the only remains of my August reviews

August was a cracking month for new releases.

STREAM

Hooton Tennis Club - 'Highest Point in Cliff Town' 

Album release 28 August

Recommended single - 'P.O.W.E.R.F.U.L P.I.E.R.R.E'

If you google 'Hooton Tennis Club' you'll see it's situated on the outskirts of Liverpool. According to their website they have four artificial grass courts, two of which are floodlit, which not only provide an excellent playing surface in both summer and winter but also offer minimal impact on joints and muscles.' 

Surely that's all you can ask from a tennis club? You'd be wrong because this tennis club has an exciting new band named after them. Like many great bands hailing from Merseyside, Hooton Tennis Club serve up a collection of ace songs that I'm sure you will grow to love (I'll quit it with the tennis references now) and will have you reaching for the repeat button. Their debut album 'Highest Point in Cliff Town' features the singles ' Jasper', 'Kathleen Sat On The Arm of Her Favourite Chair' and their latest release 'P.O.W.E.R.F.U.L. P.I.E.R.R.E'. 

It's refreshing to hear three distinctly different sounding singles from a band, which whets the appetite for what's to come on the album. Album track 'Standing Knees' is another standout moment and has tones of one of my favourite bands, Pavement. I've picked this as my one to stream this month as I'm sure you'll find that like me, the more you stream these songs, the more you'll want to make them a permanent fixture in your record collection. I'll see you all down the front when they play the Duchess in York on 2 November.

BORROW

Foals - 'What went down' 

Album release 28 August 

Recommended single - 'What went down'

Another album to look out for ahead of the August Bank Holiday weekend is the fourth offering from the excellent Foals. The lead single 'What went down' from the album of the same name comes screaming at you like an angry tornado determined to wipe out everything else in its path. And in a musical sense it does just that as I've yet to hear another song on the radio this summer that has made me stop, sit up and listen as much as this one. Which probably makes you wonder why this isn't my number one choice for the month. 

Put simply that's because I think Foals fall into the trap of making excellent individual songs that don't always fit together well on an album. Perhaps in these days of streaming, downloads and people playing their own playlists this doesn't matter as much as it once did. Saying that, when Foals do it well, there's not many better artists out there, which is further confirmed by their latest single 'Mountain at my gates', with vocalist Yannis Philippakis' unmistakable tones making radio stations a better place to be this summer.

Foals are one of those great bands who manage to make good indie rock music that transcends into the dance world. Anyone who has seen me dancing might not think that is a good thing, but on a serious note, the music world could do with more intelligent noise. Foals bring this in abundance. If you want to check them out live then you'll have to keep an eye on their website as they seem to be staying away from these shores at the moment but with a new album to show off, I'm sure they'll have something planned for later this year. 

I'm 99% certain you'll know someone who is planning on buying this album so this month's one to borrow is Foals.

BEG

Hippo Campus - 'Bashful Creatures' 

EP out now 

Recommended single - 'Suicide Saturday

Anyone lucky enough to arrive early for last month's Modest Mouse gigs, will have caught a glimpse of Hippo Campus, the latest American band threatening to take over our airwaves.

Hippo Campus have created an almost faultless six-track EP to introduce themselves to the world. The title track 'Bashful Creatures' is a sheer audio delight although does contain the f-bomb and another less offensive four letter word, if you're planning on blasting it out around a post-watershed audience. I'd strongly recommend checking this song out on a streaming site of your choice. 

After you've heard this then I'm almost certain you'll be begging someone for the cash to buy the rest of the EP. Once you've done so you'll be glad you did. Songs like 'Little Grace' and 'Opportunistic' have had them compared to Vampire Weekend. Something they're apparently a bit sick of. So let's be clear - I won't be comparing them to Vampire Weekend. 

I don't know about your mates but people I know get a bit excited about making compilation cds or mixes before heading on a long car trip and then pick out so-called 'driving songs' that don't quite work. A bit random I know - but finally I've found a song that I'm happy to declare a cracking song to drive to. From the opening bars of 'Suicide Saturday', you can imagine driving along a great American highway. I'll see if it works as well on the roads of North Yorkshire. It also joins The Boo Radleys' 'Wake Up Boo' as containing the most unsuitable lyrics to an uplifting summer song that you'll ever hear. 

Apparently the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved in memory forming, organizing, and storing. I'm confident you can find space in your hippocampus for Hippo Campus. Beg or buy now.