Album Of Last Month

Arcade Fire 'The Suburbs' (Mercury)

Anybody who has ever suggested that Arcade Fire have made a 'great' album was lying. Lying to the world. Lying to whoever it was they were attempting to convince. Lying to themselves. Songs, yes. 'Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)', 'Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)' and 'Rebellion (Lies)' of 'Funeral' were illustrious each in their own spectacles. And 'Intervention' and 'No Cars Go' from 'Neon Bible' the same. But to allege that the Montreal seven-piece have actually fashioned a consistently end-to-end piece of baroque pop'd beauty is unjust. Until now, that is - Apologies for the cliché turnabout but it's so fucking true, nothing else would better justify the ruling.
Anything over 11, 12 tracks is more often than not a hamstring for the inventor (see under the too-stubborn Sufjan Stevens and Adam Green). Here, though, it just not once lets down, and if it does faintly veer off into a dicey alleyway by way of a steadfast-but-dreary riff (cough, 'Month Of May', cough - Oh, and whose lamebrain idea was it to hype the album with that? Talk about misrepresentation!), you know there's a cloying minute of resplendence right around the corner. 16 songs, p'haps for the first time since Blur's 'Parklife', seems about the perfect amount.
It too finishes where it commences, with that buoyed, abstruse line of "Sometimes I can't believe it, I'm moving past the feeling again" resonating like all the middle has been some unforgettable daydream. Plus, for such an exceptional piece of pop music, it's not even dribbling with the same unrestrained hope and impassion that garnered them those Grammy noms in the first place. It's the less-is-more approach that is 'The Suburbs's driving force, and the indistinct overtones within tracks like 'Ready To Start' and 'Suburban War' stuffing the horsepower. Of course the mettlesome nature is still there, but it works because husband Win Butler and wife Régine Chassagne are perpetually gushing out an insightful, sentimental and personal bedrock.
'Modern Man', for example, contemplates the confusion of modernity and that sometimes twitchy wait for the end. "How come you can't sleep at night? In line for a number but you don't understand," Butler declares of the unknowing, all the while there's an amicable drift of braiding noise thrilling below.
Naturally, the phenomenon of self-discovery is covered, as "the night tears us loose and in the half light we're free" in 'Half Light I', only "we knew this day would come, still it took us by surprise; In this town where I was born, I now see through a dead man's eyes," he casts back in 'Half Light II (No Celebration)'. This longing for youth and former memories comes both forlorn and familiar, as an all-out chorus of, "One day they will see it's long gone," carries heady keys and some semi-jungle rhythm. Jason Reitman could make a movie franchise out of 'Half Light' parts I and II alone.
'Suburban War' is the best of a brilliant bunch, however. It plays on the risk of recollection ("They keep erasing all the streets we grew up in") but ends with the maturation of finding one's own path ("You choose your side, I'll choose mine; All my old friends, they don't know me now").
One line in 'Month Of May' so characteristic of modern-day West goes, "Well, I know it's heavy, I know it ain't light; But how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?" It leaps out like a fitting dressing-down to the carefree do-nothings of society... You know who you are! Or you don't, that's kinda the point.
And 'Sprawl I (Flatland)' - a graceful, reflective build-up to its even-better sequel 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)' - is where you assume there to exist a happy ending. "Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small, that we can never get away from the sprawl, living in the sprawl; Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains, and there's no end in sight, I need the darkness someone please cut the lights," trills Chassagne, aka old suburbia can be suffocating, but anything else is after all delusional. Depressing for sure, but about as real and ingenuous as they come.
'The Suburbs', quite frankly, is crucial, and the great Arcade Fire record we've been lingering for all along. The truth has never come so sweet...

Best Track –
Suburban War

Say "Astronaut" #15

From 'The Couch' (S6E5)

DL –
Radiohead 'Sit Down, Stand Up (Snakes & Ladders)'

Say "Astronaut" #14

From 'The Letter' (S3E21)

DL –
British Sea Power 'It Ended On An Oily Stage'

The Best Songs Ever Whenever Ever Is

Some songs are so good they can make an entire album. Some songs are so good they can make an entire career. And some songs are so good they can feel like nothing has ever beaten or is ever likely to beat it. It is these which I've whittled down my iTunes to, the ten best songs ever whenever is. Songs that the first time you heard them you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing, and just for a second thought, 'You know what, this is the greatest song ever'. These are all so good, I still think that about a few of 'em...

10. Oasis 'Stand By Me' -
Yes, I am aware that this is not from Brother Gallaghers' first two efforts. But I'm not alleging that 'Be Here Now' is a better record (though it is still unfairly lambasted), I'm just saying that the anthemy and mountainousness lodged within 'Stand By Me' so rightly parallels Oasis' standing at the time - plus its name - it defines them more than any other.


9. Stereophonics 'Just Looking' -
When I first got into proper music, these were actually quite happening. And 'Just Looking' comes from their second album 'Performance And Cocktails', itself an unfailing piece of indie. But the track's stirring chords, singer Kelly Jones' honeyed croak, the constancy of discontent it possesses - it just couldn't not be included. Perfect.


