Feel good hits of the 15th February

1. 'Church On White' - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
2. 'The International Tweexcore Underground' - Los Campesinos!
3. 'Stay Out Of Jail' - Love As Laughter
4. 'Drunk Kid Catholic' - Bright Eyes
5. 'Lord Can You Hear Me' - Spiritualized
6. 'You Are Invited' - The Dismemberment Plan
7. 'Little Fury Bugs' - Death Cab For Cutie
8. 'Fossil, I' - Sky Larkin
9. 'The Sin King' - Crystal Stilts
10. 'My Secret Life' - Redd Kross

A few notes:

1. Not quite sure what possessed me to dig out Malkmus' first solo effort, other than the fact that now, post-move, I'm happily reunited with my record collection - but I'd forgotten what a damn fine album it is.

2. Not sure when I picked this non-album single up, but I'm very glad I did - not only is it a great song, it's also backed with their cover of Black Flag's 'Police Story'...

3. For Destination 2000 see 1. above.

5. Glastonbury inspired me to buy up the remainder of Spiritualized's back catalogue, but it's only now that I've given Let It Come Down the opportunity to impress. The early verdict? A bit of a slow starter, and not as good as Pure Phase or Ladies And Gentlemen, but certainly superior to last year's Songs In A&E.

9. What is it with bands with "Crystal" in their name? 2008 brought us Crystal Castles, and this year two of the outfits about whom the biggest buzz is being made are Crystal Stilts and Crystal Antlers. The latter pair's latest recordings are both on the shopping list, together with Sky Larkin's The Golden Spike and the new Drones album Havilah.