The Sunday Round-up

I’ve been like a pig in shit this week, with music coming out of my ears. Literally. I started with the new Gnarls Barkley album The Odd couple, interspersed with Portishead’s new release Third. The effect was like having a manic episode. Now I can hardly listen to one without the other without becoming dangerously unbalanced. The Gnarls Barklay is this high energy pop soul explosion, with shades of Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and I can even hear R Dean Taylor. It makes me feel warm, and oddly energetic. Oh, and there’s clapping. Lots of it. So you know, that always tips me over the edge. I would call it the future feel good soundtrack of the summer, if that wasn’t such a cliché. No guaranteeing the summer part either. Sigh. It’s been 11 years since Portishead brought out a studio album, and in the meantime, we have all finally managed to admit that absolutely no one ever knew what trip hop was. It didn’t sound like hip hop, or tripping (that sounds like squirrels). Not only was said sound confined to Bristol, it turned out on closer inspection it was a sound confined to, well , Portishead and Tricky. It wins the award for the most fatuous of the made up music genre words, although Emo comes pretty close. Anyhoo. It was a good word wasn’t it? Personally I think Portishead are Goths, and this album is a goth dream. It will take you to a cold dark place and let you look into the belly of the beast and the bleakness of your own soul. The weird thing is, you will enjoy it- Even the Machine Gun one, and that weird accordion one. Trust me. And talking of weird, I’ve also been listening to Lykke li. She is a Swedish chick with big Scandinavian hair. I like the ambiguity her name, you know, is it pronounced Licky Lee? Or Likey lie? I have started calling her Lookie Likie in honour of the French and Saunders sketch. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind. She seems a bit odd. And her album’s a bit odd too- Kind of goofy, but sweet . It’s not perfect, but there’s enough on it to keep you smiling. And there’s more clapping- it really has been a good week!

And ending on a high note (literally) it’s the wonderful Crystal Castles. Imagine if all the old Atari games consoles, Pac man and Space Invaders machines from the 80s were buried under a spooky house, and an ill advised kitchen extension caused their bones to be disturbed, and they came back to life as evil spirits hell bent on wreaking their revenge, then you would have something approximating the sound of Crystal Castles. Now I’ve got to admit that I do prefer the ones that have something approaching a tune, but I am getting on, so fair play. They are awesome, in a greek tragedy , not Bill and Ted type of way.