8. Bloc Party 'Helicopter' -
Though this may be the second-most recent number in this list, it still seems like ages ago if you take into account Kele Okereke's solo outing. Time was, Bloc Party fizzled with gassy effects pedals and professionally amateur vocals, 'Helicopter' being the greatest example of such. Kele's denied it relating to George W. Bush, saying it's actually on him.


7. Muse 'Time Is Running Out' -
It's only fair that THE band of superlative stadium chorales get a mention, right? Just when I thought it was all downhill post-'Plug In Baby', they came out all-woolly-synths-blazing to tear up the nation. Well, embezzle near-unlawful play-time on MTV2, rather. The tearing up the nation came a couple records later.


6. Foo Fighters 'The Best Of You' -
The best revenge is thought by many to live well. Not Dave Grohl, however, who would prefer his ex to have 'someone take her faith', just like she him. It, too, opens first with a vocal, a ploy that works wonders when meeting its as-raw, forthright guitars. By the 37th play, I'll admit, I wavered, but it's still the best Foo Fighters song. Ever, ever, ever.


5. Morning Runner 'Burning Benches' -
I'm not sure I'll ever get over these splitting after just one LP - and a mighty brilliant LP at that. Yet I'll always have 'Burning Benches', the definition of sentimental. Sentimental obsession and love and heartache, that is. Sadly, Morning Runner may only be known in future for soundtracking hit-but-mostly-miss 'comedy' 'The Inbetweeners'.


4. Death Cab for Cutie 'Transatlanticism' -
Well, derrr. The first of two of DCfC's to feature, 'Transatlanticism's title track is, to call a spade a spade, the finest love song of them all. "I need you so much closer," Ben Gibbard recurrently murmurs atop drop-dead keys and a clobbering beat. And if you don't bawl for the distance, forget about that living thing.


3. Coldplay 'We Never Change' -
One of the most overlooked Coldplay gems - and there are a few - 'We Never Change' is, like, only the sweetest thing on 'Parachutes'. Chris Martin goes: "I wanna live life and always be true... I sin every single day." It's sincere by way of an acoustic-steered stripped-down ambience. Naive hope with an honest bullet. Or something.


2. Hope Of The States 'Enemies/Friends'-
Another uber-accomplished band who withered away in amongst all the relative hype, Sam Herlihy's men carried 'Enemies/Friends' like they were the forefathers of soft rock. But boy did they have rights to. It is one of the best pieces of music ever written in the history of man. Sorry, but it just is.


1. Death Cab for Cutie 'Tiny Vessels' -
I'm not even sure I can listen to this ever again. Not only because I've played it to utter death, but it's so confessional and so ingenuous and so ashamed, it's almost too much to bear. "I wanted to believe in all the words that I was speaking as we moved together in the dark, and all the friends that I was telling and all the playful misspellings and every bite I gave you left a mark." Gibbard uses 'Tiny Vessels' to lay it all out there, his regrets over the 'man' he once was and the empty promises he was making. He gets more heated and repentant as the tales of cheap sex and spurned love linger on, all the while there's a deep ocean of battering drums and trembling strings dispensing below. "Yeah, you are beautiful, but you don't mean a thing to me." About as bitter as they come, but about the best song ever whenever ever was or is.

Feeling Good

I'll be honest. About two months ago, I was pretty worried. The dissenting undercurrent around Old Trafford every other week was being fuelled by an increasing mob of bandwagon-jumpers and those fundamentally foolish green and yellow scarves. We were effectively one fit Wayne Rooney away from not losing to Chelsea and Bayern Munich at home within four days and progressing further in the competitions that really matter, however concluded with merely the Carling Cup. And yes, we'd pre-brought in some unknown Mexican striker, who was at one point linked to going back out on loan, and Fulham's Chris Smalling, who spent the latter half of their Europa League final-making season on the bench, but that sense of longing for a fresh August... it just wasn't there. For the first time in four years, who knew where we headed?
But then something kinda special happened. Said-Mexican striker scored in the World Cup against France in a 2-0 win. And then he scored again, this time against Argentina. Mexico stumbled, but Hernández, or Chicharito, impressed. A week following the World Cup final, United started their pre-season tour of North America by beating Celtic 3-0, a game in which Berbatov and Tom Cleverly, who last year was Watford's player of the year, shined. Chicharito joined up a short while later, only to net in every single one of the friendlies he played, including against Chelsea in the Community Shield. Not since you-know-who in the summer of 2003 has their been this kind of buzz about a new signing. He, too, has a constant sweet smile spread across his face, channelling a confident, positive mood about him.
It's infectious as well. In fact, so much so that Nani and Valencia WILL improve on their decent second halves of last season, Van Der Sar/Scholes/Giggs/Neville WILL continue to defy age, Rafael/Fabio WILL learn how to defend, Rio/Hargreaves/Rooney WILL stay injury-free, Berbatov WILL have a great season... and I could go on and on. But there's a buoyancy about United now that wasn't there at the end of last season, I think - things are looking up.
When Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes departed in 1995, in came Scholes, Beckham and Neville. And Beckham in 2003, Ronaldo. And Ronaldo in 2008, Chicharito? But really, there's only ever one man to look to, and that's the greatest boss of them all.

DL –
Muse 'Feeling Good'