From being a fairly obsessive fan of Devendra Banhart, I’ve found myself lacking much to say about “What Will We Be” in the months since it first turned up in the office. It’s far from a bad record, but the few times I played it, it felt oddly weary, even uncharismatic, compared with its predecessors; “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon” is often identified as the jump-off point for a lot of Banhart former fans, but I still think that one stands up as a terrifically spirited album, full of life. Maybe the understated, relatively straight vibes of “What Will We Be” represents a first cautious step for Banhart towards a ‘mature’ style that isn’t yet fully resolved. But it also comes at a time when the raggle-taggle tribe of freak-folk (dread term) artists that he lead and nurtured seem, in many cases, to have gone to ground. Doubtless there’ll be another spike in activity and interest when Joanna Newsom finally follows up “Ys”. In the meantime, though, Newsom turns up playing a bit of piano on a nice, unshowy record by Kevin Barker on Banhart’s Gnomonsong imprint. Barker has long been an unassuming grafter in the freak-folk engine room, playing in both of those artists’ bands as well as with Vetiver, Antony And The Johnsons and Vashti Bunyan. He also put out a few fingerpicking albums under the name of Currituck Co, which were – or at least the ones I heard were - nice enough, if somewhat insubstantial. “You & Me” is quite a lot better, though, a fairly orthodox singer-songwriter album, touched by Americana, which finds Barker hooking up with the likes of Newsom, producer Thom Monahan, Wilco’s Pat Sansone and the fine, ubiquitous drummer Otto Hauser. Out of his various sparring partners, the best reference point would be Vetiver; there’s that same calm, wise grasp of roots tradition radiated by Andy Cabic at his best. You could also draw parallels, though, with some latterday records by Wooden Wand/James Jackson Toth, even if Barker doesn’t flaunt such an obviously maverick streak. For more pronounced eccentricity, you could do worse than try the debut Growlers album, “Are You In Or Out?”, a Californian band who’ve done some recent touring with Banhart. The Growlers specialise in a kind of sepia-tinted, battered kind of vintage pop, related to the more quirky end of the Nuggets spectrum – or some of Devendra’s own spikier ramalams. Considering “Are You In Or Out?” is ostensibly drawn from the band’s eight handmade CDRs, and that they evidently strive to present themselves as heavily flakey, it’s a surprisingly together, coherent album; a sweet and reverberant West Coast correlative to The Coral, of all things.

Today, the judges chew on "Wilco (the album)". Tony Wadsworth: I love this album, a great set of songs, probably their best since the ones they did with Billy [Mermaid Avenue Vols 1 & 2]. It’s a driving album, it skipped along wittily. I think it all came together really well for them on this one. Mark Cooper: Wilco are one of those groups that if you have a relationship with them, like, I dunno, REM or The Grateful Dead, you just love them. They’re a bit like one of those groups for me. I love Wilco, they lost me for a while when they went a bit Radiohead, although I admire them for doing it. I agree with Tony, I think this album puts together everything that Wilco do really well; great melodies, great arrangements. Allan Jones: It’s kind of hard to fault, isn’t it? Mark: It’s really hard to fault, I suppose that could be a problem with it. I’m slightly damning it with faint praise, because I admire it while not loving it with the fierce heat that I have some of their earlier records. They’ve attained a professionalism and a sort of consummate artistry, but that doesn’t mean it’s quite as good as when they were finding their way. There’s earlier records that probably aren’t as accomplished, like Summerteeth, but I kind of loved them more. I play this and I’ll continue to play it, as it’s both their best record but not their best record, if you understand what I’m trying to say. Allan: It came alive for me when I went to see them do the bulk of it live at The Troxy. Everything was extended just a bit more, so songs that are on the record, perfect as they might seem, could have gone just a bit further. I share Mark’s admiration and affection for them. It’s curious, because it’s good and you can’t imagine how it could be palpably better. So, yes it is their best album, but it’s not their best album. Rachel Unthank: I’m not really familiar with Wilco, somehow I seem to have missed out on them. Friends of mine have said how much they love the earlier albums, and I really feel like I need to go back and find out more. So, I don’t really have a relationship with them, but I have to say that I found this quite boring. Listening to the opening track I found myself asking “is this Blur?”, not that there’s anything wrong with that, I like Blur. But because I’d heard so many things about them I was kind of expecting something more. I don’t know, it just didn’t engage me. Mark: I get what you mean, because I think this album is slightly preaching to the faithful. They’ve honed what they do, they’re doing it really well, but maybe it’s not outgoing enough to engage in the way their early records do. Billy, you’re giving me a look... Billy Bragg: No, it’s just that I’m trying think about how to gauge it as well. I love what they do, I always buy their records, but sometimes they can be a little hard to listen to. Are you supposed to compare this to the weird ones, are you supposed to compare it to Summerteeth, or what went before. The great thing about them is that you never know what to expect. All the time they were in that period where they were sonically pushing the envelope, underneath all that there were still these great songs. You could never say that they lost the ability to write great songs. I wouldn’t say it’s their greatest album ever, but when you fit them all together it’s still really interesting. For me, this is a very interesting next Wilco record. Dave Robinson: I was really looking forward this album, because I’d heard a lot of demos which were absolutely extraordinary. I was expecting this record to be finished versions of those demos, but I found it to be a good, nice record but not great. I hear a couple of good album tracks, a few B-sides, but there was nothing like a couple of those big peaks that you might expect a record to be set around. I liked the songs, but I didn’t get excited by them. Bob Harris: I love this album, I love the whole family that surrounds Wilco, like The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo. It’s a good Wilco album, I really like it, but again in the context of this award I think we’re looking for something really extra-special, and it isn’t.

