Those were the days...

A few years back I used to read these comments every week. Unfortunately I don't bother checking them out anymore, which actually is quite a shame as James Masterson is a pretty knowledgeable and entertaining writer. And it certainly isn't his fault that most of the music entering the UK Top 75 Singles Chart is pure garbage. But reading through his column these days is pretty darn close to being torture, as it becomes more and more rare that one band/artist I even remotely care about is being mentioned. I guess it's just another example of the injustice of the music world, when a good writer is being forced to write about bad music?

In the mailbox this morning I found the album Different Places by electro pop duo Plastic Operator. The album was released on Fine Day Records 3 months ago and has received some great reviews. And upon first listen it does actually sound pretty good.
+ Another Sound

Danish surf pop band Charlie, Don't Surf has just finished recording 4 new tracks - all of them produced by Ebbe Frej of EPO-555. The first result of this interesting collaboration; Starting Low, Aiming High, is now available to download, and from the first listen it's very clear that this is a quite fruitful combination. We already knew that the boys could write charming pop songs, but with the assistance of a more experienced producer, the sound has been taken to the next level. This is instantly loveable and I'm impatiently looking forward to hearing the remaining four tracks!
+ Starting Low, Aiming High

German indie rock trio Tornister has recorded a new track called A Point Of View that they are giving away for free over at Myspace. The track is a nice follow-up to the previous two tracks published by the band (download).
+ A Point Of View

CJ Palmer +++

Found the debut album Everything That Shines by Swedish quartet CJ Palmer in the mailbox yesterday. The album was released last week on the band's own label - Silver Road Records - so the boys are currently doing all the work themselves. Think a powerpop version of Savage Garden or maybe Roxette, and you should have some idea of where the band is located musically. Some might claim that there isn't anything new under the sun, and they might have a point here. But the songs are melodic, radio friendly and very, very catchy, and it will be a very (negative) surprise if this album doesn't find a large audience, as the music (in my opinion) should please the ears of lots and lots of people!
+ 34

Peter is really high on German indie pop band Tornister and calls them "the new indie pop hope from Oldenburg". And if you check the band's influences you can see that they are inspired by the best of the best, so no wonder that Tornister sounds absolutely brilliant!
+ Big Fake
+ Pale Blue Paper

FALK recommends Canadian singer Allison Crowe. And there's lots of stuff to explore over at Last.fm where it's possible to download several of her songs and albums. Half of them (my guess/estimate) have been written by the lady herself, while the rest are either covers or renditions of traditionals, folk/Christmas songs etc. Her voice is absolutely beautiful making most of the tracks quite a pleasure listening to.
+ A Murder Of One (Counting Crows cover)
+ Hallelujah (We all know this one!)