Indie/Alternative charts

Review: Ryder-Jones is something of a Liverpudlian legend, a troubadour who originally made his name with The Coral, yet one whose charismatic talents have extended beyond the '60s-worship of his origins to a very personal place on this, his third solo album to date. Recorded in the bedroom of his childhood home, 'West Kirkby County Primary' is a work of heartache, loneliness and melancholia that finds its metier somewhere between the work of Michael Head and Springsteen's 'Nebraska' - Ryder-Jones' mood may be desolate, soul-searching and reflective, yet his songwriting flair lurks behind every corner.

Review: Defeat is a 22-minute new mega-single by Animal Collective, who by now should need no introduction (but for the rookies, we'll indulge one anyway) as the paradigm-breaking experimental pop band and formed in 1999. 'Defeat' is divided into two parts. The first is a beatless, coming-of-age pop seance, spanning surreal harmonia, whirling organelles and beatless spirallings, lyrically centring on the theme of overcoming adolescence. Part two is far darker, concerning the implicit alienation of a mother restlessly searching for her daughter in a lost dystopia, while horrific, tremolo'ing cellos play out in bad-trip horror flick fashion. Recorded with producer Russell Elevado, violinist Samara Lubelski, cellist Leila Bordreuil, and saxophonist Ben Chapoteau-Katz, it's certain to sate fans of the Collective, who remain committed to an ever-chameleonic bravado.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


As part of a new looking back on German art rocker Nico's esteemed career by the indie label Domino, Desertshore chronologically follows The Marble Index, and is her third album, following the prior project's establishing her as an avant-garde artist with one foot in the mainstream, in stark defiance of the the prejudiced poo-poohs that followed her first (baroque pop) album, Chelsea Girl. Desertshore is more of a reconciliation of her prior two projects, bringing back the initial western pop sensibility while now firmly basking in a newfound weirdness-and-she-knows-it. From the opening dark waves of 'Janitor Of Lunacy' to the piano-balladic injection of sadness that is 'Afraid', this is another avant-garde masterpiece by the musician, never justifiably passed over.