The Maccabees - Given to the Wild
As part of the NME's continual assault on giving everything "guitar"y excessive amounts of praise (whilst simultaneously condemning Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow to a 7/10, the same score they gave to Britney Spears' Femme Fatale ), the Maccabees have found themselves in a whirlwind of hype. They've totally escaped me until this, their third album, and ultimately I decided to download it because I needed something to wile away the time until the release of Born to Die. So imagine my surprise when I discover one of the strongest, most fascinating British rock records in recent years. Of course, the possibility of them crossing over the Atlantic was effectively savaged by a typically anti-British Pitchfork review (who might as well respond to all UK acts in future with an ink stamp of "Not quite Radiohead", it'd be as ignorant) but at least here in our superior music-land (and I'm aware I'm playing with fire considering the majority of my ...