Los Campesinos! Romance is Boring Released January 26 (Wichita Recordings) Short Notes: Scotland's answer to Vampire Weekend? LIN: C+ I think the Budweiser commercial using the opening of Los Campesinos!'s "You! Me! Dancing!" is brilliant. (I tried to find a copy of the ad online, but couldn't. If any readers can find it, post in the comments, please?) The build-up has just the right amount of tension that when it breaks it releases a flood [...]
Los Campesinos! Romance is Boring Released January 26 (Wichita Recordings) Short Notes: Scotland's answer to Vampire Weekend? LIN: C+ I think the Budweiser commercial using the opening of Los Campesinos!'s "You! Me! Dancing!" is brilliant. (I tried to find a copy of the ad online, but couldn't. If any readers can find it, post in the comments, please?) The build-up has just the right amount of tension that when it breaks it releases a flood [...]

Facebook One benefit of being a mostly instrumental band is that without lyrics, you can name your songs and your albums whatever the hell you want. It's a perk that Mogwai have taken full advantage of over their decade-plus existence with their discography looking like a hilarious and fantastical collection of never-written novels, screenplays and comic books that usually have little to nothing to do with the sounds they're attached to. But I can't help reading a little more into the title of their seventh studio album Hardcore Will Never [...]

London's finest retro-pop band Lucky Soul will release a limited edition EP. The Upon Hilly Fields EP contains reworkings of three songs from their second album A Coming Of Age , and one new song, Into The Night . The Upon Hilly Fields EP is released on Ruffa Lane Records . Release date: February 13. Tracks: Upon Hilly Fields Love³ Could Be I Don't Belong Anywhere [...]

thejoyformidable.com Proving that cliches are both true and false, Welsh trio The Joy Formidable are setting out to prove that good things do indeed come to those who wait but also that sometimes you can't get too much of a good thing. To the former, there's the fact that while those in the UK were able to celebrate "Big Roar Day" yesterday in honour of the release of their debut album The Big Roar , North Americans will have to wait until March 15 for the domestically-released edition. And [...]

Here's a little bit of trivia for you readers out there: did you know that the first List Addicts was posted way back in 2008 as a New Year's songs list ? Bet you didn't know that - and rightly so, since this is practically useless trivia. Putting the year into perspective though, I can't believe that this site has been chugging away that long and is still alive today (considering that it's basically held together by duct tape and craft glue). With probably one of the roughest years I've ever had, I consider it an internet [...]

Myspace And as the internet inexorably slows for the holiday season, we have this. Over in the UK, the generally dubious tabloid The Sun cites an anonymous source as saying that Blur are headed back into the studio in the new year to hash out some new material and, if all goes well, release a new record in 2011, their first since 20032s Think Tank and since 1999 with guitarist Graham Coxon. While the credibility of the source - of both The Sun [...]
After writing for TWJ for about a year now, I have mutated into a spider of the Interwebs. I creep across my familiar threads and pluck tasty morsels from the regular traps with ease. Now that I seem to be officially a blogger (*gasp*), I have become more of a "Song" fiend, who sees and [...]

Forgive me. As of late, I've been uncharacteristically busy and haven't been able to update the blog. But I'm back, and I've got some jolly Xmas spirit in hand. An album that came out a fair few months ago was Lucky Soul 's sophomore effort called A Coming of Age . For whatever reason, it didn't get much press and I forgot about it after the lead singles got me hot and cold. Their debut album was a surprise sensation (check out The Great Unwanted if you haven't already!) but I thought [...]
In the five years or so I've been doing this, I can't remember a better year for songs. I actually spent most of Saturday ordering a top 100, went a little crazy and decided nobody needed me to rank seven hours of tracks. So here's a top 50. Every single one of these tracks is incredible, and yes, even Ke$ha. For the record, I allowed two songs per band in a few special cases because not including both Sally Seltmann jams would be a lie (though I did cut two Best Coast songs). Also, No. 51 is Lady Gaga ("Telephone") [...]
The Phil Spector -penned / Ronettes -performed "Be My Baby" intro is probably the most iconic drum beat in pop music history and we here at Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good can't get enough of that classic "Boom! Boom boom, cha!". This spring I posted two mixes with about 40 songs worth of "Be My Baby" drum beats and since then I've been hearing it everywhere (twee-poppers and lo-fi bands like Waaves and Best Coast seem to have a particular affinity for the beat). For version 3.0 of this mix, I've [...]

