Music

Scarlett Johansson: Anywhere I Lay My Head

Oh man, this had so much potential. A super-cool actress covering Tom Waits with guitars by Nick Zinner, production by Dave Sitek of TV On the Radio and backing vocals by David Bowie. Instead we get three minutes of something that sounds like Annie Lennox doing afrobeat-noir. I’d cry but I’m just glad I haven’t heard her murder the Jesus & Mary Chain.

Kylie Minogue: In My Arms

Morrissey once sang, “No it’s not like any other love, this one is different because it’s us,” a sentiment perfectly encapsulated in Kylie’s latest single. Through sticking to a strict three and a half minute pop formula and toning down the faux-electro styling of previous single ‘Wow’, Kylie yet again delivers an immediate, addictive, and above all entertaining hit.

Jam on Bread: I Wish I Was A Manatee

Manchester’s ukulele hero releases his debut single, a wistful tale of his unfulfilled wish to become a 500kg sea cow because “they don’t have to pay council tax or worry about terrorist attacks”. It’s one of the year’s most beautiful, tender tracks and I’d be tempted to join him in his underwater paradise – but then I’d miss out on hearing great music such as this.

Deathcab For Cutie: I Will Possess Your Heart

Apart from an over-long intro, this song is a near-flawless Deathcab track. There’s nothing new or groundbreaking here, just a healthy dose of gentle emo from way back when emo was actually good. I found myself wistfully singing along after my second listen, too, evidence that that old Deathcab magic is still alive and well.

Tokyo Police Club: Elephant Shell

After much hype, a string of successful singles and some superb E.Ps, Tokyo Police Club have finally unleashed their full-length album. I say full length, but you’ll have difficulty finding a song on Elephant Shell that is over three minutes.

Moby: Last Night

A greatest hits compilation can mean either that creativity has dried up or that the record company is after milking a successful artist. Fortunately on this showing the 2006 release of Go: The Very Best Of Moby can be adjudged as the latter and any cynicism can be dispatched to whence it came as the genre-defyingly awkward New Yorker tackles the musical Marmite that is the concept album.

Martina Topley-Bird: The Blue God

I’d always had Martina Topley-Bird down as the sort of musician who makes the perfectly acceptable but offensively bland background music. You know, the sort of thing that trendy young professionals put on during dinner parties in a vain attempt to prove that they’re still down with the kids; the perfect accompaniment for your organic asparagus.

Jay Sean: My Own Way

Right, ok, the jig is up, Jay Sean. I was prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt after that cruel single review debacle, but this album just takes the biscuit. This is a joke…right?

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip: Angles

Dan and Pip are re-writing the current hip-hop rulebook. But, having signed to Radio One DJ Rob Da Bank’s record label and ignoring major label advances, the point of their rulebook is that there are no rules; no boundaries to Pip’s effervescent lyrical flow and no monotone in Dan’s metronomes. Take ‘Tommy C’ for example, a song that likens beauty to the moment Tommy Cooper died onstage to rapturous applause and laughter at his act.

Born Ruffians: Red, Yellow and Blue

Sometimes, there comes along an album that is so supremely listenable and fun that it makes you want to smile and text everyone you know, telling them how lovely they are. This debut from Canadian cuties Born Ruffians is one of those albums.

Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

The name says it all. A deliberate misspelling of the French for ‘good winter’, Bon Iver makes hushed, creaky folk music. This perfectly pleasant predictability characterises this LP. Recorded in a hunting cabin in northwest Wisconsin, it is sadly missing the terror of being lost in the woods, the intimately epic old-time spirit of moonshine and wolves, the endless American endlessness.

Atlas Sound: Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

“The dream of one summer, this last summer I had. It’s almost as if I had one continuous dream and the product of achieving it is the album you have here…” So says Bradford Cox (frontman/provocateur of Atlanta, Georgia’s ‘ambient-punk’ five piece, Deerhunter) of his debut venture under solo moniker, Atlas Sound.

Sounds of the City

Day for Airstrikes have been paradoxically quiet since the imperious, sledgehammer of an album Widows was released in 2006.

Music

The Kooks @ Apollo 23.04.08

Coming onstage to the sound of Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’, The Kooks did exactly that; they rumbled along nicely without ever really hitting top gear, knocking out a mixture of new and old tracks to an ever-appreciative audience. ‘Time Awaits’ being a blistering highlight in what was altogether a rather subdued set.

Jim Noir @ The Roadhouse 25.04.08

Having arrived in time to catch the end of Revenge Tragedies’ last tune, whose selling point is David Bowie’s vocal clone, the main attraction at Jim Noir’s album launch homecoming was about to roll into action.

¡Forward, Russia! @ Academy 3 27.04.08

Johnny Foreigner are stuck in Amsterdam. Lucky them. Youthful Leeds quintet The ABC Club save the day and their Interpol styled tunes are interesting enough, although the stagnant stage presence doesn’t excite.

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip @ Club Academy 21/04/08

At a DLS vs SP gig you get it all. Showmanship, social commentary, witty banter, beats that your heart skips, and a compare named Polar Bear to fill in the gaps between songs by dishing out spoken word about a dream-scenario first kiss.

Levellers Interview

Levellers have just completed a 20th anniversary tour and for an ageing band they can still pack an energetic punch live, so much so that they’re packing again to jet off for some summer festivals. Bassist Jeremy spoke to Luke Dennis at their Manchester Apollo gig about kids, the press and dodgy knees.

Interview: Opeth

Opeth took a while to get going. They didn’t tour until their second album, Morningrise. But now, thirteen years on, they are signed to Roadrunner records, headlining Metal Hammer Defenders of the Faith tour with Arch Enemy, and are on the bill for Bloodstock 2008. Has Roadrunner affected the band’s fifteen minute songs?

The Thirst: Sail Away

If we agree that The Wombats' great stumbling block is their inability to write a song to cater for their aggravatingly catchy two-line choruses, then let me introduce you to The Thirst, by all intents and purposes the new Wombats. The only twist is that The Thirst have left out the chorus. The only this could have been worse was if it been the David Gray cover I had feared.