FA Cup Vinyl's Winter Playlist

Remember Summer? With all the nice sunny weather and... Perhaps not. One good thing about Summer (we'd like to think) was our Summer playlist. But there's one thing that is for certain, is that it's winter now. It's freezing, probably going to snow, and it'll be Christmas. Keeping with that slightly positive theme, because you deserve it FA Cup Vinyl is going to give you an early christmas present, our Winter playlist. Thank us later, but it's mainly an excuse for us and you to play this during the festive season and most importantly it means you don't have to hear such Christmas 'gems' as East 17's 'Stay Another Day'. Like we said, thank us later. Here's the twenty five tracks you need for the holiday season.

In no particular order:

1. Michael Kiwanuka - Ode To You
2. Richard Hawley - As The Dawn Breaks
3. The Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale
4. Lou Reed - Satellite Of Love
5. Mount Kimbie - Carbonated
6. King Krule - The Noose Of Jah City
7.  Moby - In My Heart
8.  Gorillaz - Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
9.  The XX - Chained
10. The Streets - Empty Cans
11. Foals - Spanish Sahara
12. Alt-J - Matilda
13. J Dilla - Last Donut Of The Night
14. SBTRKT - Never Never
15. Grizzly Bear - A Simple Answer
16. Alex Turner - It's Hard To Get Around The Wind
17. Frank Ocean - White (OF Tape Volume 2)
18. R.E.M - The Great Beyond
19. BADBADNOTGOOD - Limit To Your Love
20. Jamie T - Alicia Quays
21. Disclosure - Carnival
22. King Krule - Out Getting Ribs
23. Arctic Monkeys - Dance Little Liar
24. Radiohead - No Surprises
25.  Paul Weller - One Way Road

Track Of The Week: Alt-J - Tessellate

Hello and welcome to another edition of track of the week.

As it's the return of this feature, we thought bring it back with a bang, or in this case an award winning bang. Yes this track of the week comes from the 2012 winners of the Mercury prize, Alt-J.

They may be slightly hipster with the name 'Alt-J' as it is the command used on a Mac keyboard to achieve the Greek letter "Delta" (indie triangle you see on 14-year old girls twitter bio's.) But don't let that take anything away from them, these lot have talent, great potential and overall a great album that deserved the mercury prize.

This track of the week is a version of Interlude 1 and Tessellate that was recorded when they performed at the African Centre in London and it's exceptional with an African choir, re-instating that they're one of the hottest bands in British music at the moment.

A great track of the week to bring us back, enjoy.
 
Alt J - Tessellate ( Live at the Africa Centre)

A Quick Update

You may have noticed that we haven't posted in a while, but we're up back and running for now. Just to let everyone know, we're currently working with another website that is similar to us called 'Lemonzine' and we've linked the website below. It's a work in progress, but hopefully they'll be a bit more regular than us. Expect exciting things from them soon.



http://www.lemonzine.co.uk/

Grizzly Bear – Shields

Not exactly ferocious and definitely not timid.

Grizzly Bear are unusual.

They may be from New York where most American musicians seem to hail from, they may be classed as indie rock which categorises half the new music that comes out at the moment. But there's something about them, something that separates them from the crowd, and that is, that they've been around for a while. Yes, not exactly the shocking twist you wanted but it separates them from all the other 'new' bands at the moment, they've got experience.

This is their fourth album, Shields. They formed in 2004, in the music industry that's a long time. So how come you've only heard of them now? Well this is the first album that's received any proper attention from us Brits. So what do we think? Well it's interesting.

Grizzly Bear first received attention after touring with Radiohead following the release of their second album in 2006, 'Yellow House', in which Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood stated they were his favourite band. A lot of pressure then, if a member of one of the biggest bands of the last twenty years gives the seal of approval.

So how does the album fare?

'Sleeping Ute' the opening track is a proper rock song, lulling you into a sense that you've been here before and is very reminiscent of The Black Keys in places, it's a great track there's no denying it, but then all of a sudden it changes, at about three minutes in, it quietens down and ends in a almost therapeutic way, with string instruments and soothing vocals by lead singer Daniel Rossen.

This is how the album transcends, into a less rock heavy and a more ambient vibe, with more musical instruments displayed throughout the album such as in track 'A Simple Answer'  where we hear the use of piano and synthesisers among others , helping create more depth in the sound. This is where that experience I mentioned comes in they've been playing together so they've worked out the kinks of what's gone wrong before and boy, has it worked.

This is one of the best albums I've heard this year, carefully constructed and thought through, its only after the third or fourth listen that you appreciate how good the album is. To sum up this album, it's a grower, not something you can just listen to and like straight away, it takes perseverance, but if you're willing to persevere, you'll be in for a treat.

Album Rating 7/10

Favourite Tracks : Sleeping Ute, Speak In Rounds, A Simple Answer

Track Of The Week: Ice Cube - Today Was A Good Day

You may be thinking FA Cup Vinyl have gone insane, Ice Cube? That guy in those awful films 'Barbershop' and the horrendous children's film 'Are We There Yet?' *shudder*.That's the last time we do research. But believe it or not, good ol' Ice Cube was in a little know rap group called N.W.A. so knows how to rap. You probably haven't heard of them... Anyway what with us missing track of the week again, and it being the first return of track of the week, we thought we'd pick this brilliant rap song in an effort for our poor organisation. The beat is spectacular and the rap is a brilliant accompaniment, anyway, enough talking.

