Frightened Rabbit - The Woodpile

How very fitting. The first single I've bought since moving to Scotland, and of course it's Frightened Rabbit. A week before the release of their 4th album Pedestrian Verse (which, of course, there will be a post about on here at some point next week), this single is the second taste of new material after the rather excellent State Hospital EP. I picked it up at Avalanche Records, which is fast becoming one of my favourite things about living in Edinburgh.

There's only a certain number of times I can talk about how lovely Frabbit's artwork is. There's clearly a lot of thought put into it every time and it's just nice. In this case I like the little monogrammed metronomes (at least I presume they're metronomes) and the slightly worn label and the reappearance of the triple-barred cross. Consistently-themed artwork is something I love, and as such I love this.

Those metronomes reappear on the record label, and there's more worn labels everywhere. Mmmm. Still no coloured vinyl, but I'm sure we can let it slide. Apparently this is a "limited" single, but I can't find any numbers anywhere so that's a piece of information we'll have to overlook for now.

I'm going to begin, in slightly unusual fashion, by talking about this single's B-side. Today's Cross is unlike any Frabbit song I've ever heard before. It's almost a ROCK SONG, which is quite weird to hear. Definitely need a few more listens to get used to that one. The Woodpile, on the other hand, is unmistakeably the work of Frightened Rabbit. It's been up on youtube since December but it's taken me until tonight to listen to it (the entire month of December was pretty much a write-off due to overwhelming sadness about Tubelord's split meaning I listened to basically nothing but them). So I heard The Woodpile for the first time a little over an hour ago, and have just finished listening to it for the 10th time. My word, it is incredible. It starts in quite a sedate manner, and then the chorus drops and everything is amazing. There's even what might loosely be described as a guitar solo. In a Frabbit song! Madness. Between this and State Hospital, things are looking really good for Pedestrian Verse. Roll on next Monday.

Colour - Anthology

Oh. So the whole "catch up on posts while I'm unemployed" was kind of ruined by getting a job, but that in itself will provide me with a whole bunch more records to inevitably forget to write about. This is one I pre-ordered a mere two days before receiving the job offer, so maybe it was a bit of a good omen. I'd been thinking of buying the CD version for a good while having spent most of my job-hunt listening to it on Spotify as motivation, so when Kev announced BSM was doing a vinyl pressing for the first time I figured I had to do it. Making sure I got the raddest version before it sold out was an exercise in shouting at my phone until paypal decided to function properly, but as you'll see later it was totally worth it.

Really plain sleeve. It reminds me a little of the Bear vs. Shark repressing actually, in terms of the colour. Just a single label to let you know what the album is. I like it.

Just to demonstrate how plain the sleeve is, this is the back. Another single black and white label, this time just for the tracklisting.

There's also a pretty snazzy folded insert. On one side we have a whole load of little pictures of the band...

...and on the other a whole bunch of info and thanks and some more photos. I do love an insert, me.

Hoooooooooly shit you know when I said I got the raddest colour? I REALLY MEANT THE RADDEST COLOUR. Red on clear, absolutely phenomenal choice. I love clear records and I love coloured records, so this is just the best of both worlds. Limited to 100 copies and absolutely beautiful. Love you forever, Kev.

As is implied by the title, "Anthology" is a collection of all of Colour's releases. I suppose it's slightly odd then that I think it flows really well as an album. There's the right amount of respite from the glorious angular poppy songs Colour specialised in. If that last bit wasn't a slight giveaway, it should come as no surprise to you that the band are musically (and it turns out personally) close to my dear - now sadly departed - Tubelord. They're slightly less yelpy but just as catchy, the highlight of this album being the joyous Unicorns and slow-building Dinosaurs. Both great song titles, too. I wish they hadn't split up, but maybe we'll see another release from Tangled Hair (the band Alan and James formed following the demise of Colour) soon. Until that happens, this can definitely keep me ticking over.

Biffy Clyro - Infinity Land repress

Well. This was kind of inevitable, wasn't it? When the pre-orders were put up for it on Banquet, I was a bit low on money and couldn't really justify spending a lot on a record. The release date came and went, and I still didn't feel flush enough to buy it. I kept checking Banquet's stock in the hope that somehow I'd be able to convince myself to get it but it never happened, and then that stock reduced to zero. This bummed me out so much that I promptly bought it upon spotting it in a record shop for, as it turned out, roughly the same price I would have paid from Banquet. It all works out in the end (apart from for my wallet, which is crying).

8 years after release, this artwork still makes zero sense to me. The gasmask head man is clearly some kind of Mickey Mouse parody, everything else is a complete mystery. Still cool though. Here's one of my few minor quibbles with this repressing: this sleeve lacks the delightful ridged texture of the insert of the original CD version (no idea if this texture was present on the first pressing or not) which is a shame because I loved that ridged paper. Ah well. Should mention this came in a plastic sleeve like the other two, which is a plus.

