The Comeback

Almost 3 months down the line since my last post and I look at my significantly more bloated music library to pick out the gems that have kept me so absent from everything else. Following my post about Kyle Andrews and Sushi I went on to listen to You Always Make Me Smile more than 50 times in this little while. The pop happiness it wands out is enough to keep the track alive in my opinion. Scroll down to see the original post where I popped the record breaking YouTube video in.

Since then the big finds which will get their own posts shortly have been tracks off the new Little Dragon, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Kooks, Motopony and Kills albums'. Songs and posts are coming!

Freelance Whales - Location

The Freelance Whales have been around for a solid few years now and I had never heard of them until I saw that their track Location was the most downloaded song on a blog I was checking out. So I got hold of their album and it is great. The album uses quite a bit of synth and is not something that will stick with me for years, but continuing this post two months since it was started I can say that those songs don't live long, but they hold a grip for a small fix. Location however will prove a little more timeless.

"Thinking softly what a tinder box we live in,

and what a flammable heart I've been given..."

Download it Here

Kyle Andrews - Sushi

Kyle Andrews, you won't be blamed for not knowing. Sushi is a contender for his best track ever, along with You Always Make Me Smile. Kyle hails from Chicago but resides in music central Nashville. Sushi is off his 2008 album Real Blasty. There's nothing more to say, it just puts off listening.

Pick up Sushi from Mediafire

Kyle Andrews - Sushi

Ed Sheeran - The A Team

Ed Sheeran, a name that pops up on the iTunes store a lot these days, for good reason. Quite a lot on the singer/songwriter section and then all of a sudden...as the number one new single on the entire store. Who is Ed Sheeran? A West Yorkshire 20 year old making waves. Ed has worked to get attention in a truly determined manner. After running out of money he began couch surfing in London, playing 312 gigs in 2009. Ed also headed over to LA, playing open mic nights whenever he could, until Jamie Foxx noticed him and invited him to go and record. But basically, his fame came through viral videos on YouTube. He is currently signed to Atlantic Records and his first full length album is due out in September. The A Team is the first single off his new album and all you need to do is listen to realise the potential this guy has. Check it out

King Charles is Starting the Fire

Kings Charles, the guy behind Love Lust did this re-make of Bill Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire some time ago. Watch the video or listen to the song and it'll make sense why he was the winner of an international songwriting competition unanimously voted for by a panel of judges including Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Timbaland, Black Francis and Jerry Lee Lewis...


Charles took up guitar when he was 17 after falling in love with folk music. After leaving Durham without a degree in 2007 he formed Adventure Playground, a band who toured with Noah and the Whale and Laura Marling. The band later split and King Charles started working on his solo material. Last year he joined Mumford and Sons on their sold out US tour and has received vast amounts of online interest and support. He is currently recording his debut album, due out this mid-year.

Noah And The Whale - Last Night On Earth

So I jumped on this album a bit later than everyone else but was really surprised and pleased with the development in this bands sound. Not to say that their first 2 albums were by any means bad, on the contrary I enjoyed them, but there is clearly a musical progression in Last Night on Earth. Noah and the Whale are probably most famous for 5 Years Time when the catchiness of whistling and the ukulele were discovered in what most thought would be a one hit wonder. In fact, Peaceful The World Lays Me Down had plenty of great material on it and was followed up by The First Days of Spring, a collection of depressingly written songs of heartbreak, sung by someone with the rock-bottom emotion of a fresh break-up.

These two albums and their differing sounds left me guessing as to what the third LP would be like and it was a fresh burst of the optimism at new beginnings and the rediscovered joys of life. Musically it is far more upbeat with a busier percussion section and faster tempos. There is also the introduction of synth, a trend also noticed in the new Bon Iver album. Tracks to watch are: Tonight's the Kind of Night, Wild Thing, Waiting for My Chance to Come and L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N

Download the Soundcloud track here

Noah And The Whale - Tonight's The Kind Of Night

Thurston Moore - Benediction

Thurston Moore's latest album Demolished Thoughts landed on shelves last month and a few weeks later on my iTunes library. I'd never heard of him before but it's similar to Elliott Smith, Swell Season and the like. The first single off the track, Benediction is a 50-something year olds love song with the repeated phrase "whisper I love you a thousand times in his ear"... Moore was rated the 33rd greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2004. The album is a whispered collection of memories, sweet nothings and pocket size love songs which are great to carry into any candle lit evening or sunset orchard. Not an album I'll rave about, but a nice addition to your singer/songwriter collection.

Download it here

Jon Swift - No 100 Miles

So you've probably never heard of Jon Swift. You should know he's one of the best unknown songwriters out there. You've probably never heard of Signatures either. It is the best sports film I have ever watched. I discovered Jon Swift through the Signatures soundtrack and purchased Pathways, his 2009 album off iTunes. It is amazing. Jon's engagement and descriptions of the wild are as refreshing as the waves and wonderings which he so effectively traps in his songs. The way he likens women and love with the wild transports the listener to another world.
Below is his song No 100 Miles, an eery guitar piece with powerful  and enigmatic lyrics. It is on the teaser for Signatures. The movie will appeal to any music lover, ski or board-sport enthusiast and those fond of fantastic cinematography. Get hold of both if you can.
Check out his website


The geese have flown from the fields,
and I met nobody in the mountains.
There's a moonlight on the meadow
and warm sulfuric fountains.
And the cavalry is running on broken legs.

There's a wind out on the hill
with an old harmonica swaying
down to the afterhour days
where the motion pictures keep playing.
Can that old feeling come back another way?

There ain't no 100 miles away

Can't you see me when I'm moving?
Do you remember why you give?
These lovers are left to wondering
why they cannot have what makes them live.
I've only seen broken treasures inside a cage.

Our fingertips are calloused.
The moths are flitting on the screen.
Our eyes are still focused on a palace
somewhere deep inside our dream.
Although my hands are tied, I was not born a slave.

The Cults

So that album artwork must make you wonder if the music will be as much a vibe for you as it is for them. It's pleasing. You might not be able to rock out to Cults as much as their hair does, but this is an album with enough xylophone and floating vocals for you to enjoy. Start with Outside to get a pretty good idea of the chilled out, hipster sound that is Cults. This San Diego couple Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion wear their hearts on their sleeves as they float together on a mixture of bass lines and Follin's cotton-candy voice in the clouds. The outcome is a naive and nostalgic approach to gushy pop which has been novacained into a slower state of love than artists who sing about the substance which isn't in their hearts.