Skying - The Horrors
Society Is A Carnivorous Flower - J Church
Boy - U2
Heaven Is Whenever - The Hold Steady
Jump Salty - Pinhead Gunpowder
What Did You Expect From... - The Vaccines
S/T - Bon Iver
Somewhere At The Bottom... - La Dispute
Mare Vitalis - The Appleseed Cast
Third Album Demos - Future Of The Left
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
... heard six brand new No Choice songs on the weekend too and all genetic bias aside they sound really, really good.
I'm absolutely obsessed with the first four U2 records (Boy, October, War & The Unforgettable Fire) at the moment, all from hearing 'I Will Follow' during their Glastonbury set and thinking "no fucking way is that actually one of their own tunes". I must admit i thought it was a spontaneous cover of The Skids (though not that fucking co-massacre of 'The Saints Are Coming' they did with fellow dinosaurs-at-least-sixteen-years-past-their-prime Greenday, that one unfortunately is still all too fresh in the memory) or perhaps even a Ruts song i somehow hadn't heard before. I was obviously wrong. Took me a couple of days to track down a 'deluxe re-issue' version of their debut album 'Boy' and i was blown away by just how raw and great it sounded. Tight, abrasive, massively melodic post punk. The sourcing of other re-issues followed over the next week or so follow, all the was up until Achtung Baby, which i'm not keen on, and neither am i particularly bothered with The Joshua Tree even though everyone goes mad about it. Not really for me, though there are indeed a few great songs scattered between the two, but i'm personally far more a fan of everything that came before. Suffice to say i didn't worry myself with tracking down anything past Achtung Baby.
It's weird. Up until three or so weeks ago i had written off U2 as a band i'd make a point of not paying any attention to, largely on the basis that everything i'd heard from them in my formative years was just various shades of Extreme Dad Rock, and also because Bono is something of an unrelenting bellend. I was completely ignorant to their rich, prolific post punk beginnings, and now i feel as though i've just stumbled across a veritable gold mine of genuinely brilliant, brilliant songs from one of the very last bands i would ever imagine once being able write. You can say what you like about U2 as a band now, but from 1980 to 1984, they were on fucking fire.
My current favourite tunes from that era are: I Will Follow, The Electric Co, Bad, Out Of Control, The Refugee, A Sort Of Homecoming, I Threw A Brick Through A Window, Another Time, Fire, Two Hearts Beat As One, The Unforgettable Fire & 11 O'Clock Tick Tock. Check them out if you haven't heard them before, like me you might find yourself somewhat stunned to discover just how good this 'dad rock' band really once were.
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