Latest Reviews
February 2009
Yeasayer's track 'Tightrope was a highlight of last year's excellent Dark Was The Night compilation. As with the band's first album All Hour Cymbals, the track expertly combined indie-cool with more experimental, electronic music with stunning effect.
Sadly Odd Blood the second album from the Brooklyn based band fails to live up to expectation.
There is simply too much eighties synth pop here. Instead of merging styles they have seemingly forgotten their more avant garde leanings and just plumped for lame euro-pop instead.
It's like they picked the wrong '80s to draw influence from. Instead of the bleeps of the Human League and Ultravox they've opted for the kind of soulless rubbish that ice-skaters would have danced to at the time.
The lack of good melody is another factor in the poor state of Odd Blood. Apart from 'O.N.E' and 'Ambling Alp', there is little to remember.
Lead singer Chris Keates nasally, almost yodelling style voice doesn't help. While it worked well on 'Tightrope' and All Hour Cymbals, on Odd Blood he just sounds whiney.
Lyrically there is not much going on either. Even the best track 'Ambling Alp' has some pretty lame lyrics, "You must stick up for yourself, son Never mind what anybody else done." Not as inspiring as Yeasayer had perhaps hoped. Also, Tightrope's chorus was built around the word 'nevermind' as well. Perhaps a thesaurus would help when it comes to their next release.
Yeasayer have produced a really disappointing album that fails to build on the plaudits they received last year through their contribution on Dark Was The Night and their first album.
4/10
by Joe Lepper
Field Music - Field Music (Measure)
Field Music's third album, Field Music (Measure), marks a comeback of sorts for the Sunderland four-piece, coming after a two-year hiatus for the band's two driving forces, brothers Peter and David Brewis.
During their break they have been busying themselves with solo projects. For Peter 2008's The Week That Was solo album, a masterpiece in 1980s production from the era of Heaven 17, XTC and others.
Meanwhile David's solo album under the name School of Language was another highpoint of 2008, especially the wonderful opener 'Rockist Part 1'.
Measure, a double album no less, sees the band move on yet another level. There are aspects of the sweeping, mazy songs on their eponymous debut as well as the jerky but more structured pop of second album Tones of Town, but a whole lot more has been added.
The XTC comparisons that are often thrown Field Music's way are likely to continue, but other influences predating the Swindon new wave legends, such as Led Zepplin, Fleetwood Mac, even ELO, The Move and 10cc are also thrown into the mix.
David Brewis told Groupee earlier this year that the intention with Measure was to create something that was, "quite sprawling musically and thematically - we didn't want something that was easy to sum up.
"I suppose we were going for something more like (The Beatles') White Album, (Fleetwood Mac's)Tusk or (Led Zeppelin's) Physical Graffiti, where the feel of the album comes more from its variety," he added.
They've certainly achieved that. There's a lot happening on Measure across the 20 tracks, pure pop in places, more experimental sounds and rhythms in others. All the while it is based in the main around the most simple of instrumentation, bass, guitar and drums and satisfying vocal harmony. Where keyboards, strings and brass are used it is rare but effective.
There's much more guitar on Measure as well than the previous two albums, perhaps to make up for departure of keyboardist Andrew Moore during the hiatus.
In terms of tracks the two discs are slightly different. More of the punchy catchy tunes on the first, more invention and flights of fancy on the second.
The first six tracks on disc one are among the best, offering neat, perfect pop. 'In the Mirror' starts the album with a real sense of immediacy. 'Them That Do Nothing is a more playful number, sounding like The Move's Flowers In the Rain. 'Each Time Is a New Time', with its Led Zeppelin-style blues rock riff, changes tact again.
Others worth mentioning in the early part of the album is 'Measure', layered with violins, like an XTC Apple Venus era song. 'Effortlessly' is straight out of Drums and Wires era XTC. 'Let's Write A Book,' goes funk, but with added glockenspiel.
On disc two there's a whole lot more quirky stuff going on. The tracks run into each other, offering different moods, and summing up the reflective, and yes measured, style of the album. Opener 'The Rest Is Noise' starts in an upbeat mood, before moving into the largely piano and prog-rock-esque 'Curves of a Needle. 'The Wheels Are in Place', is reminiscent of Tones of Town tracks such as Working To Work. At the end the lengthy classical music influenced 'It's About Time' wraps things up nicely.
Overall Measure is a well-crafted, beautiful piece of inventive pop drawing on some very English influences and set to feature highly on many best of lists come December.
9/10
by Joe Lepper
Broadcast 2000 - Broadcast 2000
Released on Groenland Records in Europe, Broadcast 2000 offers a similar warm, low-key take on indie-folk, and an interesting mix of styles.
Vocally UK based Steer is a surprisingly pleasing mix of The Street's Mike Skinner with Frank Turner . While musically he is very much in the vein of Brighton's Willkommen Records roster of acts, including The Miserable Rich and formerly The Leisure Society. All the way through the album his classical music background clearly shines through giving the album a real intelligence and care in the arrangements.
Steer is an avid looper of acoustic instruments and there are elements of another looper Andrew Bird here, especially the prominence given to violin on the album, which is performed by Noah and Whale's Tom Hobden.
It is no surprise that Hobden is involved and there are many similarities with Noah and the Whale on Steer's debut in the way the tracks are quirky enough to appeal to indie fans, but catchy and mainstream enough to get airplay and perhaps even the odd mobile phone advertiser calling.Track one 'Rouse Your Bones' starts the album off well setting the scene for the glockenspiel twinkles and violin and string arrangements to come. Among the standout tracks is 'That Sinking Feeling'. Its crushing lyrics such as, "I'll give my lungs a rest and wait until that sinking feeling's happening in my chest," make it sound like a tearful break up song, although Steer tells us that, "It's not really a break up song to me no, but I'm happy for people to interpret however they like."
'Hold My Breath' is another highlight, giving the appearance of being twee at first, before the cellos come in and it becomes a far grander offering.
Overall Broadcast 2000 is an excellent debut for Steer that showcases one of the UK's brightest indie-folk talents. What is perhaps most pleasing is that while the production has moved out of the bedroom since his earlier releases and into the studio, the album still retains that home-spun feel.
8/10
by Joe Lepper
January 2009
When Stephin Merritt released 69 Love Songs he made one big mistake, he'd produced an album so good that he was unlikely to ever better it. In the subsequent years he has released some interesting, although not always successful, side projects and a couple of Magnetic Fields albums that have failed to set the world alight.
One of the problems has been a decision to base his albums on a strict cohesive theme. The follow up to 69 Love Songs, I, featured songs that all began with the titular letter and was the first to have the "no synths" stamp. Distortion was a tribute to the Jesus and Mary Chain and rapped all the songs in fuzz and feedback.
Realism continues in the same slightly problematic vein, the theme this time being a focus on folky instrumentation and a softer sound. Like the two albums before it is manages to be good without hitting anything like the greatness that Merritt is capable of.
The album starts well with 'You Must Be Out Of Your Mind' an unmistakeable Magnetic Fields melody with Merritt's withering put downs. "I no longer drink enough to think you're witty" he sings to a former lover.
Your appreciation of the album as a whole is likely to depend to some extent on your tolerance for campness. This album is by far the campest he has produced under the Magnetic Fields moniker. 'The Doll's Tea Party' followed by 'Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree' could be a camp coupling too far for many listeners. The listener who perseveres will hear one of the albums high points, the melancholy 'Walk A Lonely Road'.
The final third of the album is strong with the fun 'Dada Polka' and the mournful 'From A Sinking Boat' closing the album with some real quality.
It is an accomplished album with some real variety on show in the song writing. If Merritt would drop his obsession with setting restrictive themes for his albums, and allowed the variety of sound and arrangement that made 69 Love Songs such a success, then it would be that much better. As it is we have a good album produced by a pretty original and unique figure.
I hope that he decides to allow synths on his next album and embraces the grand scope of ideas that made 69 Love Songs such an amazing album. Until then Realism will do the job just fine
7/10
http://www.houseoftomorrow.com/
By Dorian Rogers
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Los Campesinos are among the most divisive of bands. A bunch of shouty students, spouting immature teen angst to some, one of the most innovative British bands around for others. Their latest Romance is Boring is a pretty good case for the latter's cause.
Sure, there's still some immature angst, but the music is maturing nicely and across the 15 tracks, there's a lot going on, sweeping epics in places all laced with trumpets, violins, discordant song construction and above all stories.
They are also an interesting band, which makes interesting music with interesting tales to tell. In the case of Romance is Boring the focus of these tales is on, "the death and decay of the human body, lost love, mental breakdown, and football," according to the band.
In comparison with the previous two albums its more of the same in terms of style, a heady mix of Chumbawamba jumbled up with their North American label mates Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers and 1980s indie veterans The Cardiacs. But in terms of production this is a far punchier, slicker offering.
Among the most immediately likeable songs on the first half of the album are the first two singles, the anthemic 'Romance Is Boring' and 'There Are Listed Buildings', where the trumpets interweave perfectly with smart, pop friendly guitar hooks.
Opener 'In Medias Res' is far less accessible, but as with Los Campesinos's idea of romance a whole album of similar catchy trumpet tracks would be, well, boring. Another that's less accessible is "The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future". But give it time; its story of mental breakdown is powerful stuff.
Downpoints are few. The poor lyrics on 'Straight in at101' are among them "I think we need more post-coital and less post rock. Feels like the build up takes forever, and you never get me off." Dear, oh, dear. Another is the band's insistence on replacing their surnames with Campesinos; the surname switching equivalent of referring to yourself in the third person.
Also, the album does dip a bit in the middle with tracks such as the sombre 'Who Fell Asleep In' and 'I Warned You: Do Not Make An Enemy Of Me'.
The album really picks up at the end though, with a run of tracks including 'The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future' and our choice of standout track, 'A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte'.
'I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know' and 'This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind,' are other later tracks that are among the catchiest and smartest on the album.
Romance is Boring may be their third album (technically speaking their last was an extended EP) in two years but by the looks of it they are far from flagging.
The future is pretty unknown though for Los Campesinos. This is the last album to feature singer and keyboardist Aleks, who has gone back to studying and been replaced with lead singer Gareth's sister Kim.
Time will tell as to what effect this has an effect on their output. The dynamic between Aleks's pretty, clever girl next-door persona to lead singer Gareth's village idiot demeanour was a key part of the band's charm.
8/10
by Joe Lepper
Midlake - The Courage of Others
With 2006's album The Trials of Van Occupanther, Texan band Midlake perfectly recreated that sunny, kaftan wearing feeling of the early 1970s. All Fleetwood Mac and Eagles, songs such as 'Roscoe' and 'Bandits' could easily have come from the era.
Three years on and their follow up The Courage of Others once again visits that time. But while The Trials of Van Occupanther had a distinctly US feel to it The Courage of Others has more of an emphasis on folk-rock and in particular British acts of the early 1970s such as Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull.
Other points of difference with The Trials of Van Occupanther are The Courage of Other's crisper sound. This makes it less laid-back and somehow more British and stiff upper-lipped. The greater use of flutes also adds to this classic British folk rock feel.
Overall it will please fans of The Trials of Van Occupanther with its attention to detail and ability to take the listener back to that bygone 1970s era. It also mirrors the previous album's ability to sound like the most mainstream of albums in places yet retain the band's alternative credentials. It's a neat trick that another pastoral sounding band The Fleet Foxes also pull off well.
The Courage of Others starts off pretty tamely, with opener 'Acts of Man' just about the weakest on the album. 'Winter Dies', brings the pace up a bit and is far better. But it is the middle section of the album that has the standout tracks.
The soft 'Fortune' sounds like The Byrds, with its twinkling acoustic guitars. Next track 'Rulers, Ruling All Things' is epic stuff, pompous folk-rock warts and all. 'Children of the Grounds' is another standout.
However, as the album progresses the tracks merge more and more into one big folk-rock-athon. More flutes, more twinkly guitars, more imagery of nature. The guitar solos seem to get longer and by the time I got to final track 'In the Ground', just like music buyers at the end of the folk rock era, I'd had enough.
On the plus side at least Midlake have the good grace to keep most of the tracks down to a sensible three to four minutes and not move into true folk-rock territory and torture us with 11 minute flute and drum solos.
Comparisons with The Trials of Van Occupanther are inevitable and sadly this is where Courage of Others ultimately falls down. It's impossible to match the impact of that previous album and this latest offering essentially serves up a similar retro feel without having a track to match the wonder of Trials of Van Occupanther's 'Roscoe' or showing a band that is keen to progress.
Courage of Others is good enough, but for their next album they will need to alter their sound further, and perhaps look forward rather than backwards if they are to last longer than the folk-rock acts of the 1970s they seek to emulate.
6.5/10
by Joe Lepper
I used to think Beach House were just another one of those dreamy, meloncholic bands. Soft vocals over key boards and simple guitar. Good but nothing special. That was until I heard their third album, Teen Dream, which elevates them well above the shoe-gazing crowd and dare I say almost into the world of mainstream pop.
On Teen Dream the production and song writing is far bolder than their eponymous debut and follow up Devotion. The soft electronica has turned into full-blown 80s style pop in places, particularly on the album's first single 'Norway'. The slicker production and attention to detail on Teen Dream unsurprisingly coincides with a move to the label Sub Pop, which has a strong track record of getting the best out of its eclectic mix of artists ranging from The Fleet Foxes to Postal Service.
Beach House, which consists of singer and organist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally, also display far more of the Sixties sound that so clearly influences them.
This heightened Sixties feel on Teen Dream includes extra reverb and twang on the guitar. Also Legrand's vocals are stronger than on the previous albums, sounding like a bizarre and wonderful cross between Marianne Faithful and Leslie Feist.
Does this new approach work? Yes indeed, so much so that this could be the band's breakthrough album that has an outside chance of propelling them from relative indie obscurity to mainstream success.
As for the tracks the album has no duds, always a plus. Opening track Zebra showcases the sound to come. More subtle indie guitar than the sweeping pop of Norway but no less catchy, no less appealing.
Among other highlights are 'Walk in the Park' and the tender 'Used to Be'. '10 Mile Stereo' is another stand out.
Teen Dream has certainly got more commercial appeal than their previous albums and is the product of a band that has clearly listened and learned from contemporaries such as Animal Collective, who like Beach House are also from Baltimore, and achieved considerable success with their album Merriweather Post Pavilion last year. Teen Dream will also please those that enjoyed the previous two albums.
8/10
by Joe Lepper
For more on Beach House and to hear the single 'Norway' visit here.
It would be so convenient to start a review of Vampire Weekend's second album Contra with something about the band's metamorphosis into the bastard love child of Graceland-era Paul Simon and Lily Allen now being complete.
There's something so squeeky clean and chipper about the band that its almost like they are asking to be insulted. Fortunately for those that loved this New York band's stunning 2008 self-titled debut I'm unable to be so scathing. Contra, just like the first album, with its oh-so-cool mix of indie-chic and African guitar and rhythms, is actually extremely likeable. Its got the same infectious melodies and odd lyrics, and even takes the band's novelty indie-Paul Simon sound on to a new level.
Among the best tracks are 'Cousins', a mazy English new-wave sounding track, fierce and fun all at the same time. 'Taxi-Cab', the slowest on the album is probably the most well crafted and suggests a maturity to come from Vampire Weekend. As does 'Diplomat's Son' , with its reggae segment and M.I.A sample. Its actually the only one that sounds a little like Lily Allen. But unlike Allen, who is essentially the daughter of a rich bloke who knows a few pop stars, Vampire Weekend clearly love the African music and Jamaican and English ska that typifies their sound.
