Yahoo! Music Review

Gig played on 20/07/08

It's the morning after the two nights before but the masses have much to get up for and not because of today's live BBC Radio 4 broadcast. Even more perfect a distillation of the Latitude aura than an arty transmission on the civilised airwaves is midday headliner Joanna Newsom. For those yet to experience the sheer joy of seeing this gifted, cute and kooky Californian lavish a harp there is much to see. In fact, it's the perfect way to start the final day, as "This Side Of The Blue", "The Book Of Right On" and an epic "Emily" are played in near total, jaws-open silence. On "Sadie", the giggling, charmingly nervy Newsom skips fearlessly through "irrevocably", "taciturn" and other lyrical abstractions only for "Sawdust And Diamonds" to see her freeze completely, much to our delight.

A week away from storming the charts, Noah & The Whale draw a vast crowd to the Uncut Arena and are arguably the most charming band of the weekend. Gazing into Charlie's come-to-bed eyes and swooning to his soft hiccupping you can almost forgive the mawkish couplets and his irritatingly sanguine disposition. Another day, another festival for Foals it seems; singer Yannis tells the Obelisk crowd they're looking forward to some time off and boy, they look like they need it, especially after apparently brawling with John Lydon at Benicassim last night. Luckily rabid packs of teenagers down the front high on fizzy pop and sunshine keep the energy up and the likes of "Balloons" and "Cassius" still crackle with the intelligence and passion of a great band in ascendance.

The same has been said of Glasvegas, who emerge somewhere in the distance of the lop-sided and increasingly seasick Uncut stage. Dressed in black and bathed in red light, as ever, the Scottish quartet are clearly capable of raising great flumes of dark noise, but too often, save the potentially career-defining "Daddy's Gone", it's less Jesus & Mary Chain and more Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Back at the Obelisk and it seems only The Breeders can keep the party going as fearsome clouds gather. They might carry on like a pair of grunge bag ladies arguing over a Ginsters at a bus stop but for once - hurrah! - a band that looks happy to make their fans happy! Smiles all around then as they rattle through the highlights of their kaleidoscopic back catalogue, teetering on the brink of collapse but all the more fascinating for it.

While complaints at this year's Latitude are few, more curveball acts like Swedish pop riot girl Lykke Li would have been welcome. One of 2008's most ingenious discoveries, she wallops the Sunset Arena with a drum stick, megaphone and the clocking syncopation of "Dance Dance Dance". "I thought you took drugs at this festival?!", she goads, before party hard takes on "I'm Good, I'm Gone" and "Breaking It Up" are bested by an unlikely tear through "Can I Kick It", her reputation as Fiest's feral niece secured. Grinderman need no introduction, of course, as the heaving, black clouds over Obelisk threaten to become as Biblical as Nick Cave's onstage posturing and Warren Ellis' grizzled beard and crazed viola assault. The fact this band has lit Cave's soul and creative fire is there for all to see, as "No Pussy Blues" pours from the speakers and Interpol bite their nails backstage.

For months, many have wondered if the NYC art-rockers have it in them to truly make their name tonight and send us home happy. Often a band seen as much about design as craft, there can be little doubt that their reassembled bric-a-brac of ghostly indie has power. "Pioneer To The Falls" is a graceful and dramatic start, while "Slow Hands", "Not Even Jail", "Untitled" and "No I In Threesome" inspire snatches of mania amongst what is profoundly the weekend's smallest headline crowd. For the doubters, and those who cling to Interpol's stylish stride, it's heartening to see Carlos D minus his rum moustache, so everything hinges on singer Paul Banks, apparently now dating Helena Christenson. Not for long, we conclude, as the last strains of their passable showing leak away, if he persists with the foolish trilby and spectacles combo sported tonight. This was a rare blip in a weekend of almost wall-to-wall highs.

by Ben Gilbert & Jim Brackpool