Lofts Are Hot - Fact.

Lofts are massively hot - fact. I live in one, I work in one, and the similarities to a sauna are uncanny. Technically, I should be really thin and have amazing skin and all the other good things saunas do. I have none of those things though. Instead I am constantly hot and bothered and unable to sleep (which, granted, is a benefit at work). Very very annoying. At the same time, if it gets cold and starts raining again, I WILL complain. Such is the in-built British reaction to the weather.

Job update- still no job. Quelle surprise. I felt slightly better when I heard on the news yesterday that 16-24 year olds had the highest rates of unemployment right now. Well obviously I didn't feel better, than means I have more people to compete against when applying for jobs, but I like to use such statistics to back up the fact that it really is bloody difficult, and I'm not just being lazy, which is the view my mother holds about the situation.

I went on a CD binge in HMV, and was a bit annoyed that HMV actually had everything I wanted, am I becoming too mainstream, or are HMV actually starting to stock things are aren't just in the iTunes top ten? Whatever, a small internal tussle ensued but I'm over it not. So here's the gems I picked up.

We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls. Scottish four-piece who recently supported Frightened Rabbit, and in a smart move got their debut album out whilst the hype machine is still in full flow. Musically a cross between Frightened Rabbit and My Latest Novel - all is-it-the-end-of-the-track pauses, tinkling glockenspiel and tracks that start, wander off somewhere else, and then come back again. Lyrically - er, immature. By all means go for rhyming couplets, but do them properly - lightening/frightening is not clever. It's no where near the raw, hard-hitting lyrics of Frightened Rabbit, but it's clearly just down to life experience. I would say it's an age thing, but Alex Turner wrote Whatever People Say I Am... at 18, and Alessi from Alessi's Ark was even younger when she wrote most of her debut. So it's not an age thing, therefore it must be experience. Clearly these boys haven't had their heart broken yet. Still, an amazing debut, and Scotland continues to reign supreme.

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle. Number one, amazing album artwork - a hazy, sunny, scene of horses in a field! Anyway, the ex-Smog man goes it alone after walking out on the band two years ago. It's hard to shake off the association when listening to it, especially as that voice IS Smog. But Bill Callahan seems to have exercised his demons from the Smog fallout, and this is a relaxed, carefully crafted album. His voice is, as expected, still centre stage, and underpinned with lush orchestra arrangements. It's certainly not full-blown, grandiouse sweeping strings, but subtle and poignant augmentation. The album seems very comfortable, like he's being doing this all his life, and emits a bit of a warm glow, like the cover art. But of course the flip side of that is that it's very safe and that maybe he's not really pushing himself with it. But ultimately it's lovely to listen to, so what's not to like.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca. Ok I haven't actually listened to this yet, but the couple of tracks I've already heard are more than promising, so I'll be sinking my ears into as soon as I'm done with Mr Callahan.

Finally, I met Roddy Woomble. He's a bit like a pixie.