This week's track of the week is Ice Cube, 'Today Was A Good Day'.

FA Cup Vinyl's Summer Playlist.

We've missed out on a couple of tracks of the weeks and various other things, so to make it up to you all, we decided to provide our essential summer playlist that you can all enjoy, while you 'enjoy' the 'great' British summer weather, or if you're lucky enough and in a foreign country with a warm climate, you can actually bask in the glorious sunshine, whilst blasting these tracks out. Here's the twenty five tracks you need to be playing in summer 2012. In no particular order:

1. Nas - Cherry Wine (Featuring. Amy Winehouse) 
2. Alt-J - Breezeblocks
3. Bob Marley & The Wailers - So Much Things To Say
4. Bob Dylan - Queen Jane Approximately
5. Amy Winehouse - He Can Only Hold Her
6. Kings Of Leon - Arizona
7. Mount Kimbie - Before I Move Off
8. The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea
9. The Maccabees - Latchmere
10. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
11. Frank Ocean - Pink Matter (Featuring. Andre 3000)
12. The Stone Roses - Made Of Stone
13. Primal Scream - Loaded
14. Blur - Beetlebum
15. The XX - Shelter
16. The Black Keys - Things Ain't Like They Used To Be
17. SBTRKT - Hold On
18. Kwes. - Bashful
19. Pete And The Pirates - Half Moon Street
20. Jamie T - Jilly Armeen
21. Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On
22. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
23. Smith Westerns - Weekend
24. Bombay Bicycle Club - Sixteen
25. Noel Gallagher - If I Had A Gun

Like our list? Let us know in the comment section below.

(Main Image Owned By FA Cup Vinyl)

Back From The Brink...

Thursday the 12th of July. Remember that day? Of course you do because it was the last time FA Cup Vinyl posted anything. All we can say is we're sorry for the slight hiatus, we will continue to post a bit more frequently now. The reason for our break? Well it's down to several things that we won't get into and that you will not care about.

So to make it up to you, we are going to show you the best/worst song and music video of all time. Nothing we say can prepare you for this. It's 'Bangs' with 'Take U To Da Movies'. WE'RE BACK WITH A BANG(s). Oh bet you missed our puns.

Track Of The Week: Kwes. - Bashful

Hello, it's the fourth day of the week, so you all know what day it is. Track of the week day. Oh and Thursday.

This week's effort is not only a great song, it has a brilliant music video to accompany it. 'Kwes.', a British record producer released this way back in April this year and as far as we know, the track has received very little attention. We're here to change that, Kwes. is an artist that deserves more attention not only for this great track, but as we said for the great music video that compliments the track. We may have unearthed a fantastic lesser known artist to impress your friends with, or just a very good new artist to listen to, hopefully the latter because you're not a wannabe hipster.

Taken from his latest EP 'Meantime' is FA Cup Vinyl's track of the week, Bashful.

Click on the link below and let us know what you think.

Kwes. - Bashful

Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

Stop what you're doing, Frank Ocean released Channel Orange today!

A week before the original release date on 17th July, Frank has decided to release it after his appearance on American talk show 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' last night. FA Cup Vinyl may have listened to it a few times already on repeat, we're not fan girls honestly. Anyway go listen to it now on the link below to his tumblr. Are we a bit excited? Maybe.

Channel Orange

What's To Come: FA Cup Vinyl's New Features

A Formal Hello

Hello, you may have seen our new banner containing some of our favourite albums and regardless of whether you like it or not that's one of the many features FA Cup Vinyl is undergoing at the moment, we're working hard to improve the blog for you! Aren't we nice? New features include:


Classic Album Review
Gig Review (bear in mind, this is dependant on when we have money)
More Football Roundup
Banner Albums (We tell why they're our favourite and re-listen and review)
More 'Track Of The Week' section
FA Cup Vinyl's Premier League Team Of The Week (when the season starts of course)
FA Cup Vinyl's 'Players To Watch' (same as the other bracket)

And occasionally, more 'What FA Cup Vinyl did today...' You know because it's such a success...

Anyway you'll hopefully get to see these features more and more over the next few weeks and hopefully better material in our writing itself, no pressure.

Thanks, 

The FA Cup Vinyl Team

(Un) Reliant Robin: Van Persie Announces No Contract Extension

Yes, it's the news that every Arsenal fan has been dreading, their talisman Robin Van Persie wants to leave Arsenal. As a member of FA Cup Vinyl being an Arsenal fan themselves, they're not far from distraught. But let's take a look at why he wants to leave.

In a release on his own personal website Robin stated "Unfortunately in this meeting it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward. I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract. You guys, the fans, have of course the right to disagree with my view and decision and I will always respect your opinions."

So that's Robin's take on the situation, but what about ours? Well Robin has been at Arsenal for 8 years now, that's a long time especially in today's modern football society and there's no doubt he is going to be hot property after his sensational goal scoring record last season, 30 goals in 38 Premier League games is nothing short of spectacular. Arguably as well at the age of 29, it is his big last contract in football, so if he were to move it would be now. With Arsene Wenger acquiring two new strikers in Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, Arsenal fans will have to hope they can replicate the same kind of form shown by 'Van The Man', yes that's an actual name used by fans. Let's also remember from an Arsenal fan's viewpoint that he has been injury plagued as a striker in past seasons.

