Raj Bains

Laura Marling: New Album 'Once I Was An Eagle' Reviewed

2013-05-18T11:37:14-04:00

Hyperbole doesn't quite do Laura Marling justice. She is, record by record, cementing and reaffirming her place as the greatest female singer-songwriter of a generation.

Once I Was An Eagle, the trademark literary tipped name to her fourth studio album, shares and builds upon the Marling tropes that have been long celebrated by fans and critics alike on her previous releases.

Again produced by Ethan Johns; their now trilogy of collaborations have grown from each record to the next, the observation that Marling is an artist 'beyond her years' now straying dangerously close to clichéd territory.

However, as is customary in the realm of the aforementioned cliché, a lot of truth remains lurking behind the often-regurgitated phrase. Throughout listening to Once I Was An Eagle, the doe-eyed adolescent behind early songs such as 'New Romantic' is thoroughly unrecognisable, a now 23 year-old Marling seemingly having experienced a lifetime in but a handful of years.

While this may be misconstrued as failing to recognise the true talent of the artist herself, in truth, Marling fully personifies and embodies the singer-songwriter moniker. Not only in possession of a naturally beautiful vocal, both live and recorded, her ability as a songwriter is often overlooked, her prolific output whilst managing to balance both quality and quantity to perfection becoming tantalisingly Dylan-esque.

Whilst some may resent that a young, attractive, well-read, privately educated and female artist is experiencing such a rich vein of form and success, the fact of the matter remains that it hasn't come about without hard work. Her songs are often born out copious amounts of lengthy, unpublished poetry and short stories, as well a technique she uses to fuel ambiguity, writing letters and jotting down imaginary conversations with those she has never met.

The new record is definitely bolder than what has come before, Ethan John's clearly comfortable enough working with Marling to really push the boundaries in terms of gaining a fuller noise; whilst the focal point remains guitar and vocal, the supporting cast of instruments appears to have multiplied, giving songs thematic and sonic influences you wouldn't have initially anticipated.

The 'twee' shackles girls with guitars often find themselves bound by are again completely shattered, the vocal delivered more powerful, the guitar playing more intricate and lyricism ever more complete. It's often stated that good books help paint pictures in your minds eye, and Marling's songs are no different, her wordplay at it's extremely vivid best.

While the record as a whole is another wonderfully complete body of work, songs such as Devil's Resting Place, Master Hunter and Oncestandout especially during the 16-track collection, showcasing her ability to not only convey complete vulnerability through well placed personal pronouns, but adversely broadcast the power and passion that has seen her labelled a feminist icon by some.

In short; Marling proves that age is irrelevant, academia is acceptable and personification needn't be compulsory. She may be the daughter of a Baronet with links to the aristocracy, but that isn't a gimmick played upon. Public relationships and consequent break-up's with the front men of bands such as Noah & The Whale and Mumford & Sons are known about, but aren't explicitly explored. Marling has given birth to a creative niche for herself that allows her to operate on her own terms, an achievement that is ever more unique in today's musical landscape.

Having relocated to Los Angeles in order to further protect the sanctity of her privacy, Laura Marling remains as intriguing a proposition as a person as she is an artist. Wonderfully erudite whenever interviewed, she appears reluctant to embrace fame as many other artists do, the mystique she inadvertently shrouds herself in only further enhancing speculation regarding the person behind the music.

England has a proud history of producing generation defining female singer-songwriters; the likes of Polly Harvey and Kate Bush can attest to that much - however in Laura Marling, we have an artist not only capable of carrying on that fabled mantle, but dare I say, improving upon it as she does so.

Match Of The Day Is Broken, and It's in Desperate Need of Being Fixed

2013-04-22T19:00:00-04:00

Match Of The Day, much like it's many contributors, is fast growing old, tired and increasingly outdated. Whilst still perhaps continuing to service the needs of the BBC defined 'everyman', the staple highlights package's decent in to the vernacular and focus on the often-dull lowest common denominator has long started to alienate fans wanting more from their national broadcaster.

With the nation seemingly growing ever more aware of the tactical intricacies of the game, pundits such as Sky presenter and England coach Gary Neville are gaining favourable plaudits for providing expert insight, something which is clearly missing from the BBC's flagship football programme.

The likes of Alan Shearer, Alan Hanson, Mark Lawrenson, Garth Crooks and Martin Keown do little to help the dwindling cause, providing about as much entertaining and well balanced analysis as you'd expect from a John Terry lecture in to the merits of celibacy. Try as he might, host Gary Linekar is a lone diamond in dung, his poorly scripted, often crowbarred-in jokes only partially-forgiven on behalf of his natural charisma.

To remove all doubt; Match Of The Day needs reformatting, rebooting and dragging kicking and screaming in to the modern landscape of football journalism. Loosely scripted ad-libbed 'banter' may be Holy Grail for broadcasters such as Adrian Chiles, but we've come to expect more from our beloved Beeb. Their primary function should be to entertain and educate, not infuriate its loyal viewership, and this change needs to happen before its status as a treasured national institution is further cast in doubt.

The existing selection of pundits either needs replacing entirely or education in the art of proper prior planning, research and tactics. No longer can we accept that Shearer's role is to present us a hastily cut together package of a striker, only to then describe what we're watching verbatim as if his real job is to provide audio descriptions of the show for the blind. Surely the extensive research teams at the beckon call of BBC Sport can find ex-pros that actually paid attention during their coaching badges rather than providing us car crash television starring the likes of Sol Campbell and Michael Owen?

