Adult Contemporary Essentials 21.02.10

The Strange Boys

Be Brave

Rough Trade

Texans do things differently, but not always bigger, if this wonderful little album is anything to go by. Coming across as The Basement Tapes might if Mick Jagger had taken The 60s Stones in that direction, Be Brave is full of a rusty, dusty blend of country, rock and blues.

The Strange Boys take Jason and the Scorchers onto a new, indie level the way that The Walkmen do when they play country. This record is as far from the X Factor as a record could get and still be released by a major(ish) label, but for those who partake, it has an infectiousness and a sheer joy to its existence that equally elevates other bands you've never heard of, like White Hassle or Delta Spirit - you will be so glad you came in, and want to share the secret, but realistically someone who listens to Radio 2 or a pop station is not going to get this record. If you prefer the 73 Springsteen to the 2009 one, the 60s Stones to the 80s Stones, however, do seek out this record.

ACE rating 9/10

Great Lake Swimmers

The Legion Sessions

Nettwerk

Canada's Great Lake Swimmers don't make music, they make beauty sound like something. Front man Tony Dekker looks like the kind of man on whom religions get built, and sings like an angel. The Legion Sessions was recorded in a pub - the Royal Canadian Legion Pub - and features live acoustic versions of their acoustic songs from the lovely Lost Channels record. It is, if you like, a second chance to hear those songs, a perspective 2 degrees away from the one you first came at them. Songs like Palmistry and Pulling On A Line are gorgeous, layered and gentle, like a warm clear stream - Dekker makes every song a vulnerable, fragile thing, and the band adorn each perfectly with the minimum of effort and frill. The record sounds great, too - the feel of the wooden floor is tangible - this is no sticky-floored British pub, clearly. If you don't have Lost Channels already, it doesn't make sense to start here, although you can see most of the Sessions songs on YouTube to see if you'll like it. if you do, this will help you hear it in 3D.

ACE rating 8/10

Steve Vai

Where The Wild Things Are (Live in Minneapolis)

Favored Nations

Take care that this isn't something you buy by accident expecting the film soundtrack. There is a DVD to accompany this tour de force, but this is as high end as rock guitar gets, and there is no nice warm feeling at the end. Steve Vai is a guitarist's guitarist, and even those guitarists don't necessarily like what he does - the extreme technicality of the playing requires an appreciation of how hard it is to do at least as much as any appreciation of it as 'music'. However, the CD of this show contains 15 tracks that highlight an amazing front man of an amazing band - Vai has collected a band of virtuosos, including two violinists who can match his speed and style. This elevates the music from straight rock to jazz fusion, and brings him closer to his own Frank Zappa band roots than he has been in a long time, if with less improvisation. For the guitarist listener, there are probably too many vocal tracks, but songs like Now We Run or Oooo are simply jawdropping.

ACE rating 8/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 14.02.10

The Soft Pack

The Soft Pack

Heavenly

If it’s true that all publicity is good publicity, then this San Diego band may well have decided that they could continue to call themselves The Muslims for this debut album. Fortunately, more sensible heads prevailed and this album is being allowed to stand on its own merits.

‘Fortunately’ because this album captures the spirit of The Strokes’ early work and mixes in some Fall to come out with something that isn’t new, isn’t big and certainly isn’t clever, but is the

same kind of infectious as the Von Bondies breakthrough, or the short-lived 22-20s. There is some early Beatles pop, some early REM driving Rickenbacker sounds and a whole lot of the kind of college/ underground rock that needs no explanation – full of songs, juvenile attitude and thrashed guitars. Hipsters may wish for more archness, more of the kind of image cultivated by The Drums, but leave them to their anxieties, and enjoy this album for what it is – it isn’t trying to change the world, just make 30 minutes of it pass more quickly.

ACE rating 8/10

The Smoking Popes

It’s Been A Long Day

Asian Man

For fans of The Smoking Popes, it was interesting that Morrissey suggested they were his favourite band, as they always had the sound of a Smiths that had taken REM’s punkier college rock to heart. In one respect, The Smoking Popes were one of America’s most important punk bands in the 90s, combining melody and catchy rock with their attitude preceding Green Day’s increasing popularity. This collection of unreleased material from 1991-1998 is raw and unpolished, but does give a great insight into the generation. Many songs come in under 2 minutes, and it is remarkable how much can be fitted into those 120 seconds. The overwhelming impression that remains now is of a band whose punk got subsumed under the pop surface. We can’t complain too much of that – I Need You Around from 1995’s Born To Quit remains on of THE great singles of the past 20 years. Consider this an album for completists - Born to Quit and 2008’s Stay Down should come ahead of this in your Shopping Cart.

