Track 7 to the rescue...

Elvis Costello may reckon it's generally track 4 on any given record which can be relied on to deliver the goods but for this blog, time and again, it's track 7. Public radio, the second album from Sweden's The Legends is but the latest record to bear this out. And to be honest, rarely has a track 7 been more welcome. Blimey, this is a surprise and so far not a particularly nice one. Largely gone are the all the things that made Up against the Legends so fab - the thick, fuzzed out power guitars, the tambos, the handclaps, the occasional girl vocals. In comes cleaned-up clanging bass and synths and a doomy plod a la Depeche Mode, or a beats-free Heaven17 even. It's still pop but with way less full-on effervescence 'n' thrills than before.
Which brings us to track 7, the aptly titled Something good (or should that be Something good(at last)?), a perfect slice of swish, sweet retropop the Swedish do so well. And handclaps return - hurrah! - only they're weedy and machine-made ones, boo. Still, this one will get plenty of repeat plays along with the final track Do you remember Riley which gets nearest here to the sheer freewheelin'-down-a-hill-with-your-legs-sticking-out glee of the first album. People like us and He knows the sun also have choruses you can't really keep down even if the production and instrumentation here is generally doing it's darnedest...

No, reallyrather is presently having far more fun courtesy of some rather more local talent. Not sure how much more mileage there is to be had from the a la mode post-Strokes, post-Franz formula but The Rakes just make it under the wire with their lo-fat, big fun debut Capture/release. Considering the number of standout pop tunes on here (about 6) for some reason this record's still not quite as well-known as it should or could be (see also Clor). It's not exactly breaking any boundaries with its likeable tales of geezerly woe but it's way preferable to minor league upstarts like Hard Fi...

Rilo Kiley opening for Coldplay took a bit of getting used to ..and now this! Recent blog favourites, banjo-flecked twee-pop mob The Boy Least Likely To have only been signed up as support for the entirety of James Blunt's UK autumn tour. There's official bemusement ('not really sure how it all came about') and, as might be expected, a little consternation ('horrible taste in the mouth') over here. Still, this blog had a lovely time at the Water Rats last month (which was.. whisper it.. a sell-out) and will definitely be giving them the benefit of the doubt back there on Oct 27...

...and apparently (tho' this blog was oblivious) the boy Blunt was there last night when the same venue played host to Austin's Okkervil River . Occupying some midpoint between say Bright Eyes and, frankly, Counting Crows, Will Sheff was v much the heart and soul of this show and certainly gave most of the crowd what they'd come for on upbeat euphoric belters like Song of our so-called friend, For real and It ends with a fall. Aside from the v occasional bass overload, the sound was as good as this blog can remember at this place with trumpet and keyboards rounding things out superbly. It was really only in their slower paces that reallyrather realised why the 'O' section of its meticulously ordered music collection wasn't about to get any bigger, tonight at least. There's a mournful Texan folky side to Okkervil River that rr doesn't warm to anywhere like as much. Centromatic's Will Johnson happily diverts most of his more sombre tendencies into South San Gabriel, thus keeping CM crunchy and electric and still easily this blog's favourite Texan alt-folk-rockin' combo...

...and South San Gabriel come over for a surprisingly ambitious headline booking at Bush Hall Nov 14...

Ripping across the indiezinescene like a big comet-y thing, 'this year's Arcade Fire' Clap Your Hands Say Yeah zip over for their UK debut show at ULU Nov 28. (Actually, there's hardly a need for 'this year's Arcade Fire' since last year's 'Arcade Fire', er, Arcade Fire are still out there fizzing with life.) CYHSY's homemade self-release has been riding high on the Metacritic aggregate chart for a while. Sufjan Stevens (who slots in a solo show at King's College Oct 31 in addition to the sold-out Shepherd Bush Empire band extravaganza) was beginning to look unassailable as this list's year-end topper but for the moment he's just been shuffled back to the no.2 spot by..yes, you guessed it.. another bunch of comet-y Canadians...
Wolf Parade

And apparently - according this guy anyway (rr hasn't yet checked) - if you likeThe Boy Least Likely To and Clap Your Hands.. then you'll want to take a listen to the music of a guy called Drew who puts his stuff out under the name Dog Traders. A panic in a pagoda is the collection's name and it's available to download free over here...