Another Form of Relief

Let’s just put this whole silly mess behind us.

Homecoming is the story of an English guy and an American girl, and the way they each view their relationship. Neither of these characters are likeable. He comes across as a dick (”I fuck my American cunt“) while she proves to be so vacuous (thinking he’s the perfect guy – “I love my English romance“) that she wouldn’t be out of place in Nada Surf’s Popular. I reference that song largely because this song covers much the same ground in both style and endorsing the lifestyle of the terminally stupid. It’s all lo-fi guitar and vocals that alternate between the subdued and the sweet. Without knowing what the song was about in the first place, you could easily listen to it and not even realise the darker undertones.

The first track from Under the Blacklight manages to set the bar a bit too high for the rest of it, aiding in the crushing disappointment that follows. No matter though, Silver Lining remains one of the finest Rilo songs in years, a joy in it’s simplicity and “hooray hooray” choruses. So good that one could almost believe it was held over from a previous album.

Quite possibly the finest song ever concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. Probably the only song concerning Sodom and Gomorrah.

I struggled with the first proper Los Campesinos! singles (this and We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives) because they just sounded wrong at first. Covered in distortion, overproduced, seemingly losing some of the joy of the original recordings. I kept listening to them though and they soon became staples on my playlists. Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s), over the course of the year, wormed it’s way into my favourite song list. I don’t really know how, but now it’s hard to listen to it without shouting out the words as loud as possible at the same time. And if that isn’t the mark of a great song, I don’t know what is.

Just close your eyes and listen to this song. Immerse yourself in it, take in every word. That should be more than enough to justify it’s place here.

Few bands have the kind of energy that Johnny Foreigner seem to bring to every song. Champagne Girls I Have Known is a noisy, confusing mess, with multiple vocals, guitars and drums all trying to be louder than each other. In other words, a glorious assault on the eardrums.

I’ll Kill Her is one of the those rare songs that will just sit on repeat for long periods at at time. SoKo Girl starts gently enough: she’s talking about how the guy she likes didn’t call her to go on their date. So far, so mundane. This evolves into anger as the song goes on about the “bitch” that is now in her place, through the eventual announcement that makes up the title of the song. The interesting part here though is that the narrator seems entirely unstable. It may all be as literal as it sounds on the initial listen, or it could be so much more. Even people bitter about a breakup don’t usually launch into detailed “what ifs” about the children they would have had (even naming them Tom and Susan). At the very least, this girl has some kind of issues. Listen again though, and you start to wonder if there was even a breakup involved. She never mentions one directly. For all we know, she has never even met the guy she’s bitter about losing to someone else. This could just be the most elaborate stalker scenario put to record. It doesn’t really matter exactly which scenario it is though. At the very least, it’s a fascinating stream of consciousness of a somewhat damaged person. It’s sung in such an informal (almost conversational) tone that it’s impossible to dislike her, no matter how crazy it may come across as at times.

I’ve been trying to write the blurb for this song for the last couple of days with little success. Which is a bit odd considering it’s my number one song of last year. I’ve listened to it repeatedly trying to pull some inspiration from it with no luck. Which isn’t a slight against the song itself. I adore it, probably more now than when I started listening to it last year. I just can’t seem to explain it in words. Sure, it has all of the hallmarks of what I like in music: vaguely twee, fragile yet amusing lyrics, even a trumpet. Yet I can’t seem to locate that “wow” factor which tips it over the top. Maybe, to it’s eternal credit, it doesn’t need one.

And.. stop.

Yay, we’re almost done. Which is good as I have a lot of other things I want to write about and I’m kind of bored of this list now.

Like Two Gallants earlier on in this list, Okkervil River are a band that I sort of like based on the songs I’ve heard, but have never been able to get hugely into. I never found the one song that managed to blow me away, despite vaguely enjoy the ones I did hear. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe changed all that though. I don’t know what it is that does it, as it sounds like a lot of other Okkervil River songs, but something does it. Maybe it’s the gentle builds to lines crashing lines, the film referencing or the vague ambiguity of it all, I have no idea. But it works.