ACE rating 7/10

Yeasayer

Odd Blood

EMI

Yeasayer have gone from the territory they set up for Vampire Weekend to a more electronic 80s place. All Hour Cymbals was, by their own admission, Middle Eastern-Psych-Pop-Snap-Gospel, which either means that a lot of good ideas were thrown into a melting pot from which the best were chosen, or that an occasionally unseemly mess resulted. The adulation that accompanied songs like 2080 did seem to suggest that the band had got some things right, however. Odd Blood is definitely an album of two halves – the first a melted down Pet Shop Boys synthy disco mix, and the second described as ‘experimental.’ In this case, that does mean what you fear it might – there is barely a song to be found in the sub-Talking Heads mess. Best avoided unless you desperately want the badge of novelty pinned to your ironic T-shirt.

ACE rating 6/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 07.02.10

Hurray For The Riff-Raff

Young Blood Blues

eMusic

There was a time when Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Songs was shocking. Alynda Lee, here known as Hurray For The Riff Raff, on her second album, is as folky as it gets, having left home at 17 to ride freight trains and play washboard in a street band. Her voice, all Cat Power and Shocked, is a powerful instrument in the sparse mix of banjo, accordion, and percussion, but she is at her best when delivering a line like 'you stick the needle in your arm and the baby starts crying' on Slow Walk. The capacity of songs like I Know You to be seductively bluesy is just gorgeous, and full of character. If more blues was less reverent and paid attention to its folk roots,

records like this might be easier to come by - if, as they say, blues is just the sound of a good man/ woman feeling bad, then the absence of melancholy that suggests is written all of the way through this. Its edges are its character, and its depth its primary raison d'être.

ACE rating 9/10

The Features

Some Kind of Salvation

Serpents and Snakes

The Features may come from Nashville, but they sound like Tennessee brethren Kings of Leon might if they came from Brighton - bouncy, edgy pop that is at once upbeat and rocking. Some Kind of Salvation is their second album after the band had trouble with the major label that released their first, Exhibit A. It is an improvement on that debut in every way - the songs are better, lyrically and musically: more fully-reconciled, more fully featured. The band do have a 60s pop inspiration, but front man Matt Pelham takes any Kinks-y leanings and mixes them nicely with some more modern Fratellis-like indie, all hooks, groove and funk. The UK charts need something with the delight of Wooden Heart, GMF or Lions (the Chelsea Dagger of this album). With some more promotion behind them, The Features could well be a massive band on this side of the Atlantic too. Fortunately, this re-release is on the Kings of Leon's label, so that may well tip the balance.

ACE rating 8/10

Jason and the Scorchers

Halcyon Times

JCPL

How does 'first album of all-new material since 1996' sound to you? Enough to strike fear that some old band has been forced by penury into the studio again, and that some retread will be the order of the day? Well, in the case of Jason and the Scorchers, put that thought far from your mind. Back in the day, J&TS and their version of cowpunk (think of the way that The Pogues turned Irish folk music into something hornier and dirtier, then think of that done to awesome country music) turned out something approaching genius, especially on Fervor their EMI debut in 1983. It is one of the all-time great records, and it has been argued (pretty successfully) that this was the album that generated alt-country, not Son Volt. Halcyon Times may not quite approach the spark that ignited Fervor, but it does have the kind of quality that sustained its follow-up albums Lost and Found and Still Standing. The cheekiness is still there, the hard rock, the melodic approach and the absolute absence of any subtlety. Funky as all get-out, there are all sorts of reasons to be grateful for this all-new material.

ACE rating 8/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 31.01.10

Midlake

The Courage of Others

Bella Union

Before the Fleet Foxes, the band whose retreat to early 70s hippiness was most successful was Midlake, and their lovely 2007 second album The Trials of Van Occupanther. With The Courage of Others, Midlake move closer to English folk (Pentangle, Fairport Convention) and a Woodstock-y/ Age of Aquarius vibe – it is never happy, and built around a theme that modern life sucks. Fortunately, the music makes up for that by being in itself gently uplifting. Plus ca change and all that, but there isn’t much here that wasn’t explored 40 years ago – Midlake may sound boldly unconventional now, but only by sounding conventional for an earlier time. The Denton, Texas band clearly have a wonderful feel for pastoral melody, dynamics and harmony, but too often here the feel is of earnestness and ennui.

