A lot has changed since then (other than Alex Turner’s hair), and the four piece have come a long way since their breakthrough nearly 10 years ago, adding deeper, more surprising aspects to their sound with each release.

Although material has been sparse in the last year, recent singles ‘R U Mine’ and ‘Evil Twin’ would indicate Arctic’s are seeking a heavier direction on their forthcoming fifth album, an inkling further proved this morning when new single ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ dropped, along with a slick animated video.

With a slow marching beat, and winding guitars reminiscent of Monkeys’ ‘Humbug’ era, the emphasis lies on Turner’s effortlessly cool vocals, as the quiffed frontman tells us to ‘simmer down and pucker up’.

Expect to see this one played at Glasto next week, check out the video below:

Tom Odell  |  Long Way Down

Winning the BRITs’ Critics’ Choice Award is a bit like having your mum tell you that you look nice. It’s sweet and a compliment of sorts but no one ever became a pioneer of the musical avant-garde because their mum thought it brought out their eyes. Just looking at the list of previous recipients (Adele, Florence and the Machine and Emeli Sandé are a few of the more sipid entries) is enough to make anyone cringe with embarrassment.

This year’s winner has to be the ultimate musical equivalent of parental approval. Tom Odell, the 22-year-old piano player and songwriter who was ‘discovered’ by Lily Allen and currently signed to her ‘In the Name Of’ record label has the blonde hair, foppish looks and adoration of early Elton John records to win approval from anyone’s mum. He’s already been used to soundtrack BBC trailers and Burberry featured one of his songs in their Autumn/Winter runway show.

It follows, then that Odell’s debut, Long Way Down rarely strays from harmless indie pop territory. With an album sleeve that was made to have Biro hearts doodled over it and production from Keane producer Dan Grech-Marguerat, it ensnares both the girls with One Direction posters in their rooms and sixth-formers who devour Radio One Live Lounge sessions like they’re bootlegged Dylan tapes. Odell hits all the money spots on album opener ‘Grow Old With Me’ with forever-and-ever promises, hearty chords and artfully arranged backing vocals. Combined with his spin on Allen’s trademark mockney and it’s enough to make any one yearn for domesticity.

But Odell is keen to convince us that it’s not all harmonies and happy families. The ‘one two three four’ of ‘Hold Me’ may sound gritty and spontaneous but there’s something about its manufactured production that gives it the analogue-porn feel of an Instagram snap. Odell can reach the Jeff Buckley notes on the chorus but the climax is fake and only really for the benefit of the ‘quiet bit’ that follows. He tries to shake the clean boy image elsewhere too, with fidgeting delivery and earnest attempts to convince us that he really does like alcohol and Charles Bukowski (‘Maybe I’ll just get drunk and it will all make sense’ he muses on ‘Sense’). Where Matt Corby could straddle the teen heartthrob and serious songwriter roles with a vocal earthiness that was undeniable even in the plastic surrounds of the Australian Idol stage, Odell has no such charisma. He’s admitted to breaking up with girls just for something to write about and the album’s sub-Coldplay single, ‘Another Love’ falls far short of ‘Yellow’ in its insincerity.

Despite his struggling-artist-who-got-a-lucky-break back story and the fact that, yes, he is a Grade 7 piano player, the only thing Odell can really claim to represent is commercial pop’s ever-evolving attempt to relieve us of our cash; this time by tempting us with the guise of ‘serious singer/songwriter’. The tinkling rhythm of ‘I know’ and its I-love-you-because-you’re-imperfect spiel is more One Direction’s ‘Little Things’ than John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’ and Odell himself, with his tabloid links to Taylor Swift and puppy dog eyes, is surely only a hair colour-change away from Harry Styles

Surfer Blood  |  Pythons

Making a follow-up album to an acclaimed debut is incredibly difficult for the vast majority of bands.  A band that must do so while making the sometimes contentious transition from an indie to a major label faces additional complexity.  Throw in an arrest for domestic battery for your frontman and it becomes an almost impossible task.  Confronted with this myriad of issues, it comes as no real surprise that Surfer Blood’s sophomore LP, Pythons, fails to measure up to 2010’s Astro Coast.

