Going to keep this fairly simple. This is the thread in which we list, review and discuss singles that are released this month (as well as those that missed the cut-off point for EOY voting.) Me being me I'll primarily be concentrating on physical UK releases and trying to touch on B-sides and hope others will pick up the slack on remixes and US Pop, R&B and other areas where my knowledge is dwarfed by other contributors. For the most part I'll not be providing links to the songs in the thread but I will link to hypem or anywhere else hosting them. We will see though.

Feel free to jump in and review any of these before me but here are a list of January singles (and December 15, 22 and 29 less Christmas songs) I'll be tackling this week (hopefully.)

December 2008

Fields - 'Are You Ready Yet?'
Iron & Wine - 'Flightless Bird, American Mouth'
Kaiser Chiefs - 'Good Days Bad Days'
Portishead - 'Magic Doors'
Razorlight - 'Hostage Of Love'
Snow Patrol - 'Crack The Shutters'
The Fratellis - 'A Heady Tale'
La Roux - 'Quicksand'
Dinosaur Pile-up - My Rock 'N' Roll
Young Fathers - Straight Back On It
The Brute Chorus - She Was Always Cool
The Hours - See The Light
Keane - ‘Perfect Symmetry’
Noisettes – ‘Wild Young Hearts’
Sugababes – ‘No Can Do’

05/01/09

Pendulum – 'Showdown'
Ra Ra Riot – 'Can You Tell'
Travis – 'Song For Self'
The Saturdays - 'Issues'

12/01/09

Girls Aloud - 'The Loving Kind'
White Lies - 'To Lose My Life '
Pete And The Pirates - 'Jennifer'/ 'Blood Gets Thin'
Johnny Foreigner - 'DJs Get Doubts'/ 'Lea Room'


19/01/09

Franz Ferdinand - 'Ulysses'
Bon Iver - Blood Bank (EP)
Tilly & The Wall - 'Pot Kettle Black'
Rifles - 'Fall To Sorrow'
Fight Like Apes - 'Tie Me Up With Jackets'

26/01/09

Bloc Party - 'One Month Off'
Lily Allen - 'The Fear' (The Count Saves Lily Allen From The Fear Remix )
Pulled Apart By Horses - 'I Punched A Lion In The Throat'/ 'The Crapsons'
Sky Larkin - 'Beeline'
The Airborne Toxic Event - 'Sometime Around Midnight'
Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart (7')
The Fray - You Found Me
Ida Maria – Oh My God
James Yuill - No Surprise (7')
thecocknbullkid* - 'I'm Not Sorry'
Cherbourg 'Last Chapter Of Dreaming' EP



Expect this post to updated as and when.

Great title, going to have to listen to this.

Warrants a listen based on song name alone.

Didn't know this was a single. Drop-dead gorgeous song. One of my favorite tracks of '07.

YSI???

NO!!!

Mitchell will cry!!

we may have to watch this to get him to stop

I could I politely request that if you want to be dicks could at least keep it in the same thread.

If the Fish fan club don't want me to even start on this I won't.

Dude, I don't know when you went all Faberge Egg on us, but it's a disheartening development.

This felt like a good idea, I'm only trying to help in prep for this December's list. I'm still going to do it, I hope that most people here would rather see me post than the Chingrams of the world.

"The Fear" is great. Sounds like St. Etienne with Veruca Salt (the girl, not the band of girls).

"The Sun and The Mirror" line you'd think should have written by someone by now but there we go La Allen wins.

Iron & Wine's website has 8 alternate versions of songs from Shepherd's Dog available for free download, including a version of Flightless Bird.

I never vote in the EOY thread because I simply don't hear enough singles every year and/or don't know which songs on the albums I like end up being singles. If this thread does continue throughout the year, what about a 'Single of the Week' or something wherein someone highlights the must-hear single every week (let's assume there will be one). Just a thought.

I will probably do something along those lines, hoping we will have regular guests who will agree/disagree.

I'm all for it - would you select the singles, or would there be some kind of panel?

seriously, are we gonna get some streaming divshares up in this bitch?

i like where this is going. brings a bit more structure, depth, and direction to the "singles thread" concept.

Zshares on request I think, I don't want an inability to find a high bit rate version to make me put off doing this. The idea is I'll mostly be reviewing singles I hear anyway, not just ploughing through a list. Am open to suggestions on any aspect, if people wanted to do a guest week of ten from the month or something.

I will need help on R&B and stuff that eminates from the US. Probably good idea to keep embedded YouTubes down as well.

Will defintely do a top 15 chart each month though.

My New Year's resolution is to sell you on embeded divshares.

Don't like embedded posts.

I really like the idea of a monthly chart.

So should I not start up the quarterly thread?

