Three albums in, and his second of the year, Badly Drawn Boy – Damon Gough to his grandparents, mind – is back already with this, ‘Have You Fed The Fish?’; yes, a plainly British title for an otherwise globally-minded set of irreverent pop-tunes, whose aims to charm, amuse and touch are more than occasionally successful within their consistent, albeit, obscure endeavour.
From the spherical instrumental introduction of ‘Coming Into Land’, immediately, the traditionalism and aptitude for straight-forward song-writing which marked Gough’s ‘About A Boy’ soundtrack LP has been exchanged for a further excursion down the magical and often baffling eclecticism that heralded his debut ‘The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast’ a classic in the making.
Yes, and the title-track itself may well feature a couplet that includes ‘I need a new eiderdown’, but such humanity was always Damon’s successful calling-card. Similarly, with the up-tempo ‘Born Again’ and, frankly, moving ‘All Possibilities’, BDB has once again created a myriad of instant-classics, Beck-collaborator Tom Rothrock’s expansive yet simultaneously homely production thankfully not escalating the produce to a bleakly overblown mess. In its mid-album placement, too, recent top-ten single and Gough’s finest moment to date ‘You Were Right’ is pure, blissful genius, the motion-picture strings and plodding guitar accompanying his wry introspection like a timeless, binding marriage. Provided the chance to reflect on what you’ve heard already in the ensuing elevator music-esque ‘Centrepiece’ makes for useful breathing-space.
… For part two of this record is every bit as rich and varied as the first: the ‘I have fallen out of bed/Not out of love’ sweetness of ‘Imaginary Lines’; soulful ‘Using Our Feet’, which explodes into almost heavy-metal riffage at intermittent intervals; and penultimate ‘What Is It Now’ – as chirpy as a 70s, Brit-TV sitcom theme-tune – all possessive of the potential to melt even the most frozen of hearts.
Though he may forever remain in contempt for subverting the populist course of justice within alternative musical-shenanigans time and time again, there’s something naggingly engaging about Gough that you feel will bring you back to him over and over… Maybe it’s because he’s one of the few song-smiths of his generation that understands the meaning of ‘consistency’.
2
Barth 'Essence Of Giraffe'

“…Barth [is] a sort of Badly Drawn Boy meets Beck meets Syd Barrett; a groovy looking fellow with a talent to match. …” John Kennedy, Dazed & Confused. Some history from Barth himself: “I'm 25, and live in Paris in the Bastille district. I am originally from Normandy. My father taught me the guitar when I was 10, later I bought a 4-track tape recorder and an old drum kit and started to make some songs. I studied Anthropology at the Sorbonne for three years, and then did a few jobs including one as a creative guy at Warner Chappell Music France. At the moment I am composing music for TV stuff: I have a publisher for these TV compositions but not for my own songs. These songs were recorded on a Fostex A80 analogue 8-track recorder, and the instruments come from a second-hand store down the street. I played all the instruments and sang the vocal parts” ‘…this one-man cottage industry has spiritually sequestered himself into the East Village with a copy of Beck’s ‘Mutations’.’ NME
3
The Coral 'The Coral'

A 19th Century, Spanish-tinged Super Furry Animals? An acid-fried Echo and the Bunnymen? Gomez after being attacked by an army of poisonous Mexican spiders?
Attempting to define youthful Merseyside sextet The Coral is as difficult as it is futile. Suffice to say, their debut LP is as disconcerting and compelling a trip to a vintage Victorian Freak Show: yet you can't help but be fascinated by its bizarre allure throughout.
Of the more welcoming material, previous two singles ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Skeleton Key’ are definite highlights, as is the eerily haunting fairground music of the Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci-tinged ‘Simon Diamond’. Classically, however, there are pop songs herein worthy of considerable and righteous merit – just think of such melodic offerings as ‘Dreaming Of You’ – with The Coral’s fusing of the early-80s’ ska/blue-beat scene and its finest moments into concise, coherent vignettes – along with a 60s pop-sensibility that saw the group’s fellow Scouse forefathers soaring to the tops of charts – making for the most enchanting, creative sound you’ll hear for at least the next five years. And, with the grandiose choruses of ‘Waiting For The Heartaches’ and the closing ‘Calendars & Clocks’, such an accomplished batch of bright, snappy tunes could form the soundtrack for many teens’ precious and prickly summers in 2002.
All this, along with weird horror-film organs, lyrics about viewing the sea freeze and the Spanish Main, and with sudden, frenzied outbursts in the middle of songs, means that you really can't do without this band. One of the year’s truly, indisputably awesome LPs.
4
The Libertines 'Up the bracket'

If 2002 is the year that alt-music has experienced a well-endowed resuscitation, then along with it has come, surely, the finest batch of debut-albums for new acts in at least an age; The Coral, The Datsuns, The Music, The Polyphonic Spree and, now, The Libertines... Except, with the latter, the affair is mildly, and gloriously, less polished.
After all, what chances would there have been for slick production and fuller, bolstered-up arrangements anyway? With The Clash’s formerly-riotous guitarist/singer Mick Jones behind the desk on technical-duties and the band’s own two frontmen Carl Barat and Pete Doherty already a pair famous for their unabashed, unrivalled energy, the likelihood of a first LP-outing with both class and eloquence was always a distant cry away. Yet, if you’re after a bit of rough and excitement, which you should be, and a dusty mantelpiece’s worth of memorable songs, then the chances are that ‘Up The Bracket’ will define your record-collection for, at the bare minimum, the ensuing year.
From the strutting intro-swagger of ‘Vertigo’, a shamelessly rock ‘n’ roll ode within which Barat nonchalantly croons to a thrillingly arrogant effect, you know where you’re heading towards – a blissful, occasionally sleazy set of melodic charms with a firm balance between the excessively up-tempo bar-rockers (the rousing ‘Horror Show’ and implausibly satisfying ‘I Get Along’) and hopelessly romantic ballads (the live-shambles of ‘Radio America’ and intoxicating ‘We’re in a class of our own, my love’ sentiments of ‘Time For Heroes’). It’s this grip on focus, yet simultaneous looseness, which provides the group with their own unique appeal – and, reassuringly, a band unlikely to let you down by slipping in a tribal-dance remix as a secret-track in a bid to show a more ‘creative’ side.
Wonderfully, too, the f**kers have a sense of humour (or at least you hope they do), because, quite simply, ‘The Boy Looked At Johnny’ is damn near an arrestable offence – a distressing and irritably/sumptuously foolish sing-a-long, its infectious ‘la-de-da’ evoking the same grandiose heights of novelty-hit potential as last scene circa 1995 with Blur’s atrocious ‘Country House’. Obviously, as a result, it’s brilliant. And proceedings only warm up further within the incendiary glamour and knees-up of ‘Boys In The Band’, a track so tunefully riff-happy and precocious, it’ll soundtrack house-parties. Only the recent top-30 title-track itself manages to top it all, its grip on both classic guitars and lyrical-articulacy (honing in on Doherty and Barat’s native East End) serving as the quintessential, modern London anthem.
So, with all this, not to mention the sheer ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ magic and nostalgia-diminishing hymn, ‘The Good Old Days’ and acoustic-driven slumber of ‘Tell The King’, The Libertines have conjured a soundtrack richly sparse enough to bark along to, get angry with and cry alongside. As such, and as aforementioned, its warmth and faultless concoction of human-emotiveness makes it easily one of the year’s best, and a record you’ll continually embrace when times test and personal-needs soar. Understated beauty, then – in all its raucous splendour.
5
Supergrass 'Life on Other Planets'

Supergrass makes music so effervescent and so effortlessly joyous that it's easy to take them and their skills for granted. Surely that was the case around the release of their third album, 1999's eponymous effort, which in its labored fun and weary ballads illustrated just how much hard work it was to craft records as brilliant as I Should Coco and In It for the Money. It suggested the group might have burned too bright and flamed out, but, happily, 2002's Life on Other Planets is a smashing return to form, an album giddy with the sheer pleasure of making music. What makes this all the more impressive is that this is the record that Supergrass attempted to be — a perfect balance of the sensibility and humor of I Should Coco with the musicality and casual virtuosity of In It for the Money. Where that album felt labored and a little weary, Life on Other Planets is teeming with life. The tempos are sprightly, the hooks tumble out of the speakers, the band mixes up styles and eras, and they never, ever forget the jokes (Gaz's fleeting Elvis impression on "Seen the Light," an allusion to Spinal Tap's "All the Way Home," or the chorus of "Evening of the Day"). Sure, it's possible to spot the influence all the way through the album — most clearly T. Rex on "Seen the Light" and "Brecon Beacons," where Gaz's warble is uncannily like Marc Bolan's — but it never sounds exactly like their inspirations — it all sounds like Supergrass. And Supergrass hasn't offered such pure, unabashed pop pleasure since their debut; there hasn't been an album that's this much fun in a long time. Since they've been away for a while and have never broken in the States, Supergrass has been curiously overlooked, even though they're better than 99 percent of the power pop and punk-pop bands out there (plus, their everything-old-is-new-again aesthetic can be heard in such albums as the Strokes' Is This It?). But, as this glorious record proves, there are few bands around these days who are as flat-out enjoyable as this trio. The world is a better place for having Supergrass in it.
6
The Music 'The Music'

Phew. I mean, wow. OK, let’s take a few things slowly…
‘The Music’ is officially the most confident, competent debut by a British band since ‘Definitely Maybe’. And fittingly, just as Oasis annihilated grunge with their tales of Feeling Supersonic and Living Forever, so young Leeds quartet The Music have come to destroy the established fashionable scene they see before them; ‘The Music’ effortlessly shreds to pieces every single American identikit, Strokes-lite garage-rock act.
Indeed, it’s all down to the fact that everything about this band is just so perfect: their utter disregard for perceived notions of ‘cool’ (lest we forget the foursome refused to play in London until as late as possible); their decision to release the chart-ineligible (but still unconditionally brilliant) EPs, ‘You Might As Well Try to F**k Me’ and ‘The People’; their outspoken honesty about how they feel life really is; even the mesmerising, fantastically original artwork on the record-sleeves; and the fact they're all barely out of their teens. Altogether, it's truly a winning concoction.
The shortest track on this, their first ever LP – as produced by Jim Abiss of DJ Shadow notoriety – reaches but the four and a half-minute mark. However, despite the figure, there's certainly no bloated, pretentious noodling in evidence here – and not once do things get boring, the sprawling, trance-like soundtrack rarely serving as anything less than hypnotic.
By now, you must be familiar with ‘Take The Long Road and Walk It’ – and, if not, you're missing out on one of the greatest singles of modern times: a cyclone of obscenely precocious psychedelia, magnificently completed by Rob Harvey's incredible, wailing vocals and Adam Nutter's majestic guitar playing.
‘Second Coming’-era Stone Roses and early-Verve may prove obvious reference points throughout the rest of the material – distinctly revealed within ‘Human’, in particular – yet The Music are justifiably keen to distance themselves from the ‘Roses, the constant comparisons, clearly, acting as an injustice to a youthful band overflowing with such belief in their own prowess... Suffice to say, though, that fans of John Squire will be hoping his imminent debut-LP displays as much brazen brilliance as Nutter demonstrates on this total outing. Elsewhere, ‘Turn Out The Light’ proves that the lads can capably pull off slow-burning, Zeppelin-esque introspection as well as pulsating rock, whereas the prevention of freaky dancin' to ‘The People’, what with its desperate plea for you to ‘change the way you live now’, may prove impossible.
As impudent as they are magnificent, The Music are a band unlike anything you've come up against not only this year, but anything within living memory. They're a group that, quite simply, you cannot do without.
7
Sigur Ros  '( )'

