Kevin WestebergThe first thing to keep in mind when listening to Editors is that they’re patently ridiculous. Their grandiose, hyper-dramatic Brit-rock may not be as over-the-top absurd as, say, Muse, say, but it does trend along those same lines. Throw in frontman Tom Smith’s gift for crafting nonsensical lyrics and delivering them as with an earnest, clenched-teeth intensity, and if you’re able to reconcile that before sitting down for a listen – and I, despite my better judgment, find that I can – then you’re fine.

While their debut The Back Room was decidedly lean post-rock, the follow-up An End Has A Start took a more widescreen, anthemic approach, upping the ante in dynamics, sonic scope and melodramatics. Both records, however, were built firmly on a foundation of guitars and that makes their third record In This Light And On This Evening, with its massive banks of synthesiszers lifted from the goth and New Wave movements of the late ’70s and early ’80s and buffed to a 21st century sheen, something of a departure. But only something. As the title track and lead single “Papillon” prove, Editors can be just as visceral and thrilling pounding on plastic keys as wrangling guitar strings, but when they fall into a more ponderous, mid-tempo groove as they do on the second half of the record, the results are less engaging and their weak points aren’t sufficiently masked by their strengths.

Editors make easy critical targets for the reasons stated above and many others, and people generally aren’t shy about taking those shots. But they deserve credit for being good at what they do and yet be willing to completely screw with their formula – that the results aren’t an unqualified triumph almost makes the effort more noble. That said, they’d do well to bust out the guitars again for album number four. I think everyone will be happier that way.

PopMatters has an interview with guitarist Chris Urbanowicz while Flavorwire and Filter chat with drummer Ed Lay. In This Light And On This Evening was released in North America this week, three months after the UK release. It’s currently available to stream over at Spinner, but only the album itself – not the five bonus tracks which have been collectively dubbed Cuttings II and are supposed to be appended to the North America release. They play the Phoenix on February 16.

Video: Editors – “You Don’t Know Love”
Video: Editors – “Papillon”
Stream: Editors / In This Light And On This Evening

Another British recipient of a delayed release is Little Boots, whose debut Hands will be available over here domestically come March 2. She’s booked a much fuller North American tour than the one that brought her to Wrongbar in September and it includes a date at The Phoenix on April 30, with Dragonette supporting.

Video: Little Boots – “Remedy”
Video: Little Boots – “New In Town”

And if Under The Radar reports that the release dates for Laura Marling’s I Speak Because I Can have been moved around a bit from initial announcements, and will now be out in North America on April 6, a couple weeks after its March 22 UK release date. She plays Lee’s Palace on February 9. NME has had a listen and offers up some track-by-track impressions.

Paste declares Mumford & Sons one of their “best of what’s next”. They’re at Lee’s Palace on February 15 and their debut Sigh No More gets a North American release on March 15.

BBC6 gets Bernard Butler’s thoughts on the impending one-off Suede reunion, which he says he wasn’t asked to participate in. But probably would have said no anyways.

A pleasant surprise from Tuesday Guide yesterday, noting that Elbow’s glorious The Seldom Seen Kid Live At Abbey Road collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra – previously only available in the UK and thus as a PAL/Region-2 DVD – has been released in North America with an NTSC/Region-free DVD. Not cheap, but cheaper than buying the UK version and you can actually watch it here!

Video: Elbow – “Grounds For Divorce” (live at Abbey Road)

Paste talks with Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, whose new record The Winter Of Mixed Drinks is set for a March 9 release.

Mogwai Special Moves is a website dedicated to the forthcoming Mogwai live film Burning and a live MP3 of “2 Wrongs Make 1 Right” can be had in exchange for your email address. Prefix has details on the CD/DVD/3LP live album entitled, appropriately, Special Moves, coming out sometime this Spring.

Rolling Stone gathers up the latest bits and bobs of news from camp Radiohead, but not including this video interview with Ed O’Brien at Midem where he talks about the problems the band had whilst making In Rainbows.

The xx have released a new video from XX. They will be at the Phoenix on April 4 and the Kool Haus on April 20.

