AlistairCampbell

hope they record some new material. Their albums have been a permanent fixture in my playlists for the last 15 years.

The Go! Team
Bat for Lashes

You'll hear nothing like it all year and its fucking thrilling

for many genres including electronic, early warp days Aphex, Autechre, Sabres of Paradise etc

Actually thinking about it, 93 was pretty shit hot all round, In Utero and Siamese Dream to mention a few

liking what i've heard so far. want to live with it for a while before passing a definitive judgement. Both this and Death Grips sound amazing, like they've been beamed in from another planet, there is much to enjoy!

...its full on arms aloft up lifting rock music. nice!

still, I'll be banging my head against the laptop crying at 9.02am tomorrow morning like everybody else

you know the list already, we don't, it definitely makes for a better read

Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream not Gish, which is quite well summarised by the man himself on the recent masterpiece show Zane Lowe did for Siamese Dream. As I understand it, in the early days Billy and James spent lots of time writing together....

Anyway, it's still a great album, pumpkins at their most consistently tripped out, hippy, and psychedelic- they had their moments after that but never as consistently. Suffer is an amazing song, understandably sampled by Tricky on the track Pumpkin from Maxinequaye.

WRT: Snail. I saw them at Wolverhampton Civic Hall Sept 93 on the Siamese Dream tour, Billy started throwing flowers into the crowd as he sings the words "flowers". An epic gig, still ranks in my personal top 5 live experiences.

I agree, awesome

but here is one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ggye0aOTY

well worth checking out

a long way from his best collaborations on psyence fiction (thom yorke, chuck d, darren gough and richard ashcroft, all great).
There are a couple of worthwhile tracks, but a few howlers, I can't stomach give me back the night at all, have to skip it everytime.
FWIW I saw him at the great escape this year and he was brilliant, so still worth paying money to seeing him play a live show if nothing else!

..so far I'd say your review is spot on!

a very good show, looking forward to getting the album

Album opens with 3 usual Foo's standards before descending into mundane filler. It's disappointing, but then again my expectations were not particularly high. Re-visiting the first two albums its apparent how lacking the subsequent records are in dynamics.

Foo Fighters occupy an interesting space in the popular conciousness, they could as easily headline monsters of rocks as they could radio 1's big weekend and satisfy both audience (live they're great). Yet for a man who has drummed for Nirvana, QOTSA and Killing Joke I'm slightly bewildered how straight up and radio friendly Dave's material with the Foos is.

This record contains the DNA for all things Queens. Regular John is still their definitive track. I'm hoping that on the forthcoming tour playing this album live every night will have a big influence on what they record next, cos Lullabies and Era V are not as good as they could/should have been (still good tho)

http://www.factmag.com/2011/02/04/james-blake-james-blake/
I'm far more inclined to agree with the Factmag review than anything I've read here

I'm relatively new to James Blake, currently enjoying his record.
A 5 from DiS is very very harsh (80% of the reviews I read on here are 7s or 8s, its like the default score). Hype and Hope ruined it for Noel here, let's see how we feel in a few months time, pretty sure it'll be in the DiS writers and readers top 50 albums no probs.

Lack of cohesion hits the nail on the head, it really is all over the place. It's actually when they're at their most derivative they work best. The first two tracks are really good- I didn't think of QOTSA when I listened, more 90's say Jesus and Mary Chain springs to mind for me given the vocal delivery and fuzzing bass line. I think the'd be good fun to see live, and they have potential too- there is definitely a good record in there somewhere.

http://www.taylor-st.com/
have fun trying them all and enjoy the festival

Best coffee in Brighton:
1. Taylor St Barista on Queen's Road 3 mins walking south from the station
2. Ground Upper St. George's Road, Kemptown
3. Coffee@33

Red Roaster is pish

I think this could be the best thing he's done- totally excellent. Love Cry absolutely kicks it

I think its closer to a 7 at least

first 7 tracks are very good, the next 5 are pretty bad, the last track is ok.

You've correctly identified a number of the album's shortcoming- essentially some serious editing of both song and album length require. That aside, it's still well worthwhile for anyone after some big ass rock.

and totally agree its a change of direction they needed. I hope to continue to plough this furrow, I think it can bear richer fruit for them down the line. They've certainly not held back in committing to the new direction, and as this post is already showing opinion is very divided!

BTW Mike- how many listens did it take you to come up with that? Definitely a grower, took at least 5 listens before the album sat properly for me......still stand by my FOTL comment though :-)

..I did that once for a guy called Tony...it didn't end so well. For your own sake, I'll have to pass :-)

And FOTL didn't even need the help of a superstar producer...legends

...I was pretty underwhelmed on first listen TBH, perhaps a rush of blood to the head Sean?

It is definitely a record that improves on subsequent listens, but its not the classic it looked like being on paper.

