The Arcade Fire – Funeral
Yeah, again, it seems I’m the last person to hear about last year’s hip and cool band for hip and cool hipsters who are hipper and cooler than all their friends. Never mind. Anyway, the album is fantastic – taking the current trend for revitalising the early 80s alt rock sound (Talking Heads, Joy Division, Roxy Music) and blending it with a distinctive modern feel (production influences from bands like the Flaming Lips and Grandaddy are clear through the album) to produce one of the best albums of the last year. This is one of those albums you have to put on loud, lie back and immerse yourself in. Brilliant.
(does anyone else think that Neighborhood #3 sounds awfully similar to Temptation by New Order?)
Hal – Hal
Hal are, by their own confession, seriously retro. They don’t listen to much modern music, and their influences are all much older than they are: Brian Wilson, Van Morrison and Harry Nilsson. The album, therefore, sounds exactly like you’d expect: happy sunshine pop with classic 60s style melodies and Beach Boys harmonies. Comparisons with The Thrills are fairly inevitable (as another Irish band wearing their Brian Wilson influences on their sleeve) but Hal have a much brighter, more rounded and less stripped down sound. As lessons in recreating 60s pop go, you don’t get much better or more authentic than this.