The penultimate transcript today, on The Low Anthem's "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin". Allan Jones: This is a favourite of mine. It had been around the office for a while and I kept hearing snatches of it, and I just became totally engrossed by it. It’s a great exercise in story-telling, great lyrics, that really draws the listener in. Billy Bragg: It’s one of my favourite albums of the year. Didn’t Uncut have one of their tracks on a cover-mount CD? Yeah, I remember picking it up an airport and their track really stood out. I saw them at the Newport Folk Festival on one of the little stages, I didn’t realise they were on the bill. I got there and the stage was just covered with instruments, I assumed there’d be ten of them, but then just three people walked out. One of them was this tiny woman, this almost fey little girl, and the three of them just made this incredible, beautiful, engaging music that really drew everybody in. They revved it up, right to the back of the tent – which was totally crammed. The audience was totally enthralled. They seemed to move in and out of the contemporary and the past with ease. The lyrical content, of all the bands on the shortlist, was just incredible. My son picked up on it and wanted to hear it just on the strength of the little quote on the sleeve: “Set the sails, I feel the winds a-stirring/Towards the bright horizon set the way/Cast your wreckless dreams upon our Mayflower/A haven from the world and her decay”. When you talk about making folk music, there’s folk music where you go back and you discover it as part of some tradition, and then there’s folk music that you seem to tune in to from a different angle – it’s something you do with your music, Rachel. You force the person who’s listening to you to think of music in a different way, you add something to it. I think The Low Anthem do that, and I’m really excited to find out where they go with it next. There’s a real beauty to this, and not a fragile beauty, it’s a very strong sense of self to what they’re doing. Bob Harris: It’s interesting that their background, the way they’ve grown into who they are, is similar to the Fleet Foxes, are at least it’s not that dissimilar. You’ve got these two guys who meet this girl who works at the local library, I think, and she brings with her this whole spectrum of different sounds. I think what really appeals to me about this album is the willingness to experiment. You’ve got all this different influences in the mix. My son does a hip-hop radio show, and I recall playing him the Fleet Foxes and he really got into it, and the term he came up with was that it was “beyond music”. And The Low Anthem are his latest favourite band for the same reason. I just love this album, I love the feel of it, and the fact that they’ve been so imaginative with the sound and the textures. I’m just swept over by it. Dave Robinson: Well, I quite liked it, I thought it was about sixth on my list of the initial 25 albums. It isn’t particularly car music, and I find myself listening to most music while driving. Where you first hear something always colours your thoughts about it, and maybe that’s why this didn’t grab me as much as if I was playing it at home. I mean, I’m a bumptious, obnoxious, opinionated person and I’m always thinking that a lot of these artists need A&R people, they need guidance. With the best will in the world, I love artists and I’ve spent a lot of my life dealing with them, and they’ve trained me to become a parent. It’s about objectivity, you’re always trying to add something to the artist and give them a fatherly hand. You find yourself saying “look, these three songs are stunning, they’re the benchmark. All the others you can find a use for later, after you’ve written another seven up to this benchmark”. For instance, I think Elvis Costello has a great career, but could have been much more memorable if he’d had an A&R person to guide him. Mark Cooper: Imagine being that person, though... Dave: I thought that this group, if they had a mentor it could have been really interesting. Everybody knows that after one or two records and the bottom line is looming, you tend to rush things. Whenever I’ve been involved in an album I’ve wanted it to be the equivalent of a greatest hits. Every song should be there because it’s got a great quality, rather than you’re trying to hide something below par in the running order and get away with it. Rachel Unthank: I really liked the album, although I kind of didn’t like it for a while but then it grew on me again. They have a lovely way of storytelling, which makes you listen to their words. That’s important to me, with my music I want people to listen to what I’m saying, and I did find a lot of what they were saying really beautiful. I did struggle a little with the random loud bits, I haven’t really decided what I think about them. Do they give the music some light and shade, or is it too different to the rest. But the record’s got a lot of warmth to it. It reminds me a little of Sam Baker, in the way that they draw you into their