INCOMING: Los Campesinos! - All's Well That Ends EP

LC! are surely the most featured band on Hitsville U.K., but not without good reason. Last week the band posted an mp3 of the ‘Princess Version’ of the title track of their most recent album "Romance Is Boring". It has just been announced that the track makes up part of a new ‘reworkings’ EP titled "All’s Well That Ends". The EP is made up of four alternate versions of tracks from "Romance Is Boring". The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Romance Is Boring (Princess Version)

2. Letters From Me To Charlotte (RSVP)

3. Straight In At 101/It’s Never Enough

4. (All’s Well That Ends) In Medias Res

Ellen, the band's bassist, filmed the recordings of the EP.

Untitled from Los Campesinos! on Vimeo.

The EP will first be available to buy at Los Campesinos! Wichiten show at London’s Garage on Thursday 15th July, and will then be available in limited number from independent record shops from July 19th.
You can pre-order the 10″ EP from Wichita, here: http://www.wichita-recordings.com/shop/webb258t.html

A REFRESHING CHANGE

>>>Passion Pit>>>Chunk Of Change EP + The Reeling>>>
There are some bands that prove simple to pigeonhole. For instance, The Futureheads are simple indie-rock, Bon Iver is folk and The Pigeon Detectives are bollocks. But there are the bands that are almost impossible to categorise, such as Late Of The Pier, Foals, Grammatics, Test Icicles. Obviously you can sweep them all under the all encompassing carpets of "indie" and "alternative" (as I'm kinda forced to do when tagging these posts) but doing that plainly ignores the other elements those bands have and strive to put into their music and make them stand out. The latest band to join "the uncategorised" is Passion Pit. Hailing from Massachusetts, Passion Pit throw bits of pop, dance, soul, indie and even a little emo (the chorus to "I've Got Your Number - "Can't you see me crying?/Tears like diamonds" is irresistible and wholly emo at the same time) into their musical melting pot and this approach has seen them tipped as a big name for 2009.

Their pop is the opposite of the bland, interchangeable pap peddled by Cowell & co, you won't find it in Tescos for a fiver. Their dance is the opposite to the stuff clogging up the charts, making you think "What is this? This is rubbish! We should be listening to firm young melodies, kicking tunes, thumping bass!" and then hopefully "God I sound so stupid!". "Chunk Of Change" is the next logical step on from LCD Soundsystem's hipsterness, Metronomy's joy-to-despair lyrics and Friendly Fires pure-pop-through-dance formula. Standout track "Smile Upon Me" even steals it's chorus melody from LCD's "All My Friends". The EP may be a little challenging to listen to with its 8 tracks reaching almost 45 minutes, but is definitely worth a full listen if only to get to future classic "Sleepyhead". This one track is probably the best example of pop in 2009; an electronic wall of sound mixed with a million and one hooks and just a feeling of utter joy. If that makes any sense. It's happy, it's danceable and it should be everywhere this year.

Passion Pit's lead single "The Reeling", taken from their debut album "Manners", doesn't quite match up to the tracks on "Chunk Of Change" but that would be a difficult task to follow for any band. Instead we get a faintly 80's sounding surefire hit. Big beats, a simple melody and all manner of keyboard whirrings should propel this to the charts, but knowing the British music-buying/downloading public, it will probably reach about Number 112.

ESSENTIAL TRACKS: "I've Got Your Number", "Smile Upon Me", "Cuddle Fuddle", "Sleepyhead", "The Reeling"
FOR FANS OF: LCD Soundsystem, Friendly Fires, Hot Chip, Metronomy
Chunk Of Change - 9
The Reeling - 8