New Musick Monday

It seems our mild indifference towards Foals second album didn't put people off buying it; entering at number 8, it's the band's second top ten album in a row. However, their debut peaked at no. 3, so that's five chart placings they've lost in the interim and at the end of the day, five chart placings are five chart placings. Or something. Holy Fuck did diddily squat, whilst the fresh-faced Mini Viva may soon be stacking shelves in the Minute Mart (or not, seeing as it's fictional) as their third single misses the Top 40 altogether. This week is a bit of a bumper edition, so let's crack on...

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This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem

Whilst not quite the all out amazingfest that is Sound Of Silver, the third (and perhaps last?) LCD Soundsystem album is still about twenty-six times better than anything else around at the moment. As ever, James Murphy sounds simultaneously bored, dazed and perpetually confused and his general sense of brattishness comes to the fore on tracks such as 'Drunk Girls' and 'You Wanted A Hit' (essentially an ode to his record label). Highlights include the slow-burn opener, 'Dance Yrself Clean' and the Bowie-esque 'All I Want'.

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Flesh Tone by Kelis

Four years after the patchy Kelis Was Here and a year after she got sick of husband Nas' (alleged) philandering and filed for divorce, Kelis is back with a new dance-orientated sound. Featuring production from David Guetta, Benny Benassi and label boss, will.i.am, Flesh Tone ups the bpm to almost mind-boggling levels, with weird sonic squiggles and huge synths dominating the album. Single 'Acapella' is a sweet ode to her baby son, whilst '4th Of July (Fireworks)' and '22nd Century' are like futuristic rave anthems in waiting. A welcome return.

HEY, WHILST YOU'RE AT IT, BUY THIS 'N'ALL

Compass by Jamie Lidell

Jamie Lidell has always been a bit of an odd fit with the Warp roster, his albums more likely to feature some soulful organ stabs as opposed to a beat that sounds like the inner workings of a beetle's mind. Whilst 2008's Jim at times sounded like the perfect soul pastiche album, Compass is more slapdash, with songs careening between beat box, sax, distorted percussion and Lidell's elastic vocals. Featuring the likes of Feist, Beck and three members of Grizzly Bear (the band's Chris Taylor co-produces), it's all over the place but with a melodic core that's undeniable.

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'Rambling Man' by Laura Marling

Because you'll regret it if you don't.

New Musick Monday

Nothing, nudda, zip. Not one of the acts we gave our full backing to have made any kind of impression on the UK hit parade, not even M.I.A who has had acres of free publicity after that video. We have a theory that she's forever destined to be one of those acts who are critically lauded and define a period of time, but actually sell a grand total of ten records. Obviously, 'Paper Planes' did pretty well but it was re-released more times than a Florence & The Machine single and even then the album (Kala) remained rooted to the lower reaches. We're willing to be shown the error of our ways of course and rumours that the first "proper' single is an electro-tinged club banger may mean Musick will eat it's words. Let's just get on with this, shall we?

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Total Life Forever by Foals

We're just not sure about this album. Some of it is great ('Spanish Sahara', 'Blue Blood'), some of it is OK ('This Orient') and the rest of it is frustratingly, "meh". It's not that it's bad, it's just that the energy and passion that seemed to have made it through the protracted gestation of their debut has been sucked out and replaced with a sheen that can be impenetrable. BUT, massive caveat alert, we didn't like their debut much at first either and now we're eulogising about it, so the key here is approach anything we say with caution. POINTLESS!

GET THIS IF YOU CAN

Latin by Holy Fuck

Despite the aggressive moniker and the apocalyptic pretensions, there is much on this third album that's melodic and almost hummable, with the band constantly trying to harness the sheer force of the music within the confines of a four minute song. If Sigur Ros were the perfect accompaniment to some  beautiful Icelandic vistas, than Holy Fuck could easily soundtrack the bubbling volcano that's currently acting as a natural warning of imminent Armageddon. Most tracks sound like they're being performed with some kind of drum orchestra and the sheer force and energy of the music is pretty breathtaking.

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'One Touch' by Mini Viva

The other day we got into a bit of a debate about pop music and whether a good pop songs is still a good pop song if it's made by Girls Aloud, for example, or LCD Soundsystem, or Hot Chip, i.e. should you not like a song because of whose name is on it. We argued that some of the most amazing singles of recent years have come from pop bands who have some very talented producers behind the scenes and that when people say "I like real music, not this pop crap", it makes us want to bludgeon them with a printer. Obviously some pop is crap - ladies and gentlemen, Westlife - but so is a lot of so-called "real music" (Mr Kelly Jones, we're looking at you now). This Xenomania-produced slice of future-pop may not be to everyone's tastes, but it's got about three choruses, a spoken-word rap bit and some massive synths. Sometimes, that's enough.

Baby horses

A few weeks ago a new track by Foals materialised and very lovely it was too. Now they've made a video for the first single from their second album, Total Life Forever, and it finds the Oxford quintet in Bloc Party territory. Luckily, it's Bloc Party circa Silent Alarm so it's melodic and shimmering, which is good because if they'd sought inspiration from them any later we'd have a single called 'I've Read Some Books About Things And Now I'm Seriously Angry And Confused'. Instead, it's called 'This Orient' and can be heard and viewed below:



They're still mildly insufferable aren't they? But it's better to be pretentious than boring, right? RIGHT.

This is rather lovely

Band: Foals
Title: 'Spanish Sahara'
Album: Total Life Forever (due 10 May)



Nice to see Adam Buxton's lining up new work now that 6Music is set for the chop. Ha ha.

THIS IS WHY NO ONE READS THIS!