The Twilight Sad: Forget The Night Ahead

Some albums are easy to write about. Nuances leap out at you, hooks are obvious, lyrics are noteworthy, patterns emerge through the music. But none of that has happened for me with the Twilight Sad’s second album Forget The Night Ahead.

After ten listens, I’m still struggling to put my thoughts on the album into words. I think I like it. I think it’s good. But I can’t be sure. It’s so deep, so full of layers that need time and thought to unravel that it’s almost impossible to judge at this stage.

It’s definitely a progression musically from their début, I can tell you that for certain. It’s a bigger record, with more going on, more instruments thrown in (apparently the band used a fire extinguisher on one of the tracks), more sound, more everything. But it doesn’t suffer from it, it’s still subtle, gentle and charming, despite its brash, loud exterior at times.

Many of the tracks don’t seem to go anywhere, and they don’t go anywhere particularly quickly. It’s often a pedestrian ride, but that’s good, it gives you time to think, to analyse, to delve into the album’s depths, to interpret the meanings and feelings behind it.

Accessible windows into the album are few and far between. The Room, a future single, is possibly the best song to judge whether the band are right for you, all building, sweeping, epic soundscapes, with glockenspiel used to great effect. The band have never been shy of deviating from the traditional guitar-bass-drums-vocals combo, and they’re the stronger for it. Other styles and sounds might not appear on the surface, but listen carefully enough, and they reveal themselves over time.

Lyricist and singer James Graham could do with being higher in the mix; his voice is often straining to be heard below doom-laden guitar and you have to listen extra hard to snatch a couple of words of lyric. But it’s deliberately obtuse. Forget The Night Ahead is not a record to dip in and out of, to listen to the odd track on the bus or the Tube, to listen to at parties, or indeed in company. But it’s a great late night listen, the atmospheric darkness of the music drawing you in to the mysterious, thick world of the Twilight Sad.

Fans of Frightened Rabbit will find plenty to love here (the Twilight Sad are effectively their noisier, bolder cousins) but Forget The Night Ahead will also attract fans of My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Hope of the States, Phil Spector and My Latest Novel, whose Laura McFarlane contributes to a couple of tracks here.

7/10

This review was written for TMM.

Radiohead ‘will be making an album’

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien claims the band were misquoted when it was reported back in August that they had given up on making albums.

O’Brien, speaking to NME, said: “We were misquoted. We will be making an album!”

Thom Yorke had told Beliver magazine that “None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again.” However, the magazine elected to not print Yorke’s justification of that quote, adding “Not straight off.”

Yorke went on to say: “It worked with In Rainbows because we had a fixed idea about where we were going. But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.”

But O’Brien says Radiohead will be heading into the studio soon, with a release next year expected. He said: “We’re going into the studio in winter. It’s always miserable! Are we at the whim of the seasons? We are! When you’re in a studio in the countryside, the music you make is definitely affected by what season it is.”

This article was written for TMM.

Frightened Rabbit announce tour dates and new single

Scottish indie-folk heroes Frightened Rabbit have announced details of a November tour in support of a brand new single.

Swim Until You Can’t See Land will be the first release from the band’s upcoming third album, and is out November 16 via digital release and 7″ vinyl.

Singer Scott Hutchison explains: “Swim Until You Can’t See Land was the title I had in my mind before I even started writing the album. I was becoming more and more interested in the idea of a rejection of the habits and behaviour most people see as normal, and in turn embracing a certain madness.

“It’s about losing your mind in order to reset the mind and the body. Forget what’s gone before and wash it out. This is not necessarily a geographical journey, as the ’swim’ can involve any activity in which you can lose yourself. It’s a good introduction to the record as the theme unravels therein.”

Muso-speak maybe, but we love Frightened Rabbit here at TMM, and we look forward to hearing the new record, which should drop early next year.

The band will also head out on a giant tour in November in support of the new single. The dates:

NOVEMBER
07 Aldershot, West End Centre
09 Oxford, Academy 2
10 York, Duchess of York
11 Nottingham, Bodega
12 Liverpool, Academy 2
14 Coventry, Kasbah
15 Northampton, Roadmenders
16 Brighton, Corn Exchange
17 Southampton, University
19 Exeter, Lemon Grove
20 London, Troxy
21 Tunbridge Wells, Forum
22 Cambridge, Soul Tree
24 Sheffield, Plug
25 Whitehaven, Civic Hall
27 Fort William, BA Club
28 Stirling, Tolbooth
29 Inverness, Ironworks

DECEMBER
01 Aberdeen, Moshulu
02 Dundee, Fat Sams
05 Galway, Black Box
07 Dublin, Academy^
08 Dublin, Academy^
09 Belfast, Mandella Hall^
13 Manchester, Ritz^
14 London, Shepherds Bush Empire^
22 Glasgow, ABC

(^ dates with Modest Mouse)

This article was written for TMM.