Contra is not all good and has some duffers. But importantly it has enough to suggest there's more to them than a copy of Graceland and a few well placed admirers at Pitchfork. 'Horchata,' the opener and the track that was released early to promote the album, is perhaps a novelty track too far. Liking it rests with the listener's view of whether horchata rhymed with balaclava is a good thing or not. 'Giving up the gun,' is also a little lame.
Overall though Contra marks a pretty good stab at developing the band's sound and it is an excellent follow up to their debut, which was one of the best albums of 2008. Contra also has a clear similarity with the band's debut in that the more you listen, the more you like it. Who knows, perhaps after a few more listens I might even grow to like the lyrics to 'Horchata'.
7.5/10
by Joe Lepper
While some heartbroken artists find solace through penning the odd break up song here and there, Eels frontman Mark Everett has decided to rake through the whole emotional mess of his recent divorce with an entire album, End Times.
The only problem with an album devoted to a marriage break up is that it's kind of, well, depressing. Like the drunken ramblings of a barfly, whose ex-wife never understood him, End Times allows Everett to really wallow in his marriage break up and also get downright depressed about pretty much everything in the world.
Just read the blurb on the band's website and you get some idea of the downbeat marketing behind End Times.
"End Times is the sound of an artist growing older in uncertain times. An artist who has lost his great love while struggling with his faith in an increasingly hostile world teetering on self-destruction…. it's a "divorce album" with a modern twist: the artist equates his personal loss with the world he lives in losing its integrity." Hardly, giving it the big sell, is it?
But while End Times does tend to descend into self-obsessed waffle in places, there are still some great tracks. Even though it is among the weakest Eels albums, and comes in marked contrast in tone to last year's upbeat album about desire Hombre Lobo, End Times cannot help but showcase Everett's undoubted talent.
Among the top tracks on End Times is 'Little Bird', a simple, largely just guitar track that is heartfelt and stays just about on the right side of melancholy. It's already become one of my favourite ever Eels songs.
Another is 'Line in the Dirt', a piano number which opens up with horns towards the end and recounts Everett forcing to piss in the ground in his garden because his wife has locked herself in the bathroom. I would have thought that someone as successful as Everett would have more than one toilet in his house, but I'll concede that some artistic licence is needed at times.
The up tempo 'Gone Man' is another highlight. There is also a nice end to the album with, 'On My Feet', which offers hope of better times to come. 'It's not easy standing on my feet these days, But you know I'm pretty sure That I've been through worse, And I'm sure I can take the hit,"sings Everett on the track.
Less good are the rather lame blues number 'Paradise Blues' and 'End Times', where the lovesick barfly in Everett attempts to make moaning and whinging an Olympic event.
Everett, who recorded the album on his own, mostly on a four-track in his home studio, acknowledges that End Times will not appeal to everyone. He says on the band's website, "This will be some people's favourite Eels album and some people's least favorite Eels album, I'm prepared for that."
7/10
by Joe Lepper
Owen Pallett, the Canadian composer, multi-instrumentalist and all round clever so-and-so, may just have produced one of the best albums of 2010.
Ok, so we are only a few days into the new year and so far there is not much competition, but Pallett's third album Heartland is so breathtaking in its ambition, so clever in its arrangements and so bold in the way it hops across genres that it should not be a surprise to see it adorn end of year lists come December.
With the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara involved, the album is at times pure Brian Wilson and at others like Animal Collective as it effortlessly takes in aspects of classical music, electronica, pop and indie-cool.
For those unfamiliar with his work Pallett has been lurking in the shadows of indie alternative rock-istocracy and mainstream pop for a number of years.
Among those he's worked with and arranged orchestras for are Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, Beirut, Last Shadow Puppets even the Pet Shop Boys. Often compared to Andrew Bird, another hard to define multi-instrumentalist who also plays a mean violin, Pallett has really come into his own on Heartland, which took around nine months to record.
Formerly recording under the name Final Fantasy, after Pallett's favourite computer game, the name was ditched late last year, presumably to fend off an inevitable legal action from the game's makers.
The move makes Heartland his first under his own name and is a larger and more epic beast than his previous albums, offering a set of tracks of remarkable consistency. Above all Heartland is an interesting listen that manages the rare feat of remaining accessible. I almost feel intelligent listening to it. Well, almost.
Among the stand out tracks are the Beach Boys-esque 'Lewis Takes Action', the bizarre 'The Great Elsewhere', which features a great change of pace a third of the way through, and the wonderfully melodic 'Oh Heartland, Up Yours'. All serve up a fine middle segment and are the ones this reviewer keeps coming back to.
Be warned the album is a concept album though, with an odd theme, surrounding a farmer called Lewis in a fictional world called Spectrum. But don't let this advanced level geekery put you off, this is a startingly well crafted album and if you liked last year's critically acclaimed albums by among others Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective then Heartland is a must.
9/10
by Joe Lepper
December 2009
While this month's 30th anniversary re-issue of The Clash's London Calling offers nothing new in terms of extras (the same set of 'making of' documentary and videos that were released for the 25th anniversary release) it does offer a welcome chance to revisit one of the greatest albums of all time.
London Calling was the third album by the band, showing a far broader range of styles than on their self-titled debut and second album Give 'Em Enough Rope, and setting them firmly apart from their 1970s punk contemporaries.
Reggae, calypso, blues, jazz, rock and roll and punk are all there across the 19 tracks. It is partly because of this breadth of styles coupled with the album's simplistic production, having been recorded in a matter of weeks, that gives London Calling its timeless quality. Opener 'London Calling', with its familiar pounding bass line, lyrics of urban decay and Strummer's gravelly vocals is as fresh as ever.
Well received when it came out and achieving top ten spot in the UK album charts in 1979 it has since gone on to be quite rightly recognised as a classic. It has now sold over two million copies worldwide, gone platinum in the US and received accolades such as number eight slot in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Consistency across its 19 tracks is one reason for its longevity. Each song has its merit and offers something different; from bassist Paul Simenon's love of reggae to guitarist Mick Jones keen sense of melody and Joe Strummer's rockabilly roots.
Among the highlights of the first half of the album are 'The Right Profile,' a rare rock tribute to the actor Montgomery Clift and 'Lost In The Supermarket', written by Strummer about Jones's childhood, growing up in a block of flats with his grandmother in west London. "I wasn't born, so much as I fell out," and images of listening to "the people who live on the ceiling, scream and fight most scarily" are among the fantastic lyrics on this track.
Among the instantly appealing songs is 'Clampdown', one of only a few that would have seemed in place on the band's previous albums. Jones's 'Train in Vain' is another. This was the band's first hit in the US and only added to the album at the last minute after a deal for it to appear as a free promotion with the NME fell through.
The growers include bassist Simenon's reggae track 'The Guns of Brixton.' What Simenon lacks in vocal prowess on this track he more than makes up for with its instantly recognisable and often copied bass line.
On CD and MP3 the album lacks the careful attention to placing of each song across its four sides. What was originally side four starting with 'Lover's Rock', including 'I'm Not Down' and ending with 'Train in Vain' is as good a side of an album you will ever hear.
Given the joy of the album it doesn't matter that this latest re-issue offers little new. Who cares when you've got 19 songs of this quality to listen to.
10/10
See Also: Blog: A Look Back At Strummer and Jones Only Stage Performance Together Since Clash Split
by Joe Lepper
November 2009
Boston Spaceships - Zero To 99
'Let It Rest For A Little While' song 36 on Zero To 99, the latest release by Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships, is actually song 6 but subject to an eccentric numbering system. It is also possibly the best thing that Peter Buck has played guitar on for about a decade.
Zero To 99 continues Pollard's run of form in 2009, and is his 6th album (in a multitude of guises) of the year. It is an assured set of Whoesque pop-rock and contains typically great Pollard songs, played extremely well by his backing band of Chris Slusarenko and John Moen.
Like any Pollard album there are a couple of songs that don't quite hit the mark, but the overall hit rate is high. 'How Wrong You Are' is typical Pollard greatness and deserves the radio play it has achieved on 6 music. The aforementioned 'Let It Rest For A Little While' is as good as guitar pop gets, and follows on from the brilliant 'Question Girl Alright' (a song that would have sat happily on a late period Guided By Voices album).
'The Comedian' is probably the most Who influenced song on the album and also my favourite track. In fact I would argue that Pollard can do the Who better than the Who have been able to for the last 20 years.
The album also finds Pollard in great voice. He is known for his song writing and live performance, but he is also a very effective, and effecting, singer.
Three albums in a year and Boston Spaceships are producing some of the best music of Pollards career. For me it is a late contender for album of the year.
9/10
By Dorian Rogers
Ladies and gentlemen please be upstanding for Real Estate, the latest average band to be trumped up beyond reason by the online music behemoth that is Pitchfork.
According to Pitchfork's recent 8.5 review and Best New Music accolade New Jersey band Real Estate' self-titled debut is different "from the rest of the herd" because of "how evergreen its beauty can be."
"Despite the summery song titles and the beach balling associations that might follow these guys around, this music transcends the notion of seasons," the review adds.
Wow, we thought, they sound pretty good. The reality though was a bit of a let down. Sure, Real Estate as a debut has a nice feel to it, offering a laid back take on indie -pop and does a pretty good job of conjuring up images of the band in some beach shack somewhere, gazing at the shore as they churn out their 1960s influenced guitar music.
But unfortunately there is nothing really that stands out on an album of largely forgettable melodies. Worse of all the musicianship is really pretty basic. The style of music cries out for far slicker guitar playing but instead most of the tracks just have plodding strumming as if they've only just learnt to play. In places the production and playing actually sounds a little lazy, as if they'd far rather be on the beach.
Let's have a look at some of the tracks. Instrumental 'Atlantic City' starts off full of promise with Pixies style bass and reverb retro guitar, but unlike the Pixies, whose tracks always went somewhere, this just plods along. 'Beach Comber' is another plodder. It's got a great riff, but that's all it has got going for it as it meanders along. There are some perkier numbers. 'Fake Blues, is pretty uplifting, so to is the folky 'Snow Days,' but similarly they are pretty forgettable.
Many of the tracks on Real Estate have been knocking around as downloads and singles for a while now. A buzz has been duly created and massaged thanks to Pitchfork's review, but for us the hype is not to be believed. Real Estate are ok, but that's it and certainly not among the best new music of the year.
5.5/10
by Joe Lepper
Luke Haines - Live at the Hanbury Brighton 11/11/09
Luke Haines is one of the lost figures of modern British music. His first album with The Auteurs, New Wave, was as good as anything else that came out of the British pop explosion in the mid-90s and he released several excellent albums as The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder over the next 10 years.
Despite this I had pretty low expectations of his solo performance. The last Haines's album I purchased was The Oliver twist Manifesto in 2001, and it was a pretty miserable experience. Unlistenable would be harsh, but pretty difficult to listen to pretty much sums it up. His largely excellent performance on the night was therefore a very pleasant surprise.
The set mixed songs from his latest solo album with songs by The Auteurs ('Showgirl' and 'Unsolved Child Murder') as well as one cut from his Baarder Meinhoff incarnation. The new songs prove that Haines is still a talented and relevant songwriter, no less bilious than before, but showing a little more humanity in his humour. '21st century Man', the title track from his album, was a show standout and was also one of the longest most rambling songs of the night leaving Haines's to joke that there were another 12 verses to come before suddenly bringing the song to an end.
The revelation of the night was what a good guitarist Haines is. His role as sarcastic, spiteful, pop cultural satirist has always masked his song writing prowess, but is also at odds with his axe man qualities. At times things almost rocked, and he almost looked like he was enjoying himself on stage. Surely not.
8/10
By Dorian Rogers
Holopaw - Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness
Holopaw lead singer John Orth's voice is pretty unusual. It vibrates with a slight tremble at the end of each line as if he has a giant tremelo arm built into his face.
While undeniably odd, it is not annoying and fits well with Florida band Holopaw's laidback take on indie-rock and folk. For those unfamiliar with Holopaw, think Okkervil River. There are clear similarities, with both having intelligent lyrics, acoustic guitar moments and flourishes of trumpets. Having said that Holopaw are their own band and the comparison is just a useful point of reference rather than an accusation of style-stealing.
Three albums in and Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness is the band's most accomplished to date as strings and horns are strewn across an album that rocks out in places and gets nice and folky in others.
Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness also marks a change of label from Sub-Pop to Bakery Outlet and new membership for the band, which "splintered", according to the band's website around three years ago following their second album, Quit+/or Fight.
Only two members from that Quit+/or Fight line up remain, Orth and keyboardist and guitarist Jeff Hays, who are joined by new members Patrick Quinney (guitar), Jody Bilinski (drums), Krista Molinaro (cello), Jeff Mcmullen (bass) and multi-instrumentalist, Matt Radick.
The website adds that, "we are really proud of this record. It has more swagger, bounce and growl than previous efforts." They have good reason to be proud, Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness is a wonderful listen with a host of stand out tracks including 'Oh, Glory', which is among the softest on the album and a track that makes good use of trumpet.
Opening track 'The Art Teacher and The Little Stallion', is another stand out. A kind of indie-folk take on 1980s bands such as Prefab Sprout and Scritti-Pollitti, with added violin moments. 'The Lazy Matador' is also worth a mention. Orth's facial tremolo arm is in overdrive here, which adds to the emotion.
Whether Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness ends up being Holopaw's breakthrough album remains to be seen. There are some that will not like Orth's voice, but if that's the case they are missing out on one of America's most interesting indie bands.
8/10
See Also: Holopaw's Website
Heavy Trash - Midnight Soul Serenade
The scene in David Lynch's 1950s set film Blue Velvet where the innocent teenager Kyle MacLachlan hides in a wadrobe, watching on as Dennis Hopper sexually humiliates Isabella Rossellini is one of the most harrowing in cinema. Peering through a crack in the door he sees Hopper, complete with oxygen mask, bend down in front of Rossellini, swearing and sweating as he sweeps aside the veneer of the rock 'n' roll era to reveal the dark, deviant real world underneath.
That look of shock in MacLachlan's eyes is something that Jon Spencer has been looking to recreate in his audiences throughout his career. From his bands Pussy Galore to the Blues Explosion and now Heavy Trash, his rockabilly collaboration with guitarist Matt Verta-Ray, Spencer has been specialising in producing his unique brand of down-right dirty, out-of-control rock 'n' roll.
While Heavy Trash's third album Midnight Soul Serenade can never recreate the power of seeing Spencer live it is an album that will not disappoint his loyal followers.
Among the best tracks on an album, that faithfully recreates the 1950s rock and roll production style, is '(Sometimes You got To Be) Gentle'. The track would not have sounded out of place during the peak of Spencer's Blue Explosion era and is among the dirtiest on the album. Lyrics such as 'Stick it up inside, You got to be gentle. And push it up, You gotta to be sweet', leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. Other high points include a cover of LaVern Baker's frenetic 1950s track 'Bumble Bee'.
Midnight Soul Serenade is a thrilling listen, not the kind of thing you can play in front of your mum, or a vicar, but wasn't that always the point of rock 'n' roll?
7.5/10
by Joe Lepper
For all things Jon Spencer visit Pop Catastrophe.co.uk
See Also: Heavy Trash live and Top Ten TV Music Moments (featuring The Blues Explosion)
The Phantom Band - Live at The Borderline, London. 04/11/09
The Borderline isn't the right venue. It feels too small for the band who produced an album as good as Checkmate Savage. It is also an example of a venue that has a pillar in front of the stage. That kind of bad planning really bugs me. But this isn't a review of the stage area; this is a review of one of the most exciting British bands of the year.