Video: The xx – “VCR”

PitchforkTV takes The Big Pink up onto a Manhattan rooftop and makes them play for their cameras… or else. They can expect a less acrophobic environment when they play The Mod Club on March 24.

Disorder interviews The High Wire. Their new record The Sleep Tape is out in March.

Los Campesinos! have put out a video for the title track of their new record Romance Is Boring, out next Tuesday.

Video: Los Campesinos! – “Romance Is Boring”

Baeble Music is streaming video of a complete Camera Obscura concert from the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn last November.

Andy WillsherMy trip to London last May yielded no shortage of fond and lasting memories, but one of the most vivid is also one of the most unremarkable and inexplicable. My plan for my first visit to the city was pretty much to pick a particular district or two for each day I was there and just wander – one day, the West End, the next day, Soho, Covent Garden and Westminster, the day after, the East End and Greenwich. Greenwich wasn’t a place I had any particular prior affinity for, but I was told it was worth the extended tube ride to get out of the city for a bit and the Royal Observatory, marker of the Prime Meridian, was worth a gander. So I went and did the straddle-two-hemispheres thing, and before heading back down, I stopped and sat at the top of the observatory hill in Greenwich Park, gazing down at the expansive park and the enormity of London behind it, and that image just burned into my mind.

The point of this little meander down memory lane being that if there was a soundtrack for that moment, or even the trip as a whole, it would be The Clientele. Not literally – I don’t really listen to much music when I travel – but there’s not really another band out there right now that feels more like London to me. And that’s interesting because they don’t evoke the typical images of the city, not the history, the culture or the energy – instead, they sound like a respite from all of that. A pause, a stepping out from the non-stop hustle and commotion and taking a moment to oneself in a patch of greenery, filtered through the gauzy haze of memory.

The band’s last two records God Save The Clientele and Strange Geometry are my go-to records for when I want to recapture that feeling of aimless freedom and their latest, Bonfires On The Heath, slides in quite nicely alongside them. It moves at an easy cadence, occasionally with an extra spring in its step or a Spanish accent, but throughout, Alisdair Maclean’s gentle vocals are buoyed by Mel Draisey’s backing vox over a shimmering bed of tremoloed guitars, tinkling pianos and spiraling trumpet, every note capturing the very essence of Autumn’s dusk. The Clientele indeed have a specific recipe they adhere to from album to album, but it’s one that transports me almost instantly to my happy place which, apparently, is the top of a hill in Greenwich. I had been debating whether or not I wanted to go back to London next Spring or maybe visit somewhere I haven’t been before (namely Tokyo) but I think I’ve just made up my mind.

MP3: The Clientele – “Harvest Time”
MP3: The Clientele – “I Wonder Who We Are”
Stream: The Clientele / Bonfires On The Heath
MySpace: The Clientele

And from one of my favourite English bands to another, Lucky Soul have begun streaming the a new taste of their forthcoming second album, still untitled but due out in the early part of next year. “White Russian Doll” will be released as a single on January 11 and, alongside “Whoa Billy”, make a pretty good argument for this possibly/probably being one of the pop highlights of 2010. Mayhap I should time any visits to the UK to coincide with some gigs? Wouldn’t be the first time I went out of my way to see them.

Stream: Lucky Soul – “White Russian Doll”
MP3: Lucky Soul – “Whoa, Billy”

SX interviews Patrick Wolf.

Interview has a brief chat with Oliver Sim of The xx. The band is set to start a North American tour tonight that hooks up with Friendly Fires in Austin next week and swings up to Toronto on December 2 for a show at the Phoenix. Things have been pretty quiet since the drama a few weeks ago with guitarist Baria Quereshi’s exhaustion forcing the cancellation of a few shows – can one assume that everything and everyone is back on track?

Echo & The Bunnymen’s North American tour, on the other hand, was knocked completely off track last week when they cancelled the whole jaunt on account of red tape and tax demands from the IRS. Glad we got them in town when we did. Ian McCulloch has a conversation with Spinner.

