The Nightcast.  Yes, night.  I am recording this at about two in the morning for the simple reason that for all I aim to do these once a week, on the weekend, once again it has been just plain impossible to actually get the damn thing done on the weekend just gone, so here I am squeezing it into the ungodly hours of Tuesday night.

Well, Wednesday now.

And of course I am off to The Great Escape in the morning.  Actually, it already is the morning.  Oh all right then, by the time this is uploaded and ready to go and I can actually get some sleep, I think I might be due to get out of bed in two hours time.  Cock and balls.  I thought the night time was supposed to be a little more glamorous than this.

Direct download: Toadcast #225 – The Nightcast

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01. The Pictish Trail – Of Course You Exist (FOUND Remix) (00.26)
02. Plastic Animals – Ghosts (07.56)
03. Playlounge – Boner Hit (Keel Her cover) (15.24)
04. Yoofs – Love at 140 (18.17)
05. Dead Rat Orchestra – The Geshin & the Guga (23.15)
06. The See See – Fix Me Up (30.24)
07. Meursault – Flittin’ (36.26)
08. Woody Guthrie – So Long, it’s Been Good to Know You (40.37)
09. PAWS – Misled Youth (46.20)
10. Blank Canvas – Golden (53.53)
11. The Eighteenth Day of May – Cold Early Morning (59.04)

 So, what’s happening with you lot this week?  I myself am getting ready to do a spot of recording with Waiters and Sex Hands, who are up from Manchester to put together a split 12″ which we’ll be releasing in, er… April, I think, assuming all goes well.

So, once more to offend the neighbours with the battering of drums and the sound of loud guitars.  The good news is that Mrs. Toad is off to the States on grown-up business this week, so that’s at least one less person to annoy with the racket and the mess.

Once again, there’s not all that much on this week, but what there is looks really interesting. Sneaky Pete’s website is down at this particular moment, so I can’t check what they have going on at the moment, but you can check yourself here when you get the chance, and hopefully it will be back up and running.

Thursday 12th Jan: FOUND launch Atmosphere|Memento at the InSpace Gallery.

I’ll be honest with you, I know next to nothing about this. FOUND are involved though, and pretty much everything they touch turns to genius, so I’d recommend it whatever it is.  According to the blurb on the site they are presenting two different chronologies of the same story to two different audiences, one being linear, and the other more fragmented, to represent the story of a man who can no longer form new memories.  Sounds a bit weird, but fascinating, but then that’s FOUND for you.

Saturday 14th Jan: My Tiny Robots single launch at The Third Door.

As well as being the launch night for My Tiny Robots’ new single will be the first night of a new concept at the Third Door called Video Loves the Radio Star, a collaboration between Ten Tracks, who book for the Third Door, and video LaB. My Tiny Robots will be looking to follow up a couple of excellent singles last year with Zut Alors (preview below), and I can only assume they are building towards a debut album – one I will be most interested to hear.

11.David Thomas Broughton – Ain’t Got No Sole The first song we heard from DTB’s fantastic album, and perhaps the poppiest of the lot.  Catchy, unusual and immensely hummable.

12.Kurt Vile – Baby’s Arms Another album from which it is tricky to extricate just one song as a highlight, but for some reason I’m giving this the nod above Jesus Fever or Puppet to the Man. I think it’s the most late night and glass of red winey song on the album, but it’s close.

13.The Sandwitches – Lightfoot Are you still allowed to describe songs as joyous romps these days?  Because that’s what this feels like, an idiosyncratic, gleeful romp of a song.

14.Josh T Pearson – Country Dumb It’s hard to pick out just one song from this record, but this one seems to stand out for some reason.  Maybe it’s related to the number of times I’ve heard it and the circumstances, but there’s an unsettling fatalism to this which lifts it above the autobiographical confessional of the rest of the album.

15.John Knox Sex Club – Above Us the Waves This kind of sincere, epic grandiosity is really difficult to pull off without coming across as a bit po-faced or joyless, but this is just spell-binding.

16.Jonnie Common – Summer Is For Going Places There are so many incredible songs on this Jonnie Common album I could easily have picked four or five for the Festive Fifty, but I didn’t want the whole thing to be dominated by one or two artists.  Summer is For Going Places is as laid back and infectious as the rest of Master of None.

17.Crystal Swells – Mellow Californian Another masterpiece of feral, overloaded lo-fi brilliance.  And no matter how messy they make this stuff, Crystal Swells always make sure the pop song isn’t lost, so it may not sound like it, but I reckon they know exactly what they’re doing.

