Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors -- An End Has A Start (2007)

Up next is one of my favorite bands of all time, with for me the best album they made so far. I had little to no inspiration today so I let Miri decide what I should post. And lets face it, she did well! Not only is this band one of my top 3 most played bands of all time, as well did she pick the right album from them to talk about. 

The album is a former number one album in England and the second album made by the band after the debut album The Back Room of course. The album is characterized by the indie rock and the post punk revival music the band plays, with the pretty unique and awesome vocals of Tom Smith obviously. Back in the post about Joy Division I said he reminded me of Ian, or the other way around... This still is the case and again I will say that they are basically Joy Division on speed, a description others often gave them over the years. The album contains hit songs like Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, An End Has A Start and The Racing Rats and it made me absolutely fall in love with them. I bought The Back Room short after its release but didn't give it much plays back in in 2005 and 2006. I did give them a lot of attention in the summer of 2007 though, for the simple reason they were coming to Pukkelpop and I was planning to see them live. In the two weeks before Pukkelpop I played their material an awful lot and I absolutely fell in love with An End Has A Start that came out two months earlier.

The song I chose to post is Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, because it's after Swing Life Away my favorite track I'd say. The last few days before the festival I had it constantly on repeat and when they finally played it live I just closed my eyes and had goosebumps for the total duration of the song. So it was an easy choice to make I'd say! Because of this I have picked a live version of the song as well. Before I conclude this post with an enjoy, I'd like to say that new material should be coming later this year. It's not officially announced I think but few media mention a fourth album for later this year. Enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Twin Atlantic - What Is Light? Where is Laughter? -- Vivarium (2009)

Right now I'll be posting Twin Atlantic, again an hard(er) rock band, I'm really into the harder material of my library last few days... This time the band is from Scotland, Glasgow to be more exact. They have two albums out already and one ep, the album I'll be talking a bit about right now will be the first one, Vivarium back from 2009 already. The album is short (only containing 8 tracks) but oh so powerful. It's starts off with Lightspeed and it immediately sets the tone for an album full of energy. It never really slows down except for the quite slow Better Wheater outro song.

The music this band creates is quite good if you ask me, but what makes them stand out for me personally are the vocals. The Scottish accent is simply brilliant as well does Sam Mctrusty his voice itself suit the music very well. The record never slows down like I said and if you are new to them I'd advice to check out the song that I'm posting: What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? as well as Lightspeed and You're Turning Into John Wayne songs (which both were singles supporting the album). The second album, Free, is a bit slower but at times they grab back to the energy of the previous material and the vocals still are catchy as fuck and it's definitely worth listening to as well. For me personally Vivarium is slightly better though so i'd advice to check that one out first.

I'm posting What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? and I do this for several reasons. First of all it was the second song I knew by these guys after Lightspeed, secondly it has an official video, thirdly is for this video of them. It's a gig by them at Pukkelpop back in 2010 where Sam falls down (45sec) but just keeps playing like noting has happened which is pretty epic in my opinion. Last but not least this song acts as the title of one of my blogs. To be more exact this one: Where Is Laughter? which is a shared tumblr blog with the earlier mentioned Koen where we basically post anything we consider funny. Anyways enough ranting for today, enjoy the song!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Biffy Clyro - Bubbles -- Only Revolutions (2009)

From the one excellent live band to the other. Next up is Biffy Clyro. Very different from Explosions In The Sky but just like them a band that I would love to see as often as possible. This because of the last concert I saw of them few years back at Pukkelpop. The band played, like the first time I saw them, very well, but now this was coupled with a brilliant atmosphere! They had a small crowd that day (still don't understand why) but it was an amazing one.  

Anyways I really want to tell and even discuss something about Biffy Clyro with you guys. I know Biffy Clyro for a quite some time by now, to be more exact from the release of the Infinity Land album. I admit it's not that long but hey I was only 14 back then. So ok I wasn't a fan of them from the beginning in 1995, I was only 5 years old so seems a bit impossible. But I do know them for a few years as well.

What really frustrates me now is that a lot of people think they sold out last year (or is it two years ago already?), this frustrates me because I really don't think think that this is the case. Ok they did a mainstream thing, but so what?! The music they make didn't change that drastically over the years if you ask me. It's a bit more accessible than before maybe, but that's all.

So all they did is try to generate a bit more attention and obviously the associated money trough some TV show, which is alright if you ask me. Everyone would try to make as much money as possible, even I have adds (click them, haha) on my small blog here. So to everyone who actually think they sold out, fuck off... If you would be playing some excellent music for more and less 15 years and you still don't get the attention you deserve what would you do then? Honestly we all should be happy they are a bit more well known now,  too many bands quit in the past for the lack of attention and revenues, do you really want that this would happen to Biffy Clyro as well?

Oh well ranted enough, I chose for the song Bubbles of their latest album because all of the previous ranting, of course the music is a bit more mainstream than before, but is it any less good than the old material? I honestly think the latest albums are as good as the first ones, they all were produced by Biffy Clyro and every single one of them is good. By the way new material coming early next year, looking forward to that! Enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page