Jake.

I definitely agree with this. I remember hating the debut when it came out (I was 12 at the time, which is understandable, but I appreciate it more now and picked it up for like £2 second-hand). I remember hearing 'Uptight Downtown' and 'Let Me Down Gently' when 'Trouble in Paradise' came out and thinking something along the lines of "OH MY GOD THIS SOUNDS FANTASTIC!", so I swiftly went out and bought it. Definitely one of my faves of 2014.

I'm actually quite enjoying this record. I discovered them when they supported Maximo Park on their 2014 tour.

Question 1 -> Predict the Official Top 10 Singles of the week [10 points for a correct prediction, 9 points for one place out... 1 point for nine places out.] 01. Drake - One Dance 02. Sia - Cheap Thrills 03. Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza 04. Fifth Harmony - Work from Home 05. Zara Larsson - Lush Life 06. Tinie Tempah - Girls Like 07. Lukas Graham - 7 Years 08. Alan Walker - Faded 09. Meghan Trainor - No 10. DNCE - Cake by the Ocean Question 2 -> Predict the Official Top 5 Albums of the week [10 points for a correct prediction, 9 points for one place out... 1 point for nine places out.] 01. PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project 02. Adele - 25 03. Aled Jones - One Voice 04. Lukas Graham - Lukas Graham 05. The Lumineers - Cleopatra Question 3 -> Predict the sales (including streaming) of the #1 single to the nearest thousand [10 points for a correct prediction, 9 points for one place out... 1 point for nine places out.] 95k Question 4 -> Bonii [all questions worth 5 points for a correct answer and 0 points for an incorrect answer] • Predict the highest new entry in the top 40 Nick Jonas - Close • Predict the biggest climber within the top 40 Drake - Pop Style • Predict the fastest faller within the top 40 Adele - When We Were Young • Predict the number of entries (new or re-entries) in the UK Top 40 3

One Dance, Castle and Boyfriend are the only ones I really like from that list. I've only recently caught on to Tegan and Sara, thanks to an interview Laura Snapes did with them for Buzzfeed last week (which has just reminded me that someone I know actually got this site and that site confused recently).

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/news/60611/eb9291b2.jpg Minor Victories is a supergroup formed of Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, Editors' Justin Lockey, Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, and James Lockey of Hand Held Cine Club. Pitchfork reported in late February that it's out on June 3rd on Fat Possum (US) and Play It Again Sam (worldwide). It'll feature a duet between Goswell and Mark Kozelek (from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon) and a collaboration with the Twilight Sad's James Graham. http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/Minor%20Victories%20-%20Hi%20Res%20Cover.JPG Tracklist: 01 Give Up The Ghost 02 A Hundred Ropes 03 Breaking My Light 04 Scattered Ashes (Song for Richard) [ft. James Graham] 05 Folk Arp 06 Cogs 07 For You Always [ft. Mark Kozelek] 08 Out To Sea 09 The Thief 10 Higher Hopes 0oz6nzPSZLg OkBW7e28LkM

This album is a masterpiece - definitely in my Top 5 of the year so far. I recently picked up the indies-exclusive Purple Vinyl of this - which looks beautiful too.

"It surely didn't sell 100,000, did it?" actually crossed my mind when I was looking at the chart run for 'Studio 1'. I think it's probably 50k or below, however I could be completely wrong! We'll never know unless we find out from MusicWeek on Friday. They'll probably give totals for their first album and 'Never Ever', though it would be nice for all of their album totals.

+5 Sia - Cheap Thrills +4 Zara Larsson - Lush Life +3 Major Lazer/Nyla/Fuse ODG - Light It Up +2 Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza +1 Fifth Harmony - Work from Home -1 Tinie Tempah/Zara Larsson - Girls Like -2 Alan Walker - Faded -3 Jonas Blue/Dakota - Fast Car -4 Rihanna/Drake - Work -5 Lukas Graham - 7 Years

That is probably my favourite negative NME review actually (closely behind is their review of Mel B's Hot). They slated pretty much every Spice Girls solo album that they bothered reviewing I think (The only exception being a 6/10 for Emma's first, I recall).

Albums Frightened Rabbit - Painting of a Panic Attack (Amazon Signed Edition) All Saints - Red Flag (Amazon Signed Edition) Parquet Courts - Human Performance Teleman - Brilliant Sanity Ben Watt - Fever Dream Deftones - Gore M83 - Junk I think this is the first in a long time that I've bought so many new releases on first day. The release schedule is looking so bare for the next three weeks (There's a couple next week and a few on the 29th I plan on buying), so I thought why not? :lol:

Same here! I'd guess it's because the song is used in this new Apple Music commercial that came out yesterday. fK_zwl-lnmc

Here's a few albums that I've preordered on Amazon which aren't listed above Parquet Courts - Human Performance (April 8th) D.A.R.K. - Science Agrees (27th May) Cat's Eyes - Treasure House (3rd June)

Albums Pet Shop Boys - Super The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come to Expect (Limited Edition) Yeasayer - Amen & Goodbye Weezer - The White Album (Amazon Signed Edition) Mogwai - Atomic (Soundtrack) Kiran Leonard - Grapefruit