18.Yoofs – John Actor is Monkfish I love the chorus on this, the vocal refrain, how well-controlled the momentum of the song is – and once again we have an unknown DIY band with two songs in my Festive Fifty.  Keep an eye on Art is Hard Records in the new year.

19.Hookworms – Teen Dreams For unheard of DIY bands to produce stuff with this much oomph is unusual.  This is from a self-titled 12″ now out on Faux Discx, and it’s, well, epic, I suppose is the best way to describe it.

20.Easter – Damp Patch For a band with three songs on a Soundcloud page and nothing else, I am a bit wary of over-stating my own enthusiasm for this band.  They have a sort of slow-burn to them, but then that spills over into raucous endings, a bit proggy, a bit krauty and all messy.  This track isn’t their most aggressive, but it’s bloody great.

21.Edinburgh School for the Deaf – Of Scottish Blood And Sympathies Epic, post-rocky, shoegazey awesomeness from a band who threw their biggest beast of a track down right at the very beginning of their debut album.

22.Earth Girl Helen Brown – Girls of My Dreams The weird sense of otherworldly fuzz on this record made it absolutely compelling from the first listen.  It’s like listening to a lost gem from the sixties with a brain so addled you can barely make out the stereo.

23.Jarad Miles – Miles Away Rocketship is a lovely record, and there are some gorgeous, touching songs on it, but perhaps the quietest, most low-key one of the lot caught my attention the most – touching and full of pathos.

24.Pillars and Tongues – Thank you Oaky Grandiose and beautiful, rich and enveloping – if one song sums up why you should own and love this album then I reckon it might be this one.

25.The Sandwitches – Heaviest Head In The West As much as the jaunty, carefree pop songs on this album caught my attention, one of the best songs on the album is this one, which is both far darker and contains one of the most arresting, enigmatic squeals in pop history.

26.Elbow – Lippy Kids I am not all that into the new Elbow album, but this track is an absolute blinder.  It’s gorgeous, and contains some of Guy Garvey’s most poignant lyrics.

27.Crystal Stilts – Shake The Shackles It wasn’t all that consistent an album, but there are some cracking songs – sort of like the Ringo Deathstarr album in that sense – and this is the best of them.  The crooned delivery almost has a New Romantic edge to it, but the rest of the song is shoegazey, garagey goodness.

28.FOUND – Machine Age Dancing The wonky breakdown in this had me sending text messages to the band the first time I heard it.  Songs like Vincent Gallo and Anti-Climb Paint may have been well familiar to FOUND fans by the time Factorycraft came out, but they kept plenty of gems to themselves, and this is one of them.

29.Tom Waits – Hell Broke Luce This is far from a vintage album, but the deranged crashing about of this song is probably as close as Bad as Me gets to vintage Tom Waits.

30.Palms – Wolf Despite the really, really rough recording (those cymbal crescendoes actually quite hurt my ears) this is still clearly a brilliant song.  It’s a more brooding approach to garage rock (and I use that term, as with all genre terms, extremely loosely) than some of the more frantic stuff I’ve heard this year, and is a song I played something like ten times consecutively the first time I heard it.

Zip file download: right-click, save as.

1-10 | 11-30 | 31-50

 Right, all the amateurs have had a go, and we’ve seen disturbing amounts of Bon Iver and PJ Harvey on lists from Bradford to Boston this year, but it’s time for those of us who really know what’s good and what isn’t to step up and set the record straight.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the definitive list of what’s been good this year, so you can all stop pretending to care what Drowned in Sound or Pitchfork think, and find out what you should really be thinking about music.

That’s all bollocks of course, and I am not stupid enough to believe that my list is any better than anyone else’s (apart from not having PJ Harvey, Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes on it of course), this is just a list of what I have been enjoying the most in 2011.  As I’ve been listening to a lot of DIY garagey stuff, I’ve actually listened to an awful lot of EPs and mini-albums and stuff like that, so I’ve been pretty loose with my definition of what an album actually is, so you might well think a couple of these picks are cheating a little bit.

 20: Horsecollar – You’ve a Big Heart, Sweet Tiger For a DIY pop album recorded on what appears to be the tiniest of budgets, this record more than makes up for its technical shortcomings by having charm, wit and pathos all engagingly interwoven to produce an album which is both hummable and incredibly likeable.

