Everything's Getting Important

Released in 2011, Everything's Getting Older - a collaboration between Scottish jazzman Bill Wells and Arab Strap vocalist Aidan Moffat - was a rather surprising listen. Not simply because it mixed Moffat's gruff storytelling with something new (Wells's rich, lovely jazz licks), but because its grotesquely detailed cover gave absolutely no indication of how comforting the songs underneath ultimately were. Yes, there were sobering ruminations on our slow, inexhorable march towards the grave (The Copper Top), but Moffat made sure to remind us that life was nevertheless worth living. Few songs, for example, make me feel as happy and at ease as The Greatest Story Ever Told:

"Look after yer teeth"

In fact, I frequently reach for Everything's Getting Older at bedtime - I find that it always sends me into a peaceful, untroubled sleep, which is no mean feat for an album about ageing.

Mousetradamus

Now that Strangers to Ourselves - Modest Mouse's long-awaited sixth album - has been out for a good few weeks, I think it's time I looked back at my predictions (made back in December, when the album was first announced) to see how well I did. Can I predict the musical future, or do I need to get my crystal ball looked at? Let's find out...

Another Rattle Through My Inbox

Sometimes, people send me their music. I'm very grateful for this - after all, free music! - and if I think an email looks particularly promising, I make a point of flagging it to ensure that it doesn't get buried under a bunch of other emails and forgotten about.

Well, those little red flags were really starting to stack up, and so I thought it might be time for another whistle-stop tour through some of the most interesting-looking items that have been emailed to me in recent weeks. The original 'Rattle Through My Inbox' blog is here.

The Hangman's Door by Moses Luster and the Hollywood Lights

(Album, Out Now)

This album wields an odd blend of old-timey blues and heavy synths, and while the latter element is utilised less and less as the tracks tick by, it still gives the whole thing a slightly unusual feel. Moses Luster has a fantastic voice - kind of like an evangelical Guy McKnight - and female backing vocals are employed to good effect on several tracks, putting one in mind of Leonard Cohen classics like Tower of Song and Ain't No Cure for Love.

That being said, most of  these songs are too generic - lyrically speaking - to truly merit comparison with Cohen and other obvious inspirations like Nick Cave. The title track, heavy in sound and thick with desperation, is my personal highlight, but even this song lacks the rich characterisation and psychedelic poetry with which this type of music pairs best. If you're going to drop names like Waits and Bukowski in your PR emails then you need to deliver some truly singular songwriting, and while The Hangman's Door is a very cool listen, Swordfishtrombones it ain't.

For fans of: Nick Cave, as mentioned; Mr Luster has Cave's bluesy gothic sound down pat, although his lyrics still have quite a long way to go. None of these songs are exactly Higgs Boson Blues.

Break-Up Albums Lied to Me

First, some news: I recently broke up with Sarah, my girlfriend of five years. There was no massive, explosive argument, no unforgivable betrayal from which the relationship couldn't possibly recover; we just agreed that things had run their course and that, while it had been a wonderful experience for both of us, it was time to call it a day.

Obviously, the last week or so has been somewhat stressful (breaking it to my parents was the hardest part), but I was also a little bit excited - believe it or not, this is the first and only break-up I've ever been through, and once things were set in stone (that is, once I'd changed my Facebook status from 'In a Relationship' to 'Single), I was perversely thrilled to finally have an excuse to listen to all of the horribly depressing break-up albums I've accrued over the last decade or so.

"Wait, is that R.E.M.'s Out of Time? Is this idiot trying to tell us that the album with Shiny Happy People on it is 'horribly depressing'?"

10 Questions for Public Service Broadcasting

Public Service Broadcasting are on tour at the moment. Having recently left Australia, they're currently in the USA, and they'll be playing in Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic before the end of May. Oh, and they've also got a thirteen-date jaunt around the UK and Ireland booked somewhere in the middle of all that.

This mammoth world tour is being undertaken in support of The Race for Space, PSB's second LP and my personal album of the moment. In fact, I've been so enjoying The Race for Space that I recently jotted down some questions about it and emailed them to the band's management in the vague hope that I might get a response.

And, well, I'm thrilled to announce that J. Willgoose Esq. (the man behind Public Service Broadcasting) was generous enough to answer those questions. Here's what he had to say:

Photo by Paul Hudson

The Race for Space, as an album, is far more thematically unified than Inform-Educate-Entertain. What drove you to write a concept album this time around?

I think the first record was a concept album too, it's just that the concept was basically us. And before that we had The War Room EP, which was obviously conceptual too, and which actually post-dated a lot of the material on the album even though it was released before I-E-E. I really enjoyed that way of working and felt it made the record hang together a lot better and gave it a stronger emotional hook, so I was keen to work that way again.