Old pictures of Biffy are the best pictures of Biffy, let's be honest. Fringes all over the place. It's fairly sparse inside this gatefold but I suppose that provides a nice counterpoint to the relative chaos of the outside of the sleeve.

That chaos? Oh yeah. It's here. The font of Infinity Land is pretty weird, to the point of being almost illegible, so good luck trying to read the song titles without clicking through to the large version of the image. They're all great though, you can trust me on that one.

The inner sleeves are among the best I've seen. The subtle dark grey artwork on the sleeves provide a nice backdrop to the lyrics to the whole album, written I believe in Simon's handwriting (which is also slightly difficult to read). Absolutely gorgeous.

And look at this. Just look at it. The marbling on this is a bit more obvious than on the previous two, and I love the shade of blue-grey that they chose. I don't think I need to say anything more here, so I'm not going to.

This is my favourite album of all time. No doubt about it. I've written about why I love it previously, so to save time I'll just put that link here if you are interested. It's a hugely important album to me and I still listen to it very regularly. In fact, in September I was lucky enough to see the band live yet again and was treated to the unexpected delight that was Strung To Your Ribcage (track 2 from this album) while stood next to the person I've needed to see it with for several years. Single-handedly one of the best moments of my life thus far, and something that I couldn't write this post without mentioning due to how incredibly happy it makes me. Something else I need to mention is the B-sides from the album which are included on this release. The 6 are all at least decent songs, but the champion among them is Bonanzoid Deathgrip. A perfect slice of ridiculous old Biffy, it's a screaming whirlwind that ricochets around your ears. That it never made it onto an album (and thus will probably not get played live until the band hopefully do a B-sides and rarities tour in the distant future) is a shame, but it really wouldn't fit on this album. Absolutely brilliant though.

This post also marks the last of the Beggars represses, and I have to say I'm slightly sad about that. They've done a really good job of these and I've enjoyed returning to semi-regularly buying Biffy vinyl. It's a pity Puzzle is unlikely to ever get a vinyl pressing, because I'm sure that would be a beautiful thing indeed. Roll on February and the (already pre-ordered) Opposites boxset.

Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

It's time for a bit of a catch-up, I think. Now my degree is over and life is still lacking purpose, I have no excuse for not getting this up to date, really. Belle and Sebastian are a band I got into due to the influence of Rob (and the power of being Scottish). This, the band's second album, is the one I have listened to most, and as such made for an excellent choice of Christmas present last year. Thanks, cousin Andy.

The band seem to like having album covers that consist predominantly of one colour. I am a big fan of this. It gives a nice sense of continuity between the albums and I'm pretty sure if you got them all side-by-side it'd look glorious. Really enjoy the variety of shades of red here, too. Mmmm.

Inside the gatefold, we've got a big picture of I have no idea who. The band? Could be, then again it could not. There's also a slightly lengthy story written across the top, which may or may not be talking about them. The thing with Belle & Seb is they seem to be rather enigmatic, and it's not impossible that both of these things are totally unrelated to them just to confuse people. You can make your mind up (or, hopefully, someone can come along and correct me).

Plain black record. Red might have been nice to match the cover, but the lovely red shade of the labels will have to do for me. I also really enjoy the little fox on A-side label, he looks to be frolicking joyfully. The B-side label has some thanks on, beginning with the amusing line "Sarah Martin is our new member for this record. See if you can guess what she did". The back of the sleeve also has the lyrics to the entire album, which gets a big plus from me.

This album is beautifully twee. Guitars jangle, lyrics float around gently and I generally end up feeling like I should be wearing a cardigan to listen to it. It has a slight air of melancholy and yet always brings a smile to my face, most notably on its title track. It has a chorus built to live inside your head for weeks and is promptly followed by my other favourite track on the album, Mayfly. Mayfly has a stylophone solo and that is pretty much all you need to know about it. Amazing. This album is, without doubt, an all-time classic.

Saint Coltrane/Weird Wives - Split 7"

This post is pretty cool. So the other week, shortly after my Bear vs Shark post, I received an email from someone asking me if I'd be willing to do a write-up of his new band's 7". That I subsequently realised the person in question was a member of one of my favourite post-rock bands only made me more excited to get a free record to write about. So huge thanks to James of Fat Cat Records/O Rosa Records/Yndi Halda/Saint Coltrane for sending this to me. The split is still available from Enjoyment Records, who I must admit I hadn't heard of before but seem to have some pretty good releases (including Lions' EP, which is pretty good and free here) so they might end up being the source for some future posts.

