The Bonus Track: Savages, Echo & the Bunnymen, Ned Doheny, Kitten Pyramid, Coldplay

Noble savages?

There are two subjects always up for discussion by lovers of popular music: the first is the autheniticity-versus-­artifice chestnut (simple: there’s room for both) and the second is can you love a band whose sound is not entirely ­original. So your reaction to Savages is ­probably determined by whether or not you were alive in 1979. Either way, you have to admire (OK, you don’t have to) a band who ­celebrate their album’s first birthday by putting out a 10-minute-plus single called “Fuckers”

Echoes of the past

And while we’re on the subject of 1979 … You’re going to have to take my word for this, but the new Echo & the ­Bunnymen album, Meteorites (out 26 May), is something of an unexpected return to form. Don’t believe me? Listen for yourself

The boat comes in

Still on the subject of the 1970s (I know … get over it grandad), words can not express quite how fabulous the “yacht rock” compilation Too Slow to Disco (out 2 June) is. The first in a long series, we can only hope. Listen to the opening track, Ned Doheny’s splendidly titled “Get it Up For Love”

If you see Syd…

Bang up to date this one. Kitten Pyramid’s debut record, Uh-Oh, is a concept album about the singer’s schizophrenic uncle. And so to mark its release at the end of this month, the band have just completed a short tour of psychiatric hospitals around Staffordshire and Shropshire. If British psychedelia is your bag, this is your new favourite band. Watch the video for “Uh-Oh”

Next week’s biggie…

Kevin Harley searches for clues into “conscious ­uncouplings” and such like in Ghost Stories, the newie from Coldplay. Watch the video for “Magic”