The only time I stream anything is if I'm unsure whether to purchase an album or not, a bit like a modern substitute for those headphone stands they used to have in record stores years ago (some independent stores still have them though), or if it's a back catalogue title that's too expensive/hard to find a physical copy of. I still buy CDs fairly often actually, though if it's back catalogue stuff I'm quick to hunt for cheap second-hand copies that are obtainable rather cheaply on Amazon/eBay (unless it's those examples above, obviously). I buy vinyl occasionally, particularly if it's some sort of special edition (such as the faux-velvet sleeve of Beach House's Depression Cherry album, for example) or if it's cheap. A few particular titles I've spotted on vinyl recently are slightly overpriced in my opinion; whilst my own mother has said how expensive they are compared to when she was my age. I very rarely download anything - only digital-only singles and EPs by artists I like, in additional to a couple of albums not released physically (Drake and Future's What a Time to Be Alive is one notable example).

Another new track from the album, 'Happiness', was made available on Wednesday which I've only just stumbled upon. QLPP0nAJxBo

Couldn't think of anywhere else better to post this as there's no Prediction thread for this week up yet, but Mint Royale has tweeted that Zayn is (as pretty much everyone expected) number one but the sales are "not stellar at all" and only a few hundred more than James did on their first day last week.

Thought I'd post this as I couldn't find the thread the other day and they've just performed 'The Pop Kids' on The Graham Norton Show as I write this. For me and most fans/critics, 'Electric' was their best album since 'Very'. But I'm someone who defends the underrated three albums that followed 'Very' and also loves the three albums that came after those (yes, even 'Elysium' - as much as there's a couple of duff tracks). In fact, I might as well say I have no issue with any of their albums really :D. I just hope this can be on the same level as 'Electric' in terms of how much I like it, and it seems likely as it's getting equally strong critical acclaim like 'Electric' did for the first time in 20 years for them and both 'Inner Sanctum' and 'The Pop Kids' are sitting well with me so far. The B-Sides to 'The Pop Kids' also sound rather good too.

I felt this way about Girls Aloud's 'Whole Lotta History' back before it was released as a single. How wrong of me, I know, but being quite young at the time, I can understand why I didn't like it and although I definitely appreciate it more now, it's probably my second least favourite on the Chemistry album (my least favourite being somewhat obviously 'See the Day').

I've had this on repeat all week, and I definitely feel this is their best album since Second Toughest In The Infants, way back in '96, and it seems to be getting some of their best reviews since then too. Not that there's a fair deal wrong with most of the albums since then, of course (I love Beaucoup Fish and Oblivion with Bells; and like a fair amount of A Hundred Days Off) but what makes 'Barbara Barbara...' so good is that it's such a massive improvement over Barking, and by listening to parts of this record, you can tell Karl Hyde has been working with Brian Eno (their two collaboration albums on Warp from 2014 are rather good).

Seeing so many albums that I own which I didn't include, ahhh! I think I might belatedly order 'Ys' from Amazon actually to add to to the collection, as the only Newsom album I own is 'Divers' (I have 'The Milk-Eyed Mender' on my iPod but I have no idea where that came from and have no recollection of buying it). I was tempted to pick up 'Ys' back when 'Divers' came out, but was really put off by HMV's £16.99 price tag, which is almost twice as much I got 'Divers' for. As for 'Art Angels', I also agree that is incredible. I can remember feeling unsure on my first couple of listens, but this has been the case with most of my favourite albums. I still prefer 'Visions' over it, but only slightly; and it might have something to do with having listened to it for longer.

I remember first hearing of her on 'Midnight Caller' from the second Chase and Status album. Didn't think that much to 'Light After Dark' though, (it wasn't terrible but nothing that special), but it was better than what the reviews at the time suggested (NME 2/10, DiS 3/10) which I thought were too unjustly harsh towards it. I can only find a live version of 'Elizabeth Taylor' on YouTube so far, but it sounds good on first listen, though not as good as last year's 'Don't Mess Me Around', which I'm really hoping will be on the album.

As much as I knew about (and loved) 'Keeping Your Head Up', I also didn't know about it either until I literally had it sprung on me on Wednesday when a friend told me they'd ordered me the signed copy from Amazon, which was a rather nice surprise :dance:

Not quite enjoying this one as much as the other three I've heard. It feels like ages since 'Fragrant World' (well, duh, it was over 3 years ago), so I think I'll revisit that and 'Odd Blood' in the run up to the release date for this.

Really loving 'Wolves of Winter' at the moment. Better than anything on 'Opposites' for me, so I'm really hopeful that 'Ellipsis' can rank alongside my favourite Biffy albums (The Vertigo of Bliss, Infinity Land and Puzzle).

Casually saw this thread and begun to realise how long it's been since her last album! :w00t: Didn't think much to her debut (but I like it more than I did at the time) but I loved 'The Sea' when it came out and I'm now really looking forward to this, as all of the above tracks sound really good! :music: