‘Box Of Secrets’ suffers from occasional patches of tedium where the pair sound a little short on ideas and take unfortunate turns towards becoming an omnisexual Nine Black Alps.
Partie Traumatic is the sexiest, most outrageous outright pop album of ’08 so far, hard not to love and (seemingly) even easier to lay.
Cooked up in a session originally meant to spawn a batch of B-sides, ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ instead debuts 10 songs that outstrip LC!’s debut album at every turn.
With mainstream success guaranteed, by over-reaching themselves Coldplay are perfectly placed to decree the shape of the new rock order with album five. King Bono is dead; long live the kings.
Just when The Bad Seeds seemed content to settle into middle-age as a cabaret gospel showband – albeit an extraordinary one – they’ve bared their teeth again.
‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ might be fashionably rough around all the right edges, but there’s definitely still enough lyrical wit and musical beauty contained herein to warrant your attention. And, at times, your adoration.
For now ... this is a very fine record. Not Herculean exactly, but certainly something that NME loves.
More than anything else, there’s a feeling that ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ might actually be their best album in over a decade. In other words, not quite the fabled, oft-promised “Best one since fookin’ ‘Definitely Maybe’!” but certainly the best one since fookin’ …Morning Glory’.
‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ finally proves that rather than being a messy gimmick, Fucked Up are a startlingly talented punk rock band.
‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ is a stunning record, a career-best from a band whose consistency has seldom been matched by any British indie band this decade.
For a two-week lark between mates, The Last Shadow Puppets is an awesome achievement – a modern reinvigoration of an archaic, dead musical language.
Like their last, ‘Only By The Night’ is front-loaded with world-beaters but then gradually ebbs back to more interchangeable moments. More than ever its strengths, when it succeeds, later become its weaknesses. It tries a mite too hard.
They’ve upset people’s expectations and made a handful of very good pop songs, but ‘Twenty One’ ultimately just proves that they’re as unpredictable as they ever were.
Indulge in ‘Vampire Weekend’’s vivid, foppish fantasy, which can still tell you plenty about the human condition, even if its lacrosse whites are rather suspiciously well-laundered.
‘Dear Science’ cuts through genres like a laser through a music encyclopaedia, making strange connections, but always with pop clarity as the ultimate aim. As ever, Sitek’s production shines.