In 2009, Aberdeen trio, The Xcerts emerged onto the scene with debut album with 'In The Cold Wind We Smile'. The album was full of soaring yet offbeat alternative rock ballads with weird structures and frequent contrasts of loud and soft. They followed it up with 'Scatterbrain' which was even weirder. While the songs were bigger, grungier, angrier and overall more (I'm sorry) emo.

As idiosyncratic as they were, the albums are both great. They are not instant, though. Both take a lot of getting used to.

The Xcerts start 'There Is Only You' a lot like their past two albums with a short ambient intro track. After this though, the album just explodes.

The next three tracks show an unseen side of The Xcerts. While it is energetic like 'Scatterbrain''s titular track, the tracks are here are incredibly poppy, upbeat and incredibly catchy. They're songs to sing along and jump around to.

'There Is Only You' has MacLeod singing a slightly higher register than we are used to along with Coheed and Cambria style harmonies. The album is very rich produced by Dave Eringa and Paul Steel, including pianos, strings, synths, ahs and oohs and huge fuzzy guitars.

There are slight nods to past stuff, for example, ballad Kevin Costner and the title track which, like most track on 'Cold Wind' gets better with every play.

With 'There Is Only You', The Xcert have managed to create a fantastic pop album while not decending into cringeworthy cheese (like another 2014 Scottish rock album). Along with their clever yet personal lyrics, the character of the band is still very resonant due in part to Murray MacLeod's angsty vocals sung with a bratty Aberdonian accent. It's one of the albums of the year.

Unlike 'In The Cold Wind We Smile' and 'Scatterbrain', 'There Is Only You' is an album that can be recommended to near enough anyone. It is a fantastic introduction to the band for any new listeners to the band.

The real feat is that The Xcerts have now released three albums. All of them great and all of them completely different. They've also managed to this while retaining their identity. The difference between releases simply show the growth of the band.

 While Weezer are my favourite band, I don't count myself a proper Weezer fan. A proper Weezer fan goes on forums saying the band haven't done anything decent since 1996's 'Pinkerton'. What I am is a Weezer apologist. While songs such as 'I'm Your Daddy' and 'The Girl Got Hot' have made it very hard for me to defend the American quartet's recent releases, every album has at least a handful of great pop songs.

Although Rivers has said that 'Everything Will Be Alright In The End' would be an album their “fans” will enjoy and they'd stop pandering to the masses, he does so in the fucking lyrics of lead single, 'Back To The Shack'! It only comes across as cheesy. While the much maligned 'Pork and Beans' was as self-referential, 'Back To The Shack' does not have the melodies to back it up.

'Ain't Got Nobody' starts with a chugging distorted guitar not dissimilar to 'Hurley''s 'Trainwrecks'. There is a difference to this and 'Trainwrecks' and it's Ric Ocasek's (producer of Weezer's blue and green albums) rougher production. It is anthemic and exciting opener to the album.

'Eulogy For a Rock Band', a tribute to 'one of Weezer's forefathers is also one of the better tracks of the album. While the verses' lyrics don't seem to rhyme whatsoever, it can be overlooked with such a rich chorus, a great contrast to the minimalist verses.

There's a lot to be nostalgic about with 'EWBAITE'. The production, solos and falsetto sections really take you back to listening to 'Blue' or 'Maladroit' for the first time. Unlike past albums, this is definitely the same Weezer we know and love. The problem is that it's still a disappointing record.

While there's great moments here and there, it's plagued with missteps like 'Eulogy''s verses. 'Lonely Girl', for example, starts with, presumably, an incredibly catchy chorus. After a cool minor pre-chorus (or is it?), you're ready for it to come back in and for you to sing “My Lonely Girl” at the top of your lungs. However, it only comes back at the very end of the song.

