O2 Love Music Column – November 2012

Preview by Darren Carle | 30 Oct 2012

Having bubbled under the surface since their 2010 debut album Innerspeaker, Australian psychedelic rockers Tame Impala look ready to boil over with their second offering Lonerism. It finds the quintet still embracing their vintage geek tendencies for seventies experimental rock while branching out within the generous boundaries the genre permits. Meanwhile the plaudits are rolling in thick and fast as this month's show at the O2 ABC on 3 November approaches. Sweet cosmic coincidence!

We’re still picking through the dense sonic landscape of Centipede Hz, the latest studio album from Animal Collective (O2 ABC, 7 Nov). It’s a rawer, looser affair which should translate well to the live arena. The band themselves attest that their normal skewed approach of road-testing über-new material is behind them for now, so enjoy this rare opportunity to catch them playing the hits, such as they are. Sounds good already.

What more is there to be said about Motörhead (O2 ABC, 9 Nov)? Well, the legendary heavy rockers, led by the inimitable Lemmy, have released an astonishing twenty albums since their eponymous 1977 debut. As such it’s easy to take the veteran trio, most famous for the eternal Ace of Spades, completely for granted. The only way to remedy such nonchalance is to get your arse down for this sure-to-be-rawking show and pledge (or re-pledge) your allegiance to old Snaggletooth.

Hailing from Sweden but sounding genuinely steeped in American woodsy folk and blues, First Aid Kit (O2 ABC, 24 Nov) are nothing if not a beguiling concept. Sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg are the precocious talents behind the unassuming moniker that brought us this year's sophomore record The Lion’s Roar. With a previous leg-up from Fleet Foxes, the siblings now look ready to venture out on their own. Dig out your favourite Fair Isle jumper and be there.

Having returned with a new album in September after more than a decade apart, college rock favourites Ben Folds Five (O2 ABC, 30 Nov) are cementing their return by embarking on a European tour, with this Glasgow drop-in being their only Scottish date. In the saturated market of reunion shows, Ben and his boys can hold their heads up high having delivered a decent new record while never really going off the boil in the first place. Eat that Stone Roses!