Un-named and represented only by a symbol best described as a pair of brackets, the record contains eight songs, each of which is also untitled. The material is drawn from the live set the group have developed in the three years since the initial Icelandic release of their breakthrough album ‘Agaetis Byrjun’. ‘( )’ is the first Sigur Rós record to be made at Alafoss, the group’s converted swimming pool studio just outside of Reykjavik. It was recorded there between January and March this year and mixed at Real World in June and August, with co-producer Ken Thomas. It also features the group’s live string section amina throughout it s 70-minutes length. ‘( )’ is in many ways a rawer, more fragile record than its predecessor, with the band moving away from ‘Agaetis Byrjun’’s intense loveliness towards something starker and less obviously honed. . What remains constant, however, is their unparalleled ability to draw on deep wells of emotion and beauty wordlessly. The CD will come in a special die-cut slipcase, while the double vinyl will also feature a special die-cut sleeve. They are be touring Europe throughout October, before taking off for America and then, briefly, Japan . In Portugal they received consecutive videos of the year for both ‘Svefn-G-Englar’ and ‘Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa’, while in America ‘Agaetis Byrjun’ won the US version of the Mercury Prize, the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music, as voted for by fellow artists such as Beck, Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor and Macy Gray. They also received the award of Best Album of the Century at home in Iceland last year
8
Tahiti 80 'Wallpaper For The Soul'

French charmers Tahiti 80 return with their second release, Wallpaper For The Soul. Similar to their debut, Puzzle, there are no jarring sounds or loud noises to be found on this album. Rather, singer/songwriter Xavier Boyer continues to sing about love, loss and being happy with what you already have (a big T80 theme) in a soft and gentle voice. The obvious single (which, actually, is not the album’s first release), "Soul Deep," makes you wanna get up and shake it in the same way that Puzzle’s "Heartbeat" got toes tapping. While not as consistent as Puzzle, Wallpaper For The Soul is still sweet without being cloying, pretty without being annoying — and it’s a way better effort than the average second album

9
My Computer 'Vulnerabilia'

My Computer are two Mancs managed by Shaun  Ryder's dad who fuse druggy songwriting and dance beats with astonishing results. Their debut album 'Vulnerabilia' marries the hi-tech, hi-impact sound of electronica in all its myriad forms (all but glitch techno, anyway) to elegant acoustic songwriting. Bands always pay lip service to eclecticism, but the contrasts here are dramatic, earning the album Uncut magazine's praise as 'the most original debut by a Manchester band since 'SquirrelAnd G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People', maybe even 'Unknown Pleasures...astounding'.
 

10
Coldplay 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head'

Anyone able to follow up a debut-album of as much charisma, immediacy and intelligent song-crafting skills as displayed on Coldplay’s ‘Parachutes’ with something more challenging, enthralling and sublime than the original predecessor, justifiably deserves the status as one of the UK’s biggest and finest acts.
With ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’, the foursome behind the previous classic-LP have created a quintessential, captivating and fully superior follow-up... And, really, after exerting such a force of inspiration and passion into two similarly stunning pieces of work, is it any shock that Chris Martin and co. may be choosing to sign off from the music-world following these triumphs?
Opening with ‘Politik’ – quite possibly a churning, engaging number that Radiohead let slip from their hands during recent recording-sessions – the record builds and builds before allowing itself to slumber into the comfortable, come-down confines of ‘Amsterdam’. Along the way, too, it’s quite a ride.
Particularly where the band’s talents have improved or have become enhanced is via their willingness to expand on ideas to a larger, grandiose effect; so, whilst ‘Don’t Panic’ on the first album will have plodded along merrily and eventually subsided into a casual ending, had it been written in the period prior to the production of ‘A Rush Of Blood...’, it’s arguable that the ideas would have been expanded upon, allowed to veer off into obscure and wondrous avenues. Consequentially, fans of the act should expect things bigger from this record (as if the swarming beauty of recent top-3 single ‘In My Place’ wasn’t evidence enough for proving such a theory).
Of meritorious note are such live-sounding numbers as ‘God Put A Smile Upon Your Face’, proof enough from the space-age guitars and elevating chorus that this is a group unafraid to challenge their abilities, forming the natural bridge between recent influences Echo & The Bunnymen and even aspects of Pulp’s more vibrant offerings. ‘Clocks’, meanwhile, peculiarly opens as if it’s set to become a Moby-standard, but soon houses Martin’s unmistakable, desperate vocals, lavishly leading into the welcoming psychedelia of ‘Daylight’ and eventual suaveness of ‘Warning Sign’. Topped off with the growling ‘A Whisper’ and enveloping chorus of the LP’s title-track, it’s safe to say that this is one of the few batches of songs that every music-fan should have at least heard once in 2002.
Elegant, intoxicating and overwhelmingly essential, despite the sadness that could be directed towards the uncertainty of the band’s future, at least there is some solace to be found in the fact that these compositions will live on forever.
11
Leaves ' Breathe'

2002 has seen The Coral’s, The Vines’ and The Music’s of our time rising from notable obscurity into considerable notoriety. And, whilst the media-wagon has churned out such acts’ praises, quietly progressing all the time were Iceland’s Leaves, touring relentlessly and releasing records to their accumulating base of fans up and down the UK.
Rewardingly, the hard work over the past twelve months seems to have paid off for the quartet. Their debut-LP, ‘Breathe’ – named after their first ever, limited-edition single and a track off this album – is, like the act’s present reputation, one of the secret finds of the year. Undoubtedly.
Immediate name-checks of similarities may prompt the recent successes – Doves, Coldplay, et al – and some of the older ones - Radiohead, The Verve, etc. - but let it be clearly defined: Leaves have their own sound – one so sonically aloof and distinctive that as the fifty-minutes of their first ever work slip by, it would be criminal to deny the grace and poignancy of the group’s output.
Opening with the captivating ‘I Go Down’ – assuredly, not a reference to a Swedish porn-movie, by all accounts – the following ten tracks dazzle as much as they daze, delivering various tempos, but typically enchanting, interlocking guitars, complementary strings and melodies that will touch the chilliest of hearts throughout.
In fact, it’s the band’s ability to combine both the core of traditional balladry with more marginally quicker paced material that provides ‘Breathe’ with much of its immediate zesty aplomb. So, where you get every sumptuous, towering anthems – ‘Alone In The Sun’ or ‘Race’ – also available for rapid consumption are the likes of the stripped-down and engaging ‘Suppose’ or ‘Epitaph’. Add elsewhere to the provided equation Arnar Gudjonsson’s unique, distinct vocal, and the darkness of such numbers as ‘Deep Blue Day’ is fully able to wrap around the listener like a pedestrian in the mistiest of winter-fog. In all, it combines to form a classy introduction to a group with enough ideas for similarly engaging efforts in future times.
Still with a profile yet to be truly raised to its full potential, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get ahead of the game and pick up this release: a true, sincere body of music that has pushed epic song-writing to a heady and soaring, new peak. Just don’t say you weren’t informed.
12
Budapest 'Too Blind To Hear'

Formed in 1999 in Coventry by lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter John Garrison with friend Mark Walworth on guitar, Adrian Kelley on bass, Paul Possart on drums and keyboard player Chris Pemberton, the band quickly developed into something very special. Budapest became the 1st signing to Easy Street Music, and went into the studio. They had completed recording the album in 2001 with producer Dave Creffield (Embrace), when tragedy struck. Guitarist Mark Walworth committed suicide, leaving the band devastated, and uncertain of their future. Eventually the band decided they had to continue, and dedicating the album to Mark's memory, began looking for a new guitarist. Eventually at the end of 2001 they recruited Leeds based Matt Parker, and returned to playing live .Throughout 2002 the band have played live extensively, and signed to top UK agency ITB. Building a growing live following, the band complete the last night of their residency at London's Water Rats on August 13th, before heading out on a headline tour in support of the album release. The album includes the single "Is this the Best It Gets?" out September 9th.. The song has already attracted widespread media attention, including plays on Radio One's Mark and Lard show, a Record of the Week in The Hit sheet, and extensive college radio and student press attention.
13
Richard Ashcroft 'Human Condition'

Cleaning up the world’s ails appears to be the mighty Richard Ashcroft’s daunting challenge with second-LP, ‘Human Conditions’. And, following a prior solo-outing which largely dealt with the joys of life and love, it makes for quite a contrast.
However, these days, musically, it’s pretty much standard affair – any one of the ten boldly-produced and shockingly lavish compositions just epic enough to slide into any part of his ye olde The Verve’s back-catalogue. So, tradition is of the essence, seemingly, as opposed to intrepid innovation – and what results is a lush array of material that ranks up there with the best of his prior works, even if there is the odd lyrical-sentiment here and there which begs renegotiation.
Opening with the gigantic, string-augmented work that is ‘Check The Meaning’, also his most recent top-20 hit, motives of restraining the full body of sound to a mild slumber is an unlikely prospect and, thrillingly, such a formula holds out all the way through, with the only real down-slide arising within the almost gratuitousness addition of MOR, up-tempo number, ‘Bright Lights’, which rattles more than it rocks.
But when the effect is that of tranquil bliss, this is when all benefit; with the arch beauty and towering instrumentation of ‘Lord I’ve Been Trying’ – a potential single itself – and mid-point of ‘God In The Numbers’, yet another moment where Richie questions the powers that be beyond this flying rock which we inhabit, he’s delving into career-best territory. Though, arguably, how this compares to the sumptuous ‘Nature Is The Law’, the rousing finish, complete with Brian Wilson on backing-vocals, is just not near enough – RA saving all the bombast and gospel-tinged greatness he hints to throughout right ‘til the end.
So a successful second full-length record with the occasional downer here and there, Ashcroft is continually proving himself to be a musician to be reckoned with. And, when he enquires as to the fabric of human-nature and faith, his assured cool still holds out, and, unlike many singer-songwriters, his sincerity need not be disputed.
14
Black Heart Procession 'Amore Del Tropico'

The Black Heart Procession began in San Diego, CA circa 1997, when Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel put their other band Three Mile Pilot on an open-ended hiatus. While the Black Heart core members are Pall (vocals, guitar, synths, etc.) and Toby (piano, guitar, organ, etc.), you will often find Joe Plummer (drums) and Dimitri Dziensuwski (touring augmentation, moustache) and at times, other characters hiding under the BHP umbrella. 'Amore Del Tropico' is BHP's fourth long player, and the first in their catalogue to possess a title, other than a numeral. Recorded within the comfortable surroundings of the band's newly built 24-track analog studio, Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories, 'Amore Del Tropico' unfolds an intriguing tale of murder and mystery, broken hearts, failed schemes and twisted memories worthy of a David Lynch film. The quintessential elements of The Black Heart Procession remain intact here, yet 'Amore Del Tropico' is a definite departure from past BHP excursions. The flavour varies from swinging tropicalia on 'Tropics Of Love', to the slow, almost Dr. Dre production-style groove on 'Sympathy Crime'; violin and cello flesh out many of the tracks here, but perhaps most striking are the female backing vocals peppered throughout this 55-minute record.
15
Jj72 'I To Sky'

