An especially unpopular week- our lowest set of the year, in fact you must go back 12 months for a less enjoyable quartet, which included The Streets and Creeper.
Maximo Park are our winners, but not in the top half of either charts.
The Telescopes are in the bottom half dozen of 2024.
Guy takes the š by a distance. Simon has the ā¹ļø.
The Libertines were especially divisive but with the nays outnumbering than the yeas, Pete and co sit in the bottom 10 of our classics list alongside The Lilac Time and Tesla.
Andy
Sad Night Dynamite - Extremely weak sauce, one for the "what was the point of that" pile 3.5
Pale Waves - Splits time between old school indie girl singing with a Sundays/Liz Fraser vibe and a modern pop sensibility with Miss America in particular going down the Taylor lite route. Not a bad listen, if unmemorable 6
Maximo Park - Pleasant enough but nothing particularly new from the Geordie indie standard bearers 6
The Telescopes - It's got the space, but where's the rock. Spacemen 3/Spiritualized vocals are fine but the music just plods along. You need to be more than just atmospheric 5
TotW - Gravity by Pale Waves
Libertines - I've never listened to this before and my life hasn't improved one bit by finally doing so. Standard dreadful smackhead nonsense 1
Jim
Sad Night Dynamite 5.5
An average mix of R&B and pop with occasional bhangra flavours
Pale Waves 6
Another mediocre offering, poppier than I was expecting from admittedly faint memories of the 2 we've reviewed already
Maxeemo Park 6.5
Theyāve never really flicked my switches, not altogether sure why, and this didn't change my view. We Are Scientists do this style better.
The Telescopes 3
Jeez, this was dour. Literally nothing going for it
TOTW: Not a lot to choose from, but I'll go Sad Night Dynamite - Wake Up, Pass Out
Libertines 9.5
Love this album. A year after the Strokes, this was a great UK response - a brilliant set of blurry, energetic, scuzzy tunes from a proper don't give a shit band, Almost sounds live and the first bars of Vertigo, Death on The Stairs, Up the Bracket and the mighty Time for Heroes immediately take me back to some great nighs out and gigs. There's probably a point in the score for the memories and impact, but there you go. Forget the H addictions - he's not first to suffer with that - imho Pete D is a ledge
Justin
Sad Night Dynamite - some of the darker songs were pretty good. Nice mix of rap and synthy beats. 6.7
Pale Waves - background teen film music style indie 5.8
Maximo Park - never really grasped me as a band. No bangers on here but perfectly listenable 6.5
The Telescopes - the songs individually are quite interesting but a whole album of slow lo-fi indie is a bit much 5.9
TOTW White Lie - Sad Night Dynamite
The Libertines - a great singles band, fun live and Babyshambles are great. Otherwise not really that much to them. Aside from Up the Bracket and Time for Heroes the rest sound like novelty B sides or rough demos. 5.9
Guy
Sad Night Dynamite ā A bit of a mixed bag. Some bits sounded like Massive Attack, there were hints of Curtis Mayfield in tracks like Sugabby but I was slightly put off by the auto-tuned bits. Better than their last album for me though ā 6.8
Pale Waves ā Iāve always liked Pale Waves. They deliver some solid girl-fronted JJ indie pop and once again rarely disappoint. I can see why they may appear a little one-dimensional to some but if you like the dimension theyāve chosen, itās great. In places thereās a touch of the Cranberries about this ā 7.8
Maximo Park ā another quality offering from a reliable band. They rarely let you down. Slight criticism that the second half isnāt as strong as the first but thereās loads of great sing-a-long tunes and I love his voice ā 7.7
The Telescopes ā pretty dreary psychedelic pop tunes. Lacked any umph. There are better exponents of this sound and it really didnāt get me going at all ā 5.5
The Libertines ā Cracking stuff. I love the elegant combination of riffs and rhythm guitar that Barat and Docherty produce. Probably my favourite band of the 2000s. Death on the Stairs, Time for Heroes and Up the Bracket are right up there - 9
TOTW ā Glasgow ā Pale Waves
Simon
Sad Night Dynamite: occasionally attempts to wander into Gorillaz territory - but has none of the charm of Damon's outfit - otherwise it's a fairly lame collection of nondescript beats and some pretty naff lyrics as well. 5
Pale Waves: a couple of songs have some nice Cocteau Twins-style intros but that's as good as it gets - the rest is distinctly mediocre, throwaway indie pop with songs that all basically sound the same as each other. 4.5
Maximo Park: thought this was a tad underwhelming, tbh - largely bog standard sing-along indie, Dormant 'til Explosion stood out due to the guest vocalist but it says a lot about this week's albums that this was the best on offer. 6
The Telescopes: about halfway through this I came to the conclusion I needed to be listening to it whilst under the influence of mind-altering substances - unfortunately I'd only had a couple of paracetamol and they didn't have the necessary effect. 4.5
Libertines: never understood at the time why this lot got such a rapturous reception, even more so having now listened to some of the ramshackle, half-baked efforts on here - a massively overrated band. 5
TotW: Sad Night Dynamite - Wake Up, Pass Out
Phil
Sad Night Dynamite
Downbeat rap with occasionally inventive cinematic arrangements. The lyrics are sound, if unremittingly grim. As previously stated, this isnāt my thing but, as rap albums go, it has something about it 5.5
Pale Waves
Pleasant, inconsequential guitar pop; a sort of Cranberries-lite, if such a thing were possible. I quite liked Thinking about you but the rest of it was forgettable 5
Maximo Park
Decent enough guitar rock but my interest started to wane after three or four tracks. I hadnāt listened to Maximo Park before. It doesnāt sound like Iāve missed much 5.5
The Telescopes
This lot were contemporaries of the psychedelic likes of Spacemen 3/Spiritualized and Loop, and like them are still going. That said, I was really disappointed with this record. Too many of the tracks were lethargic and muddy, often sounding as though only the thud of the bass drum was keeping the rest of the band awake - plus the vocals were tuneless throughout. But they did bestir themselves to turn out a couple of good tracks, the slightly more urgent Nothing matters and a proper psychedelic gem in Along the way.
