Cool Manchester

If we let the atrocity that is Chris Brown getting to number one this month go, there are plenty of great songs around at the moment. Here are my top five sings to recommend this month.

1. Marlon Roudette - New Age

New Age has been a huge hit all over Europe, but for some reason hasn't been big in Marlon's native UK. Its being rereleased here shortly and has a great summery vibe to it.

2. Alphabeat - Vacation

Apart from "The Spell", Alphabeat's second album was a bit of a disappointment to me. Vacation is the first single from their forthcoming third album and is a very promising return to form.

3. fun. - We Are Young

This has been number one in the USA for approximately eleventy-billion weeks and that's because it is FANTASTIC! We are still waiting for a UK release of this but if you are desperate for it there are several cover versions on itunes cashing in on its absence, including a rather good Glee one!

4. Yolanda Be Cool Feat. Crystal Waters - Le Bump

This is catchy as hell and harks back to the greatest dance tracks of the 90s. We Speak No Americano is still played heavily on the radio even though it was nearly two years ago, I think this would be called a "long awaited" follow up!

5. Melanie Fiona - 4AM

Melanie Fiona is another up and coming singer from Canada and 4AM is a very atmospheric bit of R&B and manages to bit different enough from all the other cliched R&B tracks around at the moment.

Killing Joke

MMXII

By Andrew Barclay

Killing Joke return with their brand new album, '2012', out on April 2nd. They are in a period of artistic resurgence and this album is proof, if any were needed, that the band are still a major force to be reckoned with.

The albums grand opener, 'Pole Shift', is a slow burning juggernaut, with Youth's thrashy guitar sound nicely layered across the synths, and Jaz Colemans vocals ranging from his smooth melodic delivery, to the war cry he evokes for the more high octane moments.

Jaz, who is a firm believer in the end times, builds his lyrical input around the theme of 2012 being THE year of change, and his enthusiasm for the subject is all over this album.

'In Cythera' is most certainly a highlight and it invokes a similar sound to 'European Super State' from the 'Absolute Dissent' album. The band still pack a punch however, and on 'Fema Camp', 'Rapture', Glitch' and 'Trance' the sound is as heavy and dramatic as it’s ever been.

'On All Hallows Eve' closes the album in fine style, and you are left with the comfort of knowing you've just heard killing Joke's best album in nearly 20 years. The band is currently on tour, so if you can catch them live, you'd be silly not too. However, if you can't get out to see them in the flesh, get hold of this album, it’s a must hear.

Neil Young

Album By Album Career Retrospective

Part 2

1973/1975

Three Shades of Gloom

By Andrew Barclay

‘Time Fades Away’ 1973

After the success of ‘Harvest’, Young hit the road to packed out arenas all across America. He’d played venues this size with super group Crosby Stills Nash and Young, but this was the first time he was to play at such large places on his own merit.

The resulting tour was recorded, and as it was full of new material, Young elected to release a collection of some of the new songs as a live album. ‘Time Fades Away’ is perhaps the least known of Young’s albums, but it’s worth seeking out. The tour it comes from was fraught with troubles, and this frustration is carried across into the music.

Danny Whitten, guitar player with Crazy Horse had died of a heroin overdose just prior to the tour, and this put Young in a grim mood. The music here isn’t the country tinged material on offer on previous albums; here we get ragged rock work outs and a few very precious ballads.

‘L.A’ and ‘Yonder Stands the Sinner’ are the best examples of the albums strengths, rugged and chunky guitars are the order of the day.

Young is often called the god father of grunge, and this, if any album, could lay claim to being the incubation of that sound. Young for the most part seems to be on self-destruct mode, his voice often cracking during songs, and his guitar playing, paired down to its simplest form.

Neil Young

Album By Album Career Retrospective

Part 1

– Heading For The Harvest -

1969 / 1972

By Andrew Barclay

'Neil Young' 1968

In Neil Young's songs with Buffalo Springfield, he'd established himself as the member of the group who displayed the most eclecticism within his song writing and styles of music attempted, and it's perhaps this, along with his well-documented struggles with the other band members, that finally saw him move onto his now illustrious solo career. On his self-titled debut album, Young continued to collaborate with composer/arranger Jack Nitzsche, whom he'd recorded the ethereal 'Expecting to Fly' with, on the final Buffalo Springfield album.

Whilst the country flavor that had been present in the Springfield albums was also an ingredient in his first solo effort, there were distinct changes in the work of Neil Young, he was moving forward, both lyrically and musically, and some of his most enduring moments exist on this album. It’s perhaps a little ironic that an artist lauded as one of the best songwriters of his generation chose to start his debut solo album with the slight, instrumental country tinged work out of 'The Emperor of Wyoming'. It was thin, and inconsequential, but at least it did introduce the audience to the general sound that the album would take.

The punchy sounding 'The Loner' was one of the albums best rockers, and although Young still sounded slightly reserved with his vocal delivery, he was clearly enjoying the freedom of having room to explore themes of his own for the first time on record without having to get approval as he had in the setting of Buffalo Springfield. This is perhaps most well-articulated in the final track on the album, the guitar / vocal epic 'The Last Trip to Tulsa'. Frankly completely surreal for the most part, it certainly rivaled anything Bob Dylan had written in the impressionistic stakes.

Elsewhere, tracks like 'Here We Are In The Years', 'What Did You Do To My Life', and 'I’ve Loved Her So Long' although being excellently written, weren't quite as fully realized musically as perhaps Neil Young would have liked. The raw energy that Young would later become synonymous with just wasn't present on this album, but never again would a Neil Young album containing a full band sound as wafer thin as this.