bad lieutenant / post-new order

Not entirely sure how I feel about this, It's from what appears to be a post-New Order project involving Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Phil Cunningham. I sounds like an acoustic version of what they were doing on the last couple of albums, with more than a hint of James.

It's pleasant enough, but I'll wait to hear some more from them, and hope they change the name too.

sigur rós - "gobbledigook"

The first material from the upcoming 5th Sigur Rós record, 'Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust', has been made available for download this evening. Clocking in at just over 3 minutes, "Gobbledigook" is certainly more succinct than much of the bands previous material. The track is the album opener, and upon listening does feel like it's building up to something grander - but maybe that's just preconceptions? Musically it's quite simple in construction, strummed acoustic guitar over a skipping drumbeat bolstered by handclaps, and some lovely backing vocals. Very pretty, and 'warmer' than a lot of their older work.

Download available from www.sigurros.com

lykke li - "little bit"

A million years behind the rest of the world i'm sure, but i only heard this for the first time last night and have become obsessed. However, unsurprisingly, like most indie boys from the age of 18-40 i'm a sucker for pretty much any Scando-pop. While it's probably an awful comparison, i think this is a nice midpoint between The Concretes (tweeness) and Robyn (danceability). It definitely sounds Swedish, i couldn't really imagine it being made by a UK/US artist.