So who's interested in him? The question is really who isn't? Well surprisingly Manchester City are, as they are with every decent player in the world, but can Arsenal fans handle another player leaving to money bags Manchester City? Having seen the likes of Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri leave the red of North London to go to the blue of Manchester, every Arsenal fan must be sick to the teeth of seeing this sight. Plus we get the sneaking suspicion that Man City are buying every good player so no other club can have them? Do City need him really, with them currently boasting a striker collection of Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and every knobhead teenage boy's favourite Mario Balotelli or as they've cleverly nicknamed 'LADotelli' *sigh*.  With Manchester United and Italian champions Juventus also interested as the 'Old Lady' have reportedly had an £8million fee rejected, it seems that Robin is not short of suitors.

The question is for Arsenal do they cash in on their captain, the PFA's Player of the Year and the Premier League's golden boot winner? Or do they keep him until next season, take a gamble by trying to sign him throughout the season, and then take the risk of losing him when his contract expires and he can leave on a free? It's an interesting decision and one that is down to the chief executive Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger to decide, we guess Arsene must be annoyed having seen similar ongoings with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last year and having being forced to sell them. Are we about to see the same for RVP? It seems to us, like it could be another ongoing saga at the Emirates Stadium this summer.

But what do you think let us know by commenting on the post below.

Track Of The Week: SBTRKT - Hold On

Track of the week time once again, and unsurprisingly we've picked another brilliant choice from the realms of our music collection in one of our favourite 'new' artists SBTRKT. For those of you who are unaware of SBTRKT (pronounced Subtract) is considered to be one of the next big things in the post dubstep genre, and we can see why. (It's not 'dubstep' like the crap you hear sampled on one of those dubstep anthems albums they advertise on tv, if we ever do post that, that's when you know we gone clinically insane.)

SBTRKT or Aaron Jerome (and sometimes Sampha) are a prime example to us that there are still good current new musicians knocking around in the barren wasteland that is the current British music scene. That's enough bickering for one day, taken from their self-titled album is this brilliant track, enjoy. Even  if you don't like it at least appreciate the cool African tribe masks he uses when live, we haven't liked masks so much since MF DOOM.

SBTRKT - Hold On

Track Of The Week: Bombay Bicycle Club - Sixteen

It's Thursday, it's FA Cup Vinyl, it's track of the week.

Ok FA Cup Vinyl has another cracking track for you this week and we're jazzing it up a bit and going for something a bit more modern in comparison to our recent classic tracks of Oasis and Blur and are going for a Bombay Bicycle Club B-Side, too much aliteration there.

From their self-released EP 'The Boy I Used To Be', to us this is Bombay Bicycle Club when they were at their peak, that's not to say they're not still good, but they were playing and creating good indie music and their first album 'I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose' still remains one of our favourite albums of the noughties? Ergh noughties doesn't sound right. But yeah it's one of the best albums we heard around 2009 in a long time, but we're rambling as usual, we'll just let the music do the talking.

Bombay Bicycle Club - Sixteen

FA Cup Vinyl Reviews... England's Euro 2012 Performance

The picture sums it up really, dismay, dejection, disillusioned. What's that, Wimbledon's on?

Yes England fans, it's deja vu for the umpteenth time, England go out on penalties, again.

Just when you thought it was going to turn around and we were going to win Euro 2012 because of that team spirit they had, they go and make a complete h-ASH of it. (Get it? Because ASH-ley Young and ASH-ley Cole missed their penalties? Oh god we're surprised that isn't a headline from 'The Sun'.) (P.S. We also hope that no-one genuinely thought England were going to win purely because of team spirit).

Anyway in all seriousness, England probably deserved to lose against the Italians, we say probably, they did deserve to lose because they were simply the worst team, and because no-one closed down Pirlo! We were shouting it at our T.V screen every time he had space, but obviously they can't hear us in Ukraine from our living room. While it may be heartache for some, but to others like us who have grown up watching England lose to so and so on penalties, it's become an all too familiar. But let's focus on the positives.

6 weeks before the tournament had started, a certain Roy Hodgson was appointed not Harry Redknapp, who was the firm favourite by fans, journalists and even players. Many doubted the FA about the decision to appoint the former West Brom boss as the manager of the 'Three Lions' but even the sceptics out there (those miserable Roy Keane types) can't deny that England exceeded your expectations.

We started very well against a France side that were unbeaten before going into the tournament on a stupidly good run of games, we took the lead with Joleon Lescott before Samir Nasri equalised by in his words, 'deceiving' Joe Hart with a low aimed strike. Alright Samir you had a good shot it's not Die Hard. Yes we did just relate that to Die Hard.

Followed by a rather impressive showing by England against Sweden where we managed to go in front with a great set up by Gerrard followed by an even better header by Andy Carroll. oh and when we say impressive we mean we took the lead, conceded two soft goals by Mellberg, yes the dodgy former Aston Villa defender before actually managing to win inspired by a bizarre brilliant performance by Theo Walcott who scored a fantastic if not lucky goal and also assisted to a marvellous back heel by Danny Welbeck. 

