Tubelord, Editors, FlashForward, True Blood & World Of Goo

Not long after I posted about not having received the Tubelord album yesterday the link turned up in my inbox. For those who are uninitiated in the wonder of the Kingston scamps they peddle a kind of jittery ADD enriched punk-pop. They buy their clothes at the same shop as Danananana(ananana)akroyd to put a metaphorical spin on it. I'm quite enjoying this new breed, they're from my generation after all. The ones who were listening to Blink 182 and Green Day when they were at school. When those bands used to be good as well, not when the colours dulled and the ballads were spun. As a thank you for pre-ordering (read paying for) the album I received an acoustic album. But the main album is pretty good to start with. "Night Of The Pencils" is exactly what punk-pop should be sounding like these days; the unpredictability of Infinity Land era Biffy and all the gang vocals and sing alongs of any of your more recent chart-botherers. The only detractor I can think of is the quality of the audio is a bit shit for me, but that may well be just my brand of headphones and speaker. I'm no expert. Anyway, listen to them, love them. Oh yeah, the acoustic album's good too. They can sing and all.

Editors seem to have been around for a while now. Although they're only now releasing their third album. Their contemporaries Bloc Party, Maximo Park and even Arctic Monkeys beat them to it. They've gone for a change of direction this time, out with Interpol in with Depeche Mode. First single "Papillion" made it seem like an inspired choice, sounding surprisingly addictive for a song so devoid of Editors' signature guitar. Although after listening to the rest of the album I'd say the result was not so inspired. In fact its a little boring. Which is the risk you take when its all monochrome clothing and rambles gloom. But all I've heard this year is records which inspire sadness and depression. There's only so much I can enjoy before it becomes an endurance. Maybe when I'm more in the mood I'll give it a proper listen but for now I'll remember the epic refrain of "Bullets". At least that sounded a little upbeat in its depressing musings.

So Flashforward has been rumbling on for a few weeks now. Rumbling is an appropriate term for it because I'm not really sure where its heading. Which I guess is part of the attraction. Its still walking the tightrope between sci-fi hokum and modern thriller. I'm not fussed either way really but I just know that I'm not going to find out for a while. Its appealing though, I'm being drawn in. The odd departure to Germany aside the drama is bubbling quite nicely. I just pray we get some kind of answer at the end of the season. I've heard ABC likes cutting good dramas short early, if they decide to end this after one season it might even be better for it. Which brings me on to True Blood, no new paragraph. This only going to be brief. Second episode was enjoyable, this is very much about the characters though as opposed to the previous. The central romance featured is starting to get a little Twilightesque (or what I think that would be like) but hopefully it will continue down a few more alleyways. Also the cliff hangers are surprisingly lame. I'll wait till next weeks to see if this one is as poor as I expect it to be.

Finally I come to World Of Goo which is celebrating its first birthday by doing a Radiohead. I paid a measly $2. I'm sorry. I'm poor. That's more than I paid for the Radiohead album mind. Anyway, its basically a little physics puzzle based around gooey blobs of smiles. The graphics are lovely, the sound endearing and the puzzles taxing. But I'm shit at puzzles. I get confused about using my keys sometimes. I've got stuck on many of the Lego games. I have no idea how to use the blind in my room, I've been here for 8 months. I digress, my point is you should buy it. Fund an indie developer a little and enjoy a great slice of left field gaming. Its more fun than Guitar Hero 2. That's for sure.

Mumford & Sons, Volcano Choir & Deadmau5

I thought I'd have a think about what I've been listening to for the last week. I'm fairly sure all of the records are new(ish) releases but its hard to tell with Spotify. They tend to just appear with little to no fanfare. Anyway, Mumford & Sons are part of that nu-folk scene that's been cropping up from London for the past few years. Noah And The Whale, Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn; you know the score. They share a lot in common with the first in that list really, although the songs are a bit more of a bluegrass style than the straight folk pop of Noah and co. They're definitely made for big things, by that I mean of course mild indie cross-over success. The album certainly has the singles on it, "Little Lion Man", "The Cave", "Roll Away Your Stone" all have the hallmarks of quality on them. They'll be the darling of Radio 1 shortly enough.

Volcano Choir are a misleading entity. Anyone with broadband and ears should swoon with joy when anyone utters the perennial audible delight that is Bon Iver. So when hearing that Volcano Choir are a little side project of his you are not surprised when you find yourself frantically hammering the keyboard in search of "VOLCANO BON IVER" or whatever. The similarities between the two records however are few and far between. This has more in common with modern American oddity bands than the flannel-shirted musings of despair. Its an alright album, it certainly starts well and ends badly. On its own merit its enjoyable enough, but on the coat-tails of old Justin Vernon this will probably end up under-listened in most people's music library.

Something a little bit different is the Canadian knob-twiddling rodent Deadmau5. Probably the darling of the electronica scene right now or 6 months ago depending on the timing of my appearance to this party. I'm not sure if he's revolutionised dance music, but that's usually the only thing used to describe someone new in this genre. No matter what the tag line for his success is the album "For Lack Of A Better Name" is fantastic. Pretty much every track is a winner and the (possibly only on Spotify) inclusion of a mixed version of the record is a well-judged implementation. It'll get you dancing, or at least you should.

On a side note, the Tubelord album should be with me today. Its not, I'm not even sure how I'm receiving it (steady now). Oh well, tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.