Best of March

Album of the month

Arcade Fire – The Neon Bible

In a month of so many good North American albums (LCD Soundsystem, Marissa Nadler, Panda Bear, Lucinda Williams to name but a few), this is the one for me. The more I listen to it, the better it gets, and it was only further enhanced by the live experience. It’s no Funeral, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. With only one duff track (the title track) and 10 other brilliant ones, it’ll easily be one of my albums of the year.

Download: Arcade Fire - My Body is a Cage

Buy The Neon Bible.

Songs of the month

LCD Soundsystem – Get Innocuous

A killer album, which would have been album of the month any other time. This is my current favourite track. James Murphy manages to combine Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, new wave, punk and disco re-edits – basically the whole of New York’s excellent musical heritage on one tune. It may not be as great as the sum of these parts, but it’s close. Monstrously good.
Buy Sound of Silver.

Lucinda Williams – Learning How to Live

More songs of pain and heartbreak from the woman who does them best. Lucinda sticks to her well-worn, but still wonderful path of world-weary country rock for another album, packed with pain, which nonetheless brings me lots of joy. This is my current fave.
Buy West.

The Broken Family Band – Alone in the Makeout Room

More country rock, this time all the way from Cambridge, as the Broken Family Band do their best to be the East of England’s answer to the Flying Burrito Brothers. If singer Steven Adams is Gram, then lovely Scottish chanteuse Eddi Reader is his Emmylou on this fine tune. All I’ve got by the BFB is this 7 inch and a few random downloads. Why is that? I need to get me some more.
Buy the 7 inch / their albums

Black Lips – Not A Problem / Dirty Hands

7 inch of the month – two slices of dirty, raw, rough-edged retro garage rock, from a band with a growing reputation as a wild live act. I failed to get in to see them last time in London,
I posted Dirty Hands previously – this is the other side.
Buy the 7 inch.

Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit – Tickle Me Pink

This is about the third time I’ve posted this track, in different versions on this blog. The song, by the multi-talented folk-pop singer/ actor Johnny Flynn, finally came out this month on 7 inch and just how good does it still sound? I’ll not answer that question. Make your own mind up. But for me, the answer is clear.
Buy the 7 inch.