New Albums & EPs (no vid inserts thank you)

Surely Placebo fit that description a bit better. Feeder are like a complete sunshine band!

I never really loved Feeder but yeah they are good at what they do. It was a funny time in history where these types of bands straddled the indie/NME and Kerrang worlds, Ash too I always think of having a foot in both shoes.

And with Symposium/Hell is for Heroes you get almost the same band being the next big thing then falling short in both eras.

Yesterday Went Too Soon is peak Feeder for me, great album. Still had a bit of an edge about them before generally slowing the tempo. Generation Freakshow is the closest they’ve come since in my opinion.

If you mean a Hell is for Heroes show upstairs in the Global Cafe at the top of Newcastle Uni’s SU then I was there. There was a short spell where all those sort of bands seemed to play in there. Once all the emo coat tail riders arrived it kind of killed my interest but there was some good stuff in the early 00s before that.

The Hundred Reasons reunion album they released last year is genuinely really good and easily the best thing they’ve put out since their debut.

The Archer! That was a super awkward gig. It was a horrible room for shows even when people showed up so no one attending made for a rough night. I bought a shirt out of guilt.

And, yeah, Biffy in the downstairs room at Northumbria was excellent.

Ok so finally Pearl Jam put out an album that is worthy of some of their best. I personally don't think they've been very good since about Riot Act, then it's a handful of songs that have been decent, and the rest being pretty bang average. But with Dark Matter it feels like an album that doesn't seem too far away from their best albums in the 90s.

Shame T-dawg’s new album sounds (from early reviews like NME’s) like (by her standards) a bit of a stinker!

I loved their summary lines phrase…

“To a Melbourne audience of her Eras Tour, Swift said that ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ came from a “need” to write. It’s just that maybe we didn’t need to hear it.” 🤣

Try The K’s… they are a great new Indie band!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3EvpdFLkhU&list=OLAK5uy_nHBJoA2j6N8CYOdmgvVAOLqHy1ZuFsi0s

Or The Royston Club… another great new group!

www.youtube.com/@theroystonclub7365/videos

There’s a new Supermilk song out today and it reminds me a lot of a classic Futureheads type track. Its really good.

supermilk4u.bandcamp.com/album/high-precision-ghosts

Jeffrey Lewis just released his annual demo album of non-album tracks. There’s a full band on some of them this time and I remind astonished that he can maintain doing such a specific sound and still keep it interesting after 20+ years*

jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com/album/2023-tapes

* there are a couple of mid-career duds but since Bad Wiring and the demo albums he started putting out during the pandemic there’s genuinely been some career best songs.

Oh damn there's a new Les Savy Fav. I can't believe it's been 14 years..

Downloaded shellac and Beth's albums. My kerry king/slayer days are over though!

Might even give billie eilish's new album a go too, to try to keep a finger a teeny bit on the pulse of what 'the kids' like.

Walking to work this morning, South of Heaven by Slayer randomly came up in a playlist and it was solid. Used to love them when I had energy. Volume definitely got pumped, as did my pace.

Very much enjoy that slight surrealness of going from the soundscape of say thrash metal to vanilla office small talk. It almost feels naughty?! See also listening to Dre's 'The Chronic' whilst in the office lift..."I just wanna fuck bad bitches"

Reminds me of story I shared on EG once. Few years ago myself and the Mrs were doing a house viewing. Owner opens door, shows us in to his lounge and introduces us to his Mrs. Usual smalltalk ensues. I notice that Slayer is playing and assuming it's the guy, I use eye-contact to acknowledge that he knows that I know.

Dabbling in thrash metal myself I give him a hearty grin, a solid nod, along with a "this is a great song!" or something, so he knows I'm a fellow metaller...all slightly cringe/awkward especially with our wives there. Although mainly as I was already thinking it's pretty brave/bold to be bringing a Slayer vibe to a house viewing.

Obviously mere moments after that and as he's ushering us into the kitchen, I twig its actually my fucking phone in my fucking coat pocket. Absolute nightmare, just had to style it out. They must have thought I was such an absolute cunt and/or idiot.

Shellac back-catalog back up on Spotify now too alongside the new album (I own all the albums on CD but have nothing to play them on anymore!!). Hopefully they'll stay up this time, missed listening to them!

I’ve listed to this through a few times now, and I agree - it’s a very good album. (Just the fact I’ve actually wanted to listen to it more than once is a good sign, obviously!)

The songwriting is really good, and it’s great to hear a mainstream pop artist (or perhaps I should say, someone who is often perceived as such) not being afraid to put more than one idea into a song. Several tracks end up in very different places to where they start, shifting genres and timbres from acoustic guitars to strings (on opener SKINNY) to layers of electronics (LUNCH and L’AMOUR DE MA VIE) and just… more of everything all at once(THE GREATEST).

The vocals are strong, the writing is great, and it’s generally miles ahead of 99% of what is otherwise in the charts right now.

Most of all, I love that it’s an album of songs that work together to make the record and gives voice to the artist, rather than some random collection of singles written by committee.

More of this sort of thing please.