That’s quite some hype for French standards, as R&F is not exactly NME, when it comes to new bands…

So what is it all about? The Living Things play guitar-heavy rock music with, for some songs, a heavy dose of psychedelia. The album is recorded (not produced) by Steve Albini. The Big Thing are the the very political lyrics… (“No solution, just bombs below…”).

In my opinion, great rock music can have political lyrics, but political lyrics don’t necessarily make rock music great. The Clash or The Dead Kennedies (as usual, pretty random examples) had great songs and then decided to have political lyrics. In the case of the Living Things, I’m not sure they would get such enthusiastic reviews, if it wasn’t for the lyrics… The music is not bad, even if I can’t help being reminded of the Dandy Warhols in some cases and I won’t judge the lyrics (to be honest I haven’t really studies them in detail).

One thing makes we wonder though: How come a band with such a strong message would want their album to be published by a major label (Sony BMG), with one of the consequences being that they have the FBI Anti-Piracy warning on the back cover, which really isn’t very subversive…

Taking into account their nerdy name, the ugly record cover and also the buzz created through the blogosphere, I somehow expected something brainy, more influenced by Sonic Youth or Pavement, but in reality the main influence seems to be Weezer. Never judge a book by it’s cover…

So the science we are talking about here is the science of Power Pop, with some light touches of Placebo (Textbook, Lousy Reputation). And I wont judge if it’s science or art, but the result is very convincing. There’s plenty of excitement, and almost every song could be a (hit-)single.

There is nothing profoundly new on this CD, but who cares, this is not meant to be challenging, but fun. It’s a great album and a great live band. What more can you ask for..

The Gun Album (it doesn’t really have a name), continues with sweet pop music, that is very pleasant to hear, with nice melodies and all real instruments. I am not sure if anyone listens to this anymore, but it is very refreshingly non-hip. Jeff Tweedy and Peter Buck are on top of the list of participating musicians. What more can you ask for? Very enjoyable, ideal for a long run or car drive.

I can’t really say, that I’ve made progress in my understanding of Robert Pollard, but I must say that this is probably one of his better albums.

The album is really meant to be a vinyl double album, and one single CD (or one iPod playlist) with 26 songs in a row (70 minutes) is a bit overwhelming. But variety is high and one cannot say that everything sounds the same. Dancing Girls and Dancing Men is pure melodic pop, Kensington Cradle is noisy and experimental, just to take two fairly random examples.

Overall the style, of course, stays true to Pollard’s roots and and Lo-Fi rules, but I guess Lo-Fi today doesn’t necessarily have to mean a 4-Track Cassetterecorder anymore.

So if you like Guided By Voices, you should like From A Compound Eye. If you are not familiar with GBV, this could actually be a good starting point, as it really covers a wide variety of typical Pollard styles.

Howl Howl Gaff Gaff didn’t quite meet my expectations. To me SOL are a bit like the swedish version of Arcade Fire, which, coming from me, is not a good thing. I guess most songs are lighter and less hysteric, but nevertheless. It’s pleasant to listen to, and Arcade Fire fans, who after all seem to be in the majority, should check them out. I’ll pass on to other stuff…

With all this, people overlook, that the Arctic Monkeys actually signed to Domino in June 2005 (!) and much of the buzz probably was skillfully managed by the record label.

What people also seem to forget, is to talk about the actual music….

Considering the hype the Arctic Monkeys generated before the release of their album, it is quite easy to be disappointed and, quite frankly, impossible to be overwhelmed.
The Arctic Monkeys are definetely not the new Beatles, and not even the new Stone Roses or Smiths, but they make really good and enjoyable rock music. I’ve said before that they somehow sounded like Franz Ferdinand meets The Libertines which I still find quite fitting and which should be seen as a compliment. The music is pop flavored rock that swings. Just enough of each ingredient to reach the kind of success they have.

They also have a lot of attitude and a wonderful northern England accent which certainly adds to their attraction.

Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What I’m Not does not change the face of music and I am not sure if it will be considered a classic in 5 or 10 years but for now it’s a great record.