From the outset of a searing, piano-based ballad ‘Nameless’, it’s certain that Ireland’s JJ72 aren’t returning to pastures old for compellingly open-minded, second-LP, ‘I To Sky’.
Displaying the kind of honed maturity that their eponymous debut hinted to, yet rarely displayed, ‘I…’ is a worthy successor, full of competent twists and turns, and compositions of a fuller, broader scope for both instrumentation and variation.
The original, stick-in-the-mud fans may sneer at the likes of the acoustic-laden ‘Brother Sleep’, yet shall revel in the sumptuous heights of recent single ‘Formulae’, the Smashing Pumpkins-alike distortion and fuzzy melodic charm of ‘I Saw A Prayer’ acting as a further divider, heightened by the imaginative, occasionally gritty production of original Nine Inch Nails and ‘Pumpkins collaborators Flood and Alan Moulder. Consequentially, the nearest you get to ‘hit-singles’ on this twelve-tracker are the two aforementioned, and the grandiose ‘Always & Forever’, the more frantic paces and moody assaults as dished out within ‘Serpent Sky’ echoing the sonic noise as hinted towards on the last full-length’s closer, ‘Bumble Bee’.
Really, it forms a paradox to efforts already produced, the towering, accessible likes of their former material which provided so many chart-opportunities a far cry away, enabling a stealthier body of work in the long-run, longevity for the listener and added muso-points for sheer, blissful experimentation. Indeed, it’s when the ’72 challenge themselves that they truly excel, with the live-sounding elevation of ‘Sinking’ as movingly engrossing as they come, ‘7th Wave’ itself a number that growls and purrs prior to Mark Greaney unleashing his characteristic howl amidst a soundtrack that Radiohead would fail to sneer at.
With the final collision of tracks dictated by the animated pulses of ‘Half Three’ and self-explanatory ‘Glimmer’, senses are soon awakened and prepared for the chopping guitars and drum-machine of ‘City’ whilst closer ‘Oiche Mhalth’ heralds Greaney’s declaration that ‘Someone with real emotion/Someone with real devotion/Can see all the marvels I can’t see’; such a claim is evidently erroneous after beholding the achievement of his latest masterpiece.
Darker, deeper, bolder, ‘I To Sky’ is JJ72’s entrance into rock’s heavyweight league. But let’s just hope its recipients are wide-eyed and open-eared enough to take it all on-board.
16
Suede 'A New Morning'

In mid-2000, Suede set about recording their fifth album and the eleven songs which you are going to know - and love - as 'A New Morning'. They changed producers - from Tony Hoffer (Beck) to Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths) - and changed direction too, rewinding to a  place somewhere between the glam-flash of 1996's 'Coming Up' and the lavish 'Dog Man Star'. Described by Brett Anderson as the band's most 'up' recording to  date, numbers such as 'Obsession' ("It's the way you scratch your skin/When you yawn") and 'Lost In Tv' open up into soaring choruses, swept aloft by Anderson's aching falsetto voice, while other standouts include the  piano-led 'Lonely Girls' and the Bowie-eque 'Astro Girl'. Includes the single 'Positivity'. "It's a very heartfelt record. It's much warmer and simpler  than the last one. The songwriting is classic Suede but the sentiment of it is much more up than anything we've done  for a long time. There's a couple of songs that don't sound,  lyrically, like anything we've done before. It's much more romantic. There's a lot of yearning and it's quite an angry  record and much more inclusive - it's about the people we are and the people around us"
17
The Shining 'True Skies'

Ex-Verve monsieurs Simon Jones and Simon Tong must have messed their kecks with excitement on the formation of The Shining. Not just content with a past within one of the defining British groups of the 90s, like their former leader, El Ashcroft, they now have another chance at cracking the mainstream in a new musical-guise.
Yet their latest imprint has been met with a most mixed of reactions: critics, hesitant to take in the trad-indie styling of their current output, are largely sceptical about the group’s potential, but da kidz, meanwhile, can’t seem to get enough of it, packing out the group’s shows and making former singles such as ‘I Wonder How’ underground-favourites.
So, with debut-LP, ‘True Skies’, you’d think that the final judgement could be cast, the nail in the coffin, as to just whether or not The Shining mark a group of 21st Century relevance or a five-piece that are just five years too late, right? Well, no. Instead, the record serves to merely enhance the barrier between the non-believers and the already-converted.
Kick-starting with the early-90s swagger of ‘Quicksilver’ – a funked-up guitar-hymn that even The Music would have trouble sneering at – endeavours follow in the arms-aloft massiveness of ‘Young Again’, a tune so shamelessly aloof and soaring that you wonder if such produce is legal, and the inevitable come-down tune (in the shape of the country-fried ‘Find A Reason’). It’s a movitated opening, and one that finds frontman Duncan Baxter able to pout his snarly sentiments in a true being that prior Britpop heroes would have marvelled at.
But where’s the innovation, the adaptation of days gone by? Their song-structures prove so predictable that the album’s allure or potential mystique is utterly lost within the deep, lush, embedded production, incapable of enabling a new spin of a proven successful formula. But, granted, they do give what they’ve got passion – just look at the howling ‘Crest Of An Ocean’ or ‘I Am The One’ – and immense musicianship – refer to the gospel-tinges of ‘Danger’ – and they remain too charming and focussed to ever really hold too many qualms against their northern-soul.
So, The Shining: not so much a burning light of inspiration, as a warming spark of excitement to prove that the UK can still muster song-smiths of an accomplished and infectiously melodic quality. And at least they’re not going for the quick route to success either – by copying The Strokes.
18
Hoggboy ' Or 8?'

A UK group overshadowed by their US contemporaries throughout the majority of 2002 – despite having supported two such scene-leaders, The Strokes and The White Stripes – Sheffield’s Hoggboy have battled on regardless, receiving plaudits from the likes of superstar-DJ Steve Lamacq whilst compiling a fiercely loyal fan-base.
With their debut-LP, the enigmatically-titled ‘Or 8?’, what’s most evident are the band’s efforts to deliver all that their reputation has epitomised for the four-piece: laddish attitudes to women (indeed, most of the subject-matters on the record centre around sex: sample-lyric, ‘She’s on the left side, I’m on the right’…); roguish endeavours to be cool (check the sleeve-artwork of the band lighting cigarettes and wearing identical, tight leather-jackets); and cocksure, raspy singing from frontman Hogg.
Yet it’s always in the over-analysing of such things that the original aims of the endeavour and focus of the material get lost. So, let’s keep it simple: the ‘Boy play sleazy, trashy, low-grade rock ‘n’ roll, bringing with them the intent to excite and energise as opposed to mentally stimulate and competently satisfy. So, for those that find such an approach appealing, the chances are that the angular guitars and almost disco-thud of ‘Upside Down’ will tantalise, whilst ‘Urgh!!!’, a messy ode to some dirty coital-action (see above), will serve as hilarious if anything else.
At the disposal of this band, incidentally, indie-gold does get struck on more than one occasion; the spiralling six-strings and shout-a-long choral chant of ‘So Young’ or the anthemic ‘Shouldn’t Let The Side Down’ evoke a group on the edge of genuine strength, whilst the brooding, downbeat closer ‘Mile High Club’ presents forth enough of an edge and focus to suggest that the four-piece do have tricks hidden up their nimble sleeves when the daring is there to execute them.
But the very reason that Hoggboy have been largely overshadowed so soon into their career is due to the fact that there are so many others out there brandishing the same trade. So, whilst ‘Or 8?’ suggests a stealthy enough debut, in times as hotly competitive as these, the jury’s out as to whether or not that’s enough. Time will soon reveal the answer.
19
Interpol 'Turn on the Bright Lights'

One might go into a review like this one wondering how many words will pass before Joy Division is brought up. In this case, the answer is 16. Many are too quick to classify Interpol as mimics and lose out on discovering that little more than an allusion is being made. The music made by both bands explores the vast space between black and white and produces something pained, deftly penetrating, and beautiful. Save for a couple vocal tics, that's where the obvious parallels end. The other fleeting comparisons one can one whip up when talking about Interpol are several — roughly the same amount that can be conjured when talking about any other guitar/drums/vocals band formed since the '90s. So, sure enough, one could play the similarity game with this record all day and bring up a pile of bands. It could be a detrimental thing to do, especially when this record is so spellbinding and doesn't deserve to be mottled with such bilge. However, this record is a special case; slaying the albatross this band has been unfairly strangled by is urgent and key. Let's: There's another Manchester band at the heart of "Say Hello to the Angels," but that heart is bookended by a beginning and end that approaches the agitated squall of Fugazi; the torchy, elegiac "Leif Erikson" plays out like a missing scene from the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen; the upper-register refrain near the close of "Obstacle 1" channels Shudder to Think. This record is no fun at all, the tension is rarely resolved, and — oh no! — it isn't exactly revolutionary, though some new shades of gray have been discovered. But you shouldn't allow your perception to be fogged by such considerations when someone has just done it for you and, most importantly, when all this brilliance is waiting to overwhelm you.
20
Motorpsycho 'It's a Love Cult'

The brand new full length from norway’s best band hits the shelves on the 28th october. Finally Beginning to get some recognition on these shores for their Majestic pop, rock psychedelia. Motorpsycho take their psychedelic pop even further than displayed On last years “phanerothyme” album and crank up the amps to draw on the harder edge psych rock From their “trust us” album, thus creating a perfect melding of fractal psychedelia and mind melting Sonic rock, some fantastic who-like rhythms, nick drake styled vocals. This is the band’s most Accessible full length to date.

Beginning to get some recognition on these shores for their Majestic pop, rock psychedelia. Motorpsycho take their psychedelic pop even further than displayed On last years “phanerothyme” album and crank up the amps to draw on the harder edge psych rock From their “trust us” album, thus creating a perfect melding of fractal psychedelia and mind melting Sonic rock, some fantastic who-like rhythms, nick drake styled vocals. This is the band’s most Accessible full length to date.
21
The Delgados 'Hate'

Within the first twenty seconds, The Delgados’ intent for fourth-LP ‘Hate’ is somewhat simply uncovered: the bold hugeness and beauty of former LP ‘The Great Eastern’, interlocked with the stubborn spookiness of their more obscure moments. And, obviously, the result is entirely brilliant.
Still naggingly one of the world’s greatest, hidden treasures, ‘Hate’ is a sublime example of The Delgados’ unique and shockingly ear-pleasing ability to merge the heart-rending heights of classical-music with the brisk harshness of epic indie-rock. The fact that within Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock they have two of Britain’s most distinctive and complementary singing-voices as well, ensures that this package is one truly unmissable.
If not immediately bowled over by the choral-parts and grandeur-dripping strings of ‘The Light Before We Land’, then it’s the amusingly playful refrain of the following ‘All You Need Is Hate’ that’ll capture your imagination, Woodward’s unabashed and subtle vocal working its way into your skull, whilst ‘Woke From Dreaming’ and its lilting piano is every bit as infectious and dazzling as music gets.
Due to its compact, ten-track running-order, the product is a short one, ensuring much of its immediacy and grace, the notion of over-production skilfully swerved away from. When the sweeping violins, demanding drums, chiming guitar and thumping bass collide together, a heavenly harmony is the consequence, with ‘The Drowning Years’ a perfectly moody piece of evidence for such accusations. As if such serenity wasn’t enough, the cultured-pop of ‘Coming In From The Cold’ may prove even more grabbing, its following ‘Child Killers’ serving as every part as serenading as The Flaming Lips.
Yet, for a record so musically enriching, only upon closer examination, as if the song-titles didn’t hint it enough, can it be discovered that the lyrical-themes of ‘Hate’ are that of, well, hate. Want some excerpts? How about the more comedic ‘How can I find what’s right/The truth is that our lives were shite’, or straightforward morbidity of ‘Climbed on her back/With an ambush attack/Down came the force/And down came the briefcase’? And this is the record’s genius – its fusion of bleak, worded contrasts with opposing, uplifting instrumental arrangements; the angelic meeting the demonic, if you will.
So, yes, it’s twisted, but in as gorgeous a twisted way as possible, and the gloriousness of such numbers as ‘Favours’, aloof ‘All Rise’ and ‘Never Look At The Sun’ will serve as mere confirmation of the band’s enduring stature as the underground’s most beguiling song-conjurers. Even their potential as hit-makers to crossover into the mainstream seems more likely than ever with this release... Should people be brave and wise enough as to accept and embrace them, that is.
22
Goldrush 'Dont Bring Me Down'

Lovingly strummed guitars. Quiet heartbreak. Vocals that could melt gold
ingots. The slow blossoming of volume and passion. Heavenly choirs. Such are the virtues of Oxford's Goldrush. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios with Lenny  Franchi (The Music, the Crescent, Delta) producing, the band's debut Lp, 'Don't Bring Me Down' is an astonishing and ambitious album, driven by  passion-filled harmonies and tunes that owe as  much to classic Americana as they do to a certain  English charm. Includes the singles 'Same Picture' and 'Wide Open Sky'.
 