You can go back to sleep now, fellers 5.5
TOTW: Telescopes ā Along the way
Classic
Libertines
Youād think that I, a fervent disciple of the rough and ready approach to rockānāroll, would like the Libertines. Not so, Iām afraid. I didnāt rate this album when it came out and I still donāt. They sound(ed) like a combination of the Clash and the Buzzcocks but theyāre nowhere near as good as either and what quality the twelve tracks do have is undermined by the ramshackle approach. They sound under-rehearsed and slapdash. I know that Pete Doherty and Carl Barat had a famously fractious relationship. On this album I reckon you can hear it 6
Annette
Pale Waves: 6
The Telescopes: 4.5
Sad Night Dynamite: 5
Maximo Park: 6
TOTW: Sad Night Dynamite- Wake up, pass out.
Mark
Sad Night Dynamite - I feared this going to be the usual sludgy sweary vocoder grime, but it's better than that, way more variation and musicality than I was expecting, and Wake Up / Pass Out and Sugabby are big funky floor fillers, the latter very nearly bagging my tune of the week - 7
Pale Waves - some tracks opened up with promising effects laden guitars, but it quickly descended into pretty poppy indie lite and there was a hint of shooting for Taylor esque bangers but falling short - 5.5
Maximo Park - played this a lot having seen them do it live last week, and there's some decent above average indie guitar on here, along with Paul Smith's trademark quirky lyrics, first half has a couple of TOTW contenders for me although it tails off a little - 7
The Telescopes - fair play to this lot for still ploughing their single minded furrow on stuff like this, thick end of 40 years since forming, no sign of getting any chirpier. I actually quite liked it, sure the vocal couldn't be any more downbeat and gloomy and it's all verrryyyy slow going, but there's a bit of a JAMC / Spiritualized strung out wasted quality to tracks like Come Tomorrow and Shake It All Out - 6.5
TOTW - The End Can Be As Good As The Start by Maximo Park.
Sam
Sad Night Dynamite : not as good as their previous offering . Very patchy with too
Much auto tuned rubbish ; 5
Pale Waves : again not as good as their last pop punk album. This was more indie rock lite and not as good and too samey : 6
Maximo Park : I quite like them and this was quite good but the songs need to flow better . 6.5
The Telescopes: if he could sing better this would be a belter . I liked the sludgy droning guitars ! Album of the week : 7
TOTW Along the way by Telescopes
Libertines : I fupping love loose, chaotic rock and this has loads of that plus great lyrics . Best UK band of the last 20 years . 9
Erol
Sad Night Dynamite ā a cool album which was thankfully light on self-indulgent, aggressive rap. Blended with some upbeat dance tracks, this managed to flick my switch. Some of the tracks sound a bit like Gorillaz mixed with the Black Eyed Peas. 7.9
Pale Waves ā this was great. I loved the country twang to the singerās voice. Thereās some really nice guitar riffing going on here too, redolent of the Cure even. 8
Maximo Park - fairly standard indie music with nothing to get too excited about. 6.5
Telescopes ā the whole album is like an extended dream sequence. Surely these guys were half asleep when they put this together. One of the most lugubrious, downbeat albums Iāve ever had to listen to. 2
TOTW - Wake up, Pass out, by Sad Night Dynamite
The Libertines ā I donāt like Peteās voice and the music is ragged and often tuneless. It occasionally has a certain rakish charm but overall, I just donāt get what people see in the Libertines. And I probably never will. Sorry, Sam. 4
Matt
Sad Night Dynamite : The Gorillaz comparison is valid: there's a lo-fi languid feel here but on some of the initial tracks it just sounds fownbeat and really works better with the injection of a little more funk on Mrs Dior and Sugabby. 7
Pale Waves : Washed over me with little to remember. A bit like a wave. If it were pale. (I'm struggling to say much). 5.5
Maximo Park : Nothing genre changing here but thoroughly listenable indie with some nice hooks. Tellingly was better on a second listen, like welcoming back old musical chums. 7
The Telescopes : I think we coined a new category for this: shoe doze. 4.8
Totw: Maximo Park Doppelganger Eyes
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