As someone kindly commented last week, The Big Pink single seems to have been pushed back a week so is actually out today. Think of our premature recommendation as merely a form of preparation, a way of doubling the fun when you see what we've recommended this week. Elsewhere, the Taken By Trees album sold about ten copies, which is fine, and the Jamie T album entered at number 2, one place behind 92-year old singing sensation, Dame Vera Lynn. Her Timbaland-produced effort is something to behold. Expect a feature on her very soon.
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The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z
OK, so he may not be able to scale the heights of his previous works - especially given the fact he's the head of a massive corporation, sleeping with Beyoncé and friends with Obama - but The Blueprint 3 contains enough flashes of brilliance to keep the man at the top of the game. Featuring some stellar production from the American Dream-robbing Kanye West, Swizz Beats and Timbaland (as well as some perfunctory work from The Neptunes) and a guest list that includes Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi and Luke Steele, this is an album programmed to succeed. For the most part it does exactly that.
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Fearless by Jazmine Sullivan
The more eagle-eyed amongst you will realise that we mentioned this album about eight months ago, but it's so good that we decided to mention it again. As if to aid us in this reckless decision, Columbia records have decided to re-release the album via iTunes with an extra track thus allowing it to appear here. Thanks for that. Fearless isn't like most recent R&B albums for two reasons. 1). It isn't just two killer singles and a load of filler and 2). It isn't needlessly worthy or preachy (yes we mean you Alicia). It helps that Sullivan has an incredibly soulful voice, one that frays and cracks at all the right moments, like Lauryn Hill before she went nuts and shaved her head and moved to a Kibbutz.
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'Drumming Song' by Florence & The Machine
On our album, this is just called 'Drumming'. Why add the word 'song'? Are we to think that Florence's label needed to make sure we were aware that it is indeed a song and that without it we were all stumped. "What is this thing? 'Drumming'? It makes no sense. Ah, 'Drumming Song', I see". Anyway, our is not to question why, and sure everyone's probably bored of people prattling on about Florence and her machine, but you know what, the album's amazing, this song's amazing and in the video she dances like a gothic Beyoncé. Plus, this remix is very good too.
Last week we pleaded with you to buy the special edition of Kid A and, we're not gonna lie, not many of you did. A few more of you brought the Noah & The Whale album, which entered just inside the top 20. Obviously soppy love songs sell better than paranoid tension these days. But, what will always sell, is a song about sex performed by three young ladies in tight lycra, so it's little surprise to see that 'Get Sexy' by the Sugababes entered at no. 2 on Sunday. Well done everyone.
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East of Eden by Taken By Trees 
As we've said before, Taken By Trees is the musical nom de plume of one Victoria Bergsman, former lead singer of The Concretes and the female portion of Peter, Bjorn & John's 'Young Folks'. East of Eden was partially recorded in Pakistan, during which time Bergsman had to pretend to be married to avoid unwanted attention and was ignored by the male musicians who appear on the album. Thankfully the results are startling, with songs like the lovely 'Anna' and the brilliantly conceived cover of Animal Collective's 'My Girls' (re-titled 'My Boys here) taking elements from her travels and suffusing them with her distinctive own sound.
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Kings & Queens by Jamie T
Jamie T kind of passed us by before, what with all the harping on by the music press, each magazine declaring either him, Alex Turner or Mike Skinner some kind of modern day poet. This was probably a bit unfair and we enjoyed his debut album a lot on the one occasion we listened to it. This, the follow-up, is more of the same, but with greater focus on the actual songs and not just trying to make them sound as ramshackle as possible.
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'Dominos' by The Big Pink
We did a thing on this song about a month ago and when we heard it on the radio the other morning we thought, "this is really rather good", so here it is again. Moody, booming, simple and very catchy, it has all the ingredients to become a real smash on the hit parade. Things being the way they are, it will no doubt limp in at no. 38 and set things up 'nicely' for their debut album, A Brief History of Love.
It was Blur that once sang: "Bank Holiday comes with a six pack of beer...then it's back to work". Well, not for us. Our Bank Holiday was spent at work, having shifted the beer drinking forward a day to the Sabbath. We know, we know, may the Lord send down a thunder bolt or some such. Anywho, we must deal the hand that we have been dealt and get back to business. Last week we predicted big things for the Arctic Monkeys album, which wasn't exactly going out on a limb. It entered at no. 1, having outsold the rest of the top 5 put together. Needless to say the Fiery Furnaces album was nowhere to be seen and the Black Lips/Lumina single just missed out on the top spot thanks to about 75 other singles that all sold more. For this week, you should all be buying these things...
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Kid A (Special Collectors Edition) by Radiohead
Radiohead are going to love this. Having ditched EMI in favour of releasing their last album via carrier pigeon, Radiohead upset their former paymasters to such a degree that they cobbled together a Greatest Hits package and started releasing all their albums again in various forms. These re-releases may not have been overseen by the band, but they are worth investigating not least this new version of Kid A, which not only features the incredible original album, but also a second CD of live versions and a DVD of a couple of TV performances. Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief have also been re-packaged with various b-sides and live tracks, but seeing as the original source is one of the best things ever released we're going with Kid A.
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First Days of Spring by Noah & The Whale
May we, for a second, be crude? If we had split up with Laura Marling we would be pretty depressed too, for she is proper fit. Ahem. Charlie Fink, singer with twee-indie-also-rans Noah & The Whale, broke up with the lovely Marling recently and decided to write an entire album about how it made him feel and how he was going to get over it. The lyrics pretty much run the gamut of heartbreak cliche, but musically the band have expanded their sound to include strings, choirs and a bit of a go on the old kitchen sink to create a stirring second album.
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'Get Sexy' by Sugababes
We could have gone for The Cribs new single, or that one by Jamie T, but you know what, we're stuck in an office on a sunny Bank Holiday and we're going to choose a fun little pop song that samples Right Said Fred and is not a patch on past glories but is good enough for now thank you very much. 'Get Sexy' sounds a bit too try-hard when you listen to it without the video, but somehow it improves when matched with all those bright lights and gyrating hips. Why don't you have a little look here.
