If you are looking for something upbeat to drive out those January blues, then there are two albums you should consider. Animal Collective and Franz Ferdinand are both consistently ‘up’.
Animal Collective win out after repeated listening. My first reaction to Merriweather Post Pavilion’ was ‘nice, but somebody’s really trying to cash in on the Vampire Weekend thing here’. Having listened to the album for a good while now, I actually like it more and more. The lyrics are quite witty, too.
Franz Ferdinand go back to the dancefloor friendly sound of their first album with ‘Tonight’. Second time around, the slant is more Power Pop than New Wave. Think ‘79, narrow suits, white shirts skinny ties and, errm, white shoes. It’s a solid album full of uptempo songs about nothing earth shattering in particular.
‘Tonight’ is infectious and makes me want to sing along with the chorus. ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ is like an old leather jacket, easy to slip on and somehow oddly comforting. Horses for courses - The choice depends on your mood, really.
Moving swiftly on to slightly more obscure material, I just got the new album by prolific UK producer Skream, ‘Skreamizm V’, and am loving it already.
Skream is increasingly veering off the beaten Dubstep track and this collection of his most recent dubplates makes a knowing nod towards the current trend of adding some House flavours to the mix. Three top tracks on ‘Skreamizm V’ are the Deep House flavoured ‘If You Know’, ‘Rimz’ with it’s Trance-y break two thirds into the track and an immense nostalgia trip to the days of the UK 2-Step scene circa 1998, ‘One For The Heads Who Remember’. Review to follow next week.
My top three songs of the week are:
Animal Collective ‘Brother Sport’
Franz Ferdinand ‘Live Alone’
Skream ‘One For The Heads Who Remember’
