Day 267. Right thoughts, right words. (24/9/13)

It occurred to me while I was driving home with the new Arctic Monkeys album playing somewhat (gloriously) louder than was absolutely necessary that I have been a little remiss.

As often as I've written about music (and I've written a fair bit about it, what with Springsteen gigs and Sound City and Johnny Marr and my Bowie obsession and my endless lists of the stuff that you should be listening to instead of the stuff that you actually are listening to. And perhaps even enjoying) I seem to have forgotten to tell you what I'm actually listening to myself at any given point.

So here goes, here's what's in my struggling, diesel devouring Renault at the moment;

Obviously Arctic Monkeys, I've kind of hinted at that straight away - the NME described 'AM' as the best album of the just ten years (apparently, so I'm told, I didn't actually read it, I mean, nobody actually reads NME anymore do they?)

It's not. It's not even the best album of this year. And as for the last ten? Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs' or LCD Soundsystem's 'Sound of Silver' for my money. I'm not even sure that it's as good as the last Arctic Monkeys album yet. What it is is more grown up, more adult; it takes the band's previous sound and 'souls it up' a little bit. But not in an obvious 'souly' way, there are heavy guitars and circular riffs to carry Alex Turner's new found falsetto vocal. There are wonderfully placed 'ooh la la' and 'shoo-bop, shoo-bop' backing vocals, the melodies twirl around their backing tracks in odd, circuitous manners, as though wary of contact with the instruments.

It's all very intelligent, the sound of a band maturing and trying new sounds for size. It's impressive, it's just not particularly easy to love yet. I like it, sometimes when it's on I really like it, I just don't see myself revisiting it very often at the moment.

Growing up may be a bit of a trend in the last few weeks' listening choices; the Manic Street preachers have a new album out and it's more reflective than is usual for the Welsh lads. Rewind The Film (for such is the album's title) is acoustic, thoughtful and hushed, dialling down the bombastic post punk that is their general calling card and adding guest vocalists to change the 'colour' of their material. Richard Hawley adds his baritone for the title track, demanding the chance to see his life and his friends once again, to revisit the highlights of his life. But the reflection of advancing middle age 'in between acceptance and rage'  still leaves room for anger. Who wouldn't love a band that can start a song with the following verse;

"It's the longest running joke in history, to kill the working classes in the name of liberty, the lies of Hillsborough, the blood of Orgreave, all the evasion at the BBC" before warning us that "the old boy network won the war again".

If you feel the need for a band that actually says something then you can't go wrong with The Manics, may they continue to rail, protest and rage against the dying of the light for years to come.

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