ACE rating 7/10

The Drums

Summertime EP

Moshi Moshi

Anyone who got The Girls and their debut Album will be dead centre for this EP, from Brooklyn band The Drums. It will help if they come armed with their Joy Division, Stone Roses and The Cure chops, but that is only a starting point – The

Drums sound is a clear, 60s surfer-dude sound, with all of the exuberance that entails. In fact, the band that they most resemble is the Shout Out Louds, who have made this kind of thing their own in recent years. If new music for you means finding bands whose youthful energy overwhelms any over-production or world-weariness, The Drums will be an easy listen – the EP is not polished, and just raw fun in certain places, but it fizzes with that certain something that makes people start bands. Knocks Vampire Weekend into a cocked hat.

ACE rating 8/10

The Len Price 3

Pictures

Wicked Cool

Another revisit to older times, Len Price 3 take the period when the Beatles made pop records, and The Kinks threw out radio-friendly single after single. No one in the band is called Len Price, oddly, as it suggests the band chose the name to refer back to a golden 60s period. The way that the record sounds mirrors that – there seems to have been too great an attempt to make it sound as though it could be an uncovered 60s gem. The Kent trio do mix in some nice The Who, Squeeze-y, Jilted John cockernee punk, and the 13 tracks come in around the half hour mark, so no song outstays its welcome. Signed to Steve Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool label (van Zandt has a strong view that music has been downhill since 1970, and that mono is where it is at), The Len Price 3 have recently been knocking out some stellar singles, which are front-loaded into this album – the rest feels like a valiant attempt to pad the 30 minutes.

ACE rating 7/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 24.01.10

Vampire Weekend

Contra

XL/ Beggars

A lot of people liked Paul Simon’s Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints period. It’s not so cool for kids to say they like it now, though, so what they say they like instead is Vampire Weekend. Contra is such an updated Rhythm of the Saints in all but the presence of Paul Simon that it is hard to understand the hype and adulation that has accompanied the band. Fun, unassuming and as world-y as music gets – they have (as Simon had) added in some Jamaican, Brazilian and some of-the-moment Bangra, and seem to feel passionate about none of it. There are a couple of good tracks here – Cousins is fun and punky, Taxi Cab a little Strokes-y. There are many more reasons to avoid paying for Contra than there are to – the band and their promo are a little too college-boy smug about themselves, and there are a lot of times that this is just too clean and sweet.

ACE rating 7/10

Beach House

Teen Dream

Bella Union

When it comes to buzz, Beach House have it in spades. The band have slowly built up a remarkable reputation based on unassuming, quiet, Brian Wilson-flavoured dream pop/ indie rock (and the support of arch opinionistas Pitchfork, a US website). Somewhere to the dreamy side of Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear and Mercury Rev, this is an album that is meant to be consumed as a whole, rather than in discrete songs. As such, it takes some time to let it sink in – there isn’t much hummable in here. Perfect for the bloggers of the world, this duo (Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally) rely on intimacy and subtlety to draw in the listener. Beach House is their best album, although it sounds a lot like its predecessor, Devotion – quite a lot of icy coolness and haze to leave the listener with the impression of a still lake with the barest ripple. It is lovely, if not quite the step ahead we might have hoped for.

ACE rating 8/10

California Guitar Trio

On Tour With King Crimson

California Guitar Trio

Rodrigo y Gabriela have rather revived the indie interest in finely played classical flamenco guitar. Unfortunate title aside (there aren’t many proggie moments), the California Guitar Trio follow the Di Meola, McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia format to the hilt – nailing a fusion jazz, classical mix with aplomb. This album mixes in some electric guitar for texture, and throws some fun in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Pipeline and Walk Don’t Run to the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor mix. This is a hugely enjoyable album, if you’re a fan of the guitar – none of the players have a Di Meola-like virtuosity, but that somehow stabilises the music –it isn’t all about the speedy runs and frills, and the trio behave like a trio rather than a rolling showcase for individual talent.

