A God-awful Small Affair

As far as album titles go, this is worryingly indicative. The New York indie gods' return in 2011 with the at-best mishmash Angles was effectively torn to shreds by the music press and whilst the furore was slightly exaggerated and undeserved - Under Cover of Darkness was beautiful - it was a large step down from the three records which made their name. Whilst the die-hard fans bicker over which album is best, we all know that it's Is This It , and therefore any attempt by Casablancas and co. to deviate from the lo-fi, chirpy indie line is unavoidably going to be met with tentative displeasure. Certainly, their numerous side projects - solo (Julian, Albert) and otherwise (Little Joy) - weakened down the culture shock, and the electronic elements of Angles were accepted as progress. Yet, to begin experimenting always risks the songwriting side of things suffering. The first cut released from Comedown Machine was 'One Way Trigger', the wildly eccentric series of...

The polarising career of Kate Nash is rather testament to her individuality. In 2007, atop the crest of the whole Myspace-indie pop thing going on in the UK (that ignited such predictably shortlived bandwagons as Klaxons, the Pigeon Detectives and Jamie T), Nash's debut Made of Bricks smashed its way into #1 on our album charts and made us all forget about her counterpart Lily Allen. Similar to Allen was that backlash - but rather than a purist whinging over her celebrity parents' riches, a lot of Nash's hate was directed purely at the musical output: her colloquial vocal delivery, her dear-diary confessional and crude lyrics, and her overtly simple production values. It certainly made her stand out, but sadly pissing people off is part and parcel of making it in music today, and a lot of extremely good songs - Pumpkin Soup, Mouthwash, Merry Happy - were overlooked because of that "fitter/bitter" line in Foundations . But the release of 2010's My Best Fri...

Everything about Bastille should read as irritating: the use of the triangle in their band logo, the use of their music in the ads we skip before YouTube videos, frontman Dan Smith's hair. They've even got that token new-cool-thing about them that the UK gets behind in their droves to give a debut #1 (see: Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande). Let's not even touch naming yourself after the pinnacle of the French Revolution on the whim of sharing a birthday with it. Wisely starting on their strongest merit - the single 'Pompeii' - they immediately unleash about three simultaneous hooks. The most obvious is their chanted vocal refrain, a sort of Lion King homage that, if anything, sticks in the head. Lyrically, the song suffers a lot from cliches ("the walls kept tumbling down/ grey clouds roll over the hills") and a touch of megalomania (comparing a romantic turmoil with the explosion of Vesuvius? See the music video for more ridiculousness). Smith's vocals...