23
The Lucky Bishops 'Grimstone'

The second release on the Bevis Frond's label Woronzow for The Lucky Bishops. Woronzow became aware of The Lucky Bishops in 1997, when a tape landed on their doormat. Instantly they were hooked by the glorious melodies, the tight four part harmonies and the immaculate playing, and released the first album to rave reviews: "Dorset's best-kept secret…tight commercial psychedelic pop a la late sixties Beatles or Beach Boys" - 3*** Uncut, "This stunning 'classic pop' debut offers so much - invention, variety, sophistication and deviously infectious hooks" - Mojo. "Great music, period!" - Classic Rock. And now another album of their neo-psychedelic pop rock. The influences that come across on 'Grimstone' range from The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Spirit and Todd Rundgren, to more current folk such as Jellyfish and the superb Cotton Mather.
24
Doves 'The Last Broadcast'

Even though atmospheric English pop band Doves named their upcoming album The Last Broadcast, they have no plans to go off the air.
"Some people hear the name and think we're splitting up," said vocalist and bassist Jimi Goodwin from his Manchester home. "It's not meant to be final or anything, it's just the name of a song on the album."
Like the band's 2000 debut, Lost Souls, The Last Broadcast — which is scheduled for release June 4 — combines epic, sweeping sonic vistas with lyrics about striving to escape a confining existence.
"A lot of it is about wanting to better yourself and get somewhere else," Goodwin said. "It's about the sort of restlessness of wondering, 'When are you ever gonna find where you want to be?' Or, 'Does anyone ever find that at all?' "
Though Lost Souls was ultimately melancholy, Goodwin said The Last Broadcast is far more optimistic. Much of that change stemmed from the environment in which the disc was created. While the band's first album took over two years of grueling studio work, the new one was crafted in eight months immediately after the band returned from touring behind Lost Souls.
"It's been such a couple busy years for us, and that's really vibed us up," Goodwin said. "We were babes in the wilderness dreaming of touring America or going to Australia or headlining our own shows. That was a distant impossibility to us, and now we've done it, which has really inspired us."
The album's first single is "There Goes the Fear," a seven-minute track that includes the lyrics "Out of here, we're out of here/ Out of heartache along with fear/ There goes the fear again/ Let it go."
"It's about leaving the past in the past," Goodwin said. "It's quite positive, and the song is really melodic. It goes up and down in intensity, and then it eventually morphs into a Brazilian thing with serdos (deep rhythmic drums) and repiniques (high piercing drums), and it ends with a really joyous carnival section."
Although Doves had a framework for the tune, the final mix took them by surprise. "That's what it's all about for me," Goodwin explained. "Obviously, we don't want to remake Lost Souls. As much as we like that album, it's time to move on."
25
The Datsuns 'The Datsuns'

When we walked into the upstairs venue located at London’s Highbury Garage, little did we know what we were in for.
In an expectant anticipation to witness The D4’s debut-London performance, a New Zealand group hotly-tipped for special things throughout the course of 2002, the idea that there was to be a support-act so demonstratively brilliant as the one we were hearing seemed implausible. Yet there was one. Heads were nodding violently in a fashion that immediately harked back to the days when Deep Purple and AC/DC were Gods, and rock was King. Bodies flailed around, heavy-metal hand-signals were pulled – sheesh, there was even air-guitar being played by the audience. And, right out there in front, The Datsuns were playing their first ever UK show.
Since then, you know the rest: these four guys with impeccably long hair and teasingly youthful looks have taken the UK music-press and audiences by storm. Yet, for all the natural cynicism one could develop as to whether the group really justifiably deserve all the praise so soon, we’ve one statement for you – catch The Datsuns live for full effect, or play this, their debut-LP, at home with your friends. At full volume. The answer will then become clear to you.
For, it seems, that never before have the sheer soulful enjoyment of turgid, perfectly-honed riffs, power-charging hooks and effervescent swells of energy as possessed on this record sounded so vibrant and immediately infectious. The snarling vocals of Dolf De Datsun, excruciatingly bellowing drums of Matt, and the beautifully intertwining guitars of Christian and Phil – which, at their finest moments are so fiercely competent that they can recall shadows of Television’s Tom Verlaine, let alone Clapton vs. Hendrix in a six-string dual – means that the whole package is just too good.
It starts compellingly, from the riotous licks of ‘Sittin’ Pretty’ into the implausibly perfect strains of ‘MF From Hell’, where swearing and distortion has never seemed quite so apt, only improving for the amusingly entertaining, hit-single-potential of ‘Lady’ and the pelvic thrust of ‘Harmonic Generator’, the duh, duh-duh, duh, duh pace and introduction of bass towards the close of the track is the sexiest concoction NZ have to rival NYC.
Proceedings become more muso-y for the mid-section of the LP, ‘What Would I Know’ and ‘At Your Touch’ offering the vastest array of pummelling, instrumental textures and layers on the full work, with the elevating build-up which spawns ‘Fink For The Man’ – along with its ‘jet-black hair’ references – a keenly grittier display of The D’s dirty yet tight brand of sassy-anthems. And, in enough time to recover from the prior screeches and almost Chuck Berry-isms in the solos from the former number, debut-single proper ‘In Love’ is with us, its keyboard-driven form evoking the good-time spirit of the band’s 60’s masterclass-inspirations. However, all this is just mere preparation for the grand finale – ‘Freeze Sucker’, a track that growls and purrs before exploding and combusting into a glorious set of ear-pleasing noise, Dolf, Christian, Phil and Matt noodling away to an almost sublime effect.
Then, it hits you – those long-awaited forty minutes you’ve been itching to absorb since you first heard about this band have just passed you by. And the likelihood is that the experience felt as if it only lasted half that actual spinning-time.
So, conclusions, then: an album of the year? Oh, goodness, yes. It meets all the high expectations? Damn right. So, where next for this lot? Onwards and upwards; after all, music seldom impacts so zealously, nor does it quite reveal itself to be as imaginative, extreme and as dangerously enthralling as The Datsuns. Treasure these times.
26
The Vines  'Highly Evolved'

In an era filled with the promise of great new hopes for rock, 2002's title already belongs to a young quartet from Sydney, Australia called The Vines - Craig Nicholls (guitar/vocals), Patrick Matthews (bass), Hamish Rosser (drums), Ryan Griffiths (guitar). Produced by Rob Schnapf (Beck, Guided By Voices, Foo Fighters, Elliott Smith) at LA's Sunset Sound Factory, the band's debut album, 'Highly Evolved' is a swaggering, tuneful shot of  raw rock with a chaser of blissful psychedelia that NME have already dubbed 'a perfect synthesis of the Beatles and Nirvana'. The single 'Get Free' is The Vines at their finest: urgent vocal harmonies, fractured guitars, and  an absolute tempest of melody in a teacup-sized tune; the day-job drudgery anthem 'Factory' finds the previously undiscovered common ground between the Fab Four in '68 and The Specials in '79 before slamming         on the distortion pedal - hard! - while the title track, 'Highly Evolved', lasts for exactly 94 seconds of steamrolling guitar tsunami but will stay ringing inside your head forever.
27
The D4 '6twenty'

In the great tradition of Iggy and the Stooges, MC5 and The New York Dolls, New Zealand four-piece The D4 deliver straight up, no frills, rock 'n' roll. Sounding at times like the bands they've toured  with - Guitar Wolf, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Fu  Manchu, The Hellacopters - the band's UK debut '6twenty' doesn't pretend to be anything other than an old school rock album. A rifftastic, riot of chugging guitars and songs about girls, partying, girls, and erm, girls, this is high-octane riff-monster rock and roll of the best possible kind.
'The D4 - 'Rock 'n' Roll Motherf*cker' - Oasis vs this. KO to the D4. Big Time! - Time Out
'They play mean garage punk rock with nods  towards Motorhead and AC/DC and a pinch of
Jon Spencer. They make the sort of joyous, mucky noise that The Hives, try as they might,               consistently fail to render' - NME
'Brutal garage punk...The D4 are the best of the bunch' - Kerrang!
'If the Sex Pistols had ever toured New Zealand leaving paternity suits in their wake, this quartet       could be Steve Jones lost sons' - The Independent
28
The Pattern 'Real Feelness'

The Pattern’s ‘Real Feelness’ is a storming and timely reminder of the current era in music – and, specifically, rock ‘n’ roll.
With many European regions having become overtaken lately by US acts domineering gig-circuits and airwaves alike, it’s little wonder how easy it is for groups such as this to break down the doors within such locations and pummel out their brand of sweat-drenched guitar-gems to universal acclaim. With The Pattern, however, where the formula changes to their fellow contemporaries is via their sense of tradition and – without any japing implied – pulse.
Take this, their debut-LP, for instance: long-awaited, and combining just twelve compositions plucked from their extensive archive of high-energy and immediately likeable tune-frenzies in around thirty minutes – but, still, recorded in a mere two weeks. It’s also produced by At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta specialist, Alex Newport. And doesn’t even leave out the moments where exuberant and effervescent leader Chris Appelgren fails to hit the notes, instead preferring untamed substance, as opposed to restrictive efficiency.
Relentless, from the moment you press play on your CD-player, from start to finish, it’s as if you’ve just unleashed five rampant tigers into your speakers. During mating-season. And it’s the last point which is, oddly, of relevance – for ‘Real Feelness’ is a very sexy record; its never-ending collision of hyped-up hooks and unashamed boldness triggering off the right cues for some seriously dirty lovin’.
Particularly peaking in opener ‘Fragile Awareness’, the bass-drums heavy ‘The Best Hate The Rest’ and the feisty ‘Selling Submarines’, if you like your music sincere, quick and guaranteed to quicken your heart-rate and raise the temperature in your house no matter what time of the year it is, stick this steaming sauna on – and get groovy.
29
Liars 'They Threw Us All In A Trench & Stuck A Monument On Top'

Born in Melbourne but living in Brooklyn, Liars are at the forefront of the New York garage punk scene  and one of the most innovative and exciting live  bands to hit the UK in a long time. Recorded over two days in Brooklyn, NY, their debut album 'They  Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On  Top' consists of nine compelling tracks - produced  by the band and Steve Revitte (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Beastie Boys) - which get to the Birthday  Party by way of Fugazi, to PiLand The Fall via Television and The Gang Of Four, locks them all in  the punk garage and treats 'em mean.
 