The division in expectancy within the viewing public seems simple enough to me; while a portion of viewers seem content with consuming purely match highlights, getting to enjoy the weekends goals and incidents without wanting an academic breakdown of proceedings; others, however, do.

Some of us don't simply want to know that a team is doing particularly well or horrifically badly justified by a five-minute clip of the game and 90-seconds of painstaking chit chat, in a show that lasts on average around 90-minutes long there should be more than enough room to satisfy both.

Why not, perhaps, spend the first hour of the programme showing nothing but interrupted extended highlights of the weekend's games, abandoning the rushed mid-highlight analysis that has begun to irk so many and satisfy so few. Football, and nothing but, won't offend anybody - rather, what it will allow is the final 30-minutes of the broadcast to be dedicated to real in-depth analysis of the weekends talking points, the burden of simply having to 'fit in' all of the remaining games done away with.

If the highlights get shown and the games get properly analysed, what would be so revolutionary about simply reformatting a show that's losing its purpose almost as quickly as people are losing their love for it? If Match Of The Day is suffering from a crisis of identity, surely nobody can be enjoying watching the show run in cringeworthy circle after cringeworthy circle chasing its own proverbial tail?

It's time for the people behind the programme, and BBC Sport as whole, to allow for some self-scrutiny and be brave enough to rescue a regularly failing show and provide a product that's fit for the 2013-2014 Premier League season. After all, if we can't look to our national broadcaster for industry defining coverage, then what hope have we got left?

Ellie Goulding Interviewed: "I Lost My Love Affair With Guitar Writing and Recording Halcyon"

2013-04-13T11:48:24-04:00

It's no longer such a rare occurrence to see a British act successfully conquer America; but before Mumford & Sons, before One Direction and before even Adele, Ellie Goulding was appearing on primetime television and performing for President Obama. Raj Bains caught up with Ellie to talk America, touring worldwide and second album Halcyon.

Sat laughing at something she'd found on StumbleUpon when I first meet her, a smile and a welcoming handshake immediately relax me into the conversation. In the few moments it takes to configure my MacBook to record the audio, Ellie tapping away on hers too, the snowy Yorkshire weather is discussed, as is the picture of Alexa Chung displayed as my desktop background. Refraining from asking if she had the aforementioned Miss Chung's number, I was soon enquiring about what life as pop-sensation Ellie Goulding fully entailed....

"We've got a completely new live set-up and a brand new way of playing live" Ellie explains as I ask her to describe her recent sell-out tours. "The album is still quite new though, so people are just as interested in the performance as they are the songs - Anything Could Happen is probably the standout from Halcyon though".

It's evident from just our open exchanges how passionate she is about the music she makes and performs. Acts of a similar stature can often make the promotional schedule and endless touring surrounding an album launch sound like an unwanted chore, but she admits that "I wouldn't go on stage if I wasn't confident in the songs and the performance, the shows have grown with me as an artist and a person so they're much more complex now".

"I think the performances have evolved fairly naturally" she says tentatively when I ask if it was a conscious decision to deliver a bigger live sound, "I write pop songs, but I think they have more about them than other records might".

Wondering how she coped with the expectations on her after the success of her debut record 'Lights' and how this affected her approach to playing live, she laughs before declaring "I'm obsessed with balancing the set-list! You can't play a set of just new material; it isn't fair on the crowd. I think you can compare a gig to something like a film or a play, it can't have highs and lows, I want it to be interesting throughout".

Recognising that her audiences are often younger than she is, she treats her shows by the same standard she expected from acts when she was a teenager, "when I went to gigs when I was younger I just wanted to hear songs I knew, it's euphoric singing along to every word - I remember going to see people like Jason Mraz and Less Than Jake!" she grins.

Discussing her second record Halcyon, and what went in to writing and recording it, she explained how it's sonic departure from Lights was born out of a change in sensibilities, "I lost my love affair with guitar whilst I was writing and recording this album, although saying that now, I think it's come back since I've released it. I remember I was really dead against using it much, I just wanted to try new things, so that's why there's more piano and harp then on Lights".

As a well-known champion of music new and old, I dug in to every music journalists generic question stash and asked what songs and artists had been an influence on Halcyon, and taking advantage of the close proximity of our computers, it wasn't long before a joint exploration of iTunes was underway. "I was listening to a lot of The National and Arcade Fire, Bjork as always too. Fleetwood Mac were on fairly often, and I'm a fan of more electronic stuff like Burial and Orbital, plus I fucking love Blood Diamonds".

However just like her debut record, Halcyon still feels like an album geared around her distinctive vocal, something that could have easily been drowned out if mismanaged on the heavier and bassier tracks included, "that was something I was desperate to avoid doing" she agrees, "I get fully involved with the production side of things on all of the tracks so my voice is always a focus".

Her sustained presence and ongoing success in America wasn't a result of the much-fabled record label masterminded campaign that one might initially jump to conclusions about either. Remarkably, her explosion in to the mainstream American music scene was as much a surprise to her as anyone else. "Lights went meeeeental!" she begins to regale, "the single was put out in the UK first and did absolutely nothing, but it climbed the American charts week-on-week all the way in to the Top 10".

Her reputation in the US has also seen her become somewhat of a poster-girl for electronic music, collaborations with producers such as Skrillex and Calvin Harris on top of a cameo in a Diplo video doing little but add fuel to the fire. "The US crowds tend to be a lot more energetic" is her initial response when asked about the differences between touring in the UK and America, "they're a lot more willing to show emotion too, we're a bit more self-conscious and introverted in England aren't we?" she concludes.

