Foals – Antidotes – March 24th (Get CD & Vinyl)
Hercules And Love Affair – s/t – March 10th
Lightspeed – Lavender Bridge – Already Out.
Laura Marling – Can’t Swim – Already Out.
Mars Volta – Bedlam – Already Out.
New Puritans – Beat Pyramid – Already Out.
British Sea Power – Rock Music Y/N? – Already Out.
2008 In Music – Teh Sex.
I’m taking a break from taking a break from blogging to post another review, this time of the debut album from Oxford dance-punkers Foals. Almost a year ago they unleashed “Hummer” onto the world and two more singles, an appearance on Skins, loads of gigs, and all kinds of other stuff that a band usually does, their album is finally here. At the time it was announced, omitting their two big singles “Hummer” and “Mathletics” seemed not only gutsy, but also a bit of a bad move. But after listening to this album, it makes sense, because you can’t really see those two songs fitting in with the rest of the material on offer here.
The band themselves said that they excluded the singles from the album because they were songs written earlier and they wanted to get them out there then move on to the album material. Despite that, there is a lot here that looks familiar to a fan that’s been following Foals for a while. Old favourites “The French Open” and “Two Steps Twice” feature, and a re-worked version of the “Mathletics” b-side “Big Big Love” also has a place in the album. Although, among the stuff fans would be well known to fans, there is also brand new songs such as “Electric Bloom”, “Heavy Water”, and “Tron”.
The album begins with fan favourite “The French Open” which sounds a little watered down compared to the demo version, but that is instantly forgotten when the next song and upcoming single “Cassius” runs into your ears like a bad-ass mofo. With lyrics referencing the fall of Rome and a chorus that doesn’t sound that catchy when you read the lyrics, but will stay in your head for a considerably long time, it’s already set to become one of the singles of the year. The pace is brought down a bit with “Red Sock Pugie” a sweet love song with afrobeat drums and a wonderful fade out.
“Olympic Airways”, another old favourite, sounds incredibly different to the demo version. Verses are moved around, taken out, and added, and the vocals are considerably slower, it all ends up being for the better though as it is vastly improved from the demo and is more likely to stay in your head. “Electric Bloom” carries the same style as the previous tracks, with more afrobeat drum and a delightfully simple but sweet chorus, 5 minutes of pure bliss. The second side starts with “Balloons”, which may sound a bit boring if you’ve heard it enough already (though it is better then the demo) and is followed by “Heavy Water”of which the first half is made up of a short call to arms about vampires and whatnot, and the second a wonderful instrumental showcasing the various talents of the various players of instruments (good wording there, don’t you agree?).
“Two Steps Twice” is unfortunately, compared to the demo, a mess. To the normal listener it will sound completely random and will make no sense at all. The reworked “Big Big Love” is more, dare I say, “epic” sounding then the original, with the percussion brought down a bit and more soundscapes added. The album finally ends with a short interlude of classic Foals guitar and handclaps before collapsing into the closing “Tron”, which has all the elements Foals have that make them great, along with a slow build-up with brilliant bass and drums into a final triumphant blast of the chorus. Foals may not improve on re-recordings of their demos so much, but they have made an album that wasn’t expected by people wanting an album of Hummer’s and the part of the fanbase made up of people who only see them as “dat band dat were on Skins, like” and showed them all what they can really do. Good for them.
8/10
I’m going to be taking a break from blogging for a while. I’ll blog again soon… ish. Till then have fun watching this.
When I started up the forum I was thinking it could be a good idea. Now I’m starting to think otherwise. I’ll keep it there and see.
In other news, my 7″ vinyls which I ordered came in today! Yay!
New Zealand duo Flight Of The Conchords skewers synth-pop, the French, David Bowie, American R&B, hip-hop and unattainable sexual conquests on its self-titled debut album, due April 22 via Sub Pop.
The 15-track set features songs first aired on the Conchords’ hit HBO series, but they have been retooled in the studio with producer Mickey Petralia.
Fans will delight in the new versions of “The Prince of Parties” and “The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room),” which accompanied two of the most memorable sequences in the HBO show.
Also included are the dazzling Pet Shop Boys parody “Inner City Pressure,” which will be the first single worked to radio, the Kraftwerk-with-acoustic-guitars “Robots,” the aptly named David Bowie tribute “Bowie” and the disco pastiche “Think About It.”
The Conchords’ debut EP, “The Distant Future,” will vie this weekend for the Grammy for best comedy album.
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Here is the track list for “Flight of the Conchords”:
1. “Foux du Fafa”
2. “Inner City Pressure”
3. “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”
4. “Think About It”
5. “Ladies of the World”
6. “Mutha’uckas”
7. “The Prince of Parties”
8. “Leggy Blonde”
9. “Robots”
10. “Boom”
11. “A Kiss Is Not a Contract”
12. “The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room)”
13. “Business Time”
14. “Bowie”
15. “Au Revoir”
IS ANYONE ELSE HYPED?
Download limits – Unlimited internet connection nao! plzkthxdai
Valentine’s Day
Over-18 Concerts
Money, or lack of
Patience, or lack of
Memory, or lack of
Short battery life
Well, the forum seems to be in full swing, with a total of two members! That’s right, two! If you’re reading this it’s recommended if you join, the more people who join, the better the community will become!
I’ll also write more reviews of stuff soon. I’m doing a bunch of things to make the blog more interesting.
The forum is now up! Just click “Forum” in the header. Feel free to join and discuss things. Yay!
Unnecessary like hell but I’m doing it anyway! You can join and talk about crap!
Blogs like this don’t need forums at all… and to be honest shouldn’t… but there’s nothing wrong with a forum about anything. 🙂
Coming soon.
From AtEaseWeb…
EMI are set to release a Radiohead Greatest Hits album to coincide with Radiohead’s upcoming tour. Radiohead’s former label seem determined to make some money from the band’s current activities.
When Radiohead announced the release of their ‘In Rainbows’ Discbox in December, EMI quickly followed with the release of the 7 albums (6 studio, 1 live) as a box set which included the albums as digipacks, download and USB-stick.
Now the tour is coming up (North American dates are expected to be announced next week), EMI have got another release up their sleeves; the long feared Greatest Hits album. Ed O’Brien told Strombo [laughing]: “They’re planning to do a Greatest Hits for April, May to coincide with our tour. That’s an interesting one. We won’t be doing any promotion for that, obviously.”
In an interview with Analogue, Phil Selway quickly commented on a Greatest Hits album as well: “It’s well within their rights to do it. [sigh]. So we’ll have to see.”
Yet another reason why EMI suck.
Yet I have a feeling I’m going to buy it anyway…
I Was Bored So I Made A Blog 
You said that?