The Twilight Sad: Forget The Night Ahead

Some albums are easy to write about. Nuances leap out at you, hooks are obvious, lyrics are noteworthy, patterns emerge through the music. But none of that has happened for me with the Twilight Sad’s second album Forget The Night Ahead.

After ten listens, I’m still struggling to put my thoughts on the album into words. I think I like it. I think it’s good. But I can’t be sure. It’s so deep, so full of layers that need time and thought to unravel that it’s almost impossible to judge at this stage.

It’s definitely a progression musically from their début, I can tell you that for certain. It’s a bigger record, with more going on, more instruments thrown in (apparently the band used a fire extinguisher on one of the tracks), more sound, more everything. But it doesn’t suffer from it, it’s still subtle, gentle and charming, despite its brash, loud exterior at times.

Many of the tracks don’t seem to go anywhere, and they don’t go anywhere particularly quickly. It’s often a pedestrian ride, but that’s good, it gives you time to think, to analyse, to delve into the album’s depths, to interpret the meanings and feelings behind it.

Accessible windows into the album are few and far between. The Room, a future single, is possibly the best song to judge whether the band are right for you, all building, sweeping, epic soundscapes, with glockenspiel used to great effect. The band have never been shy of deviating from the traditional guitar-bass-drums-vocals combo, and they’re the stronger for it. Other styles and sounds might not appear on the surface, but listen carefully enough, and they reveal themselves over time.

Lyricist and singer James Graham could do with being higher in the mix; his voice is often straining to be heard below doom-laden guitar and you have to listen extra hard to snatch a couple of words of lyric. But it’s deliberately obtuse. Forget The Night Ahead is not a record to dip in and out of, to listen to the odd track on the bus or the Tube, to listen to at parties, or indeed in company. But it’s a great late night listen, the atmospheric darkness of the music drawing you in to the mysterious, thick world of the Twilight Sad.

Fans of Frightened Rabbit will find plenty to love here (the Twilight Sad are effectively their noisier, bolder cousins) but Forget The Night Ahead will also attract fans of My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Hope of the States, Phil Spector and My Latest Novel, whose Laura McFarlane contributes to a couple of tracks here.

7/10

This review was written for TMM.

Liam confirms ‘Oasis is no longer’

Liam Gallagher has confirmed that Oasis will not continue as a band following his brother Noel’s departure.

He told the Times: “We’ve always had a lot of fun. That’s why it was never hard work for me. It was a joy and it was always a bit of a bummer when the tour ended. You know, it was great. Obviously you’ve got to get back and see the missus and the kids and all that. Nothing lasts for ever. But it was never, ‘Uh, fuck, I need to get off the tour because my head’s up my arse’.” (A reference to Noel? Most probably.)

“Oasis is no longer. I think we all know that. So that’s done. It’s a shame but that’s life. We had a good run at it. The thing about Oasis is, no one … we ended Oasis. No one ended it for us. Which was pretty, kind of … cool. I’m thinking of what the next step is musically, which is all my mind’s on.”

Whether Liam’s future includes an Ian Brown style solo career or forming a new band is not clear, but it is obvious that in his mind, he has already moved on from Oasis. Whatever happens next, it will be fascinating to compare the futures of Noel and Liam; always inextricably linked through Oasis, and now thrown apart to find their own way.

This article was written for TMM.

Sergeant: Sergeant

So then, the third album from Dundee’s premier pop scamps the View. It’s a typically upbeat, jangly record with nothing to make it stand out from the crowd… hang on, what’s this? It’s not the View? We better start again…

OK, so this is actually Sergeant, a four-piece from Fife. They’ve been on my radar for a couple of years – I think I even saw them at Leeds festival back in 2007 – but their sound has been polished so much it’s nigh-on unrecognisable from their early ramshackle and lovable noise.

It doesn’t help that Nick Mercer’s unremarkable vocals are almost an exact copy of the View’s Kyle Falconer, and the music is a pale, toothless imitation of the Dundee band’s debut record Hats Off To The Buskers.

