The last track on the album is And I won't cause anything at all. Three-and-a-half faultlessly dapper minutes of laptop loveliness pulsed along by softly honkin' horns, it fits this blog like a favourite t-shirt. A far better way of ending a record than the all-to-common tendency towards bloated grandiosity (invariably misguided and mood-destroying), its pitch-perfect chipperness would see it placed much, much earlier up the running order on your average pop record. But then Loney, Noir is most decidely not your average pop record...

...being shot through with more life-enhancing greatness than seems feasible in little more than half-an-hour and from such unassuming origins. And it comfortably exceeds any expectations this blog might have held for Swedish combo Loney, dear even after having ranked their previous release Sologne at no.2 for 2006. Apparently both these sets were recorded in 2005 which makes their relative distinctiveness and respective strength-in-depth all the more noteable. Emil Svanangen is the presiding genius here, touring Loney, dear as a tidy little quintet over the past few months. reallyrather has caught them three times now (most memorably perhaps at The Enterprise in Chalk Farm) and each time they've mostly kept this latest bag of goodies firmly up their sleeve.
Sufjan-meets-Arcade Fire might be a very crude shorthand guide to what's on offer here, insofar as it pairs the former's winningly intuitive sense of orchestration with the latter's anthemic wonder. Gorgeously cacophanous song-building that pulses with humanity, with joy and with doubt. And, most importantly, with handclaps, oh yes. For Loney, Noir is no sedantary audio experience; listener participation is frequently compelled. Carrying a stone, No one can win, Hard days 1.2.3.4., I am John, all tend towards a kind of heady ecstatic tumult to which clapping your hands, shaking things and/or singing your silly head off are simply an involuntary response.
Aside from the sheer strength of tuneage what marks this set out from the pack are Svanangen's falsetto vocal (which occasionally conjures the rather delicious image of Barry Gibb hijacking Belle & Sebastian) and the adroit deployment of sundry wind instruments. The woody warmth of oboes, clarinets or some such infuse mellow delights like Sinister in a state of hope and I will call you lover again then get busy Nyman-style on No one can win. Is that a honking sax anchoring the ringing joy of Saturday waits? Can't be sure but the wheezy tones of a pump organ on I am the odd one are unmistakeable and another treat. In fact, Loney, Noir is just chock full of them and you are urged to own it...

So, Loney, dear raise the bar. Will any of our heroes - Rilo Kiley, Wheat, matt pond PA et al - be able to pull it out of the bag this time round? The tension mounts. Anyway, while we wait for Last light, hear matt pond & co. work out their deer-related fixations in the mellow pastoral guise of The Dark Leaves...

And isn't there supposed to be a new Postal Service album some time this year? Anyone pining for a bit more of that soft-voiced indie-synth-pop thing might want to check out songs like 25 years from Stars on the wall, new this year from Belgians The Go Find...
[the go find][on myspace]

Who ya gonna call? Stressbusters! Denison Witmer returns to London - an appropriately intimate space somewhere in the Roundhouse May 24 - sharing a stage with Rosie Thomas, the pair dipping in and out of each others' songbooks. A kind of sincerity showdown, if you will. Denison can, of course, do little wrong and everyone should own his records. Rosie and her brother treated this blog and about thirty others to a gorgeous little show upstairs at the Enterprise about the time of her Subpop debut 4 or 5 years ago. Her subsequent output has been frankly a touch precious but Kite Song from the new record shows she can still sometimes really nail one...

So the mighty Dismemberment Plan are resurrected for two nights only and for charrideee. Crumbs, that blistering night at The Garage seems so long ago (does this venue still exist?). Here's The City from the basically essential Emergency & I. Well if they can do it can surely the could've-been-just-as-mighty Clor could muster a one-off? Anyone know a good cause?