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- Adele's tax grievances won't resonate with fans
The singer claims she wanted to 'buy a gun and randomly open fire' when she saw her recent tax bill – but her gripes are as tired as the most moat-friendly Tory grandee
Tax needn't be taxing, the advert simpers, and while that might be true, coughing up your hard-earned will never be anything less than grievously unpleasant. Yet hearing Adele complain about being taxed on the great tidal wave of cash generated by her multi-million selling albums, it's hard to feel much sympathy.
Speaking to Q magazine, the Rolling in the Deep singer said, "I'm mortified to have to pay 50%! [While] I use the NHS, I can't use public transport any more. Trains are always late, most state schools are shit, and I've gotta give you, like, four million quid – are you having a laugh? When I got my tax bill in from [the album] 19, I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire."
Now, I love Adele. But that doesn't exactly endear you to her, does it? Let's look at it again.
"I'm mortified to have to pay 50%!" The Beatles had to pay 95% - as did all the highest earners under two successive governments (Wilson and Heath) in the mid-60s. George Harrison wrote a song about it, can't remember what it's called, sorry.
"I use the NHS." Keep paying your taxes then or it'll be gone.
"I can't use public transport any more." The rest of us plebs still have to. Adele, however, will never be short of the sponds for a private car to Shoreditch House from now until the end of time.
"Trains are always late." What does that matter when you don't use them? And they're not anyway.
"Most state schools are shit." Actually, according to the most recent Ofsted report for the UK, "Just over two thirds of schools at their most recent inspection were providing a good or better education for their pupils. Pupils' behaviour was good or outstanding in 86% of schools." Of course, if rich people stop paying their taxes then they will become shit.
"When I got my tax bill in, I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire." Now, you have to assume this was a joke rather than the first bitter taste of a full-blown psychotic episode, but it's still upsetting to hear this musician I admire seems as greedy as the most moat-friendly, port-stained Tory grandee.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: The Horrors – Still Life
It seems Southend's finest have been listening to Simple Minds
When the Horrors emerged in 2006, black-clad and back-combed, they were quickly dismissed as a pantomime punks. While their 2007 debut, Strange House, had its moments – the garage thrash of Sheena Is a Parasite – their self-conscious image and humourless interviews made them a subject of ridicule. Then came Sea Within a Sea in 2009, an undulating eight minutes that swapped short bursts of vitriol for krautrock-influenced post-punk. It's parent album, Primary Colours, was nominated for the Mercury prize and suddenly confessing to liking the Horrors didn't provoke a snide response. Still Life, the first song from the band's forthcoming third album Skying, has echoes of Primary Colours in the warm synth washes but there's a new lightness of touch, not least in singer Faris Badwan's vocals. Also, they've clearly been listening to a lot of Simple Minds.
• Skying will be released on 11 July by XL
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: Kreayshawn – Gucci Gucci
This rapper is friends with Odd Future, plus she's 'got the swag'
Kreayshawn, an East Oakland hip-hop artist who counts Lil B, Soulja Boy and rap collective Odd Future as friends (two of them appear in this video), sports oversized jewellery, raps about how she "got the swag and it's pumping out my ovaries" and generally turns the notion of bling on its head. Gucci Gucci disses the "plastic" women wearing the titular label, and it's ridiculously catchy chorus lists the brands she avoids: "Gucci, Gucci, Louis, Louis, Fendi, Fendi, Prada/ Basic bitches wear that shit so I don't even bother." It's a DIY affair with vinyl scratches, rib-rattling low-end bass and creeping synth. What starts out like a kind of blog-rap parody – the oversized glasses, Kreayshawn stretched out on a slow moving car, the Skins-esque house party – soon becomes an enjoyable take on the idea that expensive possessions do not make the (wo)man.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: Arcade Fire feat David Byrne – Speaking in Tongues
Do you quite like Arcade Fire but feel they could do with a former member of Talking Heads yelping away in the background? Well today's your lucky day ...
On 27 June, Arcade Fire will release a repackaged version of their Grammy award-winning album, The Suburbs (their Grammy win, for Album of the Year, was such a surprise in America that "Who Is Arcade Fire?" became an internet meme). Not only will the new version feature the Spike Jonze-directed short film, Scenes from the Suburbs, it also comes with two brand new songs – Speaking in Tongues and Culture War.
Last night Zane Lowe premiered both, the former featuring a slightly deranged cameo from David Byrne who arrives around the three-minute mark to yelp and squawk over the REM-esque low rumble of cello and guitar, while the more acoustic Culture War plods along nicely enough before being joined by a lonely violin cry around the halfway mark. Lyrically, it's a continuation of the themes of alienation and loss of innocence laid out by the parent album: "These are different times ... kids are growing up so fast."The Suburbs is reissued on 27 June
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music exclusive: Wolf Gang – The King and All of His Men
Gearing up to release their MGMT-esque debut album Suego Faults, here's the premiere of the latest Wolf Gang video
Wolf Gang, led by frontman Max McElligott, are one of those blog bands that seem to have been around for ages yet are only just about to release their debut album (our NBOTD profile was back in July 2009). While their early songs were heavily influenced by Talking Heads and David Bowie (see non-album track Pieces of You), it's MGMT's Oracular Spectacular that seems to have soundtracked the album sessions (masterminded, tellingly, by the producer of said album, Dave Fridmann). Previous singles such as Lions in Cages and Dancing With the Devil gallop along, all pounding drums, sunny keyboards and a melodic core that's hard to shake, while this new single should nestle nicely on Radio 1's A-list. In this Guardian exclusive first showing of the video, we find McElligott following a mysterious young lady through a forest, across a field and finally to a beach before leaving her there to walk into the sea. Also, the man is so talented he and his band can produce electricity in a cave without leads. Definitely one to watch.
The album, Suego Faults, is out on 27 June and you can listen to five of its tracks here
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Hear Cults' debut album
A smitten couple making sunny pop with a dark heart – this debut album could end up soundtracking your summer
As is the way these days, Brooklyn duo Cults created an online buzz last year simply by having no information available. There was no MySpace, no official website – just a Bandcamp page and an amazing song (the spooky '60s do-wop of Go Outside, released, obviously, on vinyl only). Googling them wasn't an option, with all kinds of slightly sinister results leading you further away from the sunshine melodies created by Brian Oblivion (possibly not his real name) and his girlfriend Madeline Follin (probably is).
The band name was apt, however, not least because beneath the surface level sweetness – cooing backing vocals, big drum claps, vintage keys and gorgeous melodies – lurked a darker heart. Album opener Abducted finds Follin and Oblivion depicting a fractured relationship ("He took all my weed and left me to bleed"), using abduction as a metaphor for love over a driving, bass-heavy rattle, while Go Outside opens with a sample taken from a speech by infamous cult leader Jim Jones. Even the closing Rave On, complete with its surprisingly robust arms-aloft chorus, comes clouded with a kind of creeping ennui. At its heart, Cults is a pop album (the band are signed to Lily Allen's new imprint, after all), drawing influences from Phil Spector, Motown and the lo-fi aesthetic that still dominates a lot of music blogs. Also, if there's a better album this year to listen to in a sun-drenched field come festival season then we've yet to hear it.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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