Now That's What I Call A Music Thread: 2009

[LittleDaniel]

How's the new Mountain Goats? I can't "acquire" it yet, I'm not on my computer.

[YI]

Just making my first way through now. Seems pretty good. Nothing jumps out like the early tracks on the last album...which might be a good thing, cos the last one kind of tailed off a bit.

[Turbo Yannis]

New Say Anything is really rather good:

Despite the face it blatantly rips off:

[YI]

Sweet Jesus...that's fucking shit. :/

However;

is a thing of epic-ness.

Edited September 3, 2009 by YI

[Cactus Drags]

That Say Anything track was disappointing :/

Is Big Pink a new release? Available anywhere?

[METALMAN]

big pink? named after the Band album I presume?

[Turbo Yannis]

I appear to be the only person in the world to actually like the new Say Anything song

[LittleDaniel]

My friend wants me to take him to go see Matt & Kim, I've checked them out, seem like fun, anyone seen them before? Are they a good live band?

Oh, and the openers are Amanda Blank and The Intelligence. Never heard of either.

[Turbo Yannis]

Aren't Matt & Kim that pair that got naked in New York for their video? If so, that's a catchy song.

[LittleDaniel]

Yeah, I think so.

After checking out the openers, neither are impressing. Amanda Blank sounds like what would happen if Lil Kim and M.I.A. joined forces.

[LittleDaniel]

Also, Brokencyde is coming to town in October. I had showed some friends that video, might go for a laugh.

[YI]

So thoughts on recent stuff;

"1372 Overton Park" by Lucero - Sounds like a Bruce Springsteen tribute band maybe a smidge too often, but an unreal album. "Smoke", "Can't Feel A Thing", "Sixes & Sevens", "Halfway Wrong", "The Devil And Maggie Chascarillo" and "What Are You Willing To Lose" are all absolutely epic. Loving the horns. Going to be one of my favourites of the year.

"Chasing Hamburg" by Polar Bear Club - Been DYING to hear this. Their first album took quite a while to grow on me and I think this will be the same. Not as 'catchy', but there's some definite standout tracks. "Light Of Local Eyes" is absolutely HUGE, "Living Saints" of course is fucking awesome, really enjoying "Old Fisher Burial Ground", "Chasing Hamburg" and "See The Wind" as well. As of yet, not one of the better punk-rock albums of the year, but still great.

"The Life of the World to Come" by The Mountain Goats - Nothing jumped out as much as songs on the previous two albums, which might be a good thing. "Genesis 3:23", "Hebrew 11:40" and "Romans 10:9" are probably my favourites. Gets a little boring in parts, but it's a nice album.

"Ignore The Ignorant" by The Cribs - Johnny Marr has basically added nothing at all to The Cribs...besides occasional innoproptiate guitar twiddles. Typical Cribs affair but there's some stunning songs on here, which begs the question, why pick the dullest piece of shit on the thing as your lead single? "We Share The Same Skies" (total Smiths riff though), "Ignore The Ignorant", "We Were Aborted" and "Hari Kari" are great.

"Daisy" by Brand New - Probably the least accessible Brand New album to date. It's 'weird' in places and easily Brand New at their most confrontational and least 'catchy'. But it's fantastic. "You Stole" is absolutely unbelievable and easily one of the best tracks Brand New have ever produced, lyrically gorgeous and musically everything Brand New are about. Also a big fan of "Bought A Bride", "Daisy", "Vices", "In A Jar" and "Noro".

"Gold Country" by Chuck Ragan - Chuck's first album was a great acoustic album. He's added more instruments to the mix here and has gone for a more 'country' style. I'm not 100% sold on it as yet. He has such an awesome downtrodden gruff voice that went amazing with his straight acoustic stuff, that struggles to shine through in lots of tracks here. Works fabulous in "Don't Say A Word" though. Also like "Glory" and "Get 'em All Home".

"Weight Of Air" by The Sidekicks - First heard of these guys last year with their "Sam EP". They are filed alongside the likes of The Flatliners, Loved Ones, Cut Ups etc. A bit 'blues' twinged punk, with gruff vocals...but these guys could also possibly be filed next to indie bands like The Cribs etc. Some of the songs on here are really poppy, but some miss the mark a bit. Really like "Almost The Same", "Day-Staring", "Like The Tides" and "Plans".

