Albums To Listen To: 2007 (Part Two)
Here's the second lot of album's you have to pick up and play this year...
Hello again! Here's the second lot of album's you have to pick up and play this year...
Band: Nightmare Of You
Album: 'Bang'
Release Date: TBC
Indie-rock quartet Nightmare of You have a new album on the way, as revealed by their Myspace: "We've been relentlessly hard at work writing our new record. But this work feels good hard, just like all other things."
Due for release in the summer, after their UK tour in January, the new album, intended to be named 'Bang', is a follow up to their selftitled debut of last year: "We are aiming to get into the studio as soon as possible. February in Los Angeles would go swimmingly with our thin blood, although global warming has given us New Yorkers quite the psychedelic and strangely warmish winter this year. We have 18 new songs thus far. With all of this said, and believe me when I say things in life are always subject to change, especially being in music, we are aiming to have a brand new album in your cute littlemonkey mitts this Summer."
Luckily the boys aren't fazed by our adverse weather conditions, with frontman Brandon Reilly divulging that "we will be heading over to your quaint little country in roughtly two weeks. Once we get back, we will need a week or so to dry out our rain-drenched souls/soles. After that, we are hoping to be heading right into a Los Angeles studio". Quite a large jump from their "cozy,underground, fire hazard of a practice space" beneath a day spa on Rivington and Allen.
Perhaps the prospect of such a great-sounding album will tempt even the sun to come to the UK this year. - Harriet Jennings
Band: Maximo Park
Album: TBC
Release Date: TBC
Poor Maximo Park. Just as they were NME's 2006 Darlings (on their third NME Tour in a year, no less), Arctic Monkeys swept them away into seeming obscurity – but not so. Ever since the release of 2005's 'A Certain Trigger', these fake Geordies have been up to their eyeballs working on new material destined to make NME (and the rest of the world) fall for them all over again.
First of all, let's look at their basics for album number one: it's all very 'oh, my poor broken heart' but with a rather elegant twist of the dagger, and the follow up will give us nothing but more of the same, albeit in a good way. New tracks are passing around the internet like wildfire, all containing wordsmith and main lyricist Paul Smith's obvious touch of blood: "defacing pictures of famous people on the train, standing by the monument just waiting for the rain!" he screams in the heartfelt whimsy of 'By The Monument', while 'A Fortnight’s Time' brings a similar amount of stupid longing, and you also sense he knows how ridiculous it is too; "Five times five equals twenty-five, don’t you know your time tables by now?"
More names fly about to those in-the-know, and even they hold engulfing elusive names: 'Nosebleed', 'Girls Who Play Guitar', 'Books In Boxes', 'Russian Literature' – the latter of which looks set to be this album's 'Acrobat', coming out of the dark with keyboards very unlike anything Maximo have done before. If only those Arctic's would slow down a bit, this could be Maximo's year. - Han Quintrell
Band: Fall Out Boy
Album: 'Infinity On High'
Release Date: 05/02/07
Pre-order: Here.
'Infinity On High' is the second major-label release from Fall Out Boy following the international success of 'From Under The Cork Tree'.
The album title is taken from a letter Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, "Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all", and the CD release of the album cover is inspired by his work. This is also hinted to have more meaning in the album, but you'll have to listen to it to find out how!
It is promised to contain many different styles and sounds more along the classic rock theme, with a common thread running between them all, for example the first single is 'This Ain’t A Scene, It's An Arms Race', an RnB/punk song. With their fanbase already established, it will be interesting to see if this move will secure them, or cause a fall out (sorry couldn't resist). - Sarah Howcutt
Band: Funeral For A Friend
Album: 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves'
Release Date: TBC
After Matt Davis' foray into gorgeously soft country music and experimental facial hair, this year will see him back with his day job as Funeral For a Friend release their third album. Putting the last touches to the album in London after recording in Monmouth with producer Gil Norton, it should be released in time for summer. Their Myspace has been invaluable, with a number of video diary entries of their progress, including occasional question & answer clips and (intensely) detailed information about their instruments and equipment.
Vocal about how different this album will be to previous work, expect more in the way of focussed, stadium-sized sounds. But don't panic, they're certainly not going to become a commercial pop act. Indeed, according to their Q&A videos there'll be no really slow-tempo tracks or acoustic numbers. If you've got any questions of your own, you may as well drop them a line on their forums (http://www.ffaf.co.uk/forum - studio section) and it might get answered by one of the boys.
Expect to see tours conquer the country, backing up the as yet untitled album, and people to still frustrate them by calling them ‘emo’ no matter what they do or how their hair looks.
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