‘Flight Of The Conchords’ by Flight Of The Conchords

Comedy records really are a risky business. Even the funniest comedy gets stale when it’s heard too often, and if the comedy is bolted on to a wobbly musical foundation, you’re on very shaky ground indeed. ‘Flight Of The Conchords’ avoid these pitfalls for two reasons. Firstly, the humour is funny, without being too obvious, and secondly, their musical foundations are strong. This album, largely but not exclusively a soundtrack to the first season of their TV show, meanders around pastiches of all sorts of genres – Gallic easy listening, electro-pop, hip-hop, soul – all within the first four tracks. I could go on – the band do, ending the album with ‘Bowie’, a track that effortlessly mimics three distinct phases in Bowie’s career while still holding together a complete piece of music.

Lyrically, the songs are packed with enough humour to keep you smiling throughout, and there’s plenty to pick up on through repeated listening. ‘Inner City Pressure’, ‘Hiphopopotamus vs Rhymenoceros’, ‘Ladies Of The World’ and ‘Robots’ are particular highlights, though these will vary depending on mood. Only a handful of songs miss the mark – ‘Prince of Parties’ and ‘Boom’ are pretty forgettable, and ‘Leggy Blonde’ struggles to cope outside the context of its sitcom roots (the lyrics are very funny, but probably won’t be if you haven’t seen the show). Wisely, the band try not to let any song outstay its welcome – most of the songs are finished after two and a half minutes, some don’t even get that far. It’s surely no co-incidence that the longer songs are also the better ones.

There’s another Conchords album around that I don’t have. It’d be interesting to see whether a second album would be sustainable, but this is, and it’s to their credit.

‘Fleet Foxes’ by Fleet Foxes

‘Fleet Foxes’ are on of those bands I’d love to claim I heard early. Sadly, this wasn’t the case, and if anything, by the time I’d bought myself a copy of their debut album, it was already a bona-fide hit. Deservedly so, as it’s wonderful on more or less every level.

From beginning to end, ‘Fleet Foxes’ oozes confidence and quality that most bands could only dream of one day exhibiting. They make the kind of records the Beach Boys would have made throughout the seventies if Brian Wilson hasn’t lost his mind – there is pretty much no higher praise I can give. The combination of folky musicianship and exquisite vocal harmony is welcoming and spirit lifting, and some of the individual tracks the album offers – ‘Ragged Wood’ and ‘He Doesn’t Know Why’ in particular – are as good as anything you’ll hear on any other album by any other artist. Brilliantly, the band also look exactly like you’d expect them to – every member looks like the kind of bearded yokel you’d run away from if you met them up a mountain, with the exception of lead guitarist Skyler Skjelset who looks like an innocent traveller the rest of the band have kidnapped. Glorious.

'Accelerate' by REM

REM have always been one of those bands that I've liked without ever being passionate about. Over the years, I've slowly accumalated a pretty decent number of albums, and I've liked most of them to varying degrees, without ever really being blown away by one.

This is there most recent, and I think it's one Tessa had a present. To be honest, my interest in the band had waned since the release of 'Reveal', which had been pretty disappointing. All the signs seemed to indicate that their glory days were long passed, and they were destined to drift into obscurity and irrelevance.

Perhaps they are, but if this is to be their fate, then 'Accelerate' will be, at least, a final burst of excellence. Perhaps aware that they were running out a chances, REM seriously raised their game with this record. Gone were the ambling acoustic fumblings of recent years, replaced with short sharp bursts of energy and tune. Few of the songs last much longer than 3 minutes - the whole album lasts for little more than half an hour, but it has real impact from the beginning.

It's not an album with particular stand-out tracks, but this works to its advantage - everything is good, and nothing pales in comparison to anything else. Only the final track, 'I'm Gonna DJ' is sub-standard - it's not terrible, but it's not as good as what comes before it. It doesn't matter - the album as a whole is more than good enough to make up for it.

Time will tell whether further REM albums will match this, or whether this will be a final gasp. Either way, it's something to be proud of.

'A Hundred Million Suns' by Snow Patrol

In an episode of Doctor Who a couple of years ago, the Doctor and his companions need to get close to the Master without him being aware of their presence. In order to do so, he creates a ‘perception filter’. This clever device prevented people from noticing them, even when they were being directly observed.

This album’s a bit like that. You can put it on, and try and listen to it carefully, then listen to it again afterwards, but when it’s finished, it’ll be like it was never there. ‘A Hundred Million Suns’ was Snow Patrol’s fifth album, and the third to make any commercial impression, following ‘The Final Straw’ and ‘Eyes Open’. It displays more confidence than the previous two records, but less memorable moments. And it’s difficult to say why.

Amongst the Snow Patrol standard guitar-bass-drums arrangements, there is some variety. ‘Lifeboats’ makes effective use of a swooping strings line. ‘The Golden Floor’ is an effective mix of acoustic guitar and jittering programmed drums. ‘Set Down Your Glass’ has a layered production of piano, finger picked guitar, strings and glockenspiel. But it’s not enough. The rest of the album just trudges on through a sea of mediocrity. Lead single ‘Take Back The City’ gives a burst of energy at the beginning, and ‘Disaster Button’ does the same at the end, but it’s too little too late. It’s as though they’ve distilled their essence down to the most basic and boring elements and made an album from them. If they continue in this trend, the next album may well consist of the chorus of ‘Run’ on repeat for an hour. It would be about as interesting.