The Phantom Band are pretty hard to pigeonhole. They don't have a sound that is really like anyone else. There is some krautrock in there, a bit of the Super Furry Animals pop psychedelia and some Beta Band as well. In their rockier moments they are the band that Kasabian think they are, but they are the real deal.
Live, they are surprisingly loose. The drums, extremely tight on record, are just that bit out of time. The playing just the wrong side of tight throughout. It doesn't matter too much as the strength of the songs and an extremely partisan audience carry them through. And the songs do sound great, even in their looser incarnations.
'The Howling' is an epic, and 'Folk Song Oblivion' is a fabulous piece of doom laden psych rock. The highpoint of the set was arguably the eight minutes plus of 'The Island', their quietest number and the best received from the audience. If we hadn't already been standing it would have received a standing ovation.
Despite the looseness of the playing it was a good performance. The band exchanging guitars for strange pagan looking percussion when needed and some pretty odd silver outfits on show. The band seemed to enjoy the performance and apart from one shy guitarist (looking for the world like he wished he was in Radiohead) played to the audience. In vocalist Rick Anthony they have a true original, and someone not scared to sing in their real voice, refreshing in a musical form where an American accent is so often adopted.
On the evidence of the night The Phantom Band may be destined to be a minority concern. If enough people got to hear their superb album that might just change. If you haven't got it I urge you to pick it up now. Hopefully then they can play the venues that they deserve.
7/10
By Dorian Rogers
http://www.myspace.com/thephantombandpage
What a band Husker Du was to be blessed with two fantastic songwriters and performers in Bob Mould and Grant Hart. While Mould often got the plaudits Hart undoubtedly churned out some of Husker Du's finest tracks, in particular 'Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely' on Candy Apple Grey.
Since the band split in the 1980s Mould and Hart followed similar paths for a while with new bands. Mould forming power pop outfit Sugar and Hart starting Nova Mob.
However, over the last decade their careers have taken different turns. Both are now solo artists, but while Mould has been pretty prolific, releasing five solo albums since 2002 (including this year's excellent Life and Times), Hart has been less busy, taking ten years to follow up his 1999 solo release Good News For Modern Man with Hot Wax.
Hot Wax has been in the pipeline for a while and features input from among others Godspeed You Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion. The press blurb on his website says that, "Grant Hart's first solo album of the 21st century is one of the best things he has ever done," as it creates a modern take on classic rock and roll.
That is not strictly true. Hot Wax is not a bad album but nowhere near even matching his best moments with either Husker Du or Nova Mob. The album certainly has its high points, a couple of great songs and a nice Sixties feel to it, but overall it sounds too pedestrian in places and ironically rushed, given it has been years in the making. There are simply too many fillers, even for an album of nine songs.
Among the best tracks are the jingly-jangly 'California Zephyr', the David Bowie-esque 'Schoolbuses are for Children' and the organ drenched 'Sailor Jack'. But too many of the rest are like opener 'You Are the Reflection of the Moon on the Water', just ok, without much melody as they plod along.
If Hot Wax was released by an unknown, new artist we wouldn't be so harsh. But this is Grant Hart we are talking about here - a punk legend. And what's more a punk legend who has taken ten years to get this album out. While comparisons with Mould must be annoying for Hart the inescapable fact is that Mould's Life and Times is far better, has catchier hooks, better production and somehow feels more genuine.
6/10
October 2009
The Leisure Society - The Sleeper/A Product Of The Ego Drain
The Leisure Society's debut album came out in March this year to pretty universal acclaim. The band have now moved from the Willkommen label to a "proper" label, Full Time Hobby, and put the album out again.
This new edition of the album includes a bonus EP of demos and unreleased tracks, mainly recorded at the same time as the album.
The Leisure Society have a sound that is hard to find comparisons with other artists. The easiest reference point is The Beach Boys, but a Beach Boys that got their sound from rural England rather than the beaches of California.
Ivor Novello nominated track 'The Last of the Melting Snow' is an album standout, with its blissful harmonies and beautifully arranged flutes and strings, but there are many other equally good songs on the album. 'A Short Weekend Begins With Longing' and 'Save It For Someone Who Cares' stand out, and both manage to be sweet and heartfelt whilst staying the right side of tweeness.
Backed by members of Brighton's Willkommen collective band leaders Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy have produced a musically very accomplished album. This is made all the more impressive by their decision to produce everything themselves and complete all the recording away from the studio environment.
The additional EP, A Product Of The Ego Drain, is a nice extra for people picking up the album at this issue. The demos and unreleased tracks are of a high standard and compliment the main album perfectly. The "new" tracks, a cover of Gary Newman's 'Cars' and a new single version of 'Save It For Someone Who Cares' are what make the bonus CD that little bit special. Both are excellent examples of what the band do best, melody, vocal harmony and accomplished instrumentation.
The EP may not be enough to make someone buy a second copy of the album but it is icing on the cake for anyone who doesn't own this excellent album and is picking it up for the first time.
9/10
www.myspace.com/theleisuresociety
See also: Play the ukulele live on stage with the Leisure Society
Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence
After a four-year break Norwegian acoustic duo Kings of Convenience are back with their third studio album Declaration of Dependence.
For those that loved Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambæk Bøe's previous two albums Quiet is the New Loud and Riot on an Empty Street as well as their version of Aha's Manhattan Skyline, rest assured the lengthy interval has not led to a radical change in direction.
The trademark intimacy in the vocals, light-touch production and simplicity of the music, which is still mostly acoustic guitars, remains. But there are some differences. Violin comes to the fore on some of the songs, most notably ' Boat Behind', bringing a new jaunty feel to their melancholic music. There's even a hint of bossa-nova on second track 'Mrs Cold', on an album that already features the pair on a Mexican Beach as its cover image
While the songs are all good but not great, there is a welcome consistency to the album and some real standout moments. These include the violin on 'Boat Behind,' which is a single off the album. Another is 'My Ship Isn't Pretty', which evokes some of Paul McCartney's early Beatles ballads. While, 'Power of Not Knowing' features some beautiful guitar playing reminiscent of folk legend John Renbourne.
Lyrically the songs are also familiar, old fashioned in a way. Looking at the everyday nuances of love and relationships, while managing to avoid cliché.
There's also another dimension to the relationships mentioned in the songs, explains Bøe in an interview with Prefixmag earlier this month. He said: " A lot of the time, I know that a song was written about some other person, but I feel that we are singing about each other. That's a smart thing, because the relationship that we are in is very similar to a relationship you'll have with someone you love, like a girlfriend-boyfriend situation. So, you might be writing about that, but it totally fits with talking about the other person in the band. It's about the same things." Ahhh, sweet.
What is most pleasing about Declaration of Dependence is that they have kept to a winning formula. The worst thing that could happen with Kings of Convenience is that they hire some kind of Phil Spector figure, to introduce sweeping orchestral movements and cheesey backing singers.
7.5/10.
First Aid Kit and Fanfarlo - Live at The Hanbury, Brighton, UK - 07/10/09
In a good night for gigs (The Fiery Furnaces were playing just across town) it was irresistible to see two of the best rated new acts play together, in one of my favourite venues, for a paltry £7.50.
Fanfarlo were the headliners, but I'll talk about them first. They played a strong and confident set, but were disappointing in many areas. Their songs sounded so often just like another act that they came across as an acoustic indie rock Stars In Their Eyes ("Tonight Matthew we are The Arcade Fire!"). Latest single 'The Walls Are Coming Down' is a great tune, but only Beirut themselves could tell it isn't one of their songs. Elsewhere we are treated to The Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Spinto Band. These are all great reference points, but they just emphasise that if Fanfarlo want to be a great band they need to find their own sound.
They played very well, but also misjudged the venue. The Hanbury is a small and intimate venue. The ear rattling drums, although very effective, swamped the rest of the instruments and needed to be toned down. Despite these criticisms they were a good act that could be a great act if they refined their sound and made it their own.
First Aid Kit were different story entirely, they were a revelation. I had heard bits of their songs, and liked them, but not really paid much attention. Seeing them live I was unprepared for how good they would be. Their songs have a sophistication that belies their years, yet retaining a charming naivety. The instrumentation, mainly just acoustic guitar with some keyboards was accomplished but it was the voices that set them apart.
Their voices, impressive on record, are even better live. Strong, distinctive and showcasing some really wonderful harmonies. The country tinged 'You're Not Coming Home Tonight' and latest single 'Hard Believer' perfectly showcasing their voices. Already confident performers they joked about not singing 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' before inevitably launching into it. Being known for a cover version can be problematic, but their performance was better than the Fleet Foxes original. And given that their own songs are of such a high quality it doesn't seem that it will be a problem.
One of the best new acts of 2009, and a real class live act. Something that Fanfarlo struggled to follow.
9/10
By Dorian Rogers
http://www.myspace.com/thisisfirstaidkit
http://www.myspace.com/fanfarlo
Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy
After a fantastic run of critical successes in the 1990s, Idaho indie-rockers Built to Spill's most recent two albums Ancient Melodies of the Future(2001) and You in Reverse (2006) fell flat in comparison.
The momentum built up with their debut Ultimate Alternative Wavers (1993) through to their move to a major label Warner Bros and the albums Perfect From Now On (1997) and Keep It Like A Secret (1999), appeared to have come to an end. Questions were being asked. Had Built to Spill peaked?
Thankfully that slide has been well and truly halted by their excellent seventh album There Is No Enemy.
On the face of it the sound is similar to Ancient Melodies of the Future and You in Reverse. The multi-layers of guitars, the quirky chords, the vocals from founder Doug Matsch that stay on the right side of indie-whining, are still there. But with There Is No Enemy there is a warmth that Ancient Melodies of the Future and You in Reverse lacked. There Is No Enemy is somehow less abrasive, the guitars are still layered, but more lush.
From first track 'Aisle 13' through to seventh track 'Pat' There Is No Enemy is near perfect. 'Aisle 13' offers guitar layer after guitar layer, from wailing solo to chugging power chord. Second track 'Hindsight' takes the temp down a notch and the guitars become increasingly lush, almost twinkly.
Third track 'Nowhere Lullaby' changes tact again, far slower, with tremelo guitar perfectly matching lead singer and founder Doug Matsch's vocals. It's more like Flaming Lips than Built To Spill. 'Good Ol Boredom', a standout track among these standout tracks comes next. At 6min 31secs its among the longest, but you still don't want it to end with its George Harrison-esque guitar throughout. Uplifting stuff.
Sixth track 'Life's a Dream' is another solid song and among the slowest. On the next track 'Oh Yeah' the Dinosaur Jr style influence comes to the fore, with screaming solos, before seventh track 'Pat', a classic power pop number harking back to their earlier days.
It is unfortunate that things get a bit flabby on the three tracks to follow, 'Done', 'Planting Seeds' and 'Things Fall Apart'. All are fairly unremarkable, lacking the hooks and riffs of the first half of the album, a bit like Ancient Melodies of the Future and You In Reverse. Final track 'Tomorrow,' makes amends though. Mind you, it takes a good two of its 7mins 40 secs to get going, but once it does it's a beauty.
There Is No Enemy marks a very welcome return to form for a band whose indie rock-istocracy crown had begun to wobble. It is also a fine introduction to Built To Spill for those unfamiliar with them and will definitely please those that loved 1990s albums such as Keep It Like A Secret.
8.5/10
by Joe Lepper
The Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
After last year's excellent album Heretic Pride, The Mountain Goats 17th album The Life of the World To Come is a little disappointing. Granted, it has its high points, but while Heretic Pride was teaming with stand out tracks, The Life of the World To Come only really has two.
The song titles alone should have been a warning, each named after a passage in the bible that links in with an aspect of singer songwriter John Darnielle's life. Such a track list, consisting only of titles such as 'Deuteronomy 2:10' and 'Genesis 30:3', is perhaps a Christian link too far for The Mountain Goats.
Granted, Christian themed song titles are not unusual for The Mountain Goats, which started life as a solo project of Darnielle before becoming a three-piece featuring bassist Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster on drums. The track 'Heretic Pride' for one, and last year's 'Satanic Messiah', released on the Satanic Messiah EP. But to have a whole album of Bible passage song titles is a whole different proposition.
To the high points first. Second track 'Psalms 40:2' is wonderful, more akin to Heretic Pride's upbeat sound, with its chugging guitar and bullet-like drumming from Wurster.
'Psalms 40:2' also encapsulates all that is distinct in Darnielle's voice. While for some his voice is too nasally, for others the vocals perfectly fit the songs, in particularly when he addresses a recurring theme - that of the traumatised youth, struggling to keep his inner demons and simmering rage at bay. When Darnielle sings, "in the burning fuselage of my days," on 'Psalms 40:2' the listener is left in no doubt of the power and passion he puts into his songwriting
Final track 'Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace' is the other standout. Piano and vocals in the main, with only the hint of a heartbeat in the drums. It is a powerful song indeed.
However, most of the album is far less effective, in particular the dour opener, 'I Samuel 15:23'.The emphasis on piano rather than guitar on the album doesn't always hit the mark. The piano tracks work well with 'Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace' but less so on others such as '1 John 4:16'
It would be wrong to say The Life of the World To Come is a bad album. In many ways it is a great album, that will delight fans of The Mountain Goats earlier albums. It is just less upbeat and consistent than recent albums. The bar was set so high with Heretic Pride and its predecessor Sunset Tree, that The Life of the World To Come can't help fall slightly flat in comparison. Despite that Darnielle is still perhaps the US's most gifted songwriter and tracks such as
'Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace' showcase a genuine power that is lacking in so much other music.
7/10
by Joe Lepper
If ambient music is your thing then Volcano Choir, the side project of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, is definitely going to light your joss stick.
Featuring Vernon and members of Collections of Colonies of Bees, who like Vernon are from Wisconsin, the aim was to create an intimate piece of music, mixing folk and ambient music with a focus on vocal harmonies.
The start of this project predates the launch of Bon Iver, with much of the song writing taking place largely in 2005 before being polished off in November last year.
In between Vernon had achieved critical and commercial success with Bon Iver following the release of the band's stunning 2008 debut For Emma, Forever Ago. As a result it is hard to avoid comparing Unmap with Bon Iver, as unfair as that is.
Despite being a clear ambient departure much of Vernon's Bon Iver sound, his subtle melodies and whispering vocals, are present on Unmap. It is a satisfying listen, full of beautiful layers, but it does lack much of the passion and sound that Vernon has created with Bon Iver.
Across the nine tracks there are really only two standouts. Opener 'Husks and Shells', is rare for the album as it features acoustic guitar as the dominant sound. It works well and it would have been good to hear similar across the album. The other standout is 'Islands, IS', with its electro beats and bleeps weaving in and out of Vernon's whisper it is probably the most accessible and listenable track on the album.
For those expecting a follow up to For Emma, Forever Ago listening to Unmap will feel a little like walking into a new age shop by mistake. The crystals look nice, the incense smells good but there's not much more to it and you have to walk out sheepishly in search of something with more substance.
6.5/10
by Joe Lepper
The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
In an era of where jolly synth pop seemingly rules, it is refreshing to occasionally hear some loud, squealing, introspective guitar music for a change, especially when it is so expertly delivered by the likes of The Twilight Sad.
The Scottish band's debut 2007 Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was a critical success and led to support slots with among others Snow Patrol, Smashing Pumpkins and Mogwai. For their second album Forget the Night Ahead they've upped the ante. The My Bloody Valentine-esque wall of sound created by guitarist Andy MacFarlane is larger and singer James Graham's vocals are even more passionate.
