IN: Athlete are an English indie rock band formed in Deptford, London, comprising Joel Pott (lead vocals and guitar), Carey Willetts (bass and backing vocals), Stephen Roberts (drums and backing vocals) and Tim Wanstall (keyboards and backing vocals). The band had a brief period of high-profile domestic success in which their debut album Vehicles & Animals (2003) was a platinum seller in 2005 and Mercury Music Prize nomination. It was followed up by Tourist (2005) which reached No. 1 and sold over 500,000 copies allowing this album to also go platinum. Since then the band has continued to release records on regular basis.

On 10 June 2007, it was announced that the title of their third album would be Beyond the Neighbourhood. The album was recorded by the band themselves in their own studio, and mixed by Ben Allen and Michael Brauer, who had worked on Tourist. Released on 3 September 2007, Beyond the Neighbourhood was a self-produced collection of low-key songs, viewed as a disappointment by some, and an interesting sidestep by others. Jonny Pilcher contributed additional guitar on 7 tracks. Pilcher then played live with the band on the subsequent tour. It entered at No. 5 on the UK album chart. Singles included Beach Boys-influenced "Hurricane", charting disappointingly at number 30, also "Tokyo" which missed the Top 100 (number 198) and "The Outsiders EP", which didn't chart at all. They embarked on tours of the UK in late 2007 and early 2008 in support of the album. They also played during the 2008 TT motorcycle racing festival on the Isle of Man. Black Swan is the fourth studio album produced by the band. Athlete recorded this album while temporarily unsigned. American producer Tom Rothrock collaborated with the group long distance after hearing only a few acoustic demos. In April they announced a 29 date tour of the UK to promote their new album. The tour took place throughout June and July. On 2 June 2009 it was announced that the band had parted ways with Parlophone Records and signed up with Fiction Records, who released "Black Swan" on 24 August 2009. The first single from the album "Superhuman Touch" was released on 17 August 2009, entering the UK charts at No. 74, climbing to No. 71 a week later. On 12 June 2009, Athlete released the song "Summer Sun" as a free download for email-subscribers. The song is not included in the track listing confirmed by band member Carey Willetts, and is likely to be considered as a b-side from the upcoming album. The first single to be released in America is "The Getaway". On 9 November 2009, Athlete released "Black Swan Song" as a single.

Did they perform outside the UK?

OUT: They also played during the 2008 TT motorcycle racing festival on the Isle of Man.

IN: Love was born Courtney Michelle Harrison on July 9, 1964 at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, California, the first child of psychotherapist Linda Carroll (nee Risi) and Hank Harrison, a publisher and road manager for the Grateful Dead. Love's godfather is the founding Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. Her mother, who was adopted at birth and raised by a prominent Italian-Catholic family in San Francisco, was later revealed to be the biological daughter of novelist Paula Fox; Love's maternal great-grandmother was screenwriter Elsie Fox. According to Love, she was named after Courtney Farrell, the protagonist of Pamela Moore's 1956 novel Chocolates for Breakfast.

Musically, Love's work with Hole and her solo efforts have been characterized as alternative rock; Hole's early material, however, was described by critics as being stylistically closer to grindcore and aggressive punk rock. Spin's October 1991 review of Hole's first album noted Love's layering of harsh and abrasive riffs buried more sophisticated musical arrangements. In 1998, she stated that Hole had "always been a pop band. We always had a subtext of pop. I always talked about it, if you go back ... what'll sound like some weird Sonic Youth tuning back then to you was sounding like the Raspberries to me, in my demented pop framework." Love's lyrical content is composed from a female's point of view, and her lyrics have been described as "literate and mordant" and noted by scholars for "articulating a third-wave feminist consciousness." According to a 2014 interview, lyrics have remained the most important component of songwriting for Love: "I want it to look just as good on the page as it would if it was in a poetry book". A great deal of her songwriting has been diaristic in nature. Common themes present in Love's songs during her early career included body image, rape, suicide, conformity, elitism, pregnancy, prostitution, and death. In a 1991 interview with Everett True, she said: "I try to place [beautiful imagery] next to fucked up imagery, because that's how I view things ... I sometimes feel that no one's taken the time to write about certain things in rock, that there's a certain female point of view that's never been given space." Critics have noted that Love's later musical work is more lyrically introspective. Celebrity Skin and America's Sweetheart are lyrically centered on celebrity life, Hollywood, and drug addiction, while continuing Love's interest in vanity and body image. Nobody's Daughter was lyrically reflective of Love's past relationships and her struggle for sobriety, with the majority of its lyrics written while she was in rehab in 2006.

What do others say about her style?

OUT:
Critics have noted that Love's later musical work is more lyrically introspective.