Ben Folds/Nick Hornby – From Above

At my desk the other day I was listening to the fabulous BBC 6 Music when this song hurtled down the wires of my earphones sending pulses of pleasure throughout my being. I hadn’t been paying much attention before so I was suffering some form of brain atrophy and any song that can break through the indifference barrier is worthy of further investigation.

Once I’d got my bearings on the stream, I found it was a collaborative effort between Ben Folds (the music) and Nick Hornby (the lyrics). Which on paper, is like the wet dream of a hipster kid from 1995. A year that saw Ben Folds Five release their amazing debut album and Hornby had the musically themed High Fidelity published.

Taken from the forthcoming album Lonely Avenue the song opens with a quick roll of the drums and bounces along blissfully into the best pop song I’ve heard since Darwin Deez Radar Detector. Driven by Folds on the piano and teeming with synth embellishments in all the right places, it becomes very difficult not have it whirring around your head for the rest of the day.

Lyrically the song is a distinctly Hornby monologue. A daydream of two people who don’t realise they are soul mates. Comfortable in their current relationship and have no desire to search for a fairytale ending. Folds delivers Hornby’s words with gusto and is ably supported by female vocalist Kate Miller Heidke, who provides the soft edges to the track.

The sum of these parts creates a truly memorable pop song that is reminiscent of Jens Lekmans work and leaves me hoping that the rest of the album can match up to this high standard.

You can buy the Single “From Above” on iTunes and the album Lonely Avenue is out on September 28^th

From Above.mp3

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Lost Saint

In 2009 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released a self titled album that I literally became addicted to. Listening to it is like basking in a hot and hazy summer day of shoegaze pop. Each song, crafted with meticulous care, was riddled with deeply intelligent and melancholy lyrics about young love and growing into adulthood. Such are the depths to be found in their music, anyone who dared brand the band could a mere copycat of the late 80's early 90's sound that they love, can only be described as a nincompoop.

And so when I was scouring Hype M and found two news songs from this Brooklyn band I was excited. Taken from the "Say No to Love" single (which is also excellent) Lost Saint details a youngster in love from within a Catholic education upbringing. Being branded sinful for confessing your feelings of forbidden love,  sympathising with the famed lover Heloise and her plight, knowing that she'd understand how you feel.

Its this sort intelligent output which make the band nothing short of astounding. I just hope the second album can live up to what has gone before.

Lost Saint.mp3
If you like what you hear please support the band by buying there first album here 

Japandroids - Younger Us

Last year Japandroid released ‘Post Nothing’ a thrilling lo-fi pop punk album that perfectly described what it was like moving into your early 20’s. The youthful angst, the continued obsession with the opposite sex and the highs/lows that ensue when you think your ‘in love’. Their new track ‘Younger Us’ picks up life a few years later. Recounting memories of ”that time you were in bed, said ‘fuck it’ got up and drank with me instead” when saying “I’ll sleep when i’m dead” was a mantra. Before hangovers actually hurt and the emotional toll of (not so) meaningless sexual encounters started to tell. Wishing you could feel that way again even if only for a day, but knowing deep down those carefree days are gone forever. Its a great track and not to be missed.

Younger Us.mp3

If you don't already own it, make sure you buy Post Nothing from iTunes

Los Campesinos! - Letters from Me to Charlotte (RSVP)

I’m not sure how Los Campesinos! releasing a mini EP got by me, but it did. Well until now that is. It’s really caught my ears as sees the band stepping out of their usual wall of fuzz and guitar riffs.

Instead these new versions of songs from their 3rd album Romance Is Boring contain violins, pianos and a stripped away to nothing production that cynics might say is them jumping on the folk bandwagon. Even if there is any truth in such cynicism I don’t care one bit as the results are startlingly good.

Los Campesinos! songs have always crafted with very idiosyncratic lyrics, that unless you listen often don’t reveal themselves as intimate confessions of character flaws and past wrong doings. But slowed to crawl and removed from the wall of noise their intimacy is at once immediate.

It’s something that caught me by surprise and hints that the bands future direction could be something very different but equally great. That my friends is something to be excited about.

Letters From Me To Charlotte (RSVP).mp3

Darwin Deez - Radar Detector

So it's been a while since I wrote one these things., Its an unfortunate by-product of just having way too much on at work and in my social life. Excuses aside I'm back and intend to be far more committed to this music blog than i have been in the last month.

So where to start? well there's only once place really and thats with this most amazing of Tracks from Darwin Deez. I first got wind of this via Ben Marwoods podcast for me on [edit] radio last month, he described it as possibly 'the best pop song of the year?'

I have to say that even after the 10th listen the track loses none of its luster. It has a boundless energy and sounds wee bit like Max Tundra but poppier (if thats even a word).

As I said in the podcast I released this week if you listen to this song without bopping along you don't deserve the power of hearing!

Darwin Deez - Radar Detector by LuckyNumberMusic

You can buy his amazing album from the link below

Los Campesinos! - Straight In at 101

Since arriving with a bang onto the music scene back in 2008 with their debut album Now Hold On Youngster, Los Campesinos have wasted little time in recording a follow up and even a third album. Such prolific songwriting can sometimes diminish the quality of the work. The opposite is true of these guys.

There third long player 'Romance Is Boring' takes the best elements from their first two albums and amalgamates them into the my favourite record of the year thus far. I could have picked any pretty much any song to blog off the new album and after some deliberation I settled on Straight In at 101.

The song reminds me of various ex-girlfriends. Where things hadn't been going so well and we had laid in bed together bemoaning how our lives were, instead of making love. With neither of us being comfortable in the relationship or our own skins and how frustrating our constant psychoanalysis of each other was.

Its these feelings that the band capture to magnificent effect on this track. Each line feels like a snippet of conversations or actions that i've had in my various failed relationships over the last 8 years. The depressing thing from a personal point of view is that whilst i've cared for all of them, I know i haven't really been in love with any of them.

You can buy Romance is Boring from 7digital

Straight In At 101.mp3

Zola Jesus - I Can't Stand

I've been reading a lot about Zola Jesus in the last few months. Everywhere in the music press keeps telling that they are gonna be 'great' which is fine, except everytime i've heard one of their tracks i've been left feeling underwhelmed.

So I was especially surprised to find this song last week, which I absolutely love. I put it on in the afternoons after i return home from work and let it wash over me whilst I catch up on personal e-mails.

It feels like Nika Rosa Danilova is singing directly at me, helping to release all my anxieties about about being single, about work and what the future holds, you know the things you think about when your bored and browsing the net at work.

She sings "It's not easy to fall in love, but if your lucky you just might someone" and "it's not easy to let it all go, but once in a while its good for your soul" And when she states me "so don't let it get you down" that "In the end your only one" I start to feel better.

And by the time she finishes the song by repeating "It's gonna be alright" I feel ready to believe her.

I Can't Stand.mp3