What is perhaps most striking is the vocals by Graham, whose thick Scottish accent is clear across the album. This gives The Twilight Sad a real point of difference and is perhaps clearly shown across second track 'I Became A Prostitute', which was the first single off the album.
The album really gets into its stride with third track 'Seven Years of Letters', which is being released as the second single this month (Oct). It is among the more restrained tracks and works well, allowing the melody to really shine through the wall of sound.
Like much of the album the lyrics on 'Seven Years of Letters' are deliberately cryptic, hinting at regret, guilt and arguments, but never telling the full story. Its central lyric of, "we're on a hiding to nowhere," is a case in point. It could relate to a range of situations, without ever spelling out the reason for Graham's despair. While this ambiguity can be frustrating on other albums it somehow fits with the power and scale of Forget the Night Ahead.
On the less restrained side is another stand out track, 'That Birthday Present'. There's no let up as it presents a relentless barrage of squealing guitars backed with pounding drums and bass, all delivered at breakneck pace, barely giving the listener a chance to grab breath. It's remarkable stuff.
Not all the album is about creating a brooding guitar-scaped wall of sound. The pace slows down markedly in places, such as on the largely vocals and piano track, 'Floorboards under the bed.' But with this dip in speed, there is also a dip in passion and this track is among the less effective. Overall though Forget The Night Ahead is a breathtaking listen that successfully takes The Twilight Sad's late 1980s influenced music to another level.
8/10
by Joe Lepper
September 2009
Live: Asian Dub Foundation and Fun Lovin' Criminals at The Great Wreck n Roll Circus, London, Sept 26
Asian Dub Foundation's deep traditional messages sung out loud and clear as they headlined the 10th anniversary of The Great Wreck n Roll Circus at the Coronet Theatre, London
On a night where some big names, including Fun Lovin' Criminals and Citizen Fish, were starring next to the punks, rockers and traveller circus acts, it's safe to say Asian Dub Foundation stole the show. Harking back to their success in the 90s, the band ripped up the dance floor with their fusion of rap, jungle and dub basslines, mixed with guitars and Asian sounds.
As expected, Asian Dub Foundation truly tested the Coronet's renowned massive sound system. Add to that the group members' timeless energy and acrobatics, and organised chaos was complete. In a hard spot to fill, Fun Lovin' Criminals were on first. The venue was only starting to fill up but the band did a decent job in getting the party started. Classic tracks such as Scooby Snacks got the punters begging for more.
In between Fun Lovin' Criminals and ADF, live drum n bass collective Deadsilence Syndicate were the first to really fill the dance floor. They did the sound system justice with their deep basslines and fully electronic live band experience.
Words by Sarah Woods, Pictures by Jane Hoskyn.
The big story about Girls is how singer/songwriter Christopher Owens grew up as part of a cult. This fascinating back story may explain some of the more enthusiastic reviews of the album. It transforms his lyrics from "clumsy" to "raw" and gives his off key vocals more gravitas than it possibly deserve.
The album was recorded by Owens and musician/producer Chet Jr White with the help of some drummers and little else. I like the lo-fi amateurish feel, it works on the more spirited songs on the album. Opener 'Lust For Life' is a classic mix of upbeat pop sounds with downbeat vocals. And 'Laura' continues in the same vein, sounding very much like a 90s English indie act, no influence of the Santa Cruz setting in evidence.
The slower songs work less well, making the cardinal sin of being pretty dull. 'Ghost Mouth' and 'God Damned' pass without incident before the early surf-fuzz pastiche 'Big Bad Motherfucker' comes along. The kind of song that Yo La Tengo do so much better. 'Hellhole Ratrace' is 7 tedious minutes that I'll never get back, and the album improves little from there on in.
'Summertime' is one of the better songs of the second half, injecting some much needed energy into the proceedings and on 'Lauren Marie' he almost succeeds in producing a decent Beach Boys song. This purple patch ends with the My Bloody Valentine fuzz and squall of 'Morning Light' before coming crashing to the ground again.
Closer 'Darling' is possibly the worst of the bunch, listless rockabilly - not a genre that is going to win many fans.
Overall, despite failing on many counts, it is a debut that shows promise. Owens is clearly capable of writing a good song, and the lyrics are interesting as well as I'll definitely be looking out for album number 2, but I doubt I'll be returning to this one very often.
6/10
http://www.myspace.com/girlssanfran
By Dorian Rogers
Hockey have been compared to LCD Soundsystem The Strokes and Talking Heads. But they have more in common with fellow Portland residents The Dandy Warhols in that there is something about their music that does not seem authentic. Sure, there is some Strokes swagger about opening track 'Too Fake', and there are definite LCD Soundsystem influences, but it isn't convincing.
The aforementioned 'Too Fake' is one of the better songs from the album and paints a misleading picture of what is to follow. All dance beats, synths and yelped vocals, it is pretty good and shows that Hockey have something about them. Unfortunately this doesn't last. '3 AM Spanish' thinks it is Remain In Light era Talking Heads, but is pretty insipid disco funk. 'Learn To Lose' is even worse woeful white boy soul, pretty painful stuff.
Another problem with the album is that the songs are generally too long; most of them clocking in the 4 to 5 minute category, even the better songs tend to outstay their welcome. It is pretty damning when it is this hard to resist skipping to the next track for most songs on the album.
'Song Away' is the only surviving product of aborted sessions with Talking Head Jerry Harrison. It is possibly a sign of what could have been if they had completed the recording with him, rather than the thin self production on the rest of the album. It is a fuller sound and a pretty catchy single to boot. Rather than sounding like the cooler acts that Hockey aspire to be it sounds like 80s troubadours Tom Petty or John Cougar Mellencamp, and it is all the better for it.
It isn't a total failure, there are a few decent tunes on show and the odd interesting lyric. But as far as being the new band that everyone should hear it is back to the drawing board.
5/10
By Dorian Rogers
Joakim - Milky Ways
In a week where I was unexcited about any of the new releases, I decided to take the plunge and pick up an album on the strength of my curiosity alone. The album I picked up was Milky Ways by French producer Joakim. I made a similar stab in the dark decision a few months ago with the Summer Cats album, which turned out to be a bit of a cracker, and I was in luck for a second time.
The first track is both a bit daunting, and a bit misleading. 'Back To Wilderness' is a kraut rock instrumental which lasts for over seven minutes. It is brilliant stuff, but not something I want to listen to for a whole album. Second track 'Ad Me' allayed any fears I might have, after a jarring drum intro it moves into being one of the best disco tunes I have heard in a long time. Even the slightly hackneyed robot-vocoder vocals can't spoil the fun.
Joakim is backed by a band, The Disco, for what I believe is the first time, and they move effortlessly between the sounds on offer. As well as the aforementioned kraut rock and disco the album features electronica, new wave and straight forward alt-pop. Despite displaying all these influences it is hard to find another act to compare them to. LCD Sound System share some similarities, and Joakim has a playfulness in his songs that is reminiscent of Coldcut.
'Love & Romance & A Special Person' is another highlight, like the voice of a sinister sci-fi dating agency set to a bouncy electropop backing.
This is Joakim's fourth album, and my understanding is that each release is less experimental, and more accessible than the one before. If that is the case then Milky Ways is the perfect album to come to first. It is a consistently interesting and challenging recording, but also a record with a real sense of fun and some great tunes.
8/10
http://www.joakimikaoj.com/
By Dorian Rogers
Live: Heavy Trash, The Lexington, London , 16 Sept, 2009
At London's enjoyably intimate venue, The Lexington, Jon Spencer and his rockabilly outfit Heavy Trash treated an audience of greasers, music biz types and not a few fans of Spencer's better known group, the Blues Explosion, to an enjoyable evening of rock'n'roll, - all delivered with Spencer's trademark menacing edge.
Rockabilly punk, psycho-billy, hillbilly blues, whatever way you choose to categorise it, this music is never going to change the world but having someone like Spencer belt it out certainly makes the planet a better place to be.
Heavy Trash live favourites, such as 'Nervis', inspired by the Willie Dixon song 'Nervous', featured in a set that also included tracks from forthcoming album Midnight Soul Serenade, which is out in October. This included the album's distinctly Spencer-esque version of 1950s rhythm and blues legend LaVern Baker's 'Bumble Bee'.
Spencer, playing a well-loved classic Gibson acoustic guitar, took on lead singing duties for most of the set, showing off his impressive vocal range. But while he is a showman, in the classic style of the 1950s rock 'n'roll icons he clearly worships, he is also happy to let the rest of the band share the limelight, including guitarist Matt Verta-Ray.
Verta-Ray's twanging, gold vintage Gibson guitar is inspiring stuff and his turn as lead singer reveals a capable vocalist, whose sweetness of sound contrasts well with Spencer's mean edge.
With further live dates around the world to support the new album, there are many worse ways to kick the autumn blues than spending an evening in the company of Heavy Trash.
* Support came from Gin Palace in their last London show for the time being as lead singer Meaghan Wilkie soon to go on maternity leave. The band was in fine form, with Wilkie's humour and contentment giving a new twist to lyrics once written with rage and bile.
Review by Jennifer Whitehead, pics by Daniel Maier.
See Also: Top Ten Indie/Alt. Music Moments on TV, featuring Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
Monsters of Folk is a proper old school supergroup, comprising four of the most respected names in modern American music: My Morning Jacket's Jim James, singer songwriter M Ward, and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes.
After five years in the pipeline their long awaited self-titled debut is certainly not a let down, showcasing a broad range of blues, folk and country with each of the quartet's distinctive sound remaining intact.
Oberst explains on the band's website that, "we only wanted the four of us to play on it, no hired guns. We took turns playing drums, bass, it was really fun. It reminded me a lot of when I was a teenager and I'd get together on the weekend with some of my friends and we'd have a four-track and a practice space full of whatever."
It paints a rosy picture indeed and the end product shows there is clearly a lot of truth in this. There is a real warmth to the album as well as a sense of the quartet's enthusiasm for the simple production process, at Mogis and Oberst's Omaha studio and the Shangri-La studio in Malibu, which has been used by the likes of Neil Young and The Band. If egos did collide then the music has clearly benefited.
It is important not to get carried away with the reputations of the quartet. Not all the 15 tracks are great but there is some real quality here. Of the four it initially sounds as if Oberst and M Ward may have had the most influence. 'Man Named Truth', has been part Oberst's set for a while now. Also, many of the tracks have the same old-fashioned 1950s production feel that was used by M Ward for his most recent album Hold Time.
James, who goes by his solo name Yim Yames on the album, opens the album with 'Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)', a very My Morning Jacket sounding track. It is a pleasant enough opener but it is his vocals on the spiritual end track 'His Master's Voice' where he really comes alive. This simple, uplifting track is a song of genuine beauty and by a folk-country mile is the best on the album.
Other highlights are often when James, Ward and Oberst come together on vocals, such as 'Say Please' and 'Temazcal'. The upbeat, wah-wah peddled, 'Losing Yo Head' is another standout track. However, the turgid 'Slow Down Jo' is among the less effective.
Unsurprisingly, fans of Bright Eyes, M. Ward and My Morning Jacket will find a lot to like in Monsters of Folk. All three of their distinctive sounds are retained and their joy in the collaboration is clear for all to hear.
7/10
by Joe Lepper
As much as I have always admired and enjoyed a lot of The Beatles' work, the music always felt impersonal to me somehow, like it was everybody else's and not mine. However, playing Beatles: Rock Band has made me realise how much of a soundtrack to my life their songs have been and provided me with a new found appreciation for John, Paul, George and in particular Ringo as musicians.
The game opens with a quite stunning sequence, combining both traditional cel animation with CG to spectacular effect. This takes some of the visual ideas and cues from George Dunning's 1968 feature animation Yellow Submarine and runs with them, creating an astonishingly imaginative and vibrant scene-setter that encapsulates the band's career in just a few short minutes of fantasy.
It is worth completing the game's main story mode for many reasons, one of which is seeing the spectacular resolution to this piece - one of the finest and most evocative game openings I have seen. As well as this, each chapter of the story, representing a different phase of The Beatles' extraordinary career, is linked to the next by a short animated sequence depicting the events of the time in a beautifully condensed edit.
Another strong recommendation is that you resist the temptation to dive straight into a song on first loading the game. Make your first port of call the options screen and take some time to calibrate your instruments. Also, do check that you are getting the best out of your home audio/visual set-up by activating Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, bass boost and video overscan mode as appropriate, as these are all set to 'off' by default. Spending a few moments here can make an enormous difference to the feedback you receive from the game and therefore greatly enrich your experience.
As chronological progress is made through the band's history, the setting of the real-time animations that run in unison with the music behind the player information and screen furniture changes appropriately. Beginning with 'Twist And Shout' at The Cavern in waistcoats and ties in '63, the hair and outfits evolve with the music as The Beatles play on The Ed Sullivan Show and at the Shea Stadium in the US around '64/'65 before jetting to Japan's Budokan in '66.
It is the three following chapters, representing the band's non-touring years from 1966 to 1969, where the game really comes alive. Each of the 19 songs from this extended period (including 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Something') are set to a brilliant dreamscape, created and choreographed especially to compliment the music. Each does a tremendous job of further communicating the experience to player and onlooker alike. The story, bar a hidden epilogue, concludes appropriately on the Apple Corps rooftop in 1969 with the likes of 'Dig A Pony' and 'Get Back.'
9/10
by Leon Cox, editor-in-chief, Gamerdork.net
This review appears courtesy of gamerdork.net. More details about the gameplay and history of the Rock Band game can be found here.
Prefab Sprout - Let's Change The World With Music
I firmly believe that Prefab Sprout's album Steve McQueen is one of the all time great albums, and in the top five albums released in the 1980s. As such I was very excited when I heard that the reclusive Paddy McAloon was putting the band back together for a new album.
The reality is a little bit different. Let's Change The World With music is effectively an old demo, the rejected follow-up to 1990s Jordan: The Comeback, given a spring clean. As such it is a bit of a disappointment, not the great comeback of an underrated songwriter I had hoped for.
Listening to the songs it is hard to see why the album was rejected. It is a concept album about music itself, with many religious and spiritual references throughout the songs. Perhaps the lack of an obvious hit, there is no 'King Of Rock n Roll' or 'When Love Breaks Down' on the album, was the problem. It is an accomplished set of songs, lyrically deep and with ambitious instrumental arrangements even in demo form.
However, the instrumentation and production is one of the areas where the album falls down. The mood and sound of the songs is too similar, mostly lead by electric piano with a faux orchestral backing. It makes you wonder just how good these songs could have sounded if they had been taken into the studio with a producer and a band. McAloon's voice, as ever, is strong and distinctive.
Each time I listen to the album I enjoy it more, which is a real sign of quality and I have probably listened to it more times in the first few days of ownership than anything else this year. 'God Watch Over You' and 'Music Is my Princess' are two of the best songs on the album, and album that has no obvious low points. However, the lack of any real standout tracks is also one of the albums faults. It would have been nice to hear a few examples of McAloon the great pop song composer.
I hope that the album is successful enough for McAloon to reform the band properly and record a new album. He's a true original and one of the great songwriters and performers in English music, he deserves an audience.
7/10
by Dorian Rogers
Darren Hayman - Live in Brighton 08/09/09
Darren Hayman is a dying breed, the true indie pop performer. Before his set he sat patiently at the merchandise table talking to fans (including me) and selling copies of albums from his back catalogue.
On stage he is an unassuming figure, but one with great presence. He's witty and self-depreciating but also a real performer who sings and plays with passion and enthusiasm.
