A slice of really exciting news for you all this already dark Monday afternoon, Fleet Foxes have revealed details of their second album and are offering the title track up for free via their website. The greatly anticipated follow up to 2008’s critically acclaimed eponymous debut; Helplessness Blues is due for release on May 2 via Bella Union. Recorded over the course of a year, their sophomore twelve-track is set to coincide with a tour on both sides of the Atlantic. You can listen to the effortlessly stunning forthcoming title track below.

April
30 – The Vogue Theatre, Vancouver

May
1 – Crystal Ballroom, Portland
3 – Moore Theatre, Seatlle
5 – Fox Theatre, Oakland
6 – Spreckels Theatre, San Diego
7 – Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood
8 – Rialto Theatre, Tuscon
10 – Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheatre, Austin
11 – Palladium Ballroom, Dallas
13 – Ryman Auditorium, Nashville
14 – The Tabernacle, Atlanta
15 – DAR Constitutional Hall, Washington DC
17 – Orpheum Theatre, Boston
18 – The United Palace Theatre, New York
21 – Tower Theatre, Upper Darby
25 – Astra, Berlin
26 – Dachau Summer of Music, Munich
28 – Primavera Sound, Barcelona
30 – Bataclan, Paris
31 – Hammersmith Apollo, London

Tickets for the Hammersmith Apollo will go on-sale at 9am on Friday 4 February.

Having recently announced the addition of nineties Brit Pop legends Pulp to next years’ Primavera Sound, the festival is back with some more names to add to the already incredible line up.

Jarvis Cocker et al are now set to perform alongside the likes of Belle & Sebastian, The Flaming Lips, Mogwai, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, Swans, Suicide and The National. Also confirmed to appear are Mercury Rev, who will play their 1998 Deserter’s Songs in its entirety and Velvet Underground’s John Cale, who will play though his 1971 release Paris 1919.

The line up so far looks like this:

Animal Collective
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
Belle & Sebastian
Blank Dogs
Broadcast
Comet Gain
Dan Melchior und Das Menace
The Fiery Furnaces
The Flaming Lips
Fleet Foxes
Half Japanese
John Cale & Band + Orchestra perform PARIS 1919 live
Mercury Rev perform Deserter’s Songs
Mogwai
The National
Papas Fritas
Pulp
Sonny & The Sunsets
Suicide
Swans
Triángulo De Amor Bizarro

Primavera Sound runs May 26-28 in Barcelona, Spain. The somewhat irresistible tickets are now on sale. For more info, visit the official site: www.primaverasound.com

Legendary singer-songwriter Graham Nash’s solo debut – Songs For Beginners - was first released in 1971 and came on the heels of a temporary split with his CSN band mates, David Crosby and Stephen Stills, and a permanent break with his then-love, Joni Mitchell. The album was a hit and introduced the now-classic songs ‘Military Madness’, ‘Simple Man’, ‘Used To Be A King’, and the Top 40 single ‘Chicago’.

Flash forward to 2010, Nile Nash & Britt Govea of (((folkYEAH!))) have assembled an all-star line-up of celebrated artists such as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Robin Pecknold (of Fleet Foxes), Brendan Benson, Vetiver, Alela Diane, Sleepy Sun, Mariee Sioux & Greg Weeks (from Espers), Port O Brien with The Papercuts and The Moore Brothers. All of these artists, and Nile Nash herself, have come together to honour and celebrate “Songs For Beginners” by covering the album track by track.

Click on here for a conversation between Sylvie Simmons, Nile Nash and Joel Bernstein about ‘Be Yourself’ and Songs For Beginners and to hear snippets from the album…

First Aid Kit; teenage Swedish sisters Klara & Johanna Söderberg came to the attention of the indie music community via the youtube video of their cover version of Fleet Foxes’  ’Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’ (in a forest no less – how Scandinavian of them). This is an uncharacteristically modern emergence for a band that are so immersed in the sounds of the past. The Big Black and The Blue mines 70s rustic American and the pastoral, harmony heavy folk of more recent acts to prove itself retro, but no less interesting for it.

You would imagine It would be hard for two Swedish girls to sound like four hairy American troubadours but there are obvious similarities. Lyrically the themes are those often associated with folk; travelling and a longing for the past as on ‘Heavy Storm’. At times the Söderbergs get away with some slightly obvious lyrics as these come off as charmingly naïve as opposed to clichéd. ‘Hard Believer’ contains a couple of examples, the chorus of “love is tough/time is rough” which you would imagine anyone armed with a rhyming dictionary might be able to manage, and the middle eight of “It’s one life/and it’s this life/and it’s beautiful”. However both of these come across as uncommonly profound due to the belief and passion present in the delivery. Perhaps it’s only those who are young and not hardened by cynicism that can feel free enough to write lyrics that are so lacking in self-consciousness.

‘Waltz for Richard’ fares less well; a quasi-medieval mandolin strum that comes across as rather going through the motions but this lack of ideas is the exception rather than the rule. ‘Josefin’ is also somewhat pedestrian, it’s stately country failing to produce the same emotional impact as the record’s better moments.

‘Ghost Town’ is possibly the high water mark of the record though as mournful accordion and slow stately picked arpeggios are joined by burbling xylophone and world weary vocals singing of “the lonesome bars blind-sighting me and you”, the vocals here especially heartbreaking even on an album that moves so frequently.

The Big Black and The Blue ends on a high too; I Met Up With A King providing a necessary lift after the creeping desolation of ‘Winter Is All Over You’ as Klara and Johanna sing “ I don’t know anything at all/and we mean nothing to history, wealth and God” with a very real sense of catharsis as they embrace the in-consequentiality of existence. So this is a record that confirms First Aid Kit as talented beyond their years but what about wise beyond their years? ‘Ghost Town’ perhaps provides the answers with it’s instruction “If you’ve got visions of the past/let them follow you down/and they’ll come back to you some day”, well maybe real wisdom is to keep such sentiments simple.

Buy the album on Amazon | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/ghost-town/id348253236?uo=4" title="First_Aid_Kit-The_Big_Black_and_the_Blue_(Bonus_Track_Version)_(Album)" text="iTunes"] | Rhythm Online

Have TEN years really gone past? Madness! 10 years ago I was graduating with my whole life ahead of me… I’d never heard of Jens Lekman, Wilco or The National… my entire life sprawled in front of me like a contented cat in front of a fire… Where did that time go? As 2010 (the most sci-fi of all years) sharpens into view, it gives us a chance to look back. To have a think about the albums that have been released in the last 10 years and what they mean to us, how they’ve affected us and how they’ve augmented our lives. Without some of the albums on this list, like Wilco for example, TLOBF wouldn’t have existed. Myself and Mr. Thane would never have met. How scary is that?

So, we got our splendid team of writers to nominate their favourite albums of the last 10 years. This is what we reckon are the best, and must hear, albums since the noughties arrived!

= Listen on Spotify

30. Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala (2007)
Producer: Jens Lekman | Label: Service / Secretly Canadian
There are not enough songs about pretending to be your lesbian friend’s fiancé in front of her father to enable her to elope with her girlfriend. Luckily Gothenburg’s king of sampling and bombastic romantic swooning Jens Lekman is here to plug that gap with ‘A Postcard to Nina’, both lyrically hysterical with its description of her father’s lie detector, and touching with his promise that “Nina, I can be your boyfriend.” It’s bolstered by huge horns and Jens’ unwaveringly physical, if sometimes sinister, belief in love, where the strings burn with the gut punch of that first infatuation to wry Stephin Merrit-esque wit and an ambrosia bright glow.
- Laura Snapes

29. The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (2007)
Producer: Peter Katis, The Twilight Sad | Label: Fat Cat
The Twilight Sad find their strength in the control they have over the chaos they are able to produce. Behind every song on this album lays an unfathomable depth of textured noise, but unlike many noise rock bands, it feels as if it has to be there. The Twilight Sad don’t aim to create an abrasive listening experience that you must endure, they aim to fill a room with their power, and their texture, and they succeed. The Twilight Sad shouldn’t soar, most songs falling into what is almost a dark, treacle like mire, but they do, and your life will feel more empty when the noise stops, and you return to silence.
- Daniel Offen

28. The Avalanches – Since I Left You (2000)
Producer: Robbie Chater, Darren Seltmann | Label: Modular Recordings
As an impressionable early-teen, I along with half the nation fell in love with The Avalanches as a novelty-pop band, reciting all the words to ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ to a bemused friend on the back of the school bus. But the rest of the record wasn’t funny, so I didn’t get it. Years later I returned to it and was mystified in an entirely more alluring way. Perhaps if the hazy range of corny strings, breathy voices, and danceable beats didn’t add up to the sound of some sort of eternal lost summer then they’d be more apt for a second album, but maybe one day The Avalanches will awaken from their eternal slumber and release something just as magical again.
- Tom Whyman

27. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005)
Producer: Paul Epworth | Label: Wichita
With their taut, wiry debut, Bloc Party became poster boys for elements of the British rock scene who explore personal and political issues in roughly equal measure. Sometimes similar in sound and theme to The Rakes’ debut Capture/Release which was released a few months later, Bloc Party’s debut edged that record – and most of the others of the decade – out in terms of quality by being quite so inviting to listeners of different audiences and being so energetically gripping. Like other albums here, Silent Alarm is not just a great album of the decade, but a partial document of what it has been like to live in the decade.
- Andy Johnson

26. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (2008)
Producer: Phil Ek | Label: Bella Union / Sub Pop
Did Bella Union know? As they prepared themselves to release Fleet Foxes, did they have that sneaking suspicion that this was going to be the one? Their first record to be certified gold in the UK, heaped with praise by every respectable reviewer. Amid all the accolades though, it is worth remembering how wonderful the album truly is. Wrapped in a organic warmth, it sounds like vinyl whatever the media, music and voices sliding with an elegiac grace. Despite its wintery overtures it managed for many to soundtrack an entire year, ending with a final refrain of harmony as timeless as the album itself.
- Simon Reuben

25. Sigur Rós – Takk… (2005)
Producer: Ken Thomas, Sigur Rós | Label: Geffen / EMI
Sigur Rós’ all consuming beauty and ghostly grandeur has rarely been in doubt but after the celestial brilliance of their debut, it was Takk, some four years later, that re-imbued Jon Birgisson with the ethereal warmth that had seemed to have escaped him. Still evoking all of the snowflake imagery their debut conjured, the twin hit of ‘Glosoli’ and ‘Saeglopur’ cascaded the weight and vulnerability to slide you into an introspective hole but it was the playful melody of ‘Hoppipolla’, gloriously sidling alongside the album’s heavier bombast, that gave it its intermittent, resplendent starbursts of optimism and made Takk quite special.
- Reef Younis

24. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005)
Producer: Mike Mogis | Saddle Creek
Marketed as a double release, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning could potentially have been the mundane, standard Bright Eyes album of the two. Yet, where Digital Ash In A Digital Urn failed to coherently connect, I’m Wide Awake was Conor Oberst doing what Conor Oberst does best: writing melodic, emotively orchestrated and beautifully shaky bluesy folk songs. ‘Lua’ and ‘Poison Oak’ showed Bright Eyes at their lyrical, downbeat best, with ‘Road to Joy’ and ‘Another Travellin’ Song’ settling the balance. Filled with honest anecdotes, this was a ‘social commentary’ album that somehow sidestepped the label of poor man’s Dylan, the naval gazing mopery of Ryan Adams or indeed the pretension which may have befallen Oberst in recent times, instead producing sentiments and sounds far beyond his then-24-years.
- Lauren Mayberry

23. The Knife – Silent Shout (2006)
Producer: The Knife | Label: Rabid Records
In what truly was a great decade for Swedish music, Stockholm siblings The Knife stood apart from all their contemporaries (albeit shrouded in shadows and secrecy) by crafting sinister sounding, moody music for the indie set. Their sound is equal parts tension and melody, with the bulk of the menacing, beat-driven arrangements handled by Olof Dreijer, while Karin Dreijer Andersson’s angelically ominous vocals adds some humanity to music that often sounds sterile and bleak. Silent Shout proved to be an innovative, compelling album that continues to offer us clues to questions that the perpetually reclusive band will never answer themselves.
- Erik Thompson

22. Björk – Vespertine (2001)
Producer: Björk, Thomas Knak, Martin Console, Marius de Vries | Label: One Little Indian
Less caustic than Homogenic and shorn of the carnival of Post, Björk’s fourth album initially seemed something of a retreat from the vigour of its predecessors. Glacial in tone and possessed of an introversion a world apart from the pantomime of ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, this was Björk looking inwards, openers ‘Hidden Place’ and ‘Cocoon’ inviting us into an amniotic half-light of music boxes and whispers that enchants and unnerves in equal measure. Fragile yet hauntingly affecting, there’s a beating warmth behind the ice that makes Vespertine easily the best of her work.
- Christian Cottingham

21. The National – Alligator (2005)
Producer: Peter Katis | Label: Beggars Banquet
The National is really the Matt Berninger show – the jaded lothario with the silver tongue. He’s like a filthier Robert Lowell (‘my mind’s not right’), or a New York Stuart Staples; and like Staples you pray he doesn’t find contentment – what would he write about? Every track burns. The band find a rough and rich romantic tumble to underpin some great vocal performances and some of the finest lyrics anywhere this decade. I could pick a hundred but I think if I was ever to write something as perfect as the chord change coupled with ‘we’re the heirs to the glimmering world’ I could die happy.
- Matt Poacher

20. At The Drive-In – Relationship of Command (2000)
Producer: Ross Robinson | Label: Grand Royal / Fearless
At The Drive In had been building a following with their incendiary live show since the mid 90’s, but they really exploded into life when Relationship of Command appeared in 2000.

A brutal hardcore assault from start to finish Relationship of Command was a phosphorous blast in the face. Taking the directness of punk, elements of Fugazi’s hardcore, and Cedric Bixler’s incandescent roar – At The Drive In were a shot in the arm for a world that strangely embraced Oasis’ Standing on The Shoulder of Giants as one of best the releases of the year.

Dismantling ‘One Armed Scissor’ on Jools in a whirling frenzy, Iggy Pop cropping up on ‘Rolodex Propaganda’ and the opening blitzkrieg of ‘Arcarsenal’ were just some of the many highlights.

The band’s split shortly after the albums release and the subsequent formation of prog-leaning The Mars Volta by Bixler and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez meant that the promise of the most exciting band to surface in the early 2000’s was never fully realised.
- Sam Shepherd

19. Beach House – Devotion (2008)
Producer: Beach House | Label: Bella Union / Carpark Recordings
Devotion, the second full-length from Baltimore’s Beach House, is full of desire and loss, laden with lovelorn pop songs. Released in 2008 on Bella Union in the UK and Europe and Carpark, the Washington label home to Dan Deacon and co, the duo’s penchant for delicate, clever and bright songwriting was made clear. Their 2006 self-titled debut had displayed organist/vocalist Victoria Legrand’s ability to wind a wistful and poignant melody over multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally’s crisp soundscapes, but this ability was inarguably honed on Devotion. Legrand’s classical training is downplayed but evident in her abilities, complimenting the autumnal sonic feel. From the sparse percussion of ‘Turtle Island’, to the glittering organs of first single ‘Gila’ and the deliciously home-made Velvet Undergound feel of ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’, this record surrendering none of that Beach House charm, their sound sweet but with a that inevitable hidden bite.
- Lauren Mayberry

18. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009)
Producer: Ben H. Allen / Animal Collective | Label: Domino
The words ‘adobe slats’ have taken on unprecedented profundity since December 2008, when Merriweather Post Pavilion first leaked onto the web, sparking fervent blogging activity and file-sharing, creating an ever-spiraling hyperbole for what has been dubbed the band’s most accessible album.

