...can hear them talkin' 'bout us...

A Sunny Day in Glasgow are playing Pehrspace tonight. I find it kind of odd that they're returning to the tiny arts venue after so much critical adoration, but at the same time it's commendable that they obviously want to play in a setting that's filled with familiar faces.

I know there are a lot of people out there who fear the artsy-fartsy dream-pop of Cocteau Twins, but I promise you this band is so much more interesting on so many levels: Think Seefeel covering Animal Collective.

Download: "Our Change into Rain is No Change at All (Talkin' 'bout Us)" - taken from last year's awesome Scribble Mural Comic Journal.


Otherness:

The new Black Angels album, Directions to See a Ghost, is really f------ great. Stream it for free at their imeem page. Also, if you like CAN and Scott Walker's The Drift, then you're going to love Portishead's Third. I have a feeling I'm going to be referencing that album all year.

Album Review: M83 - 'Saturdays=Youth'

M83: Saturdays=Youth (Mute)
6.5/10


If you just can't get enough of '80s new-wavers like Human League and Wang Chung, then you're going to love M83's new album, Saturdays=Youth. The new album ensures fans that the French dream-pop group fell completely head-over-heels with even more synthesizers and dramatic structures than its previous albums.

On "Kim & Jessie" main man Anthony Gonzalez holds your attention with drum machine-fills, plastic beats, and a breakdown that sounds like a montage from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." The song is likeable, simply because it's so familiar. The remainder of the album has some sweet pop moments, but don't put away your Aqua Net hairspray can just yet.

Gonzalez loves soaring keyboards and mechanical drums. On their latest full-length the songs are more dramatic and cold, only there's a sense that Gonzalez is trying to hone in on a format that is more contained and poppy. It works well on the sugary "Graveyard Girl," which may be their best pop song to date. Other tracks like "Highway of Endless Dreams" and "Dark Moves of Love" may sound rather pretentious, but still reinforce M83's trademark layered sound.

The rest of the album is a complete throwback to new wave romanticism. "Skin of the Night" might as well be a lost Laura Branigan B-side, "Couleurs" is way too artsy for its own good, and the Kate Bush-inspired "Up!" doesn't really take off in the direction that the band promised. There's no room for Enya or Spandau Ballet on the record, but let's wait for the demos and outtakes.

Album Review: Clinic - 'Do It!'

Clinic: Do It! (Domino)
7.5/10


Clinic has made some of the most exciting and original indie rock since 2000's Internal Wrangler. Their music is arresting, tense, and jagged, yet the group hasn't broken any new ground since their debut. So what's the big deal? On the quartet's new album, Do it!, they come off like they're planning their next move instead of making it.

The 'big deal' with Do it! is how Clinic's brand of pathological rock feels less f---cked up. Sure, songs like "Memories" and "Shopping Bag" unleash a familiar swagger with dirty buzz saw guitars, but these are fleeting joys from a band that in the past sounded like they were fronted by a crazed sociopath with a penchant for static guitar playing.

A few tracks meander on Do it!, but there's absolutely nothing bad on this record. The gentle songwriting and passivity on "Free Not Free" doesn't necessarily make the track less likeable than say "The Witch"; it just sounds like the group tackling Santana's "Black Magic Woman." "Emotions" is an obvious nod to British Invasion-era rock, and that's nothing to be ashamed about. Both are excellent songs that reek of their respective influences, yet sound like good old Clinic.

Whether or not Clinic will ever make an album that changes our lives remains to be seen, and maybe that pattern will always be impossible to predict. At least the group possess a sound that no one can touch, and that's what makes Clinic a true original.