We choose songs, albums & artists old and new we’ve been enjoying recently.

Scott: As the summer months draw ever closer I feel myself drawn to the tender strums of an acoustic guitar and anything that can carry you away in the soothing beams of sunlight. Thankfully, It’s been possibly the best month for new music so far this year with releases from personal favourites like Murder by Death, Minus the Bear, The Gaslight Anthem and 65daysofstatic, and some stunning pieces of work from bands that could soon be classed as ‘favourites’, I take a brief look at some below.

Bob: Well, there goes the the wonderful weather that triggered my marathon of beats last month. I don’t know what the hell happened (I blame the Volcano, even if science DOES prove me wrong – but what did science ever do for us, huh?), but the summer vibe is on a hiatus. So, this month seems to have seen me go back to one of my ‘electic female artist’ phases. You can’t beat a bit of quirk.

Scott: The National – High Violet (Album)

The National are a band that get banded about as ‘geniuses’ and true pioneers of modern indie music, and when they make songs, nay albums, as divine as this it’s hard to argue. High Violet is a mature, smoldering piece of music that grows with each listen thanks to it’s perfect pacing and arrangements. It’s not an album where any one musician can simply play along to an overiding melody or just keep a beat, you can hear the input of each member and instrument to each song. So much so it’s one of the few albums where even the  drumming sounds distintive enough to take prevalence over certain tracks.

Bob:  St. Vincent – Actor

I’ve been kicking myself a little for not discovering this album upon its release last year, as it would have easily made it as one of the year’s best by an absolute mile. Annie Clark’s wonderful vocals are the immediate entry point to this great little album, but only moments into opening track ‘The Strangers’, it’s apparent just how much creativity goes into her music. At once both sweetly delicate and viciously oppressive, the album is perhaps best summed up with my personal fav of the bunch, ‘Black Rainbow’, a track built from the most simple of melodies that almost sounds like a lullaby, but like all lullabies has an inherent sinister quality to it, only exemplified in the tracks second half when it ditches the vocals entirely and pulsates with electronic stabs and a string section that becomes so intense it’s almost exhausting to listen to, but thoroughly exhilarating at the same time. Elsewhere her pop sensibilities reveal a playful side, on the  tracks ‘Actor Out Of Work’ and ‘Marrow’. This album has been on near constant rotation for the past month. I think I’d actually kill someone to see this woman at a gig.

Scott: Gavin Clarke & Ted Barnes – Somers Town Soundtrack (EP)

This short and sweet EP is a lazy, melancholic delight, so then the perfect accompaniment to a short-film about two lonely teenage boys with too much time on their hands around London.The Shane Meadows film is made all the richer from this haunting score, but on it’s own the tender acoustic melodies and rich vocals offer a real catharsis away from the poignancy of the film itself.

Bob: Soap & Skin – Lovetune For Vacuum

Anja Plaschg is one of those rare things that the music world throws out at random every once in a while:  someone far too young to be making music this potent, powerful, and mature. At only 18 years of age, this Austrian prodigy has had me mesmerised. So much so that a few weeks ago when a gig of hers I was supposed to be attending was canceled with no apparent reason, I was quite frankly astounded at how disappointed I was. Lovetune For Vacuum is an incredibly hard to describe beast – part Tori Amos’ piano, part Bjork’s otherworldly quality (especially on the almost exclusively squealchy beat-based ‘DDMMYY’), but imitating neither, it’s an incredibly engaging release from someone so young, demonstrated on possibly some of the most beautiful and sad music I may have ever heard (‘Extinguish Me, ‘Cynthia’). Also, upon repeated listens, it has become apparent that this really is the kind of thing that could only come out of Europe.

Scott: Flight of the Conchords – Carol Brown (song)

While Flight of the Conchords make comic music that I’d find hard to enjoy out of the context of the show, the song Carol Brown shows just how good the music these guys make is regardless. Nothing more than a list of ex-girlfriends, who also form a choir and sing the backing harmonies, this is a ridiculously catchy pop song with a killer chorus and some actually really impressive backing singing. Eat. Sleep. Folk.

Bob: Murder By Death – Good Morning, Magpie

Honestly, I’m amazed Scott didn’t write about this one, so I guess it falls to me. Let me get this out of the way first: this album is my least favourite Murder By Death album, but the fact it made it onto the monthly recommendations should hopefully show that I still like it a hell of a lot. On first listens I honestly didn’t know what to make of it, but like all good albums it revealed itself slowly and eventually grew on me. I think my slight problem with it overall is that in a few too many places, the band are going over ground they have already done better on previous albums, both lyrically and thematically – starting over, drinking whiskey, doing ugly things during youth. In fact, the first track proper, ‘As Long as There is Whiskey in The World’, while initially sort of fun on first listen, now downright infuriates me, but then the album quickly finds its feet with ‘On the Dark Streets Below’, and my personal pick of the litter ‘You Don’t Miss Twice (When You’re Shaving With a Knife)’ – think Tom Waits post Asylum era if he’d ever tried to dabble in country music – and the immense closing track ‘The Day’. It’s just a shame that, by Murder By Death’s own standards, it all feels a little inconsistent to me. Still, when all I can think to compare the album to is the bands own material, then really nothing drastic has gone wrong here, there’s just the slight feeling that I’ve heard it before. Still, roll on June 5th when I get to see them back home.

Scott: Minus The Bear – Omni (Album)

This is not something I ever thought I’d call an album but man, this album is one sexy beast. I’d be hard pushed to pinpoint why, maybe it’s the suggestive lyrics, the summery electronica or the down right funky melodies but this is the perfect upbeat summer album and yeh it just sounds dirty with it. It’s all the best bits about Minus The Bear, if you could excuse the pun “Minus the shit”..ah hem, it has the dreamy prog parts, the technical mathy guitars and even the odd dance number only it sounds more streamlined than their last and the song-writing has improved dramatically, although it will still never win any awards. It’s just a shame it’s been released to such little fanfare or press as there’s no reason this couldn’t be huge.