Albums of 2008: #10

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend



This is the only album on the list that I actually disliked on first listen. There's something about the clean, bloodless feel of it that I wasn't expecting at all and didn't sit quite right, especially coupled with a vocal style that inititally made me think of Razorlight.

Aside from, well, everyone else going on about them it was mainly the lyrics that made me give it another go. A fine mixture of the intellectual and absurd, they don't ever sounding like they're straining for either or trying to exclude anyone, because you get the feeling that that is just the world in which they travel.

After that in the end that same cool, considered sound that initially caused unease is exactly what makes the album so addictive. Nothing is ever out of place, every note sounds like it's been reasoned and argued before being dropped precisely into place to create a relaxed and blissful summer atmosphere. They even manage to sing "Is your sweater on?/Do you want to fuck like you know I do?" without it sounding gauche, which is quite something.

All of which means that the little extra creative touches, the moments when they play near their rigid self-imposed boundaries stand out. The dizzying strings over the end of "M79", the drilled intro of "One" and "A-Punk" where they almost, almost loosen up.

Albums of 2008: #11

Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell



This was a year when my tolerance for album filler reached a new low. Partly it was driven by a regrettable lack of time to listen to as much music as previously - if an album takes the whole of a journey to work and back, it had better be worth it. Even more, though, it was driven by a number of bands who actively demonstrated what a fantastic asset brevity could be to their sound, and none more so than Tokyo Police Club.

Clocking in just north of 28 minutes, this is the shortest album on my list. Even beating one which claims not to be an album, in fact. The complete lack of any moment that isn't vital is a key part of their addictive appeal, lending an urgency to songs that stop just before the point when one of their many hooks begins to los its shine. They're obviously aware of it themselves, with the closing explanations of "Centennial" beginning 'I'm running out of space, so let me sum this up for you...'

Their other unique move is the melding of Dave Monks' fey, literate vocals (think a slightly less sappy Ben Gibbard) to spiky, ultra tight music that's like The Strokes with a touch of post-punk and an occasional sprinkling of softer moments (and handclaps) added. The contrast between the two is played expertly, with lines like 'dead lovers salivate/broken hearts tessellate tonight' coming off much stronger as a result.

Their very specific aesthetic and fast moving nature of the album actually makes it difficult to pick out individual highlights as it works best as a satisfying whole, but I'd go with former single "Your English is Good". It's both the catchiest song and the one where the cryptic, fractured phrases of the lyrics work best. Welcoming on the surface, its mocking but infectious chants of 'give us your vote/if you know what's good for you' give the real thinking behind the patronising sentiments of the title.

Albums of 2008: #12

TV on the Radio - Dear Science



I have to admit to having never got into TV on the Radio before, but this time there was no resisting.

Tying their ocean-deep layered productions to more direct songs, it still didn't always connect right away but always felt worth the effort invested. And when they got it right they sounded utterly unstoppable. "Halfway Home" is one hell of an introduction, tension reverberating and stretching away into the infinite distance for four and a half minutes before finally, finally bursting fully into life. "Family Tree" fits so much sadness and nobility into one beautiful song that you wonder how it can hold it all in.

Then there's those two singles. "Golden Age" had enough feelgood factor that it felt like it had the belief of the whole world backing it up even before events convened. As for "Dancing Choose", it's difficult to know where to start, between its frenetic pace and oddly gorgeous blasts of brass, nimble switches to brief moments of relieved calm and of course 'I've seen you figured in your action pose/foam injected Axl Rose'. Just breathtaking from start to finish, really.

Albums of 2008: #13

Black Kids - Partie Traumatic



This may take a little more explaining than some others, I think, given the early hipster hype and almost as early backlash that don't normally happen to things that I actually feel straongly enough. The approach to take here is simple enough though I think.

My favourite songs by The Killers by some distance are all from the first album - "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine", "Somebody Told Me", and, yeah "Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll". They didn't even show any inclination to make a whole album like that back then, and certainly they're not going to now. So if someone else steps in to do it for them and does a better job with references to Sparks to boot, fantastic!

Thoroughly aware of both their influences and ridiculousness, but determined to be catchy and funny enough to pass by without that mattering, Black Kids made quite possibly the most stupidly, hedonistically fun album of the year.

