Resistance day, other stuff, and the imminent future of The Idioteque.

Today could be dubbed 'Resistance Day', i.e. it is the day when Muse's highly anticipated fifth full length effort finally hits the shelves. I don't have time to pick it up today, but I'm counting on finding it on Khao San Rd. sometime this week. I've heard most of it though, and it is very impressive. It is more piano-driven than its predecessors (a Danish review stated that "...Bellamy unfortunately isn't a great pianist" - I wonder if that journalist ever heard 'Butterflies and Hurricanes'...), and many of the songs are really strong. Everyone is raving about the three-movement 'Exogenesis'-symphony, which I haven't really gotten into yet. I only heard it once, and it honestly disappointed me a bit, but everyone is proclaiming it to be the Bohemian Rhapsody of the 21st century, so I guess it just has to grow.

I've just got a few tips that I have encountered these last few weeks:

Those of you all into Radiohead's perhaps most overlooked album, Amnesiac, I found this great cover of 'I Might Be Wrong' by a French jazz-quartet. It's really groovy!

Editors are on their way with their third album, In This Light and On This Evening, due to be released in October. I've really enjoyed their first album, The Back Room from 2005, and they seem to have revved up on the synths on this one. Their lead single 'Papillon' sounds like a crossbreed between Spleen United and Depeche Mode, and depending on how the rest of the album sounds, it could turn out to be a fave.

Finally, I've really gotten into Danish quintet Oh No Ono's sophomore effort Eggs, which they released this spring. I was never a big fan of their debut album Yes, but the second one is really a masterful effort at times. 'Swim' is very good, and here they are playing my favourite, 'The Tea Party' at Beatday Festival in Copenhagen.

These next months this blog is going into a semi-hiatus. I am leaving for Australia and New Zealand, and while I'll still be sniffing up music here and there, I think I'll be plenty busy writing mails and travellogs, uploading pictures and sending postcards, so The Idioteque will probably only be active every now and then. For those of you fluent in the Danish language, head over to my travellog! (Pics will be upped to Facebook now and then). Stay groovy.

Listen to 'The Resistance'! NOW!

Hell, nothing much else to say. Go to DR's website now and listen to the entire new album by Muse!

A bit too much desert rat.

I've really in many ways been anticipating Arctic Monkeys third album Humbug these last few months. In some ways I've been fearing that the inevitable maturing process of these young britons would evolve into an album too oldschool-rock'n'roll'ish for my tastes. The last year or so, most of my musical influences have been more towards the electronic and dance-punk scenes, which is quite a ways from A.M. I was initially sceptical towards the lead single Crying Lightning, which was somehow exactly what I feared - a piece of slow, heavy rock. However it became a turning point for me when it came into rotation on my preferred radio channel P3. It is actually an extraordinarily catchy tune. Together with crooked opener My Propeller it kicks off the album in a promising way. It is recognizable Arctic Monkeys stuff, albeit somewhat slower than we've known them to initiate albums before (just think Brianstorm).

Next up is Dangerous Animals, which to be honest seems to be one of the weaker tracks after the first few listens, eventhough its aggressively rambling bass is somewhat noteworthy. Secret Door kicks off as a ballad very akin to the predecessor's 'Only Ones Who Know', although it quickly evolves into something different. This is one of the tracks in which producer Josh Homme's presence is felt the most. You clearly sense that the four lads have been thrust out of working-class Yorkshire and into the expanses of the Mojave. Theres more of a stoned distance in both the dusty, queaky, organ-heavy instrumentalisation, and in Turner's vocals which are distinctively less Yorkshire. You can still hear that he's a Brit ofcourse, but there seems to be less of a presence of the local Tyke vernacular. Turner has matured as a lyricist as well.

Potion Approaching, while still somewhat slow in comparison to the first two albums, is one of the aggressiver tracks on the record. In a way it is a strong track, but it's a part of the album that's just a bit two stoned for my tastes. Afterwards though, things really kick off with the next four tracks being the strongest portion of the album. Fire and the Thud is still very Josh Homme'y, I mean, you can almost see the dust devils blowing through the Rancho and cowboys drawing six-shooters, but it is a perfectly digestible little thing. Cornerstone is some of the closest Arctic Monkeys have ever come to beautiful, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this as the second single off the album. It's not '505', but it's good. So is Dance Little Liar, which is another of the very desert-dusty tracks. It turns somewhat prog at about 3.20, which is a welcome infusion of musical creativity on an otherwise somewhat unexperimental record.

Even more prog is Pretty Visitors, which has emerged as one of my favourite tracks on this record. The constant changes in tempo and intensity really appeals to me, and this is in many ways the track that draws the most references to the two former albums, even though it too is distinctively Humbug. One thing I've noticed though is that Turners voice seems more apt for a song like this, rather than the more stoned ones. Closing off is The Jeweller's Hands, which honestly haven't really gotten to me yet.

This is not neither Whatever People Say I Am..., nor Favourite Worst Nightmare, and while Humbug definitely has the characteristics of an album that will grow on you slowly, I doubt that it will ever appeal to me in the same way as the youthfulness of the first and the intensity of the second album. There just isn't a 'Still Take You Home' or a 'Do Me A Favour', and I miss the unspoilt uncomplicatedness of the young Arctic Monkeys. To stay in the animal kingdom, there's just a bit too much scummy desert rat, and a bit too little monkey. It's like going from wearing Cheap Mondays to wearing Levi's or Wranglers. But one owes to Turner & co. that they have really proven themselves as capable artists. Matt Helders is still a brilliant drummer, and Alex Turner is still a formidable front man. They've overcome the necessary change of pace that will eventually spare them from becoming an indie Green Day phenomenon of a band going around the same old curve that made them succesful in the first place. I'm sure Arctic Monkeys have lost some, gained some on this album, but more than anything else, they've established themselves as a band able to do more than just taking home sorry groupies.