Right then, the stuff I've been listening to over the weekend and today:
Fontaines DC: Fairly exciting, although a lot of it is familiar already. All about the singer's drawl and lyrics.
PJ Harvey: enjoyable enough for all, as
@The Music Man says, there's no Peej vocals. A bit sort of folk-post rock.
Ifriqiyya Electrique: pretty amazing! There's not the what the hell is that shock of the previous album (as it's along the same lines) but it's relentless and addictive.
Shovels & Rope: a strong album of country rock duets by the husband and wife pairing.
Mekons: enjoyable. Basically, doing their folk/punk/country meld that they'vew had going on for years, again.
Broken Social Scene: disappointed by the lack of Swedish Chef. Pairs up with the part 1 EP, which I reckon is a bit stronger.
Chemical Brothers: probably the most straight ahead danceable album they've made in a while. Not many big name guests but some strong tracks and well chosen samples.
Damien Jurado: pretty much ace, if a tad short (27 mins or so). Simple songs with minimal instrumentation and great vocals.
Chris Forsyth: excellent guitars as always and a mix of long instrumentals and shorter, snappier post punk songs. It's quite a long album (a double in old money).
Sun Kil Moon: the man's an arse but he makes some good music. He's got the excellent Jim White (of The Dirty Three etc.) on drums here and Donny McCaslin, the saxophonist who played on some of the late period Bowie albums. There's a nice jazz feel to the instrumentation, the vocals and lyrics are standard Kozelek. As always, it's quite long. Five of the seven songs clock in at over 10 minutes and one of them is 23 mins long.