January kicks off the year in fairly unspectacular fashion, but this is pretty normal after the Christmas excitement and sales frenzy. The new year did see the comeback of those loveable quirky scousers Space with a typical piece of catchy, slightly unorthodox (just hear that 1930's classic style bridge) pop called Avenging Angels. It went straight into the top ten to give us a little hope for the rest of the year to come.
Scottish hot-tips Mogwai released their debut album Young Team last year on the increasingly popular and famous Chemikal Underground label, but a copy only recently came into my hands. It's amazingly popular with the critics and has had the sometimes fatal word "classic" attached to it a couple of times, so what can I tell you? Well, its different. Drawn out, largely vocal free, building atmospheric guitar tracks, some short, some over 6 or 7 minutes long (closing track Mogwai Fear Satan weighs in at a heavyweight 16 minutes 19 secs!). It rarely feels too much though, there's enough ideas and effex here to hold your interest for a long while. A real classic? Not quite, but enough originality to bring a welcome breath of fresh air between the mounds of guitar rock/pop we have surrounding us these days.
Ian Brown made his return with the long awaited single My Star, and interesting listening it is too. It's basically a simple groove with a chiming, varying two note riff and a few spacey samples over it and Brown's reconing on the space race and its military involvement. Not fantastic, but strangely catchy, debuting at #5 in the charts. It's most intriguing to see The Stone Roses split into a couple of its component parts - the intricate, structured guitar moves of The Seahorses and the now traditional baggy grooves of Ian Brown's solo work, said to be in evidence all over his album, Unfinished Monkey Business, but more of that when I hear it.

Another interesting comparision is the one between Ian Brown and Bernard Butler, who released his first solo single Stay this month. It proved he still has a pretty big following these days. It's a gentle, building number - all candles, no explosions, that does grow on you but is ultimately a bit tame. It has proved he does have some singing ability though, so his album will certainly be interesting listening once it hits the shops. Elsewhere, Radiohead released No Surprises, technically the 4th single cut from Ok Computer, with a couple of far-out b-sides. Unsurprisingly it entered the charts high and dropped like a stone. Saint Etienne returned from a couple of years out, during which they insist they didn't break up (true!) with Sylvie. They haven't changed a bit, and it isn't their finest moment, but it did only just miss being their fist top-ten hit.
Ever wondered what happened to Kinky Machine, those responsible for the very cool Cut It Down of a few years ago, and a host of other ignored tunes?.. Welcome Rialto, comprising of at least some of the ex-members, cetainly singer/guitarist/songwriter Louis Eliot. They announced themsleves as one of the hopes of '98 with the #20 single Untouchable. Perhaps they're due some real success. Watch this space!
Oh yeh, David Bowie turned 51, but we didn't hear much about it this time around. He hasn't got a record out of course...


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