photo by Erin Robertson Fellow NH writer xtiandc and I have a minor disagreement about the seasonal place of Pet Sounds . I think it's the perfect summer record...he thinks it's a soundtrack best in winter. So if two people can hear the same album with complete opposite feelings of season, then it seems kind of dumb to try and associate the sound of a song with a season. Dumb, but fun. Here in the mid-Atlantic, we get a taste of all four seasons, for better or worse, and so it's a common [...]

photo by Erin Robertson Fellow NH writer xtiandc and I have a minor disagreement about the seasonal place of Pet Sounds . I think it's the perfect summer record...he thinks it's a soundtrack best in winter. So if two people can hear the same album with complete opposites feelings of season, then it seems kind of dumb to try and associate the sound of a song with a season. Dumb, but fun. Here in the mid-Atlantic, we get a taste of all four seasons, for better or worse, and so it's a common [...]

Given the bubbly, expansive key-led instrumental tinker provided by courtesy of Art Terry that paves the way for the lush and mildly lagging, clear vocal tug of Ali Howard. You'd be forgiven for thinking that it was Jools Holland and not, Billy Bragg who personally invited the pulsing London pop pickers of Lucky Soul, for their recent Glastonbury debut. 'Up In Flames', is a beacon of hearty foraging and uplifting pop that builds from a sombre and reflective intro', also providing a warning for those who wantonly create a rod for their own back. This sauntering single [...]
Lucky Soul, "Whoa Billy!" (2010) find it on A Coming Of Age I was going to save this track for a summer mix that I was cooking up, but earlier this week, it totally rang the doorbell to my brain, set up in the Can't Get This Song Out Of My Head space and refused to leave. Not that I wanted to let it leave. It's the irresistible handclaps, the intoxicating blend of indiepop hooks and glam stomp and the glorious "woah"s that make me never [...]

And why not? This might be the best idea yet :) I kind of missed the recap - especially since I've been showcasing really nice songs as of late. I'm not posting the songs here though, too much effort - so it'd be best to visit the site everyday if you want a link for a download (if you don't know it yet, yer lyric of the day songs up top on the right side there can be downloaded by a simple right-click and Save As). If you missed hearing the song though, our dear old Facebook page [...]

I am a Lucky Soul fan. Indeed I am. From the first time I heard 'Lips Are Unhappy', I instantly got hooked - all the more with a full listen to their debut album The Great Unwanted . Ali Howard's sweet soothing vocals, partnered with 60's style upbeat soul, was the just the right combination that felt like drinking fizzy lifting drinks to remedy a drowning heart. So imagine how elated I was to know that the group was releasing another full length, and that I had the chance to get [...]

Frank Yang It doesn't seem so long ago - say, last August - that everyone wanted to know when those responsible for the mope-out/make-out soundtrack of 2009 - The xx - were going to make it to Toronto. They made that long-awaited debut in December in support of Friendly Fires but before that show had even passed, they'd booked a return engagement for this past Tuesday at the Kool Haus supporting Hot Chip and then not long after that announcement, a third local show was slated for [...]
When Lucky Soul released their debut album The Great Unwanted in 2007, it got a lot of critical acclaim, but criminally it lived up to is title. Not long afterwards, songwriter Andrew Laidlaw found himself broke and living inside the band's studio, then a draught-ridden converted fire station on the ...

Lucky Soul Here's a little bit of trivia for you. Of the 66 artists who've either placed in my year-end lists since I began recording them in 2003 or made my "favourite records of the past seven years" list, 18 of them have or are about to release new records this year, seven more were due to put one out this year, eight have put out solo records or collaborations and five more are currently in the studio. Which is to say that if past history is any indicator, 2010 is going [...]