Music is my radar August'09 (Arctic Monkeys, Jack Penate, Blur, Island life etc.)

 New releases are minimized during summer, however this August we listened to the two best albums of the year so far.

The Arctic Monkeys with Humbug continue from where the Last Shadow Puppets left off, with their album from last year, after several hours of listening to the Black Sabbath, as well Cream and Jimmy Hendrix discography. A detailed review of their album, which is officially released today, you can find here . My personal favorites are Secret Door, Potion approaching, Dance little liar and of course the single Crying lightning .

The 25 year old Londoner Jack Penate had gained the sympathy of some album critics with his first release, Matinee, two years ago. Everything is new , for which Pe Pe writes , will certainly have a high rate on many best of 2009 lists. Jack brings to mind certain songwriters from the 80's and in his compositions he mixes white soul of that decade with latin tropicalia afrobeat. The album includes 9 of the happiest songs I've recently heard, including Be the one, Everything is new, Tonight's today and Give yourself away .

God help the girl is the new band by Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian, with the participation of Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy and Scot Catherine Iretch, a member of the Go away birds. Their music is reminiscent of our beloved Belle and Sebastian, but with a stronger folk element. An homonym music film will be released in 2010.

The «third» band by Jack White - in this one he has the role of a drummer - who may have been neglecting the White Stripes recently, is called Dead Weather. The band includes Alison Mosshart from the Kills, the guitarist Dean Fertitsa from Queens of the Stonage and the bassist Jack Lawrence from Raconteurs. The result of this collaboration was released last month, is titled Horehound did not excite me at all.

The Wilco from Chicago released their sixth album in their 15 years of history, which was recorded in Neil Finn's studio in New Zealand. You and me is featured by Feist, while my favorites are also  I'll fight, as well as the single You never know .

Dark night of the soul is the title of the co-operation between Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. The photographs that adorn the packaging of the album heve been collected by the director David Lynch and the participations of Julian Casablancas from the Strokes, Suzanne Vega, the Gruff Rhys and Nina Persson clearly stand out.

Modest Mouse released  an EP containing 8 songs, entitled No one's first, and you're next and Patrick Wolf released his fourth album, The Bachelor, from which my favorites are Hard times, Oblivion and Vulture. Xaxakes returned with The Valse of deer, after 9 years and Reverend and the makers released their second and last album, as stated by the singer Jon Maclure. We will not really miss them...

On the occasion of its 50th birthday, the record company Island released a collection entitled Island Life 50 years of .... The company was founded in 1959 in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, allocating only 1000 UK pounds as an initial capital. In the 60s, it was moved to London where it created the most inclusive list of artists. This triple Cd includes tracks by Bob Marley, Roxy Music, Traffic, U2, Pulp, Amy Winehouse etc. I remembered the super hit by Sparks with the large title This town ain't big enough for the both of us from 1974, which you can see here .

Certain highlights from the carreer of Blur are included in their collection, which is not a not best of, Midlife: A beginner's guide to Blur, released on the occasion of their shows this summer. Take a look here here what happened in Hyde Park on July 2nd.