Little Brother Knows Best...sometimes!

Just six months ago, I was sitting in my brother's flat in Manchester. Like me, he always has music on and like me his taste is eclectic. Over the years we have recommended various bands and albums to each other. Mostly, our taste runs along a similar road excluding 80's pop and Rap - what he has against Duran Duran and Spandau and what he sees in rap I'll never know! We have attended numerous gigs and festivals together and it's fair to say he is as obsessed by music as I am. Mind you, even he draws the line at storing his CD's alphabetically, a system that I feel would revolutionise his life (or certainly his girlfriends)!

Whilst having a catch up with a cheeky beer Lenny selected a new CD to put on the stereo - "I think you'll like this" he said with confidence.

He was right! The dulcet and haunting tones of The XX filled the flat and I was instantly hooked. The vocals and bass are vaguely reminiscent of Air. It's not that this band sound like them, they just evoke a similar feeling in me - chilled, relaxed, slightly mournful. It's one of the albums of 2009 in my humble opinion.

So when I found myself in the same flat with a similar bottle of beer the other week I had a feeling De ja vu may well occur, and it did! "Give this a listen, I think you will like it". And once again, he was right! Don't you just hate it when your little brother does that?!

This CD is very different from The XX. There are no haunting and mournful lyrics on offer here. Instead you get a folksy, rocky, Beatles influenced, upbeat, vaguely hippy mix courtesy of The Monsters of Folk. What a great little album this is. I was so impressed with my brother's taste that I headed straight to the record shop the next day. And since then, the CD has been a frequent guest for my stereo.

So there you have it, Jude's Album tips for the week. If you don't already have a copy of The XX (self titled) and Monsters of Folk (also self-titled) then shame on you. But there is a solution - nip out and buy them you won't be disappointed.