On first listen the complete change of pace caught me out, they sound much more, well, sedate- gone is youthful excuberance, kinetic energy, this has been replaced with a kind of don't give a fuck steady plod. I guess Rolling Stone would describe this as a mature rock record...

The QOTSA influences really are as obvious and numerous as promised. This is both a blessing and a curse- the mix is bass heavy, driving bass lines and thudding drums with eerie guitar sounds and licks, which sounds great. However, for all the cool moments on the album they have inherited one of QOTSAs frequent shortcomings, they forget to bring the tunes, which makes the listening unmemorable.

Of course the test of time will tell whether I'll be eating my words. After 3 full listens I'm saying "that difficult 3rd album"- 50% of the album is pretty good, 50% of the album is dull - albeit even a dull Monkeys is better than most.

The best british rock record released this year is Future of the Left by a shitting mile, this I'm afraid doesn't even come close - 6/10

Stuart, you are right - music is at my fingertips, its up past my elbows. Thanks to the internet I'm armpit deep in music in all its guises, the good, the bad and the down right ugly. all. day. long.

Taking to the internet and researching music, bands, blogs and other music related bullshit is like drinking from a fire hose. Given this abundant jetstream of bands, tunes and albums coming my way I readily and regulalry rely on sites like Pitchfork (a site Mogwai pointed me in the direction of following a favourable review for a Rock Action band ), DiS, Boomkat, Coke Machine Glow etc to save me time and get me to the good shit quicker. Should I even be ashamed to say that I'd use Metacritic as a yardstick when looking for an avenue to pursue? Since using the internet as my main resource for researching and aquiring music I've made significantly less wrong turns, as well as opened up avenues I'm certain I'd never have made browsing a copy of Select/Kerrang/NME and cycling down to the local record store to make my purchase. There will always be a place for well informed writers and their valued opinions regardless of the received media.

I missed the ultimate thrust of your article - you talk about listening to the good old days listening to the radio and reading the NME for your musical cues and yet appear to be belittling internet users for doing the same. I would be interested to read what your ultimate muscial utopia would be for musicians, journalists and listeners alike in a world dominated by the presence of the internet?

P.S. Mogwai rock

seen them live at the great escape the last two years running.....and while there were no equinines on stage, they blew in a big way. However I suspect they will be a moderate hit in the indie world who live pseudo-eccentric english bands- for me however boring and unmemorable

reckon at least 3 of those are going to be in my top 10 for the year

..but finding it doesn't quite contain enough substance to make it a classic. still a good effort

A robust defence of your review, fans of Sunn O))) clearly appreciate this glowing dissection you've given the world. You also appear to have offended some who wish to police your apparant misuse of arbitrary numbers.

What a great way to open the album!

is my favourite Mogwai album...what tune is better than Xmas Steps?

really like the Hawk is Howling, its a great album, very consistent from start to finish. I'd give it an 8.

...and liked what I heard. Much easier to embrace than previous TVOTR records. the test of time will tell, but am looking forward to diving deeper with this one

that's a great version of 'Wolf Like Me' they did on Letterman.

Not heard the new album yet, waiting patiently for the offical release like a good boy.

disappointingly small tour of the UK, maybe they're going to a bigger tour next year?

and the point is?

Didn't get this shit, went upstairs and watched Beardy man instead, he was a million times more entertaining

..at the great escape.

on their MySpace page and make your decision.....its a grower

I hope they die screaming.

Radiohead have always maintained that their albums should be listened to as a whole, hence they never did a deal with iTunes 'cos tracks could be sold individually. I struggle to see how a best of is going to offer existing fans any thing worth shelling out for. In the context of each album these songs are classics. Regardless I'm going to playlist the two discs and see which is better......and whether I'd want to get my radiohead fillup from a best of rather than the albums

Fuck the fuck off, I'm trying to listen to Radiohead

for me is the March winner

probably my fav 'Grass album...not too sure about this Glange direction they've taken, tho the Beat it cover on myspace is entertaining

and why does everyone call public address systems Tannoys? clearly this is the type of shit that keeps you up at night mate...relax man ;-)

..its cos they like to wind up pedants like yourself. More likely cos reviewer was probably too young in 95 to have noticed Autechre's 3rd album was released, let alone have its various guises cemented into his brain.
Incidently how do you refer to the 5th album, LP5 or Autechre. And do you refer to EP7 as an EP, 'cos its really too long to really be an EP.

As for Quaristice, meh. I've not enjoyed an Autechre album end to end since I got Tri Repetae++ (I got bonus disc CD ed)

"like going to see someone you used to be in love with to find their new partner is a fool." kind of how i felt about the O2 show

...they were fucking mind blowing live if you caught them on a good day. Siamese dream tour at wolverhampton Civic and Reading 95 headline slot being the life affirming experiences you mention