ACE rating 7/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 24.01.10

Vampire Weekend

Contra

XL/ Beggars

A lot of people liked Paul Simon’s Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints period. It’s not so cool for kids to say they like it now, though, so what they say they like instead is Vampire Weekend. Contra is such an updated Rhythm of the Saints in all but the presence of Paul Simon that it is hard to understand the hype and adulation that has accompanied the band. Fun, unassuming and as world-y as music gets – they have (as Simon had) added in some Jamaican, Brazilian and some of-the-moment Bangra, and seem to feel passionate about none of it. There are a couple of good tracks here – Cousins is fun and punky, Taxi Cab a little Strokes-y. There are many more reasons to avoid paying for Contra than there are to – the band and their promo are a little too college-boy smug about themselves, and there are a lot of times that this is just too clean and sweet.

ACE rating 7/10

Beach House

Teen Dream

Bella Union

When it comes to buzz, Beach House have it in spades. The band have slowly built up a remarkable reputation based on unassuming, quiet, Brian Wilson-flavoured dream pop/ indie rock (and the support of arch opinionistas Pitchfork, a US website). Somewhere to the dreamy side of Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear and Mercury Rev, this is an album that is meant to be consumed as a whole, rather than in discrete songs. As such, it takes some time to let it sink in – there isn’t much hummable in here. Perfect for the bloggers of the world, this duo (Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally) rely on intimacy and subtlety to draw in the listener. Beach House is their best album, although it sounds a lot like its predecessor, Devotion – quite a lot of icy coolness and haze to leave the listener with the impression of a still lake with the barest ripple. It is lovely, if not quite the step ahead we might have hoped for.

ACE rating 8/10

California Guitar Trio

On Tour With King Crimson

California Guitar Trio

Rodrigo y Gabriela have rather revived the indie interest in finely played classical flamenco guitar. Unfortunate title aside (there aren’t many proggie moments), the California Guitar Trio follow the Di Meola, McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia format to the hilt – nailing a fusion jazz, classical mix with aplomb. This album mixes in some electric guitar for texture, and throws some fun in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Pipeline and Walk Don’t Run to the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor mix. This is a hugely enjoyable album, if you’re a fan of the guitar – none of the players have a Di Meola-like virtuosity, but that somehow stabilises the music –it isn’t all about the speedy runs and frills, and the trio behave like a trio rather than a rolling showcase for individual talent.

ACE rating 7/10

The Uglysuit

Had the extreme pleasure of finding that The Uglysuit were playing Bowery Electric in NYC while I was there... I am still nonplussed that this band isn't bigger. Their record was one of my Top 10 in 2008 (review here), and here they were opening for two bands I'd not heard of... Even more surprised when it turned out that they kick ass live - huge energy and a Muppets band stage presence...

Well-recorded video, and my two phone videos... And a free mp3 from their amazing record here... (Right click to download, or ctrl-click if you have seen the light.)

Adult Contemporary Essentials 17.01.10

Local Natives

Gorilla Manor

Infectious

It didn’t take long for someone to try themselves out as another Fleet Foxes. This Silverlake, California band are the subject of a lot of buzz, although the record itself doesn’t do enough to justify the adulation. Running Fleet Foxes’ eponymous album through some Yeasayers/ Dirty Projectors messy shouty post-modern indie isn’t enough to properly distance it from Fleet Foxes. That reference runs all the way through this pretty good debut – the music uses its uplifting mass harmonies and swelling melodies well. Like The Morning Benders, or Delta Spirit, there is a lovely sense that this is a band that enjoys making music, even while it stays true to its influences (to be gentle). The lead single, Camera Talking, does at least head off in another direction – that direction being Vampire Weekend... Originality may (or may not) be an overrated virtue in modern music, as here it could detract from what is a fun and much better than average debut. A fan of any of the bands above will be pleasantly surprised by this new addition to their listening material.

ACE rating 7/10

Kevin Devine

Brother’s Blood

Big Scary Monsters

Kevin Devine is like the sweeter, nicer, cuter version of Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull – intelligent indie rock played acoustically, like an updated version of Freedy Johnston. Brother’s Blood is undoubtedly the best record of his career – this is his fifth album – maintaining the ‘eloquent simplicity’ of his fame – often simply acoustic until a dynamic change elevates the song.