Interesting to see this, as I have had this song on my computer since August, along with another "The Worst Love." "Are You Ready Yet" is okay. Pleasant. A bit ordinary. It lacks the sharpness of a "Song For the Fields" or "Chasing The Flames." I loved their first EP and album, saw them live in Chicago and NYC in a span of four days in May 2007, and still have high hopes for them. However, Fields seem to be caught between pleasing a record company and pleasing themselves. I talked to a couple of them at one of their shows, and they were anticipating a couple of American tours to follow that summer and fall, but to the best of my knowledge they never came back. Now I read that their Fall 2008 UK tour got yanked because the label wouldn't pay for support, and pushed their album to March. Maybe. I hope. I'm assuming this single went nowhere, in which case their album may get delayed again. Or they'll get dropped entirely.

Rifles - 'Fall To Sorrow'
Disappointing follow-up to "The Great Escape," which I thought was a nice progression from the Jam-isms of the first album. The whoa-ho-ho-ho shouty bits grate from the get-go on this one, and it never really gets much better. Musically, it sounds like just about every other 20-something UK guitar band. I'd rather they ape All Mod Cons again. Rifles' new album got downloaded a few weeks ago, but I've been too busy with 2008 wrap-ups and Christmas acquisitions to give it a proper spin. They've shown some sharp writing though, so I'm definitely hopeful, even with this misstep.

I think a list thread would still be useful, would allow me to see anything I'd missed and any chatter from that thread could stay in this series of 12.

What do you think?

Haven't heard this, it probably sucks.

But Mutya is on Celebrity Big Brother. WTF!

I really liked the EP, album was mad underrated but I could see the production putting some off slightly. I can't even find a YouTube for a video. I got the release information from NME but it seems like it hasn't shown up yet.

?//10



The title track is probably my favourite thing on the album, quite a good 1-2 punch at the start. (whole thing is on YouTube if you can stand that). This is a bit too much like The Enemy for me, not the kind of sound you want to be mining.

6/10

Iron & Wine - 'Flightless Bird, American Mouth' 6.5/10

Imagine anyone that would be interested in this heard it on The Shepard's Dog. Like it as the stark ending of the album. Doesn't sound so impressive stand-alone.

Kaiser Chiefs - 'Good Days Bad Days' 4.0/10

Better than the dreadful first single from this album. Not very good though. Back in 2004 the band where a breath of fresh air. This is a stale fart.

Portishead - 'Magic Doors' 7.5/10

Hard to pick singles from this stunning album but someone has to. It's as good a song as any on the album really. Emotionally undone, one of the live highlights when I saw them in April, the skronking wail of the sax and when that big doomy piano crashes back in. Thinking about it it, aside from the clunking cowbell it's probably the closest thing to the 90's spy theme vibe that they had going in the 90's on the album.

Razorlight - 'Hostage Of Love' 4.5/10

Stong.

No seriously he seems to think that a people calling him a fucking knob in the press when he acts like a fucking knob makes him some kind of martyr. Not the worst song by Razorlight ever but those lyrics are summink else.

Snow Patrol - 'Crack The Shutters' 3.0/10

"Hi We're Snow Patrol! We've cracked the States with that one song so we're going to have be dreary and shit if we want to continue being successful." Probably not good enough to be an outtake from X&Y Song is actually the same three seconds looped 100 times.

The Fratellis - 'A Heady Tale' 4.0/10

Have to remind myself to look for batches of three like this as I'm losing the will to live already. A Christmas single I thin, sounds like Chas and Dave doing a cover of "Sympathy For The Devil" mixed with a cover of The Zutons' "Valerie".

La Roux - 'Quicksand' 7.5/10

#5 on BBC's sound of '09. I do like this, it's like a slower, similarly dissipated MGMT track. A lot more sensual for being female and that little bit slower. Prince and The Human League would be very obvious comparisons to this synthpop duo so I will avoid making them.

Can be found via a blog post here

Dinosaur Pile-up - My Rock 'N' Roll 6.0/10

Rough scracthy indie-pop, not quite as brutal as some of the Soundgarden comparisions I've read but they have the quiet/loud thing and the cacophonous drums going. This desperately wants to be an anthem but doesn't have the pace needed, far too much a slacker placed effort. Worth keeping an eye on though.

Young Fathers - Straight Back On It 8.0/10

Possibly would have made my top 50 for 2008 if I didn't hold off due to the release date. Laziest comparison I can make is The Neptunes producing OutKast meets The Go! Team. Surely Glasgow's premier rap collective.

can be found via here

Rest of December later.

This sounds like a (more shambolically produced) Stone Temple Pilots song circa Tiny Music.

But that's not a bad sound.

