Reviews
Music round-up
Jude Adam
There are some bands out there that one is ‘supposed’ to like. These aren’t necessarily the latest buzz bands but the ones that, as a music lover of a certain age, it seems to be a ‘given’ that you will own/ like/appreciate.
About 3 days ago I finally plucked up the courage to admit out-loud that not only do I not ‘get’ Spiritualized, I actually think it’s self-indulgent, incomprehensible, boring rubbish. I’ve tried, but not any more. Emperor = Naked.
I was nervously plucking up the courage to do the same (for totally different reasons) with the new release from Sigur Rós. I mean, it’s beautiful, but really? It’s just Icelandic noodling isn’t it? The album title didn’t inspire confidence: Með Suð I Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust translates as ‘with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly’. Exactly. But doubters come one, come all! The album is brilliant. There’s still the 8 minute sparse and fragile tracks that sound how I imagine Iceland to look, but scattered within are great, proper, genuine songs. That, and a dry-soul-quenching piece (‘Ára Bátur’) with the London Sinfonietta and a boys choir which would stir the dead.
Also back this summer are Primal Scream and The Cure. Both bands have rabid fans. Both have been through great and miserable periods of music. Both are releasing albums that sound exactly as you’d expect them to on a good day.
Updating their sounds for the better are trip-hop pioneer Tricky (whose Knowle West Boy manages to fuse the best of his early 90s feel with the uber-new magic of Santogold and The Klaxons) and The Hold Steady who provide such a quality batch of tunes on Stay Positive as to definitively bury their pub-rock nay-sayers. 
Alongside these old-timers, make space for the debut collaboration between the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy actress Zooey Deschanel and cult songwriter M Ward. She & Him Volume 1 is wonderful.
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