I know we were shocked too. It gave us hope that every England fan has when we do alright, 'This isn't atrocious, oh we might do well!' then we'll lose to a team who have far less better players than us and then it's 'oh it happens every time, I told you we weren't going to do well.' C'mon you know you've said that at some point if you are England fan, FA Cup Vinyl even may have ushered those words themselves. May have.

But Ukraine was our final game, the co-hosts, we only needed to avoid defeat and we were through, so being typical England what happens when it comes down to the crunch... We win. Unexpected right? We delivered, didn't play well, but we got the result and that's what matters. Yes how intense. Plus the match marked a return for Wayne Rooney, who also bagged the winner, albiet one of the most easy tap in headers we've ever seen. Oh and this happened.

 See didn't cross the line... No England were lucky not to concede this as the match official who is stood on the end of the pitch to see if the ball crosses the line, didn't see it. WHAT IS THE POINT OF HIM BEING THERE THEN? *cough* Goal-line technology *cough*

Then we played the Italians in the quarter finals, well you know what happened. Surprisingly it managed to stay 0-0 for England over 120 minutes in a game of which they were dominated by Italy who had a number of chances to win the match but somehow failed to grasp any of them. Despite having a disallowed goal in the second half of extra time it was clear the Italians should have won the game, plus we would have never beaten Germany. Good luck Italy.

So overall FA Cup Vinyl think that it was a good performance from Roy's Boys and who knows with a bit of improvement and a bit more attacking mentality we might be able to beat a Germany or Spain one day. But until then, we'll have to celebrate defeating minnows like Andorra.

Let's hope the next major tournament we fare a bit better, that's of course if we qualify. 

What FA Cup Vinyl did today...

So today FA Cup Vinyl took a day trip to Leeds, one of the capitals of the North, apparently. Now while we like Leeds, we can't help but be annoyed by what we saw today, so being the amazing people we are (some would argue cynical), FA Cup Vinyl noted the top 5 things we hated seeing in Leeds.

1. The Christian lunatic that stands in the street with a microphone: Now we know every city may have one and we shouldn't discourage Leeds as the only city for having it, but seriously get a grip. Stop forcing religion down people's throats during their lunch break when all they want is a Starbucks, not to be told they will burn in hell. 

2. The Majority of girls between the age of 16-18: You are not in Made In Chelsea, so stop acting like you are, a stupid air head with a lot of money and spending it on pointless things... come to think of it. Oh and shopping in Jacks Wills does not make you a better person, in our eyes it makes you worse.

3. The Man wearing Yeezy 2's: JUST LOOK AT THEM, THEY'RE AWFUL! Also this man appeared to be wearing leggings, that means two things: 1) You're wearing Yeezy 2's, that means you're automatically a prat.  2) Leggings? You're male and they were brightly coloured blue, are you on drugs?

4. Those pretentious folks who sit inside Pret A Manger on their laptops thinking they're big shots: Enjoy filling out that online application for Monsoon, Mr. Big Shot. 

5. The clipboard woman who stopped us in the middle of the street to ask a few questions: We obliged because we're friendly and know it's a miserable job, she then proceeded to become annoyed with us because we were too young to fill in her survey and claimed we had lied deliberately to avoid taking part. 

So all in all, it's not really Leeds itself that annoyed FA Cup Vinyl, it was the people plus the weather was miserable whic didn't help, so the message you should take from our adventure is not don't go to Leeds, you should do it's a lovely city, it's not to end up as miserable bastards like us.

Track Of The Week: Oasis - Cast No Shadow

It maybe Friday but we missed Thursday's input anyway, you know the score by now it's Track Of The Week.

After last week being Blur, we thought to be all controversial and go for Oasis. I know, we're sooo rebellious. (We'll never do that 'sooo' again)

Anyway the Britpop battle begins, we had 'Chemical World' taken from Blur's second album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' and now we have 'Cast No Shadow' from Oasis' second album which you should all be familiar with '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'

Both are great albums, both are excellent bands and although the whole Britpop battle was mostly media hype and basically nothing, what we did learn from it all was that we had two brilliant British Bands.

With the band currently split with the Gallagher's doing different projects, Noel with his High Flying Birds and Liam and the rest in Beady Eye... Yeah don't bother with the latter, Oasis should be a band you all know too well, but you may have not listened to them in a while. Well FA Cup Vinyl is here to rekindle the love you had with the Mancunians with this absolute gem from (What's the Story) Morning Glory?'


Oasis - Cast No Shadow

Track Of The Week: Blur - Chemical World

Hello, once again we have to apologise for not updating the blog we've been pretty busy sorting out FA Cup Vinyl to make it better and watching the Euro's,  probably more of the latter really.

Anyway it's Thursday again, so after much consulting we've officially decided to make Thursday 'Track Of The Week Day'. You'd think it would make sense to post it on Monday, but you know we live life on the edge!

Swiftly moving on, this week's track is an old favourite of ours that we have recently rediscovered and has now made it into the various summer playlists that we've put so much effort in making on iTunes. Taken from Blur's second album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish', (which we might add is a very good album) is Chemical World.

This is a perfect time to be listening to Blur, with what the band reforming to play a special gig for the London Olympics in Hyde Park with other favourites New Order and The Specials as well as Bombay Bicycle Club. God we wish we were going to that.