That’s not to say that Pythons doesn’t start off with real promise.  Right out of the gate, heavy guitars riffs and rich lyrical imagery propel ‘Demon Dance’ into the listener’s eardrums.  The start of the third verse, where frontman John Paul Pitts sings “Apologies, meet apologies/We could demon dance all night” shows a rawer edge than what can be heard on earlier work.  This is quite appealing in the midst of their typical surf-pop sound, which makes ‘Demon Dance’ the best track of the record.

‘Gravity’, the subsequent song, returns to the aforementioned surf-pop sound, but with dark lyrics that suitably represent the remorse Pitt must feel regarding the events leading to his arrest.  The contrast between the bright and cheery guitar hooks and these lyrics add an interesting element to what easily could have been just another filler song.  Trying to build on this theme is ‘Weird Shapes’.  However, here the lyrics take a turn down the road to melodrama, and one starts to wonder if this band has anything to sing about other than Pitts’s love troubles.

Sadly, the remainder of the album continues down this track, and the listener has to be thankful that the remaining 23-odd minutes will be over soon.  Throughout the last 7 songs, the band fail to break out of this rut, as they all sound very similar at first blush, with the exception of the slower, more delicate ‘Needles and Pins’.  However, even this song still fails to inspire anything other than a “meh”, especially when compared to Surfer Blood’s outstanding earlier work.

While Pitts surely deserves some credit for facing his arrest so squarely through his music, one has to wonder if reminding the listener of this fact so often was a great decision.  If the group had been able to add some variety to the lyrics to go along with what is a generally smoother sound, then they might have been a bit more successful.  While Pythons is certainly a disappointment, Surfer Blood might be able to take off again, but only if Pitts is able to put the specter of his arrest behind him.

At the tail end of last year, breakthrough track ‘Indigo’ well and truly launched Sundemo’s career, and we described it as ”a pop song in the truest form that echoes the best releases from Kylie and Girls Aloud”.

In the wake of the much hyped debut EP that followed, dropping back in March, the Gothenburg native has put out a new single online as a free download (well, in exchange for your email, but it’s worth it).

‘A Million Years’ builds from a chilled, subtly electronic affair into a majestic eruption of horns, chants and those resonant arpeggiated synths that the swedes do so well, as Sundemo continues to carve her niche in the pop world.

Frida’s ‘Indigo’ EP is out now on Parlophone Records, download ‘A Million Years’ below:

3200 Tigers fit rather nicely into the electro-pop ‘class of 2013′, providing a fresh take on the genre through a clearly vast pool of influences, putting as much emphasis on the calculated instrumentation as the synonymous saccharine vocals.

Despite only establishing themselves a few months ago, the Newcastle four piece look set to release their debut EP in the near future, though have teased fans by releasing two new tracks as a free download via their official soundcloud.

With reverb laden guitars underpinning subtle sampling and ridiculously catchy melodies from charmingly cheerful vocals, ‘Leapfrog’ is the perfect introduction to 3200 Tigers, who are bringing some much needed oomph to proceedings, viscerally shaking up the synth pop monotony.

An EP is expected to drop in the next few months, for now however, get acquainted and download ‘Leapfrog’ below:

Hailing from Leeds, the eight piece released debut EP ‘Tales From Pegasus Wood’ last year, and have been extensively championed by new music aficionados up and down the country over the last two years, and although many people (including us) have only just discovered them, their majestic optimism could undeniably soundtrack the summer.

With big band brass, strings and luxuriously layers of timeless instrumentation, it’s impossible not to be uplifted by lead single ‘Follow’, as fans of Dry The River or Eliza and The Bear will fall in love with the overwhelming cheer that this British equivalent of Beirut produce.