A trailer for the forthcoming Mogwai live documentary Burning, which premieres in Copenhagen this week, has emerged. It looks quiet. Then loud. And intense all the way through.

Trailer: Burning

Minnesota Public Radio is streaming a studio session with The Mountain Goats.

The Magnetic Fields have announced details of their next album, which will be entitled Realism and is due out on January 26 of the new year. Details, cover art and track listing at Exclaim!

Magnet plays over/under with the repertoire of The Flaming Lips.

NPR is streaming a live Mountain Stage concert from Yo La Tengo.

Beatroute talks to head Hidden Camera Joel Gibb. They play the Opera House on December 5.

Yeah he was just here on Saturday, but he’s coming back. That’s Justin Townes Earle and the date is March 1, 2010, at the Horseshoe.

MP3: Justin Townes Earle – “Midnight At The Movies”

This batch of show announcements didn’t even really need formal announcements, but consider them official – the Skydiggers holiday residency at the Horseshoe on December 18 and 19, Elliott Brood ringing in New Year’s Eve at Lee’s Palace and The Sadies doing the same at the Horseshoe – tickets for all shows $20 in advance.

The Word has assembled a really cool Google maps mash-up, marking the locations of dozens? hundreds? of the images found on famous and not-as-famous album covers. Consider your morning/afternoon/evening well and truly wasted.

Frank YangWhen I got all effusive about seeing Austin’s Ume way back at SxSW in March, it wasn’t just because they their showcase blew me away – it did – but because I also figured that it would be my last chance to see and write about the trio until SxSW next year, so there was no point in being measured. After all, they were a small band with no label, no tour support and hailing from a long ways away from Toronto meant the odds of catching them up live again were remote. Sound logic, and also completely wrong. They found their way up here in June to play NXNE, turning in a fiery performance at Neutral that proved to everyone I’d harassed to attend that I wasn’t full of it and they were, indeed, the awesome.

And it must be true that good things come in threes because they were back – again – this past Tuesday night for a free show at the Horseshoe. This time, it was a combination of a modest Canadian tour appended onto a jaunt to CMJ in New York and the proper (read: physical) Canadian release of their Sunshower EP, which had heretofore only been available digitally. But the whys were unimportant – all that mattered was that Ume were back in town; rock would ensue.

For a review of the actual performance itself, I can really just refer you back to the other two I did, or offer the Coles/Cliffs notes: songs that balance sweet pop hooks with snarling heaviness, equal debts to punk, stoner, shoegaze and alt rock, insane guitar abuse/heroics and awesome hair-whipping from frontwoman Lauren Larsen and an audience awestruck and won over. It’s hard to say for sure, but I think there were at least a couple of new songs in the mix compared to the Neutral gig and considering that the unfamiliar stuff still sounded great; as much as I like the fact that they’re touring relentlessly hither and yon, I hope that once they’ve returned home and taken a breather, that they’re hitting the studio to work on a new album. Sunshower has done a fine job of sustaining me, but its only five songs – I need more.

There’s an excerpt of Ume’s cover feature in Austin’s Soundcheck magazine available online and the full magazine (and article) are downloadable in PDF form.

Photos: Ume @ The Horseshoe – November 3, 2009
MP3: Ume – “The Conductor”
MP3: Ume – “Pendulum”
MP3: Ume – “Wake”
Video: Ume – “The Conductor”
MySpace: Ume

Girlysound.com is offering downloads of the famous early Liz Phair demos of the same name. Oh Liz, where did it all go wrong (that’s rhetorical – everyone knows exactly where it all went wrong).

MP3: Liz Phair – “Fuck And Run”
MP3: Liz Phair – “Polyester Bride”

The Guest Apartment has a video session with Headlights.

Crawdaddy profiles White Rabbits.

State interviews Yo La Tengo.

Beatroute talks to Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr. Barlow will play the Phoenix on January 21 both solo and with Dino Jr.

Neko Case talks to The Seacoast.

Soundproof and Clash have features on The Dodos.

HeroHill solicits five funky stories from Oh No Forest Fires, who’ve got a show at the Horseshoe on December 12.

