". And then Guy Garvey stops to ask if we are ok, and just can't wait to tell us how happy Elbow are. 'Some very good things have happened to us in the past few months. I won't say any more because I don't want to be smug'. Cheers and grins all round, and the beginning of an delightfully celebratory night.

He goes back on that intention numerous times, but the most notable is when he stops before "Mexican Standoff" to happily point out: 'It just occurred to me. This sold out before we won the Mercury prize'. Massive cheers. That's it. This feels like a turning point, a lenghty, heartfelt thank you to everyone who believed in them all along, from a band who now justifiably completely believe in themselves and are ready to embrace newcomers and the Wembley Arenas of this world. No one here begrudges them that, because it's how we've felt that things should be all along, and because they've made no compromises to get there and are in some ways better than ever. Certainly no one begrudges them playing eight out of eleven songs from The Seldom Seen Kid.

It's the first time I've seen them do "Some Riot", and it's breathtaking, pared down to deeply menacing strings and raw anger no less vital than "Coming Second" of years ago. Then there's "Weather to Fly", a warm little song about the potential of bands. It's begun acoustically with all five gathered in a huddle, hugging on the way. 'One little room and the biggest of plans' it says tonight, and look, look how those plans finally paid off! "One Day Like This" as the party finale completely makes sense after that cynicism destroying number, freed from highlights-reel soundtracking by force of singing, balloons and confetti everywhere.

For the encore? A rare and heartbreaking "Scattered Blacks and Whites", and before that "Station Approach", dedicated to their mums. It's that sort of night.

(thanks to A for bizarre cameraphone photo! Some more photos here)

I could just have first album syndrome

Given that I can’t find a video from The Research’s new album on YouTube at all, alongside its long gestation and their exit from EMI, I may be kicking a band while they’re down a little here.

I have to say, though, that I can’t remember the last time I was as nonplussed by a band’s new album as The Old Terminal. Plenty take their questionable turns (see Guillemots’ Red for a recent example) but none manage to so thoroughly and deliberately remove everything that previously made them stand out.

Breaking Up had songs, sure – no way it have could been so good without – but it was also a total triumph for a consistent, clever aesthetic that fitted exactly right. Its cheap keyboards, wobbly harmonies and miniature songs turned their weaknesses into strengths, lending an enormous immediacy that felt as if what Russell or Georgia were singing in their thin voices was too important to wait for anything more substantial. And when they sung of fragile relationships or lives that could fall apart at any moment you believed it because they sounded like they could, too.

So I go to listen to the new one and the first song goes from a familiar keyboard hum to a slowly strummed acoustic guitar, which over a drawn out build up is joined by a decently played electric and drums and strings. I presume that it’s a bit of a ‘look what we can do now’. No-one wants to be boxed into that small an identity after all. And it’s definitely The Research. Look at the references to Piney Gir and all. Except, of course, that it’s not a one off but a sign of what’s to come. Every song is just as competent and layered and sounds like it could be by any number of different bands. Russell is now the only singer for the vast majority. All bar two are longer than three minutes even!

Which is not even to say that they are bad as such, cos their songwriting ability has not deserted them and there’s some great touches in there, especially in “All My Love” which has the best sadly wheezing brass since early Badly Drawn Boy. Just that the spectre of individuality lost hangs over The Old Terminal to such an extent that it would surely be better to listen without having ever heard them before.

Chartsengrafs 05/10/08 - Waiter just took my table

Getting a number one single is a major achievement, however it feels otherwise at times. More than one, even more so. And a whole string of them? Well! Still, though, there are some chart certainties over the last 10+ years. The first single from a new Madonna album will go to number one (unless it's "American Life"). The first single from a new U2 album will go to number one (unless it's "Stay"). And the first single from a new Oasis album will go to number one...

...unless it's "The Shock of the Lightning". In fact, their new one can only make it as far as 3, behind Kings of Leon at number 2 in their fourth week. Which may quite neatly answer where all those previously reliable Oasis fans have gone. The signs have been there for a while - look at last year's ignored one off single barely making the top ten - but this is still quite a big deal. If this is not a one off exception like the above then, regardless of the actual quality of the song (better than "The Hindu Times", worse than "Lyla", which is an extremely narrow gap in which to fit), signs that the drudgery of their dominance and influence over the rock scene may be finally be coming to an end have to be welcomed.