So I’m sure that you’re already fat off all the acclaim and Pitchfork-heralding this album has inspired, having being fed adjective-upon-bloated-adjective describing the heavily layered tribal rhythms, swimming in the sounds of frogs chirping or caves dripping, and culminating in the euphoric pulse of ‘Brothersport’ or the undeniably intense and ethereal swirling mass of ‘In The Flowers’.

As Hipster Runoff’s ever-amusing ‘Carles’ put-it: “Animal Collective are a band created by/for/on the internet”, and one would only have to set up a Google Alert to see this as not only true, but instrumental in propelling the band’s progressive sounds into the Billboard Top 20, and raising the bar for all modern pop music to come.
- Sam Parfitt

17. PJ Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000)
Producer: Rob Ellis, Mick Harvey, PJ Harvey | Label: Island
Nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea marked a turning point for PJ Harvey: this was, undeniably, a pop album. But pop, according to Polly Jean Harvey, is no bland, straightforward affair. Packed with reverb and lush layers, Stories From The City was a beautifully melodic reaction to previous releases Is This Desire, Rid of Me and even arguable breakthrough LP To Bring You My Love, all of which possessed a certain unnerving, extreme and dark undertone. The songwriter’s vocals were more relaxed, as gorgeous as Harvey has ever sounded, but the passion-fuelled lyrics remained, complimented by the simple, driving rhythms and expertly executed riffs. With hooks evident from the first chords of ‘Big Exit’- potentially the paramount opening track of her career-, Harvey created an accessible, welcoming version of herself whilst maintaining all the elements which made her so revered, from ‘Good Fortune’ to ‘Beautiful Feeling’ and beyond.
- Lauren Mayberry

16. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire (2001)
Producer: Steve Albini | Label: Kranky
In spite of the austere title, Things We Lost In The Fire just so happens to be Low’s most exquisite and accessible work. Recorded by Steve Albini back at the beginning of the century, it uses a blend of hazy guitars, delicate percussion and truly heartbreaking vocal melodies of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker to really shine. Bitter-sweet ‘Sunflower’ and ‘July’ radiate a tenderness that, despite their undoubted quality, was sorely lacking from previous offerings. Even the bleaker tracks, like the edgy, overwrought ‘Whitetail’, and the sinister lullabies that are ‘Whore’, ‘Laser Beam’ and ‘Medicine Magazines’ have more emotional exigency, driven by their ominous interweaving harmonies. Finale ‘In Metal’, grows from a downhearted elegy into one of the group’s most uplifting tracks, reflecting the progression of their music. Sure the lyrics may seem menacing, but it exudes a warmth and hopeful tone which not only make this their most direct and gripping set of songs, but also one of the finest and affecting albums of this decade. Just beautiful.
- Ama Chana

15. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights (2002)
Producer: Peter Katis, Gareth Jones | Label: Matador
Anyone who dismisses Interpol as purely a derivative rip-off of Joy Division clearly hasn’t been listening enough. There are few bands that can claim to have come to prominence and influenced the decade with such a bang. Of course, there are thousands of third-rate unsigned mate’s bands that try treading similar ground, but that can’t take away from the splendour of Turn on the Bright Lights. That the two follow ups didn’t quite match up was inevitable given the quality through – from the thudding brilliance of ‘PDA’ to the frenetic energy of ‘Roland’, there’s not a foot put wrong throughout. Downbeat whilst being danceable and filled with some of the better lyrics of the past 10 years, the album pivots on Paul Banks’ unique monotonous droll and still sounds more fresh and exciting than most of the crop of current hopefuls.
- Matthew Britton

14. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)
Producer: Daryl Smith | Label: Kranky / Constellation
Lift Yr Skinny Fists… was the sound of a band absolutely at the heart of its own sphere of possibility: a summation of all that bluster and pomp and urgency that drove ‘F#A#’ and ‘A Slow Riot…’ The band also added new broad layers of dissonance and queasy ambience to their already dense palette and there was a self-confidence about the whole enterprise, as if they damn well knew that this was a defining album- and for once here was a double album that absolutely demanded the form. From the opening triumphal waltz of ‘Gathering Storm’ through Ephrain’s astonishing screwdriver-driven wailing guitar on ‘Monheim’ to the treated voices that close ‘Antennas to Heaven’ this feels like a record big (in every sense of the word) enough to warrant end of decade plaudits.
- Matt Poacher

13. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
Producer: The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker | Label: Warner Bros.
Having already released The Soft Bulletin in 1999, it was almost unthinkable that The Flaming Lips would be able to match the majesty of what, at the time, was their most accomplished work. However, with the band on form and taking a slightly more electronic direction, they quickly went about consolidating their position as one of America’s finest bands. Wayne Coyne reached spectacular heights with his lyrics. The allegory of the pink robots is inspired, whilst the simply stunning ‘Do You Realize?’ made jaws drop, hearts pound, and eyes water. That song in particular showcased the Lips’ capacity to inspire, delight, and break hearts within the space of a few minutes. This year it was picked as Oklahoma States’ official rock song, which isn’t bad for a bunch of Fearless Freaks.
- Sam Shepherd

12. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People (2002)
Producer: David Newfeld | Label: Arts & Crafts
You wonder if a record as huge and as rammed with disgustingly talented personnel as You Forgot it in People could happen today – appear fully formed out of nowhere, fit to bursting. Each nuance would be hyped and dissected before release, each member ransacked, interviewed, profiled. As it was, it seemed to drop out of the sky, and so perfectly timed. A suite of 13 beautifully crafted pop songs, ripe and tumbling over themselves with invention. And exactly how did they fit this many people and so many ideas into the space of one record? The truth is they didn’t, and it’s the secret to the albums rolling, almost improv-feel magic (‘come in after this, here we go Kev’)– these cavernous songs are still fresh and new now, things spill out of them and multiply into the middle distance.
- Matt Poacher

11. The Strokes – Is This It (2001)
Producer: Gordon Raphael | Label: RCA
The key to the Strokes’ debut album, Is This It, is the slacker attitude that permeates the record. The album’s title and title track certainly suggest as much. When Julian Casablancas asks the titular question, he’s wondering if it’s the end of a relationship, but he may as well be asking the question of himself, of the band, of the whole post-punk reawakening that occurred at the beginning of the decade. The question isn’t answered by the end of ‘Take It or Leave It’, either. Yet, it doesn’t matter because the care-free, shit-kicking ride was the reason behind it all, anyway. There is no explanation, and you squares don’t get it. Indeed, as Casablancas proclaims on ‘Last Nite’, “I said, people they don’t understand/ No, girlfriends, they can’t understand/ Your grandsons, they won’t understand/ On top of this, I ain’t ever gonna understand.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
- Steve Lampiris

10. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007)
Producer: Kevin Barnes | Label: Polyvinyl
Just how good this album is came as a huge surprise, even to long-time fans of the band. Eight albums into their career, of Montreal were already a pretty damn hot band. It’s just, there was nothing really that hinted at how hard-hitting this album would be. Previously they’d flirted with songs of this intensity, but never before had Kevin Barnes committed something of such beautiful and cutting honesty to record.

It’s the candidness that really makes it. No break-up album has ever so perfectly tapped into the psyche of a man staring into the bleakness of impending loneliness, the thoughts that cross and overlap and where nothing makes sense, “how can I explain? I need you here, and not here too.” The album’s bleakest points, lyrically, are underpinned by bouncy-rubber-ball basslines and Human League synths – see the wonderfully titled ‘Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse’ with it’s chorus of ooohs, or the massively Bowie-influenced ‘Suffer for Fashion’ for further evidence.

So there’s all that crap about manic depression, and bisexuality, and Barnes turning into a forty-year old “black shemale” called Georgie Fruit, and that’s all well and good, but somehow, despite the complicated “biographical” story Barnes is trying to tell, it remains to me deeply personal. I’ve never, to my knowledge, transmogrified into a transexual African-American. This album’s biggest triumph is, possibly, that of Montreal almost make me think I have.
- Adam Nelson

9. Joanna Newsom – Ys (2006)
Producer: Joanna Newsom, Van Dyke Parks | Label: Drag City
Maybe it was the tumbling flow of imagination, of words and lyrics meshing into stories. Maybe it was the sensual orchestrations, the rambling length of songs that somehow never got tiresome. Or maybe it’s the quirky way she said “meteorite”. Against all expectations (an album of five songs, most of them nearly 15 minutes long and by the way, it’s played mostly on a harp), a lot of us fell deeply in love with an unlikely album.

Joanna Newsom’s “Ys” was a powerfully feminine collection of songs, full of fascinating imagery, evocative story-telling and utterly gorgeous music, the equal to Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” where the idiosyncratic nature of the lyrics is never forced, or just for effect – it is always to enhance the tale and the emotional resonance with the listener. The songs are rammed with words and phrases as each individual tale unfolds, none more powerful than the epic “Only Skin”. The moment where Bill Callahan’s vocal emerges in the song’s twilight is akin to a sinister, creeping tendril, never failing to send the hairs on the back of the neck skywards.

Three years on, we still wait for a follow-up, but should be thankful that Newsom is not rushing her return, especially considering the transition made from her debut to “Ys”. This album shines as a beautiful connection with folk stories of old and the nature that surrounds us, and when all the noise has abated will continue to sparkle.
- Simon Reuben

8. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)
Producer: James Murphy | Label: DFA
Where the self-titled debut was a warning shot across the bows, Sound of Silver was the nuclear explosion. The exquisite blending of dance, disco and rock n roll, it was the sound of one man’s adrenaline fuelled rush through 50 years of music.

I remember hearing the opening, pulsing, beats of ‘Get Innocuous!’ and being floored. I literally stopped what I was doing to pay complete attention to the music. It was amazing. That noise, those beats, the cowbell. It was also an album that mixed the good times with intelligence. The tongue-in-cheek of ‘North American Scum’, the end of an era defining ‘New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’ – it was astonishing stuff.

You can tell great albums by their legacy. Most of the indie world has spent the years since Sound of Silver desperately trying to emulate its greatness. Sure, the Nike project smelt a bit, but the fact John Cale graced us with an amazing cover of ‘All My Friends’ should be enough justification of greatness. And yes, the detractors will point to James Murphy’s Bowie fascination, but that’s fine. This was an album that freshened up a dying genre whilst creating a few new ones whilst it was at it. At the end of 2007 there was only one album of the year, only one work of art that everyone could agree on: Sound Of Silver.
- Rich Hughes

7. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
Producer: Justin Vernon | Label: 4AD / Jagjaguwar
Who hasn’t wanted to escape the evils of the real world at some point in their life? The monotonous routine, the sprawling smog and traffic jams, the all engulfing maze of the concrete jungle. Why not decamp to the wilderness, live off the land, fight a grizzly and wear heavy work plaid shirts? Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) took just such a voluntary exile to a Wisconsin wood hut and returned with For Emma, Forever Ago; an album made and played out to the stars and the wolves.

An all-American Junglebook, it was a debut that absorbed its secluded surroundings with words swirling over valley chasms, bouncing off steep gorge walls and rolling across a moonlit canopy of fir. Vernon’s vocals ached and agonised with the contentment isolation as ruminative melodies intertwined with his now bewitching, hallmark vocal. Blindsided picked tentatively at Neil Young, the simmering mantra of ‘The Wolves (Act I and III)’ injected a small swathe of Spiritualized grandiosity and ‘Creature Fear’ hinted ever so slightly at the downbeat intensity of Elliott Smith.

If you listened closely enough between the swells and fades, you might have heard the crackle of a log fire. Immediately arresting and eerily superb, this was the real remote part.
- Reef Younis

6. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
Producer: Nigel Godrich | Label: Self-released
For the media, In Rainbows presented a problem. We all got it at the same time. The mainstream press prematurely spurted their views, foolishly scribbling during that initial listen (I am sure Pete Paphides of The Times regrets quoting hearing “I’m in the middle of your kitchen” on ‘All I Need’, and let’s not speak of Morley’s attempts at a live blog). This time, the blogs got it right, TLOBF’s editors wisely allowing a week for its writers to assess the album, as there was no point rushing things. For once, everyone was listening, in a truly communal experience.

And what an album, the perfect blend of all facets of their character and imagination, the static, frantic drums of ’15 Step’ taking us back to Kid A, the rolling, rhythmic guitar of ‘Bodysnatchers’ the finer moments of The Bends. And as usual with Radiohead, it was all in the details, the little touches. The wail of children on ’15 Step’ elevates the track with a sudden burst of adrenalin whilst the snap of snare drum leading to the crescendo of ‘All I Need’ heralds one of the finest moments they had committed. The monotony of ‘Videotape’ ends the album perfectly, urging you back to the album’s militaristically tight opening to start the whole process again.

The gimmick surrounding its release did not hurt sales, whatever you paid for it. Most of us bought the physical release, and a few of us dug deeper and bought the deluxe version. But all of us got to enjoy the moment, free from the jaundiced filter of opinion and critical analysis, judging the contents on their own considerable merits. Possibly the most exciting album launch of the decade, and certainly the one we all got to mutually share collectively.
- Simon Reuben

5. The National – Boxer (2007)
Producer: Peter Katis | Label: Beggars Banquet
82 years after F Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, one of the few things that had altered the pursuit of the American Dream is that prohibition is no longer in force. It’s evident from 2007’s Boxer, where Matt Berninger’s numerous alter-egos slip a slug of contraband into a bottle of lemonade, stand at the punch table swallowing punch and feel intoxication ebb from their centre like a drop of ink in a glass of water in pursuit, or perhaps avoidance of an ideal. But The National never use alcohol as a simple metaphor for escapism; that would be gauche. Instead it’s a prop, a tangible detail of the periphery of the awkward everyday acts in which the 12 songs here lay their scene. Despite having lost some of the lyrical abstractions from Alligator to move into a universal domestic reality, the lyrics here are chronicles of what happens away from the action – sometimes equally funny and pathetic, such as “I leaned on the wall, the wall leaned away” from ‘Slow Show’ to the recognizable conversational awkwardness and disconnection of “standing in an empty tuxedo with grapes in my mouth” in ‘Ada’. Painted by green gloves, being pink, middle class and blue-blazered is a portrait of capitulation to adulthood, of masculinity, set to a panoply of immeasurably beautiful horns, propulsive drumming, and pattern-weft guitars that form a backdrop to Berninger’s arc as subtly, yet on inspection, exquisitely detailed as a set piece from Mad Men. Matt’s joked that his resonant tones have been compared to every different type of whiskey – it’s a fitting simile, not least because of the addictive quality of it, the warmth, and the fact that every sip destroys you just a little bit more. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
- Laura Snapes

4. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (2005)
Producer: Sufjan Stevens | Label: Asthmatic Kitty
Since its release and subsequent critical adoration in 2005 the second in Sufjan Stevens 50 states project is a record that is genuinely era defining and so befitting of the term Magnum Opus that you expect it’s graceful sprawl is the main reason for him discontinuing his 50 states project (if rumours are to be believed).

From the opening chords of ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting’ to the lo-fi fuzz of ‘…Metropolis’ this is an album that boasts numerous classics that which now can be considered indie staples. There is also a case for Illinois to be considered the most influential record of the noughties although the countless banjo toting imitators are yet to provide a fitting heir. Building on the solemn, minimal folk of Seven Swans, Sufjan added lush orchestration and an an ambition that came as close to possible to realisation.