world. Mark: I agree with Dave, and I think they’ll go on to make better records. I think it’s got an aura of preciousness about it, though. I think “To Ohio” is a beautiful song, that’s the real stand-out. Overall, I think it’s a bit schizophrenic and doesn’t always add up to the sum of its parts, it’s just of a sketches of really good ideas which, if they’re any good, they will improve upon. I think the good moments are really good, but for me it’s not a great record. Bob: I see what Dave’s saying, there’s that balance between just letting a group kind of be who they are or bringing someone else in to steer them to the next level. It’s that balance of letting the band breathe without there being too much of an outside influence but also with someone keeping an ear open for their best interests. I wouldn’t like them to surrender themselves totally to someone else’s thinking, though. Billy: I think you have to join the dots a bit with this record. This is what they’ve got, this is the stall they’ve set out, and you’ve got to look at the little bits and ask yourself if they fit together. I hope they’ll get better, and the Fleet Foxes have kind of created the space for people to make records like this, and I think that’s a positive thing. Tony Wadsworth: I think it’s a really great album, the first two songs are among the best things I’ve heard all year. I think you’ve got to think of bands like this as career artists, you have to let them follow the wind – a bit like the Mayflower! I’ll be very interested to see where they go from here, because there’s some fantastic songwriting. As an opening track, “Charlie Darwin” really gets your attention, but I’ve been thinking about this running order business, in terms of CDs. When everything was on vinyl you had a Side One and a Side Two, and you could kick Side Two with a fast track. Now it just appears round the middle and doesn’t quite grab you as much. Rachel: I think for me they’re probably the only band whose lyrics I can remember, having had to listen to so much music in such a short space of time when considering the whole shortlist and trying to take it all in. Billy: I know what you mean, I can see all the characters, in songs like “Ticket Taker”. Not just their faces but how they were going through all those emotions. Tony: I actually went off to see Charles Darwin’s house after listening to this album! Billy: I had to explain to my son what Peanuts was because of the title, the whole Charlie Brown/Charlie Darwin thing. So when you were checking out Darwin I was getting into Schultz. Tony: That’s an intellectual spectrum for you!

Sad news reaches us of the passing of Edward Woodward, who died today aged 79. It’s rare for any actor to find a starring role during their career that leaves its mark – but Woodward successfully managed it three times. First, there was Callan, the British TV show that ran from 1967 – 1972, with Woodward as the world-weary secret service agent working for “the Section”. If Callan was, to some degree, a response to the success of the James Bond movies, then Callan himself was very much an anti-Bond. If the Bond movies were all about gadgets, guns, girls and glamorous locations, then Callan was an entirely different proposition: a lonely, cynical man, working in a grubby and distinctly unglamorous profession. [youtube]QmwdXVkJ4RU[/youtube] In 1973, Woodward starred in The Wicker Man, as a Christian policeman, Sgt Howie, investigating the disappearance of a young girl on a remote Scottish island run by a pagan community. Although it’s perhaps best remembered for Britt Ekland’s naked dancing, and the burning giant wicker man at the film’s climax, there’s plenty to commend Woodward’s performance as a man whose faith is tested to its very limits. It’s a far cry, too, from the cold ruthlessness of Callan. [youtube]4tKPcJ1Y3-Y&feature[/youtube] Woodward sort-of seemed to revisit the Callan character in the 80s, for an American TV series, The Equalizer. There, Woodward played a former secret service agent turned troubleshooter working out of New York. The show was a huge hit in America – and, to some extent, brought Woodward greater recognition than Callan had. [youtube]qh9XQHQj5Nw[/youtube]

Today, the judges discuss Kings Of Leon's "Only By The Night". Quite lively, this one. Bob Harris: Well, we’re now moving into my four favourites of the eight, and this is my album of the year. I tried to fight against it, in the sense that it’s so popular and it’s already done so well. There’s a whole number of things about it for me, first of all it’s got a touchpoint with Nashville, and I do think Nashville is currently the music capital of the world right now. The calibre of musicianship is so high, there’s a kind of organic feeling to the city which I really like. Kings Of Leon also has that thing of lifestyles spilling into the music, there’s a dynamism to it that I really like. It also has – and I don’t see this as a bad thing at all – a cross-generational appeal. It’s a favourite of my 17-year-old son, as well as being my favourite of the year. On top of all that, “Sex