The Magellan Project

Jens Lekman - Higher Power

A Romantic with a capital ‘R’, loveable goofball Jens Lekman is an unashamed crooner who masochistically enjoys picking up the tattered remains of his broken relationships, turning them over to examine them, and writing more-bitter-than-sweet, lushly orchestrated indie pop about them. Higher Power is one of his brighter moments however, with Jens’s glorious baritone focussing on those initial dizzy moments of love (assisted by some autoerotic asphyxiation). He also writes great songs about stalking Kirsten Dunst through downtown Gothenburg. 

For fans of: The Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, Scott Walker

Pissed Jeans - False Jesii Part 2

All sleaze and tongue-in-cheek, Pennsylvania’s Pissed Jeans offer up two minutes of scuzzy, drawled old school hardcore with this track from their album King of Jeans. With its juxaposition of lyrical apathy to the point of being comatose (‘I could capivate with a story of mine, but I don’t bother / I could go and start a conga line, but I don’t bother’) with grinding guitars and bulldozer drums, it’s perfect Christmas fare.

For fans of: Black Flag, Gay for Johnny Depp, Lightning Bolt

House of Wolves - 50s

At once claustrophobic and comforting with woozy horns fluttering around its ragged edges, Los Angeles’s House of Wolves serve up a piano-led treat with this, the opening track of their 2011 album, Fold in the Wind.

For fans of: British Sea Power, Camera Obscura, The Magnetic North,