Skip The Budgie

Well it's all back to normal, sorta. I have to pack away my puter as we go decorating mad, so this'll be brief - writing at work! Wait, what am I on about? I'm writing at work! This week, after the continuing His Dark Materials trilogy, I've been mainly listening to pop albums. I know! Pop! Me! Don't worry, I'll get on to the prog again soon enough...

Gravenhurst: The Western Lands

First up is a local band, who I only really know from my lurking around on the Choke forum. Gravenhurst are one of those pop bands who play whimsical songs infused with occasional darkness and the odd unexpected melody. I don't like this album as much as their previous one Fires in Distant Buildings, which was a bit darker and less blatantly poptastic, but it's still got some great tunes on it and I love the breathy vocals and slightly folky guitars and melodies.

Roisin Murphy: Overpowered

This is weird. I mean, Moloko were weird to start with, before they decided to stop writing music and start writing club hits that is. They were great. Roisin Murphy's second album throws me into confusion. It is either incredibly forward-thinking (if it was released in 1988), or incredibly annoyingly retro (if is was released in 2007). I know it was the latter, but put your mind back to 1987/88 and this would stand up as one of the great electro pop albums, along with Kylie, Madonna and Michael Jackson. But it isn't. Not really. The electro-disco starts off great, but soon becomes annoying. I haven't got to the end of the CD yet.

The Magic Numbers: Those the Brokes

I got this because I'd seen them performing This is a Song acoustically on telly a while ago. The big problem with the album is that they play it first and it is their best song. All the others sound like they're trying to achieve the same mastery with different tunes and they always come up short, although there are some other nice moments and frilly pop prancery. Is that a word? I doubt it.