Due to her ever-growing status and fan base in the States, she now divides the majority of her time between England and America. "I'm conscious of keeping a happy union with both sets of fans, which I do really enjoy. There are perks of being at home touring in England though, I like exploring the cities I'm in and nobody recognises me when I've got my hat and glasses on!".

Ellie Goulding is a rarity in today's pop market; freely straddling the guises of earnest singer-songwriter and international pop sensation without breaking pitch or stride, her ability as a live musician, performer and vocalist has helped propel her career further than was ever anticipated. Down to earth, naturally funny, effortlessly polite and kind spirited, it wasn't very hard to see why so many people are glad to see her doing so well. Halcyon, like Lights before it, is a refreshingly unique pop record; full of honest lyricism, top class musicianship and bags of heart, all tied together by Goulding's signature vocal.

Welcome Back... Queens of the Stone Age

2013-04-13T11:05:08-04:00

The Queens are the unofficial kings of modern rock music according to Raj Bains, and he explains why their new release will prove him right.

Long overdue on the 3rd of June, Queens Of The Stone Age will finally release their sarcastically titled sixth studio album, '...Like Clockwork'. In time honoured Joshua Homme tradition, the record making process appears to have taken longer and been more fractious than initially anticipated, the current incarnation of the band changing personnel yet again, as if in indirect competition with Sugababes.

Marking their timely comeback with new single 'My God Is The Sun' on new label Matador, their trademark tropes of purposefully ambiguous lyricism, wonderfully experimental musicianship and mind-alteringly complex mid-track instrumentals do nothing but further wet the appetite to hear more new music.

Yet, however familiar the ingredients are to a new Queens project, the outcome is always a stark stylistic departure from what has come before, setting them apart from disappointingly predictable acts such as the Foo Fighters. What Homme and his array of collaborators manage to produce is a sensation similar to that of riding a roller-coaster for the first time; creating something you're guaranteed to enjoy, but is still new and different enough to keep things fresh and exciting.

To further punctuate their inherent adaptability, here's a highlight and direct quote from the press release that recently landed in my inbox; "As previously reported by the internets, ...Like Clockwork includes drums by Dave Grohl, Joey Castillo and Jon Theodore, and guest appearances by Sir Elton John, Mark Lanegan, Nick Oliveri, Trent Reznor, Jake Shears, James Lavelle, and Alex Turner." Finally what we've all been waiting for, Sir Elton putting the 'Queen' right back in to Queens Of The Stone Age.

Having secured a devoted following for themselves in the grey space between mainstream and cult, it's becoming increasingly difficult to deny that Queens' founder and frontman Joshua Homme has one of the greatest musical minds of his generation. Through a career straddling several decades via 'stoner-rock' pioneers Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age, Eagles Of Death Metal, Them Crooked Vultures and his personal anthology The Dessert Sessions; Homme is constantly lauded by his peers and generously critically acclaimed, yet he has largely managed to avoid publicity of his significant influence on the genre he continues set standards within.

Where his presence and influence has been most obviously felt closer to home is in the progression and expansion shown by the Arctic Monkeys over the past few years. Since producing their perception changing third album, Humbug, Homme has continued to keep close quarters with the band, lending vocals and opinion during the recording process of Suck It And See. Since his interjection, the band have gone from strength the strength, broadening their horizons and making sure they don't fall in to the much maligned repetitive pitfalls of British guitar bands than came before them, such as Oasis.

Rock music has been crying out for another great album to be released for some time now, and if the first single to be released from their forthcoming album and back-catalogue is anything to go by, Queens Of The Stone Age are the perfect band to remedy the stuttering genre.

* Single 'My God Is The Sun' is out now on Matador Records.
* '...Like Clockwork' is released in the UK on the 3rd of June and is available for pre-order.

iTunes Match - Review

2013-01-17T17:57:47-05:00

The Cloud

Apple have been pouring resources in to their 'iCloud' storage facility at a rate of knots over the past 18months; adapting both recently released hardware and software in order to fully incorporate the idea, therefore creating another limb of their much loved ecosystem. For those unfamiliar with the cloud concept, it's essentially a subscription based service Apple offer customers for the opportunity to have their own external hard-drive in the sky, meaning that your files don't live via a singular save, but are accessible, adaptable and kept up-to-date across all of your Apple devices in unison.

However, the idea of cloud storage in general is one that never really interested me until Apple announced their iTunes Match package. For £21.99 a year you can store your entire iTunes library in the cloud, giving you access to it across your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac and (lord have mercy on your soul) Windows PC, without losing any memory on the device itself, creating what should in theory become your own personalised version of Spotify - or something along those lines.

So after months of pondering I recently took the plunge; armed with a deck of gift cards amassed over Christmas I hit the subscription option and inadvertently sealed my fate for the proceeding 96 hours...

Step One: Gathering Information About Your iTunes Library

This process is relatively pain free in all honesty; it's just iTunes way of assessing your library before getting on with the more heavy-duty end of the procedure. In reality I don't think this bit took very long initially, maybe 20 minutes at the very most, but given that it had 10,000+ tracks to get familiar with, it's probably more than reasonable.

This might be a good time to mention that iTunes recognises all of the music in your library by the way, not just things bought through the iTunes store. This means then if you're like me, and your library is a strong concoction of ripped CD's from a bygone time, the occasional iTunes purchase and a substantial collection of morally-ambiguously acquired music, there's no need to fear, they'll accept it all.

