Solitude 

Apologies for the lack of noise being put out by Solitude. It has been an incredibly busy fortnight. Been doing stuff most every day and night for that time period and I’m now royally knackered. This was going to be a post of random stuff that I’d noticed or heard in that time period, but since I forgot most of the good, it’s a quick catch-up for the people I haven’t spoken to in a bit.

• First of all, I started my graduate job last week. It’s pretty good and should prove to be a challenge, though things haven’t gotten into full swing. The hours certainly beat the amount of time spent in the lab last year.
• Spent Friday night in Stirling for a birthday party. On my way back on Saturday, the weather was boiling hot so First Scotrail were kindly giving passengers free bottles of water. Nice. Noticed the platform was full of G8 protestors (dreadlocks, bongos, banners the works). They all seem quite pleased with the generosity of the railways. Someone, however, had a sense of humour. The bottles, you see, had a competition on them: “Win a 5-star holiday in… Gleneagles!”. Well played, Scotrail, well played.
• Sin City is as good the second time around.
• Pub quiz team names are getting ridiculously offensive; a trend I both encourage, admire and actively participate in.
• Band practices without any singers tend to go horribly wrong.
• If you’re lucky enough to have my mobile number and aren’t getting replies, it’s because I semi-broke my phone in an incident involving red bull, Biffy Clyro and a drunken friend. It should be sorted soon and the number will remain unchanged so don’t be put off. This is just a slight warning.

I’m off to London on Sunday for nearly a fortnight (courtesy of my employers) so updates may well be light again. I’ll try and post a bit over the next few days, but still a bit busy.

UPDATE: I’ve got a new phone with the same number. It’s just a temporary phone for the next few weeks. Because of some insane offers, I effectively got it for £10.

A fairly disappointing month for music, all in all. Lot of garbage albums appearing where people had hoped for more.

Funeral For A Friend released the follow-up to their debut album, “Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation”. The more modestly titled “Hours” is mediocre, at best. It’s not that any songs are particularly bad, it’s just that absolutely nothing stands out. You can listen to the full thing and not notice a single track transition.

Uber band the Foo Fighters also released a new album. Split into 2 CDs, this was supposed to take them back to their rockier roots (CD1) and let them keep some of the mellowness of recent years (CD2). Sadly, it didn’t really work out. CD2 is mellow… and bland… and largely uninspired. CD1 is better, but doesn’t feature an anthem of “Monkey Wrench” calibre. The “Sulk” rip-off (see the Radiohead discography) that is track one is good, but the rest of CD1 is filled with the same stuff the Foos have been putting out for the last few years (including one song that sounds a lot like “Breakout” with different words). Not that it’s necessary bad, it’s just not very good.

Coldplay and Oasis also put out albums. The former is as terrible as the rest of their output, the latter the same Oasis tribute band efforts that Noel has been doing for the last 3 albums.

What has been good this month? Well, Reuben released the second single, “A Kick In The Mouth”, from their forthcoming second album. While not quite as good as first single, “Blamethrower”, it’s still a damn fine song.

After their split a number of years ago At The Drive-In finally have a retrospective album. Even if you have their entire back catalogue (all of which is excellent, occasionally seminal) “This Station Is Non-Operational” is worth if for the B-Sides, rarities and (unmarked) different versions of old songs. With the exception of the “Relationship Of Command” era tracks, most of the songs sound, at the least, cleaned up. Well worth a buy. Plus the release of this has meant that the “One Armed Scissor” video has been appearing on MTV2; a very good thing.