30
Foo Fighters 'One By One'

Don't credit Dave Grohl's stint in Queens Of the Stone Age for the hard rock edge of the new Foo Fighters record. According to the man himself, he's had it in him all along: "Hey man, I've been listening to Slayer since I was 13. I've been listening to hardcore since I was a little kid. Hardcore, punk rock, death metal, Zeppelin, Hüsker Dü, R.E.M. Everyone has their influences". Taking a U-turn from 1999's pop-inspired 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose', 'One By One' rewinds right back to the raw punk of the band's 1995 self-titled debut; opener 'All My Life' just might might just be the heaviest song the band have ever recorded, while tracks such as the epic 'Disenchanted Lullaby' and the muscular 'Low' are the recorded equivalent of a band pushing their potential beyond previously set boundaries.
"I can't f*cking wait for this album to come out. 11 songs. The best we've ever written. We wrote these songs specifically for live performance. Whatever would get us off live . . . that's what we would put on tape" - Dave Grohl
31
Hundred Reasons 'Ideas Above our station'

Hundred Reasons - Andy Bews (drums), Colin Doran (vocals), Andy Gilmour (bass), Larry Hibbitt (guitar), Paul Townsend (guitar) - have been stars-in-waiting ever since their 4-track demo landed on Kerrang!'s desk way back in 2000. Now, at last, 'Ideas Above Our Station' looks to to  explode them into the mainstream. Recorded in New York and produced by Dave Sardy, who's  worked with both Bush and Marilyn Manson, the  album mixes blisteringly catchy At-The-Drive-In  style choruses with tinges ofrock, emo and the best elements of hardcore punk/nu metal. Add in  great songs, and you have of THE guitar albums of  the year! Includes the singles 'Silver', 'I'll Find You' and 'If I Could'.
'It's easy to forget that 'Ideas Above Our Station'  is a debut album because it feels so                   accomplished. With it, Hundred Reasons have established themselves as a world class band, and the chances are you won't hear a better album this year' - KKKKK - Kerrang!
32
Wilt 'My Medicine'

Written last February and recorded with producer Dave Eringa (The Manic Street Preachers, Idlewild, Lowgold), 'My Medicine' marks Wilt's transformation  from pop-punk also-rans to major players in the burgeoning emo scene. Full of the sort of heart-bursting, chorus-laden blasts for which radio was surely invented, it's brutally straightforward stuff, floating between easy-spirited, melodic rock and sweeter, more intricate, anthemic tracks. As frontman Cormac Battle explains, "I'm not into self-flailing acrobatics, that's for sure. Our songs aren't all good time songs. Emo to me is sophisticated but there to jump around to. It fits us to a large extent but I consider us to be a little
more involved. We're the emo REM". Includes the singles 'Distortion' and 'Take Me Home'.

33
Idlewild 'Remote part'

Scottish friction, Scottish fiction. Two years on since '100 Broken Windows' sank Indieland under tidal waves of riotous apathy, Idlewild's fourth album sticks one up the cynics who expected another muddy Attack Of The Drones. 'The Remote Part' is a bold, bright, broken and bitter beast that sees the spanking new Top Ten-shagging Idlewild burst out of their student-sheep's clothing and rip the throat out of Coldplay. It's Indie's Revenge, it's every ounce of Idlewild's potential fulfilled at once and it's quite good in the same way that Jade from 'Big Brother' is an insy-winsy bit thick.
The widespread REM comparisons thrust on Idlewild of late go beyond the cosmetic. Sure there's enough mandolins on 'Tell Me Ten Words' to make POD lose their religion and 'Century After Century' is so REM it practically assaults a stewardess with a Yop. But it's the giddy spirit of 'Document' that Idlewild really mirror here; the point where a charmingly ramshackle alterna-rock band brush off a layer of grit and set the controls for the hearts of the cash tills.
"Everything's changed since yesterday" - sung by Roddy Woomble from underneath a scrum of symphony orchestras having a fight on 'You Held The World In Your Arms' - is 'The Remote Part''s fanfare and summary. The chest-beating Roddy of 'Actually It's Darkness' has shrivelled into insecurity - he's all identity crises ('(I Am) What I Am Not'; 'I Never Wanted') and being terrified of girls (the Credible Crowded House of 'Live In A Hiding Place'). His band, on the other hand, have grown savage new teeth.
'(I Am) What I Am Not' and 'Out Of Routine' barrel tunefully along with the sparkle-eyed violence of Casey Chaos left alone in a razor blade factory while the blast-off chorus to 'Stay The Same' is best listened to while base-jumping off Niagra Falls strapped to a barrel of Semtex. And then - of course - there's 'American English', where Idlewild turn into waistcoat'n'mullet era U2 and start using Ayers Rock as a bongo. Awesome.
'The Remote Part' - half righteous fury, half sensational soppiness - closes with Scot poet Edwin Morgan reciting a specially composed work 'Scottish Fiction', driving the album not onto every Album Of The Year list but damn near to being yer actual 'art'. But while Oasis are pitching for their podium in the Natural History Museum, they're clearing space for 'The Remote Part' in the Tate Modern.
34
The Cooper Temple Clause ' See this through and leave'

Having developed a committed following with their incendiary live show, the debut album from Reading sextet The Cooper Temple Clause underlines the manic energy present within their ranks. Their devotion to their influences has seen them written off in some quarters, and though the legacy of Oasis, The Stone Roses and Primal Scream are writ large, in CTC's hands that legacy is grabbed by the horns and led into new territory. The obvious axis is lead singer Ben Gautrey - whose vocals recall the anguished scream of a spoilt child - and main songwriter and musical architect Tom Bellamy. Bellamy's approach is to throw as much instrumentation into the mix as possible; the resulting wall of sound, heavy with analogue effects and minor key guitar riffs, is loaded with the unstoppable momentum of a fat kid falling off a wall. The calming influence of producer Paul Corkett (Placebo, Suede) keeps any excess in check. In lesser hands the psychedelic energy of current single 'Film Maker' and the raw MC5 assault of 'Panzer Attack' would bludgeon, in Corkett's hands they're rapier sharp. An impressive, enticing glimpse of the fine line between genius and madness.
35
The Electric Soft Parade 'Holes In The Wall'

If the thought of teenagers making music turns your stomach as you envisage yet another superfluous Westlife clone or some shouty spotty nonsense about parents and life being rubbish, then think again... and quickly, Grandad.
Sure enough, young Electric Soft Parade have the spunkiness of Ash with the cocksure suave of Blur. But there's an unexpected depth and maturity to these fellas commensurate with a fully grown band already well into its stride.
At the moment, it seems anyone under the age of 25 has suddenly consumed their parents' record collections, burnt them in an inferno of toxic vinyl fumes and decayed nostalgia, then gone and reinvented rock'n'roll on the guitar. Count Electric Soft Parade among them. Like Turin Brakes and label-mate Tom McRae they apply a thumbscrew to the traditional pop song, wringing out new, sophisticated shapes.
The ear-stroking harmonies of Teenage Fanclub are never far from the equation (Silent To The Dark), as is the driving tension of Wire and the quirkiness of XTC. They give us power ballads of star-gazing emotional impact (It's Wasting Me Away), and they've even found a job for Gay Dad's Cliff Jones who does backing vocals on Biting The Soles Of My Feet, which shows that not only are they gifted but charitable too.
For any band to have recorded four albums is a remarkable achievement. But to have done so before either of the key members has reached the age of 20 is to be greatly admired. To be fair, this is the first "proper" release from teen brothers Alex and Tom White, though Holes In The Wall suggests that these fellas must have been born with 40 years of pop history already etched on their brains.
36
Queens Of The Stone Age 'Songs For The Deaf'

Certain people would have you believe that Queens of the Stone Age's third album, Songs for the Deaf, is the return of real rock — a bonecrushing work of boundless imagination, the cornerstone in a new era of great rock, much like Nevermind was a decade beforehand. These people, coincidentally, happen to be in the same group that criticizes the Strokes and the White Stripes, claiming that those two bands are nothing but hype, while shamelessly indulging in breathless hyperbole whenever they speak a single word about QOTSA. Anybody who heard Songs prior to its release claimed it was the greatest rock album in years, at least the greatest since Rated R, setting up expectations impossibly high for this very good album. To begin with, this ain't accessible — not because the music is out-there or unfamiliar (lots of Cream filtered through garage rock, prog-metal, album rock, and punk does not make one a Borbetomagus, nor does it make it "imaginative," either), but because it is so insular, so concerned with pleasing themselves with what they play that they don't give a damn for the audience. This extends to the production, which sounds like a stoned joke gone awry as it compresses and flattens every instrument as if it were coming out of a cheap AM car radio. Sure, that might be the point — the album begins with radio chatter, and there are lots of jokey asides by a fake DJ — but Deaf winds up being entirely too evenhanded and samey, since every guitar has the same beefy, mid-range, no-treble tone and Dave Grohl (aka the Most Powerful Drummer in the Universe) is pushed to the background, never sounding loud, never giving this music the muscle it needs. As such, it becomes tiring to listen to — too much at the same frequency, all hitting the ear in a way that doesn't result in blissful submission, just numbness undercut with a desire to have some texture in this album. Once you get around this — which is an effort; unlike, say, the Strokes' Is This It?, whose thin production worked aesthetically and enhanced the songs, this sound cuts QOTSA off at the knees — there indeed is plenty to enjoy here since the band is very good. They're exceptional players, especially augmented here by Grohl on drums, Mark Lanegan on vocals, and Dean Ween on guitar, plus they're very good songwriters, whether they're writing technically intricate riff-rockers or throwbacks to Nuggets. All of this is sorely missing from most guitar rock these days, whether it's indie rock or insipid alt-metal, so it's little wonder that so many fans of great guitar rock flock to this, regardless of its flaws. But that doesn't erase the fact that, above all, QOTSA is a muso band — a band for musicians and those who have listened to too much music. Why else did the greatest drummer and greatest guitarist in '90s alt-rock (Dave Grohl and Dean Ween, respectively) anxiously join this ever-shifting collective? They wanted to play with the prodigiously talented Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri, two musicians who share their taste and willingness to jam. It results in interesting music and an album that, for all of its flaws, is still easily one of the best rock records of 2002. But, to be needlessly reductive, the analogy runs a little like this — QOTSA is King Crimson and the White Stripes are the Rolling Stones. Which one is "better" is entirely a matter of taste, but which one do you think plays to a larger audience, and is more about "real" rock? [Songs for the Deaf was also released as a deluxe limited edition containing a bonus DVD that shows behind the scenes footage of the band recording the album.]
37
The Soundtrack of Our Lives 'Behind the Music'