The best track present is the album’s last, It All Comes Back To Me. Harmonies make a rare appearance, and it lifts the track above the landfill indie it accompanies for the rest of the record. Jo Whiley probably loves this band, and that should be enough to put you off.

It’s not a bad record. It’s easy to nod your head along to it, and the songs are short and sweet enough to hold your attention. But once the record is finished, the hooks leak out of your brain as quickly as sand through your hands, and all you’re left with is an empty feeling. There’s nothing as interesting in Sergeant as other bands of their ilk either. They’re just a wee bit dull, and it’s hard to recover when you’re first album is boring. What a shame…

4

This review was written for TMM.

Cornerstone will be next Monkeys single

Arctic Monkeys have announced that the second single to be lifted from their Number One album Humbug will be Cornerstone.

It will be released on November 16, and again the band will collaborate with Oxfam for the method of release.

Cornerstone was the obvious choice for the band, as lyrically it is the most recognisably Monkeys track on Humbug, their third studio release. It tells the tale of singer and main lyricist Alex Turner’s attempts to rid himself of his obsessional mooching over an ex-girlfriend by trying to get off with similar looking ladies, and joins Riot Van and Mardy Bum as one of their best ’story’ songs.

The band head out on a UK arena tour in November.

This article was written for The Music Magazine.

Charlotte Hatherley on piracygate

Former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, now a successful solo artist in her own right, has given TMM her views on the file sharing debate.

It’s a particularly vital question to ask Hatherley, who is about to release her third solo album, New Worlds, on her own label, Little Sister Records.

“It should have been dealt with a long time ago. Record labels don’t know what the fuck they’re dealing with. Fuck the labels, it’s the artists who need to make money. I’m all for fucking record labels,” she told us. “I don’t expect to make any money from record sales, the only way to do it is to tour. It’s getting to the stage where only rich kids can afford to make music, there’s so many BRIT school, middle-class artists at the moment.

“I’m lucky in that I can play guitar for other people [Hatherley sets off a UK tour with Bat For Lashes tomorrow] and I can sell directly from my website. Kids need to realise [when they illegally download music] that they’re depriving artists of making a living. There’s no way some bands can survive. It’s quite bleak in so many ways.

“But cutting off internet connections isn’t the answer.”

The full interview with Charlotte, in which she talks to TMM about playing guitar for Bat For Lashes, her new album New Worlds and leaving Ash, will be on the site soon.

This article was written for TMM.

Thom Yorke puts new band together, announces L.A. shows

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has announced a pair of shows in Los Angeles and has completed the line-up of his band for the gigs.

Yorke has enlisted the services of Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, R.E.M. collaborator Joey Waronker and multi-instrumentalist Mauro Refosco as well as long-term Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.

“In the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting a band together for fun to play ‘The Eraser’ stuff live and the new songs etc, to see if it could work!” the singer wrote on Radiohead’s Dead Air Space blog. The post was accompanied by a picture of the five musicians, all sporting a worrying amount of facial hair.

He added: “We don’t really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz… well… we haven’t got that much material yet! But come and check it out if you are in the area.”

The band, who are expected to play new compositions that may end up as Radiohead songs, will play the Orpheum Theatre on October 4 and 5. It is not yet known whether they will play any gigs in the UK.

This article was written for TMM.

Chapman Family epic tour in offing

The hottest band from Middlesbrough since…well…er..anyway, a great new band from Middlesbrough, the Chapman Family, will tour extensively from next month in support of a new single.

Virgins will be released on October 19 and the band will support the single with a massive six-week jaunt from the beginning of next month, starting in Stockton-on-Tees, working all the way around the country, before finishing off with a homecoming show at Middlesbrough’s Empire on November 14. If they survive that long.

Those tour dates (all 28 of them, we counted) in full, there’s bound to be one near you:

OCTOBER
02 Stockton-on-Tees, Kubar
03 Liverpool, Academy 2
05 Derby, Rockhouse (Club NME)
06 York, The Duchess
07 Manchester, Ruby Lounge
09 London, KOKO (Club NME)
10 Leeds, Met Uni
11 Hull, The Lamp
12 Coventry, Kasbah
15 Newcastle, Cluny
14 Sheffield, The Plug
16 Stoke, Sugarmill
17 Preston, Mad Ferret
18 Wrexham, Central Station
28 Brighton, Engine Rooms
29 London, Barfly (XFM Night)
30 Bristol, Start The Bus
31 Oxford, Bullingdon

NOVEMBER
02 Cardiff, Barfly
03 Southampton, Hamptons
04 Guildford, Boiler Room
05 Winchester, The Railway
06 Wimbledon, The Watershed
07 Reading, Plug ‘N’ Play
08 Harlow, Club Quartroz
12 Edinburgh, Sneaky Petes
13 Glasgow, King Tuts
14 Middlesbrough, The Empire

Tickets aren’t much more than a fiver for most shows, and are available now, from here.