So, what of the actual top song of the week? It's "So What" by P!nk, who has managed a slow but impressive turnaround after seeming to blow it completely with third album Try This and it's rubbish singles "Trouble" and "God is a DJ". Sadly while it has the usual rock hooks and gloss, she's taken the success of "Stupid Girls" as a sign that it's great to be super mad zany!! and meta and to insert references to the press and , oh my god, Jessica Simpson! How 'contraversial'! That's before we even get onto the video, which is a whole lot worse.

Sugababes climb to 4, poised for a full on assault of the top next week, and Boyzone are somehow at 5. It's going to take years for everyone to realise that the Take That thing was a complete one off reliant on the fact that their new songs were miraculously quite good, isn't it?
Almost nothing else happening in the top twenty bar Platnum brining bassline in right at the bottom. "Love Lockdown" makes an almost apologetic fall from 16 to 18 and "Paper Planes" seems to have peaked as it slips to 21. At least Faith Hill follows it out.

What else? Erm, Kings of Leons' second entry stays firm at 29, Biffy Clyro's horrible "Mountains" has now been around for seven weeks, N-Dubz and MGMT sneak in at 37 and 39 and Gabriella Cilmi's "Sweet About Me", probably the third best song to have come out of the whole Winehouse-Duffy-etc. thing is for some reason back in again at 38.

In the albums Kings of Leon are unsurprisingly still at the top. Could they possibly hold Oasis off next week? Surely not?
Will Young gets a things-aren't-so-bad-after-all 2, James Morrison picks up anyone who bought his album and still had a tenner spare just behind at 3, and Andrew Johnson at 4 briefly had me thinking on my first scan through that Antony Hegarty had managed a top five album. Seasick Steve's I Started Out With Nothing, and I've Still Got Most of it Left reaches 9, possibly on the strength of that title alone.

Further down it continues to be a long way to fall for Travis, who nine years on from Coldplay-like album chart/festival dominance find their new album entering at 20. That's one place ahead of Ironik, but three behind Trivium and one behind the Jonas Brothers.

Short stories

Jessica Popper calls Hello Saferide's Annika Norlin her 'favourite lyricist in the world'. After a week and a bit of getting to know More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide, I think she may have a point.

Musically, the second album by the self-proclaimed country singer reminds me repeatedly of Travis' The Invisible Band. Simple, inobstrusive arrangements, guitar sounds produced to sound big and warm (in a really good way) and sporadic inspired touches, especially the big number with strings at the end. The real difference, and why the not completely flattering comparison point is unimportant, is that everything else in her songs just there to support the words within.

I can even prove it pseudo-scientifically, since unusually there's actually a control sample to test against. Säkert! features all of the above but, since I don't speak Swedish, effectively no lyrical goodness. And as a result I've barely listened to the thing since getting it in a desire to seek out everything she'd recorded.

"I Wonder Who is Like This One" sets the stall, spinning the observation that 'people are like songs' into an incredibly sweet and witty story of how love doesn't quite live up to The Beach Boys. The same intelligence and emotional honesty shines through every song alongside an amazing observational eye for how and why people act how they do. "Overall"'s skewering of the sensibilities of over-anxious middle class parents and "Travelling With HS"' admission of inability to relate to other people are both perfect, among many others. There's not many single lines of amazing poetry to quote, but the combined effect is brilliant.

"Parenting Never Ends" catches that nagging feeling on becoming an adult that you aren't quite ready yet and are stringing everyone along - 'People give me work and money/They depend on me now/If they only knew how thin the ice they walk on is'. As it takes its wish to return to simpler times to an illogical and culminates in requesting to rerurn to her mother's uterus, it also sets up one of the a
smartest bits of sequencing in ages. As its reverie gets cut off by the opening chords of "Anna", one of the more straightforward songs, whose child never born ending is obvious from the start, is lent a big dose of added poignancy by the contrast.

The fact that so much of her work is grounded in the ordinary means there's a contrast to be made with the increasingly popular Kate Nash 'I use mouthwash/Sometimes I floss/I’ve got a family/And I drink cups of tea' school of lyrical banality. The idea somehow gaining in popularity that songs referencing everyday things for the sake of everyday things is inherently a good thing. The idea that millions of people out there who also drink cups of tea will be deeply touched by the fact that someone is just the same as them, and has said so, in song!

When Annika gets to specifics of the mundane, on "X Telling Me About the Loss of Something Dear, at Age 16", when the song's character is at work at a shoe shop after her regretted first experience of sex and she sings 'Do you want those in red, I said/Two fifty with laces, I said' it's to hammer home that she vividly remembers every moment of the unfairness of normal life having to carry on. It doesn't matter that I've never been in remotely the same situation because the ability to relate to eloquently expressed emotions completely transcends where those emotions come from. Sort of an obvious lesson but it would still be great if it was more widely realised.

JoFo in Soho

Johnny Foreigner at Madame JoJo's, 30/09/08

First of all, despite their name and hearing positive things about them in all the right places, I don't really get Dananananaykroyd, and seeing them did nothing to change that. Their levels of energy were pretty amazing and a couple of songs that locked into a noise section and then pushed and pushed it (twin drummers and all), persisting way past expectations, impressed. That was brief though and left looong sections where none of the multitude of ideas presented connected at all, not helped by frankly baffling between song banter. Perhaps if I'd been down at the front among the hug-outs I would have understood better?

Johnny Foreigner I definitely do get, in that their debut Waited Up Til it Was Light is one of my favourite albums of the year. I love its thrilling combination of Los Campesinos!-esque spiky boy/girl indie pop with twisty guitar noises straight from early Idlewild, and the way they their songs each hurtle through a vast maze of interconnecting ideas and hooks. Thing is that despite listening to the album a great deal, if you ask me what much of it means, or what most of the lyrics actually are, I'll be a bit stuck. In fact, ask me to even name half its songs on hearing, and I'll be a bit stuck. So I might not be best placed to talk about their show in a particularly authoritative way.

This fact made me stand out almost as much as my friend who had never heard of them, becuase Madame JoJo's was packed with fans prepped for every moment. A lot of people who on being told that "Cranes and Cranes and Cranes and Cranes" was next could produce its opening 'baba bababababa!' with no further prompting rather than scrambling to catch up. Who could be relied on to fill in lyrical gaps in non-album tracks as well as to catch crowdsurfing singer Alexei at the close. This is a band already inspiring remarkable loyalty, clearly.

The resultant atmosphere definitely helped the band but it's not hard to see why they've reached such a position. Some of the finer detail and dynamism of album versions was lost as songs become uniformly faster, louder, scrappier, but it was worth it for the power added, for the sight of Alexei wrestling every out there sound from his guitar and Kelly and him joyfully trading alternating lines and even words across stage. When they did they sometimes even resembled a beefed up version of The Delgados circa Domestiques, which can only be a good thing. And though fantastic current single "Salt, Pepa and Spinderella" no longer started in as itchy a state of suspense as on record, they raced through it to 'turn on the real drums!' and lit up the room more forcefully than I'd dreamed possible.

They even managed to keep the momentum going through ever lengthening gaps between songs as they fought technical problems and Alexei's admission that he is too unfit to play without gaps 'like a proper band'. New songs were as intruiging and exciting as old and seemingly everyone went away with a smile on their face. Even the people who repeatedly shouted for "Sometimes, in the Bullring" and didn't get it. At least I think they didn't.

Chartsengrafs 29/09/08 - Head while I'm driving

I missed last week, but honestly not much happened anyway. Kings of Leon presumably continue to baffle onlookers from their own country, having extended "Sex on Fire"'s run at the top to three weeks and added a fairly massive selling number one album. Oh and (next single?) "Use Somebody" is in at 29 too. I must have heard it as I heard the whole album at the weekend, but don't really remember much past general professional likableness.

"Disturbia"'s long life on music TV channels allows Rihanna to reach a peak at 3 after twelve weeks, at the expense of Pussycat Dolls. Biggest climber near the top is Iglu & Hartley, up to 5 and a total mess in far too knowing a way, like they thought for a long time about being this lazy.

James Morrison is 6 (bad luck, Scottish international footballer James Morrison), although "You Make It Real" is still behind "You Give Me Something" for top YouTube result on him. About right since it is basically the same song, except with added slickness. Which is about twentieth on the list of attributes that it needed more of. I never got "About You Now" as anything other than good but too safe, and "Girls" at 8 definitely isn't that, whacking great well known sample nonwithstanding. But they seem to run out of song just as they get into their stride, with that sample just taking up way too much space for how much at adds to the song. The top ten closes out with evidence of the horrors of a downloads based chart as someone singing Faith Hill's sub-Dion "There You'll Be" on The X Factor is enough to return it.

Will Young stalls at 13, down from a mere 10 last week. A shame because "Changes" is the first thing that I unreservedly like so far, doing a good job of easygoing soul with its strings and falsetto deployed for an actual reason beyong usually being in this kind of thing. You can't record an album as fanbase-losing as his last one, go away for years and only come back with this amd expect them to come back though. At 16, Kanye West's continuing bid to be the biggest pop star ever gives us "Love Lockdown"! I have read much but not listened to it til writing this so don't know any comparisons with live versions or uninished versions or whatever, and the first thing is to be a bit surprised by just how bare it is. Second thing, those drums! The autotuned vocals do leave a bit of a feeling of just hanging in there, waiting for the drums and bass to kick back in, but it's worth it. "Paper Planes" glides into the top twenty at 19 and is still on it's way up, maybe? Is Pineapple Express actually out yet? Don't know my films I don't care about very well.

At 26... OK, I know there's Bond traditions to uphold, but "Another Way to Die"? Could you get any more generic a title? Surely Jack White could have managed a "Quantum of Solace", and if he couldn't then Muse probably already wrote one. The intro to the song almost singlehandedly redeems it though, throwing all the best recognisable bits of White Stripes and Bond together and implausibly making it stick. The piano's good too, shame that Jack and Alicia shouting at each other seems such an afterthought.

At the bottom of the top forty there's two (??) entries by Jonas Brothers, still taking the McFly model, diluting it down and then selling it back to us. Plus all that purity stuff of course. Hopefully it won't get any further than this but I'm not optimistic. Ditto for DJ Ironik's follow up single at 35. Pink is at 38, we'll talk about that a lot more next week. And Elbow's "One Day Like This", having taken a week's break, pops back up at 39 just in time to get in the way of the release of its follow up.

In the albums, beyond the aforementioned Kings of Leon, there's entries in the top ten for Pussycat Dolls (with a large number of songs that were meant to be on Nicole's ill-fated solo album, apparently), Bette Midler (ah, Strictly Come Dancing, so much to anwer for), McFly (inconclusive as to whether a mere 8 is due to giving it away for free with the Daily Mail, their fanbase deserting them, or both) and Dave Gilmour. Live in Gdansk!
Katy Perry appearing on albums-oriented Later (watch and note Pete and Guy of Elbow nodding along politely) isn't enough to get her beyond 11.

Mobiles skwrking, mobiles chirping

Wasn't my idea and definitely not something I'd inflict on anyone other than close, similarly musically aligned friends, but Radiohead's "Idioteque" turns out to be a surprisingly great karaoke choice.

(I'm neglicting because I've been away every night, not because of actual neglect like usual. Hopefully to continue tomorrow with a gig by Johnny Foreigner, will report back on it if so!)

Play thoughts

Belatedly catching up on posts on Rocktimists (featuring a couple of much missed Stylus writers, among others), I was particularly interested by this one.

I instinctively wanted to disprove its comparison of the current positions in the video games market to thoughts on music compression, largely because I'm on different sides in each case (Nintendo and Elbow, in short). But the more I thought about it the more it seemed to fit. Is wanting more dynamic range and being able to hear little details in records really all that different from people getting fussed about framerate and polygons per second?