Where does an album as amazing as The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ 'Behind the Music' come from? After all, it’s the band’s third effort, a pop-psychedelic masterpiece on the same level as the Soft Boys’ recently rereleased 'Underwater Moonlight', and it comes on the heels of two other incredible albums.
Unfortunately, instead of making the covers of every music magazine worthy of the name, TSOOL seem to be headed toward emulating the Soft Boys in terms of (lack of) recognition as well as song craft.
Just how good is this album? It’s a triumph of songwriting, performance and production. The songwriting is certainly a breed apart; it forswears the usual boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl thems that dominate popular music — like TSOOL faves Creedence Clearwater Revival, the love and longing in these songs are more existential. The album’s lyrical theme suits the title, which is presumably nicked from the TV show that reveals the ups and (mostly) downs of aging rock’n’roll stars.
Even better are the musical performances: Ebbot Lundberg chips in with dulcimer, harmonica and sitar as well as providing lead vocals. Lundberg’s voice isn’t spectacular, just tuneful and distinctive — he’s in the same league as head Soft Boy Robyn Hitchcock let’s say. Lundberg is also the creative engine of the band. There are two excellent guitarists, Ian Person and Matthias Barjed. The rhythm section of Fredrik Sandsten (drums) and Ake Karl Kalle Gustafsson (bass) are expert, and Martin Hederos’ keyboard work is grand as well. The group makes occasional use of horns and a string quartet. There are also lovely harmonies and choruses throughout the record.
What really pushes 'Behind The Music' to the stratosphere, however, is the band’s alternating gusto and restraint.
Any band can use a grab bag of instruments — and TSOOL does on occasion — but the band can also shape a song like 'In Someone’s Else’s Mind' with just an acoustic guitar and Ebbot’s voice in the foreground, a muted cymbal to keep time, and, in the background, the occasional echoing tone and scraped guitar string.Other high points: The cunning contrast of upbeat mellotron and sinister rifleshot percussion over chiming dulcimer in 'Broken Imaginary Time', the thrusting rhythm, shouted “So come on!”s and stinging guitar leads that finish off '21st Century Ripoff.'
All 15 tracks put an arrow through the heart, but the powerhouse trilogy that ends the album may be the best example of going from the heights to the depths I’ve heard in any album. 'In Your Veins' offers succour to a depressed soul, segues into the 'The Flood' which offers up a shouted ultimatum to an uncaring world. 'In Your Veins' makes particularly effective use of two guitars over Hederos’ piano; you can hear fingers scraping along the strings as they change frets — it’s a very intimate sound. The speedy Spanish-style guitar used by Person in 'The Flood' also helps kick the song to the album’s emotional peak. The final, reflective 'Into The Next Sun' brings the album to a close.
I began this review comparing 'Behind the Music' to 'Underwater Moonlight', and I fancy the various members of the Soft Boys and TSOOL have a lot of the same records in their collection, but the albums aren’t quite the same.
The members of TSOOL have been making music for longer than the Soft Boys had when they delivered their superb final statement, and it shows in TSOOL’s expert use of the studio and more pensive approach to songwriting. I’m also tempted to compare 'Behind the Music' to the Rolling Stones’ 'Their Satanic Majesties’ Request' and the late Brian Jones-era Stones more generally.
I frequently found myself scratching my head, telling myself I’d heard a snippet of sound somewhere before, but TSOOL are so much their own beast I can’t really say there’s a band out there they sound like.
This is a banquet of an album — it’s almost too much of a good thing. It’s an exhilarating combination of exhortation and melancholy, and the best thing I’ve heard so far this year.
P.S.: The double LP has five bonus tracks not available on the regular CD (there is, I gather, a limited edition double CD out there with the extra tracks). I can see why these tracks were left off the “regular” album — it would have been tricky inserting them in the playing order without upsetting the flow of the record — but it’s still a shame to deprive people of great songs like 'We’re Gonna Get It Right', with its flourish of horns and Creation-ish fuzz guitar.
P.P.S. A bit of history ... Once upon a time in Goteborg, Sweden there was a very good rock’n’roll band called Union Carbide Productions. Helmed by vocalist (and occasional saxophonist) Ebbot Lundberg and guitar wizard Bjorn Olsson, UCP exploded in the late 1980s with the Stooges-esque howl 'In the Air Tonight', then followed it up with the psychedelicized 'Financially Dissatisfied, Philosophically Trying.' At this point, Olson left the band, and Lundberg steered them through two more albums ('From Influence to Ignorance' and 'Swing') which demonstrated an increased interest in the 1960s music of the U.S. West Coast.
Eight years after the band broke up in 1993, 'In the Air Tonight' is lauded as a classic by the cognoscenti, but at the time the band was essentially ignored outside Sweden.
Lundberg wasn’t done making music yet though, and it wasn’t too long before he had once again hooked up with Olsson (and another UCP alumni, guitarist Ian Person) and formed — you guessed it — The Soundtrack of Our Lives.
Under the new name, Lundberg and crew have paid worthy homage to the diverse musical outpouring of 1960s California: Not by aping groups like Love, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, the Byrds and sundry others too numerous to mention, but by melding their influences into a thrilling new hybrid. They had the skills, they had the guts, and after a few weeks in the studio, they had their album, the jaw-dropping double album 'Welcome To The Infant Freebase.'
It won a Swedish Grammy, but outside their home land fame did not beckon. Well, perhaps effort number two, the almost-as-excellent sophomore effort 'Extended Revelation for the Weaklings of Western Civilization' would do the trick? Er, no. Around this time Bjorn Olsson swore off touring and curtailed his efforts in TSOOL. His only input into “Behind The Music” appears to be half a songwriting credit on one song.
So here we are today, with the release of 'Behind The Music' — and if this album doesn’t wake up the listening public, it deserves to listen to Limp Bizkit for eternity.
38
The Solarflares 'Look what i made out of my head'

While currently all eyes, or at least ears appear to be both watching and extolling the virtues of American/European purveyors of Garage-Punk - such as The Hives, White Strips and company - The SolarFlares (more or less direct descendants of The Prisoners - who hail from the productive Medway delta), have been following that particular musical path for some time now, and more importantly, they have been serving up in style their own brand of three chord powered, sleezy 'n' raw Garage Punk.
Having joined the rostra Big Beat - which incidentally was 'home' to many of the eighties Medway acts who laid down the blueprint for the current revitalisation and popularity of today's Garage Punk acts - The SolarFlares have come up with a real killer of an album of Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, with it's Medway heritage for all to see and hear. As well as, to lesser or greater degrees and at varying times, elements of The Monkess, The Who, The Sonics and The Sex Pistols too, where The SolarFlares score high is in both the strength of the songwriting and the Marriotesque vocal delivery of Graham Day. From the opening (power) chords of 'State Of Mind' right through to the outro of 'The Loving In Your Eyes',  'Look What I Made Out Of My Head' is a captivatingly energetic and adrenaline soaked twelve tracks of scorching intensity. Never mind standout tracks, every single one of them is, the aforementioned plus 'Feet The Wrong Way Round' , Girl In A Briefcase', In Your Hair', Watch From Shadows', 'You Want Blood' (the current single by the way), 'Hold On', 'A Thousand Lies' and 'Reflections'. Although this is in the 'Mod' album for the month category, not for one minute are we claiming that The SolarFlares are mods themselves - though their sixties Garage Punk inspired sound will have more than a degree of appeal. The SolarFlares given the current climate and musical tastes - deserve to explode all over the pop charts proving, if there was any doubt, 'our' homegrown talent doesn't only compete with the best of the rest on equal terms, but comes out on top. A stone cold winner in every sense.
39
Paul Weller 'Illumination'

If you were to chance upon some of the press that this, Paul Weller’s latest LP, ‘Illumination’, has been receiving from the critics, then it’s a safe bet that talks of a ‘career-reversal’, a ‘return-to-form’, blah, blah, blah, are the order of the day with the former Jam/Style Council major. Well, we’re not going to go against such allegations either – for, blatantly, this is the Modfather’s freshest work for what seems an age.
Goodness, too – who knows how such a feat could occur so long into a solo-career of all those peaks and troughs; maybe through revisiting his past in recent live, retrospective album, ‘Days Of Speed’, the ole man Weller has realised that his strengths lay within the rousing crowd-pleasers, as opposed to the questionable sincerity of mildly tame bluesy matter.
Suitable to its title, the content of ‘Illumination’ makes for a flourishing sequence of song-writing that’s neither turgidly stale nor skyscrapingly innovative, and – as such – results in just over a dozen, warm tunes that prefer harking to the classic end of ‘timeless’. So, in Paulie’s re-ventured world where song is treated as imperative, proceedings kick off with the wildly optimistic ‘Going Places’, advance towards the irresistible melody of ‘Leafy Mysteries’, before hitting an early-album highlight in the latest single and soulfully-infuenced, ‘It’s Written In The Stars’. The effect is sparkling for the listener.
Where the substance proves more stripped-down also – say, the acoustic ‘Who Brings Joy’, or string-laden ‘Now The Night Is Here’ – reassuringly, none of the impact is lost, instead mirroring the other end of the scale where Weller’s past embraces with balladry can prove scintillating (remember ‘You Do Something To Me’, after all?). And, despite the guitar-structure dominance generally throughout, such is the invigorating and uplifting nature of this LP that when he throws in a genre-defying instrumental with former ‘Roses guitarist Aziz Ibrahim (‘Spring (At Last)’), it works, fittingly setting you up for the soothing, inevitable two-thirds/Oasis collaboration, ‘One X One’, and defiantly beautiful country-hovering ‘Bag Man’.
Proof that heads-down self-righteousness can often lead to mixed outcomes, Weller’s musical-catalogue to date may well be a slippery path that meanders down various avenues, some admittedly alluring than others, but when creations such as this are spawned, it’s impossible to refute justifiable praise. But, for all those that still don’t believe, remember, with ‘Illumination’, the proof is in the pudding.
40
Polak 'Rubbernecking'

Rubbernecking” is Polak’s second album which is due on August 5th. Recorded in Brighton and mixed in London by Dave Bascombe (Suede, Goldfrapp, Placebo). Imagine the Doves playing in a David Lynch movie scored by Sparklehorse. File under intelligent dark guitar pop. Rack alongside new stars Elbow, Coldplay, Starsailor and the old guard, Tindersticks, Nick Cave and Johnny Cash. Listen to single “Joyrider”, the magnificent “Dumbstruck” and the heart rendering anthemic “Love Lies”. Polak are Brighton based and have been playing their ‘Stars, Cars & Karaoke Bars’ residency at The Hanbury Ballroom 13th, 26th June & 24th July. This will move to a London residency and tour around album release. Polak are fronted by the Fijalkowski brothers, Pete and Krysztof who formed the band following their days in Adorable and the Bardots respectively. “Fijalkowski boasts the most clever, believable and downright quotable lyrics since Jarvis last put pen to paper” (Independent On Sunday). “Polak have elevated twisted melancholy into some kind of an art form…….quietly rather impressive” (Q ****) Tracklisting Don’t Wake Me, Love Lies, Joyrider, Sign, Bar Angel, Dumbstruck, Something Wrong, Payback, Rubbernecking, Come Down. “simultaneously familiar yet defiantly original…..a collection of intelligent and literate English rock songs and fragile ballads essayed with aching sincerity and variously illuminated with the afterglow of early REM, latter-day Blur and even The Beautiful South” (Mojo)
41
Tetra Splendour 'Splendid Animation'

New music is incredible at the moment. Those that aren’t matching up to the high-standards currently being laid out, or just merely act as chancers, are finding it tough to get into the music-world whilst those with genuine ability and talent are getting the attention they need. Aren’t they..?
Not in every case, that’s for sure. Tetra Splendour should be a hell of a lot more known than they presently are, for instance. With former low-key single-releases such as ‘De-rail’, ‘Mr Bishi’ and ‘Pollenfever’, sure, there’s been a few radio-plays, but there’s hardly been a rumble created in the record-shop by music-fans to get their hands on copies. Admittedly, the tracks released so far on to the public are good, but match 'em up against the quality of the work on their debut-LP, ‘Splendid Animation’ – or merely when they’re placed back-to-back in a more fitting context – it’s then that you’ll realise just what’s so ‘splendid’ about this Porthcawl conundrum in the first place.
The LP opens with the spectacular ‘Landmine’ – and you immediately know what you’re being let in for: big, dizzy arrangements that surpass the derogatory tag of ‘indie’, but hardly account for ‘rock’ or ‘psychedelia’. The fusion of whirling synths, keyboards and masterfully well-performed guitars suggests that their eclecticism, musically, is linked to the wild invention of the Super Furry Animals, Radiohead and Beck – fitting, really, bearing in mind the latter two acts are the band’s most favourable, chief influences. However, this is where the comparisons end, for TS are quite distinctive for their own cutting edge with melody and instrumental-wizardry.
After all, who else could create the catastrophically bewildering collision of sharp, funky guitar and spooky harmonics displayed within ‘Bless My Soul’, or the paranoid beauty of ‘Muriel’s Motorhome’ in just one listening-experience? If this doesn’t get you, then, most likely, the shadowy awesomeness of ‘CFCs’ and ‘In-flight Manual’ will convert you to the Splendour religion.
For their first ever record, Tetra Splendour have produced one of the most excitingly open-minded and brave albums of 2002 so far. However, let’s hope that their oddness doesn’t detract a potential audience – because this fruitful four-piece deserve the trappings of their heroes.
42
John Squire 'Time Changes Everything'

