Ian Brown. 'Godlike genius,' as the NME would have it? Of course, of course, of course there's always going to be residual love for the man who helped make the best British album ever as well as inspiring my friend Dan to start wearing comically baggy jeans back in '89. But does the arrival of a white-label promo of his new album 'The World Is Yours' also inspire excitement?
King Monkey's latest kicks of with the title track and... well, I'm not sure how to say this, and it needs several more listens... but it's a bit Jamiroquai. Sorry. Will try again with it. Ok, in today's sack of mail, the other highlights look to be: 'The Flying Club Cup' from Beirut, the follow-up to their sleeper hit 'Gulag Orkestar', due 8 October, with which I'll settle down properly later; and Thurston Moore's debut solo album, due mid-September, which sounds.... exactly as I thought it would. Slightly to my surprise, because he's always been like Marmite to me - I can see why some might like it, but it's not to my taste - pick of the bunch right now sounds like Steve Earle's newie. 'Washington Square Serenade' is due 1 October. There's some lovely playing: nothing like a spot of mandolin on a Tuesday afternoon, no? 'All of us are immigrants,' he sings on the track 'City of Immigrants'. So he's coming from a similar place to Jack White right now, too. I'll say no more about 'Cained' just now. But it calls itself 'a collection of chilled classics peronally selected by Michael Caine' and yes, not a lot of people know that he has a taste for everyone from Stan Getz to Doctor Rockit...