And so to those highlights; ‘Chicago’ is as transcendently beautiful as upon first listen, ‘Casimir Pulawski Day’ heartbreaking and inspiring in equal measure (even I want to take up the banjo after listening) and ‘John Wayne Gacy Jr.’ takes the most gruesome subject matter and injects it with now trademark warmth and humanity. Proof perhaps that in a decade dominated by the religious right in the US and a growing form of particularly strident atheism in pop culture, that infusing your work with your beliefs didn’t have to mean preaching and could make it even more powerful. Christianity apart though, where on earth will he go next?
- Andrew Grillo

3. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
Producer: Jim O’Rourke, Wilco | Label: Nonesuch
“I am an American aquarium drinker. I assassin down the avenue…”

TLOBF’s third favourite album of the decade opens with what may be its greatest lyric. A postmodern take on Iggy Pop’s “streetwalkin’ cheetah” for the new millennium (how long has it been since you last heard that phrase?), the line works as a microcosm for the album with which Wilco made their name, and encapsulates the uncertainty with which they entered the 21st century.

Their first album with drum genius Glen Kotche, the self-produced Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the sound of a band in flux; Jeff Tweedy’s scattered imagery – taking on the media, religion, and what exactly it means to be an American – is laced gracefully across some of the band’s most testing and endearing melodies. Paranoid lullabies like ‘Radio Cure’ and ‘Poor Places’ sit alongside the hymnal ‘Jesus, etc.’, the lyrics of which (“Tall buildings shake, voices escape singing sad, sad songs”) make an obvious case for why so many Americans held YHF to their hearts after September 11th – coincidentally, until Reprise dropped the band, also the album’s original release date.

Meanwhile, in the album’s latter half, the sumptuous pop of ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’, ‘Pot Kettle Black’ and ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You’ make for a perfectly-timed triptych which saves the album from caving in on its own dystopian vision; the former’s breezy nostalgic acoustics could be picture in reverse on the dashboard of R.E.M.’s ‘Nightswimming’, while the latter is one of the most riotously uplifting moments in the band’s catalogue.

The album paints a desolate picture – albeit one in which, in true patriotic fashion, there’s always a glimmer of hope; the Stars and Stripes may be reduced to ashes, but still the band salute. I had reservations about so many things this decade, but not about Wilco.
- Alex Wisgard

2. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
Producer: Arcade Fire | Label: Rough Trade / Merge
Funeral is the sound of winter’s past, of tragedies endured, of hope reclaimed. It’s an album that pulls at the heartstrings without sounding overwrought, an album that can make you dance (and maybe even jump around a little) without ever sounding basic or simplistic. And although it’s not the most immediate of albums, it’s one that pays back perseverance a hundredfold- at first, I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about, but when it finally “clicked” it was as an epiphinal moment as I’ve ever experienced. Opener ‘Tunnels’ is sheer perfection in song form- gloriously evocative both musically and lyrically, it’s beautifully put together; the sharp piano chords piercing the muted, shimmering production like children stomping through the snow, the crisp, sustained report of the snare drum and the breathtaking harmonies of the coda (which for my money is the single most sublime minute of music committed to record this decade). Some would contend the jerky, ramshackle chaos of ‘Laika’ or ‘Power Out’s scintillating assault on the senses is where Funeral excels, and it’s certainly an understandable point of view, but for me it’s all about the emotional rawness of ‘In The Backseat’ (an elegy to lost loved ones) or the sheer, unrestrained anthemic vitality of ‘Wake Up’. Perhaps the album is short on subtlety but there’s something endearing about a band so willing to wear their hearts on their sleeves- ‘Crown of Love’ is permeated by an earnestness that would be unpalatable in lesser hands, but it’s underpinned with such achingly beautiful passion it’s transformed into something truly joyous (and that cathartic orchestral-disco breakdown must rank as one of the most wonderful climaxes ever).

Meaningful and moving without collapsing under the weight of its own self-seriousness (a fate Neon Bible didn’t entirely avoid), it’s clear with Funeral Arcade Fire weren’t trying to be cool- you just need to look at any publicity photo for proof of that- they weren’t trying to capture the zeitgeist or jump on whatever bandwagon was rolling through the indie scene at the time. They were just a bunch of guys (and girls) putting all their hearts and soul into their music, wrapping it up it sumptuous arrangements and producing what remains a peerless testament to the joy and wonder the best music can elicit.
- Adam Elmahdi

1. Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
Producer: Nigel Godrich, Radiohead | Label: Parlophone / Capitol
Has there even been a band who’ve topped a strong first decade in such a magnanimous, definitive manner? In the late-90s, Radiohead were already being described in such certain terms as “the most important band on the planet”, OK Computer was near-universally lauded as the best album of the decade, a tour-de-force from a band at the height of their powers.

Height of their powers my arse. Going into the noughties, Radiohead were a band with everything to lose. It seems silly to even speculate about this now, but the potential for them to release albums of ever-decreasing impact and slowly fade into old age was pretty high, especially when you consider the stories of in-fighting and enmity within the band that leaked during the touring and recording before Kid A’s release. In retrospect, “doing a Kid A” was the only way to go.

Funny, isn’t it, how “doing a Kid A” has become such common lazy journalistic parlance for “a band changing their sound a bit”. Because the thing is, Kid A doesn’t really represent a massive leap from their previous work. Revisiting OK Computer with Kid A in mind reveals not a band at the height of their powers, but a band awkwardly trying to figure out what the hell those powers even are. “Doing a Kid A” should really refer to those rare occasions when a band tops an exceptional album with a truly, truly essential one.

And essential it is. Even only 9 years on, it’s easy to underestimate the impact and influence Kid A had on just about everything since. Not simply in the kind of music people were making, but the kind of music people wanted to listen to. The most important rock band of the ‘90s were suddenly responsible for a re-invigoration of serious dance music, and though I barely dare venture to suggest it, the huge popularity of dubstep in the latter half of the decade still feels as though it owes some debt to Radiohead making it not only acceptable, but necessary to indulge in that end of the musical spectrum. With one album, Radiohead shattered the elitist rockism that had reigned the ‘90s, from grunge through britpop to Radiohead themselves. The upshots of this were many, the downsides were bands like Keane thinking that having a synthesiser made them a radical creative powerhouse.

And yet, all this context is just bollocks, isn’t it? It might look good and sound good, but really, if you listen to Kid A and are sat there thinking about how different the musical landscape of the noughties would have been without it, then you probably don’t deserve to be listening to Kid A. The simple, undeniable fact is that Kid A is one of the finest albums ever written, recored and released. It transcends context and biographical waffle, it makes everything else into an irrelevance. It’s Kid freaking A.
- Adam Nelson

Want more lists? Check out our “Best of 2009″ feature here.

Coming in at just under forty minutes, the second album from Ola Podrida, the nom de plume of David Wingo, is nine tracks of golden folk fodder. The Texan singer-songwriter has created a sophomore LP of subtle, ambient songs, full of quietly restrained emotion, giving the listener space with abstract sounds and images that are then personalised by Wingo’s intimate delivery.

The cinematic feel of the album is no coincidence, Wingo best known for creating soundtracks for director David Gordon Green, including the horrendously underrated and beautifully orchestrated All The Real Girls. Wingo continues to write scores for a number of directors, including Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame, and has shared stages with Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Explosions in the Sky. That said, the man’s CV should not be more heavily discussed than his current musical output.

Describing the album as “unsentimental love songs”, Wingo has used atmospheric layering, texture and poeticism to tread an American folk trail familiar to Iron and Wine et al, but with a certain uniqueness. Opening track ‘The Closest We Will Ever Be’ has down-stated beats and sun-drenched reoccurring countrified guitar hooks. ‘We All Radiant’ gives more to the percussion section, with atmospheric, shimmering cymbal sounds adding to the swell, creating a steady build to meagre burst. Lyrically, this seems to be an album of songs for loves won and lost, recalling (mis)adventures of a Southern youth. Since his 2005 self-titled debut, Wingo has honed his skills as a wordsmith, the album lyrically adept throughout. ‘Your Father’s Basement’, the first single from the record, is poignantly poetic and reminiscently dark (“Bet your dad keeps some booze there, in a place he thinks we’ll never find”). Delicate percussion compliments the layered vocals.

Belly of the Lion, although mostly downbeat, has its more raucous moments, ‘Monday Morning’ bringing quavering electric guitars and Explosions In The Sky-esque vibrating reverberations. ‘Donkey’ possesses that familiar Sufjan banjo-like sound, building to a brass fanfare. The melodies push the singer’s range to the upper limits, leaning toward a tone similar to Ladyhawk, then falling to a quieter, more delicate Nick Drake-like tone. Containing the album title, ‘Donkey’ is a musical and lyrical highlight: “When the evening light is fading, I’m still waiting for your wayward kiss. In the belly of the lion, I am trying to remember what we missed.”

Recorded at home, the record exemplifies an organic yet balanced sound often so difficult to come by, the warm voice close in the speakers, teetering towards Will Oldham at times. Deceptively simple and measured throughout, Belly of the Lion lays out an emotional landscape through its evocative imagery and measured attention to detail, carved by a knowing hand.

Buy album from Amazon | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/lakes-wine/id333923332?uo=4" title="Ola Podrida" text="iTunes"]

Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes / Photograph by Rich Thane

What a strange year it’s been. A few months before I signed Fleet Foxes to Bella Union in late 2007, I was all of a muddle…

*Cue swirly time-warp visuals*

Our european licensing partners (who distributed our records in Europe), suddenly went bust without warning leaving us without much lead in our pencils. Our office, which was a whole railway arch that vibrated noisily every time a Tube train went overhead (the vibrations would also curiously make the light in the toilets go off if you were sat in there reading the Beano), became overrun with friendly (they just walked slowly and most casually across the floor while we were chatting or listening to music) though rank-smelling, mice. They were way too nice (“nice mice”) to kill, but way too prolific to control.

Similarly-sized Fionn Regan decided to leave the label and sign with a Major just after we got a Mercury Prize nomination, the Howling Bells’ manager (now no longer encumbent) was driving us all mental (even the mice seemed charming by comparison), and all the while I was driving around in a huge splitter band bus with a hole in the roof as my only mode of transport.

I should add, as reading it back that wasn’t entirely clear, that the hole in the roof wasn’t Standard Factory Fitted. This was a rusty hole that may have been worsened when I tried to go under a bridge that was lower than my bus but it may have just been a rusty hole. Having a “rusty hole” (I don’t know why, and call me sick if you like, but I am thinking of some hoary old crone right now, like my old sow of a downstairs neighbour who used to bang on the ceiling if we coughed after 11pm), meant that if I started the bus after a night of rain, as I moved off, not realising that todays beautiful blue skies were yesterdays dark grey ones, I would be drenched with at least a bucket load of grey dirty water. It felt a little like being under the green slime bucket on Tiswas (for the non-geriatric among you, this was a pioneering Channel 4 kids show on Saturday mornings in the mid 70s).

Yes ma’am. It was a strange time. There were moments when I thought, “I’ve been running this label for ten years and I am going to visit my Mum in a huge splitter bus with a rusty hole. Am I in the Young Ones?”. I think my kids loved it, being taken to football practice in a double decker bus can be quite a winner I suppose, and it did help with those tricky questions like ‘Dad can you take me and 15 friends to Thorpe Park?’. But nipping out to the shops to get some milk and cheese in a double decker bus always seemed slightly absurd and not even remotely cool.

So yeah, where was I? (Sorry I just started thinking about Sally James….and got sidetracked.)

Ok, yes. My year had been a bit of a mess and in the darker moments, yes I’ll admit to staying late at the office just to talk to the mice, and yes I’ll admit that using blu-tack to plug the rusty hole wasn’t as successful as hoped, but as is always the way in this uniquely odd business, there’s always a light in the distance that keeps you from chucking in the towel. Or alternatively, becoming David Icke.

And that light is always the hope of discovery. Of unearthing a gem like Fleet Foxes or The Acorn (if any of the other bands on the label are reading this and feeling hurt that your name isn’t here, it WAS but it was edited out by those very right-wing censors at TLOBF) (Hey! – Ed).

I understand better now why an archaeologist would choose to spend an entire lifetime sifting through tons of dirt with a tiny teaspoon in the hope of finding a small fragment of a roman pot. You know those cool ‘behind the scenes’ bits at the end of David Attenborough’s amazing series Nature’s Great Events, when the cameraman reveals he’s been driving around the Serengeti for 4 months every day hoping to see some lions he filmed the year before? Well ….no….hold on… I was about to say I feel a bit like him. But that’s patently ludicrous. Sitting about listening to and talking about music all day long and going to gigs at night is hardly comparable to years of lonely dedication in an extreme and hostile environment is it? Thats not really what i meant. But there is a parallel. I can watch that show and understand ‘why would anyone want to do that?’. The joy of discovery is only one part of the capture of a new artist. And I use the word ‘capture’ NOT as in sentencing the band to a lifetime of captivity (though I DO know how that feels), more as in ‘capturing a great photo’. Being involved in all aspects of a band’s development is something I feel is important. As a label we do whatever it takes – book shows, help manage a band, drive them around on tour if we have to – and we love it. Cocteau Twins may have seemed like a beautifully conceived child, but everything that could have gone wrong in our band life and our personal lives, did. I suppose when I find a new band, part of me wants to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes we did. Mistakes like, if you’re an introverted dreamy ambient pop band, DON’T support Metallica in Kansas.

But if you are as stupid as you look and if you are going to support Metallica in Kansas, don’t go on AFTER the Ramones and Rancid and before Soundgarden. Yes, believe me, we really DID do that.

I get to this point in this piece where I feel I should be concluding with ‘…and the moral of this tale, kids, is THIS…..’ but that would be stoopid.

I don’t have anything…..nah. That’s it.

I’ll write some other words with no point to them next time too. Maybe in a year when we thread them all together and it will be an ‘Eureka!’ moment. Or maybe it will just be a very, very long ramble of little or no consequence. That’s fine though. I do think rambling is a dying art. Let’s rekindle it here. Starting right now with those little comments you guys do so well!

Hard Rock Calling organisers confirmed today that the headliner for Saturday 27 June in Hyde Park, London will be Neil Young. Appearing alongside shakey will be Fleet Foxes, Ben Harper, Seasick Steve and The Pretenders with more artists to be announced soon.

With Sunday’s headliner already confirmed as Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band and day tickets selling out in under an hour, folk are advised to act quick when the Neil Young tickets go on sale this Friday, 13 March at 9am priced at £45 plus booking fee.

For more info, visit the Hard Rock Calling website.

Having taken up sticks for Fleet Foxes just under a year ago, the name Joshua Tillman has grown from a quiet murmur to a resonating, breathtaking howl. However, it would be erroneous to imply that Tillman is merely latching onto the coat tails of Fleet Foxes success, as he released five records as a solo artist before joining the band, not to mention his most recent, beautifully honest Vacilando Territory Blues (out now on Bella Union). After gleefully watching the sound-check for tonight’s show at Bush Hall, I caught up with Tillman to chat about his most recent release, his musical beginnings, Bob Dylan and religion.

Hey Josh, how are you doing?
I’m a little wiped out: we flew in from Stockholm early this morning and I haven’t really stopped. We’ve been living pretty hard on this tour and it’s kind of caught up with me today, but I’m good, excited.

How was the show in Stockholm?
Really unexpectedly great.

Why unexpectedly?
I think I have a pretty low expectations of my own musical performance, but I don’t mean that in a self deprecating way. It was great fun though and people knew our stuff which was cool. Also, I think I’m taking a lot of people by surprise because I’m touring with a band for the first time, so in general that has been interesting and different.