The set tonight was largely taken from his most recent album Pram Town and the forthcoming Essex Arms. The band had a slight country feel with the guitar, bass and drums supplemented by banjo and fiddle. This suited the songs down to the ground with selections from Pram Town, the title track and 'Out Of My League', being early highlights.
One of Hayman's strengths as a performer is that he has a clear way with words and writes songs that have something to say to the audience. This means that when he plays songs from his forthcoming album and chooses to finish the set with b-sides from his Hefner days it doesn't matter. I didn't know all the songs but I could immediately connect with the subject matter and the humour within the songs.
He closed the set with a spirited rendition of 'The Wu Tan Clan' by his short lived Hefner follow up band, The French. The band left and returned to the stage almost immediately to play a single encore, Hayman leaving the stage before the song had finished, returning to the merchandise stall.
The relatively short length of the set is the only criticism I would make of the performance, but it is always nice to be left wanting more.
9/10
Go here for details of his forthcoming shows and here for a chance to win copies of the Pram Town album in our competition.
The album title is kind of a joke, after all Yo la Tengo are never going to be a popular band. But at the same time they are a much loved and critically acclaimed band, so in some ways it could be seen as an honest statement.
The album is their 13th in 23 years and continues in the same vein as their last few releases. Hushed vocals, soothing harmonies and 60s influenced instrumentation. opening track 'Here To Fall' shows some elements of their earlier drone rock stylings, before stripping them away and replacing them with organ sounds and 70s string stabs.
There is little of the fuzz guitar pop that was so common on their early albums (they got most of that out of their system with their Condo Fucks side project) but there is one concession to this side with the glorious 'Nothing To Hide'. This is swiftly followed by album standout 'Periodically Double or Triple', a song with a funky groove that belies the indie rock geek reputation of the band. The album swings along beautifully for the first nine songs, each one a brilliantly produced pop gem.
The second half of the album is what might divide the listeners, and it is only three songs long, ranging from 9 to 16 minutes in length. They have a definitive Yo La Tengo sound, but one that jars a little with the pop feel of the first half of the album.
For me it is an experiment that comes off pretty well.
Coming at the end of the album they don't break the flow and they are a pretty glorious noise. The noisiest and longest of them 'And the Glitter Is Gone' is also probably the best of the bunch and would be a great closer to one of their live sets.
The album has some similarities to Wilco (The Album) in that it feels like a band compiling a selection based on songs from albums throughout their career. But, like Wilco, they get away with it because they are such an accomplished and interesting band. And how many bands are there that sound this good after 23 years?
8/10
http://www.yolatengo.com/
Open Fields, the 2007 debut by former Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman under the name Taken By Trees, was a pleasing enough indie-folk album.
Its largely acoustic guitar and orchestral sound did a good job of showcasing the Swedish singer's distinctive fey vocals, but it did lack that magic ingredient truly great albums need.
Bergsman recognised this and decided that for her second album she would take radical action. Tapping into her fascination with the music and rhythms of the Indian sub-continent and Asia she set about the unlikely task of incorporating this into the simple folk style of Open Fields.
The finished album East of Eden could well feature in many top ten lists by the end of the year such is its success in combining the tablas and pipes of Pakistan with Bergsman's seductively sweet vocals and simple melodies.
As well as around 20 local musicians she also enlisted support from Noah Lennox, otherwise known as Panda Bear of Animal Collective. He features on the track 'Anna' and the album also has a cover version of Animal Collective's 'My Girls', which has been renamed 'My Boys' after her boyfriend and cat.
'My Boys' is one of a number of standout tracks on an album of startling consistency and uniqueness. 'Watch The Waves' is perhaps the best on the album, with acoustic guitar and Bergsman's vocals moulding perfectly with Pakistan's traditional instruments.
Other highlights include 'Anna', complete with its chanting children in the intro, and the beautiful 'Greyest Love Of All'.
East of Eden is undoubtedly a risky premise for an album, but Bergsman and Söderström's enthusiasm for the music of Pakistan has shone through, ensuring this is no mere world music oddity.
At the very least the concept of a Swedish indie-folk singer travelling to Pakistan and using local musicians to record an album that includes a cover of an Animal Collective track, is unlikely to be bettered this year.
8/10
Frank Turner - Poetry Of The Deed
Frank Turner's work ethic is certainly not in doubt. For the video to promote his recent single 'The Road', from his third album Poetry of the Deed, he successfully carried out the startling feat of performing 24 gigs in 24 hours.
His labours in the recording of the album itself have been similarly enthusiastic, with the London singer songwriter taking command of the full range of labels that are thrown his way, from Billy Bragg-esque folk to punk and rock.
Opener 'Live Fast Die Old' is one of the best tracks, sounding more like The Hold Steady than Billy Bragg, complete with blue-collar rock staples such as piano intro and organ solo. It also carries a theme that is strewn across the album, of getting old, losing your youth and reaching life's crossroads.
Second track 'Try This At Home', is much different, this time more akin to Blur guitarist Graham Coxon's solo work. A spirit of 1976 punk call to arms, 'Try This At Home urges people to, "stop waiting around for someone to patronise us, lets hammer out a sound that speaks of where we've been." But it adds more to this. While 1976 punk was arguably more style over substance, Turner, who is Eton educated and comes from Hampshire, urges those who are about to pick up their guitars to, "forget about the haircuts and stupid skinny jeans."
The pace slows down for 'Dan's Song', which is back to Billy Bragg style basics, conjuring up images of summer ending and the simple pleasures of life.
More Hold Steady influence comes with title track 'Poetry of the Deed' before a clutch of disappointingly mediocre tracks, including the single 'The Road', which sounds too much like the Levellers for my liking.
The quality picks up though towards the end, especially with the Procol Harem keyboard sound of 'Sunday Nights'. Penultimate track 'Our Lady of the Campfire' is another standout. A piano intro once again, opening up into a folk rock tribute to city life, far removed from the rural sounding title.
Poetry of the Deed could indeed be Turner's breakthrough album, as a number of other reviews have suggested. It has certainly got something for everyone. For his small but passionate bunch of fans tracks such as 'The Road' are sure to stand out. For me, I want more of the Hold Steady stuff, which is where Poetry of the Deed really shines.
7/10
by Joe Lepper
August 2009
Postmarks - Memoirs At The End Of The World
"After the release of their debut in 2007, their love for cinematic themes and classic pop needed to be more than that... it needed to be realized on a grand scale in a way that still said: 'The Postmarks were here,'" so says a statement from Florida band The Postmarks about the release of their third album Memoirs at the End of the World.
Of course that's largely PR guff, but beneath the twaddle there is some truth. Their latest album Memoirs at the End of the World, is undoubtedly indie pop on an epic scale. It is also true that it has a far slicker, grander production then their self -titled debut and their second album, By The Numbers, which features covers of songs with numbers in their title.
Opening track, 'No One Said this Would Be Easy', leaves you in no doubt that cinematic indie pop is their speciality, as it opens with lush violins and lead singer/songwriter Tim Yehezkely's seductive, laid back vocals.
Next up is 'My Lucky Charm', which would not have sounded out of place on Belle And Sebastian's last album The Life Pursuit, and then a string of stand out tracks including the slower 'Thorn in My Side', which is crying out for a video starring Julie Christie.Another stand out track is 'Don't Know Until You Try', which retains the cinematic edge, but has a more modern feel and is by far the most interesting arrangement on the album, mixing horns, synth bleeps and Burt Bacharach lounge pop well.
Memoirs At the End of the World is a must for those that enjoyed Stuart Murdoch's 1960s-style film score album of this year God Help the Girl as well as St Etienne's debut Fox Base Alpha. It can feel a little too slick in places, but the band's cinematic edge ensure it avoids being soulless, like so much of the lounge-pop The Postmarks are often labeled as.
7.5/10
Live: Bill Callahan - St George's Church, Brighton, UK (18 Aug, 2009).
With lyrics such as, "it's time to put God away" on 'Faith Void', the final track from his excellent latest album Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, a church was perhaps a questionable choice of venue to see Bill Callahan.
Even Callahan clearly struggled with the religious surroundings, forgetting he was in a place of God he slipped in an anecdote about the urinal at the venue.
"It's a pleasure to be sharing the bathroom facilities with the crowd tonight," he said. "I stood next to this one guy and I saw his willy. I hoped I'd never see him again, but he's sitting right in the front row."
Despite the apparent incongruity of the venue, it was in reality hugely fitting. Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, which was showcased tonight, is one of the most intimate albums of the year and Callahan's intense, laconic, if unassuming performance worked well among the pillars and pulpit.
Augmented by impeccable strings and a faultless rhythm section, Callahan's signature baritone rumble lead us through the majority of Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, with stellar versions of 'Eid Ma Clack Shaw', 'Too Many Birds' and 'All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast,' receiving particular ovation.
Happily, he was also willing to represent his fine back catalogue, both under his own name and as Smog, including a rendition of the classic 'Cold Blooded Old Times,' from 1999's Knock Knock.
Disappointingly, a 10.30pm curfew restricted the band to just a single encore of one number. The audience, of largely die-hard fans were not bothered though, and they clearly left hugely satisfied to "put God away" for now, after seeing such a fine and beguiling set from their hero.
8/10
by Leon Cox, editor-in-chief of GamerDork.
See Also: Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
In a perfect world every town would have a band like Box Elders. A ramshackle rock outfit, made up of brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre and drummer/keyboardist Dave Goldberg, that revels in every gloriously fun moment of being in a band. Sadly we can't all be as lucky as the citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, where Box Elders' come from.
In many ways Box Elders are a classic spirit of '76 punk outfit, not the best musicians in the world and the songs are not the most complex. But that doesn't matter, across the 14 tracks on their debut album Alice & Friends they rattle out a rollercoaster of DIY rock, complete with Hammond organ sounding keyboards and drawing on influences such as sixties cult act the Monks and The Ramones.
Keyboard drenched opener 'Jackie Wood' fits firmly in the sixties influenced category as does title track 'Alice and Friends', which sounds like a sketchy bootleg of an early Who gig. Among other stand out tracks are the excellent 'Hole in My Head' and 'Dave', which sounds like it is being performed in a Belfast boozer in 1964 by Van Morrison's Them.
The Ramones influenced tracks include 'One Foot in Front of the Other' and '2012', which in an equally perfect world would be the signature tune for London's 2012 Olympics, with the band shouting the lyrics, "ain't you heard about 2012," at the opening ceremony.
But it's not all shouting, ramshackle rock. There's also some good musician-ship in places. The sixties riff throughout 'Dave' and the intro to final track 'Death of Me' show there is more to the band. And Dave Goldberg is something of a rarity in music, being able to plays drums and keyboards simultaneously live.
They could have stepped out of any era since the early 60s and there have been countless bands over the decades that have sounded like them but never achieved success. Box Elders may or may not buck this trend, but they will certainly have fun trying.
8/10
by Joe Lepper
Robert Pollard - Elephant Jokes
Reviewing a Robert Pollard album is a difficult business for me. Given that I own more records by him (predominantly with Guided By Voices) than any other artist I find it hard to give even a semi-objective account, but I'll do my best.
Elephant Jokes is his fifth release this year, with another two on the cards. The constant writing, recording and releasing of records is an integral part of what makes Pollard what he is, but it can lead to some quality control issues and allows for him to release some difficult records to enjoy (I wouldn't recommend his releases as Cosmos or Circus Devils to the uninitiated). The good news is that Elephant Jokes continues where his recent solo, and Boston Spaceships albums left off by being a consistently enjoyable set of rocking pop songs.
You only have to wait until track two to get the first genuine classic 'Johnny Optimist, a Who influenced stomper (The Who are probably the clearest influence on Pollard on this album). The titular hero is described as being "like a post car crash Jan and Dean", and this album features some of Pollard's best lyrical work for years.
From there on in the good songs keep on coming. 'When A Man Walks Away', 'Symbols and Heads', 'Accident Hero', 'Newly Selected Dirt Spots' and '(All You Need) To Know' are all great new songs in the Pollard song database. Even snotty throwaway tracks like 'Hippsville (Where The Frisbees Fly Forever)' are streets ahead of the competition.
My favourite track on the album is 'Stiff Me', the kind of catchy rocker that Bob probably writes over breakfast and other songwriters would kill to write in a career. That is the reason to stick by an erratic performer like Pollard, in amongst the good songs, throwaways and misfires will always be at least one song so good it makes it all worthwhile. On an album as consistent as this it is an extra bonus to have so many high points.
Sure, there are some songs to skip and some editing would have helped, but the songs don't last long and you're on to the next one.
Is it a must-buy Pollard release? No. But it is a collection of good songs from a singularly talented artist and that is more than enough.
8/10
http://www.myspace.com/robertepollardjr
by Dorian Rogers
Humbug, the Arctic Monkey's third album is the band's darkest to date. Their trademark style of new-wave, choppy indiepop is undoubtedly still there but it has been significantly beefed up with a mature, epic edge.
Moody and grand-scale recording locations in the US, such as the Mojave desert and Los Angeles as well as co-production by Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, certainly help to make their sound somehow larger.
It is unfortunate though that they haven't produced the lyrics to match this epic sound. Opening track 'My Propeller' is a case in point. Its moody, gothic sounding guitar riffs and military drumming are somehow at logger heads with cheeky-chappy, double-entendre lyrics such as "Coax me out, my love, sink into tomorrow. Coax me out, my love, and have a spin of my propeller."
Although it has lyrical faults and is not packed with ten perfect songs Humbug is no dud. While there are fillers that wear a little thin such as 'The Jeweller's Hands' and 'Dance Little Liar' overall the maturity across the album is to be welcomed and the bulk of the tracks are pretty good.
Among the best is first single 'Crying Lightning', which starts like a cover of Iggy Pop's 'Passengers' before the guitar riffs branch out into something far more complex and satisfying. 'Cornerstone' is another quality track, among the slowest on the album, but showing a good glimpse of how the band is progressing.
Humbug is also an interesting album, showing a band embracing and enjoying the challenge of moving its sound on and is far more ambitious than the rubbish being churned out by fellow festival favourites such as Keane and Kasabian.
7.5/10
Throw Me The Statue - Creaturesque
Throw Me The Statue's 'Creaturesque' should tick all the right boxes. The Seattle four piece's second album offers upbeat electro-indie pop, fine melodies and bittersweet lyrics on modern life. Likeability is another plus, especially the immediately accessible vocals of founder Scott Reitherman.
Unfortunately ticking boxes makes for a boring album, with Creaturesque ending up as nothing more than an ordinary, inoffensive album that is perhaps trying too hard to impress.
Sure, there is nothing really terrible across the 12 tracks. But at the same time there is little to stand out apart from two tracks, the acoustic guitar laden and Built To Spill sounding 'Baby, You're Bored', and the infectious melodic bass heavy 'Ancestors'. Both stick in the mind rather than disappear into the air like so much of the album.
It's a shame that Throw Me The Statue has played it too safe with Creaturesque. Judging by the band's far better and more low-key debut Moonbeams and the best moments on Creaturesque there's still a good album to come from them . A bit of risk taking is needed though for their next effort.
5.5/10
July 2009
Cornershop - Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast
I first saw Cornershop in 1995 supporting Gallon Drunk. They were terrible. They couldn't play, simple as that. I saw them a few years later and, although they had learnt how to play, their set was just too dull. So when they finally got a following, thanks to the Fatboy Slim remix of 'Brimful of Asha', I wasn't in the slightest interested.
Five years later I picked up a copy of their 4th album Handcream For A Generation, and I was surprised how much I liked it. The playing was more straight down the line than before, but the songs were good and they had a pleasing good time groove throughout.