This article was written for TMM.

Lily and Dizzee to share arena shows

The other day we ran a story suggesting Lily Allen was about to quit music and this morning the Smile singer has announced a pair of joint-headline arena gigs with Dizzee Rascal in the Spring.

Whether the two shows are a final ‘Goodbye’ from Allen to her fans or not remains to be seen, while they represent an epochal moment in the stratospheric rise of Dizzee Rascal into the mainstream.

Lily and Dizzee (We just love typing that, it rhymes so well) praised each other in a statement released to accompany the announcement of the gigs.

“I’m really looking forward to playing these special shows – I’m a massive fan of what Dizzee does,” Allen said, while Dizzee commented: “Lily and I have both worked well in the past so it’s no doubt these shows will be nights to remember.”

The shows will take place at Manchester’s MEN Arena on March 5, and London’s O2 two nights later. Tickets are on sale next Friday (October 9) at 9am.

This article was written for TMM.

Lily Allen to quit music?

Lily Allen has threatened to quit music.

In news that will please anyone forced to listen to Radio One all day, the pop princess says that she has “no plans to make another album” when her contract with EMI comes to an end. Both of the singer’s albums so far have gone to Number One.

On a blog post that has now been taken down, Allen added: “I don’t (at this point) stand to profit from legislation. Except future purchases of previously recorded material (which wont be much).”

A spokesperson confirmed that the blog post was written by Allen, but denied that she will quit music. They said: “She is not quitting pop music.” Which seems pretty emphatic to us.

Allen has found herself in the news lately over her controversial views on the filesharing debate, with many condemning her for her opinion, but with others coming out in defence of her.

It remains to be seen whether Allen’s UK tour at the end of the year will be her swansong as a musician, but it is thought that she wants to go into acting, following her father, Keith.

This article was written for TMM.

Girls: Album

There’s something charmingly honest about Californian duo Girls that disarms most possible criticisms. The pair freely admit being on pills for most of the recording process of the record (tellingly, the band’s website, listed on their MySpace page, points straight to a drugs website. The band do not have their own website). They are happy to tell stories about their chequered past, both in interviews and in their songs, and they evidently wear their broken hearts on their sleeves. It’s often painful listening to their lovelorn tales.

Life has been eventful for Christopher Owens (writes and plays the songs) and Chet White (does whizzy production stuff). Owens was born into and brought up in a cult – a real one, none of this pretendy, take a few drugs and lark about ones – and only escaped, to Texas, when he was 16. There, he rebelled. It took being rescued by a millionaire philanthropist – yes, really - to save Owens from an almost certain drugs-related death. Moving to San Francisco calmed him down, but a nasty break-up knocked him back and gave him lots of songwriting material. Many of the tracks on Girls’ cleverly titled début, Album (take that, search engines!), tell the tales of this split. After that, he met White, a fellow slacker, and the pair started making music together. The rest, as they, say, is history.

Girls are a schizophrenic band. One moment they’re crooning modern Beach Boys lullabies (Lust For Life) and the next they’re creating epic yet somehow sparse soundscapes of ice cool next-to-nothingness (stand out track Hellhole Ratrace).

Opening track Lust For Life is a contender for single of the year, Owens playing with the idea of homosexuality in the opening line: “Oh, I wish I had a boyfriend / I wish I had a loving man in my life”. The juxtaposition of the jaunty guitar lines and Owens’ upbeat vocals with the oh-so-sad lyrics combine magnificently, and the song rushes past before it’s barely started, “ba ba ba” backing vocals transporting you to an LA beach. In truth, it could do with another verse-chorus repeat at the end to pad it out, but as it is, its two and a half minutes of angst-filled joy stick in the mind for most of the rest of the record.

“I know I’ve made mistakes / but I’m asking you to give me a break,” pleads Owens on next track Laura, one of a handful of songs on Album that could represent musical love letters to his former lover. And the heartbreak just keeps on coming. Weirdly, it makes you feel better about your own lost and unrequited loves, as they can’t possibly have been as brutal as the one that inspired this record. Or maybe Owens’ soul is just too open. It’s an honour to be allowed a peek inside his heart.

