I finally got around to buying Troels Abrahamsen's new record, called WHT (which is an abbreviation of "White", not "What", as one may think. By the way, there'll be a housier sequel fittingly titled BLCK in stores later this year). So far, I really like it. He's come a long way maturity-wise since his debut effort I Know That You Know. Not that he wasn't an impressive artist already then, IKTYK just didn't seem as thorough and deep as this new one does. There are many more nuances and overall, more work seems to have been put into this. It can be heard in it's full length at his myspace too - disregard the standard player, as you'll find it further down the right side.
This leads me to a number of by me much anticipated albums that'll be in stores this fall (more or less). 5 of them more precisely, all of them by artists that have very high last.fm numbers with me, but have nevertheless (some more than others) vanished from daily rotation throughout the last year or so. This intrigues me somewhat, because i'm not sure to what extent these bands will reenter center stage, or how much my musical taste has developed away from them.
First up, Devon prog-giants Muse are releasing their fifth proper studio album, titled The Resistance by the way, in September. From what I've read at NME.com and elsewhere, it's gonna be a very ambitious effort, complete with a three-part symphony written out in genuine score. It seems Matty B might finally get to live out his wildest and wettest dreams, as hinted already on predecessing album Black Holes and Revelations' closer, Knights of Cydonia. I fear it might become slightly too inaccessible to be a real hit album, however, it might contain a few tracks of Starlight'ish caliber as well. Taking into account the songwriting talent of Mr. Bellamy, i am excited about this, and even though it might not be as heavily listened too as the predecessor, it's going to have it's place.
Danish indies Mew just released the first single from their upcoming effort, unhandily titled No more stories/Are told today/I'm sorry/They washed away/No more stories/The world is grey/I'm tired/Let's wash away. Alrighty then. Sad so many youngsters have taken over indie Denmark, yeh? By the way, the album artwork is easily as weird and ugly as ...The Glass Handed Kites's was. Anyhow, the single's called Introducing Palace Players, and in my opinion doesn't bring anything new to the table, other than a slightly attention-grabbingly oblique guitar pattern. I have dire expectations for this, and I really haven't been listening much to Mew these last few years. I doubt they'll baffle my autumn, but who knows? At least, I might catch them at Roskilde, although I often downgrade Danish acts there, because they're catchable elsewhere throughout the year.
Klaxons, the trendsetting new-ravers from London, have their sophomore effort coming up, and that'll be very exciting. They presumably rerecorded half the tracks after being deemed "too experimental" by the record company though, which is bit of a shame. It's gonna be interesting to see how they've come to terms with the fact that new-rave has really been swerved by dance-punk (yeah, that's a rotten description!) on the alternative-indie scene, and by dubstep in London itself. Maybe they've incorporated a few dance-punk'ey bits to make everything 2009, or maybe they've gone in the direction of 1-2-3-4-go! guitar/noise-fetishist garage-revival stuff. Or maybe they've just stayed on the same path as Mercury Award-winning debut Myths of The Near Future, which saw them rise to being the figureheads of a glowstick and facepaint reinventing youth subculture. I doubt they've lost their wit though, and that alone excites me. After all, they did play one of the greatest concerts I ever attended, and they do have a unique kind of energy.
Ever present Sheffield posterboys Arctic Monkeys are on the warpath as well. This is probably one of the albums that intrigues me the most. Both their previous albums are instant classics, and i can never get a hold of which is better. One thing they do though, is sound quite similar, not surprising, being released a mere year apart. It's gonna be very interesting to see if the Muggahs will release a third familiarly-sounding album, and if they do, will it be successful, or will the Yorkshire-street urchin style have walked it's walk? I seriously doubt it'll be viable third time around, and somehow, i think the Monkeys do as well, and we'll see something slightly different from Turner & co.'s hands this time. It is however the case, that Arctic Monkeys are now somewhat on the outer edges of my musical tastes, being as I've really electronified through especially the last year, and I never really listen to other garage-revival acts. One of the Monkeys' (don't remember who, maybe Helders) recently stated that they've gone more Black Sabbath, which frightens me. I really hope their new one will be as good as the two others, because their instant danceability and Alex Turners fantastically poetic and phonaesthetically beautiful Yorkshire-ramblings make them one of my favourites.
Finally, Kashmir are gearing up to become Denmark's darlings again. It's been four years since No Balance Palace, and almost nothing has been heard from them the last few years. They're kind of like an old love interest to me though. They were the first rock band I was into, and they still live on. Although they've been on ups and downs, i've never completely stopped listening to them, and they made so much stuff that's much more long-lasting than anything else. This way, unless they've really gone dickhead, i'm probably gonna like it, but it scares me a bit that i don't have a clue as to in which direction they've gone. Could be ballady, could be piano-organ'y, could be guitar-revivally. But as long as they've kept on writing beautiful and meaningful tunes, they'll probably be the ones making it happen after all.
That turned out to be long. Behold! The musical elephants are rattling their chains!