I tried to think that the first is a far more intrinsic part of music, but can that really be the case? Video games are different from the passive experience of watching TV/movies (even if you're playing Metal Gear Solid 4) but isn't the image with which you're interacting about as intrinsic as you can get?
On the other hand, is there a music equivalent to outdated games with comparatively basic graphics that remain fun to play? Production techniques can definitely lead songs to sound of a time (even if that time isn't their own). And early uses of synths, for example, don't do all that could be possible with improved technology, but listening to a song the primitive nature of the technology would hardly leap out in the same way as someone playing twenty-year-old games. I suppose if you go back to the earliest days of recorded music you would get to something similar, but there is no retro scene that I am aware of celebrating such recordings in the same way as Commodore 64 games. Which maybe proves something.


These kind of issues have been interesting me ever since getting back into video games a couple of years ago, and discovering an internet community on the likes of NeoGAF that is not dissimilar to the music one (except even more male, American and filled with in-jokes) and useful for finding the really good stuff out there.
One of the most striking differences is how bloody positive people tend to be. Hit your average music discussion and chances are high of finding biting dislike of whoever is being discussed, especially if they're popular. It's not like that doesn't happen with games but on the whole people seem to be much more likely to be actually happy with what's successful! To the point of developing strong loyalties to the multinational companies that provide it, no less.
I think the key thing here is the fact that an objective review is a lot less of an oxymoron when it comes to games. If a game just isn't fun then chances are it isn't fun to anyone else either. There are exceptions but given the level of effort required in making a game, a big budget really does make it likely to be better. You won't get everyone to agree on the merits of Shadow of the Colossus, much like you won't get everyone to agree on OK Computer, but you'll get much closer. The effects of this particular type of groupthink can be peculiar at times. Stylus never had to deal with anything compared to gaming sites getting crazed reactions to a review giving only 8.8/10. But every time I see a comments page full of genuine, deservedly positive replies it does make me a little happy.


Incidentally, while we've mentioned the subject of compression and video games, this is pretty amazing. Not in a good way.

Ten favourite moments on Los Campesinos!' We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Since even more than their debut, songs as a whole seem less important than the number of amazing, distinct hooks that they can cram into half an hour or so.

• "Miserabilia" - The heavily distorted, disgusted '...for a better understanding of my dietary requirements' leaping suddenly but appropriately into an off-kilter, violin led riff that feels like the onrushing waves of nausea hitting.
• 'Shout at the world because the world doesn't love you!' - So musically triumphant and uniting as to completely turn the sentiment around; yelling loud and clear that we don't need the love of the world.
• The amazing sounds behind the second verse of the title track, where the guitar sounds like it's methodically chopping the song into pieces with the reaciton of an adorably sad and confused little sigh (of violin? synth? It's beyond recognisable).
• When the violin comes in after 'I hope my heart goes first!' and everything is briefly beautiful, a wash of calm contemplation after the frenzy.
• "It's Never That Easy Though..." - the squelchy keyboard that takes the opening line 'This one time, I kissed a girl for class war' and turns it into a mischievous comic adventure. If there's one thing that raises this album more than anything else, it's their amazing knack for fitting musical punctuation marks to their lyrics in a way that magnifies the power of both.
• That perfectly executed stop and start at about a minute in that doesn't need to be there for any reason at all but knocks me sideways every time and makes the start of the following joyful whirling build up even better.
• "The End of the Asterisk" - 'Your parents, your disgusting parents'. Gareth's punk scowl is great, and all the more so for being relatively rarely used.
• "Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time" finally reaches an unambiguous, genuine positive sentiment and it immediately gets drowned in feedback and chopped off. Really affecting and still totally Los Campesinos!.
• "All Your Kayfabe Friends" - 'You asked if I'd be anyone from history/fact or fiction, dead or alive/I said I'd be Tony Cascarino, circa 1995' - destined to be their most quoted line ever, I guess, but it really is that amazing. Like the Breakfast Club line from the debut, but five times as bloodymindedly logic-free and with even better timing.
• The ending. I'm a sucker for songs suddenly cutting off (better than a fadeout every time), especially at the end of albums. As pleasurably disorientating as most other things here.