The video of Chemical World is also worth a watch as well, so we'll speak no further, just click on the link below and thank us later.


Blur - Chemical World

Track Of The Week: XXYYXX - About You

Hello everyone, FA Cup Vinyl are back again. Sorry we've been pretty busy sorting out some matters, but after that 6 day period of nothing (which I'm sure you're all lost without us) we're back to business, starting with our new feature: Track Of The Week.

It may be something old or something new, but you know it's going to be good.

Kicking off the first week is a track that we simply can't stop listening to, XXYYXX's 'About You' and you can check it out below, which we suggest you do as the video is great and simple.

Please enjoy.

XXYYXX - About You

The XX's New Tracks

Now we're sure that you know that FA Cup Vinyl are a big fan of The XX, hence our earlier post about them a couple of days ago declaring them to be one of our favourite new bands. Well after the band recently playing some live gigs this year, those lucky people who went to see them were able to hear some of the new tracks, I know, how annoying. Well for those of you that haven't had chance to hear them yet, good old FA Cup Vinyl has found someone post them on YouTube for you all to listen to. They are all linked below, please enjoy.

The XX - Devotion

The XX - Strangers

The XX - Closer

The XX - Friction

The XX - Leave

Football Roundup

The Heroes Of Huddersfield 

There's not been much to report football wise except The League 1 Playoff Final, to which we can say congratulations to Huddersfield Town, a team very well known here at FA Cup Vinyl. The match had to be settled by an astonishing penalty shootout featuring a unbelievable 21 penalties after what was a very cagey, nervous match that resulted in 0-0, with arguably Huddersfield having the better of the chances. Despite missing their first three penalties, Huddersfield defeated Sheffield United 8-7 in unfortunate circumstances for United as the last miss from Sheffield's penalty taker was their goalkeeper Steve Simonsen who performed somewhat fantastically in over the 120 minutes of football at Wembley and kept his side in it, still well done to Huddersfield for triumphing in the all Yorkshire final and commiserations to Sheffield United. 

Hazard A Guess Who He's Signed For

Highly sought after Ligue 1 player of the year Eden Hazard announced on his Twitter on Monday night, that he would be joining recent Champions League winners Chelsea. Despite interest from Manchester City and Manchester United and a few other clubs, Hazard has opted to join the Abramovich empire at Stamford Bridge.

Very interesting signing from the blues, we for one are looking forward to seeing him next season and how he copes with the physical aspets of the Premier League. Especially when he is brutally decked by Alex Song or Marouane Fellaini.

Crewe 're ya? 

Also, congrats to Crewe Alexandra who secured promotion to League 1 after defeating Cheltenham 2-0 in the League 2 Playoff Final with a cracking opener from another sought after player 18 year old striker  Nick Powell rumoured to be sealing a multi-million pound move to Manchester United. 

Gylfi as charged 

To conclude on this pointless post, impressive Swansea loanee Gylfi Sigurdsson has signed a permanent deal with The Swans for  a confirmed £6.8m fee, the club's record transfer fee. Good bit of business from 'Swans-A-Lona' there.

Unfortunately, that's it for the football roundup, we may do more if any good stories come up (I know you're all impressed). Until then we'll be sat here twiddling our thumbs until Euro 2012 starts on the 8th June. *Sigh*

The XX

After catching serious sunburn from this dramatic heatwave we've experienced all of a sudden  , 'FA Cup Vinyl' needs to unwind, apply the after sun and listen to one of the best albums of late, The XX's self-titled album. 

Released in 2009, this great 'indie pop' album (we didn't describe it as that) is one of those brilliant atmospheric albums that is so difficult to find these days. It's relaxing, it's stress releasing and most of all, it's bloody good. 

Originally consisting as a four-piece of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Baria Qureshi (who has since left) , as well as including one of FA Cup Vinyl's favourite producers of recent Jamie Smith, or 'Jamie XX' who you may be more familiar with.  E.g that bloke who did that album sampling 'The Godfather of Rap' Gil Scott Heron. If you want to be that blunt. 

However it's hard to describe 'The XX' as they're so different to anything previously we've discussed before. One of the reasons it's so highly rated here is due to the hushed tones on the album, it makes it one of the perfect albums to listen to at night as the meaning is more apparent due to it being recorded in the evening. What is also not so much groundbreaking but innovative is the overlap of voices, with the male and female vocals synchronising, most notably in 'Crystalised' and 'Heart Skipped A Beat' which are also two classic tracks we might add, perfect to go on the playlist. 

Whilst you may be familiar with the singles like 'Crystalised' and particularly 'Islands' which was the more successful commercially, it's not to say there isn't some hidden gems on this album. One of FA Cup Vinyl's favourites has to be 'Shelter' as we believe that, quite frankly it's where female vocalist Romy Madley Croft is at her best, mixing her gorgeous breathless voice with an excellent backing track of relaxed guitar playing and timed pauses make it one of the highlights on this great album. 

It's also a testament to new music to know that 'The XX' are a British band as we hear a lot of talk that new music is dead, particularly in England and we may all have to become Miles Kane fans... Oh what a terrible thought. But with band like 'The XX' exploring the boundaries of music, being described as post-dubstep and among other things, it's also inspired artists like James Blake and SBTRKT to also experiment with the new genre. Still the word Dubstep makes us shudder. God, it's atrocious music. Swiftly moving on.

