January 18th, 2010

Florence & The Machine’s rapid rise to fame has continued after it was revealed the singer has landed three nominations for the 2010 Brit Awards. Florence Welch is nominated in the British Album category for her debut ‘Lungs’, which finally hit the top spot on the UK Album Chart on Sunday, as well as British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough. Fellow female solo artist Lily Allen is also nominated in three categories – British Album, British Female Solo Artist and her track ‘The Fear‘ is included in the British Single category.

Xfm have released their shortlist for the Best British Debut Album 2009
which will now go before an esteemed panel of judges from all areas of the music industry.

Glasvegas’ self titled album took the award at the second annual XFM event last year  and this year features a whole host of great discs from 2009.

MGMT have revealed they do not plan to release any singles from their forthcoming new album ‘Congratulations‘, saying there are no ‘Time To Pretend’s‘ or ‘Kids‘ on the record.

Speaking to nme.com, Ben Goldwasser said: “We’d rather people hear the whole album as an album and see what tracks jump out rather than the ones that get played on the radio – if anything gets played on the radio. There definitely isn’t a ‘Time To Pretend’ or a ‘Kids’ on the album. We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”

Listening to debut album ‘Strange Part Of The Country’ by the emotionally driven Conil, you get a feeling that this singer/songwriter literally bleeds his heart dry after every song. Powerful, gritty and a drive that most solo artists lack nowadays. Full of heart and emotion which pushes this album along and makes you live this man’s pain.

Florence & The Machine tops this week’s Album Chart with her brilliant debut record ‘Lungs‘ hitting number 1 in it’s 28th week on the chart. New York four-piece Vampire Weekend enter at number 2 with their second album ‘Contra‘. Rapper Iyaz remains atop the Singles Chart this week with his track ‘Replay‘.