Mark

^ This. I limit status updates to one, maybe two a day. Same with photos, same with links. I tweet some days with ferocious regularity, and some days not at all. Though I do have a "old picture off my phone of the day". God I take social networking seriously. My Twitter at the moment is colour coordinated, the banner is the same theme as the background, and the profile picture also matches, with a Christmassy twist. I'm planning a New Years one. I need a life :(

Oh I do believe it :sneaky: Just not gonna justify it :lol:

Just cause Arctic Monkeys are overrated, doesn't mean they're not still the greatest band of the last ten years. (I'm gonna keep saying that, haters can hate.)

Arcade Fire: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) Neighborhood #2 (Laïka) Une Année Sans Lumière Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) Crown of Love Wake Up Haïti Rebellion (Lies) In the Backseat The Suburbs Intervention Brazil My Body Is A Cage No Cars Go Neon Bible Ready to Start Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Keep the Car Running

This sounds interesting anyway, what sort of things does your spreadsheet talk about?

The point I was making was semi-serious, but Coldplay went on about how long they spent on MX... I don't think they genuinely don't know how they could spend three years on that album. As people have mentioned already though, if you look at other bands, not everyone spends that long. A lot of bands I reckon go into the studio for a few months, but only after a year or two of touring. Some shows have many writers; Doctor Who, Heroes, Lost, Friends are a few I can think of. Smaller shows like The Office (UK) or Gavin and Stacey have fewer episodes, were more infrequent, and just written by a couple of people. I'd say the bigger shows are a bit like a Rihanna album that gets released every year: different writers and producers contribute. This is opposed to a band like Radiohead, who spend time on other projects, and wait longer before reconvening to release something that the six of them (Godrich included) have worked on. And this, for me, is more like something like Sherlock, where there are only three writers, and they probably work closer together.

That's what I mean, I think it's because expectations are higher for Keane or Muse than Django Django or Alt-J. But that's what I meant, yeah. If no one else can be bothered, I'll do it, just send me the top 50 or so and what you want done.

1 Tame Impala, Lonerism 2 Alt-J, An Awesome Wave 3 Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes 4 Jack White, Blunderbuss 5 Grimes, Visions 6 Pulled Apart By Horses, Tough Love 7 Beach House, Bloom 8 DIIV, Oshin 9 Tribes, Baby 10 Lana Del Rey, Born to Die 11 Graham Coxon, A&E 12 Grizzly Bear, Shields 13 Bobby Womack, Bravest Man in the Universe 14 Frank Ocean, Channel Orange 15 Melody's Echo Chamber, Melody's Echo Chamber 16 Jake Bugg, Jake Bugg 17 Hot Chip, In Our Heads 18 The Vaccines, Come of Age 19 Richard Hawley, Standing At Sky's Edge 20 The Shins, Port of Morrow 21 Jam City, Classical Curves 22 Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory 23 The XX, Coexist 24 Lianne La Havas, Is Your Love Big Enough 25 The Mars Volta, Noctourniquet Gutted that Burial isn't allowed. The number of debuts/sophomore efforts must be extremely high this year, given the failings of the likes of Muse, Keane etc. Can we get graphs done on genre, number of albums released, nationality, number of members and whether or not the artists have beards?

The three years you're referring to seems to be for Coldplay. I don't know how the hell they spent three years on Mylo Xyloto, a rather unremarkable album (in my opinion), whilst the Beatles churned out an album a year in the 60s. Horses for courses I guess.

By the same token though, hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words. And that's not a rational fear in the slightest :P I do think you're right though by saying it's about the amount of fear.

Strictly speaking, aren't phobias irrational fears? Isn't it perfectly acceptable to be afraid of some of the things listed, namely bees, heights, spiders, public speaking, that kind of thing?

I had to do this for my degree. I don't really show my "poetry", but why not. ... Granddad can’t remember things that just happened. His memory’s short-sighted. I start by talking of Grandma, war-time, watching the Arsenal. I break off pieces of trust and hand them to him like bread to a duck. We trade recollections. We arrived home to find next door parked in our driveway, “just on his break.” We snookered his car, took the dogs on the longest of walks. The trees arched over the road, tried to the tap on the windows of the flats opposite; like a rebel throwing pebbles above, beckoning you out to enjoy the evening. That road that reminded him of Bournemouth; the leaves bristling in the breeze and the ratio of streetlamp to dusk, shifting like scales, as you walk from one end of the cracked slabs to the next. “I remember,” he smiles, “I’m trapped in that thought.”

I went to London every week for nearly two years, didn't get any better :(

Escalators, and I only comment on this because I've always considered my phobia to be one of the strangest. I'm fine with lifts and stairs, but if I get on an escalator, my legs seize up, I shake and I don't want to see where I'm going. Which is awkward when you fall onto a lady in front of you instead of stepping off.

They do a cracking version of Love Machine, you might like it.

I still like it :(

I'm saying that wanting to be the biggest band in the world, and therefore copying the biggest band in the world is, yes. A lot of acts decide they want to be big and crank up the delay pedal, just because the Edge does. A lot of U2's stadium-filling stuff I find insipid, and I think there's more beauty in a song like White as Snow.