‘Tales From Pegasus Wood’ is out now, listen to ‘Follow’ below:

Despite playing what seems like every small venue in the country over the last two years, it is only in the last month or so that Catfish and The Bottlemen have acquired some much deserved buzz.

Although their name may conjure images of a toothless deep-south country outfit, the Llandudno four piece create indie of the volatile variety, bringing a fresh youthful exuberance reminiscent of the post punk revival all those years ago (albeit with a refreshing modern edge).

After recently signing to Communion Records, debut single ‘Homesick’, is out today (June 17^th), its slow burning intensity making it one of the strongest introductions of the year so far, showing both the intimate and ferocious side of the quartet’s time established sound in a short but sweet two and a half minutes of sheer urgency. This accompanied with hype from the likes of Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq and a host of blogs is steadily making Catfish and The Bottlemen one of the most important acts to watch over the coming months. We went to the pub with frontman Van McCann to discuss tenuous comparisons, constructive criticism and blowing money on holidays.

“It’s only recently that we’ve been taken off the road and had a chance to actually write about new things. We’ve all met girls now though, so we’re writing about sex and being dicks and stuff, it’s all a bit more classy.”

So Van, lets get acquainted, how would you describe your sound for someone who hasn’t heard your stuff before?

I guess it’s almost explosive if that makes sense. We try and write songs on the way they feel rather than they way they sound, so we want to make music that will hit people and feel like it’s blowing their head off.

You tend to find that when bands meet in school, their style dramatically changes as they grow up, how did you guys sound when you first started out?

When we first started I was 15, so we were just playing Beatles covers and the music we did make ourselves was pretty horrible. After we got tight enough to string some songs together I just started writing, and the alright songs really just started to come out this year.

People have put you in so many different categories already, how do you feel about the increasingly tenuous comparisons people seem to be drawing?

It’s strange that people just always feel the need to pigeonhole you in some way. I’m told 20 different singers who I sound like after every gig, but I think it’s good when they cant completely pin you down. The Strokes, Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys seem to be the most common comparisons to our style at the moment though.

I think the Arctic Monkeys comparison comes from your ‘realness’ as it were, and the relatable youth of your lyrical content…

Yeah I think it’s because we’re the same age as they were when they broke through, but in terms of lyrics we can only write about what is happening to us now really. You’ve got to grow up with your music though, like Kings of Leon have I guess. They get too much stick in my eyes because I love the way they’ve turned into an arena band naturally, progressing with each release, and you’ve got to change your sound as you age, you cant just go back to an old sound because people want you to.

So is it safe to assume your creative viewpoint is dramatically going to change as you become more successful then?

Well we’ve toured since we were 16 before we got signed, and played around 200 shows a year, so it’s only recently that we’ve been taken off the road and had a chance to write about new things. We’ve all met girls now though, so we’re writing about sex and being dicks and stuff, so it’s all a bit more classy. I want to write bigger, more cinematic material though, so I’m going to try and subconsciously work towards that. We already have four albums worth of material written though.

Will those songs still be relevant to you when you get round to putting an album out though?

That’s what we’ve been talking about lately, and fans have been asking us why we keep dropping songs from our sets. I don’t think they’ll be relevant when we get round to the album, but we could definitely change them if we wanted to fit them on a record.

It must be a weight of your mind to have all that material built up already…

When we started we always said that if we were to get signed we wanted to be seen as a band with longevity who would already have the material there, and wont have to lock themselves away for a year to write an album. I hate it when bands come out with a debut album and then just disappear, and I didn’t want to become that. So yeah, we’ve definitely got back ups if we need them (laughs).

You recently signed to Communion Records, how was that for you?