Look no further than the Neil Young/ Crazy Horse-ish title song which is both long and good (better than short and good?), and Carnival which goes wonderfully nuts at the end. Devine also mixes in some sweet pop with his indie to great effect – songs like Yr Husband and I Could Be With Anyone are infectious, neatly crafted gems in the mix. The genre may well overlap with emo, but it is a more adult, more intelligent version of the same, a Colour Revolt version. Do find it and give it a listen.

ACE rating 8/10

OK Go

Of The Blue Colour of the Sky

Capitol

OK Go may not enjoy the kind of credibility among the hip tastemakers who decide if a band is fashionable or not, but their remarkably creative videos (the treadmill video is something of a pop culture classic), and consistently great music, mark them out as a proper adult alternative band. What they do really well is make tight, literate rock with a knowing nod. Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky sees them move in the same direction My Morning Jacket did, towards Prince-y funk, rather than their more straightahead rock of previous albums. Unfortunately, as with My Morning Jacket, while there is some merit in the album, it isn’t what an OK Go fan might expect to find. The tightness is still there in manicured lines, but there is little rock on display – a lot of falsetto, a lot of effects, electronics and a few songs in the 15 on the album. OK Go had it in them to be one of the great unsung rock bands, but Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky will hopefully just go down as an experiment.

ACE rating 5/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 10.01.10

Freelance Whales

Weathervanes

Freelance Whales

So, the question would be “do you need more Sufjan Stevens music?” If the answer is ‘yes’ (and why would it not be?), then there is a place for you go that is more reliable than a new Sufjan Stevens’ album.

Probably, the Sufjan that you started to love on Illinois made the kind of nimble, beautiful folk that this five-piece from Queens, NY, do. The band, who have crafted their music on the subways of New York, trade elegant instrumentation, biblical references and a gorgeous voice to transport you to a nicer place. Fortunately, there seems not to be a contrivance or a false moment anywhere, and the nice blend of indie folk steers it nicely the right side of twee. A song like Broken Horse is simply lovely, while Hannah is laden down with hooks and funk, unusual instrumentation and harmony. While you’re waiting on the new Beach House, Freelance Whales is a good place to shelter.

ACE rating 8/10

Mt St Helens Vietnam Band

Mt St Helens Vietnam Band

Dead Oceans

These guys could be too clever for their own good (what with their 15 year old drummer, and their viral video promos that launched their career). Fortunately, they have the indie rock chops to back up their innovation. Unfortunately, those chops aren’t their own. The band plagiarise heavily (they could call it inspiration, or paying tribute) and there are undoubtedly some good spirits among the fun to be had. Unlike so many British tribute bands, this Seattle band draw from bands like Modest Mouse, The Hold Steady and The Shins. Which shows some originality, but less than, you know, actually being original. Come at the album without that knowledge and you could have a pretty good time, but you would have to leave your cool indie cred to one side in doing so. Mt St Helens Vietnam Band clearly can do it, but to prove they have sustainability, they’ll need more than a teenage drummer.

ACE rating 6/10

Andrew Bird

Noble Beast

Bella Union

Andrew Bird has a wonderful four albums to his name - the multi-instrumentalist (a classically-trained violinist) reached his zenith with The Mysterious Production Of Eggs, a gorgeous, clever, sophisticated delight of an album. Were you to imagine a muso Jeff Buckley, you'd not be far wrong, with Bird's wonderfully warm, soaring voice accompanying his pizzicato violin, and (often simultaneously) multi-tracked instruments. Noble Beast is a bit of a departure, and not always an entirely welcome one. Whereas he's been pretty self-reliant in past, this album sees him rope in some members of Wilco to indie up the sound. The result, with Mark Nevers (producer of Lambchop and Calexico) at the desks, is a little one-dimensional - nice enough, but lacking the kind of flights of fancy that entertained so much, and that can easily be misclassified as experimental. It is an album that has a stronger crust to break through, and once in it is a little flat. Bird seems to have taken himself pretty seriously here - the whimsy of his music lost. Instead, Noble Beast sounds like later-era Paul Simon, but played and sung beautifully.

ACE rating 8/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials 03.01.10

Jesca Hoop

Hunting My Dress

Last Laugh

Jesca Hoop used to be Tom Waits' kids' nanny, but with this record will be known for so much more.