Well, it sure is good to have him back. Three years have passed since the messy dismantling of The Seahorses; there’s been a six year hiatus since his last record; and over thirteen years have washed away since he played a pivotal role in the construction of one of the 20th Century's finest albums. Certainly, if anyone's qualified to speak on the wholesale effects of the passing of the years, it’s John Squire.
Now entering rock ‘n’ roll’s most dreaded of time-zones – being middle aged – ‘Time Changes Everything’ is undoubtedly a ‘sensible’ record: but in all the right ways. Album-opener ‘Joe Louis’ contains the affirmation that a world-weary, seen-it-all Squire has ‘climbed the mountain and pissed into the wind/Stood on the end and spat over’.
So, yes, the gleefully inane lyrics of The Seahorses are long since passed, with the days of tales revolving around ‘Rum old slappers’ and Egg-shaped Happiness being heartily replaced by weighty existentialist musings; in ‘Welcome to The Valley’, Squire declares that ‘the most important thing we'll ever do is die’: and yet throughout, it's never portentous or boring. ‘Miss You’, too, is a brilliantly poignant tribute to Squire's ex-best mate, Ian Brown (remember him, right?), the man enquiring, ‘Whatever happened to you and me?’ Indeed, there also can't be a ‘Roses fan alive that won't feel a lump in their throat as John laments, ‘Remember when we were heroes?’ And if this somehow fails to get a firm grasp on those heartstrings, then the anthemic Verve-ian beauty of the title-track's chorus, the gospel-backed ‘15 Days’ or the majestic, Spiritualized-styled ‘All I Want Is You’ surely can't fail.
But what of Squire's voice, so long denied a platform? It's been well-documented that other than providing backing vocals on ‘Second Coming’ album-track ‘Tightrope’, Squire has never actually sung on record. And to hear him properly for the first time comes as something of a shock. He eschews his Manc tones for what can best be described as a slightly drunken- Dylan impression… Suffice to say it doesn't sound half as natural as it did for that other great northern Bob-admirer, Tim Burgess... Yet it is testimony to these ten tracks that Squire's, ahem, idiosyncratic vocals don't detract from their all-round lyrical and musical excellence. ‘Time Changes Everything’ is a reflective, evocative work – and given a couple of listens, well, that voice can only grow on you...
43
Delta 'Hardlight'

having spent years in the wilderness,delta finally releases hard light which was paid for by mercury.soulful vocals,triumphant eclectic spark,big arrangements,a 60 piece orchestra and that's only have the tale
 
 
 
 

44
Ostle Bay 'Love from'

'Love From Ostle Bay' is the debut album from a new Scottish recording outfit OSTLE BAY. The band consists of singer Peter Rose from the band JOHNSON, with wonderfully lush accompaniments from John and Stephen Douglas, Paul Livingston and Grant Wilson of the TRASH CAN SINATRAS. Recorded at Core Studios in Glasgow, this collection of songs is full of beautiful brooding melodies and sweet acoustic arrangements, reminiscent of 80s Scottish indie with an added modern sheen, somewhere between the Edwyn Collins/Roddy Frame sensibilities and the downbeat romanticism of Tindersticks or Cathal Coughlan. And a nice photo of a starling on the cover.
 

45
Montgolfier Brothers  'World Is Flat'

The Montgolfier Brothers' second album, The World Is Flat, goes back to that time in the late-1960s when psychedelia used "olde worlde" names and titles with the recording techniques of the modish jet age. The wised-up production values prove that this Manchester duo aren't really members of the Flat Earth Society, and with their attractive mix of rustic folk charm and studio nous they've managed to place themselves in an otherworldly environment that marks them out as standard-bearers for eccentric English pop.
 

46
Bright Eyes  ' Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil Keep Your Ear To The Ground'

'Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground' is the much anticipated fifth album from the prodigiously talented Conor Oberst and his Bright Eyes ensemble. This is a landmark album proclaiming Oberst the voice of his generation. Born 1980 in Omaha, Nebraska and recording since the age of 13, Conor owns a voice that quakes with the tumultuous energy that only youth can produce. Oberst's music and dark poetry paint intricate pictures of love, despair and salvation. He is nothing short of genius. 'The Story Is In The Soil' was written by Oberst and played by him and the notable cast of Bright Eyes players. Oberst's mainstay production team of Mike Moggis ('Lullaby For The Working Classes') and Andy Lemaster ('Now It's Overheard') lend performances on the record along with other noteworthy Omaha musicians including Todd and Clarke Baechle (The Faint), Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor (Azure Ray), Matt Maginn and Clint Schnase (Cursive), and Jiha Lee (The Good Life).
47
Beck 'Sea Change'

Just as he followed his 1996 breakthrough album'Odelay' with the penitentially sombre 'Mutations', 'Sea Change' represents a quietly dramatic shift away from 1999's electro-manic 'Midnite Vultures'. Over acoustic guitars, dreamy electronics, and intricately arranged strings Beck once again demonstrates his increasingly mature and skilful songwriting style on tracks such as'Paper Tiger' ("There's one road back to civilization/ But there's no road backto you"), and 'Guess I'm Doing Fine'("It's only lies that I'm livin'/It's only tears that I'm cryin'/It's only you that I'm losin"); the result is a superb collection of classic songs on an album that is his most enchanting - and personal - to date. Includes the single 'Lost Cause'.
''It doesn't really feel like a departure to me, because I've been playing this Nick Drake-ish, folky finger-picking music the whole time, since before I was making records. Once I
got into production, though, my songs became like soundtracks, and lyrics became imagery from the movie.There were always bits of me in there. But yes, the sesongs are more literal. They speak in a real, straight, colloquial voice. It's a more disciplined but rewarding             approach to songwriting. I think the simpler songs are the most timeless.'' - Beck Hansen
48
Flaming Lips 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots'

Continuing the progress made on 1999's critically-lauded 'The Soft Bulletin', 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' is an album whose ambitious eclecticism is unified by the Lips' - Wayne Coyne (guitar/vocals), Mike Ivins (bass), Steven Drozd (drums) - sonic pastiche of blissful melodies, heavenly harmonies, and (occasional) orchestral flourishes. Completing the pop unveiling that began with 1993's 'Transmissions From The Satellite Heart', 'Yoshimi' touches heady heights on the charismatic 'One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21', while other standouts include the languorously beautiful 'Ego Tripping At The gates Of Hell', the infectious 'In The Morning Of The Magicians' and the neo-psychedelic 'Flight Test'. Includes the single 'Do You Realize'.  'With all this computer stuff they've got nowadays, you can compile rhythms and work on them relentlessly. Before, if we had more than 30 or 40 tracks going, we'd have to run itall manually, and it really would be such a    physical task that at some point we'd throw up our hands and say, 'That's good enough.' But now we can endlessly pile it on and just keep picking and choosing which atmospheres we think are complimenting which aspects of the song. It kind of reminds me of 'The Soft Bulletin', where we really think we're doing some experimental music, but it probably sounds more commercial because of it. And now I think some of our early records weren't experimental at all, even though  at the time a lot of people thought they were. We just thought we were making pop music. And now just the opposite has happened where we go in there with the intent of truly being experimental and a lot of it comes across as being very contemporary pop' .

'The Soft Bulletin' may remain their ultimate masterpiece - in the way it referenced every other       record in the Lips' career - but try to name any other band who have lasted ten albums, with each one more visionary than the last. You can't, can you? 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' sets yet another benchmark' - NME

'As uncategorisable and unsettlingly rhapsodic as ever, The Flaming Lips remain at the forefront of rock 'n' roll mutation. Feel yourself disintegrate all over again' - Mojo

'With their second masterpiece on the trot, the Amazing Adventures Of The Flaming Lips seem      boundless' - Q
49
Primal Scream 'Evil Heat'

Infuriating. Beguiling. Abrasive. Confusing. Incredible. If you're lucky, you'll catch Primal Scream when they are all of these things. We did with the release of 2000's astounding album, 'XTRMNTR', but all too often they can fall short of the yardsticks they gouge in to the ground themselves with such zealous force.
Normally, the Scream team can be relied upon for filching the very best of other people's ideas and twisting them to their own fucked up visions, Velvets, Joy Division, Neu! Can, Stones, JaMC etc. By touching upon all these icons, they have managed to become something similar themselves.
So it's disappointing and equally, quite worrying, when it seems the only albums Bobby's boys took into studio this time were their own. Too much of the album appears to have originated in previous LPs. So, whereas the last two albums were Primal Scream's take on other people's madness, this is them reheating the remains of their previously rehashed hits. And that's always going to end in nausea.
'Deep Hit Of The Morning Sun' is a promising opener, a dubby, narcotically blissed track that swirls and reverberates in a deeply pleasurable style. It's a Kevin Shields track (indeed, much of Primal Scream's best recent stuff can be attributed to him), and an excellent one at that. Unfortunately any expectations are dashed by second track, the streaming disco filth of 'Ms Lucifer'. Essentially, its 'Swastika Eyes', but without the pounding brutality. The track is limp and clichéd, where its big brother is menacing and driving. 'Ms Lucifer' is not the only track that demands comparison with 'XTRMNTR', and largely they fail to set the pulse racing in the way that the best album of 2000 did.
The rhetoric from Bobby, whilst still all there, seems unconvincing, like he's found one of those internet sites that spew out variations of the same themes by slightly altering the words you put in. Cocaine, heroin, government, evil, oppression, military, multi-national, sanitised, tired, drained. Lacking ideas.
Whereas the title track of 'XTRMNTR' is a brutal sonic attack on the senses, 'Detroit' from 'Evil Heat' presses the same buttons but seems to be ponderous and torpid. The album breezes in at 38 minutes (this copy came without the mooted duet with Kate Moss on the cover of Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra's 'Some Velvet Morning'). But seems to make a wearisome job outlining the same points that its predecessor did in such obliterating style. Ignore what you heard about the 'controversial' track 'Rise' and its former-name shame. The real shame is that it's a complete mess that sounds like 'Insect Royalty' fed through a blender. And no that's not good, 'Insect Royalty' sounded blender-fed already. Now 'Rise' sounds like pureed muck. In fact, it's the ultimate in cut-and-paste Scream songwriting and was probably picked up off the cutting room floor. Following track 'The Lord is My Shotgun' fares little better, apparently beginning with little direction and ending without a clue where the map is, let alone how to use it. 'Skull X' and 'City' (originally appearing on a David Holmes album) suffer from the old rock-posturing that they seem to find so difficult to escape. They are actually two of the better tracks on 'Evil Heat', but the album is tiresome in formula. This is the third album in a row that has followed exactly the same blue print, and when the rock-out numbers do appear, it's both expected and dreary. 'A Scanner Darkly' is better, and like the other Andrew Weatherall song, on the album 'Autobahn 66' one of the more engaging moments, but it still falls short of former kraut-rock homaging glories. It ends with the Scream doing a slow. smacked out homage to the Velvet Underground with 'Space Blues #2'. There's a surprise. Well yes, it is, its sung by Martin Duffy. But other than that, its not really, is it?
It's an infuriating album, one that shows it could easily deliver more than it ultimately does. Perhaps the band has been mining the same seam for too long, and all the gold is gone. The last time the band seemed to have lost it, they dug it out and pulled it back from the brink. Maybe they'll do it again. But Bobby's into children and cycling now, not smack and leather. What's he got to save himself from this time? Mediocrity, we hope.
50
Death In Vegas 'Scorpio Rising'

Leave it to Death In Vegas. Whilst other erstwhile dance acts who could once have been considered ground-breaking are stuck rubbing their chins and wondering when the next bandwagon leaves, DIV  will always be the ones driving the bus. Having caught the live bug a couple of years back, the new DIV album was always going to have more of a live rock'n'roll vibe. It's just that no-one guessed it would be the same sort of vibe you get from Mexican wrestling. Or peepshow neon. Or voodoo disco dollies. 'Scorpio Rising' is a dense and sometimes claustrophobic collection of aphorisms  that is part Lynch movie, part FBI incident report, part crunching rawk jam. Weller and Gallagher minor both guest and take to their tasks admirably  but the gong for the best heaving vocals must go to Hope Sandoval who injects the proceedings with  a weary yet utterly seductive believability.
 