How have you found the response to Vacilando Territory Blues?
I’m not really sure, I get a lot of the critical responses but I just think “whatever” to those. I think people really like it, a few of the tunes are beginning to resonate with people and I feel like the live shows have elevated some of the tunes. And you know, I’m relatively happy with it.

Only ‘relatively’ happy with it? How would you describe this album in comparison to your past efforts?
Well, it is different in that I was less interested in making a certain kind of album this time around. With previous albums, from the get-go, I would get an idea in my head like this is going to be the ‘country ballad’ record or this is going to be the ‘obtuse, lo-fi’ thing. That sounds disingenuous but its not, I just get really excited by the prospect of making lots of songs that relate to one another, but in a slightly weird disjointed way. On this record I fail lie three or four times in a row at making those connections but at the end of the day I had all these songs and they kind of worked. It is actually quite cool because the record dictated to me what it was as opposed to vice-versa.

So would you say there were any prevalent themes or ideas that drove the songs on the album?
Not particularly, I mean I could just sit here and make up an answer for the sake of it but I guess I’m more interested in what other people see in it, rather than dictating what it means.

The title track is certainly a beautifully crafted song, what is the story behind its’ delicate melody?
That song is about me moving to Seattle and the images that I associate with that journey. And obviously it is about my brother, and him subsequently moving to Seattle. At that point we hadn’t really spoken for a few years because we were kind of figuring out life on our own, it was as if we needed to become individuals for a few years. So yeah, its about being brothers, and I mean the end of the song says it all. I just wanted the song to be really literal, I wanted my brother to be able to instantly know that it was about him and for him.

I read somewhere that in Spanish “Vacilando” means to care more about the journey than the destination. Do think that is an accurate description of your approach or your music?
I saw that word for the first time in John Steinbeck’s ‘Travels with Charley’ and it struck me just phonetically, I just thought it was a cool word. He also described it as meaning to wander with no preset destination but I’ve head about15 different definitions. The definition wasn’t particularly important to me, I just liked the way it sounded but actually I guess it probably ended up being a little too appropriate, more appropriate than I would have liked. It is interesting when you make an album and live with it for a little while how things start to reveal themselves to you. So, yes the word does fit well but I don’t want to be heavy handed with that, you know its not like I’m a wanderer alone on a highway to nowhere!

So, speaking of journeys, how did your musical one begin? Even before it became a career?
I started playing music with my brother when I was about 12 and he was 11. I was obsessed with music but the idea of becoming good at the guitar bored me to tears, I’m not really technically proficient on any instrument. I just learnt enough chords so I could write songs, although I have accidentally improved over the years. Progression is pretty slow though: over the course of the past five years I’ve probably become as good as most 16 year olds do over the course of five lessons. I was much more interested in song writing, I probably fancied myself as a person who really had something to say. I think it is just a bad habit I have stuck with really, as a way to identify myself. I don’t know why but every body seems to need a way to identify themselves, be it like “I’m Funny” or “I’m smart” or “I’m a songwriter” or “I’m a drummer”, I think we just cling on to that thing for dear life because if we don’t have it we’re lost. So I guess my musical journey has been all about figuring out who I am through the process of making records. I think I am now coming to the other side of that where I can just view myself as myself, and not get on stage and feel I have to present some false, disingenuous version of myself.

So was it as a ‘drummer’, a ‘guitarist’ or ‘singer-songwriter’ that you first identified yourself as?
Well, my first instrument was drums. As a kid I had all this nervous energy so I would just constantly tap on things, eventually my parents thought if they got me drum lessons I would stop tapping. The minute I picked up those drumsticks it was just over for me, I was just like ‘this is it.’ My drum teacher was like this legendary DC Jazz musician, but I would never really be prepared for practice so he used to get pretty frustrated with me, tell me I was throwing my parents money away and suggest I try the clarinet or something. He saw me playing years later and I saw him nodding as if to say ‘not bad’ and that was like the ultimate approval. But drumming was something that I only really did in high school after that I got so into song writing that I ceased to identify myself as a drummer.

What kind of music did you listen to when you were younger and was it just as important as actually playing instruments?
No, not at all really. I think the whole idea that it is important to be exposed to great music when your young is a fallacy, because if my parents had played, what they deemed, great music to me I would have hated it and done everything I could have to listen to the opposite. I grew up around Christian music, really terrible Christian music because my parents listened to it all the time. It is weird that I gravitated towards music so much because I hated its association with the Church: and that is how I knew music when I was younger because we weren’t allowed secular music in the house. Maybe I felt I had to reclaim it for myself.

But, I’m actually glad I didn’t grow up with that much musical input from my parents because I got to discover people like Neil Young in a very neutral way: I just thought “this is amazing” not, “oh god this is something dad would play”. Although there was a Peter Gabriel record that my dad was really into which I loved and still listen to. But generally I’m glad I don’t have to associate any of the music I like with my parents.

Can you remember what the first record you bought was?
That would have been Petra On Fire. Petra are like this heavy-metal Christian band that my brother and I pooled our allowances to buy. I even remember us opening the cellophane on the cassette together, but I didn’t really buy records because there wasn’t a whole lot of freedom to do that sort of thing. I mean I would ravenously pour through my friends’ records when I was at their houses’, I just listened to whatever I could get my hands on. In fact, because my parents would allow secular music in the house I began to ask myself what “secular bands” have put out “Christian” albums. So I went and bought like U2’s Joshua Tree and Slow Train Coming by Bob Dylan.

How important was discovering Dylan for you as a musician?
I didn’t know anything about Dylan when I bought that record, I vaguely knew the name but nothing else. I just put the record on and thought there was something amazing about this guy, slightly crazy, but amazing. In fact the last song on that record is called ‘When He Returns’ which is just like this gospel, piano-led epic piece of music so after hearing that I went out and bought New Morning and Nashville Skyline and all these other weird Dylan records. I went about it in a weird, totally wrong way. Usually you hear the classics first but I just heard these bizarre records like Oh Mercy. I remember just thinking “this guy is crazy” and then eventually I found my way to The Times They Are A-Changin’ and I thought this is it. My life just totally changed and I know everybody says that about their Dylan experience, but it is really true for me, it inspired me to go and do what I do now.

What about the first gig that you yourself played? Do you remember how you felt or being nervous at all?
After hearing that Dylan record I immediately started writing Dylan rip-offs. I played them at my High School in senior year, which was probably the first time my friends had seen me play guitar and do my own thing. It was really liberating and fun, I don’t remember being nervous – I was too excited! Also I didn’t really see it as being a reflection on my worth, I was more excited about exploring the possibilities of singing and writing songs. I didn’t think anyone could actually become a songwriter and make records professionally; I didn’t know what I was going to do. I don’t want to make myself sound too doe-eyed or anything but I didn’t know the first thing about starting a band or getting signed. That was just a really exciting time for me, spiritually and intellectually as far as like starting the process of not being spiritual.

So before you realised that you could actually become a musician professionally was there anything that you wanted to be as a kid?
For a long time I wanted to be a Pastor, because that was my idea of being a performer, that was the closest I could imagine myself getting. I was actually a pretty aimless kid, I didn’t really do anything: I never really studied hard and all my parents were interested in was my spiritual stated. When I was younger my reality was heaven and hell and angels and all this bullshit that doesn’t mean anything in terms of becoming an actualised human being.

Your music has such a raw honesty to it, how does performing now make you feel?
I’ve only started to really enjoy playing live within the last year or so. It has been pretty torturous I’d say. I really enjoy it now though, I feel like when I was younger I was just taking myself too seriously: when you are young you give yourself licence to get indignant when people don’t understand what a fucking genius you are! My mind was really poisoned by the idea of success I guess, and now I’m recalibrating my reasons for playing music.

How was the idea of success poisonous?
Because I wasn’t writing songs just to make music I wanted to, I started to think of it in terms of ‘this needs to happen because I can’t do construction for the rest of my life and I can’t make coffee for the rest of my life and I looked at music my escape, my way out of life’s drudgery. Then when you start playing music professionally, you realise there is just as much drudgery as anything else.

Since joining Fleet Foxes last year and touring with them, how would you say that your solo career or music has been affected? Has it changed in anyway?
No, it hasn’t really changed at all. People have really exaggerated my involvement with Fleet Foxes; they had two records done by the time I joined the band and the writing was already on the wall that they were going to be the next big thing. I just learned the drum parts for their songs and tried to execute them as best as I could. I didn’t write anything you know, I didn’t really contribute anything creatively other than I hit the drums a little harder than their previous drummer! They would be just as good and just as successful without me so…. The whole thing is just kind of a head fuck. Sometime in interviews, just out of necessity, you have to make up an answer and pretend like you are a part of the process but then you say those things enough times and you start to forget how it really is. It is more work to explain the reality of the situation than just to play along and do what you have to do to get to lunch, and get a sandwich!

Do you think there will be more of a collaborative effort with Fleet Foxes the future then?
There are big plans for that but I’m not sure how it will play out. I’m just as comfortable with the idea of being told what to do as I am with contributing something. I’m just really interested in serving the song as a drummer, and someone bringing a whole song to me is more exciting that sitting around having a head scratching session for days on end.

Do you think the recent influx of internet-born singer-songwriters is a good thing or do you think it has become too easy to get lost in the crowd?
I don’t really know if it’s a good or bad thing. I think that if people are making great music they manage to transcend whatever idiotic bureaucracy is currently distributing music to the masses. There is no rhyme and reason for this kind of stuff. There are great bands that make it big and obviously there are terrible bands that make it big; sometimes good bands make it big because of the internet, sometimes they don’t. It is just complete anarchy out there and if you try to make sense of that stuff you will lose the plot for sure.

Finally, is there anything you are currently listening to that you think everyone should hear?
Actually on the play list I made for this tour is a guy called Jack Rose who is just an incredibly, really inspired guitar player. James Blackshaw whose instrumental, 12 string guitar-led songs I’ve been really into at the moment. I’ve also been listening to a lot of a band called Earth at the moment. They play like this sludgy metal and they have really long biblical track titles. They’re a Seattle-based band as well and they’ve been around forever. The story is that Dylan Carlson, the lead guy, was involved in the transaction of Kurt Cobain getting a shot-gun which is seriously dark. If anyone is going to play metal then it is him. I’m constantly listening to music, so I would recommend doing that. I just love it: it is transformative in the way that religion is supposed to be transformative. It changes everything about a scenario or a season of your life.

mp3:> J. Tillman: ‘Steel On Steel’
Taken from Vacilando Territory Blues, out now on Bella Union Records.

J. Tillman on MySpace

Photographs by Anika Mottershaw

In the space of nine months, Robin Pecknold and his merry band of bearded harmonisers have seen their profile explode beyond their wildest dreams. From the miniscule Hoxton Bar and Grill in May to this three-night residency at the 2000-capacity Camden Roundhouse, they’ve achieved the kind of success the vast majority of bands can only dream of. But with their warm, timeless pastoral folk accessible enough to appeal to the mainstream but well-crafted enough to attract the muso vote, perhaps it’s not that surprising they’ve captured the hearts of so many. It’s a sentiment borne out in the first few seconds of the live show, when the harmonies of ‘Sun Giant’ hit the ears for the first time and wash over you in their splendour. Although the sound mix at the Roundhouse seemed to restrain rather than augment the celestial vocal displays at times, the initial wow-factor they invoke with their impeccable talents is hard to deny.

It’s a shame then that they struggle to recapture the aura of amazement invoked by their opening salvo. For the most part they were very good, at worst merely pleasant and Robin’s enthusiasm and obvious sense of wonderment at playing such a massive venue could carry a show on its own. But the sad fact remains that they rarely delivered the transcendent highs you‘d hope for. Whilst fellow indie-folk sensation Bon Iver pulls such moments out of the bag with staggering ease, Fleet Foxes only truly hit the mark on two occasions. The first was the celestial ‘White Winter Hymnal’, which was every bit as luscious as on the album – I challenge anyone to remained unmoved in the face of its acapella intro. And of course, there was Robin’s unaccompanied, unamplified rendition of ‘Karen Cruel’. To hear his unadorned voice reverberate around the Roundhouse purely on its own strength was truly magical; even the chattering morons colonised around the bar were rendered speechless (or they realised they’d be lynched if they didn’t stop talking, either way, it had the desired ‘you could a hear a pin drop’ effect). Beyond that, even with Robin’s extended forays into solo material, there really wasn’t much in the way of stylistic or tonal variation and for those not entirely sold on the hype the unchanging formula may have got a little wearisome. But as the roar of impassioned applause filled out the venue at the end of every song, it was clear that at the very least, they were giving the punters what they wanted.

It’s been a good year for roots music. Just look at Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and The Acorn, let alone Alison Krauss and Robert Plant winning the top Grammy for their take on tradition. Definitively, modern roots music has found a significant number of new ears in the UK lately, and as such the beloved mainstream has shifted slightly from guitar bands to more acoustic, folk-based acts. Folk music, generally, emphasizes space over time, as to me, the genre and its myriad cohorts write with honesty and respect, careful of the traditions that are being appropriated. It doesn’t mean any other style doesn’t incorporate such descriptions, as everything does, but taken on its own folk music does sound honest. Take Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, or Cat Stevens’ Tea For Tillerman. Both albums strove to present bare-necked, plaintive examples of their originators strengths, and did so perfectly. Fleet Foxes have done the same, as has Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens, along with scores more on both sides of the pond. But the passageway is crowded, and a lot of mediocrity undoubtedly reaches the mass.

Take Woodpigeon, with their sophomore UK release, Treasury Library Canada. On their first, September’s Songbook [reviewed here], the Calgary-based collective restrained their accompaniment, leaving the songs in the auspices of songwriter Mark Hamilton to explore with, creating soft-spoken, Seven Swans-era (Sufjan Stevens) ballads that spoke of a gifted songwriter. But those tracks were too plaintive; pretty but unrewarding, leaving too much unsaid to fully grasp every message brought forth.

Treasury Library Canada, however, is much different and consequently, much better. For one, it is a more electrifying, beaming with more strings, choral wafts, banjos, mandolins, pianos and once again, strong songwriting. Hamilton is a clever vocalist, packing screams worth of imagery into whispers, careful not to reveal too much to ruin the mood. But on this set of fourteen, he unveils a patchier set of grass in front, giving more room for the band to rabble-rouse behind him. On ‘Piano Pieces for Adult Beginners’, there are moments when Woodpigeon pull off being a rock band, and are better off for it. Bells protrude through ratchets, scoffed snare blasts and, as the title promises, simplistic piano prods. It is very sly, very mature and very good. Not once did Hamilton attempt such musical breadth on Songbook, not that he desperately needed to. I guess, here, he is more ready to experiment. And it’s all equally lovely. It’s rowdier, but still saccharine and soft-spoken, creating a clever and impressive equilibrium only the greats master. And as such, there is something greater afoot, something much more than another foray into folk. This is better than that. Treasury Library Canada stands on its own, regardless of genre and association, of a powerful set of storytelling that gushes honesty, respect and a grasp of being intensely personal.

Folk music is better off with Woodpigeon around. They challenge convention, without any loss of honesty or respect. This is why the aforementioned are adored, and soon enough, why Woodpigeon will join them alongside.
85%.

Woodpigeon on MySpace

London four-piece Animal Kingdom are set to launch their imminent tour with a nice treat for fans. Their debut single ‘Chalk Stars’ (video below), in a limited edition of 500, will be available only for fans at the shows. Each single is an original. The 500 sleeves together make up one single image drawn by artist Thomas Hicks.

