Struggle

No. Not us with our [checks notes] 11½ hours without power today.

Although…

No. The Lathums’ new one: Struggle.

A heartfelt, personal tale of loss, with a video following the young Alex Moore growing up in his bedroom. It’s great stuff.

Arguably, the acoustic version is even better.

The new album From Nothing To A Little Bit More is out on March 3rd. I’m excited.

2 albums out today

And probably the most eagerly anticipated two of the year from my point of view.

But I’m still away on Robben Island, so here’s what other people have had to say about them:

The Car – Arctic Monkeys

The Car is Arctic Monkeys’ weirdest album, and it’s their most overtly melancholy work too — like James Bond themes for a terminally depressed spy. It’s certainly the saddest-sounding music Turner’s put his name to since the dusky tunes he contributed to the soundtrack for Richard Ayoade’s Submarine in 2010.

and (of course) True North – a-ha

“There’s no audience, it’s us, the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and a live band,” he expands. “But what we wanted to realise was an audio-visual experience where the music was at the centre. It seemed a nice change from what we’d done before.”

Alongside the 12-track album, therefore, came a raw and powerful film directed by long-time a-ha collaborator Stian Andersen, shot in Bodo, 90km above the Arctic Circle in the north of Norway – already screened and positively received in selected cinemas around the world last month.

I have a Stian Andersen print on my wall just behind me (I’m writing this on Tuesday), bought from the man himself, and featuring yours truly at a recent a-ha concert.

Lifestyles of the rich and the famous, hey?

I’m In

Almost 12 years after their last ever concert (the one which I didn’t get to), and then 6 years after their last ever concert (the one we did get to), and then 2 years after we saw them in Cape Town, here’s… er… the new single from a-ha:

Predictably lovely stuff.

New album – True North – later in the year.

Whenever this sort of thing happens, people always ask if I feel cheated because they said that they were going to retire and now they haven’t.

No. No, I don’t. I’ve loving it.

Party in the Dark

A new Mogwai album Every Country’s Sun comes out on Friday. Here’s one of the tracks from it: Party in the Dark.

Bit of a new direction from them – very vocal, rather shoegaze. And a video which thinly veils the reproductive process through wax sculptures and 60’s-style sci-fi.

I love it, but hardcore fans are apparently less convinced. Fortunately for them, there’s promise of more traditional Mogwai sound on the other pre-release, Coolverine, which also has a compelling, classy, monochrome slo-mo video to go with it.

Wild Frontier

The new album from The Prodigy – The Day Is My Enemy – is out, and it’s unapologetically bleepy, shouty, loud and beautiful. Already at number 1 in the UK, it seems that Keith et al. have been sorely missed.

Here’s the mad video for Wild Frontier. And yes, that’s a stuffed moose on a motorbike.

Somewhere deep in the past of this blog, I wished for the renaissance of 90’s bands, just as we have enjoyed (or endured, I suppose, depending on your point of view), something of a revival of 80’s bands touring and re-releasing once again. If this album is part of that (and yes, I know that there’s the argument here that The Prodigy never really went away), then I, for one, cannot wait. It’s brilliant. This is one of those albums that will certainly be up there, vying for second place in the coveted 6000 miles… Album of the Year award 2015.

If you want to go even deeper, head for the excellent KillSonik remix (set to Youtube to HD and phasers to stunning).