During the next month, as Summer officially begins, each Thursday will see AGCS’s four writers in turn talk about their favourite summer albums. Week one sees pedantic constable Jed take his turn…

Hot Club De Paris – Live At Dead Lake
Hot Club De Paris explore the same territory as fellow afro-beat enthusiasts Foals and Vampire Weekend, although the three piece’s set up (guitar, bass, drums) means they could just as easily be lumped in with any number of little known indie bands. Hot Club can be differentiated from your average guitar band through their use of unusual time signatures and song structures, although they retain a good ear for a hook, as shown on Hey Housebrick!, the album’s lead off single. With loads of awesome guitar parts and harmonies, and most songs under 3 minutes in length, Live At Dead Lake keeps it short and very sweet.

Gruff Rhys - Candylion
In the same year that the underwhelming Super Furry Animals album Hey Venus! came out, frontman Gruff Rhys’ released the far superior solo effort Candylion. The title track, all glockenspiels, swooning strings and nonsensical lyrics about confectionery animals, is pure sunshine, whilst the Welsh language single Gyrru, Gyrru, Gyrru (translation – Driving, Driving, Driving) is fittingly perfect for road trips. Best of all is closing track Skylon, detailing a plane journey which begins badly with the protagonist’s seat stolen by a C-list actress and only gets worse with the hijacking of the plane by terrorists.

Bonde Do Role – …With Lasers
When I first bought this album from Fopp (RIP), I took it back to the shop. I didn’t understand it – essentially a Brazilian girl shouting Portuguese over some bongos – and despite the shop assistant’s view (which I DID NOT ASK FOR) that it was “great for a BBQ” I got a refund. I was wrong and he was right, even if I DIDN’T ASK FOR HIS OPINION. Bonde Do Role are apparently “Baile Funk” a genre I know little about, but on the basis of this album involves a load of bongos, tons of samples, and is infectious as fuck. …With Lasers is a great album which all the family can enjoy, because Nan will never know that half the time MC Marina is rapping about anal sex. Unless Nan speaks Portuguese.

Yeasayer – All Hour Cymbals
Fleet Foxes are shit. Yeasayer were there first and they do it better. All Hour Cymbals is a testament to this – insane harmonies, lush instrumentation – Yeasayer have it all. Songs like Wait for the Summer and 2080 are ridiculously joyous, while even tracks like Germs (which will, apparently “get you if you’re not careful”) remain catchily upbeat despite paranoid lyrical content. This album is consistently good and the ideal antidote to the summertime blues.

The Avalanches – Since I Left You
The first (and so-far only) record by Australian turntablists the Avalanches is now almost a decade old, yet it remains one of my favourite albums and top of my list of summer albums. Perhaps best known for their single Frontier Psychiatrist, and subsequently dismissed as a novelty act, the Avalanches’ début is a real labour of love, assembled from over 3,500 vinyl samples (thanks Wikipedia!) and years in the making. It’s an hour long but doesn’t drag or feel bloated, with each track seguing into the next to create a constantly changing whole. At times party-starting whilst at others chilled, it’s the perfect summer album.

Jed Howlett