Opening lines don’t come much better than that. Granted, like me, you may have to look up ’solipsistic’, which incidentally is a great word, but one I sadly haven’t had the chance to drop into conversation yet. Laura Sings Liver is one girl (shockingly called Laura) with a guitar who makes these literate little songs that manage to evoke a an entire world in the course of three minutes. You know, kind of like Emmy, except great.

Far and away the biggest success story of 2007, Johnny Foreigner went from songs with potential that sounded awful to becoming the most exciting band in the country. Their debut EP type thing, Arcs Across the City, was my favourite release of last year, featuring six songs, all of which were stunning. Yes! You Talk Too Fast has always been a favourite, so it made the list, but like Laura Sings Liver above, any of those songs could have been here.

It’s almost as if Los Campesinos! had my checklist of things that make a song great when coming up with The International Tweexcore Underground. Sparring boy-girl vocals? Frequent time changes? References to seemingly forgotten twee artists? All present and accounted for. The song seems to be about a boy who likes twee and a girl who likes hardcore rock, and they come together by combining it to form tweecore? Something like that maybe? I really have no idea, as it’s far too tempting to ignore what the words are actually saying and just shout along with them anyway.

The first single from the second album by Brakes (I’m not calling them brakesbrakesbrakes, no matter how many promo emails try and get me to), and it’s better than anything that was on their impressive first album. Like most of their songs, it’s short and to the point, including a dig at our government’s draconian anti-terror legislation (“I woke up late and found my liberty lost / It had been written down in law as a security cost / 28 days and I’m presumed guilty”). It also scores extra points for being able to namedrop Scarlett Johannson, which must be something of an awkward name to work into song.

L’apathie de la bourgeoisie.

I was going to write about Conversational Karate, but since I started this list, 4 or 5 Magicians have put up a whole load of new songs on their Myspace. Just go there and listen to them instead. Every single one of them is fantastic. If these guys don’t get some kind of proper record deal and an album out sometime this year, there’s no justice in the world.

Get past their awkward name, and you’ve got a band that does genuinely invoke a 90s Americana kind of vibe from their music. Which is a pretty impressive for a band from London. The guitars guide the songs between the gentler verses to the bursts of noise that seem to prop up the choruses. It’s never over the top, giving a feel the whole time that they band could kick into high gear at any minute, but these guys are far too restrained for that.

A rather local band that has seemingly ended before it began, Andrej and Tim was two guys (can you guess their names?) who made fantastic Ben Folds Five style piano-rock songs. I’m don’t think Iraq ever made it past the demo stage, but it’s still an excellent song. The story of a relationship that’s falling apart while managing to pull in parallels to situation in a certain country, it remains one of the finest songs that I heard last year. The ninth finest in fact.

Yep, I may just get this done in time for the 2008 list.

This is one of those songs that you listen to once, think it’s okay and then don’t really come back. Then you hear it again, wonder what it is and think it’s rather good. By the time you’ve heard it four or five times, it’s that catchy song that you already seem to know all of the words to.

There’s nothing here that’s any different from their previous material, but what does it matter? When pop is this jangly, sweeping and melancholy all at once, I’m certainly not going to argue.

The Light Footwork came in at number two on this list last time, and while their position may be a bit lower this time around, they are still just as good as they always were. Releasing a split EP with Tereu, Tereu (which incidentally had the best artwork of the year), they unleashed three new songs upon us, the best of them being Rebellion Time. All of the Light Footwork hallmarks at here, from the Beulah-esque melodies to the back and forth male-female vocals. With a bit of luck, we’ll get a new full length from them in 2008.

How did I go so long not knowing anything about The Thermals? Seemingly the only band genuinely pissed off at the state of the world, each album seems to get angrier than the last, with the latest almost a concept album about living under a fascistic Christian state. Which is obviously not based in reality at all. Anyways, combine the political comment with near perfect song constructions, and you’ve got one of the most exciting bands working today.

