B is for boring and bastards

Bows and Arrows - The Walkmen
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene

I'm sure I've probably heard albums as boring as Bows and Arrows by The Walkmen, but I'm struggling to think of one off the top of my head. I'm even listening to it again as I write this to make sure the fact that I played it on my way to work on a national holiday didn't colour my judgement. It didn't. Every song sounds exactly like the last one - a wash of bog standard guitar rock, fronted by Hamilton Leithauser's pained, Dylan-down-the-bog vocals. Shit, it's grim. It's another album that's going to be making space for something more deserving, and an indication of the dangers of downloading music that you've listened to on MySpace while drunk.

Lying somewhere at the furthest end of the spectrum from The Walkmen are Broken Social Scene. Their eponymous album sounds joyously eclectic at the best of times, and following The Wankmen it was the aural equivalent of leaving the turgid heat of Tokyo in summer and heading for the hills. Simple summary then: Social Scene good, Walkmen bad.