Trustees of a Surface Scratcher,

Modest Mouse are now big news. It seems to have taken the band quite a while but with We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank they’ve lured people like me into buying a CD of theirs, even then I decided not to bother with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!’s new one earlier in the year because I thought this would be better. I’ll bet that it is. It has a title that I wish I’d thought of and songs that seem to be apt for any mood. There’s also more than a hint of a nautical theme and I love the coast. I’m very pleased to have this album. This album teaches people to set their priorities correctly and choose what to value carefully, whether it be corncrakes or knees.

Kings of Leon used to be one-trick ponies, however, the quick, noodly country stuff was quite a good trick, my favourite song like that was Joe's Head. They’ve diversified with Because of the Times, they’re doing that trick closer to the middle of the road and it seems to work at first. The single On Call typifies much of it, they’ve discovered reverb, and it’s a single that I really like. I guess some people can hear U2 in their new sound; I’m also thinking that this is like the sound of Bloc Party but more relaxed and better. It’s guitar, drums and bass. I’m going to give this album a bit of time to familiarise myself with it but because it’s guitars, drums and bass, it might not stay with me for very long, certainly not as long as Modest Mouse will.

Drums & Guns by Low is grim. It’s good although it’s probably best suited to a dark room, like most Low work. It’s minimalist and slow-building, but awesome. There’s no point in sugar-coating things.

Octopus by The Bees seems like another good album. There’s quite a lot of instruments in the mix on it and that always helps a band to stand apart from the brigade of twits with guitars. It feels quite earthy, organic and ultimately real.

I don’t feel that I’ve given these albums much consideration, the Modest Mouse album has taken up most of my listening time this week and as I’ve said before, it’s impossible to describe music properly, it has to be heard and felt, but I’m as fine a barometer of quality and taste as anyone, thus it’s wise to bear with me.