On Fire” just sits there week after week in the download chart, still in the mid-20s, and it’s been there ever the album first came out, and that in itself says something to me about the longevity of individual tracks on the album. Billy Bragg: I’m in a very difficult position with Kings Of Leon in my house, because my missus loves them and my son hates them. I’m in neither camp, I’m non-committal about them, really. I liked their first album more than I liked this one, which I really didn’t get. I can’t get as enthusiastic as you, Bob, especially as we’re really getting down to the most interesting albums on the list. I can see why they’re popular, they put on great live shows, and it’s great to hear guitar music the way they’re using it, and unlike the Grizzlies they do have that light and shade in there, but it’s not something that I feel particularly strongly about championing. Bob: To what extent to do you Kings Of Leon, and maybe Kasabian, are the last of the great popular rock bands? We seem to be coming to the end of the line with something, don’t you think? Billy: I don’t think so, I think each generation has to get hold of that in a different way. I’d put Kings Of Leon above Kasabian, I think Kasabian are a part of the Oasis thing rather than doing something more interesting. I think Kings Of Leon are, for their generation, a pathfinder. The way they’re doing it, I want them to succeed in wherever it is they’re going, but this particular album doesn’t really go anywhere for me. Bob: I wasn’t making a comparison with Kasabian, and I take your point completely, but there haven’t been that many bands emerging in the last few years. Kasabian have been around for some time, and they’re one of the few big breakthrough bands in terms of sales, as are Kings Of Leon. Allan Jones: Well, I think it’s a really good album, but it just gives up all its secrets too quickly, too apparently. With something like Grizzly Bear, it’s like walking to a room you’ve been in before but every time you walk into it the furniture has been slightly rearranged. You discover something new every time. With Kings Of Leon, it’s exactly the same every time, I never get any more out of it. It’s a big, exciting rock record but I’m not engaged hugely by it, despite its massive familiarity or its pan-generational appeal. Dave Robinson: I concur with Bob. I think this is a cracker, because the progression of this band has been good. It’s better than their earlier records, they’ve developed into something really good. I love their style, to me it’s folk music in a rock idiom, which is pretty much what I’ve always been interested in. Again, because it’s so popular, you think it maybe shouldn’t be on this list, you want to try and fight against the idea of going for something so obvious, but at the end of the day the general public do occasionally latch on to something that is cool and exciting. The other thing about it is that I don’t believe they’ve been especially successful in America, they thought the Brits had gone mad when they took to it. I’m Irish, I’m not anti-British, but I really don’t like English music by and large, I only like it when it’s got a folk influence. I thought The Beatles were folk, for example. I thought The Rolling Stones were crap, I thought Queen were a complete abortion, I couldn’t believe people were singing along to those dodgy old operatics. I could never understand why England likes thespian ham music. Bob’s been more articulate than me on this, but I think this is a great record, it’s a stunning progression of the group, I love their family orientation and their backwoods vibe. Rachel Unthank: I’ve been having to bite my tongue here. I feel really emotional about music, as I’m sure everyone here does, but I just don’t understand what all the fuss is about. They drive me mad, I just think they’re awful. I agree with Billy’s son, and I agree with the Americans. The way he sings is not honest. I think they take themseves far too seriously, there’s no humour there, not a trace of humour throughout the entire album. The way he sings is full of histrionics - not in an experimental way, but in a “I am sexy, I am a rock singer” way. I just find myself thinking “oh, shut up!”. Tinariwen have got more rock ‘n’ roll in their little fingers than any of that band have. “My Sex Is On Fire”? What a ridiculous name for a song – aaarrrrgggh! They drive me mad! I couldn’t believe I had to listen to it again once it made the shortlist of eight, to be honest. It incenses me. They’re supposed to be a rock band, they’re supposed to incite passion and sex and something raw, but they’ve just got a big fat load of gloss and put it all over the record. There is no light and shade, it’s just... fakeness. And I hate them. Well, I don’t hate them – that’s a bit mean. I just don’t get it, I’m sorry. I’m really shaking just thinking about them. Dave: But what do you really mean, Rachel?! Rachel: I mean, how can you say that this is good and some of these other records aren’t? I feel like I’m being sold something, I really do. I’m just being sold an idea