Horsecollar – Courtland Street

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  19. John Knox Sex Club – Raise Ravens I actually think this record is slightly uneven, which may enrage a few people I know who think it is entirely brilliant.  When these guys hit the heights, though, they are absolutely spellbinding, both on record and live.

John Knox Sex Club – Katie Cruel

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  18. The Quiet Americans – Medicine Alright, alright I know that I suppose I should strictly call this an EP, but I told you I was going to be a bit loose with that particular definition on this list.  I bought this on tape a month or two ago and it has hardly been out of the van stereo ever since: simply awesome pop tunes, and that’s why it’s on this list.

The Quiet Americans – Be Alone

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  17. Edinburgh School for the Deaf – New Youth Bible These guys have rather inevitably gone a little quiet since they lost a guitarist to the charms of London earlier in the year.  Nevertheless, before he left, they fortunately found time to crank out this ambitious, epic bit of grumbly shoegaze.

Edinburgh School for the Deaf – Love is Terminal

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  16. Dirty Beaches – Badlands This is perhaps the pinnacle of my fad for unlistenably muddy recordings, which has rather dominated my listening this year.  It’s murky as fuck, but there’s something enthrallingly obtuse about it at the same time which, even months later, I still can’t put my finger on exactly.

Dirty Beaches – Sweet 17

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  15. Powerdove – Be Mine This is an incredibly beautiful record of wonderfully constructed music.  A combination of the skeletally minimal arrangements and the whispered, barely audible vocals just draws you in, to the point you’re almost staring at the stereo.  Also, unlike a couple of other albums which employed this approach this year, it is short enough and varied enough to be constantly engaging from start to finish.

Powerdove – Impact

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  14. Former Bullies – Golden Chains Former Bullies have been around for a good few years now, and I am admittedly rather late to the party.  They are part of a Manchester scene which I have really, really enjoyed exploring this year, and this album couldn’t have been better timed.  It’s as lo-fi as a lot of their contemporaries, but less garagey or loud, opting more for a laid back pop vibe instead.

Former Bullies – Golden Chains

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  13. Earth Girl Helen Brown – Story of an Earth Girl The first song I heard from this release dazzled and thrilled me in equal measure.  Following up on how the record came about introduced me to Sonny and the Sunsets, to The Sandwitches, to the 100 Records project, to Endless Nest and Empty Cellar, and was as such probably the single most effective mp3 emailed to me by a PR person since I started the blog.  And as for the album/mini album/EP/whatever itself, well it really is just fucking brilliant.

Earth Girl Helen Brown – Hit After Hit

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  12. FOUND – Factorycraft It’s hard to tell what I actually think of this album.  I’d already danced like a fool to most of these songs so many times by the time the album came out, that it felt entirely familiar pretty much from the word go. But we had friends visit recently, and played them this, and it was the act of playing it to people entirely unfamiliar with the band that I remember exactly how good this record is. It is straightforward indie, by FOUND’s standards, but by anyone else’s it’s a really fascinating pop record, full of surprises and weird bits, but still, crucially, hooks as well.

FOUND – I’ll Wake With a Seismic Head No More

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  11. Sonny & the Sunsets – Hit After Hit This is one of those titles which almost entirely sums up the record itself: one pop gem after another.  I described it in my review, if I remember, as ‘Hill Valley 1955 doesn’t give a fuck’ because it is an odd combination of soda pop funtimes and a weird, slacker undertone which is maddeningly hard to pin down. Neverless, with tunes like this it can be what it bloody well wants, because this album is excellent.

Sonny & the Sunsets – Heart of Sadness

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1-10

 Well, after last year’s neck-and-neck battle between Meursault and The National, this year’s Song, by Toad Readers’ Top Five Albums was something of a stroll by comparison.

Although the field behind this album was congested, King Creosote & Jon Hopkins’ Diamond Mine was a comfortable winner in the end.  Whilst I doubt this quite makes up for missing out on the Mercury Prize to P.J. Harvey, it’s interesting to note that after a very strong initial showing, she didn’t even make the top five of this particular list.  And you can bet your arse she won’t be on mine.

A wee nod must also go to King Post Kitsch.  Home field advantage, whilst I assume it must have some effect, doesn’t seem to behave all that predictably when it comes to these votes, because other than Rob St. John, no-one else from the label has managed to force their way onto the podium. King Post Kitsch did really well on both the song and album of the year votes, however, missing out on a place in the top five by a single vote in each case, which is really impressive for an album released so early in the year by a band who haven’t played a single gig in 2011.