Move forward another seven years and they are back with a new recording Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast which picks up right where their last album left off. All the elements are their, 60s brit-rock guitars, sitar, disco beats and backing vocals and the laconic vocals of Tjinder Singh.
It is no great leap forward, but when the formula works this well, why muck around with it? The opening tracks 'Who Fingered Rock And Roll' and 'Soul School' are both such fun that it is strange to remember that when they started out their political agenda was the main focus for the band.
The album does suffer from the same flaws as Handcream For A Generation seven years earlier. A lot of the songs would be greatly improved by some editing, the album has a tendency to drag with extended instrumental sections and the sound of one groove jam too many. This does mean that whilst the starts brilliantly, and has a number of excellent songs, you are unlikely to want to listen to it in one sitting very often.
However, it is an album that showcases a unique bands sound well, and is worth buying for the best songs alone.
7.5/10
Festival Review: Indie Tracks (July 24-26)
Now in its third year, everything about the three-day music festival Indie Tracks is unique. For one its Midland Railway Centre location in England must make it the only festival with a level crossing in the middle and steam engines charging across the landscape.
It's also so small scale that it makes it almost inevitable that you'll be sharing a beer with some of the bands at one point or another. Yet at the same time it's clearly important enough in indie-music circles to attract bands from across Europe and the US. The main stage was even sponsored by Spanish label Elefant for its 20th anniversary.
Being family-friendly without being family-oriented is another plus. Thankfully, it's not full of bouncy castles and stupid people dressed in animal suits, but neither are the little darlings trodden into the mud or running around spilling people's pints and starting fights.
And the festival-goers are unequivocally cool - cool enough to take hippy chic to a higher plane. It could have been an international convention for Converse All Stars, so united were the indie-rati in their footwear.
Those attending were also so cool that they didn't even smell unsavoury after three days of questionable weather. Many actually smelt quite savoury by the end. Was it cheese or egg? I couldn't tell.
So, to the bands. If awards were being handed out for best performance then Brooklyn based electro-indie popsters Au Revoir Simone (pictured) were almost in the running after pulling off a great first night finale. This was however marred by a moment of idiocy when one of them tried to explain what the "US phrase", "faux pas" meant in English (I have high standards for this kind of thing). It displayed an ironically poor grasp of French given the name of the band.
Following this linguistical blunder the best performance of the festival award should probably go to Finland's Cats on Fire. Far too many acts gave very informal performances, pointless band chit-chat, even the odd false start; so the panache with which Cats on Fire delivered a compelling set lifted them well clear of the ordinary.
Other highlights were London's Pocketbooks and Speedmarket Avenue, from Sweden. Early 1990s indie comedy veterans Frank and Walters were on form and Italy's Fitness Forever played a cracking set that harked back to the world of La Dolce Vita and the 1960s.
Camera Obscura also delivered a bunch of pop perfect tunes while Saturday's finale, in the form of Barcelona's La Casa Zul, who (no joke) have a member called Androids, was just bizarre.
One of the musical treasure chests - and there were many - was the church stage: large enough to hold only seventy people maybe, there were a couple of great discoveries. The Understudies, complete with great song titles such as 'Chip Pan Glam', were so nervous they couldn't work out what the applause was for - it's actually because they're pretty good. Another find was Beatles influenced Italian band Le Man Avec Les Lunette. Great songs, amazing cellist.
And yes I should have my wrists slapped for missing Teenage Fan Club and Emmy the Great. My bad. Plus I was so busy I never got to go on a train.
Finally, should any of the organisers read this, please burn down the disgraceful burger bars and get more real food (and real ale, it ran out I think) - there's only so much pea-based curry a digestive tract can take.
By Matt Whipp
Summer Cats - Songs For Tuesdays
With nothing in the weeks releases that grabbed me I decided to pick an album that I knew nothing about. This is a tactic that has brought me great rewards in the past, but also unearthed some real stinkers. The album I chose was Songs For Tuesdays by Summer Cats, and it definitely falls into the former category.
Released on Slumberland Records, a label that has released records by Velocity Girl, 14 Iced Bears, Stereolab and, more recently, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart it is in perfect company. The album is like a compilation of all the best indie pop sounds of the last 25 years.
Summer Cats are from Melbourne, home to another notable indie pop act Architecture In Helsinki, and they aren't afraid of wearing their influences on their sleeve. That isn't to say that they are slavish copyists, but you can hear influences throughout the record. And it is a record that achieves something pretty special by every song sounding different to the last, without losing a cohesive identity.
Opener 'Let's Go' is reminiscent of Superchunk, 'Hey You' a lo-fi Apples in Stereo. 'Maybe Pile' The Go-Betweens and on 'St. Tropez' there is even a little Camper Van Beethoven going on. Elsewhere on the record I hear elements of The New Pornographers, The Tyde and The Pastels. All that and more, including single 'Super', comes across in thirteen fuzz and jangle pop nuggets, only one song breaking the 3 minute barrier.
Normally I would shy a way from an album that is so backward looking, but it is impossible not to be pulled in by the shear fun and energy of it. There isn't a duff track on the album and despite some overly fuzzy production it sounds great.
Sure, it isn't the kind of record that is going to change the face of music. And I'd be surprised if the band receive more than a small, but loyal, following. But so what? It is a great and uplifting slice of the true spirit of indie pop. If you enjoy any of the bands mentioned in this review, or any other fun indie pop from the last 25 years then I can't recommend this enough.
9/10
http://www.myspace.com/summercats
Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine
Note to reviewers. Can you please stop referring to Jason Molina's band Magnolia Electric Co. as alt-country. Based on the evidence of Josephine, the Magnolia Electric Co.'s third studio album, the band are just country, possibly soft rock, but certainly not alternative.
Arguably Wilco are still alt-country, as is Bill Callahan or Bonnie Prince Billy. All three served up more pleasing albums this year than Josephine.
Conceived as a tribute to the band's late bassist Evan Farrell, Josephine is full of promise. A passionate ode to a lost friend and the band's first album in three years.
But even with the ever-eclectic Steve Albini as engineer Josephine is devoid of passion and instead is just a very long, tedious selection of not very good country music.
It's hard to even decipher the songs apart in terms of very good or very bad. It's all just mediocre. It starts fairly averagely with the early Billy-Joel esque 'O! Grace', which conjures up images of being "lonesome" from "Chicago to West Virginia". Next track 'The Rock of Ages', sounds slightly 50s but adds nothing new or interesting to the world. I'll concede that title track 'Josephine' is ok and has a fairly good chorus, but it's not enough to save this album from tedium.
I guess, that when it comes down to it, we at Neon Filler just don't get whatever it is that makes the passionate fans of Molina hold him in such esteem. For our taste Josephine is just too mainstream. Here's some advice, if you like passionate, alternative country or folk, go out and purchase Sun Kil Moon's excellent April from last year instead of this.
4/10
After an internet leak The Dodos decided to bring forward the online release date of their third album Time To Die by a month to July 28th and even started to stream the album on their dedicated website from mid July.
It's a difficult start to what is potentially a difficult album for the Californian three-piece. Coming after their 2008 release Visiter they certainly have a lot to live up to. Could they maintain the quirky folk, acoustic guitar and African drum sound that made Visiter their breakthrough album? Or would they attempt something different?
With Time to Die the answer is somewhere in between. They have kept the unmistakable Dodos sound in places but are clearly trying something new in others. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
It works a plenty with first single 'Fables'. Beautiful melody, quirky edge and mainstream sound. 'Fables' encompasses fully the Dodos sound past, present and possibly future and it's a damn good pop song as well.
Less effective is opening track 'Small Deaths', a meandering mess and the forgettable filler track 'Troll Nacht', which is the album's longest at 6mins23.
Other stand out tracks include the absurdly catchy 'The Strums' and 'Two Medicines', which is similar to the Field Music stable of bands from Sunderland, UK, in particular The Week That Was.
Time To Die is also an album that bears more than a passing similarity to Apple Venus, the 2000 last album by new wave icons XTC. Others that have clearly listened to this album include Grizzly Bear, with this year's release Vecktamist.
Former Shins and Fleet Foxes producer Phil Ek has done a solid job reigning in the Dodo's sound in places and protecting it in others on Time To Die. While there is an argument that the end product is perhaps too safe and too reigned in, overall there is much to like here and it provides the band with a solid platform to evolve.
Sure, Time To Die lacks some of the passion of Visiter, but especially with 'Fables' there is enough to please most Dodos' fans and with the new commercial sound possibly bring on board some new admirers as well.
To hear the live stream of Time To Die click here
See Also: Neon Filler's best of 2008 featuring The Dodo's Visiter
7.5/10
The Rumble Strips - Welcome To The Walk Along
When The Rumble Strips arrived with their first album Girls And Weather in 2007 they were rated as a possible, "next big thing". True, it was a decent first effort, full of energy, brash horns and an obvious love of Dexy's Midnight Runners. However, it didn't set the music scene alight and we at Neon Filler hadn't thought about them for some time.
Two years later they are back and they seem to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater on this one. The horns have taken a back seat to strings and while the Dexy's influence is still there it has sadly been relegated to second place behind a new desire to be Scott Walker.
We love Scott walker, but as an influence point it is starting to seem tired and many other artists have done it much better before. Nick Cave, Cathal Coughlan and even the massively overrated Last Shadow Puppets are three examples that spring to mind.
Wearing your influences on your sleeve is fine, being a pastiche act isn't. Part of the problem is producer Mark Ronson, he can't help but make any artist sound like a 60s lounge tribute act. He has also softened the edges so much that the areas where the band should excel - brass, orchestral stabs and spirited drumming - have lost their impact.
The album starts off well, the title track is a good enough and second song 'London' has some of their original Dexy's-lite sound intact. Third track 'Not The Only Person' is actually pretty great, despite the Ronson gloss and is certainly the standout moment.
Unfortunately things go downhill from there. Singer, Charlie Waller, has got a good voice and could develop into a great lead vocalist, but he is let down by his overly mannered lounge singer approach. He is also let down by some truly terrible lyrics throughout the album.
It isn't a bad album exactly, and there is plenty of promise but the tunes throughout are just not up to the job, despite a few good moments and the occasional flourish.
Our advice, lose the celebrity producer, expensive arrangements and tribute act stylings. Underneath that a decent band might be trying to get out.
6/10
http://www.therumblestrips.com/
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
What are they putting in the water in Canada? Yet again the Canadians are spoiling us with another innovative and exciting release. After excellent albums over the last two years from the likes of Plants and Animals, Broken Social Scene, AC Newman and Sunset Rubdown, step forward The Rural Alberta Advantage, from Toronto, with their debut Hometown. Although originally released independently last year it has now got a welcome re-release on the band's new label Saddle Creek Records.
This largely acoustic guitar, drums and keyboards album is rough and ready in places but highly polished in others, offering an interesting mix of Postal Service style electo-indie pop and bar room sing-a-longs.
Opening track 'The Ballad of the RAA', is the most Postal Service sounding of all the tracks. It's a great opener, but if the whole album had this feel then Rural Alberta Advantage would be caught in a trap that so many others have fallen into of being simply a poorer version of Postal Service. Luckily the emphasis shifts to the Canadian wilds with the barn-stomping second track 'Rush Apart' and third track 'The Deathbridge in Lethbridge'.
The keyboards are back for fourth track 'Don't Haunt This Place, which complete with off kilter style drumming and great backing vocals from the band's Amy Cole, is the best track on the album.
'Don't Haunt this Place,' also opens up the album's best sequence of tracks, that also includes 'The Deadroads' and 'Drain the Blood'. Apart from the excellent 'Frank AB' and wistful closing track, 'In the Summertime', the rest of the album is largely fillers. Worth listening, but not as good as the high quality middle section.
As a whole Hometowns is uneven, but that doesn't matter. It offers a good blend, some excellent potential singles and shows real promise for the future. There's also a welcome passion in singer Nils Edenloff's vocals that stands out. Let's hope they keep drinking whatever it is that is being put in the Ontario water.
7/10
June 2009
Sunset Rubdown, the side project of Spencer Krug from Canadian band Wolf Parade, is a tough act to pigeonhole.
Sure the group is alternative rock, but that's a pretty broad church. Avant garde is another often used category for the band, however once again that's a pretty vague description.
In reality Sunset Rubdown is one of those rare breeds in modern music, a unique band with a unique sound, borrowing music from the 1960s through to the modern era to make it their own.
Opening track 'Silver Moons' opens Dragonslayer well, emphasising the piano and keyboards sound that dominates the album as well as the strange medieval imagery throughout. Lots of queens and kings mixed with lashings of virgins and honour.
Among the stand out tracks are 'Idiot Heart', which starts with a dampened guitar riff that gradually builds into a new wave epic. Another is the Gary Newman sounding 'Paper Lace'. One of our favourites at Neon Filler is the fancifully titled 'You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)', which is the nearest to a standard, melodic pop song you will get on Dragonslayer.
Dragonslayer is quirky but accessible and firmly cements Sunset Rubdown's place among the best in north America at producing ambitious, alternative music. Plants and Animals, whose debut Parc Avenue was released last year to critical acclaim, is another similarly ambitious Canadian act to watch out for.
So, back to categorising Sunset Rubdown. To call them Canadian-medieval-synth-pop is tempting but perhaps the best description is through pictures not words. Just watch the medieval jigging in 1980s Canadian synth pop act Men Without Hat's video for 'Safety Dance' and you are someway there.
8/10
Critical and commercial success for 2002's album Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and two grammys for 2004's A Ghost is Born has arguably placed Wilco among the giants of modern alternative rock.
The rule that applies to members of this elite is that new releases get event status and Wilco (the album) - the band's seventh studio album - is no exception.
Expectation has been high; especially as Wilco's previous album 2007's Sky Blue Sky received such a lukewarm critical reception, with the likes of Pitchfork deriding it as "dad-rock."
The question some critics and fans were beginning to ask was had the band peaked? Judging from Wilco (the album) the answer is an emphatic "no".
Wilco (the album) shows a band basking in self-assurance, unafraid to straddle genres ranging from country folk to 60s New York underground through to 70s Californian rock.
The title alone shows the confidence in the way the band have approached the album.
As does opening track, you guessed it, called 'Wilco (the song)', a Velvet Underground inspired chugging anthem that pays tribute to the bands' fans and is sure to win over others. With tongue in cheek lyrics such as, "put on your headphones before you explode,Wilco, Wilco, Wilco will love ya, baby," this is a storming, uplifting first track.
Next up the alternative country edge comes in on 'Deeper Down' and 'One Wing', which both showcase guitarist Nels Cline's beautiful arrangements.
Fourth track 'Bull Black Nova' is a rollercoaster of 70s rock, with the final quarter taken up by an extended frenetic instrumental and wailing vocal segment, more Deep Purple than deep south.
At just over five minutes 'Bull Black Nova' is not long in the grand scheme of things, but the wailing does grate after a while and feels longer when sandwiched between the softer 'One Wing' and next track 'You and I', a sickly, syrupy sweet duet with Leslie Fiest.
On first listen 'You and I' felt like a disappointment. Far too sweet, far too much like the Eagles and a waste of Leslie Fiest's distinctive voice. But after a few more listens my opinion turned. It's the one I keep humming and at its heart it is just a good old-fashioned love song.
The remaining tracks are far from filler status as some forum commentators have said.
'You Never Know' is a George Harrison inspired track, the first to be released as a single (albeit on vinyl only). The more folk orientated 'Solitaire' is steeped in the music of Nick Drake and Elliot Smith and 'Sonny Feeling' evokes the music of Big Star.