of what a rock band is. It makes me angry, I’m sorry. Billy: See, they just bounce off me, I wish I felt as passionate about it, one way or the other. You are right, though; one of things that always pissed me off about Oasis was that they had no sense of knowing, there was nothing in the way of knowingness in regards of what a silly-arsed job being in a band is. I want a bit of that from my stadium rock bands, because it is a silly-arsed job. You don’t get that with the Kings Of Leon, they are a bit po-faced. Rachel: They think they’re the real deal. Mark Cooper: It’s interesting to me that you kick off so much about the record, because I know that some people have problems with what they perceive as an old-school sexist element to their lyrics, but I haven’t really ever listened to their lyrics. Rachel: I didn’t really get engaged enough to listen to the lyrics that closely, to be honest. Mark: I think it’s really hard to judge this record against the others. I think it’s a really great mainstream record, I think it’s brilliantly produced, I love its dynamism, I love the fact that all the sounds on it really grab you. A lot of these records are very blissed out, but I love the tension of Kings Of Leon, it’s what I loved about a band like, say, Television. The sounds on this record kick against each other, if they were balls they’d be zooming around a pinball machine. I think the arrangements are great, for a guitar band, I love the singer’s voice, I think it’s really soulful and moving. I think they are utterly po-faced, but I sometimes think that isn’t a bad thing in rock ‘n’ roll band, there’s an element of pomp in a lot of great rock bands. Yes, it can go too far, but I don’t this record does. I’ve got four children, aged nine to 23, and they all like this record. Rachel: That’s because it’s average and is therefore less likely to draw an enthusiastic response, maybe. Mark: Well, I don’t think they like it because it’s average, they like it because it’s great pop-rock music. They engage with it instantly. That’s not my way of judging music, and I think the Grizzly Bear record is way better than this, but this is a great mainstream record and there aren’t that many great mainstream records these days. I personally don’t think there’s any point in making the Kings Of Leon the record of the year, because two-and-half million people in the UK have already bought it and they’re really happy with it. I like advocacy, I like turning people on to stuff they’ve not had a chance to hear, and we wouldn’t be turning anyone on by making Kings Of Leon the winner. Maybe that’s unfair, it should be a purely aesthetic issue, but I don’t see the point of going too populist when choosing a winner. Allan: I think it’s in the spirit of Uncut to advocate, rather than focus on music that is already really accessible. Dave: Well, Allan, I kind of took it that the best album would be the best album that you put on and don’t take off until the end. Lets’ find the record that cooks, where somebody’s thought about the running order, so that there’s a nice graph of interest or whatever. I love what Rachel had to say, I think she should have her own radio show with people sending her product every week, but the Kings Of Leon ticks a lot of boxes for me. Tony Wadsworth: I agree with a lot of what Rachel says about this album, probably not quite as strongly! I really like the earlier Kings Of Leon stuff, it was a lot spikier, and I think the problem for me with an album like this is that it is very glossily produced, and a lot of the character seems to have been taken out of it. If you’re examining it with your head it’s all there, it’s really well produced, the sound is crystal-clear, he’s got an amazing voice, but does any of it make you weep or whatever? No, it really doesn’t move me. If I hear a track on the radio I actually prefer it to most other things you hear on the radio, but to listen to it as an album... er, I don’t want to, really. Mark: But it’s a mass record, it’s a record you hear standing in a field and want to sing along to, and it sounds great on the radio. I think you’re right, it’s a harder record to appreciate on a panel like this, when you’re perhaps talking about records that you develop a close personal relationship with. Maybe it’s a record you can admire and sing along to – (looks at Rachel) unless you hate it – more than you can feel like you’ve discovered. Bob: I agree with you, Mark. My radio programmes are all about discovery. I like to put something like Kings Of Leon into the running order to slice the programme up with the occasional note of familiarity, but then you back to the real purpose of what you’re doing, which is to play music that will be fresh and new to the listeners. I think Mark’s right, because if we finished up with Kings Of Leon as the winner we wouldn’t be taking anyone anywhere other than where they already are. I love it and it’s probably the first thing on this list that I’d put on at home, but in terms of our combined efforts this afternoon I don’t think it would be the right choice for the award.

