Feel good hits of the 16th March

1. 'March Of Progress'  - Viet Cong
A remarkable song from a remarkable album by a remarkable band. An early frontrunner for SWSL Album Of The Year, and no mistake.

2. 'Price Tag' - Sleater-Kinney
Just the sort of bold, beefy, hook-laden track you would have prayed would kick off Sleater-Kinney's comeback record. See, dreams do come true after all. How good it is to have them back.

3. 'Dead Celebrity' - EMA
From an album opener to an album closer. 'Dead Celebrity' is noteable for making clever use of sampled fireworks to bolster the melancholic tone rather than suggest anything celebratory. Like the best songs on Past Life Martryed Saints, it'll haunt you for days.

4. 'War Paint' - Ex Hex
Ex Hex's Rips could be described with a word that you couldn't possibly use of EMA's The Future's Void - it's fun, pure and simple. Nothing particularly complicated, nothing particularly inventive - just glammy indie-rock tunes that hit the sweet spot time and again.

5. 'Queen' - Perfume Genius
I'll admit that I've been a little disappointed by Too Bright thus far, even if 'Queen' - the reason I finally relented and bought it - remains pretty stunning.

6. 'Surrealist Appearance' - Radar Men From The Moon
The first I heard of this lot was via my mate Dave, who always has an ear to the ground. I can tell you precious little about them other than they're from Eindhoven and 'Surrealist Appearance' is heavy, psychedelic, shoegazey post-rock that blows Mogwai's most recent material a long way out of the water.

7. 'Tied Up In Nottz' - Sleaford Mods
A highlight of last week's Oxford gig, inevitably. "The smell of piss is so strong it smells like decent bacon" - what an opening line.

8. 'Autodidact' - Swervedriver
First Ride, and now Swervedriver. They pretty much passed me by first time around (though I do have a copy of 'Duel' somewhere), but this track - the first offering from new album I Wasn't Born To Lose You, their first for 17 years - is very good indeed. Thanks to Geraint for the tip-off.

9. 'Animal' - Moon Duo
If there's a problem with this, it's that it's at least four minutes too short. Hence my general preference for Ripley Johnson's other outfit, Wooden Shjips.

10. 'White Galactic One' - Lotus Plaza
Just one reason why Spooky Action At A Distance is significantly better than the last Atlas Sound album Parallax. As much as I enjoyed the randomness and playfulness of Deerhunter's Monomania, it would be nice for Lockett Pundt to have more of an influence on its follow-up.