Final track 'Everlasting Everything' with its orchestral flourishes and Eric Clapton-esque guitar is another highlight as is the Rolling Stones sounding 'I'll Fight'.
Wilco (the album) shows a band at one with itself, happy with its elite alternative rock status and confident of its talents. It is likely to give Wilco a far broader appeal and could, dare we predict, even eclipse the commercial success of the 590,000 selling Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, while still appealing to its loyal fans.
9/10
God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl
According to Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch, the idea for his side project
God Help The Girl started in 2004. "I was out for a run and I got this tune in my head and it occurred to me that it wasn't a Belle & Sebastian song," he explains on his website.
"I could hear female voices and strings, I could hear the whole thing, but I just couldn't envisage myself singing it with the group," he adds.
The resulting album is a soundtrack for a musical film by Murdoch called God Help The Girl, that is not due to start filming until next year. This tells the tale of a young woman called Eve, her mental health problems and the characters she meets.
While the timing of the album and film release may be skewed, the album itself is far from confused. It is a carefully crafted piece of work, layered with exquisite orchestral arrangements and showcasing a range of vocal talents with more than a nod to the music of the Mamas and Papas.
Among those appearing are the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, Asya from Seattle band Smoosh and newcomer Catherine Ireton (pictured), who takes the bulk of vocal duties as the voice of Eve.
Highlights include 'Pretty Eve in the Tub', a duet between Ireton and Murdoch, who pops up like the crown prince of chamber pop he is. New, softer versions of Belle and Sebastian tracks 'Act of the Apostle' and 'Funny Little Frog' are also well worked.
God Help The Girl really hits its stride at the eighth track, 'Musician Please Take Heed'. This is the first of a number of ambitious sixties girl group style arrangements. Standout tracks that follow include 'Perfection as a Hipster' a duet between Hannon and Ireton and 'Come Monday Night', the first single off the album. Also worth mentioning is the 1980s sounding 'I Just Want Your Jeans,' sung by Asya.
God Help The Girl is a satisfying listen, offering many sounds and moods that haven't been recorded since the days of Mama Cass, and something genuinely interesting musically. Fans of Belle and Sebastian, in particularly those that that enjoyed the band's under-rated soundtrack to Storytelling, will find a lot to like here. And in Ireton, Murdoch has uncovered a star in the making.
8/10
Link: God Help The Girl
Lemonheads fans look away now. Varshons, the band's album of covers is not just bad, it's terrible. What makes Varshons so particularly weak is that it is by a band whose reputation has been built on an ability to create some of the best cover versions around.
Forget The Lemonheads' previous covers of Susanne Vega's 'Luka', Mike Nesmith's 'Different Drum' and Simon and Garfunkel's 'Mrs Robinson'. These were undisputed classics. Varshons in sharp contrast features some well-known and less famous covers that are lacklustre at best and downright embarrassing in places.
Among the lacklustre tracks are opener 'I Just Can't Take It Anymore', originally by Gram Parsons. Lemonheads are no stranger to Parson's covers, with their version of Brass Buttons being one of the highlights of their 1990 album Lovey. Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando should be able to do a credible cover of Parsons in his sleep, sadly 'I Just Can't Take It Anymore' sounds like he did just that.
Other lame efforts are versions of GG Allin's 'Layin'Up With Linda', Townes Van Zandt's 'Waiting Around to Die' and Leonard Cohen's 'Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye'. The coma inducing production throughout by Butthole Surfer's Gibby Haynes even manages to suck what little life there is in Linda Perry's 'Beautiful'. As painful as it is to write, the original by Christina Aguilera is far better.
The downright embarrassing comes in the form of their take of Arling and Cameron's 'Dirty Robot', which is sung implausibly by Kate Moss. Huddled around the campfire at Glastonbury in their Hunter wellies the pairing of the supermodel and The Lemonheads may have seemed a good idea to Dando and Moss. However, she is no hidden musical gem, she can't sing and her weak south London drawl has no business being recorded for posterity.
The only saving grace on this album is a cover of Sam Gopal's 'Yesterlove', which at least shows a hint of emotion in Dando's voice.
Even the most die-hard Lemonheads fans would be hard pressed to enjoy this album. Our advice is avoid and put on one of the band's classics such as It's A Shame About Ray instead. Or if it is covers you want get a copy of Adem's Takes, which oozes with the energy and emotion that Varshons so sadly lacks.
3/10
Neonfiller's Top Ten Covers Of All Time.
What Makes A Good Cover? You Decide.
The Willkommen Collective - Live at the Union Chapel 12/06/09
Held in the dramatic chapel of the 18th century Highbury and Islington church, the evening was a celebration of the many acts that make up the collective.
Arriving just as things kicked off we headed to the bar. No drinks were allowed in the chapel itself and we ended up missing the opening act Rowan Coupland. Drink completed we headed down and took our pew to watch the original Willkommen act, Shoreline, take the stage. The first of the collectives bands that I heard, they have recorded some of my favourite tracks of the last few years. Beatrice Sanjust Di Teulada is a captivating front woman and the performance was assured and skilled. Finishing with a magical 'Shipwrecked' they set a high standard for the other bands to follow.
Sweet Billy Pilgrim proved to be one of the few missteps of the evening. They weren't bad, and I've enjoyed their recorded output, but the sound didn't work in the setting or sit comfortably alongside the other acts. The upside of this dip in quality was the opportunity to pop to the bar before the next band hit the stage.
The Sons of Noel and Adrian are the Willkommen act that I struggle with most on record. I like their sound, and their album is good, but I'm not always sure I'm enjoying them. Live they make perfect sense, and the venue was the perfect setting. Songs like 'This Wreck is not a Boat' really took flight and the chorus of voices and foot stamping rhythms had me hooked. On balance they were the best band on the night.
The Leisure Society arrived and were faced, due to band overrun and a strict chapel curfew, with only 15 minutes of stage time. Their set, featuring an inspired cover of Gary Newman's 'Cars' and the Ivor Novello nominated 'Last of the Melting Snow', certainly deserved more time. Joined on the stage for the finale of their final song by dozens of their Willkommen colleagues, all armed with ukuleles, they were the perfect closer to the main stage events.
After the Leisure Society finished I bolted upstairs to the bar and took seat in an armchair next to the smaller second stage. The Miserable Rich proved to be the perfect act for this environment and played a brilliant set. Sadly late night train travel needs arrived to break up the party and we had to leave before the Laish Quartet took the stage. Kopek were also billed to play the event and I must have missed their performance as well. Cramming eight acts into your bill for the evening may have been a little ambitious.
The gig had the sense of a festival and seemed intimate all at once. If i go to a more enjoyable evening of music all year I will consider myself blessed. I recommend that anyone who wasn't there (or anyone who was) heads to the next Willkommen event at Brighton's Stanmer House on July 5th.
Kudos has to go to William Calderbank and some other collective members who seemed to be on stage all evening. A great event that earns Neon Filler's first perfect score of 2009.
Read our Willkommen Collective article.
10/10
The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
The Dirty Projectors are not the easiest band to approach. Lead projector Dave Longstreth seldom does what you'd expected, whether that means recording an orchestral album in a school gym or an album of Black Flag songs covered from memory alone.
Bitte Orca is his most cohesive album, but don't expect the poppyness of their David Byrne collaboration 'Knotty Pine' from the Dark Was The Night compilation. Do expect a brilliant collection of songs that sets the standard for alternative guitar records in 2009.
I say a collection of songs because one of the records slight weaknesses is that it doesn't hold together perfectly as an album. The first three songs showcase the erratic guitar and vocals of Longstreth, backed superbly by the vocals of Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian. The middle of the album becomes a showcase for the female vocalists, first with the R&B (in the contemporary sense) stylings of 'Stillness Is The Move', and then the lush folkyness of 'Two Doves'.
Aside from the elegant use of a string quartet, and some subtle electronica the album is driven by Longstreth's mixture of African guitar stylings, coupled with no-wave bursts or dissonant noise.
It isn't an easy listen, aside from the aforementioned female vocal lead songs and the opening couplet of 'Cannibal Resource' and 'Temecula Sunrise' it can be hard work. The industrious listener that gives the album the time it deserves is guaranteed a satisfying album that they will still be listening to in years to come.
9/10
http://www.myspace.com/dirtyprojectors
We should perhaps forgive bands in the latter stages of their career for being remiss when it comes to the process of evolution. Sonically, The Eternal has a lot in common with its predecessor, Rather Ripped: a lush, somewhat softer sound, but one that still bears all the fuzzy, harmonic hallmarks of a SY recording.
I wanted to be shocked by some kind of great revolutionary statement, but really it's just business as usual for the New Yorkers. From a strictly musical perspective, it's hard to say whether this is a good or bad thing, but I'm veering toward the former, because, hey, what's on offer is still head and shoulders above what many younger bands are currently producing.
In fact, the now fifty-something Youth still manage to sound more politicised, more artistically curious, more honest and more humble than many of those following in their wake. It's important to realise that they were always more than just a band, anyway - and where they once blazed a trail of innovation in the guitar-rock oeuvre, they continue to work creatively in a host of other mediums, and that the music is part of a wider dialogue with avant-garde art (made explicit on this album with the reference to the beat poet, Gregory Corso, on the track 'Leaky Lifeboat').
So if The Eternal is not some tremendous paradigm shift, it's worth remembering that, as a musical ensemble, such heights were scaled with Daydream Nation all those years ago anyway, and that the new album forms part of a compelling body of work which has always sought to challenge entrenched authoritarian attitudes and political and artistic conventions.
Happily, it still serves up the trademark dissonant interplay of guitars, strong, honey-tinged melodies and the always satisfying counterpoint between Kim and Thurston's vocals that have been consistent features of their sound for over two decades. And this is no less pleasing than it always was, with 'Anti-Orgasm', 'Malibu Gas Station' and closing track, 'Massage The History', standing out in particular.
It should also be said that I've written this after only three or four listens, and that so often with Sonic Youth, it's only with repeated plays that the finer textures of the music become clearer. After such a cursory glance, it's safe to say that The Eternal is a good, though perhaps not a great, album from an unquestionably great band.
7.5/10
Review by Ben Murray
"That thin, wild mercury sound," said Bob Dylan of his 1966 classic album Blonde on Blonde, a quote that can equally be applied to Hombre Lobo, the Eels seventh album and first in four years.
Following on from 2005's Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, an epic double CD of emotional introspection by Eels frontman Mark Everett, Hombre Lobo couldn't be more different.
Stripped down to the thin sound of just guitar, bass and drums, its 12 tracks have one main theme - desire, laid out across a range of raw, wild rock and heartbreaking ballads.
Running across the album is the premise that the 'Dog Faced Boy' character on the Eel's Souljacker album has grown up into a wild crazed Hombre Lobo, the Spanish for wolf man.
Sometimes the Hombre Lobo is a crazed stalker, other times he is a lovesick wreck, frail and sad. It is a rare performer that can tackle such a range of emotions, but fortunately Everett can carry it off.
Opening track 'Prizefighter' sets the atmosphere well and is firmly in the wild category, a fuzzed up 12 bar blues conjuring up images of being punch drunkenly in love. Among the best of the other raw and wild tracks are the album's highpoint 'Tremendous Dynamite', a howling piece of sexual energy.
On the ballad side, 'In my dreams', stands out, as does 'The Longing,' and the upbeat 'All The Beautiful Things'.
Hombre Lobo comes as a welcome contrast to the introspective and ambitiously produced Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. It is nevertheless unmistakably Eels, this time offering a refreshing back to basics approach to the wilder emotions in us all.
8/10
May 2009
Veckatimest, the third album from Boston experimentalists Grizzly Bear and its second on Warp Records, could well be the band's commercial breakthrough.
It is a very strong album which throws up a multitude of possible influences and sounds across the twelve songs featured. Opener 'Southern Point' kicks in like Pentangle, jazz folk guitars and percussion. Second song 'Two Weeks' is like XTC circa Apple Venus interpreted by Vampire Weekend and The Dirty Projectors, and is my vote for song of 2009 so far. Song four, 'Fine For Now' is like Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac as sung by Crosby, Stills and Nash.
It would be a mistake to get too hung up on the influences (and we could throw The Flaming Lips, Simian and The Beach Boys into the mix) because it is an album that manages to maintain a clear identity despite the breadth and ambition. The instrumental and vocal arrangements are breathtaking at times and the scope of the albums is impressive.
It isn't a flawless album however, sagging a little at the start of the second half before being lifted by the brilliant 'While You Wait For The Others' and closing out on the sparse and beautiful piano ballad 'Foreground'.
This is an album that achieves on many levels, and is never less than interesting. Grizzly Bear are deserving of our attention on the evidence of Veckatimest and will be in many album of the year polls come December.
http://www.grizzly-bear.net/
8.5/10
Iron and Wine - Around the Well
A rarities album can go either way. Some offer a crackly bunch of demos that only the most fervent of completists love, while others offer real hidden gems. Fortunately for softly spoken indie-folkster Sam Beam, aka Iron and Wine, his first rarities collection Around the Well falls into the latter category.
Since his debut in 2002 with The Creek Drank the Cradle to 2007's The Shepherd's Dog Beam has delivered some of the most accomplished indie-folk albums around.
Around the Well offers a welcome chance to reflect on Beam's career so far and look at his back catalogue of rarities including tracks for films, giveaways with magazines as well as hard to come by cover versions.
With 23 tracks spanning two discs, Around the Well offers a wide range of Beam's styles. The first CD focuses on his earlier home recordings, while the second CD looks at his later work, including tracks written around the Shepherd's Dog sessions. Both have their merits but the second CD is the most immediately accessibly and includes Around the Well's best tracks.
Stand out tracks on the second CD include the twinkly 'Communion Cups and Someone's Coat' and the four tracks recorded for the movie In Good Company: 'Belated Promise Ring,' Around the Well's only live track 'God Made the Automobile,' 'Homeward, These Shoes,' and nine-minute finale 'The Trapeze Singer.'
The second CD's 'Sinning Hands,' and 'No Moon, with their hypnotic slide guitar riffs are also worth a special mention. As is 'Serpent Charmer', which is reminiscent of Shepherd Dog's 'Boy With A Coin.' Beam's acoustic cover of New Order's 'Love Vigilantes' is another second CD track that stands out.
But while the second CD is more immediately accessible the first CD should not be ignored. Its more acoustic home-spun feel contains some real gems, not least of which are Beam's excellent covers of 'Such Great Heights' (see Neon Filler's Top Ten Covers list ) and The Flaming Lips' 'Waitin' For A Superman.'
What is perhaps most pleasing with Around the Well is that it should appeal to both fans and those new to Iron and Wine alike.
8/10
After two albums with Rough Trade, Brakes are back with a new label, Fat Cat, and a set of songs that are as good a case for a breakthrough album as you will hear all year.
Continuing their "blend of punk, folk and country," as their website states, all delivered though the distinctive soft and croaky vocals of Eamon Hamilton, Brakes from Brighton, UK, has delivered another tight package of indie power-pop tracks that is solid throughout.
More reminiscent of US bands such as Built to Spill than the British bands their members are associated with, including British Sea Power, Touchdown opener 'Two Shocks' and 'Don't Take Me To Space Man' show just how much eccentric wordplay is crucial to the Brakes experience. "Don't take me to space, man, sings Hamilton on the latter, adding, " I don't care if the world's masonic, I've got a true love keeping me on it."
Out of the 12 tracks ten are on similar power-pop lines as 'Two Shocks', with only the frenetic 'Red Rag' and the acoustic 'Leaving England' offering something different. This is a positive though rather than a criticism. Consistency is a rare gem in most albums and the ability to be able to sit through 35 minutes of this quality, with the bonus of a couple of different sounding tracks to break up the pace, is something to be applauded.