Looking back on the blog from a few months back about The Dirty Projectors’ “Bitte Orca”, I found myself talking – like most other critics did, of course – about the contemporary R&B influence on the band, especially to the fore on “Stillness Is The Move”. Good comments on that thread, and one from Fanz stands out this morning: “Wouldn't it be great to hear ‘Stillness Is The Move’ on some mainstream R’n’B radio?” Excitingly, in an unusual bit of cross-genre back-and-forthing, we might do soon: a cover of “Stillness” has surfaced this week by Beyonce’s sister, Solange. In that last blog, I said something about the original not being materially any weirder than one of Timbaland’s productions for Aaliyah, and Solange’s terrific version proves that. In fact, if anything, it manages to sound a little straighter than something like “One In A Million”, while still remaining utterly faithful to the serpentine complexities of the original. More assiduous bloggers than I have identified the sample as the same one used by Erykah Badu on “Bag Lady”, and it’s interesting that while the Dirty Projectors seemed to be organically reconfiguring digital, futuristic R&B on the original, Solange’s version is consequently closer to the vibes of the nu-soul scene; warmer and fuzzier, maybe, rather than precision-tooled. What would be really fascinating, though, would be if she’d had a crack at one of the songs sung by Dave Longstreth on the album, because I’m increasingly unsure whether the perceived awkwardness of “Bitte Orca”, and the Dirty Projectors’ catalogue in general, is actually almost entirely down to Longstreth’s voice being a bit of a chewy proposition at times (though I think Billy Bragg’s curious comparison with Mika at the Uncut Music Awards was a bit of stretch). Maybe Solange has got her brother-in-law prepping a version of “Temecula Sunrise” for “The Blueprint 4”?

Tony Wadsworth: I loved this album, again it was one of those things where you didn’t know what was going to happen next. It mixed together styles and arrangements that were completely original and unpredictable. You hear people talk about records where the guitar sounds like it’s in another room, but there’s one song here where it sounds like the guitar is an another album. It’s completely from leftfield. But it’s also very soulful as well, it didn’t strike me as being too clever-clever. It just struck me as people who really know how to play together well, almost like jazz musicians. There’s a beautifully loose drum sound to it, in fact all the instruments sound beautiful. There’s some great melodies, the Pet Sounds thing coming back in again. It had a bit of everything for me, this album. It’s got a great mood to it, you can let it wash over you, or you can sit down and listen to it very intently. Some of these albums start with a great mood but tend to lose it about halfway through, but I think this is a phenomenal album. Billy Bragg: See, I was the opposite of that. I found myself thinking, ‘for fuck’s sake, do something else’. Some of the albums on the long list of 25 had me understanding why kids are downloading things for free. If I was buying these albums and found only one or two tracks that appealed I’d be well pissed off. I think the lack of dynamics on some of these albums, the lack of light and shade, I found that a real problem. This is a nice enough record, I just wanted it to go somewhere. Some of these records you can imagine driving on a long straight road in America or whatever where not much happens, you don’t see anything different for a long time, so when something different does come in you really notice it. But that’s not the kind of light and shade I’m looking for, I want something that turns off the road and comes back again. Tony: Don’t you think, though, as opposed to people downloading and cherry-picking individual tracks that the album format is there to create an actual mood? Billy: I think it’s becoming more like that, I think younger bands are doing that. It’s certainly the case with the Dirty Projectors album, there’s a lot of continuity there. I’ve been thinking that perhaps young bands are reacting to the whole download thing by creating a lengthy mood piece, it’s an interesting theory. I don’t think in those terms when I’m making an album, I think of what went before and how does this move the idea further along. I think when you want people to play your record as a continuous piece, when you’ve conceived it as such, you have to think more obviously about what you’re doing to stop listeners unbundling your work. That might be what’s led to this mood thing that we’re getting on a lot of albums. Allan Jones: The mood of the album is really quite consistent, it does present itself as one piece. Tony: We’re heading back to the prog era. Rachel Unthank: Howay, let’s get over the word “prog” not being cool. Music should be progressive. There’s bad prog and there’s good prog. Billy: Not to those of us who fought in the punk wars! Rachel: Can’t get over it, can you, Billy? Billy: No, we can’t! Blodwyn Pig still haunt us! Rachel: I kept thinking I wouldn’t like this album, because there’s an element of the whole thing that Fleet Foxes brought to the table, that whole kind of sound, and I kept thinking I’d find it too similar. But every time I put it on it surprised me, it actually led me into their world. I really enjoyed the arrangements, the harmonies. I was constantly surprised, I think it’s a really good album, although not as good as Dirty Projectors. In a way