Travels With Myself And Another

I, like many others have eagerly awaited the second offering from FOTL, and I, like many others was not dissapointed! Kicking off with "Arming Eritrea" with a hushed intro eventually kicking into a chunky riff, and the slightly confusing opening lyric of "Come on Rick, I'm not a prize, I'm not a cynic or one of those guys!" Who the hell Rick is is anyone's guess really but a great opener! There are some more moments of Falco's strange synth on " Throwing Bricks At Trains" and "Yin/Post Yin, and these stand out as completely different to anything on "Curses" before! One of my personal favourites has to be "You Need satan More Than He Needs You" with great shout along chorus, and some heavy, repetative synth and drum backing plus typical Falco style shouting! Sadly "That Damned Fly" sounds a bit lacklustre after this, but that's not to say it's a bad song (there isn't one on the album, to be truthful).

"Drink Nike" I get a feeling is a sly dig at the "Hoody" Youth culture ( or "chav Scum" as we like to call them round my way!) with it's "Those kids, I swear, drink nike" lyric! Closing track "Lapsed Catholics" starts with a nice picked guitar and some spoken word stuff about Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and sky news being a "Hysterical, Gung Ho, Technicolour, Crap fest" (Genius!). This then gradually evolves into some nice, loud, balls to the wall rock of the highest order! Basically buy it, it's damn good.......................Nice.

Don't allow this incredible album to elude you because you're not hearing Zane Lowe proclaiming its brilliance, or because Falkous, Mathias and Egglestone aren't on T4 every other weekend, or because they're frequently painted as being too tricksy and angular for general consumption and enjoyment.

'Travels With Myself and Another' is an album that's appeal stretches way beyond the leftfield.

On the surface, it is a thrilling rock album. Few bands wield as much sheer power as cleverly and sinuously as Future of the Left.

It's a cliched set-up for a statement, I know, but there *are* more ideas and memorable hooks in this album's first song, Arming Eritrea, than on the entirety of Kasabian's recent plod-a-thon. Kasabian shouldn't feel too aggrieved. Everything that has been released in a long play format so far this year pales in comparison.

This is a pop album, in the same way that The Pixies 'Doolittle' was a 'pop' album.

And it is, perhaps, as good (I'll have to see if I'm still listening to Travels With Myself And Another in 20 years to give you an honest answer on that).

There is great, subtle variation, here, from the warped but accessible hooks of 'Throwing Bricks At Trains' and 'Yin / Post Yin' to the apocalyptic synth funk of 'You Need Satan More Than He Needs You'.

All of this great music serves as a brilliant foundation for Andrew Falkous's cryptic and always fascinating lyrics, and his visceral delivery.

I could blather on about Travels With Myself And Another for pages and pages, but that would be wasting your valuable listening time.

If you're still undecided, play a quick and simple game of trying to find a bad / mediocre review of this album.

There aren't any. Not from authoritative sources, anyway.

That's because it's a chaff-free beast of an album. 33 minutes of focus and Falkous. If you hear any better this year, please please please let me know, because that would have to be a stonewall classic, too.

Any band that films its videos in Cardiff's much loved but massively under threat Vulcan pub just below the International Arena should be a greatly adored institution. If the said band are as good as Future of the Left it is a bonus of epic proportions. FOTL are a hybrid mix of two former giants of the Welsh music scene Jarcrew and Mclusky. the latters "To hell with good intentions" remains one of the most underrated rock songs of all time. FOTL build on this pedigree but also transcend this leagacy. They are the frontier leaders in the maths rock genre and a band whose brutal, witty, spiky, snarling, venomous and bloody hilarious post punk rock songs are some of best this side of the Rio Grande river never mind the River Taff.

I never thought I would hear a song as good as the Queens of the Stone Age "No one knows" for its raw simplicity and sheer tub thumping euphoria. A case of "Ye of little faith" as it turns out since "You need Satan more than he needs you" on Travels is its thrilling counterpart. Its lyrics that contain the odd swaer word mean that it will not be gracing the charts in the near future but is brilliant shouty rock of the kind that will require Andy Falkous to make an early booking into the Heath hospital for a throat operation. This album is littered with highlights and of course the usual great titles (although nothing to match the earlier "the world loves us and is our bitch").

I love the poppy but jagged "Throwing bricks at a train", the driving epic of "I am the civil service". Alternatively "Lapsed Catholics" starts off with a spoken discussion about impressive prison breaks from films like the Shawshank Redemption until about 2 minutes in it turns into a roaring punk song as powerful as anything you will hear this year (and 10 times more relevant than anything Green Day can do). Influences abound not least of all the Gang of Four, the Fall, Half man half biscuit, the Pixies but this band has enough of a track record to claim it own originality and uniqueness. They are also as catchy as swine flu. Listen to the anthem "Drink Nike" and try not to bounce.

In the context of the current play of Welsh bands I must admit a deep loathing for the Manic Street Preachers with the notable exception of the wonderful "Motorcycle emptiness" even though I know people who would assault me in the street for such a statement. There has always been a much more interesting set of Welsh bands who never quite stormed the music charts but were brilliant all the same and overloaded with such talent that it was a wonder that any stage would take their weight. The gentility of the Young Marble Giants and more latterly Gorky's Zygotic Mynci is one strand of this. On the other strand are bands like the joyous Los Campesinos! the sparkling melodic indie of north Wales new sensations The Joy Formidable and not forgetting the godlike genius of Shakin Stevens! FOTL are a thrilling addition to this all these traditions.

The album clocks in at an economical 33 minutes and not a second is wasted or subject to filler (if you want two hour albums get Yes's "Tales of Topographic Oceans and a razor blade for your wrists). The Future of the Left is currently hotter than solar flares and release magnetic energy in a way that most bands can only dream. When you have finished this go out and buy "Last night night I saved her from Vampires" their great live album but not if your a fan of Reverend and the Makers who are subject to a vicious and hilarious verbal assault in the album opener .