Jenn Grant, who plays the Glenn Gould Theatre on November 26, has released a new video from Echoes.

Video: Jenn Grant – “You’ll Go Far”

The Aquarian interviews Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn & John, who have a date at the Phoenix on November 11.

Swedish electro-soul outfit Miike Snow, who is a “they” and not a “he”, are at the Phoenix on April 3.

Video: Miike Snow – “Black & Blue”

The Music Slut asks eight questions of Mew. They have a date at the Mod Club on December 6.

The Raveonettes are giving away a free b-side from In And Out Of Control. The San Francisco Examiner and North Country Times also have interviews.

MP3: The Raveonettes – “The Chosen One”

Sigur Ros are streaming their Heima concert film at PitchforkTV for a week.

Video: Heima

Pitchfork reports that Mogwai’s live documentary film Burning will premiere at a Danish film festival next week and that an accompanying soundtrack album entitled Special Moves will follow.

New Jarvis Cocker video! Watch Jarv bring the title track and cover art of Further Complications to life.

Video: Jarvis Cocker – “Further Complications”

Radio Free Canuckistan has an interview with Jon Cook, the author of the Merge Records book Our Noise, which I look forward to picking up now that I’ve finally finished A Confederacy Of Dunces. A wonderful book which should not have taken me anywhere near the 6 months or so it took me to get through it; I just stopped reading anything, really, through the Summer. And now I have much to catch up on.

Frank YangFashion has never been the Manic Street Preachers’ strong suit, and that’s not just with regards to Nicky Wire’s penchant for heavy eye makeup and dresses. From their early glam-punk days through the bleakness of The Holy Bible and guitarist/songwriter Richey Edwards’ subsequent disappearance through their rise as one of the UK’s biggest arena acts in the mid-’90s, the Manics always seemed set apart from their contemporaries, many or most of whom would dissolve, reform and dissolve again while the Manics steadfastly carried on. Overtly political, unabashedly intellectual, unashamed of grandstanding guitar solos and not at all above slagging off other bands, the Manics would remain a cult band at heart, no matter how big they got.

And nowhere was that truer than in the US, a land that seemed to simultaneously enamor and repel the band. They were infatuated with the American mythology of rock’n'roll, in the life- and world-altering power of music, but their socialist values were fundamentally at odds with the States’ capitalist ideology – America inspired their dreams, drew their scorn and has always permeated their work. So the fact that they hadn’t crossed the Atlantic in over a decade – their last visit to North America was in 2001 when they performed in Cuba in front of an audience that included Fidel Castro – was curious, to say the least. No, they never achieved the sort of commercial success that some of their peers did, but they had a few singles gain traction in the wider consciousness and had the sort of devoted fanbase that some bands who had toured over here could only dream of. But whatever the reason – recent interviews indicated the band couldn’t even fully explain it – the Manics were finally, unexpectedly but fantastically, coming over for a modest tour of a dozen dates around the continent, including this past Sunday night at the Phoenix in Toronto.

The Manics continue to play arenas and massive festivals in the UK, but in North America they were undertaking a club tour, playing rooms many, many times smaller than to which they were accustomed. The Phoenix was full though not sold out, and by most reports boasted the largest crowd of the tour. But even if the audience could be generously counted at a thousand, the energy and anticipation in the crowd felt much greater. Though the tour was ostensibly in support of their ninth and newest album Journal For Plague Lovers, a stunning return to form featuring lyrics left behind by Edwards days before he vanished, all the shows had been much more career retrospectives, a reward to their fans for their patience and a reminder of why they still cared.

And from the moment James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore took the stage to huge roars and returned the favour with the equally huge roar of “Motorcycle Emptiness”, for the next 90 minutes there was no other band in the world. Playing with an energy and vigor that would have been impressive coming from musicians half their age, the Manics tore through a career-spanning set list that offered something from almost everything, but at the same time seemed to not feature enough from anything. Only two songs from The Holy Bible? Just a pair from Everything Must Go? Not one selection from Lifeblood? But going down the “why didn’t they play such and such” can only lead to tears, and this show was the furthest thing from that. It was a steady stream of someone’s favourite song followed by someone else’s favourite song, a celebration of the Manic Street Preachers, of their lost brother Richey Edwards and a life dedicated to making anthemic, intelligent and above all ass-kicking rock music.