I think the two bands have a lot in common, but Grizzly Bear seem a lot warmer, not as angular. A bit more poppy, I suppose. They’re easier to listen to, but there’s lots of layers you can get your head into. You can listen to it as a mood, as one piece, but there’s so much going on that you can have a different experience every time you play it. Some times the harmonies reminded me of Ben Folds, that kind of joyousness. I really liked it. Bob Harris: I liked it too. A lot of the stuff I play on my programmes falls under the general heading of what people call Americana, and because I’ve become a sort of target for artists and labels to send me this sort of stuff I get to hear a lot of it. One of the problems with certain aspects of Americana is that you find yourself wanting to say to the artists “get over yourself! What’s wrong with you! Be positive!”. I find myself looking outside of all that, looking for something that has more texture. One of things that always effects me is when you sense that an artist’s lifestyle has spilled into the grooves. What Lucinda Williams always does for me is that her character, the way she is, comes across really strongly on the records. There’s no barriers. I always love it when you get that feeling off a record, and I must say I didn’t get that from Grizzly Bear. I just found it, in that respect, a bit glossed over. I don’t know why I found that, because all the raw ingredients are there for me to like this record, but again in the context of this award it’s not one of my favourites. Dave Robinson: Like all of us, I hear a lot of music, but 25 albums is a lot to listen to quickly. I did play this a lot, because I saw by the sticker on the sleeve that they were so praised for being wonderful that I was worried I might be so over-the-hill and in the departure lounge of life that I couldn’t appreciate what all these magazines think is fantastic. So I did listen to it a lot and ultimately found it to be... nice, but nothing. Mark Cooper: I’m with Tony, I think it’s a great record for virtually all the same reasons. I love the fact that it’s a whole piece of work, that it has a mood. I think the arrangements are dynamic throughout, it has great melodies that stay with me. I think there are three or four songs that are really masterful. I tend to associate a lot of Americana records with melancholia, and I love that blissed out atmosphere. It’s kind of like a Beach Boys record. Everything I don’t like about the Animal Collective record I love about this one. It takes Beach Boys references, Mercury Rev influences, and comes up with something genuinely original. I like its musicianship, its sense of surprise, it’s a really good record. Dave: Is there a hot track you’d nominate, something that I should go back to? Mark: Well, I loved “Two Weeks”, I loved “While You Wait For The Others” and “All We Ask”, those three really stand out for me. It is a big favourite of mine, I’m disappointed more of you don’t agree. Rachel: I’m really surprised it’s not more popular with the panel. I think that a lot of people of, sorry to say, my age get into it a lot quicker, but then is it sometimes just that reacting to something sensitive is seen as being cool?

“I think this band will be hugely influential,” suggested Billy Bragg during the judging sessions for this year’s Uncut Music Award. “In the next couple of years we’ll be hearing young bands lifting the tensions and the rhythms of Tinariwen.” Rash prophecy, maybe? Well, it took about a week. Just the other day, the debut album from Fool’s Gold arrived, and when “Ha Dvash” began rolling, all orbital twang, syncopated handclaps and chants, Bragg seemed to have been proved right. A sprawling collective of LA hipsters were, it seemed, making a pretty decent fist of playing Touareg. Not necessarily what you’d expect from a bunch who apparently include deep in their ranks the ex-drummer of We Are Scientists, plus Orpheo McCord, the drummer who figured in that brief, weird-even-by-Mark-E-Smith’s-standards, Transatlantic configuration of The Fall a few years ago. But Fool’s Gold, helmed by a singer/bassist called Luke Top and a superb guitarist called Lewis Pesacov, manage to pull it off, along with a few more off-the-peg African music selections, on this very lively, self-titled debut. When the opening track, “Surprise Hotel”, drifted in from the NME office next door last week, we initially thought it may be the new Vampire Weekend album. But actually, “Surprise Hotel”, not least thanks to Top’s quizzical drawl, is closer to the zinging ersatz hi-life of Talking Heads circa “Naked”, maybe “Nothing But Flowers” in particular. After that, Fool’s Gold zips fairly brazenly, but effectively, through a variety of styles that seem familiar even to an African music dilettante like myself. So “Nadine” co-opts the svelte Addis big band horns and eastern scales familiar from the Éthiopiques comps, while “Night Dancing” and “Momentary Shelter” have the frantic, ringing percolations of Konono No 1, albeit re-scored for different instruments (see also Vampire Weekend’s “Horchata”), plus some galloping Africa ’70 horns on the former. There’s a sense that, unlike Vampire Weekend, influences are being regurgitated rather than fully digested, and doubtless “Fool’s Gold” will be seen as a purist’s nightmare, a hipster appropriation, or whatever. Nevertheless, it succeeds: here’s a band with a certain ricocheting virtuosity, and a critical understanding of the exuberant possibilities presented by these musics.