=4. FOUND – Factorycraft A little like King Post Kitsch, I thought this album might suffer a little from being released so early in the year, but it seems long memories and awesome live shows have kept this bloody brilliant record at the forefront of everyone’s minds.  It made a very late run to get into the top five, but I am delighted you lot decided to vote for this one.

FOUND – Machine Age Dancing

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=4. Josh T. Pearson – The Last of the Country Gentlemen This is a long, morose and emotionally rather heavy album, which makes the impression it has clearly had on people a little surprising, as far as I’m concerned.  I mean, I bloody love it, but I didn’t necessarily expect everyone else to.

Josh T. Pearson – Country Dumb (Piano Version)

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=2. Rob St. John – Weald Well well well, once again, I’m not sure if I’m slightly embarrassed or highly gratified to have one of our own albums on here.  This whole thing was pretty much recorded in two days downstairs in our living room, and I knew that they were brewing something quite special.  Apart from the actual bits I heard, Tom, Neil and Rob were so giddy with excitement when they finished on the Friday night that you could tell something was definitely up – and up it most certainly proved to be!

Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea

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=2. Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older It’s probably going to come across as a little hypocritical from someone who loved the Josh T. Pearson album, but I actually find a lot of the introspection here a bit suffocating, meaning I never really got into this record to the extent a lot of other people seemed to.  Still, it’s been bloody popular, so fair play to ‘em.

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – The Copper Top

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1. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine I am not entirely surprised that this won, but I have to say that I considerably prefer That Might Be it, Darling, if we’re discussing King Creosote’s recent output. That album has the tension and awkwardness which I think makes KC’s music so great, contrasting as it does with his incredibly lovely voice.  This record I just find a little smooth, if I’m honest.  KC for Guardian readers, I suppose.  The songs are exceptional, so I still enjoy the album, but I am not sure I’d have picked it myself.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bubble

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Ha ha no P.J. Harvey.

 And so the madness begins. The Edge Festival this year is still looking for something special, beyond Sebadoh and The National, but there is nevertheless an unbelievable shitload of stuff happening in Edinburgh over the course of the next four weeks.

Personally, I am going to have much more involvement this year, for two reasons.  For starters, last year I spent two weeks of August on holiday in China, and another week up at Haarfest in Fife, and this year I’ll be here the whole way through.

Secondly, of course, we will be releasing the Best of the Antihoot at the end of the Festival, meaning I will be spending an awful lot of time actually at the Antihoot, trying to figure out what I think is actually the best of it, and that means 12-3am most nights, and then a normal day’s work the next day.  Helloooooo coffee!

Monday 1st August 2011: Lady North, PAWS & Vasquez at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ve been looking forward to the single for which this gig is the launch night for ages now.  Out on Gerry Loves Records, it is a 7″ split between PAWS and Lady North, and given the raucous excellence of the former and the reputed excellence of the latter, this should be a mightily excellent gig.

PAWS – Summer Wipeout

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Wednesday 3rd August 2011: Lach: The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos at Cabaret Voltaire.

This is the opening night of a run of solo shows Lach will be performing over the course of the Fringe – all part of the Free Fringe, with admission being on the basis of a voluntary donation.  The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos is named after the people Lach tended to find himself playing to at the end of the night at the Sidewalk Cafe in New York, when running the Antihoot over there.

Lach – Baby, I Don’t Want to Go

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Thursday 4th August 2011: The opening night of the Antihoot at the Gilded Balloon.

This show is also running throughout August (more of this later) and in September we’ll be releasing The Best of the Antihoot on Song, by Toad Records – compilation chosen by a combination of audience acclaim and executive decision.

Friday 5th August 2011: Avital Raz & Little Egypt at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Those of us who were at the Avital Raz and Alex Cornish Song, by Toad House Gig in June were pretty much unanimous in thinking Avital’s stuff was absolutely amazing.  Well on the back of that gig Claire has booked her for Henry’s this Friday, with support coming from a band I have to confess to not knowing, called Little Egypt.

Sunday 7th August 2011: Edinburgh Independent Record Fair at Summerhall.

Scotland’s best independent labels, promoters and bands will be gathering in the Dissecting Room Bar at Summerhall, and combining live music in the lecture theatre with a series of stalls selling all sorts of bits and pieces of musical joy, soundtracked by DJ sets from all sorts of Scottish musical muppets luminaries.

FOUND – Anti-Climb Paint

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Sunday 7th August 2011: Born to Be Wide Edinburgh Night at the Electric Circus.