To sum up this is definitely an album you need in the collection as it also gives insight into other bands from the genre and solo stuff from 'The XX' members, e.g Jamie XX's 'We're New Here' (Gil Scott Heron collaboration album) and other odd remixes of songs, his version of Adele's 'Rolling In The Deep' and Radiohead's 'Bloom' are worth a listen as well. 

FA Cup Vinyl Rating: 8/10

FA Cup Vinyl's 5 Albums For Summer

Here in England, so far we've had a typical miserable British season so far with, yes you guessed it, rain. Bloody Rain, constantly.

But this week so far it's been hot! I know who would have guessed? Also with the forecast predicting a 'sunny week' and we don't want to jinx it but summer may be here... We may regret those words in a weeks time.

However as it is a reminder that summer is looming, here at 'FA Cup Vinyl' we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to name our 5 albums for those perfect summer days, yes we know that sounded unbelievably cheesy.

1: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

This is of our favourite albums to dig out for the summer, with it's brilliant poppy, guitar music and combination of African music providing catchy lyrics and upbeat 2 minute songs such as their most well known song 'A-Punk' that make it one of the favourites here. The New York Vibe is also apparent in here but what we love most about it is the lyrics may be catchy, but they can also be complete nonsense. But it's not trying to be a deep, thought provoking album it's just a really good gorgeous album to bask in the gorgeous sunshine with. What more could you want?

Tracks FA Cup Vinyl recommend:  Campus, Walcott, The Kids Don't Stand A Chance

2: Alex Turner - Submarine Soundtrack

Ok, so this isn't technically an album really, but it's worth mentioning as its one of the Arctic Monkeys' frontman's best efforts, and so far his only solo effort. This is one of the best soundtracks accompanying a film that we've heard in a while. As Turner is well known for his song-writing, the lyrics as always are brilliant and with its stripped back guitar and the soothing lyrics, it's a perfect combination and ideal for one of those perfect lazy summer afternoons. The film's not bad either. 

Tracks FA Cup Vinyl recommend: Hiding Tonight, Stuck On A Puzzle, Piledriver Waltz

3: Frank Ocean - Nostalgia/Ultra

Ok, so this isn't an album either

It's a mixtape, but we can't call this feature '5 albums/mixtapes/soundtracks' can't we? It doesn't have the same ring to it.

Anyway, this another favourite album of FA Cup Vinyl's not just for summer, but to listen to all year round. 

What's worth mentioning is first of all is his voice, it's outstanding and so soulful. It's hard to believe at times that he is associated with 'Odd Future' or  'OFWGKTA' for all you cool cats out there. What is also good is that its clear that Frank has a good taste in music, sampling MGMT, Radiohead, The Eagles and Coldplay... Ok, maybe not the last one but the song he does sample from Coldplay is brilliant and they must agree as they asked him to support them on their European tour. But that's the last time that Coldplay will ever be mentioned on here. We definitely recommend this one.

Tracks FA Cup Vinyl recommend: Strawberry Swing (The Coldplay One), There Will Be Tears, Swim Good

4: The Black Keys - Brothers

While this is The Black Keys' most commercially successful album, it's still worth noting that it's popular for a reason. It's fantastic, it's rough guitar, unusual vocals and to us, just seems to be the finished product really for an album like this that makes it one of FA Cup Vinyl's favourite summer albums and their latest effort 'El Camino' is also worth a listen as well. What we also like is the album cover, which is simple and basic but to the point, much like this album which is simply cracking. You'll thank us later.

Tracks FA Cup Vinyl recommend: Everlasting Light, The Only One, Never Gonna Give You Up

5: Jamie T - Kings & Queens

We have to admit we are a big fan of Jamie Treays, or 'Jamie T' as he is more well known as, and his second offering 'Kings And Queens' is one of our favourite summer albums. There's a lot of reasons why as well, the backing tracks are fantastic and his honest sort of 'alright mate' Londoner vocals gives this album its uniqueness and we're not the only ones who agree, Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe declared it his favourite album of 2009 as 'a brilliant, poignant, incredible observational record'. Yes we did nick that last bit off Wikipedia, but we were going to say that anyway. Joking aside, this album is well worth a listen because of its indie rock guitar and brutally honest lyrics, which make it definitely one of the records you need spinning or for most of you, playing on iTunes this summer. 

Tracks FA Cup Vinyl recommend: The Man's Machine, Emily's Heart, Jilly Armeen

Didier Delivers Champion's League Glory.

There's a few sore heads this morning here at 'FA Cup Vinyl' as the dreaded Monday has arrived, heightened by the fact that our heads are sore due to celebrating the incredible football event we witnessed on Saturday night in Munich. We thought we had seen it all in last weekend's Premier League title race when Sergio Aguero's 93rd minute strike helped end Manchester City's 44 year wait for the league title, but boy we were wrong.

For the three people in Berkshire who don't know the outcome of one of the most dramatic finals in Champions League history, Chelsea upset the odds and defeated the German Giants Bayern Munich in their own backyard, the Allianz Arena. 

Unbelievable is a word that is thrown around a lot in football but it perfectly describes the events of what happened in Saturday's Champions League Final. 