I respect your opinion, and I understand the sameyness you feel, but I just like Jack White as a songwriter and musician. I just find Elephant and even Black Rebel Motorcycle Club more exciting, electric and alive than anything the Strokes ever did. Fun fact: Jack can play piano with one hand, guitar with another and sing all at once. Nah, they didn't start anything, but it was pretty different to start an indie troupe with what, seven members is it? I only say they're innovative because they proved you can be "stadium rock" without being U2. When the album was released, I wouldn't say rock at that scale wasn't massively popular, but if you look at the resurgence of Blur, Viva La Vida etc, I think wide-scale rock owes something to the ethic of Funeral: you don't have to compromise your art to do something so mass-appealing. The synths weren't adding anything though, and the guitars weren't doing anything exciting. It's just like a Springsteen tribute act, and it doesn't matter how many times they crowbar in a real-life story or a mention of home, their identity just doesn't sit for me. They seem indebted to everyone else, and without their own ideas. Arctic Monkeys were a true encapsulation of youth culture: wit, excitement, drive and sheer consistency on that album. They are the greatest band of the last ten years and no one comes close to that, for me at least.

And 7/10 is a favourable score; if an album's rated that highly, it's considered a good album. The 'genius' is not knowing how they do stuff, and the examples I picked were things I wouldn't know where to begin writing or bits where I just marvel every time. He could've written none of it, my point would still be that there's nothing of that quality to sink your teeth into on the 2nd Law. I feel with Muse that in the past, the hits have been huge, the misses have been average. The hits on the 2nd Law range from average to good, and the misses range from terrible to boring. Panic Station is just awful. Madness is not a patch on the old stuff. Supremacy wears thin after a while. It's just not what it was billed to be for me :(

The 2nd Law has a score of 70 on Metacritic. That's just sad. They needed a new direction so they followed U2 and dubstep, how unambitious can you get? They're not even well-written songs, they're badly churned out, predictable, and there's nothing near to musical genius of something like the Butterflies and Hurricanes solo, the chord progression of Knights of Cydonia or the solo in Showbiz. I can rant all day about it, I think it's an absolute heap of shit and all my mates are falling over their tongues declaring it a return to form. Blasphemy. I just don't like the Strokes because they're so style-over-substance for me. The White Stripes I found to be cleverer, more interesting and their music's sexier because it doesn't try as hard. I'm well aware I'm in the minority though. And whilst I'm on this rant, I dislike the Killers so much because they're so overrated. All These Things That I've Done is a quality song, but bands as big as them release four that good before they're huge. Mr Brightside is melody-less, self-pitying, limp rubbish, and Brandon Flowers has literally nothing interesting to say on any subject whatsoever. Okay, you're from Las Vegas, we get that, but it's not enough to build a band identity on, you need to combine it with satire, wit or a poetic turn of phrase like James Murphy and New York, Jarvis Cocker or Alex Turner and Sheffield, Damon Albarn and London/Essex. Again, I'm virtually alone in thinking this, but The Killers I find to be the typical, bland, indie band stereotype that you mention: boring frontman who longs to be an amalgamation of about three people, cheap, tired riffs that Johnny Marr might chuck away and nice bright synths that add little but paper over the fact that none of you are playing anything particularly exciting. Funeral on the other hand is the opposite: fresh, innovative, beautiful. Putting their name amongst The Killers, The Kaiser Chiefs, latter Kings of Leon et all, is like opening a window in a stuffy room.

Album: The 2nd Law Artist: The Strokes EDIT: Actually, The Killers. So overrated. Shite. I've been called pretentious and pompous or whatever for saying it in the past, but I think it's an album that should be respected for its ambition, regardless of opinion. I can honestly understand anyone not liking or getting it though.

I can't explain why everyone loves it but it's the first album I fell in love with. It's the way it's simultaneously so sophisticated but so simple. It's the way that Thom can say something as beautifully heartbreaking as "I'm an animal trapped in your hot car" or "Don't get any big ideas, they're not going to happen" so succinctly. The production's so rich and lush and colourful but it's not over the top, and it sounds so much more at ease than Kid A or OK Computer. There's always something in a song to look forward to, whether it be the middle eight of Bodysnatchers, or the the outro of All I Need, or the break in Reckoner. Nothing's too long and outstays its welcome, and nothing should go on for another minute or two to be milked. It's just perfect for me. It made me understand that making an album is an art. One day, no one might ever buy records again, but hearing In Rainbows made me not want to be one of them.

Woah, hold your horses. I simply find it surprising that one of the most innovative pop groups of the past ten years have only won a single Brit when they're big awards for popstars. I'm on your side here, you don't have to point me in the direction of anyone, I just simply haven't seen anyone rave over them. Worse albums have been nominated for the Mercury's, no one I've seen's ever named them amongst their albums of the year, and as I say, just the one Brit. They're underrated was the point I was getting at, they're better than they've been given credit for, won't bother next time. Was Kid A not given Pitchfork's or Rolling Stone's album of the decade? It was one of them, I swear. American people I know respect the album, British people I know tend to rubbish it in favour of the Bends and OK Computer. I didn't mean one was massive over there and one was massive over here, just from my experience, America "get" Kid A more than anyone over here. Re Pet Sounds, I don't doubt you're right. I don't know anyone who likes the Beach Boys, but maybe that's just the people I know.

Girls Aloud get a bad press over here due to the fact that they were formed on a talent show, and a couple of racism allegations probably haven't helped matters. They've only ever won a single Brit award despite being as you say, a great pop group, and I don't think critics over here have ever got over the fact that they don't write their own songs. So I don't think it's that outrageous a choice. As for Pet Sounds, I think there's a transatlantic divide with it. It's like Kid A is held in higher esteem in America, and OK Computer is regarded so highly over here; similarly, I doubt many people over here could name any song from Pet Sounds.

Also look out for Half the World Away and The Masterplan. Two of the best ones. And then there's Acquiesce, which features dual vocals. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSeIOi6ixy4]Oasis - Acquiesce - YouTube[/ame] I've always said that I'm not a fan of Oasis, I'm a fan of Noel. But I still listen to the Liam-led songs because they're so well-written. Liam's just a channel for Noel's greatness in my opinion.