THE VIEW - WHICH BITCH?
Their jeans may not have changed, but their sound definitely has. Almost two years since debut album "Hats Off To The Buskers" propelled them to rock stardom, The View are back with their second effort which, to say the least, is a brave move in terms of their sound. Some songs on "Which Bitch?" are more suited to, say, a fifth or sixth album when a band is more confident in their sound and can branch out. You'd never expect them to be on a second album from a band who aren't really a household name, apart from one song.

Beginning with "Typical Time Part 2", a follow-on from the debut's final track and a fun, throwaway piece of pop. Using just a piano, harmonica and guitar, it sets up stall for the album to be something slightly different but equally as fun as The View's previous material. "5 Rebbeccas" is a return to what the band do best; catchy indie anthems. But whereas previously their songs were reminiscent of The Libertines, their sound now owes more to that of Oasis with the wall of guitars and feedback. Looks like they've got another "built-for-the-festivals" hit then.

Yet another change of direction on "One Off Pretender". The guitars are a mix of The Stone Roses, U2 and The Coral (basically lots of reverb and delay and quite widdly) and the vocals go from virtually rapped to typical lad-rock shouting. Definitely different, but whether it's popular with fans remains to be seen. Guess what's coming next? Yes, it's another change in terms of sound and possibly the most melancholy song The View have ever released. Haunting strings dominate "Unexpected" over Kyle's down-in-the-dumps vocals and it's not something you'd think the band who wrote "Wasted Little DJs" could produce, but someow it works.

The rest of the album is populated with these kind of suprises. There's liberal use of string arrangements on quite a few tracks, an appearance from Paolo Nutini (no, come back! It's an alright song, I promise), a track going over the 6-minute mark and some Oasis-aping acoustic tracks. The middle of the album is where it gets even more interesting. "Glass Smash", heavy as "Brianstorm" and a rather creepy middle eight; "Distant Doubloon", just piano and strings with a distinct piratey feel to it; "Covers" (the Paolo Nutini track), a summery slice of acoustic pop with added trumpet. Then we arrive at "Shock Horror" the second single from the album. It's what you'd expect from the band and more, kind of like "Wasted Little DJs" older brother. It's more taut and foucsed, yet just as good as anything they've done.

The View may not be the msot popular band with some indie snobs but "Which Bitch?" is a future classic. The album has something for everyone; typical Yates's customers, mums who buy their records at Tesco, miserable hipsters, festival goers. It will be interesting to see where The View go from here. They might return to Libertines knock-offs, they could make another "Be Here Now" or another classic. We'll just have to wait and see. Though I still haven't got a clue what they're singing about half the time.
ESSENTIAL TRACKS: "5 Rebbeccas", "Unexpected", "Shock Horror"

9/10 (Which Bitch?)
8.5/10 (Shock Horror)

Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Los Camp!. The second most punk rock band in Britain. The indiest band in Britain. More indie than The Smiths, more indie than The Cribs, more indie than the entire teenage population of Hoxton at an NME party watching Foals playing a cover of the Skins theme tune.. They're so indie that this isn't even an LP. According to them, it's an Extended EP. I think you get the point. Released only 8 months after their debut "Hold On Now, Youngster...", "WAB,WAD" represents a band maturing, growing yet still retaining what made them so special in the first place.

LC! specialise in the kind of wordy, studenty racket that typical Enemy/Oasis fans would hate. Their songs won't be shouted from terraces, sung badly on the way home from Yates's, and noone will be shaking anything to them at any 18ths. But just because LC! aren't in-yr-face mainstream doesn't mean they should be cast aside as a "weird indie band". In their own words, "we're undeveloped, we're ignorant, we're stupid, but we're happy."

Opening with "Ways To Make It Through The Wall", a swirling piece of electro bleeps, chugging guitars and self-loathing lyrics. Lines like "I identify my star sign by asking which is least compatible with yours" and "I think you've got it in for us/I think you've got it in for yourselves" gives the impression we have a second Morrissey on our hands. Gareth Campesinos! doesn't really cheer up much throughout the rest of the album (must have been a pretty bad 8 months since "HON,Y...") as you can see from song titles such as "Miserabilia". LC! seem intent on summing up the wasteland between teenagedom and adulthood in this album. How else can you describe a verse like this: "As if I walked into the room to see my ex-girlfriend/Who by the way, I'm still in love with/Sucking the face of some pretty boy with my favourite band's most popular song in the background/Is it wrong that I can't decide which bothers me most?"

It's not just the band's lyrics which are superb, the musicmanship has improved greatly from the debut. Where it once had to be everything playing at once in a joyous, overexcited racket, is now restrained or wild when it needs to be. The glockenspiels, keyboards and violins augment the typical guitar-bass-drums set up for the better and let the hardcore punk influence shine through without losing their twee edge or dampening the effect of the lyrics.

"We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" could turn out to be a significant album for Los Campesinos!. With it's release method (only 5000 copies, free fanzine, DVD, poster and buttons, as well as no singles), it could see them go further into elite indie-ness, shunning the mainstream completely. Or they could possibly become, with an ever-growing fanbase and almost universal acclaim for the album, everyone's favourite outsiders, the underdogs of the 21st century indie scene. For now, they remain a wonderful secret for those who know of them.

9/10 (slightly late review...by 2 months)