The verses in 'The British Are Coming' have a really pretty melody sung in unison with the lead guitar but the song's title is such a weird lyric that it detracts from the rest of the song. This doesn't ruin the song but there are songs where that is the case. 'I've Had It Up To Here' (or 'Back To The Shack 2' as it could be named) has really funky falsetto verses (with noticeable input from co-writer Justin Hawkins) but is squandered by a shitty chorus. The same goes for 'Cleopatra' which has awkward irregular timing but still managed to be boring. 'Foolish Father' starts off really cool and dark but has the happiest, poppiest chorus on the album. It's not bad and the track becomes its own thing with a cool outro (the album's title being sung by a children's choir) but the verses are just so out of place with the rest of the track.

The album does, however have one Weezer's best songs ever. 'Go Away', a duet with Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, is so catchy and more importantly so Weezery. It has 'In The Garage' style underneath 'Don't You Want Me, Baby' style lyrics.

The thing with Weezer's lyrics, is there's no subtlety to them. While effective in Pinkerton in portaying multiple fuck ups with women, the lyrics in EWBAITE either seem too tongue-in-cheek (Back To The Shack, Ain't Got Nobody), overearnest (Eulogy For a Rock Band) or dishonest. Rivers is a married guy with a kid. Nobody is buying that he 'Ain't Got Nobody' or that he's been told to 'Go Away' by a girlfriend after screwing around.

While Ric Ocasek's production of 'Everything Will Be Alright In The End' is a welcome return to Weezer's sound, the songs are simply not there. I hope Weezer continue to work with Ocasek but write better songs like those on 'Hurley'.

“Why the fuck is there a U2 album on my iTunes? said many on the 9th of September when U2 put new album 'Songs of Innocence', not only for free but, automatically on iTunes users computer and phones.

I, for one was excited, having spent the past year stifling laughs in public listening to Scott Aukerman and Adam Scott's 'U Talkin' U2 To Me?' podcast on my iPod. Amongst the podcast's completely irrelevant tangents and weird bits, it does, in fact, have some interesting nuggets of information about the band and admittedly had me replaying my U2 Greatest Hits CD. I'd also heard that the album would be produced by Dangermouse, whose latest album with Broken Bells is one of the best released this year.

The album starts off very well with the band singing a high 'ohs' over a drum rim rhythm followed by huge dirty power chords from The Edge. It works as a great start to an album. Unfortunately 'The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)' slightly loses this momentum with an awkward transition between the verses and chorus. The track's lyrics, however, are very good. The song is about a Ramones concert that the Irish quartet sneaked into as kids and how the band wouldn't be around were it not for that experience. The lyrics don't name check Joey Ramone in the song and it feels slightly hacky that they have him in the video and in the title of the song.

While the album doesn't really have an overall sound like 'Achtung Baby' or 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', the album does display each producer at their best. For example 'Every Breaking Wave' and 'California (There is No End to Love)' have huge choruses backed by lush production typical to Tedder songs like 'Halo' and 'Counting Stars' and Epworth produced tracks like 'Rolling in the Deep' and 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)', whereas brooding electro ballad 'Sleep Like A Baby Tonight' perfectly displays Dangermouse's production at its best with sleek synth tracks and a haunting falsetto verse.

While musically disparate, the album is held together lyrically by the theme of youth, present throughout the tracks. Bono has said that 'Songs of Innocence' is their most personal album which is exemplified with 'Song for Someone', a very sweet love about meeting his wife at 12, and 'Iris (Hold Me Close)' a song about his Mum dying at a young age.

While lyrically quite stunning, 'Iris (Hold Me Close) comes across as another filler U2 track complete with The Edge's overused delay effect. Other unremarkable tracks are 'Cedarwood Road' and 'This Is Where You Reach Me'. The worst track on the album is Volcano, a faux sexy jam with cringeworthy spoken word sections and a really boring and annoying chorus.

Luckily, it is followed by, best track on the album, 'Raised by Wolves', an incredibly atmospheric track telling the story of a car bombing in Dublin that was witnessed by one of Bono's friends. The track performs the cool trick of building to something, dying down and then building up again. By the time the first chorus plays, so much tension has been built so when it finally does play, it's fucking great. A very prominent doubler effect is put on Bono as he wails the track's title over tribal-esque drums from Larry Mullen Jnr.