Today: the judges discuss Bob Dylan's "Together Through Life". Tony Wadsworth: I love it, Bob Dylan is my default setting at the best of times. I love the sound of it, what David Hidalgo’s accordion brings to it. Mark Cooper: I know what Tony means about the sound of it, Dylan’s always been very good at creating a whole sound for an album, in the way that Desire has its own sound, or John Wesley Harding has its own sound. Having said that, it’s what I both love about the album and slightly miss about it. I love it, but maybe it won’t stand up alongside the great Dylan records. It’s very hard to judge Dylan in a field like this, because Dylan is Dylan. I think it being in the final eight for this award made me realise how much I like it, and I enjoyed listening to it more than I might have done otherwise. Rachel Unthank: With it being in the final eight, I probably gave it more attention than I would have any other new Dylan record, and it did grow on me. I agree with Mark, in that I really enjoyed it but I don’t think it brought me anything new in my appreciation of Dylan. I would want to listen to it again, but I wouldn’t want it to win. Bob Harris: It’s funny, because I really loved the last Dylan album, Modern Times, but for me, for some reason, this one just got lost on the conveyor belt. I don’t know why, but it seems like this album has just come alongside everything without really breaking through into my consciousness. I’ve always started listening to it and then thought I’d better get on to listening to other stuff. Tony: Maybe you were enjoying yourself too much! Bob Harris: I’m really going along with both Mark and Rachel by saying, yep it’s great, it’s Bob Dylan, I didn’t not like it, but in terms of what we’re doing here and picking out something really outstanding, it doesn’t strike me as being the great album of 2009. Dave Robinson: Bob Dylan is probably the singlemost thing that I got off on at a very young age. I remember trying to play his early records to Irish showbands and influencing them into changing their entire outlook, and them thinking I was a complete nutter. I just think he’s phenomenal, I love everything about him, but I think this record is completely naff. It’s fine, but it’s a kind of a 12-bar outing that any number of people could have trotted out. I’ve spoken to several musicians who’ve played with him in the past, people I’ve got out of retirement homes in Nashville to play on sessions for records I’ve been involved with, and they all say that the thing with Bob was that they’d do a rehearsal and then two days later the recording would start, by which time Bob would have changed the rhythm, he would have changed the timing, he’d have changed the whole ethos of the song. Basically, he wanted them to make it up, he wanted that kind of vibe, but on this record I don’t think he did that. I think everyone just played what the songs were. They’re fine, there’s nothing wrong with them, but there’s nothing spectacular about them, and in this particular context of an award for the best record of the year it doesn’t really hold up. I’ve never given Dylan a two out of five in my life, but this is a two. Billy Bragg: When you make as many albums as Bob Dylan does, every now and then you’re gonna make one that’s a bit pedestrian. I have nothing but respect for him, whatever it was that drove him to make those incredible albums, those incredible bursts of inspiration in the 60s still drives him. You can’t expect him to reach those heights time and time again, but the very fact that he’s out there, still making records, still engaged, is great. His radio shows prove that, and (to Bob Harris) he’s totally stolen your presentation style – another Whispering Bob! I always like to listen to Bob Dylan, but where he is and what he’s doing doesn’t really fit into this company. Where he was and what he did do is great, but that’s not what we’re judging here. I don’t think this particular Dylan album really does it. Allan Jones: In comparison to some of Dylan’s latterday work this album has a really kind of stoic feel to it, it’s like ‘we’re all gonna fucking die, so let’s have a good time’. It has a rambuctious feel to it. He wrote the songs in ten days, went in and knocked the album out very quickly. Billy: It’s an incredible way to work, nobody else does it. He’s keeping a flame alive that the rest of our industry has lost, and he deserves our respect for that. It doesn’t make it record of the year, though. Mark: What I think is incredible about this record is that there’s probably one song here that’s got more chance of becoming a standard than anything on any of the other albums. It’s incredible how he can come up with something like “Life Is Hard” that almost any other singer can sing. I don’t think there’s another song on all these records that somebody else will sing in about ten years. Billy: I was watching Smokey Robinson at the Electric Proms the other night, and there’s an artist of a similar stature who wants you to love him. It’s all about love, I felt really connected to him. Dylan dares you to hate him. How many young bands would go out there after you’ve paid your money and more or less tell you to fuck off? Nobody else does that, he’s still got that edge. He pisses you off, just like the Pistols. Mark: Well, there’s a difference between pissing somebody off and bad art.