El_Goodo

3-2-1 Go!

and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm definitely moved by the emotions it created, really stirring and evocative in places. I dunno, due to the length I'm not sure how often I'm going to get chance to enjoy it in it's entirety in the future and I feel that would lose something.
I need a long drive in the car, in the dark, in the rain....(80's) party on the M25 anyone?

People who buy CDs in supermarkets (get used to it, it'll soon be the only place to buy them), hipsters who like to 'actually dance', V festival crowds, parents who like to watch Jools Holland. Thems my sisters and mothers and brothers you're talking about - I'm not better than them and neither are you.
Also, music fan = a cynic hearing 100 new bands a week on the internet. Nah, that's not a music fan, just someone chasing the zeitgeist.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching all those videos, great choices and and a right bit of few hours of entertainment delivered. Thank you very much.
Great article, great videos, great writing!
More of this please, and if any other readers enjoyed these videos then encourage the writers!

A very informative and interesting read. Great job, more please.

It's danceable, singalong, bubblegum tunes by some young lads picking up guitars and knocking out a few catchy tunes. The rest is over analysis.

As mentioned once or thrice in the review. It's decent guitar pop, who cares about the lyrics when you're bouncing round to the melodic hooks and humming the choruses hours afterwards. I love a bit of indie sugar, there's not enough of it around.

Maybe 6 is a little low no? And how come this album is only coming out now when the 2 big (and best) songs were played on radio and released years ago?

This list is not the 10 best records of the year by anyone's view - DiS contributors or the readers.
If the same list of albums come out across multiple publications / websites then it indicates a broad consensus, something some people seek out when looking at lists like this and reviewing the year.
I think DiS has got this wrong this year, wrong time and place for championing the records it has.

and yet it ended up as number one on the DiS album of the year list? How does that work? (not literally, but come on!)

Did none of their colleagues agree with the reviewer's opinions?

If the list from all the contributors is so diverse then isn't that a relection of the vastly different tastes of the contributors rather than some grand statement on the quality of the records released this year?

I'd say DiS contributors can't agree between themselves on the qualities of good records over others.

and that's not what we're here for.

although it's not really a surprise that there's no Nineties boyband influences in modern pop music. The review kind of talks itself out of that view before it grew any legs anyway.

I can't wait till the 80's revival / influence has passed, for me it's the worst era of popular music. Sure, there were tunes but the legacy seems nothing more than an image and the sound of a synth which is the depth that Hurts have skimmed. The difference is that we put up with that level of pop music shallowness in the 80's for two reasons - it was the prevalent attitude of society - hedonistic, materialistic, temporary; and the tunes were great. We've grown up to expect more now, pop music is often innovative of sound, original in many ways and generally presented futuristic rather than retro.
Hurts are a record label panic signing. 'Every-one's going 80's, let's get us an 80's bandwagon driver'. Fashion has a lot to answer for at times.

"What WFANC have managed to do here basically is distil 2 decades of Mancunian musical heritage (rave, brit-pop, electronica and all) into a frequently inspired, always entertaining electro-punk-indie-pop-hop-rock-dance inferno which reaches it's piece on disk 2 with the title track, a wandering beast of a tune which milks every second out of it's 33 minute duration."

except the bit about being patronising. The bit about the record being an admission about never reaching the top of the charts again - it's full of banging pop tunes likely to do so. The whole point about pop stars not releasing mini albums is inherently wrong and contradicted by the Lady Gaga example. Which incidently is the only applicable comparison (apart from being female pop stars) rather than attributing a Gaga like obsession to Robyn's intentions. Look, you think Robyn is striving for major number one success and fame at all costs but where have you got that from? You've made up your own back story to pad out some context before reviewing the record.

The record review from then onwards is really good.

I'm curious. I like that kind of evangelical passion for tunes mixed with abuse of position, however misguided.

if this record is anywhere near as good as the review suggests I'll be a happy man. I'm going to check this one out.

How can you start a review with 'This record isn't going to change your life...'? Thanks for that, I didn't expect it to, who the hell did?
It's brought a little cheer on repeated listens and brightened the corners of my recent days.
And what the hell is the talk of 'mass popularity', 'taking it's makers to the masses' and 'mainstream terms'? If one of their singles gets into the top 5, played on Radio 1 daytime or soundtracks Come Dancing then your guide-stick is strictly on fire. (Staring at the Sun was radio 1 playlist back in the day btw)
Sod trying to predict 'classics' and talk about the record. Which is ace. It ain't about their positioning in some daft canon. Maybe reviews can relate it more to their previous work a bit more and their artistic or thematic progression. Or the funny lyrics.

Taste = Ya Mama's choice of soft furnishings.

A few could've been left on the cutting room floor but these are amazing photos of the gig for those who couldn't make it. Interesting setlist as well. The thing about this band is they really put the effort in every show, you can see it in their faces in the photos. Unfashionable round some parts..

Jaguar Love and the Pier made my month tick along pretty nicely thank you very much. Deerhunter this month as well? Seems like it's been an age immersed in that knee-deep pool of aceness.
DiS reflecting my listening in tunes...I was wondering when you'd catch up with me.