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The Goodbye Plot, "All Kinds Of Everything" - I am enough of a man to admit that I picked up the Goodbye Plot's debut EP, A Night's Darkness And A Day's Drive, largely because it didn't look like I'd have much of a chance; the Goodbye Plot seem to be fostering the same kind of provincial outcry of astonishment that we all saw with the Arcade Fire last year, complete with a limited-run debut EP guaranteed by the tastemakers to sell out. Frankly, it couldn't have come at a better time, what with the Arcade Fire signing up to open for the most distasteful band on the planet and in the process condemning me to a few more months of hearing about how New and Unique they are (as if a year straight of that weren't enough to make the point). I'm incredibly ashamed to admit all that, of course - Funeral was absolutely one of my favorite albums from last year, and seeing them live in a small(ish) club back in January remains a highlight of my concert-going year - but my god, hearing about them now reminds me of that experiment from my high school psychology class where we'd repeat a random word (I remember my word was "chair") out loud until we momentarily lost track of what it referred to.

Fortunately for Win et al., I can absolutely say that my resistance to their band has nothing to do with their music, because the Goodbye Plot pick up right where Funeral left off in intent, if not necessarily in execution. By this point, the thing about Funeral that keeps me listening isn't the volcanic movement within the songs so much as the maniacal energy and attention that permeates so much of the music itself - by this point, my favorite bit on the album is probably the violin at the end of "In The Backseat". It's tempting to make comparisons to ska's moment in the sun, the other recent moment in pop history when all the band geeks woke up to the realization that they could be in the coolest band in school, but if ska was about turning dorky instruments into Weapons Of Fun, the Arcade Fire are all about using them as wailing walls. And THAT is what the Goodbye Plot nail to the cross: compared to the earth-shattering shifts of something like "Rebellion (Lies)" or "Power Out", it doesn't loom any more threateningly than your ordinary limp-wristed Bright Eyes song, but listen up close to it, to how that violin makes an increasingly clear statement, to how the oddness of that banjo (if that's what it is) slowly recedes into the background, to that surface-noise hiss blanketing the whole song which can't possibly be an accident, right? Pay no attention, in other words, to the fact that this isn't in the same league as Funeral, and try focusing on the fact that they got the dynamics down, they brought their game to the gate, and that this is just their first try at this kind of music. You're going to have a hard time convincing me that this EP was anything other than a good investment, in any sense of the word. (Click here to buy A Night's Darkness And A Day's Drive from Rough Trade)

Beck, "Girl" (Octet remix) - I tend to like Beck more in theory than in practice. I can't say that I don't appreciate his efforts to make the modern pop landscape a genuinely weird place, but when it comes to actually listening to his music I can't ever seem to be bothered - the closest comparison I can think of to Beck is Harry Nilsson, and comparing the two only serves to highlight the difference between writing fucked-up pop songs and a fucked-up person writing pop songs, respectively. My guess as to why I like this remix taken from the Japanese edition of Guero so much is simply that it's only tangentially pop music; you could probably get away with playing it on Morning Becomes Eclectic, but that's about it - it's music made for people who don't listen to the radio, as it swings wildly between the poles of Grande Chambre Poppe and IDM ballistics. Admittedly, I haven't knowingly heard the original so I have no idea if this is a faithful remix or not - all I know is that all of a sudden, I'm listening to Beck. Maybe Debra never even knew a sailor before; she never even knew his name. (Click here to buy the deluxe edition of Guero featuring this remix and others from Royksopp and Dizzee Rascal from Amazon)