dev hynes is lightspeed champion,

the fact that nme has become nothing more than a selective hype publication was confirmed a month or so ago when they released their lightspeed champion cover story. for years now the magazine has selected an indie hatchling apparently at random and shoved them unrelentingly in our faces. although this custard pie approach has recently helped some deserving bands reach the masses (arctic monkeys, bloc party) there has been a shit load of tripe that nme has pummeled us with over the past couple of years (the wombats, lilly allen, the enemy, i'm loooking at you guys). the UK publishing battle between the nme and the guardian/observer to "find new bands first" has meant that in desperation to get one up on each other, nme has championed some absolutely atrocious bands to the point of absurdity (the guardian you're safe, i love you). during their cover interview with lightspeed champion, nme came close to comparing him to jesus christ, claiming that without dev hynes and the test icicles, that the british music scene today wouldn't be the same.


you may have missed my point however under all that bitterness. i'm not saying nme were wrong to get behind hynes, infact the rest of this post is going to lick his arse, the point i was trying to make was that nme lick arses far too vigourously and they lick the arses of many who don't deserve an arse licking.

so all of that exposition was a long winded way of saying, yes, lightspeed champion deserves the hype, but maybe not the messiah metaphors that nme are partial to. and maybe the UKs biggest selling music magazine should start picking their champions (get it?) more carefully so that we won't have to endure any more of bands like the fucking wombats. the lightspeed album "falling off the lavender bridge" was released at the end of january to critical acclaim. after listening through the album just once i fell in love with it, not one track is skipable. in truth, the albums is much like arcade fire's "neon bible" in the fact that it's more of a listening experience than a collection of songs. just letting the album play through and pour over you, not noticing when one track ends and another starts, it's best heard with headphones and your eyes shut. the centrepiece of the album is the ten minute long "midnight surprise", the full length video of which is included below. the track reminds me of green day's "jesus of suburbia" in the way that it is actually 3 or 4 ideas rolled into one song, except that it's so much better than their attempt at an epic. another track i love that hasn't been released as a single as of yet is "everyone i know is listening to crunk", it's the best example of hynes' sardonic lyrics on the LP. so yeah, lightspeed champion = super hero, nme = super villain.

download: lightspeed champion - everyone i know is listening to crunk