FILTER- Anthems For The Damned

The last few years have not been kind to Filter. After becoming a global draw back in the 90s the band released continually more clunky records and suffered a commercial failure that sent frontman Richard Patrick into rehab. So it’s safe to say that no one was expecting them to return now, and especially not on any kind of form. ‘Anthems For The Damned’ though, leaves those problems far behind. Patrick and his voice (dude must have lungs like iron bellows) are still the central point for everything but he’s now teetotal and writing sharp, electric epics that soar down the same vein as big-hit ‘Take A Picture’ again. Sure these songs could have been written a decade ago but this is still a fine return from one of the turn of the century’s smartest rock bands. Now hands up who saw that coming.

THE POSTMARKS- The Postmarks

Like watercolour paints, schoolboy football, or milk chocolate, Miami trio The Postmarks are pleasant and nice and all but never really make that all-important big impact. Sure it’s great to hear some polite pop (in the very best sense of the word) every now and then, and just occasionally this one-girl-two-boy outfit muster up the sort of beautiful bop and sway that Brian Wilson must write in his sleep, but they haven’t found a way to ram it all home yet. More is to come, better too, that's for sure, but for now only the most dedicated indie kids will get excited by the mature melancholy here; everybody else will be too busy to bother listening.