HALF FAST

CENTRO-MATIC
Fort Recovery
Misra Records

Sounds like a more-fuzzed American Music Club. Doesn't everyone, though. (I just heard Poster Children "Tool of the Man" (1993) and that does the whole 'deep' yank guitar honkey thing just so much better across the board. Poster Children rocks more and is more melodic. And rocks less, you figure it out.) Oh, wait, Centro-matic uses kooky synth sounds. But, yeah, AMC did that too. Better. "Take a Rake" rounds out the decathlon and rocks, at least on the surface. And the surface is where all the action is, apparently.


BELLE AND SEBASTIAN
The Life Pursuit

What the hell is this? You know I'm normally a fan of anything wussy and ghey in pop music. The only other time I tried listening to Belle and Sebastian, I had a violent reaction that could only be subdued by listening to Pantera and wearing a red bandana on my head. This time, it's not that severe. I mean, I've certainly heard worse. And this IS pretty wussy and ghey. Surprisingly very not bad. I'll have to hear it again sometime.


DELAYS
You See Colours

Effected female vocals and synth pokes open the first track. And then the drums come in and it's all upbeat. "You and Me". Maybe it's designed to trigger that Katrina & The Waves response because I'm ready to get up and bop my head around. That's a compliment. "Valentine" is the female-fronted variant on the nouveau Duran Duranine strain of the recent past. Updated their synth tones & dance beats along the way. But yeah. It's melodic and you can dance to it without even trying to be ironic. Whoa, "Sink Like a Stone" almost sounds like XTC. I definitely need to hear this again.


FURTHEST FROM THE STAR
This Waking Moment

Holy fuck I feel old. They should change their name to FOO-THEST FROM THE FIGHTERS. Because it's just so fucking blatant. My god. The problem with the kidz today is that they take the fun out of everything. It's all so contrived. The magic is all just CGI effects. If this band has a video, and I'm sure they do, it's surely a special-effects circle jerk. I can't listen to this, it gives me grey hairs.


GRAHAM COXON
Love Travels at Illegal Speeds

Lots of guitar. Floor tom. Big-boy chords. Euw, but that singing voice. Could I listen to that for an hour? Hm. Maybe. Hey Graham, got your Coxon? He were in Bluh, weren't he. And at least his british accent is real, I guess. It's less annoying than Blur ever were. But that was also, if Blur ever had appeal to me, which is certainly debatable, part of the draw. It's confusing but at least it doesn't suck shit, as far as I can tell.


THE KOOKS
Inside Out

Guess what. This could be any other brit-wank guitar band that's out at the moment. What do the Kooks bring to the party? Is what I wanna know. I mean, you know how the Strokes singer dude kinda sounds like he's singing with a British accent, kinda? This guy sounds like that too, only he is British. You understand my confusion. Regardless. The guitar-y music isn't bad at all. I just think it might get annoying pretty quickly.


TRESSPASSERS WILLIAM
Having

I've heard good things about this band. Apparently it's all deserved. You got yer sexy-soundin' breathy female singerist, yer late night sound effects, yer ambientish keys and chords. This is all the first track, "Safe Sound". It's nice, it sounds like Mojave Three plus Sigur Ros. And I only invoke the name of Sigur Ros due the scope of the songs, they have the same kind of filmic approach to songmaking. And they're slow & quiet too, which counts for a lot with me. DON'T FUCKIN' ROCK! Sexy. You go buy now. Get me one while you're there. Thankie hankie poo-poo.


THE STROKES
First Impressions of Earth

Do I have to? I mean, I thought their first album was, like, "The La's" of this decade. Y'know, a debut album with almost-all fucking killer songs that you just can't argue with. I mean, you can make all the faces you want, but in the end, the shit sticks with you. I don't know if this album is any good as a whole but it hasn't grabbed me like the first one did. And "Ask Me Anything" is actually annoying, so points off for that.