"Iron Front EP" by Strike Anywhere - CANNOT WAIT for the album now. The album tracks, "Hand Of Glory" is absolutely unreal and follows on a lot from last album "Dead FM". "Failed State" is the other album track, it's slower and sounds more like an "Exit English" era track and again is bloody awesome. The 2 non-album tracks are catchier, more in the "Dead FM" vain. "Orphan Age" is good, but "Twilight's Last Gleaming" is absolute fucking incredible. Possibly the most obviously catchy chorus SA have produced, but it works so damn well. So...so...so excited for the album. I think it might be one of the better releases of the year.

"Veil Of Ignorance" by Raised Fist - What a voice! Seriously, one of the most original/best vocalist on the go. Really not feeling "Wounds" (but quite like "My Last Day"), but outside of that, HOLY FUCK!! HARDCORE AT ITS BEST!! Get "Slipping Into A Coma" on the go, it's impossible not to get your head rocking to that intro/bassline. "Friends & Traitors", "They Can't Keep Us Down", "Afraid" (FUCK YEAH!), "Slipping Into Coma", "City Of Cold", "Disbelief" and "Never Negotiate"...far too fucking good!

"Kings & Queens" by Jamie T - No "Fire Fire". "Fire Fire" is seriously UNREAL, one of the best punk-rock songs I've heard in shit knows how long. Guess it wouldn't fit with the rest of the album. The dodgy electronics that plagued the first album make reappearences on here, but his songwriting's improved ten-fold, there's still some total howlers on here though. But "Sticks 'N' Stones" has been one of my singles of the summer and "British Intelligence", "The Man's Machine" and "Castro Dies" are damn good too.

"Bells" by Laura Jansen - "Single Girls" is such a gorgeous song. Her voice brilliant. Really nice background album, but still with enough character to be an interesting listen as well. Her cover of Kings Of Leon's "Use Somebody" is great too. "Single Girls", "Wicked World", "Soljah" and "Come To Me" are current favourites after my first listen.

Edited September 5, 2009 by YI

[METALMAN]

Why is Mountain Goats all bible passages?

[Skummy]

So. New Sparks album. Not sure about it. It's not really an album, though, it's a "musical", and as such doesn't really sound like a Sparks album. It's pretty good, but obviously the focus is on telling a story, and on making the songs able to be reproduced by a cast, so it never has the Mael brothers fingerprints on it as much as I might like - it's the worst thing they've done this decade, but that's up against some incredibly stiff competition.

Also, heard the new Muse song today. It's just a horribly blatant rip-off of "Atlas" by Battles, what's that all about?

[METALMAN]

Which Muse song is it we are talking about here? All the new ones are terrible, you need to be more specific. >_>

[Skummy]

I haven't a clue what it's called, I heard it in a club for the first time today, and the horrible talky-DJ just said it was "a new one by Muse". But it's got the same kind of pseudo-glam drumbeat as "Atlas", and the riff sounds almost identical in places too.

[METALMAN]

That'll be Uprising I think. And yeah, it is terrible. I found it boring more than anything else really.

I'd never noticed how alike it is to "Atlas" before. It's quite uncanny.

Unfortunately with it being Muse it is also being hailed as the most amazing thing to happen to music ever and NO ONE ELSE has ever OR WILL EVER do music like that EVER.

[Cactus Drags]

That intro riff to Uprising is what I imagine it'd sound like if Billy Idol's White Wedding was in a car crash with the Doctor Who theme.

[YI]

I forgot how fucking awesome "The Harsh Effects Of Time" by The Brothers Martin is...I just thought of them just then for some reason and gave their myspace a deeks, it's like a song New Order forgot to write - http://www.myspace.com/brosmartin

Now I need to track the album down again.

Also, the new Owen album has leaked.

[Mr Evil Guy]

My friend wants me to take him to go see Matt & Kim, I've checked them out, seem like fun, anyone seen them before? Are they a good live band?

Oh, and the openers are Amanda Blank and The Intelligence. Never heard of either.

GO GO GO GO GO GO GO

I've been pimping out Matt & Kim all year! Fantasticness!