Sheffield singer-songwriter Richard Hawley has today announced a 14-date UK tour to take place this autumn. The singer, who released his brilliant (I don’t give 5 stars out willy-nilly!) new album Standing At The Sky’s Edge (featuring the above single ‘Leave Your Body Behind You’) will begin the tour in Holmfirth on 16 September and wrap it all up on 3 October at the Brixton O2 Academy – full dates are below.

Tickets for the tour will go on sale this Friday 18 May at 9am. Go to Richard Hawley’s official site for full ticket details: http://richardhawley.co.uk/live/

Richard Hawley tour dates:

September:

16th – Holmfirth Picturedome

17th – Norwich UEA

18th – Portsmouth Pyramid Centre

19th – Brighton Dome

21st – Bath Pavillion

22nd – Birmingham HMV Institute

23rd – Sheffield City Hall

25th – Leeds O2 Academy

26th – Manchester Academy

27th – Newcastle O2 Academy

28th – Glasgow Barrowlands

30th – Lincoln Engine Shed

October:

1st – Derby Assembly Rooms

3rd – Brixton O2 Academy

Remember when iTunes and then music streaming started to get really popular a few years ago, and everyone was saying how this ‘internet thing’ would totally dismantle the music industry and lead to lots of old classic songs and unknown artists hitting the charts?

Well, for the first time ever, The Official Charts Company has revealed the songs that were streamed online in the UK the most last year and, surprise surprise, it’s full of the usual uninspiring, major label drivel that clogs up the charts and radio playlists. Check this out for a depressing top 10:

1 ROLLING IN THE DEEP – ADELE

2 GRENADE – BRUNO MARS

3 PRICE TAG – JESSIE J FT BOB

4 S&M – RIHANNA

5 THE A TEAM – ED SHEERAN

6 DO IT LIKE A DUDE – JESSIE J

7 MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE – ADELE

8 WHAT’S MY NAME – RIHANNA FT DRAKE

9 ONLY GIRL (IN THE WORLD) – RIHANNA

10 PARTY ROCK ANTHEM – LMFAO/LAUREN BENNETT/GOONROCK

So much for online streaming creating a bit more of a level playing field! It’s just as hard for new bands and artists to breakthrough as it ever was – probably even more so these days.

The chart was compiled using streaming services like Spotify, Deezer, We7 and Napster – taking into account both subscription and ad funded streams.

What do you think of the music streaming chart – is it representative of your streaming habits? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below…

More than 60 artists will be taking to the stage to perform in front of competition winners. The first acts announced today include Usher, Norah Jones, One Direction and Jack White – who will be treating fans to his debut solo album Blunderbuss on 8 September.

Speaking of her inclusion on the roster, Norah Jones said:

“Can’t wait to return to London for the iTunes Festival and play in a venue with such deep history. It’s great to be on a bill with an amazing range of artists and to be on the same stage on which The Stones, Bowie, The Ramones, The Clash and so many others played.”

For full details on the iTunes Festival, visit the official site: http://www.itunesfestival.com/

In what could be an inspired piece of social media marketing, the album stream will take place at 7pm in every timezone across the world, so just like on New Years Eve the album will gradually sweep across the globe – so expect Sigur Ros’ chosen hashtag of #VALTARIHOUR to dominate the Twitter trending topics all day on Thursday!

To whet your appetite, here’s ‘Ekki Mukk’, the first taster the band released for Valtari:

Valtari is Sigur Ros’ sixth studio album and will be released through Parlophone in the UK on 28 May.

As you can probably guess, these guys have built up quite a reputation as a blistering live band over the past few years in London. They’ve just finished recording their debut album – due out in the autumn – with legendary producer Greg Haver, who has previously twiddled knobs for the likes of Manic Street Preachers and Super Furry Animals.

The Diamond Noise are:

Hugh Viney (vocals)

Scott Viney (guitar)

Luke Marchant (bass)

Hugh Scott-Moncrieff (drums)

Website: http://www.thediamondnoise.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thediamondnoise

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/thediamondnoise

Age Of Consent are experimental production duo Joe Reeves and Darren Cullen, who met at uni in Glasgow and now reside in London banging out hip remixes of the likes of La Roux. Now they are starting to concentrate on their own material. releasing ‘Heartbreak’ on 11 June as the follow up to last years well received debut‘The Beach’.

