Hits In The Car

5 new albums added to my CD-Collection:

I bought Road To Rouen by Supergrass because it was recommended to me by my Swiss connection. And I’m very thankful that he did. I’ve never bothered listening to Supergrass before, which very well could be a huge mistake, because the new album is very, very good. 9 great songs (the very best are the brilliant opener Tales of Endurance (Part 4, 5 & 6) and first single St. Petersburg) and there is really not a weak moment on the album. The only complaint is that it only runs 35 minutes and even though quantity never equals quality you can't help wishing that they would have included a few more songs.

So far I’ve read 3 reviews of the new Grand Avenue album and none of them are all too excited about She (rating it 3 or 4 stars out of 6). The primary reason for the lukewarm reception is that the band has abandoned its musical style and instead is trying to sound like every other rock band (inspiration sources are clearly U2, Coldplay and a little bit of Kent). As we all know critics don’t approve when artists make moves like that in their quest for fame and fortune, so I’ve been reading those reviews with the “spam filter” on.
However after listening to the album myself a few times I really cannot disagree with the critics. Every song sounds very professional and could easily be performed in a stadium in front of 50,000 people, but sadly some of the immediate charm of the first album has gone missing.
Several songs like On Your Side and Give It To Me are indeed very good (unlike some critics I don’t think that they have forgotten how to write great songs at all), but there are just too many bands out there sounding like this, which probably (once again) will prevent them from getting the international breakthrough.

The Lucksmiths: Warmer Corners (Thank you Chris)
Any album containing the utterly brilliant The chapter in your life entitled San Francisco has to be great. OK – maybe it’s not that great, but it’s still very good, which is more than I could ask for.
This band is one of the major revelations of the year and they are very high on my list of bands I'd like to see live someday!



The Lucksmiths: Happy Secret (Thank you Chris)
A nice little compilation of songs by this Australian band consisting of 10 songs recorded in 1998. According to the information I've found the songs on the album are a mix of singles, b-sides and "left-overs". Quite impressive to be able to throw away or hide any songs like these. What a great band this is!



Hard-Fi: Stars Of CCTV (Thank you Chris)
Several good songs on this one (Hard To Beat of course, Cash Machine etc.), but there really isn't much new under the sun here - is there? Seems to be my favorite topic these days complaining about the lack of innovative new bands. Sorry - can't help it!