A Nice Little Surprise - #39 Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts

So... Elbow is done and dusted, and I have big thanks to give to everyone for making it my second most popular post since I started this whole thing. Over 150 reads is pretty spectacular if you take into account that it only got 'advertised' on my Twitter and Facebook pages. Thanks to everyone who read it, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

And, with that, we move on to number 39 in the Glasto Challenge, Noisettes' album, Wild Young Hearts.

I must admit to being very pleasantly surprised by this record. Of course, I'd heard Don't Forget the Rythym before, but didn't know that I would be familiar with much more on here. I was wrong, it turns out that I knew most of the words to a couple more songs, and even more still seemed familiar.

I also expected this to be more, urm, dancey than it is. Don't get me wrong, it has some really, really catchy songs, but of course, as I only recognised Don't Upset the Rhythm as being by the band, I had always put them down as some kind of nightclub-filling dance act. I was also wrong about that.

The title track is when the album really gets going (don't fret, you only have to make it as far as track two). With it's catchy "la la la"s, it really is about as summery a song as you will ever hear, and considering the topic of this blog, that's not really a bad thing now, is it?

I'd really like to offer you some kind of comparison for the singer of the band's voice, but I'm stumped. It's quite powerful, but not in a conventional sense. It certainly has a 'cute' aspect to it, but at the same time, the songs are sung with a great confidence. I'm rambling. How about you check it out for yourselves, eh? Wild Young Hearts is right there for you to have a gander at.

The thing about this album is, I don't really dislike any of the songs, but I'm not inclined to rave about it either. It's just good. Interestingly, I don't really rate Don't Upset the Rythym when compared to the rest of the songs on here, and unfortunately, that's probably the song that most people will go and see the band for. To be fair, it's probably quite a sight to see them play it live.

'So what is your favourite song then?' I hear you collectively ask. Well, it's probably the other well-known song, Never Forget You. It's got that old-fashioned feeling to it, and has a certain swagger at the same time. If Lulu was starting out now, she might have come up with this. It has a lot of charm, and for that reason, I'm really rather fond of it.

And that's it from me on Noisettes. If you've only really heard Don't Forget the Rythym, then I would heartily recommend checking this album out, it may not be overly wild, as the title suggests, but it certainly stands up as a good, solid album. Give it a try.

Another quick word from me, don't forget that if you liked this, or if you at least bothered to read until the end, you can get all of the other blogs over on the right hand side of the page. All of this month's, and April are over there. Whether you fancy reading about someone you already like, or are curious about a band that are new to you, give them a go, and please, if you do like this, pass it on through the various social media sites out there.

Thanks very much, next up? Winner of the BBC Sound of 2011. Exciting stuff.