Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

This is one of the most fresh albums I've heard in a while, I'll admit I didn't warm to it straight away, but now I think it's got a really interesting flavor of alternative rock with some odd electro elements thrown in. Great tunes for the radio or the dance floor, these guys could definitely go somewhere quickly.

Their videos are quite intriguing the three I've seen are concept videos but they're usually good at keeping my attention. Jump In The Pool has some beautiful underwater photography, Paris is quite odd but interesting to look at and Skeleton Boy is definitely my favorite I think because the pace of the edit and the stuff flying everywhere matches the song better than the other videos do. (note: the youtube video of Skeleton Boy is really crusty and makes the particles look crap. Watch it on TV if you can)

Conrad’s Ratings –
album: 8/10
videos to date: 7/10
Fav Tracks: Skeleton Boy, Paris, In the Hospital, Lovesick
If you like Friendly Fires you'd probably like Cut Copy, Junior Boys, Walter Meego or Jack Peñate

site
myspace
iTunes

Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care

Awesome! My first introduction to Junior Boys was their live gig in New York, and although they had so many 'technical difficulties' that we only got to see them do about 3 tracks they were awesome, and I bought this album on iTunes as soon as I got back to my apartment.

They haven't done any videos that I'm aware of for this album (i'll be sure to update this post when they do), but the cover art is generally quite simple but good. There's a videoclip for one of their previous singles In The Morning (great track btw) the clip's quite slowly paced but has an interesting concept.

Conrad’s Ratings –
album: 9/10
videos to date: N/A
Fav Tracks: Hazel, Work, Bits And Pieces.
If you like Junior Boys you'd probably like Cut Copy

junior boys site (at last a decent site, not hugely populated yet but easy to navigate at least)
junior boys on myspace
junior boys on iTunes

La Roux - La Roux

This album takes me back to my days of Sonic the Hedgehog and Ecco the Dolphin. In fact I'm positive there are some melodies from one of those games ripped off at the start of the track Cover My Eyes. 8-bit 80s sounds are always cool in my books and this album’s good but it’s a bit too kylie-squeally-girl pop for me to love it. Here rhymes are a bit naff at times too.

The videos are pretty cool as far as production value goes, love the eighties vibes going on, but I still get annoyed when I see a lack of visual emotion in musical performances it just comes off as looking like you’re trying to act all “rock star” and not just being a rock star. Check out Bulletproof for some cool graphics and bland performance.

Conrad’s Ratings –
album: 6/10
videos to date: 7/10
Fav Tracks: In For The Kill, Bulletproof, I'm Not Your Toy.
If you like La Roux you'd probably love Róisín Murphy

la roux's website
la roux on myspace
la roux on iTunes

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered

The vocalist from Moloko's second solo album. She's a very talented performer and I think that's often the key to all her stuff, she's always doing or wearing something odd but somehow she just can't help but be cool, I find her songs a bit hit and miss but this albums got a lot of good tracks on it.

Her videos so far are good because she's a great entertainer/performer. I'm a strong believer that it's all about the eyes, it's quite difficult to explain but the difference between a great model or performer and an average one is in the eyes, if your eyes aren't communicating something you instantly look flat (emotionally) it's a weird thing but when ever I'm on a shoot I'm always telling fashion models things like "smile with your eyes" It's weird how an instruction so abstract like that can be understood by everyone.

Conrad's ratings:
album: 7/10
videos to date: 7/10
Fav tracks: You Know Me Better, Overpowered, Let Me Know
If you like Róisín then you'd probably love La Roux or Moloko.

róisín murphy's site
róisín murphy on myspace
róisín murphy on iTunes

The Presets - Apocalypso

Despite the hideous cover this album is awesome! When I first got it I played it non-stop and loved every track, now I'm slowing down a bit just so I don't overplay and get sick of it. They are and will always be a corner stone in Australian electro music and are already the measuring stick to which all other bands are compared. I’ve been a fan of The Presets ever since they started with Are You The One, I just wish they'd do something decent about their look.Whenever I have a photoshoot booked for a duo I’m always excited, images for duos are easy to make awesome because you've got both contrast and/or similarity to play with, think of Eurythmics, Petshop Boys, Siegfried & Roy (ha!), but The Presets seem to just raid their mum's dress up box and slap on a sour face every time they want to do a shoot.

Their videos aren’t spectacular, usually great production value but I couldn’t believe it when they went all kaleidoscope in My People...hmm hven’t seen that before in recent decades! If I Know You started off really great with the kid dancing down the street and then kinda went nowhere and by the end had become yet another tribal rip-off of what MGMT were trying to do.

Conrad’s Ratings –
album:9/10
videos to date:4/10
Fav tracks: Kicking and Screaming, This Boys In Love, If I Know You, Yippyo-Ay, There's also a great remix of This Boys In Love by Lifelike.

the presets site (cool idea, bad execution)
the presets on myspace
the presets on iTunes
modular people(Register for information about the 09 tour)

Cut copy - In Ghost Colours

To be totally honest I preferred the album before this one, In Ghost Colours is still great but it's lost a lot of the indie-electro flavor they had in songs like Time Stands Still using obscure sounds and minimal vocals. This album is a bit more straight laced and pop. I'm not keen on their vocal style but that's no big deal, they seem to have this "I don't care" attitude which doesn't always appeal to me.

The video clips I've seen are average. Lights and Music is the dullest thing ever, it was probably a tight budget. Hearts On Fire is better, great concept but a bit slow paced for the track.

Conrad's ratings -
album: 6/10
videos to date: 3/10
Fav tracks: the singles Lights and Music, Hearts On Fire and Nobody Lost Nobody Found
If you like Cut Copy you'd probably like Ladyhawke or Empire of the Sun

cut copy site (perhaps the worst website in the history of mankind)
cut copy on myspace
cut copy on iTunes
modular people (label website)