With this being a split EP, we're treated to two covers. Saint Coltrane's side is full of crazy eyes, and is pretty creepy. A lot of stubble and facial hair here, too. I only feel slightly emasculated by comparison

Weird Wives' side is slightly less creepy but still features some intimidating facial hair. Bottom-right, I'm looking at you enviously. Also LOOK HOW PRETTY THE 7" IS. There are two coloured versions of this single, the other one is a nice red with a yellow swirl but I'm so glad James sent me this one. I love when the colour of a record matches its sleeve, and this pairs up with both sides of the sleeve. Absolutely top notch. Each colour is limited to 250, for those fact fans among you.

Before James emailed me I'd never heard anything by either of these bands, so this was an interesting listen for me. The single (plus its digital bonus tracks) are streaming on Soundcloud so go here for a listen. That page also saves me the effort of awkward music description by referring to both bands as "sleaze punk" so that's quite convenient. While the bands are musically similar, this release crosses the Atlantic by providing us with a band from the UK (Saint Coltrane) and a band from the US (Weird Wives). I enjoy that a lot, if only because their lack of geographical proximity means their pairing for this release was probably quite well thought out. Saint Coltrane's Iron Dracula is caustic and full of aggression, but is actually quite catchy. It's not the kind of thing I'd normally go for, yet I enjoyed it a lot. Weird Wives' Gila, on the other hand, is much more moody and atmospheric. Unfortunately, it didn't quite click for me but it's not bad by any means. The digital tracks that round this release out consist of a delightfully distorted Saint Coltrane cover of Debaser by Pixies and an even more sinister instrumental Weird Wives track called Nasty Tricks (which I think I actually prefer to Gila). All in all, this is a pretty nice single. I probably wouldn't have listened to it of my own accord, but I'm glad I have and I'll definitely be on the lookout for any future Saint Coltrane releases. I might even give Weird Wives another go. Thanks again, James!

Tall Ships - Everything Touching

As I mentioned in my post about Hit The Floor, Tall Ships' debut album came out on the 8th of this month. I received my pre-order the following Friday and now here it is for you. I bought it from the band's store for a quite nice £12, and there appear to be black copies of the record currently still available direct from them.

I'm a really big fan of the cover. It's pretty simple and yet looks really good. Top drawer.

Inside the sleeve there's a compactly-folded insert. Based on the size, I'd guess it's the same insert as the CD version of the album. One side of it's some more nice artwork, the other side features all of the lyrics for the album (which, if you click through to the large version of the image, you should be able to read. I'm nice like that). I like this insert.

Yassssssssss. I said there were black copies of the record still available from the band but I swooped early and managed to get a white version limited to 100. It's a lovely ever-so-slightly creamy white, which compliments the pastel-shaded art of the inner sleeve and record labels. You can also just about see in the photo that there's a little black streak in my copy, which I find quite pleasant.

Now I need to speak of the music. This is going to be slightly difficult for me so I'm going to offer a short version and a long version.

Short version: it's good. Parts of it are incredible. It is completely worth listening to.

Long version: it's good, but I wish it was different. Specifically, I wish Ode To Ancestors and Books were different. Both have been re-recorded and, while the new versions sound more in keeping with the rest of the album, I can't help but feel that something has been lost. The somewhat cheesy synths of both have been removed and I miss them greatly. Books in particular seems to lack its previous urgency, feeling even longer due to Send News serving as an extended intro to the song. The original version of Ode is probably my favourite Tall Ships song, so I was never going to be able to cope with it being changed very well. This is a personal problem for me though, there's nothing objectively wrong with either song and I'm sure you'll enjoy both if you've never heard the original versions. My disappointment with these changes is tempered slightly by the fact that the two songs are followed by arguably the best tracks on the album. Ode To Ancestors is followed by the appropriately-titled and lyrically delightful Gallop, while Books is followed by the slow-building might of Murmurations. For all the negativity of this paragraph, I do really like this album. I've listened to it an awful lot recently and seeing the band live on Sunday, a lot of the songs come across really well live. For a debut album, this is pretty impressive.

Cutting Pink With Knives - Populuxxe

I'm all about the represses at the moment, it seems. Following from Biffy and Bear vs Shark, this time we're moving slightly later in the alphabet to Cutting Pink With Knives (henceforth CPWK 'cause I'm lazy, okay?) and their second album Populuxxe. This repressing is a celebration of the album's 5th anniversary released on their bassist's wonderful label Holy Roar, and comes with THREE BONUS TRACKS because everyone loves a good bonus track. I got it from the Holy Roar store where it's available for a reasonable £12 or £20 with a rad t-shirt (which was totally what I went for). It's probably also worth mentioning that the CD version of this album is an insanely cheap £1.

