What we're listening to this month

Welcome to April’s round up of our favourite new releases. We‘ve got five new albums to get through this month, so we’re not going to stay too long on any of them, just give you an overview and feel for each one.

First up is the long awaited new album from R.E.M. ‘Accelerate’. For a band that seems to care about every aspect of their output, why do they always seem to come up with such uninspired album titles! Anyway, ever since their halcyon period of ‘Out of Time’ and ‘Automatic for the People’, fans have been waiting for a work of equivalent quality. That’s not to say they haven't released some great songs (they have), there just hasn’t been a body of work to stand up to the aforementioned two albums.

So the big question is – does this one?? In a word, no, but it's still their best for some time and a return to the more raw sound of their very early albums. The first three tracks all sound very similar (and loud!) before the more melodic ‘Hollow Man’ comes in, with their trademark vocal and guitar harmonies. ‘Houston’ follows and again sounds like R.E.M. of old, with their interesting instrumentation and counterpoint. ‘Until the Day is Done’ stands out and is now playing in Andaz London and the album ends with the punky ‘I’m Gonna DJ’. Overall, after living with the album for a few days, it's definitely a grower and fans of R.E.M.’s pre ‘Out of Time’ work will love it.

Moving onto the kings of British quirk, here’s the new album from The Guillemots, entitled ‘Red’.

Question: ‘What do you get if you cross a musical prodigy with a great name (Fyfe Dangerfield) with a Brazilian thrash metal guitarist, a drummer and a female double bassist’?? Answer : this decade's answer to Prefab Sprout, with flashes of genius and not a lot of focus! Think of a musical genre and its more than likely covered somewhere on the Guillemots album. Is it any good?? Well it's certainly confusing, but with moments of beauty like ‘Falling out of Reach’ and ‘Words’ (Paddy McAloon where are you!). Overall, let's file it under interesting listening and one that you should definitely check out, but pick and choose the tracks carefully.

Over to France next for Anthony Gonzalez’s project M83. They call this kind of music ‘Shoegazing’, but this album is also heavily influenced by electronic music and a really great listen. Its got that arctic synth edge of 80’s New Romantic’s, mixed with the uplifting epic majesty of Sigur Ros. ‘You Appearing’ is a beautiful opening and ‘Kim and Jessie’ a perfect driving song. Each song that follows makes an impact, with ‘Skin of the Night’ standing out, as does the albums later tracks ‘We Own the Sky’, ‘Too Late’ and ‘Dark Moves of Love’. In a world of mediocrity, this jumps out and really deserves your attention.

Penultimately we move across the Atlantic for the new Gnarls Barkley album, the follow up the massive St Elsewhere. A duo comprising of uber producer Dangermouse and vocalist Cee-lo, this is another delightful off-centre listen, with great songs and future thinking production and instrumentation. Ranging from the poppy ‘Charity Case’ to the blues of ‘Who’s Gonna Save my Soul’ and the feel good ‘Going on’, this is an engaging album that grows with every play. ‘Surprise’ also stands out, as does the closing track ‘A Little Better’. Brilliant, quirky modern soul music with a big twist!

Finally this month, the new album from The Last Shadow Puppets, the side project from Arctic Monkey’s frontman Alex Turner. Swapping modern culture for the 60’s sounds of Scott Walker and orchestral tinged Easy Listening, this really is taking the current future retro trend to its plagiaristic extreme. So the question is ........ ’is this a great partner for John Barry’s work, or is it the case of no-one knowing when to say stop!’.

It's a bit of both actually. Some of the tracks disappear into a haze of retro rubbish, whilst the overall mood is endearing and seductive (as are the ever present orchestral strings). Turner’s songwriting skills, combined with spy movie instrumentation, a BIG string sound and a dash of John Barry can’t go too far wrong anyway. Highlights include ‘My mistakes were made for you’ (Shadow Puppets do Barry doing Bond!) and the closing track ‘The Time has Come Again’, but the big question has to be, will this record stand the test of time or is it just a filler before the next Arctic Money’s Record’?

We’ll leave you to figure that one out yourself; so, until May................