Though more accustomed to playing much larger stages, the Manics relished the more intimate environs and being in closer contact to the zealous audience which Bradfield called, ” the loudest on the tour so far”. In return, they paid tribute to their favourite Torontonians with Bradfield playing the intro to “The Spirit Of Radio” before segueing into “Faster” and Wire later quoting lyrics from said same song. If there was a spot where the show waned a bit, it was when Bradfield took a solo acoustic turn on “This Is Yesterday” and “The Everlasting”, a move which I suspect works better in front of much more massive crowds, but that dip was only relative to the unflagging highs of the rest of the set, which would culminate in a glorious “Motown Junk”, never truer “You Love Us” and anthem of anthems show-closer “A Design For Life”. It was a fitting finale to a show that took my sky-high expectations and showed me that they weren’t nearly high enough.

Long. Live. The Manics.

Panic Manual, Fazer and ChartAttack have weighed in with their reviews of the show while The Denver Post, Metro and Boston Herald have interviews with the band.

And sorry about the massive video list… the Manics just upped high-quality versions of all their videos to YouTube and I got a mite carried away going through it all. But good stuff there. Gooooood stuff. And I forgot I had this remix of “Motorcycle Emptiness” lying around – it was a b-side to the “Australia” single circa Everything Must Go and sounds majestic. Strings!

Photos: Manic Street Preachers @ The Phoenix – October 4, 2009
MP3: Manic Street Preachers – “Motorcycle Emptiness” (Stealth Sonic Orchestra remix)
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Jackie Collins Existential Question Time”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Indian Summer”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Autumnsong”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “The Love Of Richard Nixon”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Empty Souls”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “There By The Grace Of God”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Ocean Spray”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Found That Soul”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “So Why So Sad”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Let Robeson Sing”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “The Masses Against The Classes”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “The Everlasting”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Tsunami”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Ready For Drowning”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “A Design For Life”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Everything Must Go”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Kevin Carter”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “She Is Suffering”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Revol”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Faster”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Roses In The Hospital”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “La Tristesse Durera (A Scream To A Sigh)”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Little Baby Nothing”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Stay Beautiful”
Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Motorcycle Emptiness”
MySpace: Manic Street Preachers

Los Campesinos! have released a video from their as-yet untitled third album, due out in the early part of 2010.

Video: Los Campesinos! – “These Are Listed Buildings”

The National Post talks to Muse frontman Matt Bellamy about their new record The Resistance.

Video: Muse – “Uprising”

Mumford & Sons talk to Clash about their just-released debut Sigh No More.

Leeds’ Grammatics, who caught my attention last year before I was, I dunno, distracted by a shiny object, are building interest for a new single out in November and second album to follow in the year year by releasing an MP3 from their self-titled debut from earlier this year. And it’s worked as far as encouraging me to put the album on my iPhone so I can forget to listen to it while at work, not just at home. The track also features vocals from Laura Groves of Blue Roses, whom I’ve also meant to pay more attention to.

MP3: Grammatics – “Inkjet Lakes”

The Quietus and Spinner have interviews with Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch. Their new record The Fountain is out October 12 and they play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 20.

MP3: Echo & The Bunnymen – “I Think I Need It Too”

The Skinny has a feature piece on Franz Ferdinand.

New York Press talks to The Twilight Sad and also to We Were Promised Jetpacks, both of whom are at the El Mocambo this Saturday night.

Their labelmates and countrymen Frightened Rabbit are releasing a new single entitled “Swim Until You Can’t See Land” on November 16 and which will appear on their next record, due out in early 2010. The two sides are currently streaming at their label website.

Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai tells BBC their next album, due next year, will be self-released. Exclaim also reports that they’ve got a live album and film coming out sooner rather than later.

