This collection of songs still amazes me--it sounds like it's still the music of the future, 19 years after its original release! The musical influences on the Associates are the least obvious on this collection of songs--maybe a dash of Kraftwerk here, and a little dab of Joy Division there, but not much else. A MUST for any lover of the post-punk music that still sounds innovative today (think PIL's "Second Edition"). And the 5 bonus tracks (b sides & unreleased) are fantastic too. Any fan of Belle & Sebastian should be intrigued to hear the kind of music their teacher, Alan Rankine, was creating when they were practically still in diapers! 

The Chamber Strings' album Gospel Morning was recorded in the mid-Nineties but wasn't released by Bobsled until 99, just two years before their current chamber pop masterpiece A Month of Sundays. This album is a comforting listen in that it reminds you of all that is holy this side of the sunny-faced Beatles and that side of the foreboding Birthday Party, but they take their obvious cues from Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth's Jacobites. 

I have sporadically followed Swans for the last several years, experiencing the noise and fury of the early albums to the more intricate, intriguing melodies and sounds of albums such as Omniscience and Soundtracks for the Blind. M.Gira is a talented writer who weaves soundscapes unlike anyone else.

I found out about his newest project by sheer accident. But what a happy accident! I cannot believe the depth of this album. While his images are still difficult and at times brutal, invoking addictions, guilt, shame, and need, they are more intriguing than ever. Perhaps the 'softer' edge to the music makes it that much more stark, without the raging noise to hide the feelings invoked by the lyrics.

There's always been a sort of fantastical edge to Mercury Rev, even in the bleak grandeur of "Deserter's Songs." But "All Is Dream" takes that edge and pushes it, with its swirling music and songs that talk about dreams, vampires, nite and fog, and "floating in the tides of the moon." It's too subdued to be their best work, but it's certainly still good.

There is something cheering about the Flaming Lips, who are hitting their artistic and commercial peak 20 years after their debut album. But it is not just their long career that makes the Oklahoma trio unique. Their most recent albums, The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, have made them possibly the most experimental band ever to reach the Radio 2 playlist.

i don't care about sleep

New York singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt is the Sondheim of US indie rock, an incomparable lyricist capable of balancing arch wit with painfully acute observation. His last album under the Magnetic Fields name, 2000's triple-CD set 69 Love Songs, was musically diverse, brilliantly crafted and stuffed with effortlessly commercial melodies and intriguing arrangements.

From the marauding opening guitar of Spanish Main (only lyric: "We'll set sail again, we're heading for the Spanish main!") to the jangly weird-out of Calendars and Clocks, The Coral is about as eclectic and silly as debuts can get. 

What Luke Haines and the Auteurs acomplished here was an erudite, melodic, largely acoustic set of songs that perfectly capsulated the early brit pop scene in a way to which only the Auteurs could. This album is fairly perfect and is a wonderful treasure of simple, yet wonderful songs.