The team that finished 6th in the league behind the two Manchester clubs, their London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham and Newcastle are now Champions of Europe. It's hard to believe and while it's soul-crushing heartache for those Bayern fans to lose on your home ground, it's the sweetest of victories for the blue of London to win it in such an emphatic fashion.

Simply put, the reason of Chelsea's success on Saturday night is down to two words and they are Didier Drogba.

That's not to say there wasn't other star performers in Chelsea's team that night with the whole team putting in a great effort, but notable performances from stand in captain Frank Lampard, who put in an unbelievable shift and full credit to Petr Cech who's brilliant goalkeeping kept Chelsea in the match.

But Drogba showed what brilliant performers do in big games and that's score. The stats don't lie, Drogba has an amazing record of scoring nine goals in nine cup final appearances for Chelsea, and when Drogba scored that 88th minute equaliser to send the match into extra time it showed two things, Drogba never shys away from the big occasions and that goal showed Chelsea's sheer determination, they weren't going to give up. 

But another reason Chelsea arrived home with another piece of silverware in their hands, is down to Bayern's poor finishing. 20 shots at goal, 8 shots on target with no success, and when they finally did score in the 83rd minute with a Thomas Muller header, they thought they had won the tie. Big mistake. In this season, we have been shown anything can happen and while Bayern tried to shut up shop by introducing humongous 6ft 6in Belgian defender and wannabe James Bond villain Van Buyten, Chelsea rallied and took the game to penalties.

That's not to say before penalties there wasn't some more drama, Drogba playing another part in deciding Chelsea's fate after removing the nearly engraved name of Bayern on the trophy with his equaliser moments before, he was then his own enemy when in the first half of extra time he fouled Frank Ribery in the box, it seemed all his hard work in rescuing Chelsea from the brink was about to be undone.

Arjen Robben stepped up to the spot, the former Chelsea man who could end his old club's hopes of claiming their first Champions League final if he scored from 12 yards. If he scored. But in a moment that probably summed up Bayern's night, his effort was saved by Cech.

Disheartened and in dismay not only Robben but the rest of Bayern and possibly Germany, they duly carried on and the world nervously waited for the outcome when penalties loomed.

Was this to be Chelsea's night after they bravely hung in for 120 minutes from a Bayern onslaught? It appeared not when Juan Mata, Chelsea's first penalty taker's effort was saved by Manuel Neuer. The Germans are known for their efficiency in penalties as England have experienced all too well. Once again the game was on a knife edge as déjà vu was rearing its ugly head as the event was all so similar to Chelsea's Moscow nightmare when they lost four years ago in the same circumstances to Manchester United. With Bayern then leading 3-1 in the shootout, it seemed Chelsea's nightmare was about to reoccur. But the thing with penalty shootouts is, one goalkeeper is always a hero, it wasn't to be Manuel Neuer.

Seemingly on the brink of devastation once again, Petr Cech emerged victorious in the goalkeeper battle, as he denied Ivica Olic, who had impressed since coming on and the turning point in the shootout, when he pushed Bastian Schweinsteiger's effort on the post and back out of danger, leaving the next Chelsea penalty taker the chance to be the hero  for them after Frank Lampard's, David Luiz's and Ashley Cole's superb penalties had brought them even.

With all this drama surrounding this match after the extraordinary events that took place throughout some of the most nervous 2 hours of football we've seen, it seemed only right that Drogba had the chance to win Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich the coveted prize he has so desired. 

Unlike his former team mate Robben, when Drogba stepped up to the spot with what may be his last ever kick for Chelsea, he scored, winning the Champions League for his team. 

In a 8 year stint at Chelsea, Drogba has claimed an amazing trophy collection of 3 Premier League titles, 4 FA Cups, 2 Carling Cups and 2 FA Community Shields, but none will have been sweeter than his spot kick winning the trophy in front of the Bayern fans. 

Full credit to Drogba, who may have not been one of the most liked players in his illustrious career with the West London club, but he certainly commands respect and with this performance he has perhaps cemented his place as being one of the best strikers to have graced the Premier League and regardless of what you think about him, if he does leave this summer he will be sorely missed by everyone.

Credit to players but also to Roberto Di Matteo, who in a short time as 'interim first team coach' has not only delivered the prize that Chelsea and Roman Abramovich have wanted for so long but the FA Cup also, completing a brilliant cup double. If anyone deserves the Chelsea job it is him, who has remained humble and dodged questions about his Chelsea future while delivering success, not once but twice. 'FA Cup Vinyl' can only say it would be a travesty if he is not named Chelsea manager on a full-time basis. But if he isn't named Chelsea boss, he can leave with his head held high and surely walk into any top job knowing he has done himself and his family who he was celebrating with, proud.

As Jamie Redknapp summed up on Sky Sports 'Chelsea's season has defied logic', and as the cameras left the Allianz Arena watching Chelsea's celebrations, it seemed appropriate that Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' was playing, summing up Chelsea's unremarkable journey to being 'The Champions of Europe'.

The Three Teams We've Fallen In Love With This Season.

So with the most exciting Premier League Season over and the Euro's being a couple of weeks away, 'FA Cup Vinyl' have had plenty of time to reflect on this truly remarkable season full of twists and turns, here we name the three teams in the Premier League that we've grown to admire.