The album closes with 'The Troubles' a eery duet with Swedish indie starlet, Lykke Li The quiet ballad has Bono looking back and saying 'You're not my troubles, any more'. It works very well as a closer as it puts a lid on traumatic events discussed within the album.

U2 have said they'd follow 'Songs of Innocence' with 'Songs of Experience'. If they can encapsulate their later years with the honesty and fantastic production utilized in portraying their youth, this can only be good news. They may need to find a less hate-inspiring way of releasing it and less embarrassing album artwork.

It’s around about five o’clock in the morning and I’m at Edinburgh airport with my girlfriend. We’re in the gate waiting to board our flight to Dublin. 

The masses have already inexplicably begun queuing despite the fact that the plane doesn’t leave for another hour. We were zoned out in a zombified state of sleep on a couple seats nearby – myself flicking slowly through a magazine and taking none of it in, my other half staring deeply into an abyss of utter confusion that only kicks in over sleep-deprivation.

Why were we there? The same reason half the other people on the plane were. To make the trip to a spectacular show from a band at the forefront of their genre. We were off to see Biffy Clyro play a one-off show at what was effectively a giant castle in Dublin. 

What better reason to get up at five o'clock in the morning?

After some naptime on arrival, a stroll around Dublin, a tour of the Guinness factory and some extended sampling of that famous local brew, it was time to head to the spectacular Royal Hospital Kilmainham for the super showdown – with Little Matador and You Me At Six providing some top support to the outdoor show made all the more killer by the blue skies and shining sun.

The Scottish trio came on with a massive bang. Lights blaring, crowd roaring, signature toplessness intact. Let's get going.

‘Different People’, from latest album Opposites, was the opening track. A welcome intro to the set, starting slow, bursting into life and eventually exploding with a kickass chorus that set the tone pretty well for the slamming showcase to follow.

The set was formed from a variation of past and present that an audience of the band has come to expect. Biffy are wonderfully renowned for the quality of their back catalogue – the days of NME slating Blackened Sky now seem a laughable past – and after getting going with a few songs from Opposites and Only Revelations, Puzzle’s ‘Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies’ featured, followed by the likes of Blackened Sky’s ‘Justboy’ and Infinity Land favourite ‘Glitter and Trauma’.

A more surprising inclusion was ‘Questions and Answers’ from 2003 album The Vertigo of Bliss, but the song worked well in the set, slowing the pace after ‘Who’s Got a Match?’ to lead on to more recent success ‘Many of Horror’.

The passion of the band was powerful throughout the set - and essential to the success of the show. From ‘Whores’ and ‘Sounds Like Balloons’ to the wonderful ‘Woo Woo’ and ‘Black Chandelier’, the riffs were heavy, original, catchy as hell and executed ruggedly in a way that means you’re not just listening to a live set of studio recordings – you're listening to a performance packed with the passion and zeal that has driven the trio on to keep upping their game and setting the bar higher each time they take to the stage.

When the group played the heavy stuff, the crowd went wild, and so did the band. When they slowed it down for the likes of ‘The Thaw’, or for solo acoustic takes on ‘God & Satan’ and ‘Machines’ from Simon Neil, the audience turned choir to reverberate the words right back up to the stage.

It’s gigs like this that make it a shame that the whole process of the ‘encore’ is effectively ruined, because Biffy are exactly the kind of band that genuinely leave the audience desperate for more – the kind of band that would almost certainly command a rampant encore in the days when these things actually had to be earned.

Finishing off with ‘Stingin’ Belle’ and big-time anthem ‘Mountains’, it was a sensational overall performance from James and Ben Johnston alongside Simon Neil, who left the stage declaring: ‘thankyou, we’ve been Biffy fucking Clyro’. A jubilant statement to match what most of the audience will have been thinking at the time.

Biffy certainly put on a performance that makes you remember what music should really be all about – the passion, the craze and the love of innovation.

It was a concert that leaves you pining for more, and buzzing for another session with the Biff.

                                                                                                                                          Stuart Kenny
                                                                                                                Photographs: Mairi Petticrew