A follow up to her debut, Kismet, this is a short record at 9 songs, but that is quickly irrelevant as the promise of so many wannabe off-the-wall female singer-songwriters is finally delivered. Mix in some Kate Bush with some Bjork, some Emiliana Torrini and then give it a Tom Waits rhythmic arrangement, and you have something that should keep advert makers in soundtracks for years. The apparent simplicity of the songs covers their complexity the way that Feist's 1,2,3,4 did, and the voice with its impressive range and its gorgeous accent says so much so easily. With Elbow's Guy Garvey on one track, and people like Tom Waits describing her music as 'like swimming in a lake at night' (which is a good thing, it seems), Hunting My Dress deserves its re-release. This is a perfect little album that will make the Joanna Newsome fans realise what they've been missing.

ACE rating 9/10

Royal Bangs

Let It Beep

Audio Eagle

Royal Bangs' debut, We Breed Champions, was an amphetamine rush of an album, with its sludgy electro-rock, straightahead punchy indie and the sound of a 10ft square studio. Like a Stoogier version of the Walkmen or a dirtier Weezer, this is a record that deserves your attention. There aren't many songs out there that are better than Cat Swallow or Brother. Let It Beep is a quickly released follow up on The Black Keys' Patrick Carney's Audio Eagle label, and it is, if anything, even messier than its predecessor. That's not always good - although the energy is undoubted, there is an occasional sense that you'd just like them to nail a song, as they do on 1993, or opener War Bells. When they do that, this is an essential band - the raw production takes nothing away. They also add in some Battles-like electronica for good measure. No doubt about it, Let It Beep is as disjointed as the debut, but Royal Bangs on their day are one of the most exciting bands around.

ACE rating 8/10

Great Lake Swimmers

Lost Channels

Nettwerk

The fourth album by Toronto, Canada, band Great Lake Swimmers is a revelation. The band, whose core is singer songwriter Tony Dekker (whose looks, like a modern-day Jesus, accompany his gentle, warm, angelic voice perfectly), have made albums of fragile beauty, with the odd standout track – like Shearwater without the melodrama. In Lost Channels, however, unlike its predecessor Ongiara, there is no weak track – this is an album of sheer understated loveliness, its rare beauty intact and a mood as deeply affecting as the best of Dekker’s work. There is not even the semblance of a doubt that anyone who took something from Fleet Foxes’ debut or Shearwater’s Rook would love this disc, with its updated Horse With No Name America feel – harmonies and acoustic guitars spin a magical web here.

ACE rating 8/10

Adult Contemporary Essentials rating

9-10 Essential purchase

7-8 Good, definite buy if you've liked this artist in the past

5-6 OK only, don't say I didn't warn you

3-4 Poor, even for this artist

1-2 Awful

Adult Contemporary Essentials 27.12.09

Julian Casablancas

Phrazes for the Young

Rough Trade

It is hard to deny that The Strokes were one of the bands that defined the sound of the noughts, and part of that definition, alongside Albert Hammond Jnr's guitar, was the voice of Julian Casablancas. In his first solo departure, that voice remains the constant, but the musical palette grows to include 80s synths (think Human League), 70s prog and some Strokes-like tunes (and a strange country departure). At only 8

songs, this is a short album, full of what must have seemed like guilty pleasures within the band framework. Among those 8 songs, there are two absolute crackers in opener Out Of The Blue, and Glass. Had the rest of the album emerged fully fledged from a new artist, this would have been hailed as a remarkably diverse and excellent set, but it is impossible not to judge it with a Strokes mindset. Phrazes For The Young would attract a different audience than The Strokes, and it is to its credit that it would be attractive to that audience.

ACE rating 9/10

Grant-Lee Phillips

Little Moon

Yep Roc

Grant-Lee Phillips has been the same kind of stalwart of adult alternative US music as now-label-mates Nick Lowe, Robyn Hitchcock and John Doe - turning out wonderful records without ever setting the world on fire. Little Moon sees him become a clearly happy father, moving him away from previously more brooding material. His rich baritone voice can still soar - on songs like Good Morning Happiness (a song that could so easily have tipped into schmaltz) and It Ain't The Same Old Cold War Harry, the bouncy horns compliment the mood perfectly. Elsewhere the optimism does provide a strong uplift, and the music is at the more Wallflowers end of the Grant-Lee Phillips spectrum. Little Moon is a strong addition to the canon, and as good an entry point as any. There will be many who will fall deeply in love with Grant-Lee Phillips on the strength of albums just like this one.

