22 July 2010 (Music Profile)

 

 

Every month, we select our top five new releases for the month ahead, letting you know exactly why we think they're worth a trip to your local record shop. We'll be the first to admit, it's relatively slim pickings this August, but we've managed to find a few to keep fans of alternative rock and pop happy. | Words: Jenny Mulligan

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                   Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (27th August)
Gotcha! Recommended is hardly a word we'd associate with Katy Perry. Annoyingly mouthy is probably more apt. Sure, she's stunningly beautiful and curvy in all the right places, but you want to look at her, not listen to her (unless it's for the novelty value of such classic lines as "So hot we'll melt your popsicle"). Nonetheless, Teenage Dream is by far one of the biggest releases this August so we figured it deserved a mention. If you entirely agree, instead check out Menomena's 'Mines' from last month's recommendations, which has since been pushed back to August 6th. It's awesome.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Hawk (13th August)
When former Belle & Sebastian singer and cellist Isobel Campbell released Ballad of the Broken Seas with gruff Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan back in 2006, we all thought it was a one-off. Four years later and the duo are putting out their third record together. 'Hawk' sees Lanegan lend his gravelly tones to eight of the album's thirteen tracks, and features guest appearances from alt-folk troubadour Willy Mason and former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha. Elsewhere, the pair tackle two Townes Van Zandt covers in the form of 'No Place to Fall' and 'Snake Song'.

Eels – Tomorrow Morning (20th August)
He may have released one Eels album already this year, but the prolific Mark "E" Everett is wasting no time in bringing us the third and final part of his trilogy of concept albums that begin with 'Hombre Lobo' in 2009, and continued with 'End Times' in January. According to E, the three albums are based on the concepts of lust, loss and redemption, 'Tomorrow Morning' then focusing on the latter. Reverting back to Eels fuller band sound after the stark and lonely 'End Times', the hopeful subject matter should make for a more uplifting listen this time round.

The Klaxons – Surfing The Void (20th August)
After their 2007 debut album Myths of the Near Future bagged the coveted Mercury Music Prize, nu-rave alt-rock Londoners The Klaxons are finally releasing its follow up. 'Surfing The Void' was recorded in LA with nu-metal producer Ross Robinson after initial sessions with several other producers were deemed 'too experimental for release' by the band's label Polydor. That's right - too experimental! By all accounts, they've toned it down since then, with the results including the single 'Echoes' and promotional track 'Flashover' which has been named by BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe as the 'Hottest Record In The World'.

Philip Selway - Familial (27th August)
After 25 years with Radiohead, it's amazing it took drummer Philip Selway this long to bring out his own solo record. He worked with Neil Finn on '7 Worlds Collide', played on guitarist Martin Simpson's 'True Stories' album, and even appeared alongside Jarvis Cocker at the ball in that fourth Harry Potter movie, but Familial is his first foray into the solo realm. Lead single 'By Some Miracle' suggests an appropriately sombre tone for someone coming from a background with Radiohead, if quite a lot more conventional than that band have been in some time.

 

 

 

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