We refuse to fight your dirty and futile fight

 

So, Bloc Party have a new album out in, oh, approximately 12 hours from now. No doubt 12,534 bloggers will jump on the album as soon as it hits the shops, uhm, internet (yep, they too are 'doing a Radiohead', only you actually have to pay for this), and attempt to be the first to upload it to their respective blogs, spreading it far and wide across the blogosphere. LhnA refuses to fight that dirty and futile fight and will instead give you the gift of alternative cover art (to be used for your downloaded copy) and the 3 best songs they ever made, and, from what I've heard of the new album so far and A Weekend in the City, ever will. . .

Bloc Party - This Modern Love

Bloc Party - Banquet

Bloc Party - Helicopter

Buy the new album here from 9.00am, on the 21st August 2008 (tomorrow!)

...on love and mystery and ignorance and knowledge

The Accidental - Knock Knock

The Accidental - Wolves

I first heard The Accidental in February, when Nothing But Green Lights featured the beautiful 'Illuminated Red'. I fell in love with the song, but (having downloaded it without taking the time to read the article) the band was a total mystery to me. They were suddenly there and I had never heard anything about them. I had no idea who they were or why they were so good. And I didn't really look it up at first, but I downloaded all the songs I could get my hands on and listened to them quite religiously for a couple of months. Recently I found out that the band is comprised of Stephen Cracknell (the man behind The Memory Band) , Sam Genders (member of my beloved Tunng), Hannah Caughlin (from The Bicycle Thieves) and singer-songwriter Liam Bailey. Thus the mystery was solved. With such an impressive line-up, how could they not be good? But somehow after I knew that I started comparing them to The Bicycle Thieves, and then Tunng - and of course both those bands I had loved for a much longer time and Tunng had released one of my favourite albums of 2007... So you see this was not a wise thing to do. 'Cause in the perfect mathematical equation in my head the result of Tunng + The Bicycle Thieves + The Memory Band equaled something more than The Accidental and I started feeling a little less in love with them. Of course I still think they're pretty damn good (otherwise I wouldn't have included them here) but after close inspection some of their magic is lost...

Tunng - Bullets (watch the beautiful video)
Tunng - Pioneers (Bloc Party Cover)
The Bicycle Thieves - Open City
The Bicycle Thieves - You Speak So Eloquently About Love

"I do not like to work with patients who are in love. Perhaps it is because of envy- I too crave enchantment. Perhaps it is because love and psychotherapy are fundamentally incompatible. The good therapist fights darkness and seeks illumination, while romantic love is sustained by mystery and crumbles upon inspection. I hate to be love's executioner"

-> Irvin Yalom - 'Love's Executioner'