Step Two: Matching Your Music With The iTunes Store

This is the stage of the process the developers at Apple pride themselves on. By using their connections with the music industry and their already substantial database of music, iTunes Match scours your library for anything that they already have to hand, and 'matches' them to their own copy and leaves it in your cloud space. For OCD organisers of their libraries this process is ideal; but for those feral users among us who fail to update the information of their music as meticulously as we do, I imagine this could come back with little or no reward.

For me, I'd say around 70% of my library was matched first time around, leaving only the music iTunes claimed to know nothing about needing to upload, but we'll get on to that bit in a second. The other handy thing Match does as standard is to update your collection's quality to 256kbps across the board, meaning many songs will actually benefit from an increase in quality when matched or uploaded.

Step Three: Uploading Artwork And Remaining Songs

AKA hell. With around 30% of my library in need of uploading to the cloud after matching had failed me, the last thing I anticipated was the following three-day battle with iTunes to move faster than snails pace in order to upload. Match refuses to upload songs to the cloud that don't have a certain bit-rate, meaning the audio quality of the song isn't up to Apple's high standards. The way around this was to create a playlist of the selection of songs, convert them all within iTunes to Apple's own AAC format and then restart the Match process from scratch.

This done, and iTunes having gone through steps one and two again increasingly quickly, the uploading process began again. This done, and iTunes having gone through steps one and two again increasingly quickly, the uploading process began again. This done, and iTunes having gone through steps one and two again increasingly quickly, the uploading process began again. Sorry, I'm not going senile. I did just write that out three times, annoying isn't it? Well that's exactly what iTunes match did for the next few days; get 10-20 songs in to the uploading process, fall over itself and start from the beginning, testing both my patience and sanity. With no energy left, I dimmed my Mac's screen, told it not to sleep and left it alone in it's troubled cycle until it had finally completed.

Verdict

In all honesty even as an ardent Apple fanboy, step three saw me question my belief in Apple. Perhaps the wifi signal I was using wasn't the fastest, but the performance was still unacceptable. Was it karma for the volume of music in my library for which money had never changed hands? Was an indication that post Steve Jobs the company he built was starting to crumble? My questions were answered when I finally started using the Match service itself.

It's beautiful, quick, easy to use and everything I'd imagined it to be. I updated my iPad and iPhone to incorporate it, created a separate iTunes library on my Mac so that it was available from there too. The past 96 hours of pain were almost immediately forgotten, my fickle heart won over by this minor miracle in cloud storage. Apple had delivered, and all was right in the world again.

That uploading process is as far am I'm aware the services biggest flaw, but given that competitors Google and Amazon don't yet have Match like technology, but entirely depend on the user uploading each independent track to their version of the iCloud, I'm happy I chose to stay Apple native when going down that road.

It was a true personal hell to get fully set-up, but I'd go through it all again at the drop of a hat if it meant I that I could carry on experiencing the service it created just after.

Top 10 Songs to Soundtrack Winter

2012-11-27T12:32:35-05:00

Winter isn’t all about Christmas Music; they’re a plethora of other season appropriate songs to settle down to should Wizzard and Noddy Holder be proving too much. Here’s a small selection of my favourite songs and artist that can help soundtrack winter just as well as anything with sleigh bells on it.

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10) White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes

A band made up of entirely bearded men wearing lumberjack shirts and heavy woolen knits - dressed for winter all year round.

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9) Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl - Elbow

Jingly keys and hushed vocals are the perfect accompaniment on a cold winters night.

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8) Youth - Daughter

Winter is a season of reflection on the year we’re about the leave behind; Daughter does hindsight beautifully.

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7) Snowship - Benjamin Francis Leftwich

Layered choir-esque vocals littered with tinges of regret. Yorkshire’s own Bon Iver...only better.

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6) Chapel Song - We Are Augestines

Who says you can’t wear a coat, gloves and sunglasses in a video and still release a serious record?

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5) Two Dancers (I) - Wild Beasts

Minimal drums and deep vocals; if the xx soundtrack summer, Wild Beasts claim winter as their own.

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4) Lifeline - Citizen Cope

Winter is the busiest time of year for the Samaritans; probably because of songs as beautifully tragic like this.

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3) Home - Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros

People travel home for Winter; Christmas and New Year were invented to bring families together; this says it wonderfully.

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2) The Funeral - Band Of Horses

Single-handedly proving that acoustic guitars aren’t the be all and end all of conveying emotion in music.

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1) Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) - Laura Marling

The greatest female singer-songwriter of her generation’s patriotic ode to winter is essential listening.

Top 10 Worst Christmas Songs Ever

2012-11-27T12:31:00-05:00

There’s that old saying that goes, “you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth” - and it couldn’t be anymore fitting than when applied to Christmas music. For every classic; there’s ten terrible records to boot. Here’s a list of ten that are best avoided, for everyone’s sakes.

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10) The Cheeky Girls - Boys and Girls (Xmas Time Love)

People bought this record. Actually spent their hard earned money on it. Jesus wept.

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9) I Believe - Robson And Jerome

Giving these two a recording career was one of Simon Cowell’s cruelest tricks to date.

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8) The Jackson 5 - Frosty The Snowman

The Jackson 5 were the darlings of Motown; but this Christmas effort is a cash-cow too far and blot on their otherwise impeccable record.

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7) The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)

A terrible band performing a terrible song containing a terrible pun. The only bell ends I’m aware of are signing this song.

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6) My Grown Up Christmas Wish List - Michael Buble

A man who has almost single-handedly attempted to hijack Christmas for his own. Releasing the same collection of bastardised Christmas classics two years running, it’s going to be another year of Buble suffocation.