1  Ed Harcourt    still i dream of it / the ghosts parade cds
after spending the summer months on tour across the usa and canada,ed harcourt returns with a new single.two brand new recordings and on a limited 3000 only and numbered cd single.one track is a cover of a rare brian wilson track

2 Oceansize     Relapse Ep cd's
At the start of 2001 they were named ‘Best Unsigned Band in Manchester’ by the Manchester Evening News, and there was a show stealing appearance at ‘In The City’, followed by a similar A&R clamour in London when the band debuted at The Barfly. The stunning ‘A Very Still Movement’ EP was released that August, and the band enjoyed support slots with the likes of fans Elbow, Lift to Experience, and The Cooper Temple Clause. OCEANSIZE were made for devotees of the uncompromising and the intriguingly unique. They were conceived quietly in the minds of five young men, dedicating their waking moments to creating songs about everyday mundanities… Although unwilling to disclose their influences, OCEANSIZE have a deep respect for the following: Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Can, Cardiacs, Jane's Addiction, (early) Verve, Swervedriver, The Beach Boys and Tortoise. But the only way to really appreciate Oceansize’s sound and reputation is to see their incendiary live show. Look out for dates in October. “Oceansize are clearly thinking big……KKKK” – Kerrang!

3 The Datsuns     in love 7
the first uk release for the datsuns on their new home sweet nothing(for
vinyl).this is pure foot on the monitor 70's rock that steals all the best bits from the past .in short this
rocks and it rolls.the b side is a new exclusive recorded at toe rag.limited to 3000 copies

4 the Roger Sisters       calculator      7
the most talked-about "unsigned" bands in NYC since THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS. Their totally unique sound is an odd mixture of 60's garage/soul and late 70's new wave/post punk. Comparisons to early B-52's and TALKING HEADS are accurate, especially when you are talking about energy.limited 7" on troubleman including a cover of the cure

5 Hot hot heat    hot hot heat    7
the debut hot hot heat 7" finally gets repressed on hot hot red vinyl.jerky rhythms and synth driven rock action.part of the new wave of the new wave along with the rapture,liars,fuses,the seconds etc

6 Miss Black America  . Miss Black America  cds
Third single from the hotly tipped Miss Black America, tipped by NME as one of the post Strokes/Hives/White Stripe bands to look out for in a recent feature (along with the likes of Ikara Colt, Eighties Matchbox.., Cooper Temple Clause) 'MISS BLACK AMERICA' , their self-proclaimed new national anthem, is the third single from the eagerly anticipated debut album "God Bless Miss Black America" (due out September 16th) and follows the highly acclaimed "Infinite Chinese Box" and "Talk Hard". Since signing for Integrity, they have recorded 2 Peel sessions and played a live 20-minute showcase set on The Evening Session for Steve Lamacq. "Talk Hard" was play listed at Virgin and was a drive-time record of the week. *7" LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!. *SOME QUOTES: "The earth remains theirs for the taking" - NME "MBA are the violent jolt we desperately need" - THE FLY "Our current new favourite band" - Michael Krugman, ROLLING STONE "Revved-up riffery that will crown them kings of the antagonistic affray" - ROCKSOUND "Blind, youthful exuberance meets genuine nascent talent. Thrilling." - THE GUARDIAN "Searing rock'n'roll infused with passion and righteous fury"- EVENING STANDARD "Driving rock'n'roll that matches the likes of BRMC" - WHAT'S ON IN LONDON

7 Yeah Yeah Yeahs    Machine 7"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are Karen O, Nick and Brian from Brooklyn NYC.. The hugely anticipated new single from one of the hottest bands of the year.The follow up to the self-titled debut ep which seems set to make every “single of the year” list in the country.. Previous single received regular daytime Radio 1 play and was A listed at Xfm. There are a plans for a short UK tour around the single. Thus far every UK show the band has ever played has sold out.The debut ep has now shipped over 20000 copies in the uk alone.

8 Sonic torpedoes   Crooked Hill Ep cd's
New single from ex Ten Benson'ers SONIC TORPEDOES. 3 tracks of top notch fuzzy guitar rock, guaranteed to pick up airplay & good press all round. Featuring the stinging rhythm section from Ten Benson and a guitarist who learnt his trade among the likes of White Stripes and the Buzzcocks at Hackney's Toerag Studios, the 'Torpedoes are poised for an irresistible assault of heavy glitter riffs and blistering fuzzlines … this rusty knifepoint blues amounts to a declaration of war on their limp-limbed contemporaries. Tracklisting 1. Crooked Hill 2. Mainline Static 3. Doppelganger Man

9 Saloon  girls are the new boys  7
great new single from saloon giving a new spin on lush-style shoegazing with some crackling uplifting pop. another winner from track & field

10 White Stripes  . Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground 7
The single features brand new versions of ‘Suzy Lee’ and the band’s cover version of Robert Johnson’s ‘Stop Breaking Down’, which were recorded for Radio 1’s Evening Session. Jack and Meg White will be playing 4 co-headlining US shows in August with The Strokes. The White Stripes’ much anticipated return to these shores will take place at the end of August for the Carling Weekend and Gig On The Green dates. The DVD features the band’s new video for ‘Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground’, shot in London and directed by Michel Gondry, who also directed the band’s groundbreaking video for their last single ‘Fell In Love With A Girl’, which has recently been nominated for 4 VMA Awards (MTV’s Video Music Awards), and an interview with the band’s long time family friend and former manager/current consultant Arthur

11 Intellectuals   ep      7
Incredible low-fi rock'n'roll duo with boy/girl vocals! They're well-known in Roma for their wild live set and this is their first record. Basic punk, garage sound, blues chords and killer tunes! The italian White Stripes!

12 Bandits  .Warning  cds
For the past six months Liverpool's The Bandits have had a massive A&R bounty on their heads. After a lengthy chase, the most hotly pursued British rock 'n roll band of 2002 got themselves and their centro del blanco label signed up to B-unique. Legendary producer John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead) waived his usual six-figure fee to work with them for nowt. They've even attracted a bevy of females groupies in the city who call themselves The Bandettes. Not a bad trot for a band that have been together in their current six amigo incarnation for just four monthsBy the time they enlisted the talents of Swee(drums) and Richie (lead guitar) (in April) WANTED posters adorned A&R chipboards all over the capital. At the end of it all B-unique emerged with the rights to their Zeppelin-esque rock combined with blues and roots melodies that seem to weld a melting pot of influences into a sound that is now and beyond. In John (vocals) The Bandits have a star. His on-stage intensity is hauntingly reminiscent of Joy Division's Ian Curtis which when mixed in with a dynamic rhythm section brings together a brand new gang of young soul rebels.

13 The Measures    the universe is mine    cds
cd single from this energetic guitar band ablend of influences ranging from stone roses, the who, beach boys and psychedelia.

14 Sheila Divine     Secret Society  ep
On returning to the states after touring europe and sharing stages with the likes of the doves, garbage and david bowie, the sheila divine are putting the finishing touches to their new ep, the first sturio recordings since 2001’s widely acclaimed “where have my countrymen gone” debut full length. 6 tracks of lush pop with a distinctly british sound, akin to the smiths, u2, and radiohead, this new ep from the sheila divine is the perfect follow up to their album. A selection of live uk shows will happen the week before the release of this ep.

15 Trash money     you lied satan  7
if you loved the rapture and their take on the cure then try this.out of nowhere trash money with their debut one sided red vinyl 7" with hand stamped labels.limited to 500 copies.very 80's with a mix of kevin rowland and robert smith on vocals.this has massive massive potential.buy it and try it

16 Hell Is For Heroes    i can climb mountains 7
the first single from the hell is heroes album 'the neon handshake' due in october.recorded in la and mixed in sweden by the hives producer.includes new b side get low

17 Bardo  To Inhabit  cds
Kerrang's 'hottest unsigned band' . The Bardo whilst definitely showing influences from early 90's alternative acts like Janes Addiction The Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins, update this sound and add their own metal edge to create an unique sonic experience.The video has been presented to MTV & Kerrang TV, filmed at the Camden Underworld and directed by Paul Williams who has also directed videos for the likes of Seafood and Ocean Colour Scene.

18 Turin Brakes  Long Distance 7"
Fresh from a triumphant performance at V2002, Turin Brakes return with a new single - the first to be taken from their second album, which is produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Supergrass) and due out early next year. Cd1 of ‘Long Distance’ features new track ‘Lost and Found’ (as does the 7") and a remix of the title track by Bees. CD2 has another new song, ‘Soulless', and a remix by Max Tundra. This single is sure to delight the many fans which have been left hungry for new music over the last months. David Gray Arena Tour support confirmed (18/11 – 8/12).

19 Hercules        soho cry / lonely child cds
2 track cdr from a band called hercules who have a female vocalist who sounds a little like kirsty maccoll and is produced by mick jones from the clash

20 Moses    No One's Home  cds
To preview their forthcoming album, this debut single from MOSES is a lovely slice of classy indie pop, with a great gruff vocal over acoustic guitars and subtle string arrangements. Reminiscent of Badly Drawn Boy. Album received a 3*** review in Q. 3-track CD single for the price of a 7".

21 Ally kerr .     midst of the storm      7
Three songs by this Scottish songwriter, recommended for fans of BYRDS,BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, GO-BETWEENS, hopkirk and lee and mojave 3.on white vinyl on elefant

22 Marlowe   Its Turning Me On
Marlowe follow up last year's highly praised 'Dark Sparkle Corner' album with a brand new 5 track CD every bit as stunning. * 'A striking series of textures that resemble a nastier Belle & Sebastian... beguiling in ways that albums that exist purely in their own world can be.' Q on their debut album ( 4 star review). Marlowe will be touring across the UK throughout October taking in Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, London, Leeds, Sheffield, Cambridge, Cardiff, Hull, Derby & Belfast.

23 Sondre Lerche  Sleep On Needles 7"
"Say Hello to the Norwegian Badly Drawn Boy" – Q"Sleep On Needles", the first full commercial single for Sondre in the UK comes off the back of the sold out "Dead Passengers" ep and the critically acclaimed "Faces Down" album. A catchy, punchy slice of pure individualism - it is sure to delight the growing numbers of Sondre fans

24 Longview . Further, cds.
debut single from longview on 4.45 recordings.three tracks of well produced manc pop somewhere between travis and the smiths

25 Hudson Super Six   Raised To The Ground  7"
The hudson super six stagger from the wreckage of a collision involving 3 of derby’s pole position bands. Combining the obtuse sledgehammer sound of kerrang! Cult combo cable, the nagging pop sensibilities of melody maker single of the week-ers scribble and the shimmy disc-esque lop-sided sensitivities of iris, the dark, grinding “raised to the ground” draws on influences as diverse as ac-dc and xtc, and the band intend to exploit their love for music by acronymic artists in later releases too, with a desperate desire to record the definitive version of abc’s ‘the look of love”. But for now, this smouldering blues based gem focuses on the only true way to deal with unrequited love – burn him or her to death. Meanwhile the garage rock classic “food & drink”, in a diametrically opposed paradigm, holds a candle to the comforting benefits of domestic bliss, whilst smashing you in the face with a hot iron.
 

LAST UPDATED FRIDAY 04 November 2002