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Latest favourites include Maroon 5, Keane, The Delays, The Thrills, Zutons and Josh Rouse. Les Fleur by 4 Hero is a nice tune for running through meadows on crack.
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Sondre Lerche is an incredibly talented young Norwegian singer / songwriter. He's released two CDs - Faces Down and Two Way Monologue. Lots of strings and horns and 1960s stlye folk pop. He sounds like the lovechild of Nick Drake, Bowie and The Beatles. Very nice melodies and an amazing vocal range.
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Listening to Chutes too Narrow by The Shins gives you that feeling of hazy giddy excitement that you get when you torch a BMW.
With a collection of very diverse tracks, The Shins demonstrate their extraordinarily wide ranging talent and James Mercer again astounds with his emotion, expressiveness and amazing vocal range.
The CD starts with 'Kissing the Lipless' which, with its Townshend-esque riffs and quirky tempo exudes as much energy and excitement as a team of crack-fuelled Chavs delving in a TK Maxx bargain bucket.
'Mine's Not a High Horse' is reminiscent of the Shins beginnings in the guise of Flake Music. If you thought the harmonies on the Home and Away theme were good, wait until you hear this.
'So Says I' - authentic 60s indie pop.
James Mercer at his best on 'Young Pilgrims' and 'Pink Bullets' - an acoustic guitar, haunting melodies and one of the best voices alive.
'Saint Simon' is the best track on the album by far. Not many people can make songs like this. At certain points this song brought to mind a group of strange backward pagan folk wearing rabbit, goat and duck heads revolving around a maypole on a remote Scottish island, perhaps about to sacrifice a little girl or a policeman who had arrived from the mainland. This they are doing to ensure they have a better fruit and vegetable crop next year. But that's another story. This is a song to listen to with your eyes shut, a can of Stella in one hand and a fat spliff in the other.
'Fighting in a Sack' picks up the tempo again. Joyous whoops, wild harmonica and James Mercer sounding like a talented, slightly calmer Perry Farrell.
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In no particular order, here's a list of my current top ten desert island iPod essentials:
_____..- Know Your Onion by The Shins
_____..- Girl Inform Me by The Shins
_____..- 1990 Nightmare by Idlewild
_____..- Miserere by Allegri
_____..- Flower by Eels
_____..- I Was Made to Love Magic by Nick Drake
_____..- I Love My Car by Belle and Sebastian
_____..- There's Too Much Love by Belle and Sebastian
_____..- So Long by Guster
_____..- Us by Mull Historical SocietyHere's other bands and artists that I enjoy listening to:
Battlefield Band (why do I like them if a) I'm not Scottish and b) I wasn't born in the 60s? Well, you try listening to any other music if you're fell running and trying to keep up with two very fit dobermans....)
Flaming Lips
The Posies
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
OAR
Elliott Smith
Billy Bragg
Death Cab for Cutie
Beulah
The Pogues (Shane MacGowan is an utter genius who has an amazing voice. He carried me through many drunken university nights)
Sodastream
Aqualung
Neutral Milk Hotel
Dispatch
Matt Pond PA
Of Montreal
Spacehog (the acoustic version of Carry On is worth tracking down)
Dashboard Confessional
The Delgados
Rufus Wainwright
The Coral
The Essex Green
The Postal Service
Boo Radleys (Find The Answer Within is a fine song)
The Sunshine Fix
Turin Brakes
Röyksopp (check out the video of Remind Me here).This section will be updated as I come across other gems. Meanwhile, if you know of music you think I'd like, please let me know.