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5) Cliff Richard - Mistletoe and Wine

Cliff Richard is cryogenically frozen for the majority of the year; only coming out to bore us for Christmas and WImbledon.

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4) Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah

A cover version too far for Leonard Cohen’s epic; a candle-laden pastiche of the late Jeff Buckley;s seminal cover.

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3) Stay Another Day - East 17

I genuinely don’t know how or why this has stood the test of time. Answers on a postcard please, I’m baffled.

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2) Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want - Slow Moving Millie

If Morrissey and Johnny Marr were to get what they wanted than Millie’s already slow movements would come to a stop. Unsurprising included on a John Lewis Christmas advert; the department stores festive efforts have been steadily going downhill since Ellie Goulding’s cover of Your Song.

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1) Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid 20

They didn’t know it was Christmas time in 1984, and they still don’t 20 years later. Busted, Jamelia, Travis and Dido are hardly the same calibre of artist that they included the last time around are they?

Top 10 Best Christmas Songs Ever

2012-11-27T12:28:39-05:00

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Everybody has their own personal preferences when it comes to Christmas music; one man’s idea of a classic is another’s nails down a chalkboard. With December not far away; here’s my countdown of ten essential Christmas songs to soundtrack the perfect holiday season.

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10) Mary's Boy Child - Boney M

Steel drums on a Christmas record, what’s not to love?

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9) Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon

Politics aside; this is one of Lennon’s best solo singles.

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8) It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Dean Martin

Crooners and Christmas go hand in hand; best to listen to the legends and not Buble.

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7) Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

Christmas isn’t always the happiest period for everyone unfortunately; Elvis unwillingly nods to seasonlly increased suicide and divorced rates.

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6) Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues Ft. Kirsty McColl

It’s the only Pogues song 90% of the British population know; highlight being able to sing ‘faggot’ as a child without reprimand.

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5) White Christmas - Bing Crosby

It’s a bona-fide classic; Nick Griffin is alleged to fully endorse it too.

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4) Winter Wonderland - Louis Armstrong

Many people have sung it; but nobody quite as well as Louis Armstrong.

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3) All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

Christmas is the cheesiest festive period going; and this is the perfect pop song to mark the occasion.

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2) Let It Snow - Frank Sinatra

Never mentions Christmas but is synonymous with it all the same. One of the few Christmas songs you don’t feel guilty listening to all year round.

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1) Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid ’84

It’s cheesy, it’s good willing and it’s perfect to sing along to, probably the greatest charity record ever made.

Albums Of The Year 2012

2012-11-06T21:48:03-05:00

It wasn’t easy whittling down my top 5 records of the year by any stretch of the imagination. With pragmatic approaches failing me, I took a more scientific approach; I had to listen to tracks again, check my iTunes ‘played’ counter and make mental for and against lists for each and every record in the running.

Honourable mentions to Lucy Rose, The Maccabees, Death Grips, Little Comets and Alt-J who were all in with a shout, and have all released albums this year well worth listening to, but fell at the final hurdle.

Granted, I’m taking this list a tad more seriously than the artists involved probably will, but as The Libertines once sang: “If you’ve lost your faith in love and music, oh the end won’t be long”.

5) Ellie Goulding - Halcyon

Halcyon evolves Ellie Goulding’s sound more than was expected. Still delivering original pop music of the highest order, she has built on her electronic roots and seems to have cast her guitar to one side. Expect production with an appreciation of space, catchy lyricism and flawless vocals.

Listen to: Only You, Figure 8, I Know You Care

4) Jack White - Blunderbuss

Blunderbuss was always going to be destined for greatness; the genius behind The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather was never going to disappoint, was he? Expect guitar riffs and musicianship of the highest quality and an almost certain appearance at next years Glastonbury Festival.

Listen to: Love Interruption, Sixteen Saltines, Blunderbuss

3) The xx - Coexist

The xx have managed to evolve without venturing too far away from the blueprint than saw their debut album do so well. Expect a bigger influence in sound from Jamie Smith and their trademark appreciation of minimalism, silence and space.

Listen to: Angels, Chained, Missing

2) Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Pop music has been lacking a good character in recent times. Lady Gaga has become a self parody and the quality of her music is well below par. With Lana Del Rey then, we have the full package; she has the much fabled ‘X-Factor’ if you will. Expect quality hip-hop production and perfectly stylised vocals.

Listen to: Video Games, Off To The Races, Diet Mountain Dew

1) Tame Impala - Lonerism

Their debut Innerspeaker was one of my favourite records of 2010 and their follow up effort is no different. By writing, recording and producing the majority of both albums, Kevin Parker is beginning to make a bit of a name for himself, and quite rightly so. Expect driving psychedelic rock, progressive songwriting and festival spotlight stealing sets throughout the summer.

Listen to: the whole record, in the order they intended it to be heard and preferably on vinyl

Lucy Rose - Interview

2012-11-06T21:23:50-05:00

Determination is something rarely discussed within the music industry; artists that possess it are often labelled as either 'hard working' or 'prolific' instead, but throughout my conversation with Lucy Rose it was her sheer determination that continually shone through. We spoke a few days before her debut record, Like I Used To, was released, and we discussed recording the album in her parent's living room, her upcoming headline tour and her not-so secret musical skeletons...

