Album of the Year (yep, and it's only May)

I've just spent the past 48 hours listening to the new album by The Bravery, "The Sun and the Moon" and believe you me, it is dope...the shit...etc. etc. I know the new Interpol album ("Our Love, To Admire") hasn't come out yet, but I haven't heard a better sound since "Antics" (and possibly Snow Patrol's "Final Straw"). And while it it's slightly more straight-forward and less retro than their first album (Also called "The Bravery" and yielded classics like "An Honest Mistake", "No Brakes" and "Fearless"), the songs are energetic and brazen. "Bad Sun", "Believe", "Split Me Wide Open" and "Fistful of Sound" will stay with you for a long, long time. If I had to describe them, they sound like The Cure, parts of New Order, the Kaiser Chiefs...and both the Byrds and the Monkees!!!

I don't know what's gotten into those New York bands. All of a sudden there are three or four that are creating some of the most exciting music around, including anything done in the UK. It'd be a real shame if I moved to London and New York becomes the place to be. A shame, but also bloody typical.

Also, I was beginning to worry that the 00s would be a write-off, musically. I mean, the first five years of the 00s were utterly uninspiring (Limp Bizkit? Linkin Park? Learn to spell, boys) but since 2004, I can name more than a dozen albums that have made me jump up and down: Hopes and Fears (Keane), Hot Fuss (Killers), Final Straw (Snow Patrol), Silent Alarm (Bloc Party), Fade to Black (Amy Winehouse), Whatever People Say I Am (Arctic Monkeys), Demon Days (Gorrilaz), Employment (Kaiser Chiefs), Antics (Interpol), Give Up (The Postal Service), The College Dropout and Late Registration (Kanye West), Scissor Sisters (Scissor Sisters), American Idiot (Green Day), The Bravery and now The Sun And The Moon (The Bravery).