Clever Eleven December 2007 ¤

I hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays, and what better way to celebrate the new year than with 11 new great tunes?! December is traditionally not a very fertile month when it comes to new music, so this collection digs out a handful of overlooked pop gems from the fall (no, not the band, stupid), as well as tasters from a couple of interesting upcoming releases.

1. Army Navy - Saints
- LA anglofiles jangle, shimmer and shine on the title track from their fresh debut EP.
2. British Sea Power - Waving Flags
- With their third album out in January, BSP has obviously set the course for stadiums, although captain Yan still exhales more than he sings.
3. The Dead 60s - Start A War
- Less ska and more big tunes on the Liverpool quartet's second full-length Time to Take Sides, due out in European shelves mid-January.
4. Club 8 - Heaven
- The pleasant Swedish indie duo give a hint of how New Order may have sounded had they grown up in the Swedish countryside instead of Salford.
5. The Weakerthans - Civil Twilight
- Beautiful storytelling indie pop from sympathetic Canadians that are probably just sitting around waiting for Zach Braff to look their way.
6. Kenneth Ishak - Don't Touch My Brother
- The Beezewax vocalist finally bring some proper production to his solo work, and voilĂ : a soulful masterpiece of 70's strings and melancholy.
7. Stereophonics - My Friends
- Little Kelly Jones gives the ol' sandpaper throat a good workout on this stomping rocker.
8. Future Clouds and Radar - Back Seat Silver Jet Sighter
- The frontman off Texan cult rockers Cotton Mather carry the psychedelic fairground-production aesthetics on with his new peculiarly-titled project.
9. The Frank And Walters - City Lights
- The Irish veterans that is not a duo amusingly released this bouncy second single exactly one year after the release of its parent album.
10. Scouting For Girls - Elvis Ain't Dead
- The merry London popsters tell us what we already knew on their christmas single.
11. Black Mountain - Stay Free
- These soothing tones from 70's rock revivalists' upcoming second outing may sound familar, due to its inclusion on the Spiderman 3 OST (although you could have sworn you heard it in Almost Famous).

BONUS TRACK FOR ALL YE FAITHFUL BLOG READERS:
Little Man Tate - Boy in an Anorak (only 96 kbps, but legally from their official site)

Also shortlisted: Foals - Balloons, The Warlocks - Dreamless Days, Good Shoes - Small Town Girls, Jack Johnson - If I Had Eyes

Clever Eleven Nov. 2007 ¤

Have a spiritual advent with this month's selected 11, which have a relatively high air-guitar factor, and include no less than 4 non-album tracks! Those of you hoping for the new singles from Bloc Party and The Killers will have to look elsewhere, as they were shite.

1. Oasis - Lord Don't Slow Me Down
- The monobrow brovvahs have probably never sounded so tied in the sixties as on this digital-only single released to accompany tour documentary DVD by the same name.
2. The Alones - Silver
- Stoke-on-Trent quartet debuts with this widescreen indie gem that makes you wanna grab your air guitar and sneer in someone's face.
3. The Raveonettes - Dead Sound
- Lovely leadoff single from what disappointingly is the stylish Danes' weakest album so far.
4. Georgie James - Places
- Title track off brilliant hard-to-pick-one-song debut album from NYC-based multiinstrumentalist duo.
5. Palladium - High 5
- While we're waiting for the new album from The Feeling, this lot can give us a fix of 70's pompous power-soft-rock-buttons with their debut single.
6. Athlete - Tokyo
- A few interesting moves from London nice guys that still struggle in the shadows of Coldplay and Snow Patrol.
7. The Twang - Push The Ghosts
- Big guitars, attitude and a cleverly knicked bassline make up the bouncy brummies' fourth single..
8. The Ladybug Transistor - Always On The Telephone
- ..while the opening track from the Elephant 6 quintet's seventh full-length actually do twang.
9. Johnny Panic - I Live For
- Slightly polished (did someone say "American"?), but still hummable album track from young UK punks.
10. Matt Nathanson - Car Crash
- The Frisco-based trouadour reminds us that there was a time when all American tv-series sounded like this..
11. Gomez - Moon And Sun
- ..while nowadays, producers tend to opt for sensitive acoustic singer/songwriters or credible indie acts, or in this example from the fresh Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, a combination of the two.

Also shortlisted: The National - Apartment Story, The Delays - Love Made Visible, The Pearlfishers - Up With the Larks, The Troubadours - Here Comes the Tide, The Hoosiers - Worst Case Scenario

Clever Eleven Oct. 2007 ¤

Let this month's collection warm you on those cold autumn evenings!

1. Jimmy Eat World - Let it Happen
- Arizonan veterans prove that emo without mascara can actually be quite catchy and enjoyable.
2. Shack - Holiday Abroad
- One of two obligatory brand new tracks on timely career retrospective from the original cosmic scousers...
3. The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
...while this Liverpool outfit (well, they got a Norwegian bassist, y'know!) "coincidentally" release breakthrough single as the Ian Curtis biography hits the silver screen.
4. Jeremy Enigk - Canons
- The former Sunny Day Real Estate agent strips down on what may well be this year's finest album...
5. Justin Currie - Out of My Control
...while the former Del Amitri frontman perhaps not surprisingly still got the blues on his solo outing.
6. Hundred Reasons - No Way Back
- Leadoff single from Surrey emo/hardcorester's fourth album, somewhat peculiarly recorded in Latvia.
7. Stars - Midnight Coward
- Summery and smooth from the one member of the big Montréal music family that has yet to drown in its own hype.
8. Turin Brakes - Stalker
- Loud is obviously the new quiet for the onetime acoustic pioneers.
9. Nine Black Alps - Bitter End
- Manchester quartet trade their lite-grunge for beatlesque pop with great luck (allthough NME hated it).
10. Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling into Place
- Almost back to form from long-awaited pay-what-you-like download-only album.
11. Maps - To the Sky
- This ethereal single from Northampton one-man-band suggests that shoegazers DO look upwards from time to time.

also shortlisted: Ed Harcourt - You Put a Spell on Me, Band of Horses - Is There a Ghost?, The Envy Corps - Rhinemaidens, Delta Fiasco - Paperhouse, Editors - The Picture

Clever Eleven Sep. 2007 ¤

At last! The first proper edition of Clever Eleven has hit the shelves! This month provided loads of great indie anthems, with some still-going-strong old-timers inbetween.
Sheffield proves to still be better at music than football, getting three slots in this super squad (3, 6 & 11).

1. The Enemy - You're Not Alone
- With anthemic singles like this (the fourth from the Coventry trio's #1 debut album), you gotta love your enemy.
2. Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere
- The Boss lets loose in style.
3. Milburn - What Will You Do (When The Money Goes)
- If The Coral and Arctic Monkeys were to get it off, this is what their offspring would sound like. And I'd take the kid any day.
4. Rogue Wave - Chicago X 12
- Forget Natalie Portman and the over-hyped Shins; THIS is the band that can change your life.
5. Foo Fighters - Long Road To Ruin
- This powerpop stomper proves that Grohl & co are best when they're not too angry.
6. Little Man Tate - European Lover [New Version]
- Standout track from slightly mundane debut album gets re-recorded for full effect.
7. Hot Hot Heat - Good Day to Die
- The Canadian Strokes add some strings and timpani for their eulogy.
8. Silversun Pickups - Well Thought Out Twinkles
- LA indie brats that have more in common with Smashing Pumpkins than their initials.
9. Hard-Fi - Can't Get Along (Without You)
- Scheduled second single with more than a nod to Motown.
10. The Go! Team - Doing It Right
- Feelgood party cracker from the Brighton six-piece' somewhat messy sophomore effort.
11. Richard Hawley - Tonight The Streets Are Ours
- Sheffield romantic croons about the streets where the great music is created. Or at least 3/11 of it.

Clever Eleven Aug. 2007 ¤

This is sort of a test pressing of a planned monthly series of new (or fairly new, anyway) and interesting tunes. "Interesting" here of course meaning "to my liking".

Athlete - Hurricane
Brinkman - Change It
The Coral - Who's Gonna Find Me
Costar - Good Morning Sunshine
Hard-Fi - Suburban Knights
The Hellacopters - The Same Lame Old Story
The Lodger - Watching
Manic Street Preachers - Autumnsong
My Vitriol - War Of The Worlds
The National - Mistaken For Strangers
Superfamily - I Could Be A Real Winner

DOWNLOAD

Clever Eleven July 2007 ¤

To maintain the "buzz" before the first proper edition, I've decided to construct the C11 as it probably would have looked like had it been compiled by the end of July. As these eleven show, there were actually quite a lot a great albums released this summer, here represented by an almost 50/50 blend of singery-songwritery acoustic-laden pop and sneeringly majestic indie rock.

The Bravery - Angelina
Cherry Ghost - 4AM
Crowded House - Even a Child
Editors - An End Has A Start
The Enemy - Had Enough
Interpol - No I in Threesome
Kula Shaker - Second Sight
Josh Pyke - Fed And Watered
Josh Rouse - Sweetie
Spoon - You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
Rufus Wainwright - Going to a Town

DOWNLOAD: TORRENT ZIP

Listen up!

Listen further!

Spotify

Followers

Rock Music Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory