Whoa, a lot of stuff suddenly piled up on my ideas-list, so I better be brief! Foals are rapidly on their way with one of those very difficult sophomore albums. Following the trails of critically very acclaimed debut LP Antidotes comes Total Life Forever, which is out May 10th. However, we don't have to wait that long for the lead single, 'Spanish Sahara', which is out now! This is a very patiently building piece of music, and as such, the band has thrashed completely the well-known restless energy of Antidotes. In stead of being constantly surrounded by tapping guitars, Yannis Philippakis' somewhat opinion-splittingly fragile voice now nakedly caresses a long, unfolding track. I somehow had the idea that Foals would move a long way from the Antidotes-sound, and I'm very excited about the new record. Let's hope to see them at Roskilde!
Troels Abrahamsen, arguably Denmark's most hyperactive musician, is out with a new album, again. It hits stores on Monday, is called BLCK, and is already available for listening here. It's admittedly really good, but eventhough mr. Abrahamsen probably doesn't give a rat's ass what people think, and in all likelihood only releases these albums to channel his many creative impulses out of his brain and computer, it does hit me that there might be an upper limit of relevant output - especially in a genre like this. BLCK was supposed to be more towards hard house than WHT was, but, let's face it, these two records have got more in common than the hairdos of The Beatles. I mean, some of the tracks really are pretty good, but you just get the same feeling like when you buy your fourth pair of black jeans. They're really nice, and fit really well on your bum, but honestly, you don't really need them, because you've got three that are very alike already. I think it's probably a good thing that Troels is hitting the studio with VETO again soon.
A few other new records are relevantly mentionable. The Knife got exciting reviews on their new album Tomorrow, In A Year. They've got a lot to live up to, and I think some critics have that too much in mind. Especially because it seems to be an almost inaccessibly experimental album. It's sort of like discussing the aesthetics of 'Fitter Happier'. Pitchfork only gave it a 6.9, while Drowned In Sound gave it a whopping 10/10. I'm looking forward to hearing it. I heard The Kissaway Trail's new album Sleep Mountain the other day, and it seems pretty good. I haven't heard a whole lot of their stuff before, but they might be worth checking out at Roskilde. They do reminisce Arcade Fire quite a lot, though. Also, Two Door Cinema Club are out with their debut effort Tourist History now. Check out 'Undercover Martyn' - isn't that just facile, yet adorable? I think they're definitely in my next batch of records. So to may well be Does It Offend You, Yeah?'s new album, Don't Say We Didn't Warn You, although there's no date out on that one yet. They're playing in Århus late this month, hopefully I'll attend that.
Now finally, a few interesting tracks. This is 'Real Life' by Tanlines. They are from Brooklyn, like everyone else, and I really dig their sound. And this is Swedish The Radio Dept. and their very Swedish-sounding tune 'Heaven's on Fire' from their third album, Clinging To A Scheme, which is out on Labrador soon. They're coming to Gothenburg for Way Out West, joining a line-up of La Roux, LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A., among others. Sadly, I'll probably be in the wrong end of Europe at that point of summer.
Finally, one could argue that OK Go's music is as blandly anodyne as anything. Maybe that's because they spend all their time creating their groundbreaking music videos. We all know the treadmill-dance of 'Here It Goes Again', and these days, they're back with a whopping video for 'This Too Shall Pass'. Impressive.
