No great movers or shakers this week. Sports team take it, with a solid performance landing them in our top 30 for the season.
Guy has his 3rd š in the last 6 weeks. Erol 's disdain of Courting gives him the ā¹ļø.
But fear not young scousers, you have TOTW with Jumper, with a nod to Sports Team's Dig.
Guy
Editors - Well this was a surprising move on from the Editors I remember. They've gone all electro-rock with hints of White Lies et al. And they do it pretty well. The album is really solid throughout and very listenable but lacks any big tunes sadly. And I'm left wondering if I preferred the Editors of old. Still a decent effort - 7
Buzzcocks - Really enjoyed this. The vocals are softer and less punky than the good old days but that could be down to improved production values. Nonetheless, the guitars are still urgent and driving and unmistakably them. Senses out of Control is a tune - 7.2
Sports Team - THey've got a distinctive sounds this lot (mainly due to the vocals), and it's one I like. Good energy throughout as you'd expect. The Game and R Entertainment are really strong. Better for a second listen - 7.5
Courting - Mixed bag this one. Some of the tracks are excellent including Tennis, Famous and my TOTW, Jumper, but others are weird and virtually unlistenable (Cosplay / Twin City, Uncanny Valley Forever). After their standout performance at Reading Festival, I wanted to like this more than I did - 6.9
Tribes - Top album. Loved it when it came out and nice to revisit. Corner of an English Field is such a lovely tune. Should have kicked on from this as it's a a superb debut. Shame they broke up - 8.5
TOTW - Jumper by Courting
Andy
Editors - Decent enough stuff, a couple of crackers without remaking Munich 6.5
Buzzcocks - Didn't think was very good at all. It answers the question of why did Pete Shelley get the vocals job over Steve Diggle, who sounds like Frank Sidebottom doing a Weller tribute. The guitars make some decent sounds but it's pretty weak 4
Sports Team - Decent garage rock without doing anything exceptional 6.5
Courting - Didn't see them at the fest so don't have the embedded love some do and found it all a bit poor man's Sports Team at best, with some poor stuff as mentioned by Guy at worst 5.5
TotW - Karma Climb by Editors
Tribes - Never listened to this lot before, despite Redders mentioning them a lot. It's alright, I'm sure they're decent live 6.5
Simon
Editors: the meaty semi-industrial style has some appeal, but lacks any stand-outs and not sure it will have much longevity. 7.2
Buzzcocks: hadn't realised Buzzcocks were still going after Pete Shelley died - might be time to call it a day if this pedestrian, geriatric punk is anything to go by. 5
Sports Team: new band for me but liked this a lot - good urgent sound and some pleasing slightly manic, James Murphy-style vocals. 8
Courting: the convential tracks (e.g. Tennis) are pretty good, the less conventional ones more a work in progress but a potentially more interesting style in the longer term. Be interesting to see what they do next. 7.5
Tribes: never heard of this lot, but this was decent enough without offering anything particularly spectacular or original. 7
TotW: Dig! by Sports Team
Erol
Editors - not bad at all but I definitely preferred their earlier stuff. What happened to their powerful guitar based sound? This is all a bit too electro/industrial rock. Itās interesting that Kasabian have gone in a not dissimilar direction but they do it much better. 6.8
Buzzcocks - mediocre grandad-rock which was often paper thin on quality. Weak vocals too. The only half decent track that caught my interest was Can You Hear Tomorrow. 4.8
Sports Team - theyāre fun to listen to while jumping around in a sweaty basement bar but not as good on my home speaker. This was a bit rough and ready and unpolished but decent enough, I suppose. 6.2
Courting - a discordant mix of spoken and shouty word with hardly any decent guitar music to speak of, contrary to the misleading album title. No thanks. 3
TOTW - Karma Climb by Editors
Mark
Editors - I had them down as a bit po faced gloomy indie goth, but this had a bit more going for it, not massively my bag but not terrible - 6.5
Buzzcocks - I actually liked a lot of the tunes, but Buzzcocks without Pete Shelley's unique vocal just isn't the same - 5.5
Sports Team - really good follow up to their debut which was one of our albums of the year on release. They've filled out their sound a bit without losing what broke them, and they're great live - 7.5
Courting - short and sweet, I really like this. Another band in the Yard Act, Sports Team vein which I'm a fan of, this is full of the kind of dirty indie disco floor fillers you'd expect to hear at New Slang, with some left turns reminiscent of the more
experimental Blur albums - 8
TOTW - Dig by Sports Team
Jim
Editors 6.5
Was not familiar with them, although I had rockier preconceptions . Nice enough, best bits reminded of more recent New Order offerings but none of the better tunes took off and it was a tad too long.
Buzzcocks 6
A rare example of worsening after a 2nd listen. Sound like a pub band now, although not a bad one.
Sports team 7.5
Solid follow up to their debut, First 3 tracks were great and I thought I was on for another 8+, but it ran out of stream a little
Courting 6.5
This did not live up to their hugely enjoyable live set. Odd really. I can't explain it away as being too smashed to be objective since they were early on the DDT . 2 or 3 cracking tunes but a couple that were a tough listen. I'm with Si, I think they are trying things out and expect more to come.
TOTW Sports Team - The Drop, just ahead of Courting Tennis
Tribes 8
Liked this when it came out and it's stood the test of time pretty well
Justin
Editors - bit of a change of direction and no bangers as such but no filler either. Couple of possible tunes of the week eg Vibe - 7
Buzzcocks sounded like status quo at times. Not painful but sorry sounded a bit irrelevant. 5
Sports Team sounded a bit standard indie on first listen but on further listens can see quite clever lyrics and music 7
Courting different to live sound but plenty of tunes of the week. I thought it was a really different and clever album. Lots of listens. 8
Totw Jumper Courting (but lots of others like loaded could equally share the accolade).
Sam
Editors: very polished bit of goth indie dance ! Definite TOTW contenders in here 7
Buzzcocks : ace guitar work but Jesus do they sound like the old punks they are ! 5
Sports Team : they can write a banger for sure , if they stuck to that this could be a massive album but it goes all wonky at times . 7.4
Courting : Again , stick to the big tunes and stop fannying about ā¦ 7.5
TOTW from a long list of contenders Jumper by Courting
Baby by Tribes : what a fantastic indie rock album . Full of great lyrics and lots of big bangers . I love it . 9
Matt
Editors: I've a bit of a blind spot here but turns out that's my loss. Confident electro-goth-pop* with lovely nods to New Order. 7.8
Buzzcocks. I was dreading this but again expectations were confounded. Sure the vocals weren't great but they're punks not Alfie fucking Boe. Tunes, swagger, attitude. 7
Courting. My kids asked 'what's that awful noise?' so descriptions of discordancy are fair but there are tunes there (Jumper). 7.2
Sports Team. I found the incessant spiky staccato a bit wearing. Like an overlong conversation with a smart arse. 6.5
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