SoundsXP Message Boards - Indie, Indiepop, Nu-Folk and Alt-Country Forums

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sometimes I write things....

Grounds For Divorce?

Anyway, their first two albums are dead boring but you should really listen to their latest. Especially for the lyrics, the last two albums have some of the best lyrics of any British bands.

I've heard nothing but greatness about that The Seldom Seen Kid though I haven't heard anything from it yet. The early elbow stuff is just nothing out of the norm bordering on tedium. Maybe they've found themselves. Don't give them the elbow yet...they mean no 'arm...insert more puns.

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Jarvis Cocker or David Bowie or AVB or Johnny Borrell, she isn't picky

Cavey Cocker, Cup Cake Queen, Saint Thomas.

The Seldom Seen Kid is an excellent album, the first 3 tracks especially. But their first album had some amazing stuff on it too, Any Day Now particularly. I couldn't get excited about them for a while though until i saw them at Brixton this year, they were amazing even from a vantage point up in the seats.

V-V - thank you, and cheerfully, I was just kidding.

BJ - Although some people called us Franz voters "sheep" (mentioning no Bolas), I still stand by those choices in 2004. Lovely to see Kaiser Chiefs in there too...

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Life's But A Walking Shadow

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Whatever happened to Franz Ferdinand?

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Franz Ferdinand were never that good, I only liked one of their singles, total hype, too arch, they filled the gap left by the Strokes et al...

Elbow are a good band, a proper indie band like what you used to get, in that they are actually producing a decent back catalogue of well crafted music.I agree with the fact that their last two albums have seen them step up again too. I think some people find Guy Garvey's voice a little dirgy/moany/repetitive I got over that problem when they released 'A Cast of Thousands' a beautiful disc, at points his voice soars, there's something tender and yearning, and personal, like he's opening up his ribcage to the listener.They're worth a million Coldplays really...

They may not be at their peak, or very trendy right now but I think Radiohead are still the best british band around. Simply because they seem to challenge themselves rather than caring too much about what their audience wants too much...

As for 'new' British bands, I think there are plenty of good British acts in the underground, it's just the ones that got foisted into the mainstream at the moment, are usually the ones that have the right package but very little in the way of substance. There's a problem with the way music is promoted really, its a self fulfilling problem, A certain sound is the flavour of the month, British band's copy that sound, pluggers say here's the NEWBESTNEWTHING, and the whole thing goes round and round.

There's too much expectation too, with bands that have an 'impact'. It happened when the Strokes were waaay over hyped, it happened when the Libertines broke through too high cool list placings on the back of one album, and its arguably befalling the Arctic Monkeys, also if one makes a breakthrough commercially and the rest follow.

You can't generalise but of late I've found that a lot of American, Canadian and Swedish 'indie' is more interesting simply because they are allowed time to grow before they are expected to shift any units, or get their records imported over here. Many of them seem less concerned with sales, scenes or making it big, thus what they produce is often better....

Best new british album I've heard so far this year is by:
http://www.myspace.com/catsinparis

My fave British band of the moment:

(though they don't sound "British" at all, it must be said)

You're all missing the point! Is everyone judging these important bands by whether they like them personally or not? (Does anyone on here really like Oasis? I don't but I don't doubt their influence)

The Libertines and Franz Ferdinand came at a time when they were much needed and influenced a lot of people. As someone said, history may be cruel to Pete Doherty but only in the same was as history is cruel to Public Image Ltd but adores The Sex Pistols. Hyped or not, the Libertines will always be seen as an important band, regardless of how they earned their fame. The Sex Pistols became an overnight success after calling Bill Grundy a 'fucking rotter', the hype around Pete Doherty is no more overblown.

What are you all defining as Great British Bands? Whether it fits into your particular taste in music or whether you can appreciate their value to another's taste in music or their social impact?