Just arrived this morning and straight onto the stereo, a new album from Beirut, that seems to consist of half recordings with a 19-piece Mexican funeral band, and half bedroom synthpop. I’m not sure what the synthpop’s going to be like, but it’s started well.
As promised, the judges' prevarications over the Uncut Music Award shortlist continue today. Here's what they said about the Elbow record. Monday, I'll post the Drive-By Truckers discussions.
I was thinking the other day about live albums, specifically those ones where crowd noise takes over: things, I guess, like Suicide’s “23 Minutes Over Brussels” and that “Black Sabbath Riot” record that came out a few years ago (was it something to do with Alec Empire? I can’t remember).