We signed the contract the day of the Barfly gig in London, so it was a really big thing for us. It was weird because we spent all our lives working our asses off trying to make a career in music and then someone just passed us a contract to sign in a white office, before we went to the pub, so there weren’t any fireworks or anything. The only difference I guess is there’s now people to tell you your songs are shit.

Do you think this new constructive criticism will push you to work harder?

Yeah definitely, they’re really cool because we’re all on the same page. It is hard though, as we may finish a song in the studio that we think is amazing, but then someone could come in and tell us it’s awful. I like having to step up though, and it still feels amazing that they want songs from us to be honest.

It feels odd that your debut single is only coming out now, as you’ve really built up all your hype through your live shows over the last few years. Is playing live perhaps more important to you than releasing material?

Yeah the live thing is all we care about really, and we leave the selling records part to the label. To be honest I’d rather sell out The Barfly than sell a million singles. The week before we were signed we were selling our own records at the shows, but that was only so people could know the songs, as that’s all we want.

How was it working with Ian Grimble on ‘Homesick’? As he’s produced for some huge names like of Manic Street Preachers, Daughter, Mumford and Sons.

He’s really reserved like our guitar player, and he wont tell you if you’re good, but will say a song is shit if he doesn’t like it. They call him ‘Ian Grumble’ because he just moans, but he’s so cool, and a massive genius. He’s seriously class, tell everyone Grimble is the man.

So will you work with him again when you inevitably re-record for the album?

We were thinking about maybe doing it ourselves, as we recently produced something that we loved (but everyone hated). It all depends how everything goes really, if we get big before an album I’m sure we’ll just blow the whole advance and go somewhere hot like Australia, but we’ll probably end up doing it in someone’s basement with one mic, which would probably suit us more to be honest.

Do you feel pressure on ‘Homesick’ being successful then?

I’m nervous about people liking it rather than if it sells or not. I’d ideally like it to build up our live audience, as I just want people to know our songs. If it were up to me I’d put out loads of songs before the album. To be honest anything is a bonus for us, and I don’t know where I stand until it comes out really, but either way I’m proud of it.

So what are you looking forward to most this year?

We’re touring with Glasvegas next week which is gonna be cool, but I’m really looking forward to playing the festivals, and introducing new people to our stuff this summer, I love winning people over.

Thanks Van.

‘Homesick’ is out today (June 17th) on Communion Records

To keep us topped up with LO goodness until then, the twosome have dropped third single ‘Wonderkind’. Four-and-a-half minutes of dreamy kaleidoscope pop, the great thing about this track is that underpinning the lushness and the trickery is a melody. A proper, classic melody. While that in itself, when put in writing, doesn’t sound particularly impressive, take it from us: the list of bedroom artists  dedicated to something roughly within the ‘chillwave’ camp that smother everything in reverb, bubbles and blips, and forget about the actual tunes is longer than the sentance i’ve had to construct to make the point.

Listen to ‘Wonderkind’ below, and stay tuned for the Effort EP.

‘Sideswipe’, an early single from California’s Anthony Ferraro – aka Astronauts, etc. – has now passed the 70,000 mark since being unveiled in February and Ferraro has been turning more than just a few heads with his arcing, electronic-tinged soul-pop.

New single, ‘Sadie’, the first release from an as-yet-untitled EP that will come later in the year, is a falsetto drenched slice of goodness that bubbles away on a rousing after-dark synth line.

Astronauts, etc. have knocked it out of the park again. Download ‘Sadie’ below.

‘Part Of The Echoes’ is vast and grandiose, making an impact with urgent vocals that beg for the drunken singalong of a festival crowd, yet also make you want to run through the rain majestically. Needless to say, it’s pretty huge.

The video for it is equally beautiful, consisting of young couples doing things that only ever seem to work on film, such as lighting flares and laying down in meadows and running in slow motion, hand in hand. It is the perfect accompanyment to such an ambitious song.

The single is out July 8th through Killing Moon Records, check out the ‘Part of the Echoes’ video below.