Two records to look forward too.

The two greatest albums of 2010 were Wolf People's "Steeple" and The National's "High Violet". This year they are both releasing follow ups to their previous masterpieces. I have great expectations for both of these.

Here's a video for the first song from Wolf People's upcoming album "Fain"


I still haven't found a new song from The National's new album titled "Trouble Will Find Me" but they have released the cover:

David Bowie - The Next Day LP

David Bowie - The Next Day

Finally I got my hands on the new Bowie vinyl on Saturday. The vinyl is not supposed to be available until the 29th of March, but a glitch at the Norwegian distributors saw them send out all pre-orders to Norwegian stores. So it's not officially for sale for little over a week.

Oh, how I looked forward to this record as soon as I heard the news about it in January. Since then I've listened to the two songs that were made available. First it was "Where Are We Now?" that is one of the stronger tracks on the album, not the best one though I think. In February "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" was released and it wasn't as good as the first single on the first few listenings but it grew.

The album was released for various streams and such long before I heard it the first time. I wanted to wait until I got my hands on the vinyl. Obviously I wasn't quite patient enough to do that. I gave it a few listens on Spotify last week and since Saturday it has been on the record player almost non-stop. However I had to put "Aladdin Sane" on the record player yesterday as my father had made a  notice that the brilliant song"You Feel So Lonely You Could Die" on "The Next Day" was the "Drive In Saturday" of 2013. He was quite right. And it is a good measure for this record. It actually measures up to a lot of the stuff Bowie did in the 70s, and that is saying a lot! Some of that material are among the greatest albums of all time.

A record that really lived up to my high expectations, from one of my all time favourite artists! Now I'm just hoping for a tour, or at least some shows in Scandinavia or the UK, so I get the chance to see him live.

My Bloody Valentine - m b v vinyl

Yesterday it finally arrived, 22 years after the last album was released. My Bloody Valentines new album arrived in the mail!

I wrote a short blog about the album after the first listen a month ago.

When I wrote that blog I was perhaps a bit negative as I was hoping for some more material like the earlier stuff the band did, pre "Loveless". I still think that "You Made Me Realise" and some songs on "Isn't Anything" are the best songs the band has made, whereas "Loveless" is arguably the best album they made.

I've been listening to the album a lot the past month as I got a free download when I pre-ordered the vinyl and it has grown and grown. It's a perfect progression in the band's career and it is amazing how it is possible to pick up like this where you left of over 20 years ago. It feels like an album that was released just a couple of years after "Loveless". They are not in anyway repeating themselves but they are still on the path which started with some (in MBV terms) pretty straight forward material in the early days where started to experiment some on "Isn't Anything" and then with "Loveless" they went all out, with was possible at the time. I've read somewhere that Kevin Shields record the guitars for the album and then put effects, after effects, after effects and finally erased the original guitar tracks, so that it's actually the least guitar based guitar based album ever, if you know what I mean?

Side A on "m b v" it's pretty as straight forward as you could expect from My Bloody Valentine today, it's beautiful soundscapes and you can sense some sort of melodies, not as clear as on "Loveless" but just as beautiful. The B side gets really experimental with almost drone parts and repetitive drums and guitar loops that will get your girlfriend ask "are they finished soon?". Oh, how I wish it wouldn't! But it does eventually, after 46 minutes of musical beauty. I still feel the album finishes incredibly strong with the six minute monster "Wonder 2".