ACE rating 8/10

Various Artists

Never Give Up On Your Hallucinations

Alive/ Redeye

Alive Records is one of the coolest labels on the planet, and its artists, including The Black Keys, Outrageous Cherry and Buffalo Killers, keep the sludgy dirty rock feel of early 70s hard rock, add a dash of blues and then stop caring exactly what you think and just make a noise. That vibe is illustrated perfectly on this sampler album by a band like Radio Moscow who take the blues standard I Just Want To Make Love To You and turn it into some kind of hip hop rock/ Santana fest that would make a dead man dance. Elsewhere, Brimstone Howl, Black Diamond Heavies, Trainwreck Riders, Left Lane Cruiser and The Black Keys add tracks that suggest that Alive may never make a big pile of money, but someone is going to have an awful lot of fun (and Jack Daniels) along the way. Not a trace of subtlety or an ounce of reserve in this excellent album.

ACE rating 8/10

2009 in Music

If there is one thing that music criticism teaches, it is that listening to 300 albums a year is only to scratch the surface of what is out there. Every year gets better, and the talent deeper, so any suggestion that this list is the ‘best’ of 2009 would be an overclaim – it is simply a list of the albums that kept coming back to the top of this reviewer’s playlist, improving with each listen. In no particular order, then...

Manchester Orchestra

Mean Everything To Nothing

Columbia

Insanely great. When critics talk about ‘a band to watch’ and ‘a band laden with promise’, this right here is the album they always hoped would come out. A band who could make a 60-year old classical music fan headbang and mosh, while keeping the kind of sophistication that comes from writing songs that work wonderfully when acoustic (a la Dave Grohl). If there is competition for Manchester Orchestra, it might be the Foo Fighters (maybe, at a stretch, Biffy Clyro), although that would underplay the honesty Andy Hull is capable of in his lyrics. Manchester Orchestra are the best new rock band to leave America in 10 years.

Monsters of Folk

Monsters of Folk

Rough Trade

In what could easily have been another Traveling Wilburys-like release, Monsters of Folk, a collection of Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Mike Mogis and M Ward (and on the tour, Will Johnson of Centro-matic) banded together to not be a supergroup. The seriousness which can occasionally be pervasive in their individual releases is largely absent here – they seem to be having some loose limbed fun. Some games have been upped, though – Oberst sounds right up for this one, with focus and drive that he has missed a little recently.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

11:11

Rubyworks

Rodrigo y Gabriela have become cult favourites for their intriguing blend of classical and flamenco guitar with a rock sensibility. Way more than polite dinner party music, the passion, grace and fire of their interplay is always entertaining. That palette has been expanded on 11:11, with leanings towards Al Di Meola-like jazz, the inclusion of rock guitarist Alex Skolnick, and another duo in Strunz and Farah. It is a wonderful addition, elevating the album from more-of-the-same (no matter how great) to ‘wow’. This album has dynamics, it has soul, it has rock and jazz, and it catches some of the heat of their live work perfectly .

She Keeps Bees

Nests

Names

With a cast iron edge to the guitar, and a voice like Cat Power's Chan Marshall sung by Janis Joplin and a Patti Smith attitude, Jessica Larrabee leads this two piece wonderfully. The songs come across like thicker, edgier, bluesier White Stripes songs - deliciously sexy, confessional, naked and edgy. When Jennifer Trynin released her amazing debut album back in the 90s, it sounded just like this - all stunning power, control and sparse instrumentation. It is hard to avoid the Cat Power comparisons, but Nests stands those comparisons well by coming out on top.

These United States

Everything Touches Everything

United Interests

These United States are probably the best band in the US that you’ve not started to listen to yet. Combining Big Pink-era Band style with Shins-y rock and a Rolling Stones funky vibe, Jesse Elliot and band offer up complexity, humour and a driven wit that proceeds past the listener like great rolling countryside past a high speed train. Elliot is a lyricist like few others – capable of pure poetry in his lyrics without overweaning English Lit references, he tells stories elegantly and maturely. Everything Touches Everything rocks up the sound a little, ending up around Jayhawks/ Deadstring Brothers space. It is a great sound, relaxed, but with urgency – the kind of music that Conor Oberst has headed towards but not quite landed the past few years.