Chartsengrafs 15/09/08 - Soft lips are open

Welcome back, all. Things to note about the UK charts in my absence - now that downloads have all but completely taken over, they move very, very slowly. Not quite US-like Mariah Carey at number one for 200 weeks slowly, but certainly there's not going to be quite so much happening in any given week as used to be the case.

It's a rare week then this week as we see new entries on both the singles and album charts!

Straight in at number one on the singles are Kings of Leon, somehow. Their previous highest was a 13 for "Fans" which I have no memory of whatsoever. Follow up to "On Call", apparently. Having said quite a few times over the summer 'forget Jay-Z, what the hell are Kings of Leon doing headlining Glastonbury??' their new position is dismaying. As a result it's secretly disappointing that "Sex on Fire" completely fails to live up to its hilarious title and turns out to not bad, if not exactly setting anything alight (sorry). Certainly there seems to be a lot more to them than the likes of Jet, and a few comparisons seen elsewhere to "Dakota" (ie previously terrible band comes good for once) are equally as unfair on Kings of Leon as on "Dakota".

Removed from number one after 5 weeks is Katy Perry, who I am way too late to have much new to say about. I'll try anyway - if you try really hard to ignore the lyrics and keep the bile down, doesn't "I Kissed a Girl" sort of sound like The Bravery? From the ridiculous to the equally ridiculous, at number three is Cliff Richard, who missed his chance to carry on that number one every decade record that's obviously a great source of pride and publicity. He needed to go for it a couple of years back when he would only have needed to sell half as many copies, really. Pussycat Dolls and Rihanna follow at 4 and 5, and then lower down the top ten is horrorville. Take your pick from The Script, Kid Rock or Biffy Clyro-ironically-gone-Busted-ballad for biggest crime against music there (hint: it's still The Script).

What else? Flobots make it up into the top 20, probably more to come on them once I've heard more than the chorus on endless adverts (that is not helping their cause). Iglu & Hartly and McFly are new at 21 and 23 and at 25 Keane's silly big 80s pop moment "Spiralling" continues to follow Coldplay in demonstrating that giving away your single for free won't stop people paying 79p for it for months to come. Basshunter (he's sold 130,000 albums, you know) gets a third but rather lesser top 40 hit at 24, ditto for Flo Rida at 29.

At 33, watch your back cos Paul Rodgers has got Queen on this track; a Mercury win is enough to put Embrace Elbow's "One Day Like This" up to 36, three places higher than first time round; there's an end to 'Lowgold have had more top 40 hits than M.I.A.!' zings as "Paper Planes" gets to 37 on its way to bigger things; and Sonny J closes things out at 40.


In the albums, Metallica rush out late in the week to snatch the top spot from Glasvegas. It's a bit surprising - St. Anger was only number three. That was in part due to releasing alongside Hail to the Thief, but I still didn't think that they had quite such clout anymore. Especially when releasing an album with cover/title that surely shouldn't have made it past the inside cover of first year science exercise books. No other big new entries, but the aforementioned Mercury effect pushes The Seldom Seen Kid from 61 to 7, and past Asleep in the Back (and Basshunter) in lifetime sales.

Lowlands Day 3 (17/08/08)

Sunday's music starts off with a disappointing moment. Rushing back from a very necessary packing trip, we arrive at the (tiny) Lima tent just in time to hear the last two bars of Lykke Li's cover of Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". Had been looking forward to that being the finale and highlight of her set, but alas no. There is still an enjoyably taunting "Complaint Department" although a couple of others fall into being a bit too loose and diffident, much like the album.

Next are a couple of bands that I know nothing of in advance. Pivot offer some interesting though slightly unengaging experimental electronica. Yeasayer go for psychadelic leaning rock that has some nice harmonies in places but occasionally veers into horrible falsetto/wah-wah boogie. They spend a surprising amount of their time on stage talking up the next band, MGMT.
They needn't have bothered, as MGMT are already clearly the hype band of the weekend, going as far the previous day as to fly over a plane with an advert for their set, and attracting a crowd thats packed even twenty-deep outside the sizeable India tent. They completely fail to do anything to justify this position, starting by arriving about fifteen minutes late. Announcing that they will play the whole of their album isn't a bad start (although they don't play it in order anyway), but within thirty seconds of a foolishly thrown out "Time to Pretend" it's clear that they intend to not only play the whole album but also replicate the gratingly horrible and compressed sound of it, only even more so. Every keyboard sound is a deafening scrape and the rest is barely better. I still think that they probably have some good songs, but it's not too easy to tell. I leave after two, not least because there are more important places to be...

