this week's post ...

Bombay Bicycle Club
Dust On The Ground new single
Through Island Records and Universal Records comes Bombay Bicycle Club, a quite aquired taste, an unusual something about the strong vocal performance. Again an unusual title and the spooky 132bpm 'Dust On The Ground' does sound different, probably not a hit though.

Dinosaur Jr
Over It new single
The 'Freak Scene' guys are back and here's another up-beat 158bpm grungey indie stormer. The 3'47" 'Over It' should please the converted, not sure it's strong enough to win new fans.

Eminem
Relapse new album 18 May
It's the new number one album and the tasty single 'We Made You' featuring Jessica Simpson .. is still growing. The six minute ballad 'Beautiful' is in at 39, 'Crack A Bottle' was a number 4 hit. Mathers is back as word precise as ever, a deserved chart-topper.

GlassYouth
Run new single 6 July
From 2006 until 2008 GlassYouth were known as The Headliners, they won Channel 4 Unsigned 2007, played Glastonbury, supported Mark Ronson, The Holloways, The Wombast & The Subways so they've been nurturing their talent. 'Run' is another attacking 149bpm indie tune which is sometimes identicle to a Maccabees tune .. almost any and that may be a bit of a problem, perhaps there's only room for one Maccabees and they probably need a big break round about now too. A pleasant enough tune, it may unfortunately get lost in the crowd.

Green Day
21st Century Breakdown new album 15 May
A superb new platter, straight to number one on two days sales. Similar construction to 'American Idiot' and jam packed with potential singles with 'Know Your Enemy' heading upwards again ... 'After The Labotomy' next maybe. Brilliant

In This Moment
Call Me new single 13 July
Yes it's Blondie's 1980 number one covered for 2009 by Maria Brink and her band whose last single 'Forever' has been our favourite of the year so far. Recently tour support for Mudvayne and Papa Roach, In This Moment will be at Download on 12th June and then dropping 46 dates on their US Vans Warped Tour 2009 with Gallows, Anti-Flag, Black Tide and Madina Lake. This new version of 'Call Me' is a little chunkier than the original which is surprising given the storming pace of 'Forever'. Nevertheless it highlights what a great song 'Call Me' is and could with a bit of luck make a UK Top 40 breakthrough.

Manic Street Preachers
Journal For Plague Lovers new album 18 May
Is this where art's gone up it's backside? Is this the King's new clothes?? A great album if like pictures of those who look like they've been beaten up ... if not you'll be struggling. Ask a child what they see when they look at the sleeve and they'll most likely tell you someone who's face looks bruised. Tough on the verbose, obscure references light on the melodic... I'm not sure there's a single track that will endure. Another album like this and the band may not endure. And then you hear it's Richey lyrics and well you don't want to be to hard on it ... but really "Mummy what's a Sex Pistol?..." ... ??? Here's the sleeve and the pre-release shenanigans as featured on BBC.co.uk ...

The new Manic Street Preachers album is being shipped to supermarkets in a plain slipcase because its artwork has been deemed "inappropriate". Concerns have been raised that the cover for Journal For Plague Lovers, a portrait by artist Jenny Saville, looks like it is splattered with blood. Singer James Dean Bradfield called the situation "utterly bizarre. We just thought it was a beautiful painting. We were all in total agreement," he told BBC 6 Music. The frontman disagreed that Saatchi favourite Saville, who also painted the cover for the band's 1994 album The Holy Bible, had intended to depict a bloody face. "It is her brushwork," he said. "If you're familiar with her work, there's a lot of ochres and browns and reds and browns and perhaps people are looking for us to be more provocative than we are being. We just saw a much more modern version of Lucian Freud-esque brushstrokes. That's all we saw." Bradfield added that the band were frustrated by supermarkets' attitudes. "You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out," he said. Four of the main supermarket chains - Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons - are among the shops using the slip cover. Asda told 6 Music they wanted to be extra cautious in case the artwork upset some of its customers.
Manic Street Preachers in the 6 Music hub Journal For Plague Lovers is Manic Street Preachers' ninth studio album. Meanwhile Nicola Williamson, Sainsbury's music buyer, said: "We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf. "As such, the album will be sold in a sleeve provided by the publisher." Journal For Plague Lovers, the Welsh band's ninth studio album, sees them set the lyrics of former band member Richey Edwards to music, 14 years after the 27-year-old disappeared from the Embassy Hotel in London's Bayswater. Bradfield says that the artwork was an integral part of the project and, for that reason, the band had never considered revising it. "It's the first time ever that we actually feel controlled by the idea, which basically stemmed from Richey's words," he explained. "So we're not going to censor it or anything, because it is what it is. It is bizarre that supermarkets actually think that that's going to impinge on anyone's psyche." Journal For Plague Lovers is released in the UK on Monday. (bbc.co.uk - Friday 15 May 09)
It's almost a good stunt, kinda lost in the real life stranger than fiction MPs expenses debris but let's face it, everyone's playing their part here and if the stores didn't like making money off the pic and the enclosed cd... they wouldn't stock it at all.

Matt & Kim
Lessons Learned new single 1 June
Very strange combination of vocal and percussion on this 212bpm belter. Brooklyn New Yorkers Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino fuse dance and punk in a 'no boundaries' kinda way. 1.6 million YouTube hits and 4.5 million audio streams on MySpace ... Cyberspace is rockin! 'Tis a bright sound for sure, a could catch on.

Official Secrets Act
Bloodsport new single 1 June
Debut album 'Understanding Electricity' births a third single, the 108bpm 'Bloodsport', the follow-up to 'Girl From The BBC' and 'So Tomorrow'. Fairly pleasant mid-paced electro pop, quite catchy, "Wherever you go I'll be ... wherever you go ..." and included here is the dancefloor filling 125bpm Filthy Dukes remix. Probably not strong enough to chart but steady progress.

Tori Amos
Abnormally Attracted To Sin new album 18 May
A superb female singer songwriter Tori Amos returns with a new album packed with intriguing titles 'Not Dying Today', 'Police Me', 'Fast Horse', 'Lady In Blue' and 'Ophelia', 'That Guy', 'Mary Jane', 'Strong Black Vine' and 'Fire To Your Plain' to name a few. Well worthy.

VV Brown
Shark In The Water new single 6 July
VV has won many new fans with two most recent singles and here comes another superb song. The 101bpm 'Shark In The Water', more medium paced than it's hectic predecessors, a catchy well thought out song, radio friendly to boot offers a real chance of a Top 40 breakthrough. Eight more mixes include a 173bpm Blame drum n bass but the track's fortunes I feel will hinge on airplay for the radio edit and this time VV may do v good, Top 20 maybe.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Heads Will Roll new single 29 June
Another excellent single from Karen O and Co. From their latest LP 'It's Blitz!', the 132bpm 'Heads Will Roll' is another standout track and the follow-up to the much requested 'Zeroes'. Hopefully 'Heads' will chart in time for their Summer Festival shows. Excellent