7/10

Other track on their myspace is all quirky new wave-ish, but not quite so fully formed.

http://www.myspace.com/dinosaurpileup

The Brute Chorus - She Was Always Cool 7.5

A fan favourite, sure I've seen it a couple of times live. A little bit all over the places influences, the below blog does mention Archie Bronson Outfit as a reference point and I have to agree, reminds me of the shuffling nature of their single "Dart For My Sweetheart"

Can be found via here

The Hours - See The Light 7.5

Stupid Sienna Miller video to this but never mind; for what it's aiming for, it's a great song much better than the likes of Snow Patrol and Keane are coming out with now. Epic song.

Keane - ‘Perfect Symmetry’ 4.5

Keane call this their best ever song. Good for them

Noisettes – ‘Wild Young Hearts’ 8.5

got my hopes up on the first album on a couple of singles and the live reputation only to be disappointed but damn it if they haven't got me back in that zone again. Digging the shit out of the Motown vibe they have here and the crunchy guitars and hand claps are pretty much win. Hope this is a spring board for something bigger from them.

You'll have to make do with the YouTube for now.

Sugababes – ‘No Can Do’ 5.5

At least it's not as annoying as "Girls" was. Bit of a mess of a song, vocals don't go with music very well, think it's trying to be sassy like GA were on "Can't Speak French" but doesn't work

Yeah, I very much like the idea of still keeping a running list in one nice organized place, but I do like the idea of this thread too. Anything that will encourage discussion is good. Will start the new singles thread tonight.

Forgot this one as I was convinced it wasn't coming out until January but actually came out in late November

im gay


Stricken City - Lost Art 9.0

Love this, impossible to review without mentioning the similarities in Rebekah Raa's voice with Bow Wow Wow's Annabella Lwin and especially with the tribal drums on it. Whispers C86 at you seductively and can't wait to hear more from them after how good the debut single was as well.

D/load via here

More UK post-punk revival stuff is the last thing we need, but this song is fun. Should have come out six years ago.

Edit: Ugh, that Sugababes single is boring.

It's distressing how bad Sugarbabes have become.

Still have for Siobhan Donaghy though.

Should have come out 23 years ago.

I predict big things for this band.

Yea, this band deserves much love. Check out the song "tak o tak" also.

Have to reiterate how good this song is...

I thought about an 8 but have a feeling that the who.l electronic indie pop may be frustrating by the end of the day.

It's a bit samey like the Stricken City track is, but both are just plain good songs. Hope both bands' albums can avoid sounding too passe.

Will be doing a catch up of the first two weeks of 2009 when I get the chance this weekend.

Really looking forward to this thread - I don't do resolutions, but I do want to keep up with singles more this year. I'm bookmarking this, the Billboard charts, etc. and planning on Dec. 09 being easier for list-making.

"The Fear"'s been out for ages...so long that I can even remember when it was called "I Don't Know"... it's probably the best thing Lily Allen has done, although "LDN" gives it a run for its money.

Loving Ulysses at the moment.

05/01/09

Pendulum – 'Showdown' 3.0/10

I'd give higher scores to some of their other singles for at least trying and having an dance floor impact but I honestly can't say anything redeeming about it to be fair.

Ra Ra Riot – 'Can You Tell' 6.0

Fairly pleasant indie chamber pop with a bite to the rhythm section and some swelling strings. Short and sweet as well which adds to the feeling of forgetting it almost straight away.

Travis – 'Song For Self' 6.5

Sounds far too much like Fran is attempting that cooing Bono vocal and the rest of it sees too much in the way of U2isms yet it's not bad at all This band must feel pretty bitter that their popularity dropped off the planet without them really getting that much worse overall, inconsistent maybe.

The Saturdays - 'Issues' 3.5

Third single ballard alert. Avoid. Look-up the girls first two singles.

12/01/09

Girls Aloud - 'The Loving Kind' 8.5

Co-written by the Pet Shop Boys, produced by Xenomania and deserves a place in the top tier of Girls Aloud singles. It's Nicola that really steals the show on her bewitching ghostly vocal with wet-eyed lyrics cushioned by pulsating dance floor heartbeats. Tragically their lowest charting single at #10 this weekend but keeps up their run of top tens to 20 (21 including the Comic Relief single)

Via here

Cut Off Your Hands - 'Oh Girl' 0.5

Not going to be the first or last to use this joke but I would like to cut their hands off. Everything wrong with so called indie in the UK (Despite being from NZ, see below) summed up in three and a half minutes. Dickless, soulless insipid tosh. Gets more than zero as it has hand-claps, making it not totally worthless, just 95% worthless.

