The Verve - Forth
The band most likely to have split up by the time you finish the review return with a decidedly schizophrenic and mostly underwhelming fourth LP
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Hailed by fans, critics, and even Mark E. Smith as their greatest long-player, Hex Enduction Hour receives another reissue.
Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
Veteran genre hopping Scots return with their poppiest album yet. It's got handclaps, it's got bells, and at times it's very, very funny.
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Rock royalty return with an arty title, a legendary, experimental producer and promises of an innovative new sound...but little else.
Various Artists - Independent's Day 08
A noble concept which ultimately fails to exceed the sum of its parts. Probably because it's got Feeder on it.
Various Artists - Independent's Day 08
Jul 9, 2008
The Independent's Day programme has been set up to raise the awareness of independently produced music across the world and attempt to take some of the focus away from those pesky majors, if only for a day. The UK has a fantastic tradition of independent labels, with the likes of Domino, Rough Trade, Creation, Warp and Mute bringing some of the most influential acts in British music to the general public. The focal point of this campaign is a double CD released on July 4th (of course) that will be deleted on July 7th and available digitally for one month after.
The album consists of 2 CDs, the first of which features various artists plucked from the indie glitterati covering their favourite tracks originally released on independent labels. So we have The Prodigy covering The Specials' 'Ghost Town', Jose Gonzales tackling 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and many others. CD2 is a 15 track guide to some of the hottest new and upcoming acts chosen by the acts on CD1 including Mobius Band, Oceansize and Flying Lotus. Money raised from the album benefits various good folk including The Campaign Against Living Miserably and The Musician's Benevolent Fund.
The problem with this kind of album is that the idea is often far better than the reality. Very few charity compilation albums manage to bring anything new to the genre, with War Child's 1995 release 'Help' being a notable exception. Whilst this is a noble effort to increase awareness of independent music (both BBC 6Music and XFM are dedicating their day's programming to the cause) the tracks featured do little to fire the imagination. Too many uninspiring run-throughs dominate proceedings, with Infadels' version of 'Steady As She Goes' and Feeder's 'Public Image' being two particular offenders. Certain parties do attempt to inject a bit of fun in to the whole affair - Jack Penate's take on the 1990 Beats International hit 'Dub Be Good To Me' is particularly entertaining with Penate even pulling off a pretty good impression of original singer Lindy Layton. Elsewhere, Devendra Banhart, bearded weirdo and current beau of Natalie Portman makes an admirable attempt to hippify 'Don't Look Back In Anger', resulting in a rather bizarre folk-jazz ditty, whilst Jarvis Cocker and Beth Ditto's tribute to Heaven 17's 'Temptation' (taken from last year's NME Awards) is worth a listen if you can handle a truly screechy performance from Ditto. CD2 meanwhile brings original tracks from upcoming artists but despite some nice offerings from the likes of Mobius Band and Little Dragon as well as a slightly misanthropic offering from The Tenderfoot, there isn't really anything to remind us of the heady days of The Smiths, Joy Division, Oasis and all the rest of those artists, now part of our culture, that were brought to us by those struggling indies.