Hicks constructed a grid wall of 500 numbered CD single sleeves on which he has created an intricate single piece of artwork. Each single will have its own unique cover and will have a number that corresponds to its original position on the grid. Meanwhile, an empty black grid will appear at the bands official site. As each single is sold, the corresponding artwork will be unveiled on the website until the entire image is unveiled. 

When the tour is completed and the limited edition run sold out, one lucky winner will be drawn at random to receive the canvas. 

The tour dates at which the single will be sold are as below:

January
22nd – Stoke, Sugarmill
23rd – Derby, The Royal
24th – Coventry, Kasbah
29th – Northampton, Roadmenders
30th – Winchester, Railway Inn
31st – Portsmouth, Cellar

February 
4th – York, The Duchess
5th – Glasgow, Captain’s Nest
6th – Wakefield, Escobar
7th – Birmingham, Rainbow Kamikaze! @ 444 Club
11th – London, Borderline
12th – Hitchin, Club NME
13th – Bristol, Cooler 

Animal Kingdom will release their debut album, recorded in Seattle with producer Phil Ek (The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Band Of Horses, Les Savy Fav), later this year. 

Before the imminent release of their corking new album The Century of Self, we made some time for a chat with art-noise supremo Conrad Keely from the band, and got to hear his views on art, science, religion, musical inspiration, the joys of relocating to Brooklyn and much more.

Hi there Conrad. How are you?
Hello.  Yes, I’m good.

What time of day is it over there?
It’s 1.30pm here in Brooklyn.

So, I saw your band at All Tomorrow’s Parties last May.  How was the festival for you?
I’ve always enjoyed those festivals. We’ve done four.  Three in the UK, and then this year was the first time that we did it in America.  Although the audiences here in America were a little bit older than the average age of the British audiences, it’s one of those festivals that I think is very unique in its ability to have the audiences and the performers really kinda come together, just hang out together.  You don’t really get that from a Reading or Leeds!  That’s why we wrote a song about it: ‘Festival Thyme’, the song that’s on the E.P.

Am I right in thinking that you have some family over here in the UK?
My mother’s family: three aunts and an uncle, and cousins.

So do you spend quite a bit of time over here?  Are you a regular visitor?
Only in so much as because of the touring that we do. I get to see my family: my cousins and my aunts and uncle come out to see the shows. I was born in the UK, in Nuneaton and we moved back there when I was 8 years old for three years, so I definitely have that connection there.

So, the new album then. People are saying that it is right up there with the best stuff the band has ever done.  How do you rate it?  Are you one of these artists that is bored with an album once they’ve finished making it?
There’s definitely a part of me that’s thinking about the next record already.  But I’m definitely by no means tired of this record.  We haven’t even gotten to play some of these songs live yet, so we’re excited with interpreting them for live performance.  Our songs always have continued to grow on me.  That’s one of the reasons that we still play songs from the first record: for us they still embody statements that we want to make as performers.

Do you have favourite tracks, or parts of the album?
I have favourite parts, I don’t necessarily have favourite songs.  The middle part of ‘Halcyon Days’ is something I was really fond of, that I’d written back in my first band, in college.  I had always liked it, so I finally used it for something in a recording.  Also ‘Insatiable’: I’m really into how the lyrics came out on that.  And all the instrumental parts of the record: that was something that I really enjoyed doing.

I read that ‘Insatiable’ was originally written as the score for a film, but wasn’t then used.  What film was that?
Oh, it never came out.  The film was never produced.  It was called ‘Insatiable’ and I never saw it, but I heard that it was really bad [laughs].  When I first was told about it, all I was told was that it was a vampire movie, and so the song that I wrote was supposed to be deliberately vampire-esque.  The irony was that the music that I think they wanted for that movie was something that sounded more like nu-metal.

Can you tell me a bit about the collaborations on the album: I think you worked with Yeasayer?
Yeah.  We did the final tracking for the record in New York, which has a very collaborative atmosphere.  Our producer had known the Yeasayer people for a long time, and called them in.  But also there was an artist called Brenda Ratney, who sings the female vocals in the middle section of ‘Halcyon Days’.  She just happened to be recording next door.  The studios were in a basement, and there were two studios side-by-side, so there would always be people walking past us.  She would go in to the next studio, and Jason [Reece] is probably ten times more social than I am, and loves to talk with strangers, so we formed these friendships.  People would check out what we were doing, and we would play each other our tracks and stuff.  There was definitely a great collaborative feel going into this record.

That’s interesting, because I thought there would have been more of a “community” of musicians back in Austin (Texas) – where you used to be based – but it sounds like you’ve found something like that where you are now, as well.
Well, the thing about Austin is that although there are a lot of musicians, it’s not necessarily as collaborative.  Also in New York the quality and calibre of musicians that you run into up here is usually pretty high.  Like, Brenda Radney – the girl that was recording next door – had been signed to Justin Timberlake’s label, and she had come second in some international singing competition.  She was spot on, flawless. So that’s one major advantage with New York.  Any session musician that you would hire out here is going to be top of their game.

‘Fields of Coal’ appears to be a song about a reluctance to perform, or go on stage.  Do you suffer from actual stage fright, or is it more about a lack of enthusiasm for performing?
The funny thing about that song is that it’s the only song that I’ve ever written on tour.  I actually wrote it before I was about to get on stage at a festival.  On the bus.  It’s not stage fright, I don’t think I’ve ever had that, but it is that fear of… when you’re about to do something that’s really strenuous, not just physically but emotionally strenuous.  After weeks of doing this it can be very draining: emotionally draining and mentally draining.  You almost feel like you’re disembodied.

So in an ideal world would you prefer to do shorter tours?
I think in an ideal world I would never to play the same place twice.  There are so many places that I would love to play in the world, and just continue to travel.  But I don’t mind touring, I love touring.  For me, one of the greatest things about it is travel.  I’ve travelled since I was a young child, and travelling to new places has always been on the top of my career considerations.  If anything, I just hope that I improve on my tour stamina, and how much I’m capable of doing it.

A lot of what you write about and sing about seems to cover if not religious then certainly “spiritual” and quasi-religious themes – like ‘Isis Unveiled’ on the new album for example.  What are your personal beliefs?
I have spiritual beliefs, but I am against the idea of organised religion, and I see it for its flaws.  I love it for its beauty and tradition, I’ve always loved religious art and even music, but I was raised by parents that studied all religions.  In fact the book ‘Isis Unveiled’ was a book that my parents owned and had on the bookshelf.  I grew up with that book, and it was an indictment of both religion and science, saying that they fall short of spirituality, but that freed of them we can achieve this higher spirituality.  I have strong convictions, but not necessarily about some kind of personified godlike being, that people seem to feel they have to understand.  Anything that created the thinking behind the science and the physics that I’ve studied and know about would be way beyond our meagre comprehension.  So it’s not so much a desire to understand this thing as it is just a kind of letting go, and allowing it to work through you.  I think this is the creative compositional process that I hear many writers talk about: feeling as if they are a conduit for something.  Just the sense that they’re channelling in a creative power from somewhere else.  Stravinsky said that he didn’t write The Rites of Spring, that it flowed from him.

Like the way that musicians often say that they woke up having dreamed a song or a lyric.
Yeah.  Even beyond that, just the geometry behind the music, and the amazing mathematics of music which makes me think about things such as what music would be to alien races, based on the universal mathematical laws.  Music that is outside of our terrestrial experience, but it may be strangely similar.  That’s a theme that I played with in the song ‘Bells of Creation’.

Art is also clearly something that is significant and important to you.  You did the cover of this album in biro, is that right?
Yeah, all the artwork on this record was done with a blue ballpoint.  Blue “biro” [laughs].

One of the things that I miss, now that more and more music is in ‘download’ form rather than a physical item is the cover art and the whole feel for an album that you get from the artwork.  How do you, as an artist and musician, feel about that?
Oh I definitely embrace the new technology.  I didn’t even bring my vinyl collection with me to New York because it was just too big.  But that hasn’t stopped me from appreciating the artwork that goes along with records, or even my desire to create artwork.  When I was a young child the artwork was part of a record.  I would sit there looking at Led Zeppelin 4 and looking at the inner sleeve.  When I create my artwork I’m thinking about that young kid who has found this record among his parents’ collection, and while listening to the music is exploring the drawings that I make for the CD sleeve or the album sleeve.  So although it does seem as if it’s something that has gone away, there are still bands out there that take it very seriously and consider that part of the album.  One of the bands right now whose artwork I really enjoy is Mastodon, who put a lot into their covers.  For me it’s something that definitely will always be intertwined with the music itself.  To that end what we’re planning to do is tour the artwork with the album, we’re going to be setting up some exhibits on this next European tour, for as many of the gigs as we can.  Eventually it would be nice to have a touring installation, but that’s probably going to be for the future – there’ll be some logistic challenges [laughs].

Didn’t you do an exhibition with Melissa Auf Der Mar recently?
Yes.  She showed her photography and I showed my pen drawings.

What, at the moment, is inspiring you musically and artistically: what are you listening to, or reading, or…?
There are a lot of local Brooklyn bands that I was listening to when I was writing these songs  - like we already mentioned, Yeasayer, and Dirty Projectors and a couple of other bands: Black Mountain, Fleet Foxes.  Also, I’ve been listening to a lot of soundtracks.  I always enjoy listening to soundtracks to movies, and I also find a lot of inspiration with movies themselves, because we try to have a cinematic quality to our records.  We want the listener to be able to close their eyes and imagine scenes, or feel like they are being taken on a journey.  So movies are something that we always fall back on for inspiration.

So do you mentally write your own soundtrack, while you’re watching a movie?
Oh no, I mean, usually I’ll listen to the soundtrack that’s there [laughs].  But recently, No  Country For Old Men came out, and that didn’t have any incidental music.  There was no soundtrack music for it, but what an amazing soundtrack, it was so interesting.  You really just heard the ambient noise of each scene.  That was really special.

Do you read much?  What kind of books and authors do you like?
I did go through the Cormac McCarthy books after watching that film [McCarthy wrote the book 'No Country For Old Men', on which the film was based].  I do like a lot of non-fiction work, like Bill Bryson.  I’ve always liked his writing.  I read a book called ‘The Far Pavilions’ by M M Kaye before I wrote the song.  That’s probably one of the best novels that I’ve read in a while.

That’s about Afghanistan?
Well, it takes place in Pakistan, I guess it was still India at the time, during the great game between Great Britain and Russia, but definitely set in the same contentious part of the world.  It’s 150 years ago, but it did draw a lot of parallels in my mind.  Interesting.

Do you read music magazines, and look at your own reviews?  What music websites do you use?
To be honest I don’t read music magazines.  I definitely don’t read them to find out what people have to say about other bands, unless they just happen to be there.  For the most part I like to get my news from word of mouth and what I see when I go to a show.  Occasionally I’ll read reviews that have been passed along to me, but for the most part I just have to try to remind myself that that is not really what’s important, that a review of the record, or even the press covering the record is not necessarily going to change anybody’s opinion.  I think the listener is really foremost in my mind as the person whose opinion I’m worried about.

The only thing that I check out online – because I’ve been a member of it for a while – is eMusic.  You get a membership and then you can download a certain amount of songs every month.  I definitely steer far from their rock or alternative sections, and usually go for the folk or early jazz stuff.  I can’t help that: I’ve been in a rock band for thirteen years so I’m kinda inundated with the alternative music scene, so I look elsewhere for a release.

Well, thank you very much for speaking with us.
Thank you, we’ll see you in the UK!

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead on Myspace

Ah, the changing of the seasons, the early stirrings of a new calendar year and a new Rough Trade Counter Culture compilation, the seventh annual collection by my reckoning. Not only a reliable overview of what made waves, stirred critics and got those in the know genuinely excited in the previous year, but also a sobering yearly reminder that you don’t know as much about new music as you think you do. Sure, you like to imagine your finger is on the pulse of the cutting edge at the zeitgeist or something, but then you get the new Counter Culture, glance at the tracklisting and go “Indian Jewelry? Alva Noto? Koko Von Napoo? Who are these people?”. But Rough Trade prides itself on being ahead of the wider game – Counter Culture 07 included Vampire Weekend, Glasvegas, No Age and Fucked Up, all of whom made far bigger impacts in their own ways and scales in 2008.

This year Counter Culture is very much a set that starts softly and carries a big stick. Department Of Eagles’ humming, close miked meditation on loss ‘Classical Records’ followed by reliable old Bon Iver and the still goosebump facilitating ‘Flume’ which is unsettling, but in a good way. The pastorial new Americana continues into the band Steve Lamacq reckons could be this year’s Fleet Foxes, The Low Anthem, whose ‘Charlie Darwin’ is all minimal guitar and spectral high harmonies. Then there’s last year’s Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes, who contribute the well worn but still ghostly ‘White Winter Hymnal’, sandwiching Dane Peter Broderick’s spiralling acoustic picking and multitracked vocals. And just as you suspect it might seem a touch one-paced if it’s all going to be like this, El Guincho shifts seamlessly in to affix its own self-harmonies and Beach Boys backing vocals to a summer party vibe. ‘The Lullaby (Mountain)’ is an odd choice to isolate as The Acorn’s representative from the much loved round here Glory Hope Mountain, not least as it’s almost entirely percussion free and features Casey Mecija on vocals rather than Rolf Klausener, but it fits the mood, especially when followed by the widescreen orchestral yearning of Headless Heroes.

As with so many things, Bradford Cox provides the sudden jolt. Atlas Sound’s ‘Recent Bedroom’ a shogazey waltz of yearning and the point at which the first CD devolves into exploring the new American (for the most part) whirring bedroom underground, progressing from lo-fi to acid fried synth abuse. And the best of your homegrown lovelies are: Sic Alps, who in their reverb-friendly garage duo sound like they can barely holding ‘Sing Song Waitress’ together, Crystal Stilts’ narcoleptic twang, High Places’ swirling tribal fuzzy glitch on ‘Vision’s The First…’, Zombie-Zombie’s motorik schlock horror imagining Suicide did get that John Carpenter film score gig and the Vivian Girls, who hope you’ve never heard of the Shop Assistants. ‘Chrome’s On It’ falls the wrong side of the precarious inventive/self-involved balance that is Telepathe but no matter, job done so far.

Any thoughts that disc two might ease you in are immediately dispelled by Chris Corsano’s borderline ridiculous percussion loop ‘What Movement Helps You When You Are Trying to Run Out A Batsman?’, one man making the sound of several sets of cutlery in a fast spin dishwasher, and the ever reliable Boris’ manaical psych-metal assault ‘Laser Beam’. Times New Viking and HEALTH fly the flag for The Smell’s reappropriation of No Wave, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart fuzz up C86 alt-pop goodness and Gun Outfit seem to be largely hitherto unheralded ones to watch, coming across as a more homely Meat Puppets. That they turn out to be from Olympia, Washington, home of K Records and the International Pop Underground, figures.

Again, things subtly but surely change over halfway through, heralded this time by the Krautrock rhythms, wheezing drone organs, spiralling guitar and deadpan vocals of Indian Jewelry’s ‘Temporary Famine Ship’. From there it’s off into the twilight world of dubstep with 2562, the ultra-filtered samples of Flying Lotus’ ‘GNG BNG’, Tobacco roping in Aesop Rock to rhyme over woozily surging electro, Yo Majesty’s confrontational rapping over party 8-bit and the droning, hazy beats of Salem’s ‘Redlights’. Alva Noto recreate the sound of a malfunctioning dot matrix printer plus beats and a man endlessly running through numbers in French and whatever the hell Shit And Shine’s warped beyond repair ‘Shit No!’ comes under, before Mark Stewart proves he’s become no less agitated or experimental since The Pop Group, taking the Yardbirds’ ‘Mr You’re A Better Man Than I’, removing the vocals out of harm’s way then repeatedly running the rest into a wall of low-end.