I guess everyone has understood, that this is not a Greatest Hits collection, although the name could make you think that, but an actual new album with new songs. The reason, why it took so long to write about it, is that I still can’t really make up my mind what to think about it.
I must admit, that I am not really a huge Cat Power fan. I really liked her last album, You Are Free, because it had that special something, but I never got into her masterpiece (?) Moon Pix and the recent live show that I attended was so poor that we left before the end.

For The Greatest Chan Marshall (which is Cat Power’s real name) has chosen to go to Memphis and record with some legendary (?) musicians that played with people like Al Green. I don’t really know anything about Memphis Soul, but I guess the most obvious result of this collaboration is the presence of saxophone and trumpet on some titles. This should not lead you to believe that it’s a soul record, as it still very much sounds like Cat Power, but you could say that it sounds a bit warmer and fuller than her previous stuff.

And maybe that explains the problem I have with The Greatest, it’s a nice album, but it somehow lacks that special magic, that made me like You Are Free so much. Somehow it’s mellow, where the it used to be athmospheric. Very pleasant and worth listening to for many times (as I have in the last couple of weeks), but I don’t think it really is the Greatest…

After the amazing success of Is this It the second album Room on Fire was quite good, but didn t really measure up to it s predecessor. So the the question was really open, if The Strokes would continue to live of the formula of their initial success, or if they would be able to truly develop into a mature band.

It s maybe a little bit early to call The Strokes mature, but on First Impressions Of Earth they have effectively succeeded at developing their music. The most obvious change is that Julian Casablanca s voice no longer has the particular compressed/distorted sound which characterized the first the albums. But the music is also more dynamic with much more variety of sounds and atmospheres.

The Strokes have not abandoned the music that made us like them, but they have managed to introduce more variety. The off-beat guitar (I wouldn t go as far as calling it Reggae) on On the Other Side drives an extremely catchy tune and the backwards sounding sounds on Ask Me Anything creates an atmosphere The Strokes weren t known for.

In terms of influence, this time there is much more Television than Velvet Underground.

It s a great album and, it makes me think The Strokes might just be able to stay around for a while, which is just as well for me

PS: For all those who have illegally downloaded versions of the album, you might be relieved to know that Ize of The World does also have such an abrupt ending on the CD. I wonder if this was a trick to make downloaders think that they had a corrupted file

According to their bio, The Kevins are two brothers and the album was recorded in Wichita, Kansas. I’m not sure this should be taken absolutely seriously, but it doesn’t really matter either. The music is sweet pop music, with clean guitars and vocals. Only one song (Crying Bitterly, Painfully) has drums, and even here it’s more irony than serious drumming… The lyrics are basically about the drama of being young and in love, which means that they are not very deep but definetly very cute. So, overall it’s Indie Pop with pretty melodies.

For some strange reason the first comparable group that came to my mind was Nic Dalton’s (ex-Lemonheads) Godstar ; a less obscure and more recent reference could be Adam Green, but really The Kevins have their own thing going, and even if it’s not really modern, it’s really quite good and they would deserve to be a little less obscure (like, how about a recording contract).

If you like the songs you’ve heard floating around on the Internet, I encourage you to order the album.

29 is the title of the third album released by Ryan Adams in 2005. Strangely enough it was actually recorded in August 2004…

What can you expect from someone who puts out three studio albums in one year, one of which being double? Even more so if the person doing so has in the past published very good (Gold) as well as very disappointing stuff (Rock n Roll, see above). Just like his live shows I’ve seen : Great and memorable in the Trabendo; boring almost unbearable in the Bataclan.

So consistency hasn’t been a strong point for Ryan Adams in the past. I quite liked the two albums he put out with the Cardinals in 2005, and I was wondering what the solo album woud be like. Even more so, as it is produced by Ethan Johns, who was also responsible for Gold.

29 is not a masterpiece but it is above average. Ryan Adams is not reinventing himself it’s more of his trademark melancholic country-folk-blues. It’s nice to listen to, but I wonder if I will take it off the shelf again, once I’ve put it away, as it tends to be more of the same, even if it’s not bad at all.

You end up imaging what kind of amazing albums Ryan Adams would make if he limited himself to one CD every two years. But at least he has found some consistency and will probably continue recording non-memorable, but quality albums for many years to come. A bit like Neil Young nowadays, I guess.