Low Anthem

Oh My God Charlie Darwin

Bella Union

It kind of sucks you in to believing it is another Fleet Foxes album, this one, sharing a label with that band, and then throwing in the first two songs, Charlie Darwin, and To Ohio, both lushly, gently sweet. But then, Ticket Taker sounds like Tom Waits took over Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions Band, as the (essentially 3-piece) band take a rowdier stomp into a bar for a couple of songs. A brave second disc, full of the kind of songs that the band wanted to make, rather than written to a formula. The Felice Brothers, Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes have not provided as wholesome an album as this so far.

Dinosaur Jr

Farm

PIAS

Goodness knows how someone can do what Jay Mascis does in Dinosaur Jr for so long and stay so fresh. Starting with songs that Nirvana would have been happy with, then layering over insanely great fuzzed up lead guitar in a kind of Zappa-esque frenzy, it shouldn’t work as anything other than an ego-fest, but it does, wonderfully. Farm is a fantastically resolved album, better than pretty much any of the 8 preceding. Farm is tight, urgent and remarkably whole. If everyone who likes the way Neil Young does what he does when he rocks out would only give this one listen, they’d be converted.

Dan Auerbach

Keep It Hid

V2

Dan Auerbach is known as half of The Black Keys – the singer/ guitarist half. Keep It Hid is a significantly looser affair than any of the previous albums, with country, jazzy blues and psychedelia working their way in. Recording at home has given this album a more organic sound – Keep It Hid takes its own time, and is absolutely never rushed. Auerbach is a better guitarist than he was allowed to be in the Black Keys format, and Keep It Hid, in opposition to its title, brings that to light.

Clem Snide

Hungry Bird

Freeworld

There is something so addictive about simple music when it is done so perfectly. When Clem Snide are on form, and oh, they are here, the music they make is soul food. Touchingly tender, wry, witty and ironic – poetry so carefully and cleverly observed and stories delivered with the gentlest of musical touches. The songs are a grown-up’s treat – like an uber-Snow Patrol before they made it big. A song like Beard of Bees is told as much as it is sung, Barzelay’s weary vocals providing the wry edge that tip it into beauty. With amazing mastery of melody, the 12 songs become like personal friends. As indie-rock bands go, there are few that do a better job for anyone over the age of 30 than Clem Snide.

Califone

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

Dead Oceans

Full of subtlety, layered acoustic perfection, it is as if Beck had suddenly both rediscovered his musical genius and mixed it with Elbow’s more anthemic moments. Having spent 20 minutes pressing ‘repeat’ on Krill, you may well go back to Radiohead-like opener Giving Away The Bride, or the acoustic-Nirvana-like Polish Girls. All My Friends is the band’s sixth ‘song-based’ album, and it is, by some margin their best – topping even the underrated Roots and Crowns. It has more songs, more individual songs that could be taken out of the album and still work as single gems. It may seem overblown to describe an album as ‘art’ these days, but this is an album where time only deepens the nuances and the attractiveness.

Them Crooked Vultures

Them Crooked Vultures

Sony

Them Crooked Vultures is the latest supergroup to involve Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and Dave Grohl (of, well, everything…), and rather remarkably adds in the Led Zeppelin quiet man, John Paul Jones. An album that rather neatly updates the Cream idea, riff heavy, and full of the bluesy thick rock that would make any fan of Clapton’s supergroup shed a tear of reminiscence. The format clearly suits each of the musicians, with the kind of punch we expect from QoTSA enhanced by some Led Zeppelin basslines. There’s nothing modern in any one of these 13 tracks, and that is perhaps the album’s greatest highlight – it presumes that great rock will always be great rock, without any need for frippery.

Molina and Johnson

Molina and Johnson

Secretly Canadian

This collaboration has been a long time in the making, and has been well worth the wait. The two singers complement each other perfectly. Johnson’s grittier voice blending with Molina’s higher plaintive. The album feels like a Will Johnson album with additional beauty, added harmony, elevated poetry, which makes it just about perfect. This album defines what is best about Americana - the openness, the sense of space, relaxed reverie, landscape and travel. When Johnson says ‘our record was made in the late February sun’, that feels just so right.