Listen Up! No. 88: Wire - Bad Worn Thing

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Watford's avant-garde punk pioneers Wire returned earlier this month with Red Barked Tree, their twelfth studio album and first since 2008. Amidst the familiar mixture of hand-on-heart four-chord calls to arms, nuanced, expertly manufactured textures and intrepid lyrical explorations of pop culture lies a sparkling pop jewel of a song. At once inhabiting new territory and still somehow unmistakebly Wire, 'Bad Worn Thing' decorates a throbbing anti-dance beat with a Brian Ferry art-school snarl and lines like "the future's sold, the chacellor paces". Better yet, the chiming guitar shapes which build to a gripping crescendo make sure it feels as well as thinks. An early frontrunner for the best you'll hear in 2011.

N.B. Turn that bass up where possible.

Listen Up! No. 53: Les Savy Fav - Dear Crutches

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Slow(er) and steady(er) wins the race - especially when you're getting old.

Listen Up! No.8: Japandroids - Sovereignty

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A relative oldie now, but their new No Singles companion (more like afterthought) LP to last year's buzz-saw classic Post-Nothing reminded me just how good this Canadian duo can be with four chords and some shouty double-tracking.

Listen Up! No. 3: Medications - Seasons

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Plenty of hooks, cross-eyed rhythms and great chops from this DC trio - the best band you've never heard of.