White Lies - 'To Lose My Life ' 5.5

Actually there's a lot more wrong with Indie over here and this is another example. Band release a pretty good debut single, not so good 2nd single then when they are about to blow up they release this single which only treats the chorus as a chorus in the last 45 seconds. Despite being terribly derivative of a line already ploughed by Interpol and Editors they do a great drummer, a vocalist who sometimes picks the write moment to go for it and they do have some good ideas buried by awful song structure. It took the Crystal Castles remix of "Death" for me to spot all this though. Next big thing, I hope not but fear so.

Johnny Foreigner - 'DJs Get Doubts'/ 'Lea Room' 6.5

"Lea Room" works pretty well as an opening track to the album certainly not one of the best songs on it. They lose a point for not offering anything new instead of using it as the flip of this. "DJ's Get Doubts" find JoFo in a more reflective mode and you get the idea that someone though this was a good idea to release to show the variety that the band are capable of. Let's have some new material instead please.

Ratatat - 'Shempi' 7.5

Album didn't get that much in the way of good reviews and the consensus seems to be this was the highlight. Electronic quadra-spazzed beats, gurgles and breaks as you'd expect from the Brooklyn band. Worth an extra 0.5 for the ABBA raping video.

Frank Turner - 'Reasons Not To Be An Idiot' 5.0

Pleasant, humorous jangle pop with a touch of Oasis esque guitar crunch underneath lacking something to elevate it above 'safe' -0.5 for being a re-release and another half off for releasing such a summery song in winter.

19/01/09

Pete And The Pirates - 'Jennifer'/ 'Blood Gets Thin' 8.5

Now this is more like it, a band who don’t get the press they deserve (unlike the above White Lies) not resting on their laurels and coming back with a storming double A side single. “Jennifer” is very much more of the same and could easily slot on to last year’s Little Death with not much trouble with it’s Young Knives harmonies and squirrelly guitar trails on it. “Blood Gets Thin” is the stronger of the two though, heavier and with more bluster than what we are used to and hopefully sets up the next album well. Officially the best riff of the year so far.

Can be found via here

More later.

Oh no...not an Oh Girl fan? I don't mind a bit of mindless Cut Off Your Hands...seriously you could do a lot worse! (They're actually from New Zealand, not the UK).

Pity about Travis...I used to like them in the old days. Lost interest like everyone else, though.

Thanks for the spot, I didn't even want to look at their wikipedia page. It's still dreadful and sounds like dreadful indie from the UK.

Going to try to pay more attention to singles and individual tracks this year. I download and try to consume too many full albums and getting into artists in smaller chunks is going to be a goal.

If I like the Ratatat and Pete & The Pirates tracks, do i need to get albums of these?

Franz Ferdinand - 'Ulysses' 7.0

I do like this but for me it falls down on resorting(?) to "la-la la la la la" two thirds of the way through. Like much of the album it seems that the band spent so much time on the bits they wanted to sound like they were reinventing themselves on ,that on the rest of it they fell back on to FF mark 1. Neither as out there as was suggested nor as catchy and hook laden as their other singles.

Bon Iver - Blood Bank (EP) 6.5

A worthy continuation of the album theme's and sonics on "Babys" and "Beach Baby" were a sense of something coming through the bleak is present. The title track is a little ho-hum and "Woods" is not something I want to hear again in a hurry so I can't give it too high a mark.

Tilly & The Wall - 'Pot Kettle Black' 6.5

One of the few bands on Moshi Moshi over here that I'm not enamoured with but despite this, I find this to be the most instantly pleasing and catchy things they have done. Floor thumping, chanting, name calling riot grrrl spunkiness yet it all sounds a little hollow by the time it's finished.

Kid British - 'Leave London' 4.5

Have been getting a little bit of press on the back of their 7" last year. They do the Specials ska hooky stuff well but they tend to over egg the pudding throwing so much at the wall hoping that it will stick. Props for rhyming 'manage' and 'baggage' as well "London" and "conundrum" the lyrics overall, are pretty dreadful. It's fun, they might end up making one of the songs of the summer but it's pretty lightweight and forgettable.


Fight Like Apes - Tie Me Up With Jackets 6.0

As mentioned in a previous post in a different thread, this Irish band have some very odd lyrics that usually make you lol at least twice a song. Something different from your usual landfill indie at least I heard someone compare them to Bis. I'll leave you to decide if that's a compliment or not.


I Monster - A Sucker For Your Sound 4.0

I don't even know how to review this. I listened to it twice and remembered nothing about it. It's not "Daydream in Blue" or "The Blue Wrath" put it that way. I probably mentally blocked it our of my head as it sounded like Morcheeba.

'Pparently that's the best track on the Ratatat album so maybe is all I can offer, P&tP I would say yes. The album is more of the same and pretty damn good at it.