As the year’s collection comes to an almost swooning finish with Pablo’s digging the crates referencing Steinski-esque sample cut-up ‘Record Shop’, it seems everyone involved has done their job particularly well this year. Of course, if you love every one of these 44 tracks then Mr, you’re definitely a better man than I. But, in a year that’s supposedly been mediocre for musical invention and forward thinking, it’s a clear evocation of ability, continued excellence and at heart why we continue to do this thing called new music hunting. A lot of love and effort has clearly gone into making all this just so, and repaying their desire to help us listen, repeat and understand is the least we can do.
85%

Rough Trade

J. Tillman captures the night. There’s something about the voice, the melody, the lyrics that write an image of the early hours, the dead hours, when retrospection and introspection turn into hallucinations. When a soft voice singing in a way that compels a voice from your own throat. There is nowhere to hide at this time, nothing can stop the flow of your thoughts. But it’s a place where a voice singing in just such a way, a melody playing a particular chord change, can feel like two fingers plunged into your chest.

Based on his previous albums we know that he can deliver stark, spare songs that shed incidental light on vignettes (Long May You Run), orchestrated ones that shade in and colour personal woes (Minor Works), and the perfect dose of both those styles with added inscrutable lines (Cancer And Delirium). With Vacilando Territory Blues he carries all of this forward and adds in a little bit of country, blues, rock, and some bright daylight in the form of a small amount of positive lyrics. Through these elements he successfully manages to avoid sounding like he is re-making anything he has done before.

There’s ‘Barter Blues’ with it’s slide guitar, twangs, blues-y drunkenness, and fire and redemption lyrics ‘I met you on the way to Heaven…I can’t forgive for those you sinned against/It’s too late to act like you don’t know me’, and ‘Steel On Steel’ which curls off pieces of country guitar. ‘New Imperial Grand Blues’ struts with it’s raucous sax, electric guitar and thudding rhythm, like a bloodied-nose barroom brawl. With tracks like ‘No Occasion’ and ‘Laborless Land’ he is still in the comfortable mode of the Americana brushed singer-songwriter, but there are some delightful extras in the shape of skewed strings for the former and woodwinds and backing vocals for the latter, and it is pleasing to see these extras crop up in most places where there lack would be felt, (although songs like ‘Vessels’ and ‘Someone With Child’ perhaps still have this lack).

Tillman again comes up with lyrics that glimmer with light, dark and silver, lyrics that take time to pick apart.  Family, religion and looking back at life are the main themes that keep coming up here, often all in the same song, roaming through regret, bitterness and an inner peace. There is a clutch of songs where the words are weighted with the past, or the realities of growing older, ‘Laborless Land’ has the lines ‘I don’t need a song to tell me/I don’t need old histories’ warning/For what I saw that blood-red on and/Daylight’ where a strong memory is surfacing at night, ‘James Blues’ features a man struggling with monogamy and the leaden weight of a failing relationship started in a youth seemingly long since passed.

This stuff bleeds over into familial themes, on ‘Someone With Child’ a ‘stain’ that never comes out is taken up by a son from his mother, her suicide leaves a heavy legacy which is heartbreakingly put by Tillman in a few lines, and followed up by the stunning, ‘Before unexpectedly you were hollowed out by grief/The clipped glory of your youth’. There’s more gloom with ‘Steel On Steel’, the curse of a wrong decision stays with the protagonist, ‘What a curse/What a life/Destined to survive/And relive every night/Like my hands were tied’, these lines coming in an achingly beautiful break in the otherwise jaunty music, just a guitar and cracking voice.

But it’s not all hardships, ‘No Occasion’ ends up sweet with sentiments of ‘I don’t want to live again/Because I don’t want this life to end’, showing a strong relationship that went right. Again a song dealing with family, ‘Vacilando Territory’ has the refrain ‘You’re my brother’ leaking love all over the place amid gorgeous imagery such as ‘A 5 day journey through the pan-handle morning’ and ‘All our plans were sitting on the skyline’. A connection between two people is revealed, one that enables them to feel a strong kinship, despite being unrelated, ‘The way you spoke about the unknown/Shook my 25 year old bones/And made me unsure I was someone’s only son’. ‘Above All Men’ acts as a sort of blueprint for a better life by listing the basic foundation you need to be happy, ‘If you have a days work/And a good word/And a night’s rest after keeping/Company of your friends/And a woman to greet the morning with’ then you are ‘blessed above all men’.

The rural tone found with the better known Fleet Foxes has always resided in Tillman’s music, but he has a lyrical talent that appeals to me personally a whole lot more than what you find with his better-known outfit. With long-time collaborator Kory Kruckenberg (engineering/producing) Tillman has swelled into a fine songwriter, whose songs get the treatment they deserve. Now if only they got the audience they deserved too, although looking at the press quotes on his myspace, and the artist bio on the Bella Union site, he doesn’t seem to be that bothered.
80%

J. Tillman on MySpace

Photography by Simon Godley

Tom Waits @ Le Grand Rex, Paris, July 25
The smoke of 1,000 Gauloises curled round Le Grand Rex’s art-deco facade in anticipation of Tom Waits, who was in Paris for two nights on his Glitter & Doom tour. Waits prowled the specially constructed circular stage like a demented carnie, injecting all of his 58 years of experience into a remarkable performance that swung from gypsy-folk to vaudeville to gentle jazz crooning. Sawdust billowed around him as he stomped his way across a circus ring of his own making. Skipping effortlessly through an extensive back catalog, Waits prompted the crowd to croon along with “Innocent When You Dream” before morphing into a human mirrorball, simply by swapping a hat, for “Eyeball Kid”. When a shower of glitter fell around spotlit Waits at the climax of “Let It Rain”, it felt as though the audience had been transported into the ringmaster’s own peculiar, magical universe. An outstanding showman giving his all in a beautiful venue on a warm summer’s evening – I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get better than that.—Ro Cemm

Wave Pictures @ the Borderline, London, July 30
The most striking thing about seeing the Wave Pictures live is just how amazing – as in, virtuoso level – a guitarist David Tattersall is. On record it’s easy to be sidetracked by the sharp, funny lyrics and almost overlook the musicianship, but live, it practically smacks you around the head. Nearly every song in their set had a brilliant guitar solo – always a genuine, worthwhile musical addition, never an excuse for a show-offy noodle. David was so engrossed in a particularly captivating break during “Tiny Craters in the Sand” that he didn’t notice when his whammy bar fell off, and looked most surprised when it was handed back to him afterwards. Part of the delight of the Wave Pictures is that they are such unassuming individuals, yet produce such a lyrically and musically brilliant performance. They are a band that can renew your waning faith in live music and leave you dashing for the last train home with a huge, foolish grin on your face.—Jude Clarke

Björk @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, April 14
The problem with being such a prolific attender of gigs is the inevitability that they stop being as special as they used to be. So it is pretty unprecedented for me to stagger out of a venue open-mouthed with incommunicable wonder, but that is exactly what I did on this unforgettable April night. Clad in a headdress made of multicoloured pom-poms, the irrepressible Icelandic pixie queen skipped onto stage to the tribal percussion of “Earth Intruders”. It was a spellbinding introduction to a show that, flat Antony Hegarty duet apart, was never less than enchanting. It’s hard to pick highlights from a night comprised almost entirely of them, although Toumani Diabaté’s stunning kobe on “Hope”, a bewitching rendition of “Hunter” and a glorious “Who Is It” all deserve special mentions, as does Björk’s fantastic 10-piece all-female brass section The Wonderbrass. But it was the unabashed techno-singalong of “Hyperballad” and the sheer jaw-dropping spectacle of “Declare Independence” that made the night transcendental, the latter’s mix of earth-sundering bass, silver confetti and arching lasers one of the finest closing numbers I’ve ever seen. Björk, I know you’re old enough to be my mother, but will you marry me?—Adam Elmahdi

Photography by Fleur Neale

Neil Young @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, March 8
In hindsight, I can’t believe I debated whether to go or not. Sure, the ticket prices were a bit steep, but you got some history for your cash. On the night, the set was split in half: first acoustic, then electric. I never thought I’d prefer the acoustic set, but to hear “A Man Needs a Maid”, “Harvest Moon” and “Ambulance Blues” so crystal-clear and in the flesh surpassed all my expectations. There were too many spine-tingling moments to distill into one paragraph. “Mr. Soul” sounded as fresh as it must have 30 years ago – God only knows what it was like then, because even now it sounds like a tear in the face of music. That was before I was floored by “Down by the River”: a wall of guitars cut through the years, trashing my sense of awareness and sucking me inside the sprawling anthem. It was only then that I truly realised I was in the presence of a living legend.—Rich Hughes

Photography by David Emery

Bon Iver @ St Giles Church, London, June 4
By June, Justin Vernon had watched the Bon Iver phenomenon flicker into being, ignite and roar through the music world. Still, through months of media and audience hysteria, he remained steadfastly modest. For a man concerned with all that is solid and enduring, a church whose history stretches back 900 years was a fitting venue for the last performance of his first UK tour. Three hundred lucky souls squeezed into pews and aisles, crammed into corners and dangled off balconies. Three hundred rocked back and forth, shivered and clasped hands with their neighbours to the strains of “Skinny Love” and “Flume” as Vernon’s crystal-clear vocals reverberated with an otherworldly significance; 300 filed out shiny-eyed and with a catch in their throats. Early Bon Iver gigs had left me with the thrill of discovery and later ones with the warm satisfaction that comes from a display of brilliant craft and flawless delivery, but that night has earnt an eerie, mythological place in musical memory, as though marking the time that Vernon crested an unfeasibly high peak and looked down on the world below with serenity and joy.—Emily Moore

Photography by Mike King

Photography by Chris Boland

Leonard Cohen @ Glastonbury Pyramid Stage, June 29
Forced out of retirement because of an evil manager who reportedly embezzled him out of $5 million, Leonard Cohen was back, literally performing for his livelihood. Most acts would struggle on the 80,000-capacity Pyramid stage, but Leonard Cohen immediately transformed the rubbish-soaked field into an intimate coffee house, performing one classic after another in his trademark whispered, weighty way. Each song was triumphant, from a singalong-to-the-heavens “Hallelujah” to a gorgeous, haunting “Suzanne”. Cohen lowered his cap and bowed to the audience after each song in gratitude. It is difficult to describe precisely how, but it transformed me. I have never seen a gig like it and quite possibly never will again. Kudos to you, Leonard.—Shain Shapiro

Photography by Valerio Berdini - another date, same tour

Elbow @ De Montfort Hall, Leicester, October 16
“We haven’t played a gig this good in years,” Guy Garvey said as Elbow left the stage, and you could well believe him. That night, every song was played to its utmost strengths – the brass stabs at the beginning of “Starlings” were never more fanfare-worthy, “Mirrorball” never so cascadingly lovely, “Newborn” never so heart-wrenching and “Grounds For Divorce” never so vituperative. Everyone in the room sang along, attempting to restrain themselves from punching the air as Garvey cajoled them and himself into greater vocal heights. Some artists struggle with the leap from small venues to huge halls, but Garvey thrived on it: swapping banter with the crowd; leaning forward on the mic stand as if to make a physical, literal connection with the audience; projecting that voice of bruised experience and heart right around cavernous De Montfort Hall. On their post-Mercury Prize victory lap, Elbow had nothing to prove and they played as though they were on top of the world. (Which, to be fair, they were.) The crowd knew it, too, singing back on the mini-anthems, deathly quiet on the wracked ballads. Guy passed on a marriage proposal before “Mirrorball” and, on receiving the good news afterwards, declared, “Thank fuck for that!” He bid the happy couple, “Congratulations – now here’s a song about gut-wrenching heartbreak” before launching into “The Stops”. Like pre-encore closer “One Day Like This”, whose televisual ubiquity has not dented its emotional heft one bit, the whole set was at once gorgeous and triumphant.—Simon Tyers

And the rest…

2. Radiohead @ Roskilde Festival, nr Copenhagen, July 3
3. Tindersticks @ End of the Road Festival, September 14
4. The Acorn @ End of the Road Festival, September 13
5. Neil Young @ Roskilde Festival, nr Copenhagen, July 5
RC

2. Envy @ EITS ATP, Minehead, May 18
3. Betty and the Werewolves & The Research @ the Portland Arms, Cambridge, November 5
4. Fleet Foxes & J Tillman @ the Junction, Cambridge, November 11
5. Holy Fuck @ 100 Club, London, April 8
6. Melt-Banana @ Soul Tree, Cambridge, June 24
7. Port O’Brien @ Concrete + Glass Festival, 93 Feet East, London, October 3
8. The Resistance, Holy Roller & Fuck Dress @ the Portland Arms, Cambridge, October 11
9. The Death Set @ Reading Festival, August 23
10. Volcano! @ the Portland Arms, Cambridge, November 16
JC

2. Sigur Rós @ Latitude Festival, July 19
3. Sunset Rubdown @ Luminaire, London, May 22
4. Joanna Newsom @ Latitude Festival, July 20
5. Wolf Parade @ Electric Ballroom, London, December 1
6. My Bloody Valentine @ Roundhouse, London, June 20
7. The National @ Olympia, Dublin, May 15
8. Of Montreal @ Koko, London, October 16
9. Wildbirds and Peacedrums @ Luminaire, London, June 5
10. I’m From Barcelona @ Scala, London, November 25
AE

2. Jens Lekman @ EITS ATP, Minehead, May 17
3. Fleet Foxes @ the Junction, Cambridge, November 11
4. Band of Horses @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London, July 8
5. Rolo Tomassi @ Portland Arms, Cambridge, September 29
6. Elbow @ Corn Exchange, Cambridge, October 6
7. Johnny Foreigner @ Barfly, Cambridge, May 6
8. James Blackshaw @ CB2, Cambridge March 29
9. Fuck Buttons @ Barfly, Cambridge, February 7
10. Battles @ EITS ATP, Minehead, May 17
RH

2. Young Marble Giants @ Primavera Festival, Barcelona, May 28
3. My Bloody Valentine @ the Roundhouse, London, June 23
4. Shearwater @ St Giles Church, London, November 22
5. Edwyn Collins & Roddy Frame @ the 12 Bar, London, July 29
6. The War on Drugs & Bowerbirds @ the Windmill, London, August 20
7. HEALTH & Skeletons @ Luminaire, London, May 1
8. David Thomas Broughton @ Red Eyed & Blue, the Wilmington Arms, London, May 13
9. Wave Pictures @ the Enterprise, London, March 11
10. Fanfarlo @ the Nash Room, ICA, London, April 25
EM

2. The Gaslight Anthem @ LA2, London, December 5
3. Sigur Rós @ Westminster Central Halls, London, June 24
4. Bon Iver @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, September 11
5. Shearwater @ Bush Hall, London, September 17
6. Frightened Rabbit @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, New York, October 17
7. The Revival Tour @ Blender Theater, New York, October 13
8. Hauschka @ King’s Place, London, November 11
9. Billy Bragg @ the Roundhouse, London, March 4
10. The Hives @ Brixton Academy, London, April 18
MP

2. The Burning Hell @ Cafe Zapata, Berlin, October 15
3. Jeffrey Lewis & Los Campesinos! @ Lee’s Palace, Toronto, May 29
4. Stevie Wonder @ O2 Arena, London, September 11
5. Slayer & Mastodon @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, October 30
SS

2. Johnny Foreigner & Dananananaykroyd @ the Charlotte, Leicester, October 1
3. Bon Iver @ End of the Road Festival, September 13
4. Dirty Three @ End of the Road Festival, September 12
5. Okkervil River @ Truck Festival, July 19
6. Of Montreal @ Summer Sundae Festival, August 10
7. The Acorn @ End of the Road Festival, September 13
8. Future Of The Left @ This Ain’t No Picnic weekender, KCLSU, London, September 27
9. The Mae Shi @ Summer Sundae Festival, August 8
10. Ballboy @ Indietracks Festival, July 27
ST

Well… we’re sorry for the delay, but the two Rich’s here at TLOBF Towers have been burning the midnight oil, counting each of the votes… And now we’re ready to announce it!