...namely the Grolsch tent for Elbow! Good thing to get in there too, as after a weekend of (sometimes uncomfortably) sunny weather, a torrential downpour almost perfectly coincides with their set. Guy Garvey is quick to make light of the fact ("Consider yourself lucky, in Manchester it rains for 200 days a year") and it actually lends a bit of a communal huddle air to proceedings, especially once we reach the somewhat ironic climax of "One Day Like Today".

Before that is a set that's, well, as reliably fantastic as any Elbow set of the past few years - that I can't be more enthusiastic about it is more down to it being my tenth time seeing them than anything else. That and the slightly short set (no "The Fix" or "Grace Under Pressure") and slightly too high and far away stage, although Guy does everything in his power to overcome that short of actually climbing down, and that's only because he'd probably never make it back. He sings almost every heartfelt word leaning forward and physically reaching out in an attempt to connect that works remarkably well for its simplicity. Even on the rare occasion when he falters, voice straining and flirting with out of tune for a couple of verses of "Great Expectations", the warmth of feeling and beautifully soft pattering of piano easily carries him through.

Special mention as ever to "Newborn", the only track from their debut played, which remains just as gobsmacking in scale and power a tenth time as it did the first, and surely will a fiftieth.

How to follow that? Well, if there's one band who can match or better them musically for sheer beauty it's Sigur Rós. They begin with a massive "Svefn-G-Englar", building up to a bow on guitar frenzy that seems to almost swallow the whole tent in its depth of primordial, unnameable feeling, and everything that made them such an important band to me many years ago makes total sense again. A barely less epic "Glósóli" later and they play a (possibly new) song that I don't know, and things get really magical as it softly flutters and a brass band, dressed all in white, emerge to march in slow motion across the stage, a delightful visual that matches all the pomp of the music but also injects a touch of humour and a human element that doesn't always translate amid their towering music.

Next: Time to blow all that away with a thunderously crashing "Ný Batterí"! Holy crap. About half an hour gone and an hour left (they presumably insisted on the longest slot of the festival) and their set his been faultless and made me want to fall in love with them again, and yet... there's a reason why all that was needed. So getting out while they're ahead seems a good bet, and as I walk out to the sound of the opening chords of "Hoppipolla", the usual sinking feeling sets in and I feel like I've made the right choice. That one is more the assorted documentary soundtrackers of the UK's fault than theirs, but still the prospect of the goo of the last two albums is too much to face.

So instead I finish up Lowlands 2008 with The Dresden Dolls. Their edgy, witty and almost uncomfortably insightful Yes, Virginia... has crept up to become one of my favourite albums of recent years, so I'm rather excited to see them for the first time. And that excitement reaches fever pitch as they open in style with its frenzied "Sex Changes", keyboard and drums pounding in unison.

Their show in some ways gets no less impressive from there, from the sheer noise somewhow generated by only two people on in. Amanda Palmer wrings a huge range of sounds from her keyboard with furious, rapid fire succession, and Brian Viglione is equal parts drummer and mime, with comic and dramatic timing down perfectly. Of course, for that to work rather than being a distraction they need to have the songs to match... and that's where they fall down with a bizarrely misjudged setlist.

I know that there are always people who are there for the early stuff (see Sigur Rós review above) but failing to play any more songs from their second album at all is inexplicable. Their debut was full of potential, but it lacked a lot of the songwriting poise of the second and there's only so many of its overwrought issues songs (yay, self harm) that can be taken in one go. Only a blistering "Girl Anachronism" and "Coin Operated Boy", with its clockwork stop-start sections drawn out til they go through bizarre into funny and back again, are up to the job. The latter also gets a just about funny enough to work lyric change from 'I can even take him in the bath' to 'I can even fuck him in the ass', which says, er, something. Anyway, their wasted potential is a disappointing way to end, summed up no better than by a drawn out closing cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" that we are instructed to sing along to but no one knows the words to.