Born to Be Wide is also hosting in-stores by Rachel Sermanni and Withered Hand at Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket, and then moving to the Electric Circus for the evening, and short performances by a huge variety of new Edinburgh bands, interspersed with ‘celebrity’ DJs.  Already confirmed to play are: Chasing Owls, Austen George, Capitals, Bwani Junction, Withered Hand, Rachel Sermanni, Church of When The Sh*t Hits The Fan and Lady North.

Another week, another bank holiday in which we self-employed folks don’t get to indulge.  Working for yourself is great, but watching everyone else get days off when all you can do is stare at the steady trickle into your inbox and the pile of promotional copies of releases waiting to be posted, can be a little demoralising.  And it’s sunny, too.  Fuckers.

Anyhow, The Brainlove Festival was bloody good fun, only slightly ruined by an awful football match.  My personal highlight was an absolutely awesome set by Mat Riviere.  He was playing with a cellist whose name I unfortunately don’t remember, but the stuff they played was absolutely brilliant – building from beautiful melodies to aggressively experimental cacophonies.

The Brixton Windmill also ended up being good to its description: a highly unpromising building which actually turned out to be a cracking wee venue.  I want one here please.

Tuesday 31st May 2011: The Travelling Band, Jesus H. Foxx and The Last Battle at the Electric Circus.

I harassed the Travelling Band at SXSW this year because one of them happened to be wearing a ‘Homegame 2006*’ t-shirt.  Anyone who’s been asked to play Homegame (and is loved by Cloud Sounds) is good enough for me, plus this gig sees the long-awaited return from mothballs of Jesus H. Foxx, complete with a near-finished new album and a somewhat tweaked lineup.

The Travelling Band – Fairweather Friends

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Wednesday 1st June 2011: eagleowl, The Scottish Enlightenment & Silver Fox play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

I had to add this later, because I am a total idiot and forgot it the first time.  God knows why because this looks like pretty much the highlight of my week as far as music is concerned.

Friday 3rd June 2011: The Dead Man’s Waltz, The Stormy Seas & James Metcalfe at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This should be a rattling good night.  I don’t know anything about the Dead Man’s Waltz, but a quick listen to their stuff sounds very promising – all jaunty banjo and acoustic, foot-tapping Americana.  James Metcalfe from the Pineapple Chunks will be playing solo as well.

The Dead Man’s Waltz – Cry On Me

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Saturday 4th June 2011: Avital Raz & Alex Cornish Song, by Toad House Gig.

Alex let me know last week that he is bringing a string bloody quartet to this gig, which makes it just about the coolest thing we’ve done in the house for a long time. Tickets are available here, and I would be nice if you could buy them in advance

Saturday 4th June 2011: Detour present FOUND at the Electric Circus.

Detour’s Wee Jaunt stumbles about Edinburgh all day, finishing up at the Electric Circus where FOUND will be closing the night with their usual exuberance.  I assume one of the tracks played will be new single Anti-climb Paint, the subject of an absolutely ludicrously brilliant-sounding edible, playable chocolate 7″ single.  Video below.

Sunday 5th June 2011: Julian Lynch, Ducktails & Big Troubles at Sneaky Pete’s.

This gig is being put on by the reprobates behind Gerry Loves Records, and that is good enough for me. It’s less electronic than a couple of their recent releases, nudging more into Kurt Vile territory, but this is fine territory to be in if you ask me.

Julian Lynch – Stomper

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*2005?  2006?  Something like that.

The Braincast is not so called because it unusually filled with penetrative insights, but because if you listen to it this weekend it will be while I am down at the Brainlove Festival either listening to bands, DJing or sneaking off to watch the Champions League final at the nearest pub.

This week is another relatively haircut-friendly playlist actually, with words like ‘remix’ to be found and some fashionably hazy production and everything.  In fact I may have to do another ‘tedious old shite’ podcast soon, just to make up for it.

