Trapped Inside With The Train Set

Belle & Sebastian, "Another Sunny Day" - Seeing as how Dear Catastrophe Waitress was the album that sold me on both Belle & Sebastian and Trevor Horn, you'll have to forgive me if I was having a little trouble imagining B&S' forthcoming The Life Pursuit gaining a solid foothold in my mind. Well, it leaked today, and it's fantastic - not as good as Waitress, perhaps, but I don't want to dock points from an album for not being as good as one of my very favorite albums from this burgeoning decade, and at any rate it's not exactly lacking for songs that more than stand up on their own. I can't begin to get across how thrilled I am to hear how punchy these songs sound; I'd been really worried that Horn's departure meant a return to the restrained malaise that colored everything B&S recorded before him, but as you'll notice, lead single "Another Sunny Day" is stuffed practically to the breaking point with layers of tinny clarity usually reserved for Monkees songs, and the rest of the album isn't too far off. You'll also notice a surprisingly thumping low end here - okay, so it's not "Grindin'", but it's pretty hard to miss (and that goes double for the Bay City Rollers-esque glam stompers, which I swear actually exist on this record). Admittedly, I've only been through the record once (and Belle & Sebastian may well top the list of bands that put out albums that I seriously need to digest before settling into an attitude), but I can say unequivocally that it's not a letdown, which is an accomplishment unto itself. (The Life Pursuit is unavailable for preorder at the moment; it's set for release on February 6th, 2006. In the meantime, click here to order Belle & Sebastian stuff directly from Matador)

The Shakes, "Goodbye New York" (demo) - There are of course a thousand equally droll jokes involving New York's Harlem Shakes and the Shakes who wrote "Goodbye New York"; this is, after all, why the good Lord made comment boxes. It's actually probably a pretty reasonable comparison; London's Shakes seem to be just as good at the whole shimmering danceable indie-pop as their Gothamist counterparts, to the point where "Goodbye New York" could fit pretty snugly behind "A Night" or whatnot. Needless to say, if your friends are losing their shit over the Harlem Shakes as completely as all of mine seem to be, that's something worth saying. (Click here to buy the "Goodbye New York" single from HMV)