Partying like it’s 1959, Friends of the Bride’s music sounds like it could have come from the era of swing and big band music, but it somehow manages to remain fresh at the same time. Cut Down On My Friends is an obvious standout, a bitter tirade about needy friends accousing the singer of being anti-social, followed by a declaration that he’s going to have less to do with them by moving to the suburbs. This was the b-side to the band’s first single, so they are setting the bar pretty high, given this could have been a superb single in itself.

The Punks Are Writing Love Songs shows that little has changed in the Tullyland. A look at current music trends, jangly guitars and the obligatory ‘ooh-oohs’ are here. While it’s not quite the self aware anthems that Twee and Pop Songs were, it’s three minutes of joy that you’ll be hard pressed to find from other bands.

An Icelandic rock band that references Paul Giamatti? Grounds for a top twenty placing right there.

Seemingly this years love it or hate it indie hit, as there seems to be no middle ground on this one at all. Personally I fall into the love it camp, and while I can see the formula becoming stale across several songs, Thou Shalt Always Kill hits all the right spots. A glorious manifesto for modern life that wants to right as many wrongs as possible in this country, no matter how big or small they may be. It’s ridiculously quotable too.

Scrappy guitar playing? Distortion all over the melodies? Deliberately fuzzy vocals about nothing? You will find none of these things in the music of Assembly Now. The guitars are clean and crisp, every nuance can be clearly heard, and the vocals are both clear and literate. Of course none of these things are new concepts, but they certainly seem to be things that are out of favour at the moment. This makes Assembly Now all the more refreshing.

Yeah yeah.

Arriving from the ashes of the mighty Nosferatu D2 is Superman Revenage Squad, a one man stream of consciousness tour de force. The music doesn’t really matter because it’s all about the words. Which is for the best, because as Idiot Food is disjointed at best. The song is littered with entire sections that go wandering off on separate tangents and leave the music behind. But it doesn’t really matter as you’ll usually find yourself nodding in agreement with everything he’s saying.

I woke up feeling like a new person, unfortunately he was much worse than the one I used to be

A fine slice of upbeat melancholy from Sweden’s ambassadors of loserpop (I will make this a genre if it’s the last thing I do).

Rock bands fronted by girls with aggressive vocals seem to be in favour at the moment, but who are we to argue when the results are as good as Australia’s Operator Please? Seemingly a rallying cry against popularity, all of the crucial boxes are ticked, from shouty-to-gentle vocals, music that goes all over the place, as well as the obligatory occasional fuck.

If any band can put as much of a smile on my face as Tullycraft can, I haven’t heard them yet. Probably the best kept secret within the indie pop scene (this is their 13th year and they still seem to be obscure), last year saw the release of their fifth album, Every Scene Needs A Center. The whole thing is loaded with excellent pop songs, but few come close to the pure joy of If You Take Away The Make-Up.., with it’s handclaps, gentle vocals and to the point two minute running time.

Coming across as a sort of 2007 version of The Futureheads (only, you know, good), Assembly Now don’t seem to have quite nailed their final sound yet, but it’s fun listening to them mess around while they try. Leigh-On-Sea perfects the all over the place vocals and guitar rhythms that initially worked so well for the aforementioned band. Assuming they keep on doing what they’re doing and finally settle on a sound that is just a tiny bit more original, these guys have the potential to be something very special.

It was the always great Nothing But Green Lights that first put me onto The Bridge Gang, and thanks to my ever excellent timing, they had already broken up by the time I started listening. It still amazes me that great bands can fly entirely under your radar for years without you ever being aware they exist. Oh well, late or not, London Sky Tonight is a perfect rock single – rough, ready and deceptively simple.

One of only two songs from Under The Blacklight that I still quite like a few months later, Dreamworld is far, far too good to have anything to do with that album. The only Blake effort within an increasingly Jenny-centric band, it has all of the subtlty and depth that the rest of the album seems to lack. Just listen to the wonderful guitar work and take in the oh so softly vocals. I have no idea what it’s about, and honestly I can’t say that I care. It’s all about the sound.

