A God-awful Small Affair

50 - "Into The Murky Water", The Leisure Society It failed to set the world alight as much as their 2009 debut did, but there was still something beautiful about this band and their penchant for full orchestrated songs. 49 - "Suck it and See", The Arctic Monkeys Despite an initial burst of enthusiasm from me, this album has largely dropped off the radar for me. Whether this is out of a fondness for their earlier material, a higher placing for Alex Turner's soundtrack on Submarine or just a whopping lack of tunes is irrelevant - this album wasn't without its charm. 48 - "Mirrors", U.S. Royalty Bold, brash and rather bloody lovely. 47 - "Go Tell Fire to the Mountain", WU LYF The indie press might have raved about them like excitable lunatics, and it's certainly a decent album, but I can't really place it too highly here - again it's something I've loved for a brief period of time and feel little inclination to return to. 46 ...

This is another of my "dive in head-first" posts that'll probably fail to register with the enduring fans of this band, so apologies in advance to those who'd question my knowledge of The Antlers' discography. The band, now on their fourth album, are located in Brooklyn and have spent the past couple of years opening for The National and gathering some of that all-important critical buzz. This, their second record to get over 8/10 on Pitchfork, should go some way in being rather decent indeed. From first impressions that would be the correct judgment. Opener 'I Don't Want Love' is a quiet, moody indie-folk piece that puts out slightly ominous lyrics like "Keep your prison locked up/ And I will leave my gun at home" over a deceivingly content instrumentation that draws inspiration from contemporaries such as Deerhunter or Bon Iver. 'French Exit' continues this kind-of anti-ballad approach with the closing line "I'm not a pupp...