Chelsea 

What a second half of the season it has been for Chelsea, and whether you like them or not you have to admire them. Under Andre Villas Boas it seemed that everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. A bright young manager with a good pedigree, he had previously won the treble with Porto last season and worked under the wings of a previous Chelsea managerial legend Mr. Jose Mourinho. It seemed ideal and different from Chelsea opting for a young, fresh talent to take the reigns of Stamford Bridge, but different doesn't always mean better. Losses to Manchester United and Arsenal may not have been shocking but the manners in which they lost did not help. The 5-3 loss at home to Arsenal highlighted the cracks and faults in Andre Villas Boas reign and put him under pressure in the public eye. Fallouts with players, the media and anyone who dared questioned his methods, it simply became a question of when rather than might Mr. Roman Abramovich wield the axe. Eventually it became the matches that Chelsea were expected to win that led to AVB's downfall, a 1-0 loss to QPR, a 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa and the final nail in the coffin, a 1-0 loss to West Brom signified the end of Mr. Villas Boas' short reign. So with Chelsea out of the Premier League title race, out of the top four and trailing a 3-1 loss to Napoli in the Champions League it seemed their season was over. Or so it would seem when one man came to Chelsea's rescue and that man is Roberto Di Matteo. Flash forward, two months and under RDM, Chelsea produced arguably some of their best results in their modern history, a 5-1 mauling of London rivals Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final followed by emerging victorious in the final with a 2-1 victory over the red of Merseyside Liverpool, winning a staggering 4th FA Cup in six seasons. Oh, and they managed to knock the team that is dominating world football and Champions League holders Barcelona out of the Champions League on their home soil. Despite this, Chelsea's season is still yet to end, with a mouth watering final against Bayern Munich on May 19th. So with such a turnaround in a matter of months, it raises two questions. 1) Why hasn't Roberto Di Matteo been named permanent manager? And 2) Can Chelsea do the unthinkable (again) and manage to defeat the German giants on their own turf? One thing is for certain though, we'll be tuning in to find out.

Newcastle United

The bookies made them one of the favourites for relegation at the start of the season, and they narrowly missed out on the top 4 at the end of the season. Now, I'm not a gambling man but it is hard to not bet that the success is largely down to Alan Pardew's managerial approach and shrewd business in the transfer market. After selling what was largely Newcastle's backbone last season of Joey Barton, Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan, the captain many thought Newcastle would struggle but it turned out to be quite the opposite with two players grabbing most of the headlines on Tyneside, the Senegalese duo Demba Ba and his counterpart Papiss Cisse. Ba and Cisse have been the driving force for Newcastle's quest to bring Champions League football back to the Magpies, providing a staggering 30 goals between them, including a goal of the season contender i.e. Cisse's wonder goal against Chelsea, which if you haven't seen it then what the hell have you been doing? What makes that statistic even more incredible is the two Sengegalese strikers were only a joint cost of £10m. I know, and to think there was Geordie outcry when a certain Andy Carroll went to Liverpool for £35m, this once again makes the statistics even more incredible, but it's no surprise. In little over two years, Alan Pardew has managed to transform the doom and gloom surrounding Newcastle after their relegation and turn them into serious contenders for a top four finish. After buying other impressive players such as Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye, and outstanding performances from existing players such as Coloccini (who has been named in Premier league XI of the season) and Jonas Gutierrez, Pardew has created a team with backbone that can compete with the elite, while to delight of the black and white side of Newcastle making sure they are the number one team in Tyneside. That is why it is no surprise that Mr Pardew has just been named Premier League manager of the season and we couldn't agree more.

Swansea City

They've been dubbed the 'Welsh Barcelona' with their slick passing football and while that name is terrible, it is hard to disagree with Brendan Rogers' team impressing everybody this season. Promoted after defeating newly promoted Reading last year, Swansea made it to the big time as the first Welsh team in the Premier League, whilst playing excellent attractive football that has attracted many neutrals and plaudits. At the start of the season they were seen as one of the favourites in the relegation battle along with their fellow promoted teams Norwich and QPR as well as Newcastle, shows why I'm not a gambling man. However it seemed a safe bet after a 4-0 thrashing at the start of the season to Man City, followed by two 0-0's against Wigan and Sunderland it seemed these swans were falling rather than flying. A terrible pun, I know but then 'Swans-alona' started to have a change in luck. (That was also terrible, I'm trying to stick with a theme of awful puns and cliches in this.) Things began to improve when they recorded their first victory in September beating Bolton 3-1, but the best was yet to come. Typically, newly promoted teams have a good season if they managed to stay up, but 'The Swans' have fared much better. Finishing the season in 11th on the same amount of points as their fellow promoted team Norwich, Swans-alona have not only staved off relegation with some comfort, they have also notched up some impressive wins, defeating the Premier League Champions Manchester City, 3rd placed Arsenal and Liverpool. This shows another remarkable performance by a newly promoted team in the Premier League and like their promotion counterparts Norwich, have done so playing good, attractive football. Not bad for a team that the bookies rated that 'the king has more chance of returning than Swansea staying up'. Players such as top goal scorer Danny Graham, Scott Sinclair and the rather impressive loanee Sigurdsson have helped Swansea, defy the critics. It seems the Welsh team were more elegant swans than ugly ducklings this season. (I told you about the theme of awful puns and cliches).