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A small rundown of my first impressions of the newbies, and a big old list of the music played (inc a couple of mpfrees)

Overall episode: Decent, nowhere near the old series highlights, but a good introduction to the new characters.
Characters I Like: Shy twin (Emily), Naomi Campbell, Effy,
Indifferent: Freddie (could be good, but he is a bit of a shit actor), JJ
Dislike: Cook (good actor, but very annoying, too much like a Chris/Tony hybrid, incidentally the actor knows Joe Dempsie who played Chris), Bitch twin (Katie, she seems to be a worse actor than her sister, and seems like a downtheline bitch), Pandora (good fo one episode, no more!, i hope the series doesnt run a theme with her mirroring the "Sid's a Virgin" storyline from s1.

And, more importantly, the music! As per usual it was excellent.
Fucked Up - Son the Father
Fat Segal - Freddie Theme
Fat Segal - Cook Theme
Asobi Seksu - Lions and Tigers
Timothy Victor - Lady Belles
Beyonce - Ring the Alarm
Britney Spears - Womanizer
Wu-Tang Clan - Shame on a Nigga
Method Man - Release Yo'Delf
Eugene McGuinness - Monsters Under My Bed
Timothy Victor - Roundview College
Wilco - I'm The Man Who Loves You
Fat Segal - Freddie Theme
Santogold - Shove it(mp3)
Fat Segal - Cook Theme
Liquid Liquid - Optimo
Soeur Sourire - Mets Tons/ Dominique
Fat Segal - Freddie theme/ Cook theme and Drums
Klaxons - Magick (mp3)
Asobi Seksu - Nefi and Girly

Read all about the music here
View the sneak peeks for episode 2 (Cook centric) here
Watch the "Coming up on Skins" preview for the next few episodes
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The hardest list i've ever written?

25. We Are Scientists-Ghouls
24. Guillemots-Falling out of reach
23. White Lies-Death
22. Q-Tip-Believe (feat. D'Angelo)
21. Estelle-American Boy (feat. Kanye West)
20. MGMT-Kids
19. Cut Copy-Hearts on Fire
18. Kid Cudi-Day N Nite (Crookers Remix)
17. Friendly Fires-Paris (rerelease but i dont care...)
16. The Hold Steady-Stay Positive
15.The Last Shadow Puppets-My Mistakes are Made For You
14. Goldfrapp-A&E
13. Laura Marling-Tap At My Window
12. Santogold-L.E.S. Artistes
11. The Streets-Heaven for the weather
10. Kanye West-Welcome To Heartbreak feat. Kid Cudi
9. T.I.-live your life feat. Rihanna
8. Coldplay-Lovers in Japan
7. Frightened Rabbit-The Modern Leper
6. Death Cab For Cutie-I Will Possess Your Heart
5. Bon Iver-Skinny Love
4. Vampire Weekend-Bryn
3. Frank Turner-I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
2. Death Cab For Cutie-You can do better than me
1. Lil' Wayne-Lollipop (Remix) feat. Kanye West

I tried to avoid duplicates, so I suppose this wasnt 100% accurate.My no.1 choice is a bit of a spur of the moment thing. Kanyes verse is so strong, but Lil Wayne out does him.
"I got so much chips I swear they call me Hewlett Packard
I got so much chips you can have a bag if your a snacker"
genius

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An earthquake in China kills 8000 people

1. Death Cab For Cutie-Narrow Stairs
In a month of 4 fantastic albums, Death Cab just edged it for my favourite of the month (they are my favourite band after all). I go through phases of thinking this is amazing and the album of the year, and phases of being disappointed by it. It is their best album musically by along way, but Gibbards lyrics are somewhat too literal, and not the dark and subtle stuff of early Death Cab. Its a brilliant album nonetheless. Bixby and Possess are epic as are you can do better/grapevine/twin sized bed. My love for Death Cab continues...
Best Track: Death Cab For Cutie-You can do better than me
Bonus: search the box in the top left for no sunlight/thin ice demos!!
Metacritic (73)
2. Bon Iver-For Emma, Forever Ago
Heartwrenching lyrics and tranquil, beautiful guitar and legendary voice=amazing album. What a talented guy Justin Vernon is...
Best track: Bon Iver-Skinny Love
=Cut Copy-In Ghost Colours
I imagine Friendly Fires will be this good in a few years. Great production, and awesome danceable tuuunes. Almost perfect album.
No link as it'll get removed, sorry.
=Santogold-Santogold
Santi White is constantly compared to MIA, and has even been outshone by her this year despite the fact she has done practically nothing (paper planes is suddenly huuuge), but she is different. This album is a huge blend of about 10 different genres, and its brilliant. Best produced album of the year? Diplo, Switch, Sinden et al do an amazing job. Her mixtape with Diplo is equally awesome.
Best track: Santogold-LES Artistes
Bonus: check out a few tracks from her diplo-collab mixtape
Honourable Mentions:
The Futureheads-This is Not The World
The Futureheads are the most frustrating band in the world. This album is rubbish, bar 2 tracks which show what the band is capable of. Radio Heart and the Beginning of the Twist are both brilliant singles!!! why cant they produce this more often!!!!!
The Futureheads-The Beginning of the Twist
Usher-Here I Stand
Another big disappointment. The ballads on this album (pretty much the whole thing) seem so empty and insincere and overly cheesy. I dont know if the Confessions ballads were the same (and i was too young to realise), or if they were actually good. That album is still very high up in my estimation, but this is definitely not.
Usher-Love in this club (MSTRKRFT remix)
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no explanation needed. just listen. link below