Jangly guitars lie over most tracks, adding to the Beach Boys comparison, but it’s really the humanity contained in these twelve songs that make the similarity between the two bands clear. Although I’m pretty sure the Beach Boys never wrote a song with a title as provocative and sweary as Big Bad Mean Mother Fucker.

They’re capable of going all shoegazey and JAMCish when the mood takes them though. Epic centrepiece Hellhole Ratrace takes the efforts of Glasvegas and the Big Pink to create a similar sound and makes them look really rather silly, such is the quality of Girls’ songwriting.

If you like the faux-bohemianism of MGMT, you’ll love this even more. It all adds up to one of the year’s most immersive début albums.

This review was written for TMM.

Charlotte Hatherley: New Worlds

It’s pretty fair to say that Charlotte Hatherley has achieved a lot. Having bolstered Ash’s line-up to a foursome while she was still at school, she stayed with them for almost nine years until leaving at the start of 2006 to pursue other projects. At the time it was thought it was Hatherley’s decision to leave, but since the ‘amicable’ split, it has been revealed that the three original members had asked her to leave. The true reason behind the split is still shrouded in mystery.

On the basis of this, Hatherley’s third album, it could be that Tim Wheeler and co. were simply scared of her upstaging them. New Worlds is a record that has a very definite sheen of quality all over it. Gone all the rough edges of her début Grey Will Fade, and the sound is a huge leap forward from the lo-fi and somewhat dreary and unformed follow-up The Deep Blue. Playing live with Bat For Lashes has certainly helped Hatherley develop her own sound; New Worlds is the album of a woman sure of herself and ready to move forward in her career. Plus, playing with someone with such obvious pretentions to Kate Bush’s throne has helped Hatherley distance herself from the comparisons between herself and Bush.

Hatherley is surprisingly still just 30 – she seems to have been around forever – but instead of having a major panic and an early midlife crisis (as I plan to when I hit the big 3-0), she’s created one of the finest British alt-pop records of the year. It’s bright, shiny and bold, with Hatherley’s often throaty vocals clearly having been worked on by the guitarist. Now her voice is sweet and sugary, but still with enough variation to be punch when it’s needed, as on first single White, and possible next single Full Circle, which contains one of the dirtiest, fuzziest basslines of the year so far.

The instrument of choice for most of the album is, of course, still the guitar, with Hatherley not stepping out of her comfort zone too much. iTunes refuses to give the album a genre, labelling it ‘unclassifiable’ but in reality the record is unashamedly poppy. Hatherley remembers her way around a gigantic hook well from her days with Ash, although she uses them sparingly rather than drowning the often subtle music in them. It’s good to see her stick to her guns instead of going down the obvious electro route popularised by Pixie La Boots, or whoever is in vogue this week.

Hatherley has for the first time found her quality control button as well. The album doesn’t sag in the middle, due to an excellent running order that fills the the mid-section of the record with short sharp tracks that pass well before their welcome is outstayed. Only towards the end of the ten tracks does attention wander, but in today’s now now now gimme gimme gimme generation, that in itself is a triumph. And the sudden end to closing track Wrong Notes leaves you wanting more.

New Worlds is an exciting step for one of Britain’s brightest talents. Up next for Hatherley: cracking the mainstream.

This review was written for TMM.

Big Pink to ‘out-Muse Muse’

The Big Pink say they play to ‘out-Muse Muse’ when they support the Devon trio on their November arena tour.

The London duo, whose debut album A Brief History Of Love we thoroughly enjoyed, will play six giant gigs with the current album chart-toppers.

“I remember seeing Muse when I was way, way younger and I’m pretty sure Coldplay were supporting and look what happened to them,” Milo Cordell told NME.COM.

“We have never played somewhere so big in our lives, we are pretty freaked out by it. It’s a long way from playing what we’re used to, but we are psyched and are going to try to out-Muse Muse.”

Tickets are sold out for the gigs, but you can catch the Big Pink on their own headline tour next month.

This article was written for TMM.

Dizzee Rascal: ‘Shakespeare is violent’

The always entertaining Dizzee Rascal has given an interview to BBC Radio 5 Live in which he lambasts people who criticise rap music over its apparently violent undertones.