Though it’s been all the rage digitally and was made available for sale in Canada a few weeks ago, The xx’s debut XX is out in the US today and is streaming at Spinner. They’re at the Phoenix on December 2 in support of Friendy Fires.

Stream: The xx / XX

And Baeble Music is streaming video of a full Friendy Fires show in New York City.

Clash and Spinner have interviews with Massive Attack, whose new Splitting The Atom EP is available to stream.

Stream: Massive Attack / Splitting The Atom

And sorry about the heinous outages/slow load times/general crappiness of the site lately. My hosting has been kind of shit lately. Looking into it.

Jennifer TzarSo I got an email last week from a fellow at the BBC asking me if I wanted to offer up some thoughts and/or predictions on the shortlist for the UK and Ireland’s Mercury Prize, which is set to be revealed next Tuesday. Having been largely off the mark in what I expected to make the shortlist for Canada’s Polaris Music Prize last week, and actually knowing how that process works, I figured I couldn’t possibly do any worse with the Mercurys – a prize whose process was almost completely unknown to me and which tends to draw from a much broader range of candidates than my little indie rockist world.

I’ve since learned that the 12 albums on the shortlist are selected by the same shadowy group of journalists, musicians and other industry illuminati types who choose the winner – a far cry from the Polaris’ jury, which endeavours to be as inclusive of journos and whatnot as possible and only saving the star chamber treatment for choosing the winner. And so to the BBC fellow’s original request, I’m not really sure if I should attempt to predict what albums will make the short list, what albums should make the short list or what albums I’d like to make the short list. I know I’d fail miserably at the first task and it’s impossible to accomplish the second without a much more comprehensive knowledge of all the possible nominees so that basically leaves the wholly subjective wish list, which is fine with me, but I’ll try to temper my picks with some degree of realism.

Bat For Lashes / Two Suns – This record would actually fit all three angles – I want to see it make the list, it deserves to make the list and it almost certainly will make the list, thus making Natasha Khan an impressive two for two in Mercury nominations for her albums. It’s one of those records that’s distinctive, accessible and artistically ambitious – and also just excellent. Even without seeing the actual list, this is my odds-on pick to win… of course, Fur & Gold was also heavily favoured and didn’t end up winning.

MP3: Bat For Lashes – “Glass” (live)

Manic Street Preachers / Journal For Plague Lovers – I get the feeling that the Mercury jurors are all about the new and so the Manics’ best album in many years may get overlooked on account of its creators already being some degree of legend. And that would be a real shame because it also happens to be their most heartfelt album, perhaps ever, has a genuinely affecting backstory and frankly rocks like a mother.

Video: Manic Street Preachers – “Jackie Collins Existential Question Time”

Patrick Wolf / The Bachelor – I’m personally of the opinion that many of the accolades given to Bat For Lashes could also apply to Patrick Wolf, particularly his latest which currently ranks as one of my favourite records of the year, but don’t know how he’s generally rated critically in his homeland. I get the sense that his extravagant personality might work against him with some unable or unwilling to look past his flamboyant exterior to see the brilliance underneath. Their loss.

MP3: Patrick Wolf – “Vulture”

Micachu / Jewellery – I will fully admit this one is here as a bit of a hedge. I remain unsure if it’s a brilliant record or bollocks, but with every listen it steps more firmly in the direction of the former. If someone told me it was an utter long shot to make the list, I would agree and if someone else told me it was a lock, I would also agree. It perplexes me. Either way, I look forward to offering an “I told you so” if it is indeed nominated.

MP3: Micachu – “Lips”

Emmy The Great / First Love – There is no realistic way I expect Emmy’s debut to get a Mercury nomination. Yes, Laura Marling got a nod last year and came out of the same scene, but Emmy’s more cynical, sardonic approach doesn’t strike that same chord of timelessness that Marling’s does. But that said, and acknowledging that while First Love is very good it’s not fully representative of her at her best, I’m still exceedingly fond of the record and would love to see it get the boost that a nomination would provide.