Just when I think Two Gallants are destined to be a band where I appreciate a few songs but never really love any of them, along comes a song like this and completely blows me away. This song alone has rocketed the band to the top of my ever expanding “bands I should check out in more detail when I have the time” list. If they have just one more song as good as this, it’ll be worth it.

Inara George’s vocals are the only reason I like this. Ironically, I don’t really like her solo work or even other Bird & The Bee songs, but this song? The vocals are perfectly crafted, particularly on the verses. It gets a little close to spoken word, which is probably the appeal. More songs like this please.

Fuck. Not a good start.

As last year, there are no clear cut rules to this list. Some of the songs aren’t from 2007. Some may be older, but only reached my ears properly last year. So it’s really just a list of songs I’ve enjoyed over the past year. What will be number one? Last year it was the mighty You! Me! Dancing! by Los Campesinos!, so it has to be something pretty special to match up to that. Any bets? No? Great! On with the list:

May as well start with the most populist song on here. I can’t explain my liking of The Cribs, but I’ve actually liked the handful of songs that I’ve heard. They don’t seem to have the indie cool factor, and most of the elitists seem to enjoy pissing all over them. Who cares about that though? Don’t You Wanna Be Relevant? is certainly enjoyable enough, and if this is what passes as “mainstream indie” these days, I can live with that.

Amida are a band from Manchester who I first heard about via the awesome Skatterbrain. I’d never heard of them previously, so there’s something rather strange in the way that music travels. Amida don’t sound particularly British though, and on first listen I was pretty certain that they were American. None of which really matters though given how good this song is. A blistering attack on the mundanity of settling in the “dumb, happy and fat” life that seems to suit the majority.

The Welcome Committee is actually a two man vaguely folk project than a committee, but we can forgive that. The song itself is entirely non-sensical, somehow coming together as some epic globetrotting adventure with some very random interludes (“the liger led to certain death by stinging Charlie Sheen”). It’s all backed by a gently strummed guitar (sometimes at odds with the words), but it’s so catchy that none of this actually matters. And who can really argue with a song that features humming and actually gets away with it?

I’ve never really been able to get into Saturday Looks Good To Me. I liked The Girl’s Distracted and When The Party Ends from earlier album Every Night, but I never cared for the rest. With Make A Plan though, the band has finally settled into a sound that I like. Slightly electronic undertones are added into the mix, which seem to make all the difference. Tempo changes occur with alarmingly regularity, yet Fred Thomas’ melancoly vocal remains consistent, resulting in a sound that hovers somewhere around depressing beauty.

Jakobinarina is an Icelandic band that wants to rock pretty hard, and they do so, with most of the their songs being over and done with in two minutes. They are also very playful, which is what wins me over most. This Is An Advertisement cynically tackles the marketing culture in music, which is even more impressive when you take into account they look like they aren’t even old enough to have paper rounds.

Continuing their growth that started in 2006, RTP’s sound has only improved over the last twelve months. Each new song has sounded more assured than the last, the pinnacle of which is Undercurrent. A stunning assault on the eardrums that starts politely enough before building in both volume and aggression. With a bit of luck these guys will be able to break out and find the wider audience they deserve over the coming year.

Imagine if you can The Decemberists as a skiffle band. It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? Well, that description is just halfway to covering what 586 sound like. Unusual instrumentation, theatrical vocal deliveries, frequent time changes, and lyrical shades of Fairytale of New York all form the three minutes of joy that is Rags & Tags.

Better than nearly everything off of the last album, even if it’s still kind of flat, and something that grows on you considerably. These mid-tempo, mildly rocking numbers seem to be their most common type of late, but they aren’t usually the most daring. It’s usually the more reflective songs that work best for me, or the ones that really want to rock. And Popular of course, but I can’t see them doing that again. That said, See These Bones sounds lovely, creating a richer sound than the band can usually achieve, and it’s certainly stronger than some of their past efforts lyrically.

If I can get away with placing Kate Nash at number four last year, you can let me have this one, yeah?

The next lot tomorrow. Hopefully.