RB: There seems to be a common misconception that you've started a solo career on the back of working with Bombay Bicycle Club, but that isn't really the case is it?
Oh yeah, big time. When we toured Flaws I was still their support act, but because I sung on a few songs and became associated with the album, people seemed to think "she's become the girl that just tours with Bombay Bicycle Club", and ignored the fact I was making my own music the whole time I was supporting them. I wouldn't say I'm too bothered though, because it was a massive opportunity that they gave me for some exposure, and their fans have been wicked.

Which artist that's either no longer alive, or touring, do you wish you could have seen live?
Michael Jackson, that would've been pretty epic.

What was the gig that made you fall in love with live music?
Good question! I had such a bad taste in music when I was younger so I didn't go to any decent gigs. My first gig was Avril Lavigne and I'm not gonna lie, it was good! I'm going to have to go with that.

You're being compared liberally with other girls with guitars: the Laura Marlings, Ellie Gouldings and Kyla La Granges of the world, is that something you welcome?
In all honesty it doesn't really make a difference to me. People can compare me to whoever they want because they're all great artists you know, Laura Marling's fantastic, sometimes I wish I could write songs like she does!

Who would be your dream collaboration - be it a producer, band or artist?
Tina Turner.

Given that point then; if you were to have to sell your album on Dragon's Den, and describe your unique selling point, what makes you different to other artists, what would you say?
Hopefully musicality, but it's like trying to point out the best part of one of your children! I just hope it's received well in all honesty, but like I say I'm completely biased.

Who was the first person that made you want to pick up the guitar?
Probably my sister, because I just copied everything she did and she was playing music.

Some of the songs on the album have been around for quite a while haven't they? Acoustic sessions especially have been floating around on YouTube for some time.
Yeah some of them have been, but I only started writing 'Lines' and 'Watch Over' around last Christmas, so only a few weeks before we started recording the album really, so they're very new. But yeah some have been around for a while, I think 'Night Bus' has been there for almost 2 years now.

What is your favourite song to cover?
Oh god I'm not very good at covers! If I had to do one I'd probably do 'Cry Me A River' by Justin Timberlake. Big tune.

Up until now you've been really independent and done everything yourself, your first few singles were self recorded and released weren't they?
Yeah, up until 'Lines' I was unsigned, and I only got signed a couple of months ago in all honesty. All the singles and even the album was entirely self-funded, so at the point of getting signed I already had that finished. Most of the album was recorded at my parent's house, because we didn't really have any other options!

Not to steal an entire format or anything, but what one tune would be your desert island disk?
One song? Probably 'I'll Get By' by Shirley Bassey - I'm not a massive Shirley Bassey fan, it's just that song but I love it so much.

You're on tour now, but was there any favourite cities or standout memories from your previous jaunt?
I think Leicester was particularly good because it was a bit weird! It was a Sunday, and I felt like it was just going to be one of those days; we got there and the owner wasn't around and the venue wasn't open for us to get in, so we had to sit outside in the van until around 7pm. By the time we'd rushed all of the equipment in and sound-checked we needed to run out again and get some food, and we discovered that there was this massive queue outside the venue waiting. By the time we got on stage we had a full, steaming little room waiting for us and it was a little bit special!

It was a busy festival season as well for you wasn't it, how was that? I saw somewhere that you've taken to stage diving?
Oh my goodness! What was I thinking? The festivals on the whole were so good, but the first one I stage dived at was Field View. I was headlining the whole Saturday Night, and I was a bit like "I am not headlining material." Everyone was really drunk and raring to go, and I've got to go sit on stage on a stool with an acoustic guitar! So we all sort of 'went for it' a bit more during the festivals and upped our game so it was really fun, it's been a really good summer.

Do you still get stage fright?
I get nervous now thinking about it! Hopefully when I'm on the tour itself I'll feel OK, but definitely right now I'm getting nervous about it all.

What would you be doing with yourself if you hadn't 'made it'?
Definitely an accountant. I was going to do geography at Uni, but both my Dad and Sister are accountants.

Her debut album ‘Like I Used To’ is out now, and you can listen to it below.

website - www.lucyrosemusic.com

twitter - @lucyrosemusic

listen to her debut album below:

Our Bovine Public

2012-09-23T08:53:58-04:00

I was told just recently that it wasn't a writer's job to be liked, but to challenge the way people think. That said, it seems that while the majority of our club's fan base have spent the best part of the start of the season pointing fingers at one another, passing around 'the blame' quicker than Danielle Lloyd through the Spurs dressing room, the real issues have been cast to one side, ignored.

We have a new coaching staff, style of play, shuffled squad and attitude about the way we progress, yet expectations aren't being properly managed. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club isn't changing, in reality, it's evolving, it always has been and it always will. What seems to have been forgotten then, is that it doesn't take Charles Darwin to realise that evolution doesn't occur overnight.

Harry Redknapp consistently over-achieved during his time at Tottenham. He was brought in to return stability to the club after the failed Ramos experiment and produced results beyond anyone's wildest dreams. However, that was then, and this is now. What is done is done. We've said our thank you's and waved our goodbye's. Yet; some fans have taken it upon themselves to don Redknapp masks, sing his name and beg for his reinstatement. Short of acoustically serenading the man outside his bedroom in Sandbanks, they couldn't be behaving much more pathetically.

Redknapp at Tottenham was like a piece of chewing gum stopping a plumbing leak. Initially intended to be a temporary fix, the gum performed better than expected, and the leak appeared to have been fixed. However, when the time came that the gum began to erode and peel away, a decision had to be made; do we place another temporary piece of gum on the existing plumbing, knowing that it will do a job for a short while, or gut the entire system, throw out all of the old parts and install brand new fixtures that could last for decades to come? Harry Redknapp left the club for more than just footballing reasons, I've written about that at length before, and I'm not prepared to do it again.

A lot has been said about the recent atmosphere at home games, and how some peoples premature dissatisfaction is being aired. While I agree with the sentiment that there is no right or wrong way to support the club, this isn't what this piece is about. These so called 'boo boys' don't need condemning, and neither do the Redknapp supporters group. They're not worth getting mad about, in the same way that it's a waste of time getting mad with racists and conservatives. It's just a shame you can't ignore the ignorant. Their anger comes from a love for the club, and they simply need educating in why's and how's, after all, there's nothing people are scared of more than change.

This in-fighting between fans, online arguments, agenda driven stunts and plans, it just isn't part of the Tottenham Hotspur we all know and love. There's a club already is existence that hate each-other, moan about their board and congregate in their soulless bowl to complain; so if that's how you enjoy your football, I suggest you take your black bin liners in hand and join them. If not, we've got a home game tomorrow, win lose or draw, stand up and sing up. In case you haven't noticed, it's the way we like to do things around here.

Daniel Levy is the best chairman in the league and he's proven it time and time again. His methods may be unorthodox, his main concern is and always will be his business and sentiment may be beyond him, but he continues to do his best by the club and keep us competitive both on and off of the football pitch. I'm not going to sit and quote stats about how he's conducted the club's dealings, the badge means more than just balance sheets to us, but on a purely footballing level, his intentions have been clear in backing his manager and buying in to the long term sustained success of the team. By bringing in young players for reasonable fee's on manageable contracts, he is making sure that the club is living well within it's means. As well as transfers, we've funded what is probably the best training facility in the world, and work is finally starting to take shape on the new stadium too.

In modern day football, debt and financial fair play are two things that can kill a club and stop them right in their tracks; I don't have to look far, I live in Leeds. I grew up in a city with a title worthy football club playing regular Champions League football to packed crowds, while Tottenham languished in mid-table mediocrity, periodically flirting with relegation. Now, via two spells in administration, a few years in the third tier of the football league and under the wrinkled iron fist of Ken Bates; Leeds are a mediocre Championship side, regularly selling their best players, failing to sell out games and rarely opening the full ground to the public, all because of an irresponsible chairman responding to restless fans ambitions for further overnight success. All that could have been avoided had they been run by a man half as smart as someone like Daniel Levy.

Andre Villas-Boas has so far been accused of being a fraud, a manager with no clue and a failure. I repeat, he has been in charge for a total of five competitive games. His objective at the club was never to carry on in the manner that the previous manager had left for him, after all, that would have been his failure. There is a common misconception that he inherited a winning team on the verge of being part of a title race, had he taken charge in January, that may be a point, but he didn't. In the second half of last season we were, at times, terrible. We had a thirteen point lead in third place and still managed to finish fourth. We were tactically inept, tired, uninspired and showing no signs of improvement whatsoever. The mistakes we are making this season aren't new ones, they were there under the last manager too, but given the right amount of time they will be worked out, and we're already showing signs of doing so already. Our performances this season thus far have shown more areas of improvement, more potential and more spirit than they have for almost a year previously. The away performance at Reading was a clean-sheet away from perfect and the Lazio game then displayed our defensive capabilities. Performances going forward building on both of those can do nothing but bode well for our prospects.

A new manager, with a relatively new squad being taught how to play a new brand of football isn't going to click instantaneously. Patience is required; after all, good things come to those who wait. Where Redknapp was a simple woodwork teacher, Villas-Boas lectures quantum physics. The players have the potential and ability to learn and apply what they are being taught, those that couldn't have been sold and loaned out already, and when they do more results won't be far away. This season, as strange as it sounds, is as much about style as it is substance. While losing isn't enjoyable for anyone, where we finish in the league this season isn't really a huge priority, I'm fairly confident in saying that if we continue to show proof of tangible improvement all season, but finish, say, tenth, Villas-Boas will still be charge next season.

Expectation management, a topic flirted with earlier, is something we're going to have to come to terms with this season. It's more about how we finish, not where we finish. It's about why we made that signing, not who that signing was. The club as whole has adopted an entirely new culture almost overnight and it's proving too much for some to take. Rather than classing it as a clichéd 'transitional season', think of it more of a preparation one. A season away from making major challenges in order to sort yourself out bottom up can do teams the world of good, look at how Newcastle used their relegation to adopt a new mentality and how well it's done them in the long run.

Even Manchester City, if you forget about the vulgar amounts of money involved, took a season to bed in a majority of their new signings under their new manager before waiting a season to properly launch their successful title challenge. If in exchange for this season of frustrating results, experimental line-ups and chances handed to fringe players means that in the long run, for the next decade Tottenham have more of a chance of making serious challenges in all competitions, doesn't it make sense to support that?

Rome wasn't built on transfer deadline day, no matter what Jim White tries to tell you. I've always been told that there's no such thing as a stupid question, however I beg to differ, and I have some examples: Why don't we do all our business at the beginning of the window? Did we really haggle with Madrid over £5million just so that we could enter an agreement where we sell them Gareth Bale next season? Signing Moutinho was essential; we're going to be rubbish now, what was Levy thinking? How hard is it to just go and spend £30million on Llorente and get a deal done?