MP3: Emmy The Great – “We Almost Had A Baby” (Simon Raymonde mix)

Fanfarlo / Reservoir – I don’t know sort of precedent there is for self-released records getting Mercury nominations are, but if we’re talking about worthy records based strictly on musical merit, I would think that this meticulously crafted piece of orchestral pop would get some serious consideration. It’s not groundbreaking or all that original, but it is lovely and lilting and makes me, at least, quite happy.

MP3: Fanfarlo – “I’m A Pilot”

So there’s my picks if I were allowed to decide half of the short list, and besides Bat For Lashes I don’t really expect any of them will make the cut – especially if you look at who the UK’s bookmakers are betting will win. I assume they’re basing their odds on things like sales, profile and critical buzz and have got it down to either Doves or Little Boots. The former I can understand, as they follow the slow and steady veteran model that got Elbow the big prize last year but whereas The Seldom Seen Kid was, in my opinion, a big leap forward for that band, Kingdom Of Rust doesn’t really set itself apart from its predecessors. As far as Little Boots goes, there’s no denying Hands is fun and catchy as all get out, but it seems a bit shallow to ordain as the best album in the kingdom. And looking at other frontrunners, I’ve already covered Bat For Lashes and am a bit perplexed to see La Roux rated so highly – her self-title has some high points but I find it pretty monotonous overall. Florence & The Machine’s Lungs I’ve not spent enough time with to render fair judgment.

All will come clear next Tuesday, with the winner to be announced September 8, but until then the speculation is the fun part. The Line Of Best Fit, To Die By Your Side and Music Snobbery were also asked by the Beeb to compile their picks for the shortlist, Clash has made their predictions and The Quietus is pulling for The Horrors. If you’ve got an opinion of what should make the list or even win outright, chime in in the comments.

XFM is streaming a studio session with Bat For Lashes.

Bumpershine has an interview with Fanfarlo and is also giving away some CDs.

The Mirror and BBC have interviews with Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

Ms Lily Allen has a new video from It’s Not Me, It’s You.

Video: Lily Allen – “22″

NME has details on an upcoming re-release of Friendly Fires’ self-titled debut on August 31 which will include a new song, a disc or remixes and a live DVD. They play Lee’s Palace on August 10 and have a DJ gig at The Social later that night. Clash also has an interview with the band.

MP3: Friendly Fires – “Jump In The Pool”

Been waiting for this date to be confirmed for a little while now – Britrock prevails as The Twilight Sad, BrakesBrakesBrakes and We Were Promised Jetpacks hit the El Mocambo on October 10, tickets a mere $12. The Twilight Sad’s new album Forget The Night Ahead is out out September 22, BrakesBrakesBrakes’ Touchdown came out earlier this Spring and the Jetpacks debut These Four Walls hit stores last week.

MP3: The Twilight Sad – “Reflection Of The Television”
MP3: BrakesBrakesBrakes – “Don’t Take Me To Space (Man)”
MP3: We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Quiet Little Voices”

I missed this interview with Charlotte Hatherley at the Big Takeover website when it was originally posted back in May, but considering her new solo record New Colours isn’t due out till September at the earliest – maybe even October – I don’t think there’s any particular rush. But there is a new video!

MP3: Charlotte Hatherley – “Colours”
MP3: Charlotte Hatherley – “White”
Video: Charlotte Hatherley – “White”

This isn’t an official video for the title track of Camera Obscura’s latest My Maudlin Career, but the clip compiled of home videos taken on their recently-completed North American tour is certainly charming. They’ve also chosen to celebrate Bastille Day yesterday by giving away an MP3 of their last single “French Navy”.

MP3: Camera Obscura – “French Navy”
Video: Camera Obscura – “My Maudlin Career On The Road”

Torontonians disappointed that Arctic Monkeys didn’t make plans to visit over the August long weekend despite being up the 401 at Osheaga can celebrate – they’ve set a date at the Kool Haus for September 29 in support of their new album Humbug, due out August 25 and the first single from which, “Crying Lightining”, is streaming at their MySpace. Full tour dates at Spin.

Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite bemoans the demise of music journalism at Drowned In Sound.

Maximo Park are keeping a tour diary for Spinner. They’re at Lee’s Palace on September 18.