Hangin' Out In 100b

I had a terrible time picking an Of The Month album for November. I only bought three albums last month – Brakes’ The Beatific Visions, The Long Blondes’ Someone To Drive You Home, and The Magic Numbers’ Those The Brokes – and they’re all deserving in their own way. Many an indie dork waitied as long as two years for The Long Blondes debut, which could easily have been a disappointment after such anticipation. Of course it wasn’t. Even though most of us had heard some of these songs already, in some form or another, Someone To Drive You Home still sounds fresh and fabulous – like Blondie, Nancy Sinatra, and Franz Ferdinand cast in a 50s b-movie. On the other hand, The Magic Numbers (possibly one of my all-time favorite bands) released their (according to pop music mythology) “difficult” second album and succeeded. Even I was afraid that it wouldn’t live up to their beautiful debut but they still know how to charm us and break our hearts.

Despite all my gushing, both The Long Blondes and The Magic Numbers definitely show their influences strongly. Both do what they do very well, but they build on existing sounds and styles. But Brakes? They just blow me away with their originality. They don’t fit tidily into any one genre so a clever comparison to other bands just won’t work here – which is a big part of what makes them so great. Their influences? Equal parts Johnny Cash and The Clash, maybe, but who knows what else went into the mix to make them sound the way they do. Brakes originally started as an odd sort of supergroup – members of existing bands who released a 26-second single on vinyl – who have have come to overshadow and outshine the bands they used to play with. They’re political without ever telling us what we should think. They write nonsense lyrics (“Spiky, Spiky – Youch!”) but manage to say more about the state of the world than nearly anyone else recording music right now (“Who won the war? What the fuck was it for?”). They sing sweet country songs about beautiful women and lost love. All this and much, much more in under 30 minutes. It’s bound to be high up on 100b’s end of the year lists – as well as most others’, I’m sure – and is more than worthy of Album Of The Month.

The single of the month was also tricky, but I managed to get it narrowed down to two over a week ago. But then I got stuck and didn’t know what to do. The Noisettes’ “Don’t Give Up” is exactly the thing singles were meant for – it gets you all riled up and is perfect for crazy dancing – it’s all set to be an anthem. (You can listen to it over on their myspace page, free of charge.) I very nearly picked it as the single of the month, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I am quite obsessively in love with Cold War Kids and I just couldn’t pick something else for a month when they released a single of their own. “We Used To Vacation” is kind of funky, very sad, and perfectly shows off their incredibly original sound. If you don’t have Robbers & Cowards (Cold War Kids’ debut album) yet, check out this single and you’ll be hooked, I promise.