Our summer transfer window showed an amazing statement of intent, yet it's somehow being portrayed in a negative light. No matter who was in charge, Harry, Andre, Jesus; Luka Modric was always going to become a Real Madrid player the second they wanted him. His conduct aside, a player of his class deserves to play Champions League football, and he's already starting to show his ability in La Liga. Rafael Van Der Vaart was sold for a profit to a club that he and his family call home, and as much as we loved him, that's an incredible deal for a player pushing thirty with hamstrings softer than Jack Wilshere, too unfit to play a full game of premier league football. In their place came younger, more positionally adaptable players, ready made to improve our squad and fit our system. With the closing of the transfer window, mentalities such as lack of rotation, talismanic reliance and having only one way of playing left the club too. We successfully went from having a good first eleven to having a great squad, something that can't be undervalued. This gives us chance to use the busiest part of the season to gel together the main part of our squad, before adding perhaps maybe one or two more players if needed in windows to come.

We've got QPR at home this weekend and we might not beat them, but it won't be the end of the world. Everyone needs to take a big step back and have a good long look at the bigger picture; we have a good young manager with a great young squad in one of the best training facilities in world football, all looking forward to pulling on and playing for the shirt in a brand new stadium in the heart of Tottenham sooner rather than later. We have a huge future ahead of us and the project in place to see as much success come with it as possible. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if this is what a Tottenham Hotspur crisis has become, I'll take them all day long, they're a damn sight less depressing then they used to be. The club have set their sights high and have put in place the resources with which they think they can achieve them, but nothings guaranteed in football, we might end up failing spectacularly. Tottenham Hotspur having high aspirations for themselves, not willing to accept success from lower expectations? I wish there was an appropriate famous quote about the club I could use to sum this all up...

(Originally Posted on The Fighting Cock, The Sabotage Times and Puerile Ambivalence)

Go Compare: The Arctic Monkeys Vs Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant

2012-08-30T16:33:51-04:00

I spent this mornings commute to work in the steady Yorkshire rain in a similar way that I often do; dead to the world, barely awake, and listening to the Arctic Monkeys at a tinnitus inspiring volume. Hardly an earth shattering revelation I'll grant you, but the man sat to my left watching an episode of The Office triggered a chain thoughts that began to snowball in my minds eye. It slowly became obvious (to me, at least) that the parallels between the four Arctic Monkeys records to date and the four Gervais/Merchant television projects are undeniable. I'm well aware that the previous statement warrants an explanation, if only to prove that the link I believe I've unearthed isn't as tenuous as it first seems, so explain I shall...

*Album One & Project One*
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not -vs- The Office
The instant classics. The releases that catapulted everyone involved into comparative superstardom. Heralded as breakthrough geniuses and the best in their genre, bringing a new angle and style to their respective fields and perfecting them first time, each debut is undeniably different class. The hype that surrounded them both at the time of release was palpable, everyone that was anyone was talking about them and they became phenomenons in their own right, collecting an impressive array awards to match. The bestselling DVD boxed-set of all time and the fasting selling debut album to boot, the facts and numbers just don't lie. They both share a raw charm, low budget labours of love that excel due to the talent behind them rather than any third party mainstream influence.

*Album Two & Project Two*
Favourite Worst Nightmare -v- Extras
The hype surrounding both second efforts was incredible. Were they one release wonders? Could they do it again? Would the pressure be too much for them? The press was at a frenzy in anticipation for the new material from both, a build up so grand that the result would either be that they would sink or swim. And swim they both did. Essentially, retaining a very similar template to their first efforts, but changing enough not to be criticised too widely for doing the same thing, the success continued and their starts continued to rise. The awards kept rolling in, the critics kept handing out the five star reviews, the sales kept dwarfing competitors and bank accounts continued to swell. Neither pushed the boat out too far, but both created bodies of work worthy of their hype and did more than enough to avoid the fall from grace that could have occurred if they had been unthinkably substandard.

*Album Three & Project Three*
Humbug -v- An Idiot Abroad
Out with the old and in with the new. Away went the familiar templates that had sold millions and in their place arrived fresh innovation. Oh how the single minded recoiled in horror. Opinion was divided, fair-weather fans jumped ship in their moronic droves and new fans were gained in their place. Both worked with new people, instead of Gervais, Karl Pilkington took centre stage in their latest project, his brand of humour proving too much for people who just wanted to see another sitcom, but sleep wasn't lost over the type of viewer that just wanted to see the stupid Brent dance on loop. And the Arctic's did the same, desert sessions with Joshua Homme sculpted an album unlike their previous efforts, progression in the eyes of the educated, regression in the minds of those without. Both also adopted new looks, Gervais trimmed down and started wearing mirrored sunglasses everywhere (the all-black outfits remained) and Merchant grew a beard and bought more expensive and fashionable spectacles (prescription, unlike his partner). The Arctic's grew their hair and started dressing like they wanted to be in the Horrors, gone were the days of stripy jumpers over polo shirts and crew cuts from the local barbers...for everyone other than drummer Matt Helders that is.

*Album Four & Project Four*
Suck It And See -v- Life's Too Short
An amalgamation of all that had gone before; previously successful techniques revamped and re-explored married with new ideas employed to brilliant effect. Popularity and support from critics/fans alike soon rivalled their initial outputs. The evolution was obvious in both, a certain confidence was now evident in both pieces of work, as was an appreciation for their own talent and enjoyment of creativity, rather than becoming slaves to expectation as so many before them have fallen foul to. Cementing their places as artists at the top of their game in their own respects, both managed balance quality with success, something that is becoming increasingly lost in the world of music and television, the success of mainstream dubstep and shows like 'TOWIE' speak for themselves, and only help further highlight the continued quality of the Arctic Monkeys and the Gervais/Merchant partnership.