According to you, the lovely, well-dressed and gorgeous readers of TLOBF, the album of the year IS:

Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight (FatCat)

Woo hoo! We’re hoping for a statement from the lads sometime soon, so we’ll update this article as and when.

In case you were wondering what fleshed out the rest of the top 10, here you go:

2. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (4AD)
3. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (Bella Union)
4. TV On The Radio – Dear Science (4AD)
5. Simon Bookish – Everything/Everything (Tomlab)
6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (XL)
7. Deerhunter – Microcastle (4AD)
8. The Dodos – Visiter (Frenchkiss)
9. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid (Polydor)
10. Johnny Foreigner – Waited Up Till it was Light (Best Before)

An excellent choice of albums there folks!

The winner of our awesome goodie bag of musical loveliness will be notified by the end of the week.

In case you’ve missed out on all our Frightened Rabbit features over the past 12 months, you can catch the album review here, and our Twilight Sad v Frightened Rabbit two part interview here and here.

I hope this song isn’t about the M Night Shyamalan movie but even if it is, it’s a beautiful and woozy folk song. Eric Earley is a supergenius and it’s so wonderful to hear folk music that’s not just “folk” because of the quaint acoustic instruments as is sometimes the case these days. I think a proper folk song needs to be instructive and entertaining, in the sense that the melody has it’s own captivating logic, I think a good folk song is like a machine, all elements perfectly calibrated, and this song is the Large Hadron Collider, smashing things together to get to the bottom of the universe.

Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut album is out now on Bella Union. It is also (suprise suprise) nominated for album of the year right here on TLOBF. You only have approximately 24 hours left to vote, so if you haven’t done so already, get a-clicking right here.

It’s that time of year again… We’re making our list and checking it twice, trying to find out who’s been naughty or nice. Yes, it’s our Album of the Year! More coveted than a shiny penny, more famous than the winner of last year’s X-Factor and guaranteed to start debate!

This year, to shuffle blame away from TLOBF HQ, we’re getting YOU, yes, YOU the reader, to vote for the albums YOU think are the best 2008 had to offer. We’ve whittled down a mammoth list of prospective albums to a mere 50. It’s tough work, but someone had to do it.

So, mouse button at the ready – get clicking! You can pick as many albums as you like, there are no limits. If you feel it’s worthy of “Album of the Year” status, then do the right thing and cast your vote.

If you need some help making that all-important decision, you can read our take on the albums listed in our 2008 archive here.

The poll will close on Friday December 12th.

There is a prize up for grabs for one lucky reader. Some very kind record companies behind the following 50 records have offered up a selection of prizes including: ultra-rare vinyl, posters, t-shirts and CDs by some of the nominees, plus a pair of tickets to see the sold-out Fleet Foxes show at London Roundhouse in February 2009. To be in with a chance of winning this mammoth and hugely exciting prize, enter your details at the bottom of this page. The lucky winner will be notified via email. Competition closes on Friday 12th December.

[polldaddy poll="1128287"]

It’s been a while coming… unlike Mr. Richard Thane (here and here), I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing Fleet Foxes live yet. I’ve lived with the album for, what feels like, a lifetime. It’s become an essential album, one I turn to frequently when I want to drift away and escape from the confines of my Credit Crunched life. And yet, as I approached The Junction on a freezing cold night, I was worried. I know these songs inside out, how will they translate live? Will the vocal harmonies still resonate so spectacularly? By the hushed expectation of the crowd, I don’t think I was the only one with these concerns…

J. Tillman

Before my impossible question was answered, we were treated to J. Tillman. Why this man isn’t pulling in crowds and selling barrel loads of records himself, I fail to understand. His sparse, beautifully crafted music relies heavily on his voice – a hushed, throaty voice that seems to come from Heaven itself. It also helps that he’s got a good line in jokes and seems really enthused that there are members of the crowd who actually know who he is. Joined by his lady friend and the Fleet Foxes crew for a couple of more up-beat numbers, it’s testament to his skill that all these songs stand up on their own. A brusied and battered beauty that will hopefully land the man some more fame next year when he releases his new album on Bella Union.

A quick shuffle around in the crowd, and the place is absolutely rammed. I’ve not seen the Junction this busy for some time. The crowd are eager to see one of the years most hyped bands. Indeed, Fleet Foxes are one of the few acts that actually deserve the great words written about them. And then they appear. Shuffling on stage, there’s a mixture of quiet reservation and even some relief that this is the end of their current UK tour. But even if that was on their minds, they didn’t let it hold them back.

A stirring beginning of ‘Sun Giant’ may have been slightly dulled by the volume of the PA turned up a touch too loud, but that was quickly rectified as Fleet Foxes breathed new life into their material. My worries about knowing everything too well were soon quashed. Each song was delivered with a touch of humanism, Robin Pecknold’s voice maybe showing signs of a long tour, but it showed a depth and additional power that isn’t on the record. But it’s those vocal harmonies that are still resounding in my head the following morning. Not since the days of Crosby, Stills & Nash have harmonies so rejoiced a crowd. We’re treated to some solo covers by Pecknold and even some quality heckling, though I’d probably like to forget certain aspects of it as the tongue of a few were loosened by too many cans of Red Stripe.

But what tonight showed was that a great band will ALWAYS be a great band. Their ability to give the songs that this crowd have been listening to for nearly a year a new life was the success tonight. That, and showing everyone present the personality that went into them in the first place.

J. Tillman

Fleet Foxes

Back in June, Fleet Foxes were just finishing off their first ever UK tour. A handful of dates around the major cities, showcasing their just released self titled album and Sun Giant EP. They had lots to prove, the hyperbole surrounding them was unprecedented – everyone from Plan B magazine to Aled Jones (?!) on Radio 2 were talking about them. THE buzz band of 2008, for want of a better phrase.

After a sold-out show at London’s ULU, which pretty much left me speechless for about 30 minutes afterwards, Fleet Foxes announced a headline slot at one of London’s prime venues; the Shepherds Bush Empire. It sold out within 24 hours, as did the subsequent tour. Surely this would be one of the most important and celebrative gigs of their short career so far?

J. Tillman

Well, it should have been. It’s probably fair to say that a lot of people were there only there to be seen to be there, rather than being genuine fans of the band. It’s something that only ever really happens in London but the atmosphere last night seemed a little strained. It certainly had an effect on poor old Joshua Tillman anyway. The newest recruit to the Fleet Foxes family, Tillman has been making records for years with his latest the wonderful Vacilando Territory being released on Bella Union in the new year.

Unfortunately, 95% of the audience didn’t have a clue who he was. It didn’t seem to phase him at first as he eased himself through the highlights of his rich back catalogue. But as his set progressed you could sense Josh becoming more and more agitated with the constant rise in audience chatter. See, in my experience, to fully appreciate Tillman, either live or on record, total silence is needed and unfortunately thats never going to happen at the Empire. As the room slowly filled with people the volume of noise got so dense that Tillman obviously thought “fuck this” and walked off stage. With at least 10 minutes to spare in his set… A damn shame.

Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes shuffle on stage at 9:30pm on the dot. Looking up to the heavens.. there are people everywhere. The band look at one another as if to say “holy shit guys…this place is fucking huuuuuge”. As they launch into a slowed down, completely acapella, ‘Sun Giant’ my annoyances are calmed – I’m here for Fleet Foxes, and to hell with everyone else. I’ll just be in my own bubble for the next 90 minutes. As the boys make their way through ‘Sun It Rises’, ‘Drops In The River’ and ‘English House’ there is still a sense of unease. Whether it’s on the stage or in the audience I’m still left undecided. It’s as if the band want the show to be momentous and they’re putting everything into it, but the audience are stopping that vital spark from igniting. Don’t get me wrong, there was applause and respect – but that certain something was missing.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening was a brief solo set by Robin Pecknold. Performing a stirring rendition of the Judee Sill (a huge influence on Pecknold as a songwriter) classic ‘Crayon Angels’ – his voice tender yet powerful enough to reach high into the heavens of the Empire. Leading into ‘Oliver James’ it only just strikes me that Pecknold is now in fact performing standing up.. Has been all night in fact, but up there on his own a sense of confidence and self assurance takes over him. A startling transition from the shy and goofy (in a cool way) Robin from back in June. The months of rigourous touring obviously having paid off. The rest of the band rejoin Robin for one last song. ‘Mykonos’ – fast becoming a live favourite even sparks a little sing-a-long from a few audience members. Tillman still looks pissed off though. As the rest of the guys enjoy witty banter about the presidential election, he remains in the background, looking solemn and silent. That was, until he likened a malfunctioning smoke machine spitting out piffs of white smoke as “kinda like the atmosphere in this room”.

The spine-tingling moment I’d been waiting for all night came with encore ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’. The first song I’d ever heard by Fleet Foxes a year ago when they were still unsigned. It has remained a personal favourite, and judging by the way the band plough through it with vigorous gusto (keyboard player Casey Wescott enthusiastically headbanging!?) – it’s a favourite of theirs too. “I love you, I love you, older brother of mine” reverberates through my rib cage as the crashing chorus leaves me totally devastated (in a good way). The added mirror ball helps too. It was a perfect moment, and a lovely way to end the show.

So, as the Foxes skulk off the stage, I’m left feeling short changed. Not, by any means, their performance. They always deliver, and tonight was no exception. I’d just billed tonight in my head as some kind of momentous show, their biggest headliner in the UK to date – maybe even a moment in history. But alas, a shitty audience with little or no respect for the musicians left a bitter taste in my mouth. My only complaint with Fleet Foxes actual perforance was the lack of any new material… Still, theres always February when they play the Roundhouse. I’ll be there. With bells on.

Look out later this week for a special photo feature of the bands last night of the tour at the Cambridge Junction.

J. Tillman

Fleet Foxes

Photographs by Lucy Johnston

J. Tillman on MySpace
Fleet Foxes on MySpace

Remember that totally shit hot video of Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’ by Fleet Foxes and Wilco we featured a while ago? Well, it must have proved pretty damn popular – it’s just been announced that the track is now available as a free download. There is a catch though. You have to promise to vote in the upcoming presidential election. A bit of a bitch for us non-US folks then..

Here’s the skiny via Wilcoworld.net

Such tumultuous times. And in the spirit of giveaways that seem to be sweeping the nation, we’ve got something free for you. No it’s not a pile of cash (sorry) but rather an audio postcard of sorts from a summer’s night in Oregon with our friends the Fleet Foxes & a lovely Bob Dylan tune. All we ask is you check the “I pledge to vote in the 2008 Election” button below. If you can spare it, we also encourage you to consider a donation to Feeding America . (and please feel free to pass this link along to friends, family members, etc.).

Click here to grab the track and pledge your vote.

Visiter is the second album to be released by American psychedelic folksters The Dodos. The duo formed in San Francisco back in 2006 with originally just one member, Meric Long whom toured around the city as a one-man acoustic act going by the name of Dodobird. After studying Western African Ewe drumming Long began to take a strong interest in blues and set out to fuse the two together creating a sound, which revolved around percussion as the centrepiece. He was later introduced to progressive metal drummer Logan Kroeber and soon after The Dodos were born and released their first album in 2006, Beware the Maniacs. Some rigorous touring later and they have now returned with an album, which promises thoughtful lyrical content, a variety of quirky yet well-structured acoustic arrangements, and more importantly some damn good drumming.

Much of the album feels repetitive with chugging drums and bells accompanied by low acoustic plucking and Fleet Foxes inspired vocal sets. Although it’s repetitive nature may warn many ears away you’ll soon know doubt succumb to their dulcet tones and become lulled into a state of calm. ‘Red and Purple’ has shades of The Shins and even The Guillemots with its melodic choruses but given a twist with glockenspiels and beach bum maracas. ‘Joe’s Waltz’ however does not follow suit for its epic 7 minutes and 22 seconds duration, half way through you are immediately jolted from your comfy folk paradise to a full blown Black Keys style blues fest. Rabid guitars, wailing and cowbells become the way forward.

The band’s ambitions on this album were to capture the live energy they produce at gigs, which is why many of the tracks sound unpolished and tinny in places. This certainly does invoke a sense of “liveness” and many tracks sound as if they would wilt in impact if polished off in production, this is particularly evident on the enchantingly melancholy ‘Park Song’. Drummer Logan Kroeber’s rhythmic and frantic percussion sets sit perfectly alongside Meric Long’s gentle plucking and strumming. Combined with Long’s angelic yet awkward vocals they manage to create a beautiful and intense stark sound.

It’s refreshing to see a band so intent on focusing on percussion and actually doing it well and imaginatively. Kroeber is even said to have recorded the majority of the album with tambourines strapped to his feet. Many acoustic acts at the moment seem tired and generic whereas the Dodos seem to have managed to take Lo-Fi by it’s ambient little horns and transform it into something far more interesting with a great deal more substance.
73%

The Dodos on Myspace

Click here to view the embedded video.

J. Tillman is a Seattle based musician who has been quietly releasing solo albums for the past few years, before which he was stick man for the instrumental rock band Saxon Shore, and now more recently he is the newly arrived drummer for Fleet Foxes. The thing is, though, those quietly released albums have been brilliant. It seems that he has been caught in the fickle tides of the internet music boom: too many artists too readily available, so someone as talented as Tillman can all too easily get ignored.

Cancer And Delirium again shows off folk and country stylings as seen in Tillman’s past albums, although those two terms are more like signifiers than straight up descriptors. The album has a patchwork of, roughly, two or three song types; first we have austerity, an almost suffocating bare-bones approach, ‘Visions Of A Troubled Mind’, ‘Milk White Air’, ‘A Fine Suit’ and ‘If I Get To The Borderline’ all have that same late at night and alone chilliness, with lots of space around Tillman’s vocal and guitar, and some subtle accomplished backing of harmonica (‘Visions Of A…’), piano (‘A Fine Suit’) and room ambience (all). With ‘Evans And Falls’, ‘Ribbons Of Glass’ and ‘Under The Sun’ there comes more overt contributions from some of Tillman’s collaborators, there is a communal band feel and a pull away from the explicit feeling of sadness in the first set of songs. The banjo goes a long way to generating this different feel, with lifting melodies in ‘Ribbons Of Glass’ and ‘Under The Sun’, backing vocals on both these tracks are perfect additions and some clear drumming in all three tracks add a propulsive backdrop. The last two songs are somewhat singular in their own respects, ‘When I Light Your Darkened Door’ has that extra instrumentation, (drums, bass, electric guitar, backing vocals), but it is buried under a brilliant layer of analogue ambience, and there is a return to the sadness of the first set of songs, so I suppose you could call it a compound of both styles. ‘How Much Mystery’ has a lighter feel with acoustic and banjo picking out similar melodies, that slight reverbing space around Tillman’s voice is back, but the tone isn’t the same as that first set of songs, except when you look at the lyrics, where you can see that in some ways it does return to that first set.