Yay!

Lowlands day 2 (16/08/08)

I really mean to start off Saturday with Laura Marling in one of the event's smaller tents. But in even more oppressive early afternoon heat than the previous day, sitting down in the shade seems a good idea. And then suddenly getting up again doesn't. Before you know it, it's an hour and a half later. Apparently she was good though.

NERD are playing the festival's enormous arena sized Alpha tent but it's still way too crowded to get in. Instead we take up stations at the somewhat smaller stage opposite, the closest to an outside stage there is. Can't tell you much about NERD despite the proximity as they get drowned out by soundchecking for Los Campesinos!, eagerly awaited by a small cadre of dedicated fans.

Gareth begins by thanking NERD for supporting them, later going on to attack a lengthy list of targets including the Sex Pistols (playing later; we should see No Age instead), British festivals (full of drunken idiots) and Belgium's rival Pukklepop (a popular one, this). Fortunately there's still enough manic energy and creativity left over for their songs. The power of the unique worldview invested in them comes through even more while watching various members of the band throwing themselves around and at each other, helped by the fact that with no second album songs yet essentially every song is a crowd favourite. It doesn't make for a perfect set quite. Gareth's female cointerpart Aleksandra is near inaudible for much of the set, giving "The International Tweecore Underground" in particular a weird one sided conversation feel. And when my friend complains after about not being able to tell the difference between many of their songs they have somehwat of a point at times. But when LC! team up a blistering "My Year in Lists" to a cathartic "Knee Deep at ATP" for a sub five minute double feature, or when a chaotic "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" coda coalesces behind Gareth as he theatrically checks his watch for the correct mid-August date, or they line up on upturned monitors for the final trimphant bellow of "Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks" there is nothing remotely like them. That's even before we get to the euphoric madness inspired by "You! Me! Dancing!"

British Sea Power were never likely to live up to that but disappoint a little nonetheless. Matters definitely aren't helped by the smallest crowd of the weekend, who aren't even roused by "Waving Flags", aside from a couple of people with (Spanish/pirate) flags of their own. But even beyond that, good but slightly airy songs come off as even airier and only "It Ended on an Oily Stage" comes close to moving. Maybe I missed the best bits by arriving halfway through.

A quick stop for food later (uitsmijter, a bread and fried egg/cheese combo that definitely beats British festival food) it's back to the huge tent for Franz Ferdinand.

They make for a slick and relaxed contrast to the overstretched band that I saw at Glastonbury and Ally Pally a few years ago. A carefully picked set shows off the best side of the mixed second album, and there are few moments of half-surprised memory along the lines of 'oh yeah, "Walk Away" is quite the fantastic drama, huh?'. They also trial quite a few of those long overdue new songs which are promising if not completely convincing.

What makes the set so much better than that quick overview makes it sound is just how on their side the crowd are. There's a celebratory atmosphere even before they become the only act I see to make a stab at (I presume) Dutch that goes beyond 'dank u well'. "Take Me Out" is of course welcomed with open arms, even the guitar part sung along to, but it goes well beyond that and makes an event of almost every song. Somehow even "This Fire" gets turned into a barnstorming finale whose chorus is still being sung well after the band has departed.

Rather different in feel but nearly as enjoyable are headliners Underworld (the other two days had Editors and Anouk if you're interested). It possibly helps to go into the show with virtually no knowledge of their material, as the slowly unfolding intricate rhythyms are all the more hypnotic with no idea where they are heading next. They're helped too by some excellent projections and some fantastic props, in the shape of blow up pillar things that are blown up and pushed over and around and look from a distance intriguingly like spotlights turned solid. And then after about an hour slips by gracefully, there's the inevitable conclusion of "Born Slippy" and the moment that it kicks in and the lights turn on and we all stand arms aloft, grinning broadly. It's the sort of moment that it would be difficult to get wrong at this point, but they make thoroughly sure they don't.