Music Blogs

In this week's NME, rather forgotten and famously embittered Auteurs frontman Luke Haines rails against the heroes of Britpop and its surviving heroes. "When mankind is wiped from the face of the Earth, Oasis will be promoting a new album", he dismissively sneers, in recognition that seas rise and governments fall but Noel and Liam never change, standing unopposed on their grey, manly rock throne. Just this week, the band were nominated for seven gongs at the aforementioned magazines 2009 awards. All sadly, painfully predictable.

But there is, praise be to Jim Morrison, an alternative! Surely it's about time The Kids rose up and installed new leaders? Well, you only have to look to Australia to see the obvious candidates. Arctic Monkeys have been premiering their first new material since 2007's mostly excellent "Favourite Worst Nightmare" Down Under, playing a string of shows and appearing at the Big Day Out Festival. Much of this new material has been laid down with untouchable Queens Of The Stone Age rock titan Josh Homme near the Joshua Tree National Park in California, a sun-scorched landscape which inspired U2's landmark album of the same name.

"Go-Kart", "Dangerous Animals", "Pretty Visitors" and "Crying Lightning" (which you can see below) are amongst the tracks aired on these dates and look to have more in common with the heavy, dusty sound of QOTSA or The Doors than Bono and co or Alex Turner's recent work with The Last Shadow Puppets. Judging by his tousled bob, girlfriend Alexa Chung has also contributed something to this imminent makeover. Talking to a local radio station recently, Turner said he hoped to have a new Arctic Monkeys album out this summer, admitting he is "thrilled" by band's new songs. Let's hope everyone else is mad for it.