It's a little known fact that the reason behind putting your clocks forward last weekend is simply so you can get to this feature that bit quicker. They make up some rubbish about British Summertime to appease you...like British Summertime even exists!
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Fever Ray by Fever Ray
What could say imminent summertime more then this latest offering from the female half of The Knife? Glacial beats, heavily treated vocals and the dual theme of post-natal depression and insomnia. Do NOT listen to this in a darkened room - you will wet yourself.
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'Untouchable' by Girls Aloud
A huge, seven-minute pop Goliath has been crudely and mercilessly hacked down to a three-minute, radio-friendly chart botherer, with unnecessary vocoder. It's a shame, but it still remains at least 67.8% better then most pop songs released this decade.
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Rules by The Whitest Boy Alive
We had such high hopes. We've not read a single good review of this album and yet we can't believe it's not very good. Can someone buy it, burn us a copy and send it over to the usual address; Musick, 101 Cheapskate Street, Poorsville, London. Ta.
Passion Pit have been on the receiving end of a barrage of positive press in recent months, a tidal wave of hype if you will. So far they've managed to ride out the wave and are currently surfing calmly towards the release of their debut album, Manners (due out on the 18 May).
To coincide with the announcement of said album the band decided to upload a new song, The Reeling, onto their Myspace. Very nice it is too. A stuttering beat, some shimmering synth notes and those faintly anguished vocals all present and correct (it's worth noting that the vocals are lower in the mix then on debut EP Chunks of Change, which can only be a good thing).
Very much looking forward to the album if this is anything to go by. Imagine if it wasn't. Imagine if the rest of the album was all drone rock, sung in Russian and each song went on for twelve minutes.
Regular readers will know how spot-on Musick is, both in terms of the actual recommendations and the speed in which we catch on to new bands. Where other music blogs follow, we lead. So, let us introduce you to a band that absolutely everyone was going ape shit* about late last year...The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
They hail from New York, are labelmates with Crystal Stilts and sound like something that would have featured on that C86 mixtape the NME released in 1986. Guitars 'jangle', the vocals are fey and faintly Morrissey-esque and there's an over-reaching level of tweeness that might put some people off. But The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (ah, that band name is almost too twee to type) manage to transcend the limitations and have created a debut album bursting with catchy melodies and painfully shy songs. Put this on your walkman, slip on your duffel coat, sit in the shade and cry yourself silly whilst reading Catcher In The Rye.
They're even playing Boggle in the video, which is only Musick's favourite game. Shamefully, much of our teenage years were spent playing Boggle...alone.
* In a mildly disinterested, shrugging shoulders kind of way.
What with all the hoo and indeed ha surrounding Michael Jackson's upcoming O2 residency (the Bankruptcy Tour 2009/10) it's worth noting that when Prince performed there a few years ago he also played a ridiculous amount of shows and kept prices down to less than £40 a ticket. Neither singer has released new material to match their eighties heyday, but at least Prince has recently proven himself to be a reliably amazing performer and looks as if he can still stand up unaided, which is one up on Jackson.
Only time will tell whether we see the return of the King Of Pop (and if you have tickets for the shows in early 2010 then good luck to you), but for now Prince has a new album coming out. In fact he has THREE new albums coming out. Why three I hear you scream? Good question. One is called LOTUSFLOW3R (his caps and his use of the number), the other MPLSoUND and the final one is called Elixer and is an album by his protege Bria Valente. Phew. None of them will include anything as good as 'Raspberry Beret', 'Kiss' or 'Darling Nikki' or even 'Get Off' or 'Cream', so I'd save your money if I were you.
This is a new song, 'Ol' Skool Company', performed the other night on the Jay Leno show:
When he threw his guitar at that man! The little scamp. It's a great performance, but is it a patch on this, taken from the Grammys in 2004?
No.
Here at Musick we like to think we know some people that know some people. Sometimes our people talk to other people's people and they then get back to their people who come to our people with an idea. Such a convoluted exchange of words happened yesterday when we were asked by The Enemy's people to come up with a brand new image for their forthcoming album, Music For The People (ahem).
Knowing we'd be presented with pretty much a blank canvas we got to work on some ideas. Their music speaks to people, it reflects the everyday life of the working man and revels in the mundane, bringing it to life. Their photos are usually bleak, monochrome and moody, and why shouldn't they be? We're in a recession and we need The Enemy more then ever in these dark and uncertain times. It's either that or crack cocaine.
So, without further ado, this is what we came up with:
Unfortunately, The Enemy's people were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press, but we took their silence as an affirmative. Thank you to The Enemy for being such good sports and showing that famed sense of humour throughout. With bands like this, we can face the recession head on and win, win, win.
He's just a rascal, a dizzee rascal. You know it, I know it, we all know it. Now Jeremy Paxman's favourite grime artiste, Dizzee Rascal, is back with another collaboration, this time with Armand Van Helden entitled 'Bonkers'.
As the title suggests the whole thing is a little bit mad, a little bit crazy and just a bit of a mess on first listen. Luckily, the ever-excitable Zane Lowe plays it twice in a row. 'Bonkers'. It helps, actually, because the whole thing sounds much better second time around. Expect it to 'blow up' the dancefloors near you soon.
It's not on youtube yet, but if you click here you can listen to it on Zane Lowe's podcast type thingy.
I doubt it will be there long, so please do hurry.
Back once again, like one of those renegade masters. It's been said by Musick's critics that this weekly feature is an easy way to fill space and that it involves very little in the way of actual work. These people are very observant.
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Junior by Royksopp
The album, the duo's third, features the vocal talents of a veritable Scandinavian smorgasbord of pop, with Lykke Li, Robyn, Anneli Drecker and Karin Dreijer-Andersson of the Knife / Fever Ray all adding their tuppence worth. Highlight is the Robyn-assisted 'The Girl and the Robot', which is also the next single.
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'My Girls' by Animal Collective
We've no doubt written about this band and this amazing song before, but it's now available to download as a 'single'. Thinking about it, the band aren't exactly mainstream fodder, which means little chance of radio airplay, meaning that most people who are so inclined have already brought the album so wouldn't need to download this song anyway. Expect a HUGE new entry come Sunday.
COPY OFF YOUR UNCLE
Yes by Pet Shop Boys
The boys are back! Yes isn't quite the masterpiece early reports suggested, what with the whole thing sagging around the middle, much like Charlie from Eastenders. But producers Xenomania know their way around a sparkling pop melody and the two young lads who front the band are no slouches either.
