Decemberunderground by AFI

Back in 2003, underground goth punks A Fire Inside made a break for the bright lights with their major label debut ‘Sing The Sorrow’.  Warded off by the glare of success, they skulked back to the safety of their San Franciscan crypt. Within 18 months, Franz and The Killers had driven commercial stakes through AFI’s art. Yet if a week is a long time in politics, three years is forever in music, and with MCR making dysfunctional death cults fashionable again, AFI have timed their return exquisitely. The crunching call to arms of opener ‘Kill Caustic’ and sublime, swing-tinged single ‘Miss Murder’ make for an impressive re-introduction. That the rest of ‘Decemberunderground’ is, for the main, a maudlin mope-fest comprised chiefly of schlock rock cliches (’The Killing Lights’) and slightly risible stabs at synth-pop (’The Interview’), just about redeemed by choruses you could hang a trench coat on, is almost beside the point. With a comeback pitched between the indulgent love-metal of HiM and the pubescent pop-punk of Fall Out Boy, AFl’s hiatus looks increasingly less like laziness and more like a marketing masterstroke. Don’t bet on their fire being extinguished just yet.

Schmotime by Absentee

Absentee's mini album ‘Donkey Stock' was one of the quiet delights of last year a low key blend of‘Loaded' era velvets and the world weariness of smog, together with a disarming diversion into the Grease soundtrack. For this,their debut album proper, they've poured a large helping of pop into the mix. Pop in the sense that ‘Something To Bang’ (re-recorded form ‘Donkey Stock’) fizzes like the greatest hit single that never was. And pop in the sense that most of the songs here are drunken monologues that reveal singer Dan Michaelson to be more of rake than,say, The Rakes will ever be.So, if you're a fan of pop music, in any sense, then what are waiting for? lt's‘Schmotime'.

Love & Other Planets by Adem

Full of deep thoughts spliced to simple melodies, ‘Love And Other Planets’, the second solo record from Fridge man Adem, is a concept album. Scary? Not really. Here, space is analysed on micro and macro levels, what's up in the heavens and what's inside us, what we are doing to our planet and ourselves. In that respect and even musically, Adem mirrors the ambitious approach of Sufjan Stevens, which is some compliment. ‘Spirals’ just Adem and guitar, equates the mysteries and vastness of the cosmos to the size and complexity of his love for his sweetheart. That's heavy yet beautiful shit right there. Adem may not change the world, but he's definitely been thinking about it.

Jacket Full Of Danger by Adam Green

A few years ago, Strokes pal Adam Green was in godawful New York lo-fi duo The Moldy Peaches. He dressed as an elf and sang charmless songs about turds. Three solo albums down the line, he's ditched the turds
and the elves and turned into a lounge lizard part old school Neil Diamond gloss, part the louche sleaze of veteran Lee Hazlewood. He'd be rakish if he wasn't so wasted. “How many drugs does it take to find something to do?", he clangs in the Vegas/Nashville mash up opener ‘Pay The Toll’. Stoned boredom is a theme that nuns through the album, which is hardly original. Yet it's driven by a brilliantly vulgar wit. cabaret strings that stay just the right side of kitsch and lyrics that in lesser hands would become boring and clunky. A twisted, mucky treat.

New English Ep by Ambulance LTD

Bands usually have the decency to wait until they've been going a fair while before inflicting the B-sides/ live tracks collection (as in, not good enough for the proper album) on the world. This mini album from the transatlantic four piece strives to buck trends and rewrite rules by cashing in after only one album. So we get seven meandering tracks of mellow guitar pop that are dreamy and elegant. Like gossamer freefalling on to artful statues, with a similar musical impact. Plus, Ambulace Ltd's cover of Pink Floyd's ‘Fearless’ transfomis it into a dinner party strumalong which is practically sacrilegious. Nice and all that, but who wants to hear ‘the rest’ of their repertoire when we've not even heard ‘the best’ yet?

Chosen Lords by Aphex Twin AFX

In a galaxy far away somewhere near Elephant & Castle, in fact sits AFX, aka Aphex Twin. He makes music, as that is all he knows. There was a time. 15 years ago, when he was a prodigy, the techno pixie straight outta Cornwall with an ear for compelling, weird. usually wonderful beat driven music. You'd be forgiven for thinking he disappeared when the dance, or indeed analogue bath, bubble popped. But ‘Chosen Lords’ is proof of Aphex Twin's uncommonly rude health. artistically speaking. Gathered here are 10 of the tracks from last year's 11 volume vinyl only set sold on his website to fans. Each episode sold five figure quantities. On ‘Chosen Lords’. AFX glides between dark tedino, freakish deep house,
twisted electro and, on the snappily titled ‘PW Steal.Ldpinch.D' mini analogue symphonies. Aphex Twin: still king of the electronic castle and probably the elephant too.