Other People's Music

My Latest Novel, "The Reputation of Ross Francis" - The honest truth: When I say I'm not going to be able to do justice to My Latest Novel, their excellent debut LP Wolves (out now on Bella Union), or its excellent lead single "The Reputation of Ross Francis", I don't mean that in the sense that I've meant it both other times that I've said it this week. My reasons for posting the song are as much mercenary as anything; having lived with Wolves for a good two or three weeks, I have a hard time seeing anything other than Pitchfork giving it something like an eight-point-six (followed by Stylus "correcting the record" with a B- or something), except perhaps for Stylus hanging an A- on it and Pitchfork responding with like a six-point-three or something. It is, in other words, a chance to weigh in on a very promising album relatively close to the ground floor, and anyone who says they run an mp3 blog for any other reason is lying right to your face.

But, again, it ain't my album. Wolves really is as literary an album as the band's name might lead you to expect; I have a hard time believing fans of the Decemberists will find an album more perfectly suited to their tastes in 2006, to say nothing of all those hordes of people who thought Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit was a welcome return to form after the crushing disappointment of (what I EASILY consider to be) their best album. I partly suspect that "The Reputation of Ross Francis" was chosen as the lead single primarily by virtue of the fact that it's really the only radio-friendly song on the album in terms of structure or length, but at the same time, there is the not-insignificant fact to contend with that it really does a great job of representing the album: it's very much one of those albums overflowing with neat, evocative little narratives, with Ross Francis' pleading desperation to pass through the Pearly Gates being perhaps a little bit more poignant than most. In other words, "Take Me Out" it ain't - what you hear is actually what you get, for once.

Tragically, however, I just couldn't give much less of a shit about Ross Francis than I do right now; at the moment I work at a wine holding warehouse, and I spend all day on the phones taking abuse from Beamer-driving Angelino douchebags who can't seem to see the connection between their heroically opaque order slips and the misdeliveries to their customers (T0n1 P0l1, I am talking to you) - these days, it's a pleasant shock to leave work with energy sufficient to enjoy anything more personal than The Days of Mars. Fuck, I didn't get home until 7:15 tonight because I had to stay overtime to repeat directions to our office to a trucker for, no joke, forty-five minutes - again, that's a "trucker", a person who earns enough money to hold death at bay by figuring out where to drive. You'll have to excuse me if Ross Francis' artful earnestness is slightly less than compelling at the moment.

But - and it is a significant But - there is the little matter of All That Music, because Wolves is probably the best-sounding chamber-pop album I've heard since that Andrew Bird album last year (Rubies and that supernaturally tedious Wolf Parade album absolutely included). I mean, fuck, a band can sound as much like an Intro To Creative Writing project as they want as long as they bring the sonic goods, and Wolves' flat-out has post-Funeral raised-on-Roxy-Music-and-John-Cale panache to burn - at the very least, it feels like a safe bet to say that you're unlikely to run into albums that make more judicious use of that marching-drum beat this year, let alone better ones. And, again, your reaction to "Ross Francis" is pretty barometrically sound as far as the rest of the album goes - it really is all that full of layers and touches and handbells and so on, although as a single it certainly doesn't give the album's whole game away.

But I dunno; like I said up top, I wouldn't be surprised to see this album sell a billion copies to people like my friends (in particular, I suspect that Brian may well end up buying eight copies just in case he happens to accidentally loses seven) on the basis of the kind of thing I'm just not touchy-feely enough to give a shit about. But hell, I listen to arch electro-pop that intentionally dates itself, and even I couldn't miss this album's quality. That's got to count for something, anyway. (Click here to buy Wolves directly from the label's webstore)

The Rifles, "Repeated Offender" - Fuck, so that makess two quality jangly guitar-pop singles from the Rifles now - is the NME calling them England's answer to My Morning Jacket yet? I mean, if I'm to trust Dom Passatino (and like I could ever doubt someone that relentlessly entertaining), indie-jangle is to current England what mopey eyeliner application is to current Amurrica, and I get the feeling that that shit's inescapable unless you pull a Me and resolutely divorce yourself from the world's pulse. Of course, that being said, I don't have to deal with British indie-jangle unless I want to, and like I was ever going to stay away from a nugget of Kewl Britannia as irresistable as "Repeated Offender" - after all, when you grew up wthin eight miles of the cradle of bullshit indie-rock dross, it's hard to put down the pipe when it's packed with as much prime head-sticking material as a Rifles song. I mean, who gives a fuck if it's One For The Ages, or even "great"? "Repeated Offender", if nothing else, sounds really good right now, and that counts for a bit. (Click here to order the "Repeated Offender" single from Amazon.co.uk)

ELSEWHERE

- I would be remiss if I failed to dap out the magnificent M3 for introducing me to My Latest Novel and beating me to the punch by a solid month. They really do bring the heat like June and July, though, so yeah, add it to yr daily routine.

- Holy fuck, Chris Ott seems to have started the blog I was born to read. The story of the $90 million dollar record's a good one, too - assuming, of course, that you're half the dork for this kind of thing that I am. Of course, I buy books in the hopes of reading stories about people buying records, so you should still probably get out more.