Albums of 2008: #14

The Hot Puppies - Blue Hands



The Hot Puppies' debut a couple of years ago was chiefly notable for Becky Newman's voice, a powerful instrument that sounded seductive and desperate by turns and lent a touch glamour and high drama to everything they did. Their songs gave her chances to shine but in comparison were a bit too grounded in straightforward retro rock'n'roll. Too often they were in the shadow of The Long Blondes, who did similar but with less of a '50s obsession and, crucially, much better grooves.

This time around they're even less danceable ("The Word on the Street" being an enjoyable exception) but it's a big success as rather containing the drama, they give it full flight. Sinister imagery abounds, with shadows and death around every corner and a sense of powerful destiny behind much of the album. Songs are much longer and more varied, with strings and keyboards often taking the place of jagged guitars that now burst in for emphasis, and songs that take as many twists and turns musically as lyrically.

And while the references to the past are stronger than ever lyrically ('Fred Astaire, Edith Piaf' namechecked a couple of verses in), musically they benefit from no longer being so tied down in time.

Best of all is "Secret Burial", which slowly builds an unstoppable momentum from initial caution to clattering drums, images of "the whispers through the trees, the misslies across the seas" and an uneasy declaration of love. The feeling of something not quite being right briefly retreats but remains in the background through a gorgeous minimal piano ballad before the song takes a final odder turn to a pitchshifted electronic repetition that sounds like The Knife, of all things. It's unexpected and initially almost too much to take in , but soon addictive, like the album as a whole.

Albums of 2008: #15

Bloc Party - Intimacy



"Ares": Floats in the ether for just long enough to give you a chance to prepare, then announces itself rudely with an metallic scrape. Then barrels along on its stolen beat, daring you to say something. If you do, it isn't listening, preferring to launch headlong into an equally confrontational stream of thoughts that stops and starts and doubles up on itself, anything to seize momentum and attention. The discernable message? The world is a fucked up place, we should dance. And here's what to.

"Mercury": Infectious chant slowly taken over by ominously corrosive blasts of brass. Desperately they hold on to a semblance of a normal song as elements conspire against all round. Sort of Radiohead's "The National Anthem" if it had it's sights set on stomping into the charts and living up to its title.

Intimacy's place here is largely down to that fantastic, breathless opening one-two. It's never quite so bold again, but still doesn't feel a disappointment afterwards thanks to a strong set of purposeful songs. "Signs" is possibly their most touching yet and "Zephyrus" makes much more impressive use of a choir than they did in a whole show with one previously. Plus this time even Kele's much questioned lyrics ('You used to take your watch off before we made love/You didn't want to share our time with anyone', etc.) were as adorable as they were clumsy.

Hallelujah post 2

Now it really is happening. X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's version (with added key change!) is heading for inevitable Christmas number one. Jeff Buckley's version, having already become his first top 40 hit ever, is set to follow it into the top 3. Even the original is going to get a look in at the bottom end of the 40!

But anyway, I had to revisit the subject to post a link to a really splendid piece on the song that deserves a read.

Albums of 2008: #16

Envelopes - Here Comes the Wind


Sweden is now surely the world's greatest exporter of indie pop. Envelopes fit into the mould with songs that sound determinedly handmade, and through making fine use of endearingly innocent vocals. In particular, when Audrey Pic sings of loneliness in her father's absence on the simple "Boat" it's incredibly touching. Except that she's actually French. And for all that their sound is lo-fi, even then it's rather more raucous than most as the song ends with layers of echoing guitar taking over and ominous radio samples.

Envelopes show a talent throughout their multifaceted songs of deftly switching between ideas, giving them just enough time to bear fruit before moving on. They apply themselves finely to a wide range of styles, from the Television-recalling cool of "Smoke in the Desert, Eating the Sand, Hide in the Grass" to the answerphone atmospherics of "Put On Hold".

That the album moves so quickly and that do it all with a certain looseness and roughness makes for an exhilarating feeling as each new idea successfully strikes, and there a couple of moments of surreal songwriting genius that go beyond even that. Best has to be the foul-mouthed adaptation of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" that graces "Party", with the backwards nonsese chorus of "Freejazz" a close second.

