The Mac is Back



So today I got the best news ever.


My friend Calvin posted me a link for the new Maccabees album...


now I wouldn’t usually get this worked up over and album...nor would I of imagined in a million years that I would download the album for free before its release as The Maccabees are in my world on par with Jesus. No offence intended to anyone out there but I have ye little faith in the old big G.


I am currently sat in my university Library trying to reach a deadline for 12pm tomorrow and I have listened to 'Wall of Arms' 4 times in 3 hours.


I know I got a tad little bit worked up about The Horrors even though it still is a masterpiece but this Maccabees album is what I have been looking forward too since they released 'Colour It In' although that album ranks in my top five albums of all time it was released at a time where many people had already heard the majority of the songs in the build up.


What is different this time is that like White Lies they have only given away one or two songs for people to listen to which are 'Love You Better' and 'No Kind Words', each completely different and wonderful in their own right. This album is fresh, new and unheard materiel which nearly knocked me off my chair.


This 5 piece sound like they have matured into their sound and rather than try something completely different like The Horrors they have instead tweaked their songs to make them even more heartfelt than before which I didn’t think was possible.


I will be able to give more of a detailed review once I have maxed out the album but for now I am just sat here with a small smirk on my face wondering how anyone could of ever doubted they weren’t going to nail it...

P.s I wont be posting a song up on here from the album until after the release date as I feel guilty for even having it.X


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Worth Finding

I've only posted to good old NGW twice since the beginning of 2009 as a result of my life being consumed entirely by my dissertation; and one of those posts wasn't even about music, it was just a massive rant about how much I hated the first ten minutes of the new series of Skins. I managed to see the last ten minutes as well. They weren't much better.

But in the last few weeks I've stumbled across something so magnificently wonderful that I just had to write about it, so I've put my final draft and my textbooks down for a moment.

Now, this is perhaps the most pretentious piece of prose that will ever be entered on Next Goal Wins, but bear with me, as the music of Ólafur Arnalds is worth it.

Arnalds is an Icelandic neo-classical composer, who has (predictably for an avant-garde Icelandic musician) supported Sigur Ros on tour in the past, and is building up a critically acclaimed reputation for himself as creating beautiful, classically orchestrated soundscapes that fall somewhere between his post-rocking compatriots and the great neo-classical and post-minimalist composers of the last half century.

But recently he's excelled himself, electing to spend the week commencing the 13th of April 2009, writing, recording and releasing one new musical work a day, to be collated under the title Found Songs and available for free download over at http://foundsongs.erasedtapes.com/

I urge you to visit this URL, and to download the songs for yourself.
I would review them myself, but when these tracks are a) so utterly FREE that it will cost you nothing but a few minutes of your day to download and hear them with your own ears, and b) so wonderfully incredible that my limited range of superlatives will not be able to do them justice, there just doesn't seem to be any point.


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Peaches & Mean



So after finally getting a chance to listen to the Horrors new album in full and to which I have since then put on loop for about 5 days straight, I can still safely say that it is the work of art that I thought it would be...and none of this Turner prize winning rubbish! I mean Andy Warhol scale art.

As I have said before I was never a big fan of the Horrors. Always over hyped and over dressed they seemed to have no real heart in their music when compared to bands around in the same period such as The Maccabees who just shone with passion. Not to lump them in the same category however or to dismiss them as they have obviously had big influence on bands such as SCUM and Ipso Facto.

The album Primary Colours brings out a new and creative side I never thought I would see from a band that cared more about how big their hair was than making something worth listening too.

Starting with an electro beat feel “Mirrors Image” is to perfect antidote for people who are used to listening to the franticness of the old Horrors, we are then sucked in by their new sound as we move onto 'Three Decades' which picks up the pace and reveals how good Farris’s voice is. 'Who can say' which is a personal favourite of the album sounds more like Joy Division than anything else with distorted Guitars and an eerie keyboard building up for Farris to declare to the world “and then I kissed her, with a kiss that could only mean goodbye”.

The album picks up the pace quite a lot with ‘The New Ice Age’ and we hear a more ferocious Ferris than we have in earlier tracks. Scarlet Fields which another personal favourite tones down the mood and allows the band to show their true colours with Rhys Webb on keyboards bringing a touch of magic to the track. It is at this point that the album really comes together and in which I realised how much of a complete and well thought album this is.

According to Interviews they recorded in a studio in Bath which had no windows and which sent them nearly insane and it is clearly evident on this album.
I can only assume that the influences from this album came from Farris break up with the Ditzy and rather unimpressive Peaches Geldof who is now currently dating The Lead singer of the Virgins who are hotly tipped but have as much talent as Mr Casablanca’s has in one finger. The lyrics aren’t as dark as their previous album but talk more of loss and desperation which is evident in ‘I only think of you’.

The next two tracks which include the Title Track and the newly released 'Sea within a Sea' are a brilliant way to round off such a stunning album. 'Sea within a Sea' lasts for exactly 7.58 minutes and it contains everything in one track that was needed to completely change my verdict on The Horrors and make me take notice and listen. You should too...

The Horrors Website


Horrors-Scarlet Fields mp3


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Another week, another radio show. Here are the edited down bits and bobs from our show this week on the beloved Stroud Fm. For all you busy bodies out there the 2nd part is a mere 20mins long. Happy Easter!

Stroud Alternative Show - 2nd Easter Show Part 1
Stroud Alternative Show - 2nd Easter Show Part 2

Christian



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Imagine my Horror...


I have never been a big fan of The Horrors. Its always been too much style over substance and I personally feel they have never lived up to their hype..

However after managing to get my hands on their new album a few weeks before its release it was to my upmost surprise and shock when I realised that they had made a beautifully crafted album filled with something that I would of never of thought they had in them.

Sea within a Sea which you can download at the moment for free from their website is a hauntingly yet wonderful song which lasts 8.23 but is as far as possible that they could of moved away from their average former self's. I will be reviewing the album in its full once I have given it a well earnt on repeat listen but to be honest so far they have been the biggest shock for of 2009.

Its always nice have a good surprise...


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And Now For Something Completely Different...

Well it seems with the release of 'The Boat That Rocked' being a radio d.j is all the rage nowadays. So in the spirit of things here's the latest edited podcast of our radio show on Stroud Fm, 'Stroud Alternative Show'. Music from the likes of The Doves, Animal Collective, Eugene McGuinness and Moreeeee.


Stroud Alternative Show Podcast - 2nd of April 2009

Christian



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