Kanye West, Lykke Li, Santogold-Gifted

im listening to the new wiley album. i dont undestand why one of the best grime producers in the world/uk has an album in which he only producers (coprod at that) one of the tracks on it

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Check out the paint editing on the picture!!
Santogold and Mr Hudson both confirmed as tour support for thr UK glow in the dark tour, maybe another will be added (Estelle?!) , its certainly not Rihanna/Lupe/N*E*R*D, but it's still pretty awesome.
Santogold-Lights Out
Santogold-L.E.S. Artistes
Santogold-Creator
Mr Hudson & The Library-Cover Girl
Mr Hudson & The Library-Everything Happens To Me
Mr Hudson & The Library-Ask The Dj
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I'm very late on this one, but better late than never for sure with this, a Santogold/Diplo mixtape. Diplo produced "My Superman" off her debut, and did a similar thing with M.I.A. back in 2004. This is pretty special, Diplo is one of the best producers around at the moment, Santogold is one of the best rapper/singers around at the moment, making a brilliant mixtape. This is partially remixes off her album, covers, new tracks and remixes of other artists. It's hard to pick out individual tracks because the whole alum blends together so well but here are a few highlights...

Diplo & Santogold-Late Night (Unstoppable Mix)
Diplo & Santogold-I'm a Lady (Diplo Mix feat. Amanda Blank)
Diplo & Santogold-Get It Up (Radioclit mix feat. M.I.A. and Gorilla Zoe)
Diplo & Santogold-Creator(Mumdance Mix ft Jammer, Badness, Chronik Rage, Slikman and Tempz)

and because the i'm a lady remix sort of covers it...
LL Cool J-I Need love
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an abridged version of the huge review i had planned. top 5 artists of the weekend, as well as notable mentions, and "big misses"
TOP 5 OF THE WEEKEND (In no particular order)
1. Jay-Z (Pyramid Stage: Saturday)

Proved all his critics wrong, without the need for any special guests. Brilliant, there is a reason why he calls himself "God MC". If he's not the best rapper alive, he's very close. Annoyingly, the BBC online coverage cut off the opening video, but it can be watched here
They also cut off pretty much anything political from the set, which was pretty annoying.
here is wonderwall into 99 problems. immense

I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) feat. Pharrell-Jay-Z
2. Vampire Weekend (Other Stage: Friday, John Peel Stage: Saturday)

The best new band of the year, performed brilliantly both times, drawing a huge crowd on the Other Stage, and killing it on the John Peel. They are fantastic live, can't wait to see them at Leeds Fest and hopefully a UK Tour this autumn!! special band.


M79-Vampire Weekend
Walcott (Insane Mix)-Vampire Weekend
3. Laura Marling (Park Stage: Sunday)
Another of the best up and coming artists this year. She has one of the best voices in music, and amazingly she got every note spot on live. The lack of "Tap at My Window" and "New Romantic" were inconsequential, as she showed just how talented she is. I am hopeful for a new UK tour this autumn with a Sheffield date!
Go Go Gadget Flow-Lupe Fiasco
Other mentions:
Frank Turner-no song link
Molly's Chambers-Kings of Leon
Paris-Friendly Fires (great live, great new band)
Take Me Out-Franz Ferdinand
Creator-Santogold
Seasick Steve
Manu Chao
Tears Dry on Their Own-Amy Winehouse (started amazingly, ended horribly)
Leonard Cohen
Kids-MGMT (underwhelming, except this and Time to Pretend, both were amazing)
John Mayer
Neville Staple
Tapped feat. JME-Skream
Black and Gold-Sam Sparro
Big Misses
Wish I could have seen these
Fatboy Slim
A-Trak
Kid Sister
The Last Shadow Puppets (secret)
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the track they did for converse. its pretty good. aparently pharrell wants to produce the new strokes album, could be really really good.
Julian Casablanca, Santogold and Pharrell-My Drive Thru
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Santogold has just released her debut album, and its amazing!!! In the style of MIA, but with (:o) better beats id say. Producers include diplo, switch and freq nasty. You may know her from the Vo5 advert, the song is Creator. She is sort of a mixture of hip-hop, electro and rock, very original, very refreshing, absolutely brilliant. Here are the 2 singles that have been released so far and a remix thats tagged on the end of the album.
Santogold-Creator
Santogold-L.E.S. Artistes
Santogold-You'll find a way (switch & sinden remix)
this album is definately worth buying!!
nb. the quality of this remix really makes me sad that the dance stage line-up at leeds is so bad :(
apart from css (although they arent exactly dance), smd and digitalism, the line up is crap (crystal castles are shockingly bad). justice should be there rather than nme stage, and i think they could have got fatboy slim to headline, along with mr oizo, sebastian, uffie, switch, sinden, the count, maybe even diplo.
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