LEMAR: The Way Love Goes.Heralds his greatest hits package. Pumping, sweeping and soaring synth soul that’s very much a tale of the expected. The Hits is his fifth album and features five top 10 hits.
THE COURTEENERS: You Overdid It Doll.Sounds like something Gok Wan would say, yet ushers in the band’s second album, Falcon. A tale of excess yet told in a chiming synth pop way as it stealthily marches its way into your inner consciousness.
LOS CAMPESINOS! Romance Is Boring. Those who yearn for scratchy, raw, in-yer-face punk will delight in this offering – the title track from their new album that delves into death and decay of the human body, lost love, mental breakdown and football. Clearly all could be connected.
ANIMAL KINGDOM: Two By Two. How quaint – ethereal yet pacy indie pop from the Londoners that you’d gladly welcome on board the Ark. There’s something celestial about the vocals.
KAKUZI: Sun Kissed Planet.It’s simple, straightforward and sun-kissed. You don’t have to be elaborate to be catchy. Organic, ethnic pop.
MASSIVE ATTACK: Heligoland.A band that has always been off-piste so to speak, but this time they’re deep into avalanche territory. You feel yourself descending from the off and quickly hope for light at the end of the tunnel, but if there is a candle there somewhere, it’s quickly snuffed out. Weird to the point of surreal and some are so experimental they should have been recorded in a laboratory. You come away from this one feeling it’s been dowdy, bleak and, frankly, depressing.
WHITE RABBITS: It’s Frightening.They hail from Brooklyn but have few white rabbits in their musical hat as there’s nothing particularly magic about their genre-defying indie-minded rock pop that can jump from the smooth to the really rather jarring, from meaningful to irreverent. Not one that’s going to please all the people all of the time.
VARIOUS: Jackie Love Songs. Jackie was the teen bible for the 1970s – my, how times have changed – and this three CD compilation taps into the music of the era. Songs standing the test of time include stuff from Queen, Chicago, Abba, The Real Thing, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, The Stylistics, Donny Osmond, Tavares, and, er, David Cassidy.