Tillman himself has said in interviews about how he is influenced by Southern Gothic literature, and that is a good reference point to keep in mind, especially if you are familiar with Bonnie Prince Billy who also mines a similar vein. Mere snatches of scenes and situations are offered, and it is sometimes hard to come away with any concrete meaning from the song, in the end you feel you can glean just as much from letting the imagery wash over you as from trying to find a hard centre. Having said that, songs like ‘A Fine Suit’, which looks at a death and a funeral, and ‘How Much Mystery’, which seems to be about being unsure and at sea with life and relationships, can be read simply enough.

In general, Tillman brings together lyrics that use names and phrases which only make sense in the world he has created on Cancer And Delirium, and possibly in his own head, for example: ‘Untethered, back-lit by sleight of hand‘ on ‘Visions Of A Troubled Mind’, ‘Said the cat-scratch knees/To the pulled-back hair‘ on ‘Milk White Air’, ‘My spring-bird does… In the gaze of Iron-side‘ on ‘Ribbons Of Glass’. At other times he creates startlingly beautiful imagery using physical objects that mingle with the internal world of perception and emotion, ‘Something black/Something pale/Wrapped in stone/In the milk white air‘ from ‘Milk White Air’ has something alchemical, magical, about it, again omitting overt explanation, what he leaves out intensifying what he leaves in. With ‘Ribbons Of Glass’ we get ‘Ribbons of glass/Hang along the mountain pass‘, a stirring yet ever so slightly skewed image, speaking of the internal anguish later in the song, but also just being plain lovely in it’s own right. ‘If I Get To The Borderline’ is possibly set during the civil war, with references to ‘the North Country‘ and a ‘stable-boy‘, but the line that really strikes home is near the end, ‘Spray of violets strewn ‘cross my sides‘, again almost needing no context to be beautiful. On ‘A Fine Suit’ the listing of ‘For a wristwatch/And a cedar box/And a fine suit/Of fine linen‘ is so evocative due to the attention to detail in how each object is described, a painful chrome-cast scene appearing out of the darkness. Such a description can be used to describe the whole album actually; the front cover is a pretty good indicator for how most of the song and lyrics come across. An exception to this would be ‘Under The Sun’, which is an aching early morning hymn that displays just how well suited Tillman is to his new band Fleet Foxes, just three lines are repeated, ‘In your own time/This too shall pass/Under the sun‘, less a dire warning and more a comforting promise of release.

It is rather unfortunate that this album, released in 2007, never had any proper press coverage here in the UK, because it certainly deserves it. Hopefully new album Vacilando Territory Blues will fare much better. With 4 excellent albums done, a new one coming out later this year, and the wild success of Fleet Foxes, J. Tillman is on a roll.
85%

Links
J. Tillman [myspace] [european distribution] [tlobf loves... j. tillman] [after hours: j. tillman]

I’ve pretty much just finished dancing round the office now.. Oh yes, our favourite band of the moment are back in the UK this November for an extensive headlining tour. Fitting the dates around the already sold-out Shepherds Bush Empire show on 5th November, the guys will be all over the country throughout October and November. Do. Not. Miss. Them.

Support for all the dates comes from the newest member of the band – J. Tillman. Yes, not only is Josh a kick ass drummer he can also write a damn fine tune too. He has three albums cuurently available (Minor Works, Long May You Run and Cancer & Delirium) with his fourth (Vacilando Territory Blues) being released by Bella Union early next year. Josh will be joined by other members of the band during his set – so, in a sense you’re getting two Fleet Foxes sets for the price of one. Kinda.

Those dates are:

October
28th – NORWICH – Waterfront
29th – SHEFFIELD – Union
30th – BRISTOL – University Anson Rooms
31st – BIRMINGHAM – Space 2

November
2nd – NOTTINGHAM – Trent University
5th – LONDON – Shepherd’s Bush Empire ***SOLD-OUT**
7th – DUBLIN – Vicar Street
8th – GLASGOW – ABC
9th – MANCHESTER – Academy
10th – LONDON – Shepherd’s Bush Empire
11th – CAMBRIDGE – Junction

To wet your appetite a little, why not check out our live review from a few weeks back when the guys were first in London. Read more about J. Tillman here and here. And finally, enjoy a recent Black Cab Session below.

If we’re to quote The Cranberries (and why shouldn’t you?), “Everybody else is doing it, so why can’t we?”. As we’ve past the halfway point in this year of 2008, it seemed like a good time to look back. What have been the musical higlights of the year so far? We’ve had some absolutely corking albums released, from Fleet Foxes genre defying debut, to Elbow’s continued cultured and heartwarming release. It might surprise some of our readers what’s ended up on this list but one thing this exercise has made us realise, is that come the end of the year, there’s going to be a big pile of albums under the ‘Excellent’ heading…

So how did we decide on the final 10 albums? We asked all of our writers to email in their favourite 5 releases of the year thus far. Each album voted for was then given a point and entered into a highly technical spreadsheet – which left us with the following records…

The Wave Pictures Instant Coffee Baby [TLOBF Review]

Indie-rock as witty and consummately British as the erection you’re creepingly becoming aware of as you sit drunkenly a bit too close to a pretty girl on a couch.
Tom Whyman

This album still entrances, amuses and delights me, seven months after first hearing it. The naïve-yet-profound lyrics have a unique charm, perfectly matched by their jangle-indie setting. One of the most refreshing releases in many a year: wonderful stuff.
Jude Clarke

Instant Coffee Baby is the album that has probably received the most repeated plays so far this year. The songs are packed with witty, lyrical nuggets – with each listen you pick out ones you’ve previously missed. Perhaps not a perfect album (it could do with a couple of songs shaved off the end) – it is still totally satisfying, and one of the best indie pop records you’re likely to hear this year.
Rich Thane

Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes [TLOBF Review]

Quite extraordinary, otherworldly lay ‘hymns’ from an amazing new act that are unlikely to be 5 minute wonders. This album beautifully showcases their gorgeous sound-drenched sound.
Jude Clarke

I have no doubt that in years to come, this flawless debut will appear amongst Revolver, OK Computer and Nevermind in those annoying ‘Best Album of All Time’ lists that crop up year after year. A band hasn’t excited me this much since…well, I really can’t remember. It truly is a work of art and without doubt, one of the greatest debut albums I’ve ever heard – and what excites me more, is that I strongly believe they have so much more to offer. Go and buy the album, see them in concert, buy the t-shirt. Whatever. Just let them into your life. Now!
Rich Thane

This is, without doubt, one of the best albums ever, let alone this year. An offering from a band that have found a huge place in my life.
Rich Hughes

Frightened Rabbit Midnight Organ Fight [TLOBF Review]

So, what’s so great about yet another white, male, 20-something, indie rock band, then? How about: Great production decisions, a concentrated lyrical direction, stellar songwriting, Scott Hutchinson’s voice walking the line between warble and sublime melody, melody and lyrics walking the line between bleakness and euphoria? My favourite music makes me giddy, supremely confident in myself, and in love with life, in all it’s ugly, beautiful, dreadful glory. And, I suppose, all of that is what makes Frightened Rabbit and The Midnight Organ Fight so great.
Simon Gurney

Utter perfection. These guys deserve to be fucking huge. But the foul language and dodgy subject matter will always prevent that from happening. Maybe that’s the point? The album also has my favourite lyric of the year so far: “You’re the shit and I’m knee deep in it”.
Rich Thane

Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago [TLOBF Review]

What more can I say about this mysterious, mystical, raw, emotionally epiphanical dream of a record? Its popular resonance has single-handedly revived my faith in the essential goodness of humanity – a sentiment I’m sure its creator would agree with.
Emily Moore

So I’ll forgive and forget the fact that it manages to sit next to Bon Jovi on my ipod. I’ll even forgive the fact its only 37 minutes long. Which may be a good thing, as the delicate, claustophoic beauty of this album has been unequalled by anything else so far in 2008, and is all the better for its brevity. No fancy tricks or gimmicks, just great songs packed with emotion and a fizzling intensity.
Simon Reuben

There are less than a handful of records from this decade that I could happily choose as a desert island disc. The fact that two have been released in 2008 (the other record being Fleet Foxes) that I would literally die for proves this year has been the best year in music in – well, god knows how long. For Emma, Forever Ago is a work of unadulterated genius. The sincerity and honesty within it’s nine songs floored me from the very first time I heard it – that was nearly 12 months ago and even now I’m still finding new sounds and textures and emotion to wrap myself up in. Justin Vernon has created a stone cold classic, and easily one of the greatest records of the 21st Century.
Rich Thane

Elbow Seldom Seen Kid [TLOBF Review]

Oh my. What an album. Has there been a more consistent band in recent times? Guy Garvey’s found love and want’s to tell the world about it, but he’s also lost a friend and discovering Richard Hawley’s perfect croon. This is an album to fall in love with everytime you listen to it. It’s not here for the shorthaul, but, like the rest of their material, it’s here to amaze and touch you on each repeated play.
Rich Hughes

Johnny Foreigner Waited Up Till It Was Light [TLOBF Review]

Best indie-pop record since Slanted & Enchanted or (at a stretch) Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? And plus it manages to take in Cap’n Jazz too. I literally couldn’t ask for more, which is why I gave it (sort of) 100%. 100% is a score I suppose usually reserved for shimmering brilliance but to my mind its equally applicable to this sort of joyous, perfectly imperfect shouty pop amazingness. ” CAN’T LOOOOSSSE YOU IN CROWDED ROOMS!” etc.
Tom Whyman

And I thought they were amazing live! This is all that the Los Campasinos! album should have been. Full of energy and youthful vigour, I felt 10 years younger just listening to it. This is everything an indie-pop album should be about.
Rich Hughes

Bonnie Prince Billy Lie Down In the Light

Going back to the country, the bonnie prince lightens up and delivers an understated masterpeice.
Ro Cemm

It may have been released to a distinct lack of fanfare, and it’s no I See A Darkness. But it’s an intricate, warmly rewarding album, and an eighth note from Will Oldham is worth a career’s worth of songs by most bands around today.
Emily Moore

Sun Kil Moon April [TLOBF Review]

Mark Kozelek’s style of songwriting, from the early days in Red House Painters and then this most recent Sun Kil Moon album April, has always sounded to me like the aftermath of a broken nose. As strange as it may seem, that is always what his music evokes for me; a heady, muffled and painful throb. His soft, weak (but not in a bad way) voice dipping away into the rest of the instruments, guitar repeating it’s litany, calling to mind the slow powerful transformations found in minimalism, a thrumming quality that overtakes my mind, a style that gives me a temporary head cold, where just the music and melancholy survive, everything beyond that is a haze.
Simon Gurney

The Red house painter man returned to form on this melancholy work, the guitar work is right up there with his best work for a while, and moved away from the cover versions he had been known for.
Ro Cemm

Mesmerisingly beautiful. That’s all I’m going to say.
Rich Hughes

Beach House Devotion [TLOBF Review]

An otherworldly album that manages to wonderfully create its own atmosphere and feel. Shimmery summery haze-pop of the highest order.
Jude Clarke

In an age where second albums suffer from lack of ideas, imagination and focus – Beach House returned in 2008 with a renewed sense of vigour for their sophomore effort. The original ‘Beach House’ bluebrint still remains, but this time with an added pop sensibility and a more luscious production that you want to dive into and wallow around in for hours. When it comes to dream pop – nobody does it better than Beach House.
Rich Thane

Keyboard Choir Mitzen Head To Gascanane Sound

[TLOBF Review]

Like the sound of a thousand planets crashing into one another, this is one of the most adventerous and thought provoking debuts of the year so far. Their intelligent use of samples, spoken word interludes and their own sense of brooding power combines wonderfully to create an album that could best be described as a more accessible Fuck Buttons. But that does these guys an injustice. They’re their own band, creating their own fantastic sound.
Rich Hughes

Honourable mentions:
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks Real Emotional Trash [TLOBF Review]
The Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea [TLOBF Review]
The Duke Spirit Neptune [TLOBF Review]
Los Campesinos Hold On Now Youngster [TLOBF Review]
HEALTH Disco [TLOBF Review]
El Perro Del Mar From The Valley to the Stars [TLOBF Review]
These New Puritans Beat Pyramid [TLOBF Review]
The Black Keys Attack and Release [TLOBF Review]
Portishead Third [TLOBF Review]
White Denim Workout Holiday [TLOBF Review]
Fuck Buttons Street Horrrsing [TLOBF Review]
British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music? [TLOBF Review]
M83 Saturdays = Youth [TLOBF Review]

You can buy any of these albums, plus a whole load more in our brand spanking new online store. Click here to visit.

It’s nice to suddenly find yourself at a gig that’s gone from being a slightly obscure “up-and-coming” type show to a full blown queue-round-the-block hot ticket in the space of a few weeks. Tonight’s sold out ULU Bella Union showcase is exactly that, with Fleet Foxes garnering 5/5 reviews in every broadsheet and monthly magazine going. Fame, it seems, is looking over their shoulder, and tonight’s gig feels like a significant moment in their rapid rise.

But first, Beach House, playing songs from their new album Devotion. Their organ-led music breathes down from the speakers, languid and summery like an endless afternoon spent walking on some distant coastal peninsula, reverb drenched vocals lingering over picked guitar strings and delicate rhythms. There’s a sense of time standing still, or at least oozing along at a glacial pace, that seems to link directly with the vague sense of boredom that total freedom can bring – a barely tangible lack of urgency that seems bourgeois, somehow. This is by no means a bad thing, and bands as disparate as Broadcast and Fiery Furnaces create the same odd sensation. If it’s possible to be both utterly absorbing and oddly disconnected at the same time, Beach House are the band to do it.

Beach House by Lucy Johnston

Fleet Foxes take the stage to deafening applause that borders on feverish anticipation, and seem genuinely taken aback by the scale of the response. They ply simple, heartfelt, deeply American harmonies from a the long lineage of Americana that you can trace from the blues masters through wholesome 70′s stuff like Crosby, Stills & Nash and Neil Young to recent bands such as Whiskeytown, Akron Family and Iron & Wine. They are unreformedly traditional band in instrumentation and approach, aeons away from the various electro/indie/rave hybrids that continue to darken our doorstep here in mucky London.

Fleet Foxes clearly have something special, not least in the charisma of their pale-eyed, boyish frontman Robin Pecknold, who regales the audience with self-concious banter about how awesome the band’s driver is and how headlining sold out London shows is such a difference from writing songs in his parents’ basement. His songs are tales of the simple life, fresh and honest and played with care and humility, and often sung in a thick harmonic voice chord by four of the five members. There’s a sense that these songs are everything they should be – everything in it’s right place in lyric, melody and arrangement – an unpretentious kind of perfection.

Both of these bands deliver performances that bring out the very best in their songs and have me scrambling for their albums when I get home. Fleet Foxes might be the ones in the limelight at present with their honest, charming songwriting but it’s the sweet, resonant melancholia of Beach House that reverberates around my memory as I walk out into the spitting summer rain. One thing’s for sure, both of these bands are essential listening for 2008.

Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tiger Mountain Peasent Song [Live at London ULU]

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Winter White Hymnal [Live at London ULU]

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He Doesn’t Know Why [Live at London ULU]

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Crayon Angels / Oliver James [Live at London ULU]

Links
Beach House [myspace] [tour diary] [album review] [20 questions]
Fleet Foxes [myspace] [album review] [ep review] [interview]