The whole thing comes in a nice plastic sleeve, which I'm always a fan of. The cover, in case you can't read it, says POPULUXXE. I think it's meant to look like folded paper (the booklet in the CD release offered a guide in making an origami bird of some kind, and various pictures featured them).

Instead of being glued, the outer sleeve is just a single, large, folded piece of paper. Not sure if I like that or not. On the inside of the front cover there is part of the origami guide from the CD release (one of the steps in making a bird base, origami fact fans) and on the inside of the back there are (utterly nonsensical) lyrics and the obligatory thankyous. There is an excellent line towards the end which you can just about make out in the full-size version of this image, that reads "Rhythm 16, Aylburton and Caroline are bonus tracks, cannot remember the lyrics, sorry." which amuses me greatly.

Everything about this release is monochrome, so it should come as no great surprise that it's plain black vinyl here. Even the Pink Mist logo is toned down on the back cover. The B-side label here is the origami bird I've mentioned so many times in this post, and have subsequently tried to make (unfortunately I get lost about halfway through the instructions. Oh) so that's quite nice.

So, see how just above these words that picture lists 19 tracks? Their total length? Under half an hour. Yep. CPWK can, according to last.fm, be described as cybergrind. I'm not sure if that term fully does the band justice, so I'll have to try to explain this cacophony in my own words. This album combines machine-gun drumming, shrieks, synths, and the occasional breakdown, yet has songs that will stick in your head for weeks. It's relentless, absolutely flying through songs (the longest track being 2:19 in length) and reaching its end before you've had chance to take a breath. What lasts, though, is the overwhelming sense of fun. I first listened to this album after seeing the band (I now see, somewhat lazily) compared to Genghis Tron. Sure there are some musical similarities but while GT are at times dark and menacing, CPWK offer nothing but absolute glee. This album is definitely not for everyone, and it is most certainly an acquired taste. To me though, that taste is nothing but sweet and this album is a 30-minute mood-lifter. That it was the band's last is a shame, but what a way to go.

Frightened Rabbit - State Hospital EP

It's been a good while since I had the joys of doing a Frabbit post but finally, there's a new release to talk about. The State Hospital EP is their second EP since The Winter Of Mixed Drinks album (you can find a post about the first EP here), and serves as somewhat of an appetiser for their 4th album due early next year (I believe). I pre-ordered this from the band's store (unfortunately missing out on the print that Piccadilly Records offered with their pre-order a few weeks later) and it actually arrived on Friday, 3 days before its release. Excellent.

Another lovely cover from Frabbit. The knife pictured here actually had the EP title engraved onto it, and looks really effective. Also nice is the implement on the right hand side, a triple-barred version of the double-barred cross used in a lot of the artwork relating to TWOMD that the band had made specially for this artwork. What such an implement could be used for, however, is totally beyond me.

Black vinyl should come as no surprise. I long for the day that they do a coloured pressing, but I can stay happy as long as they keep releasing vinyl. The back cover is lovely. It looks as though the "FR EP II" has been embossed onto the drawer containing the spoon, and the piece of paper with all of the information is really nicely laid out. The record itself comes in a nice black inner sleeve, and features wonderful labels that reference the cover art (as seems to be done with all Frabbit vinyl releases, much to my delight). Also, there's a download code - hooray! I had some issues with my download, but Warner's customer services sorted it out very quickly for which I am hugely grateful.

Now since this EP only has 5 tracks on it, I feel it's only right to go through each in turn. We begin with the title track (and the only song from this EP that will be on the band's next album), State Hospital. It begins with an introduction reminiscent of The Wrestle from TWOMD, but builds to a lyrically delightful chorus and eventually a repeated cry of "all is not lost" which is just great. Boxing Night follows on, featuring one absolutely outstanding line (listen to it, you'll know it when you hear it) and quite a catchy little guitar melody. I can see myself growing to love this one a lot. After that, it's some quiet-loud dynamics for Home From War and the decidedly quiet Off. The former is great, the latter puts me off slightly with its backing vocals but is not bad by any means. The final track on the EP is Wedding Gloves. Clearly, the band enjoyed having Tracyanne Campbell and Archie Fisher guesting on the last EP as this time they've roped in none other than Aidan Moffat to sing on this track. Scott's vocals sound slightly feminine next to Moffat's low drawl, and the call-and-response style of the track early on is brilliant. Of course, I was always going to love this song - the combination of two vocalists I greatly enjoy could never not appeal to me. As usual with any Frabbit release, Scott has written his own track-by-track which you can find here, which is a far more informative piece on this EP than anything I might write. For what it's worth though, I quite like this EP. It's definitely got me excited for the band's next album, and I'm sure I'll end up hooked on this between now and when it is finally released. It had better not take too long.