As they end the album with plans to go 'anywhere we want to go, anywhere we want to', you believe them.

Albums of 2008: #17

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs



There are a good few 'return to form' albums this year that haven't made this list. Coldplay's and R.E.M.'s, to take two well known examples. The point being that while both were massive improvements, it was a little difficult to espouse their appeal without gauging it against the sheer dullness of their predecessors.

Death Cab For Cutie's last album was every bit as bad as X&Y or Around The Sun, but they've sidestepped the return to form thanks to the fact after Narrow Stairs it now feels like Plans never even happened and Narrow Stairs is just an effortlessly logical continuation from better times.

In fact, they've ever sounded more confident and comfortable in their own skin than now. Still as sincere and plangent as ever, the considered build up of newly dense songs keeps all of their emotional heft while adding a lot more to repeated listens. "I Will Possess Your Heart" is a particularly great choice of single, gradually issuing a welcome into their world as you follow the thread of its beats through echoing vistas.

Albums of 2008: #18

Guillemots - Red



Guillemots' follow-up to Through The Windowpane, their debut and my favourite album of 2006, mystified at least as many as it pleased. While Through The Windowpane was incredibly ambitious and very occasionally suffered for it, its ambitions were for the 'epic' within relatively traditional rock song structures. Red, on the other hand, has as many nods to '80s pop and more recent R&B than to anything within their previous sphere.

From the metallic funk bounce of "Big Dog" to the sharp electronic pop of "Last Kiss" and slick falsetto "Standing on the Last Star", they repeatedly confounded expectations and seemed to get little but flack for it. Which is a crying shame because at its best, at the moments when there's nothing to do but grin and think 'did they really just pull that off?', Red even outshines the debut.

The thundering eastern strings and ever expanding reach of "Kriss Kross" make for an awe-inspiring opening. "Get Over It" successfully tied cool and bubbly pop with an undercurrent of improvised madness better than anything since they first announced themselves with "Who Left the Lights Off, Baby?" and when "Don't Look Down" takes a sudden left turn from superior U2 ballad into skittering electronic chaos, its dramatic lyrical images of the sky falling make a vivid kind of sense.

The reason that this record is only 18, then, is actually because the regret here is that they didn't completely follow through on their new ambitions. A handful of slow songs retread old ground overproduced and unsatisfying style and add to the fatal impression that the whole thing is a bit of stylistic mess. It will be even more interesting then to see where they go next.

Albums of 2008: #19

(Yes, this is meant to start at 19. That will bring us to the end of the year and it's the exact number of albums that I can sufficiently support to want to write about.)

Aidan John Moffat - I Can Hear Your Heart



Bar one very long closing ramble, nothing on I Can Hear Your Heart stretches to the 2 minute mark. Track one of this CD is an instruction to make sure that you read the booklet before

beginning. Never mind the mainstream, this stretches the definition of an album. It's certainly one of the more wonderfully unique recordings this year.



Back in 2003, Chemikal Underground released a compiltion album with a spoken word secret track called "Cunts" ('by Aidan Moffat aged 29 1/2'). Back then it was an amusing afterthought, but newly reprised with a crackly, dusty musical accompaniment it sounds as tired as it does funny, a fitting start to a very dark listen.



Free of even the limited shackles of Arab Strap, Moffat has fully taken the freedom to be as crude and frank as possible, and certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture of himself or anyone else around him. Barely anyone you meet isn't manipulative and weak and the everpresent sex is full of regret and uncertainy more often than it is joyful. In one of the most amusing moments, "Hopelessly Devoted" specualtes on the future of relationships of characters of Grease and assumes it to have probably been 'a sexless pretence dragged out too long'.



But for all the darkness there is redemption in the droll humour and in the beautifully ancient sounding string arrangements that perfectly offset the words and link together the little vignettes into a really satisfying flow of ideas. Albeit one that's ocassionally interrupted by screeching answerphone messages from someone saved in Aidan's address book as '4SEX'.



Not an album I've returned to as often as any above it in the list, but every time I do its ambition and candour is freshly pleasing.

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.