Monthly's main music lover, Ryan Cook, went to see Shout out Louds in concert the other night. In short: Shout out Louds are "not only the best current touring band in Sweden they are maybe the best band in Sweden". But do read the longer version, Ryan spent days writing it!

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Well I have to say I put this album on expecting much of a muchness. Oasis have never been a band to stray off of a well tried and tested path. Lets face it, their never gonna be at the front of the queue when the Gods of music are handing out innovation awards(?)

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Well where to begin!? On the press release it says that he is like James Blunt, and luckily this is not true at all! He is nowhere nears as boring and as bad! And I can't see any of the songs on this album making it to the top of the wedding song list anytime soon!!But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this isn't a boring album!

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Opening up with a very summary vibe not unlike Belle & Sebastian (with his voice sounding very Stuart Murdoch'y), and a Swedish band who's name I cannot put my finger on at the time of writing this (but they sound like this) there's even a guy called Sebastian who plays on the first song, could it be more apt!?

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I must admit I'm a DoLL virgin after only hearing a few of their earlier songs, but on the first listen to their fourth LP the first song sounds like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with (a maybe slightly happier)Marlin Manson on vocals. However as you delve further this album opens up into a very different beast!

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Sat in a dusty London suburb on a rainy (in England,never!) Friday morning and I pop this album on and immediately get transported back to sunny (ahem) Göteborg. In one way it hits you straight away that your listening to a Swedish band with the male/female harmonies and the ‘ohh ahh ohhs’. But as you move your way through the album it becomes a little less obvious.

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Recently, when the sun went down, me and some of the girls from Shed B decided to leave the farm for a bit. We strolled down the road until we reached the train station, boarded the wagon to Skåne, and then stowed away in the ferry to Denmark. While we were below deck, drinking Carlsberg and eating kanelbulle...

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While this new album by Irish singer-songwriter Brendan Glennon – the “singing chemist” – won’t be challenging any of the unusual-haired, ski-pant wearing bands beloved of today’s young people in terms of dazzling originality or defiance of genre, it does have plenty going for it. The Final Bell is a collection of heartfelt, folky ballads, clearly influenced by fellow countrymen such as Christy

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I was in London a couple of weeks ago – don’t ask what I was doing there. Let’s just say it was a milk deal that turned a little sour. Anyway, while I was in the city, I took the opportunity to go up to Berwick Street, have a look round the record shops, and see what was happening. The only place which didn’t shoo me straight out of...

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Duffy is a very pretty, charming young soul singer from Wales. I went to Wales once. It was like heaven. Grass EVERYWHERE. I could have stayed for ages. And the mountains and coastlines really are quite lovely, for that part of the world at least. Her debut album is produced by Bernard Butler, who used to be the guitarist in...

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