Lucy is the wonderful human being who runs ATTN:arts&lit. Nuff said.
Best Album…
…HEALTH- Get Colour
A challenging and yet natural-sounding, gorgeous, half hour of fuzzy electronics, crashing digitized drum loops, blearily beautiful vocals and mashed synths, HEALTH’s second album is a tangled web of contradicting puzzle pieces that somehow fit together in a messy orgy of yum. And when they don’t, HEALTH bend and warp the pieces until they do, like an toddler in a tantrum. Its a far more mature effort than their so-so debut, blending beats that make you want to dance, with beats that make you want to smash things: Inspired, original and immensely fun.
Best Gig…
…The Cure at the NME Big Gig, O2
The weirdly dissonant line-up of White Lies, Crystal Castles, Franz Ferdinand did not spoil a head-line set which re-affirmed The Cure as masters in their field. Mixing new material from album 4:13 Dream, with performances of tracks from nearly every studio album to date, the band proved that in 2009, after more than 15 different line-ups they still have more energy, personality and originality than the majority of today’s rock pretenders. Robert Smith, having headed the band since their formation clearly still enjoys performing the songs that span his career, like a musical biography, his distinctive vocal still strong and full of emotion. When the set closed with the raucously brilliant ‘Killing an Arab’, and arena of die-hard fans and young converts were still hungry for more.
Keep an eye out for…
…Warpaint
Warpaint
This LA band have been around a while but signed with Rough Trade in November, which hopefully means we will hear a lot more of Warpaint. Their debut album, ‘Exquisite Corpse’, released towards the end of the year is a short but sweet, psychedelic dream. Offering only six tracks, it gives a flavour of the band’s potential, while leaving a degree of mystique. Stripped back guitars will appeal to fans of The Whitest Boy Alive, and their understated, occasionally folky, occasionally rowdy rock sound is nevertheless original to Warpaint, and deserves to do well. The start of the year will see them tour the US with acts like Yeasayer and Akron/Family, and if the music industry and public can sustain its appetite for interesting female acts (Warpaint are three ladies, with a male drummer), this could be the band’s breakthrough year.
WHAT TO DO NOW?