Anyhow, next week looks like being the Scottish Enlightenment Toad Session, which is coming along nicely.  I just need the photos and to complete the constantly challenging ten minute main video, which always takes quite a long while.  I will listen to the podcast on the train down to London and figure out which bits I think should go in the video.  In the meantime, enjoy…

Direct download: Toadcast #176 – The Braincast

01. FOUND – Anti-climb Paint (00.22)
02. Silverbacks – Atta Boyz (07.32)
03. Phil & the Osophers – Ink on the Page (13.02)
04. Slim Twig – Priscilla (18.57)
05. Yuppies – For the Future’s Sake (21.41)
06. Lau vs Adem – Imporsa (Silver Columns Remix) (24.11)
07. Dirty Beaches – Coast to Coast (Remastered) (35.06)
08. Tasseomancy – Soft Feet (44.37)
09. Sonny & the Sunsets – I Wanna Do It (52.11)
10. Youth Lagoon – Cannons (54.54)
11. Psychedelic Horseshit – Laced (60.40)

This is the post-Homegame, ‘dear Jesus please just let me sleep for a week, good god someone please fetch me a green vegetable’ podcast.

I can just about keep my head together enough to get through this, but then I have the Monday listings to write and the bloody Francois/This is the Kit/Babe gig to organise tonight as well.  Aargh!

I also have all sorts of other things to do this week, but after the sort of mind-boggling battering your mind and your liver get at Homegame I am not sure I can face any of it.  I am going back to sleep, wake me up in June.

Direct download: Toadcast #173 – The Brokencast

01. FOUND – I’ll Wake With a Seismic Head No More (00.34)
02. Randolph’s Leap – Counting Sheep (7:57)
03. Josh T. Pearson – Country Dumb (Piano Version) (13.57)
04. The Singleman Affair – If I Only Fell in Love When I Was Young (21.16)
05. eagleowl – Into the Fold (Toad Session) (29.00)
06. The Last Battle – Ruins (35.07)
07. King Creosote & the Earlies – Bats in the Attic (Live on 6Music with Mark Riley) (40.23)
08. Sweet Baboo – Girl Under a Tree (45.37)
09. David Thomas Broughton – Ain’t Got No Sole (54.57)

This is going to be a really difficult record for me to review sensibly.  This is not for the usual reasons – that I happen to consider the band to be good friends, although I do – but for a more mundane one: I actually know this music and these songs so well that sitting down to try and actually review the album with any sense of detachment or perspective will be tricky.

Songs like Anti-climb Paint, Vincent Gallo and Johnny I Can’t Walk the Line have been staples of the FOUND live set for so long now I actually find it difficult to mentally attribute them to a new album.

Secondly, I’ve had a copy of this album on my hard drive for not much less than a year, when the band were first entering into negotiations with Chemikal, so I am almost too familiar with it to accurately describe what you might feel on first hearing it.

I do just about remember what I though when first hearing it, though, just about.  When FOUND divested themselves of their drummer and keyboard player last year I have to confess I allowed myself to unthinkingly assume that the electronic jiggery-pokery of Kev Sim and Tommy Perman would come to the fore, presumably accentuated by the gorgeous acoustic contribution Ziggy made to the band’s Toad Session two years ago. It may sound silly, but I am not sure, given the musicians left in the band, that it was an entirely stupid assumption.

It says something about FOUND, though, that I can hardly have ever been more shocked to hear a band make an album which is not, on the face of it, all that shocking.  Hardly shocking at all, in fact I would superficially call this a pretty conventional indie rock album, and that really did surprise me on the first few listens.

I will confess that there are a couple of songs I am not so keen on. Lowlandless doesn’t really do it for me, and the shouted “we’re not getting on” from Every Hour That Passes sits a bit uncomfortably as well, in my view.  And er… well, that’s about it, because I think I love everything else about this album, pretty much without reservation.

FOUND’s habitual double-take moments, where a perfectly inoffensive song is suddenly distorted with something incredibly strange and incredibly excellent, are few and far between (the wonky breakdown on Machine Age Dancing being a brilliant exception) and instead they have a hook-heavy record full of exuberant pop moments and, as their live shows for the last year have shown, many, many opportunities to wave your hands in the air and leap up and down like a fool.

It’s not, lest you get that impression, an album lacking any musical invention.  It’s more that instead of the ideas leading the songs all over the place, as they perhaps used to, now the songs are calling the tune and the stranger ideas seem to have been called into service to enhance the song, rather than being allowed to roam free and see what emerged.  The lead single Machine Age Dancing, for example, whilst indisputably one of the best songs on the album, and perhaps also one of the most characteristic, is definitely not the most hummable pop tune.  So there’s not a careless play for the mainstream being made here, by any means.

So, minor caveats aside, this is a great record, and if Anti-climb Paint and Vincent Gallo can’t break FOUND to a wider audience then it will simply be because people are fucking idiots.

FOUND – You’re No Vincent Gallo

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FOUND – Johnny I Can’t Walk the Line

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