This week... BANDS FROM THE LAST DECADE
Fionn Regan - Snowy Atlas Mountains
This guy seemed to out of nowhere. Local act Amber Wilson once supported Fionn and it's how I first witnessed this guy's genius (after Amber constantly nagging me to go because she knew how much I'd love this guy). His debut The End Of History was released in 2007, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, and occupies a space in my top 5 favourite albums of all time. There are so many astounding tracks on this album but Snowy Atlas Mountains, for me, is THE stand out track. This song is dark and melancholic in tone, nostalgic and pensive in its imagery, with sensitively finger plucked guitar, warbling strings and subtle percussion. Fionn displays why people regard him as the Bob Dylan of the new generation.
Tim Courtney
The Antlers - No Widows
There's just something about The Antlers. Of all the fantastic music I've discovered over the last 10 years, this is perhaps the one band that's given me more of that "woah" feeling over any other. Ever since discovering Two on a music blog in 2008, Peter Silberman's heartwrenching falsetto has had me hooked. Granted, the LP Hospice is not an easy listen; a tale of an abusive relationship set against a metaphorical backdrop of terminal illness is intense and hard-going, albeit rewarding and cathartic in equal measures. 2011's full-band sophomore Burst Apart offers the same urgent vocal desperation underpinned by driving beats, electronic bass and decorated by a wealth of shimmering reverb and delay. No Widows exemplifies The Antlers's sound, a brooding introspective offset by a darkly playful organ hook and vocal acrobatics. A highly evocative listen.
Claire Harkins
Errors - Tusk
Righteous fist-pumping disco from Glasgow's finest. Errors have soundtracked the indie parties across Scotland for the last few years, and for good reason. This is music to make you feel like you can take on the world. Tusk just makes me wanna strut.
David Officer
Why? - Fatalist Palmistry
The brainchild of one Yoni Wolf. He articulates on topics such as relationships, his Jewish upbringing and experiences from the road, using rich and vivid imagery rather than a direct narrative - as you would expect from his hip-hop counterparts. Genuinely one of the greatest lyricists of all time, ranging from hilarious and bizarre to absolutely beautiful homages to women he has loved. This song is one of his more straightforward, indie-rock numbers, but is a fine selection from the album Alopecia, which you should all own on every format. Its that good. One of his more pretty lines in this song: "I'm lucky to be under the same sky that held the exhale from your first breath, like a ring on a pillow of clouds..."
Dallas James
Blood Red Shoes - Je Me Perds
A track perhaps not entirely representative of the band as a whole, but still one of the standout tracks of their latest album In Time To Voices. The song appears out of nowhere in a whirlwind of noise, anger and energy, and dissipates almost as quickly, leaving your head buzzing to the noise and fury of it all. It's filled with the sort of hook that leaves you humming along for the next hour and wandering how a two piece band can make such a noise without more help. Add to that a most excellent live video courtesy of the band themselves and you have my vote for one of the best songs of the last decade.
David Lovie
We Are The Physics - Dildonics
There were quite a few years between We Are The Physics' first and second albums, but it was worth the wait. Dildonics starts off in the band's customarily spiky fashion, but then this awesome bass groove kicks in that just gets me every time. Super stuff!
Eoin Smith
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