Age Of Consent – ‘Heartbreak’:

‘Heartbreak’ is that rare kind of dance song that is interesting musically as well as lyrically – reminding me a bit of Violator era Depeche Mode (bold statement I know!). Learn more about Age Of Consent here:

http://www.ageofconsent.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/ageofconsentmusic

http://soundcloud.com/ageofconsent

This weeks singles that matter, reviewed and rated for you by contributor Philip Lickley. If you would like to contribute to All-Noise, get in touch on submissions@all-noise.co.uk

Amy Macdonald – ’Slow It Down’

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Buy Slow It Down

It’s been a while since the Scottish singer-songwriter attacked the charts but if this is an example of what she’s been working on it’s a Gaelic battle I’m looking forward to. Much speedier and energetic than her usual material this is immediately catchy with a chorus that sells the record and a repetitive bridge that builds momentum for the song. Ironically for a song called ‘Slow It Down’ it’s anything but slow, with a drum line that is eccentric in its delivery, but I’m glad she keeps the tempo and pace. Welcome back, Amy.

D’Banj ft Skepta & Sneakbo – ’Oliver Twist’

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Buy Oliver Twist

Merrily “borrowing” the beat riff from ’Get Get Down’ by Paul Johnson (you know, the song that goes, down, down, down, etc etc) this tune from Nigerian singer-songwriter D’Banj revels in its African sound, instrumentation and vocal calls. Taking the lyrical structure of Calvin Harris’ ‘The Girls’ and extolling the virtues of various female singers, its production values can’t be denied but the tune quickly becomes a mess of layers with far too much going on. When it strips back during the verses the slow dancehall-esque rhythm is addictive but the chorus is over-complicated and what makes the record stand out soon becomes repetitive and stale. Not a bad record but can see the appeal for a club and the closing ‘shaking’ break down is the best bit of the record, but would be better stripped back. The video is interesting to watch though, seemingly taking place on the set of Dragon’s Den, with a random pointless appearance by Kanye West at the end.

Delilah – ’Breathe’

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Buy Breathe

I’m due to see Delilah performing at a festival this August but from this record, her third single, I’m not really sure if I won’t be checking out the other stage while she’s on. ‘Breathe’ is a, funnily enough, breathy ballad, over an eccentrically produced backing of strings, drums, piano and such like. Sadly the lyrics are masked over by a confused production that comes in after the first verse and with no distinguishable hooks. It’s a little too wail-ey and unstructured for my liking. If you like your music free-flowing and progressive then there will be bits to enjoy here, but to me it’s too wishy-washy to enjoy and doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.

Emin – Baby Get Higher

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Buy Baby Get Higher

Available for free download from his website, this is not the musical endeavours of Tracey “Dirty Bed” Emin thankfully, but a male singer who has created ‘Baby Get Higher’, a rock ballad with some clichéd, but interesting lyrics, built up over a pleasant enough backing track. It’s not particularly revolutionary in its writing or production but it’s a fun three-and-a-half minute listen with a simple but catchy chorus. Definitely worth a listen.

Katy B & Mark Ronson – ’Anywhere In The World’

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Buy Anywhere in the World (Radio Edit)

I’ve always been a fan of Mark Ronson’s production but this promotional anthem for Coca Cola at this summer’s Olympic games is surely a mis-fire for the super producer? Katy’s overpowered vocals bear no relation to the backing track and it sounds like for the first minute that he’s started playing the wrong instrumentation. Like a bottle of Coke that’s gone flat, there’s definitely no bubbles of joy to be found in this record. Sorry, Mark, but your production of this track doesn’t work, going from an opening that sounds like the computer is broken to an ending that sort of peters out. It covers up what could have been a good track, if you could only hear it. Not even a bronze for this.

Morten Harket – ’Scared Of Heights’

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Buy Scared of Heights

Former lead singer of A-ha, the greatly-named Morten Harket releases this second solo single from his Out Of My Hands album. You know what to expect before you hear the song: a catchy falsetto chorus over some building strings, and that’s what you get. Very much a sister song to A-ha’s relatively recent ‘Foot of the Mountain’ but much pacier and with a much more addictive tune, it sounds like a cross between Keane (in particular ‘Bend and Break’) and A-ha’s trademark sound. Well recommended with a cracking chorus and bridge, and it’s only a shame it seems to be over so quickly.

The Saturdays – ’30 Days’

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Buy 30 Days

The lead single from the girl band’s upcoming fourth album, ’30 Days’, is not a particular surprise featuring five-part singing over a frenetic club beat. The disappointment is that this is no ‘Higher’ or ‘Up’ and fails to really make an impact over its three minute running time. It’s a perfectly fine enough pop song but the chorus fails to light up like their previous ones and it just feels a little forced and taken from the cookie-cutter of collection of pop-club tunes. Could do better, Saturdays.