The 2003 Mercury Music Prize winner said: “I’ve seen Macbeth and it’s about killing and witches and all that. Shakespeare is in the curriculum and it’s violent! You can talk about rappers being responsible but at the end of the day they are trying to entertain. It’s about the artistry that rap is about.”

Dizzee, real name Dylan Mills, also defended himself over the infamous interview on BBC’s Newsnight programme (see video below). He said: “I was happy with it. Some other people were not happy with it, but I was all right with it.”

Mills also spoke of the resentment he feels others have of his success, claiming: “I know my roots but I fly, I’m not a tree by the way, so, I don’t have to stay planted in the ground. I do what I want. The whole thing about the grime scene and me selling out, well, OK, I don’t make music that sounds like it did seven years ago but kids today do and a lot of them are doing what I was doing six years ago so haven’t I left something positive behind?”

Dizzee Rascal’s fourth album Tongue N’ Cheek, containing the smash hit singles Dance Wiv Me, Bonkers and Holiday, is out now.

This article was written for TMM.

Foo Fighters to release Greatest Hits

Foo Fighters have announced details of a best of compilation to be released this Winter.

Arguably America’s finest singles rock band over their 14-year career, the band are well due a collection of their singles. The record will be released November 2.

It will feature two new songs, Wheels and Word Forward. Wheels, a typically jaunty and meaty slab of riffy rock, will be released as a single next week (September 29).

Full tracklisting for the album, titled Greatest Hits, is as follows:

All My Life
Best Of You
Everlong
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn To Fly
Times Like These
Monkey Wrench’
Big Me
Breakout
Long Road To Ruin
This is a Call
Skin and Bones
Wheels
Word Forward
Everlong (acoustic)

Obviously fans will own all the tracks except the new ones, and non-fans can listen to all the old ones on Spotify, but hey, it’ll be a good CD for the car, no?

This article was written for TMM.

Girls to tour next month

Californian duo Girls are to spend next month converting the UK masses to their wondrous brand of summery yet dark pop rock.

We like them a lot.We reckon they’re a modern Beach Boys, with twinges of fellow loved-by-TMM bands the XX and the Big Pink. In short – pretty bloody brilliant.

Those tour dates in full:

OCTOBER
09 Nottingham, Bodega Social Club
10 Liverpool, Korova
11 Manchester, Night & Day
13 Glasgow, Captain’s Rest
14 Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s
15 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
16 Bristol, The Cooler
17 Birmingham, Academy 3
19 Brighton, The Albert
20 London, Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
21 Tunbridge Wells, Forum
23 Cardiff, SWN Festival

Tickets are from here and are just six of your English pounds for the non-London dates. £6! That’s a bargain if ever there was one. See you down the front.

The band also play the Lexington in that London town next Monday (21 September) with an instore at the Rough Trade East shop the following day. You’ll be able to buy the band’s tremendous debut record Album a week before release at the Rough Trade East show. To whet your appetite, you can watch the video for their stonking single Lust for Life here.

This article was written for TMM.

Vampire Weekend give second album details

New York art-rock band Vampire Weekend have announced details of their upcoming second album, but don’t get your diaries out just yet, it’s not out until next year.

The follow up to last year’s Gold-selling eponymous debut will be called, intiguingly, Contra, and it will be released via XL Recordings on January 11. Expect more African rhythms and jerky, addictive hooks.

The tracklisting will be:

1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Taxi Cab
6. Run
7. Cousins
8. Giving Up The Gun
9. Diplomat’s Son
10. I Think Ur A Contra

This article was written for TMM.

David Gray: Draw The Line

David Gray was previously known as classic Radio 2 fodder, a harmless singer-songwriter with vaguely catchy melodies and a nice line in occasionally memorable lyrical couplets. He is of course best known for a song about a sci-fi series, and enjoyed his best period of success a good few years ago. He is now in his 40s and wears only beige clothes.

But what’s this? Draw The Line is David Gray 2.0 – all grooving psychedelic funk and acid house jam sessions, Radiohead-like repeated drum loops and yelped vocals, creating a feeling of utter ecstasy as he pushes the boundaries of music to the extreme, with one of the finest records ever made.

Did I have you going for a while there? Surprise surprise, it sounds the same as every David Gray record. Sweeping strings complement carefully plucked guitar and plodding piano and Gray’s monotonous, tuneless, meaningless warbling. It’s such a lack of progression I was halfway through his previous album before I even realised Draw The Line had finished.

If you listen to this by choice, you should have your ears taken away. You don’t deserve them.

This review was written for TMM.