Scissor Sisters – ’Only The Horses’

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Buy Only The Horses

After the confused single release of Azealia Banks-featuring, hate-it-at-first-but-grows-on-you ‘Shady Love’ earlier in the year, we now get the first single proper from fourth album Magic Hour. ‘Only The Horses’ sounds much more like the Scissor Sisters you’d expect but Calvin Harris’ production on it is as obvious as ever and just about manages to sound different to some of his other producer credits. Much poppier than their third album releases, the bridge is perhaps the best part of the record before the Avicii-sounding chorus kicks in. I hate to say it but I would have preferred ‘Shady Love’ as a proper launch single and, though it’s no ‘Laura’, ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’ or ‘Fire With Fire’, it’s an enjoyable enough track even if it’s not their best. I feel they’re more at home with their poppier sound than this more clubby approach.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Buy Standing At the Sky’s Edge

Like most of his solo output so far, former Pulp and Longpigs guitarist Richard Hawley has put his hometown of Sheffield at centre-stage of his new album ’Standing at the Sky’s Edge’, with the Sky’s Edge area of the city creating a neat metaphor for being at the edge of despair and being isolated/introspective and all that.

Fans of Hawley, though, may have been a bit worried to hear that this is probably the only similarity between ’…. Sky’s Edge’ and his earlier work – after hearing talk of heavy, swirling atmospherics, skyscraping guitars and haunting psychedelia replacing his trademark gentle, mid-tempo croon. But they needn’t worry – by introducing these elements Hawley has made not only the best album of his solo career, but one that outstrips all his previous work with Pulp and is easily the album of the year so far.

From the atmospheric, Eastern-tinged opening of ’She Brings The Sunlight’, to the powerful, early-Verve guitar tracks of album closer ’Before’, ’… Sky’s Edge’ is a rich and textured journey involving all of life’s big issues – love, loss, hope, death and erm… broken Britain.

While ’… Sky’s Edge’ is dominated with Hawley raging against the dying of the light, in terms of the death of his friend and the decline of society, it’s telling that he opens the album, and introduces his heavier sound, with a sweet love lyric about his wife – ”She brings the sunlight / She makes the world right”.

The title track brings in the dominant themes of the album, with Hawley lamenting the state of the country and the extremes to which it drives normal, hard-working people – using biblical characters to ram the point home: “Joseph was a good man / But he killed his wife…This was the end of a desperate man / With only love in his eyes and no evil hands / He was standing at the sky’s edge”. The heavy distorted guitars and rumbling rhythm section adds to the drama and impact of the song, which ends with a majestic, Doors-esque coda.

’Time Will Bring You Winter’ carries on the mystic Eastern influences introduced by ’She Brings The Sunlight’, and creates a stunning, shimmering chorus that Doves would be proud of, while ’Down In The Woods’ is the albums first proper rock song, bringing in rolling rock riffs and angry vocals about a brainwashed society and some psychedelic tangents about solar flares.

The most recognisable Richard Hawley song on ’… Sky’s Edge’ is ’Seek It’, with its gentle melody and nostalgic lyrics. It’s a nice excursion from the heavily layered tracks that came before and leads nicely into the shining jewel in the crown that is ’Don’t Stare At The Sun’, a gloriously epic and emotional soul searcher that brilliantly combines Hawley’s strengths as an introspective songwriter with his powerful new musical punch.

’The Wood Colliers Grave’ and ’Leave Your Body Behind You’ make a nice one-two combination of haunting storytelling and then the harsh reality of death, which leads us into the epic album closer ’Before’.

’Standing At The Sky’s Edge’ is the album that puts Richard Hawley at the top of the tree of British singer-songwriters and should see him move beyond his cult following (and soundtracking ice cream commercials) to become a major force in mainstream music.

‘Three Shining Suns’ is taken from Reptar’s first album Body Faucet, which is out in the UK on 2 July. Judging by the above, and the couple of album tracks available on Soundcloud (below), the album will be full of infectious melodies and not unlike Vampire Weekend.

Reptar hail from Athens, Georgia (REM’s hometown, pop pickers) and are currently on tour in the US of A. They are:

Graham Ulicny – Vocals / Guitar

William Kennedy – Keyboard

Ryan Engelberger – Bass

Andrew McFarland – Drums

For more information, head over to their official website (the best band website I’ve seen in a while!): http://reptarmusic.com/

What do you think of Reptar? Let me know in the comments below…

I never realised just how much I’ve missed Passion Pit until they dropped this little beauty earlier today – it’s bouncy, sun drenched melody was just what the doctor ordered in this dull, wet and windy Spring weather! Check it out:

‘Take A Walk’ isn’t a massive diversion from Passion Pit’s first album Manners, which is good news in my view, but the lyrics seem to have taken a darker, Arcade Fire-y tone: “I watch my little children play some board game in the kitchen / And I sit and pray they never feel my strife”.  So hopefully second album Gossamer might be an instant classic in the mould of The Suburbs, here’s hoping anyway!

What do you think of ‘Take A Walk’? Let me know in the comments below…