Will Touchdown actually turn out to be Brakes's breakthrough album? Probably not in the UK at least. Despite their ability to write solid, catchy pop they are still considered niche and eccentric in their own country. This is a massive shame but there is hope, perhaps in the US, where their 2006 track 'All Night Disco Party' featured on TV show Ugly Betty. While they attract critical praise in the UK, it could be across the Atlantic where their Built to Spill - style sound, may garner commercial success as well.
9/10
http://www.brakesbrakesbrakes.com/
April 2009
Emily Haines, Metric's lead singer, is best known to me for her work with Broken Social Scene. Metric themselves are very far from the ramshackle sound of the Canadian collective. Fantasies, the bands 4th album, is a super slick production. You wouldn't be shocked to hear sounds like this on a Lady Ga Ga record, and second song 'Sick Muse' could have been constructed from outtakes from Depeche Mode's Violator album.
Haine's is the albums trump card. She is a very effective front woman and manages to encompass the effete vocal style of fellow scenester Feist as well as the sassy indie rock styling of Kim Deal.
The album itself is a great, if not groundbreaking, pop rock collection. Opener 'Help I'm Alive' is a propulsive mix of keyboards and mid-90s alt-rock guitar. The aforementioned 'Sick Muse' and 'Gimme Sympathy' are both great singles, and may break Metric into the mainstream. And it does seem that the album has been carefully constructed for this breakthrough. That is where one of the problems lies. It isn't an album that is going to appeal to all Broken Social Scene fans, too much slick pop for that, but it may not appeal to the mainstream pop audience either.
7/10
http://www.ilovemetric.com/
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
If there were ever a music award for the best album by a softly -spoken, world-weary singer-songwriter, searching for meaning in a confused world Bon Ivor's For Emma, Forever Ago would have been 2008's clear winner. Not only did the album offer heartfelt songs of melancholy through his beautiful whisper, the album had a good story behind it, having been written in isolation in a log cabin after he split from his band.
As far as 2009's winner is concerned Bill Callahan has already emerged as the deserved runaway favourite with his 13th album Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle.
In many ways Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is one of most accomplished albums to date, definitely better than 2007's Woke On a Whaleheart and possibly his best since Dongs of Sevotion, recorded under the Smog name he has since ditched.
Ok, so Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle was not written in a log cabin, but in terms of sincerity, passion, mood and subtlety it would have given For Emma, Forever Ago a real run for its money had it been released last year. It also has its own story of emotion, in that it is his first since breaking up with US harpist and folk singer Joanna Newsom.
Opening track 'Jim Cain' sets the pace well with lyrics such as "in the death of a shadow, comes a lightness of verse". This combination of sadness and joy in a simple lyric is a major strength of Callahan.
Another strength of Callahan is subtlety, just a note here, a lyric there, kept to a minimum where necessary and then opening up into lush string arrangements that offer a well-worked contrast within the music. Dongs of Sevotion's centrepiece 'Bloodflow' was typical of this and Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle's standout track 'All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast' is similarly impressive.
Other tracks, on an album of great consistency, that are worth mentioning are 'Too Many Birds' and 'The Wind and the Dove', which both conjure up images of nature to full effect. The album ends with the nine minute Faith/Void, based around the hypnotic lyric, "its time to put God away", offering a satisfying conclusion to one of 2009's albums of the year.
9/10
David Byrne - Live in Brighton, UK (14 April 2009)
David Byrne may well be the coolest 56 year old in music, he is also a proper showman. He emerged onto the stage accompanied by his band all dressed in white from head to toe. He displayed a mix of assured stage manner, proving to be a charming and affable figure, alongside his trademark nervous twitchiness.
The set opened with a superb rendition of 'Strange Overtones', the standout track from his latest collaboration with Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. His relationship with the English musician and producer being the theme for the evening, the set showcasing the new album, their previous collaboration My Life In The Bush of Ghosts and a wealth of Eno produced Talking Heads classics.
One slightly odd element of the show was the inclusion of three dancers, who accompanied most of the numbers. I was left unsure as to whether the attention to stagecraft was outweighed by the slight ridiculousness of the dancing. On balance I think it did, and it in no way distracted from the quality of the music on stage. Byrne was in fine voice throughout, possibly a better vocalist than at the peak of Talking Heads, and it is easy to forget what a superb guitarist he is. One of the few disappointments of the gig was the lack of another guitarist to act as a foil for Byrne. The guitar interplay that was the feature of some of the best live moments from Talking Heads career was missing here, despite a fine band performance.
It was the funkier end of the Talking Heads output that really got the crowd going and songs such as 'Once In a Lifetime', 'Crosseyed and Painless' and Al Green's 'Take Me To The River' all recived a rapturous reception. For me it was song that fell outside the Byrne and Eno theme that was the highlight of the evening, 'Burning Down The House'.
As I looked around the packed Dome Concert Hall I wasn't sure how I felt about the ageing audience dancing in the aisles. The music on stage didn't seem to have aged at all, just as vibrant and relevant as when it was recorded nearly 30 years ago.
9/10
From his roots with hardcore outfit Husker Du, through to the power pop of his early 1990s band Sugar and now nine solo albums Bob Mould's influence is spread far and wide across music. On Life and Times, his latest solo album, the full breadth of what Mould is about is laid out.
Opening track 'Life and Times' offers a masterclass in his trademark fast, slow power-pop and 'Argos' looks back at the more raw, hardcore sound of Husker Du. Meanwhile 'Bad Better Blood', shows the more moody, acoustic side to Mould, a track that would not have been out of place on his first solo album, the stripped back Workbook.
Other stand out tracks include 'I'm Sorry, But You Can't Stand In My light Anymore', a break up track of the uplifting variety with a sound reminiscent of Husker Du's classic album Candy Apple Grey. There is one duffer, final track 'Lifetime', but that's not bad out of ten.
Overall Life and Times offers a good a introduction to those uninitiated in the music of Bob Mould, hopefully opening the door to his extensive body of work spanning three decades of indie/alternative music. For fans of Mould, Life and Times is another solid collection of tracks that won't disappoint.
7.5/10
March 2009
Another year, another excellent collection of songs from US singer songwriter Will Oldham, aka Bonnie Prince Billy. Following on from last year's Lie Down in the Light, Beware is just as consistent, offering songs of uplifting joy and melancholy all rolled into one perfect alt-country parcel.
Opening track 'Beware Your Only Friend' sets the pace well, using violin and gospel choir well to create a timeless, classic sound. Next track 'You Can't Hurt Me Now' slide guitars its way into more familiar mainstream country territory and 'You don't Love Me' shows Oldham's whimsical side, with lyrics such as "You say you like my eyes or only the way I giggle, Sometimes you like the smell of me or how my stomach jiggles." Other stand out tracks are the Dillard and Clarke inspired 'Death Final' and 'I Am Goodbye'.
Lie Down in the Light received justified similar critical acclaim and pleased Oldham's adoring fans but it still didn't bring him wider success. Beware, in many ways his most polished work to date, could just be the breakthrough album Oldham deserves.
8/10
http://www.myspace.com/bonnieprincebilly
Condo Fucks is the pseudonym for New York indie rock stalwarts Yo la Tengo. The band invented the trio, including a faked back catalogue, and recorded this album under the pretence that it is a captured rehearsal by the Condo Fucks.
The last few Yo La Tengo albums have concentrated on the more ethereal and cerebral side to their music. The noisy guitar squalls and cover versions have been largely absent. The Condo Fucks identity seems to have been brought into life as a way for them to indulge this side of their persona. All the songs are covers of songs by the likes of The Kinks, Slade and The Small Faces, and are clearly songs that they love. It is a fun throwaway album, but there is no irony at work here.
The results are an enjoyable rag-bag of 60s style garage, delivered through a haze of fuzz. It isn't a mess though, far from it, the skill of the band is evident throughout. The album could easily be by White Denim, and is no more shambolic than their debut release was.
Fuck Book isn't an essential album by any means, and it doesn't contain any original material. But it does have something that won't only appeal to Yo La Tengo fans, it is one of the most enjoyable and energetic albums released so far this year.
7/10
http://www.matadorrecords.com/condo_fucks/
Wavves is the latest name to be added to indie/alternative music journalism's list of next big things. Released on the Fat Possum label, the second album from this buzz laden, no-fi project of Californian twenty-something Nathan Williams is leaving many reviewers giddy with praise. Not only is Williams's sound refreshingly new but it heralds the moment when home made geek music leaps out of the bedroom and hits the big time, some reviewers are suggesting.
Sadly the hype is not to be believed as Wavvves is just pretty average. Even fans of established no-fi acts such as No Age will find little new here.
True it has moments of quality among the breakneck paced, fuzzed up tracks about beach life, drugs and goths. On 'Beach Demon' and 'No Hope Kids' in particular there are some gorgeously messed up Beach Boys harmonies and the embryo of great melody. But on too many of the tracks you have to really strain to hear anything other than Williams's oh-so deliberately cheap wall of sound.
The real problem with the album is that across its tracks the sound is just too similar. The melodies get lost and the quality of songs, even for no-fi fans are just not up to scratch.
As for the mantle of next big thing, this has been done all before from 1976 onwards. Wavves is sadly close to becoming a victim of its own hype and Williams may ride the wave of good reviews for now but unless he offers something genuinely groundbreaking over the next year or so the only way is down.
4/10
Neko Case has enjoyed a pretty varied career with her all-girl punk band Maow, power popsters the New Pornographers and on her own country tinged releases. She is able to do the smoky old style country singing of a Patsy Cline and she also has the girl pop sass of a Debbie Harry. On Middle Cyclone, her 5th solo studio album, she gives us the best of both.
The album starts brilliantly with 'My Tornado Loves You', a more up-beat variation on the sound of her Blacklisted album. 'People Got A Lotta Nerve' may prove to be her breakthrough song, it has been getting a lot of radio play and it features as a download for the game Rock Band. As well as these poppier moments the album features some quieter, more thoughtful, songs. 'Vengeance is Sleeping' shows how good she is at the holding back, accompanied only by acoustic guitar and sparse piano for most of the song.
Case's band is solid throughout, with contributions from members of Calexico, Giant Sand, Los Lobos, The Sadies and The Band's Garth Hudson. But it is Case's voice that is the key instrument on the record and the vocals are beautiful throughout.
The album doesn't put a foot wrong, right through to the twanging guitar and crashing piano of the last song 'Red Tide'. Even the final 31 minutes of insect noise, 'Marais La Nuit', is OK Recalling a more pastoral version of the runout groove at the end of Sgt. Pepper's lonely Hearts Club Band.
She may prove to be too pop for country fans and too country for pop fans, but that is their loss when she is producing albums this good.
9/10
February 2009
As opening tracks go 'Jeff Penalty', on the solo debut from The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay, is a stormer.
This unusual tribute to the former singer with the reformed Dead Kennedys is an instant classic, through both the raw energy of Nicolay's backing band The Dementers and the bittersweet lyrics recounting Jeff's tough time following in the footsteps of Dead Kennedy's legendary original frontman Jello Biafra.
"I'm sorry Jeff what's his name if we didn't take you serious," says Nicolay apologetically, before adding by way of solace,"but the punks all still sang along and we got to the chorus."
The rest of the album is nowhere near as good as this opener, but still offers a solid collection of songs from Nicolay, who in The Hold Steady spends much of the time in the shadows of lead song writer and singer Craig Finn.
Indeed there is much on Major General that would not look out of place on a Hold Steady album. As well as 'Jeff Penalty', these include the slow love song 'World/Inferno Vs the End of the Evening', the raw and sweary 'Confession of An Ineffective Casanova' and 'Quiet Where I Lie', another track that perfectly recreates the Hold Steady's Bruce Springsteen-meets-punk sound.
Another plus is Nicolay's emphasis on guitar rather than keyboards for the most part.
There are faults. Some of the songs don't share the passion of the likes of 'Jeff Penalty'. And fillers such as 'Dead Sailors' and 'Do We Not Live in Dreams', owe far too much to the worlds of lounge and jazz.
Also Nicolay's voice in places only just manages to stay on the right side of Meatloaf, especially on 'Hey Dad!'.
But while Nicolay may look like Bob Hoskins as Super Mario, with his moustache and beret, Major General is no oddity reserved only for Hold Steady completists. This is an accomplished first album that with faults and all will hopefully find a far wider audience.
6.5/10
http://www.franznicolay.com/
The Walkmen kicked off their set at a crowded Concorde 2 in Brighton with 'Donde Esta La Playa' from their current album You & Me. The bulk of the set was drawn from this album, intersepersed with songs from their back catalogue.
You & Me is an excellent album, and stood out from the pack of releases last year, but it isn't an album without flaws. It can be a little one paced, and it has a tendency to meander through tracks that would be improved if they were kept tighter. These factors seemed to be magnified when the songs were played live. When the band did tighten their act, as on 'In The New Year', where Hamilton Leithauser really gave his vocal chords a bashing, it was great to see. The rest of the time things seemed a little subdued on stage and in the audience.
The prominence of their jazzier side seemed to frustrate some parts of the audience. Some members of the crowd spent a lot of energy shouting for 'The Rat' between each song. When this song came, two thirds of the way through, it did prove to be one of the highlights of the evening. A noisier and tighter song, it had energy that was missing elsewhere in the set.
The best song of the night was the first encore 'New Country' where Leithauser was joined on stage by guitarist Paul Maroon. This showed that they were quite capable of subtlety without losing focus.
The audience was left feeling that the band were capable of pulling off a really special performance, but this wasn't it.
7/10
http://www.myspace.com/thewalkmen
Oregon based singer songwriter M.Ward is well-known for his soft, lo-fi voice and timeless music, blending folk, Americana, blues and 50s rock and roll.
Hold Time has all these sides of M. Ward and is at its best when his subtle, lo-fi voice is given a chance to shine but at its worst when over production steers him more into Chris Rea territory than the likes of Giant Sand.
The first half contains the worst tracks, which masks some real gems later on. Second track 'Never Had Nobody Like You' has a misplaced 70s glam rock sound and is littered with lazy, banal lyrics. "Now it's just like ABC, life's just like 123, yeah yeah, yeah yeah, ah oh," is hardly going to win him an Ivor Novello award for songwriting.
His version of Buddy Holly's 'Rave On' manages to suck out all its 50s charm leaving a shell of a poor cover, and title track 'Hold Time' is a forgettable meander.
But it is worth sticking with the album. 'One Hundred Million Years' marks a turning point, allowing his finger picking guitar prowess and lo-fi voice to come to the fore. Then follows a run of good tracks including the excellent 'Shrangri-La' and the album's centrepiece 'Oh Lonesome Me', which reunites M. Ward with the actress Zooey DeSchanel, who on their 2008 She & Him album garnered justified critical acclaim for their take on sunny, 60s pop.
Fans of M.Ward will not be disappointed by Hold Time, in many respects his most accomplished work yet and it is a fine starting point for those new to him. It is a pity though that Hold Time is too much of a mixed bag, with not enough space for his lo-fi brilliance to shine.
6.5/10
http://www.myspace.com/mward
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
One of my favourite singles back in 1987 was a free 7" from defunct music weekly Sounds featuring The Shop Assistants, Icicle Works, Mighty Lemon Drops and The Woodentops. It was classic 1980s indie-pop showcasing four groups at the peak of what little fame they achieved.
More than two decades on the music of such bands has spurred New York four piece The Pains of Being Pure At Heart to faithfully recreate every shoe-gazing moment and treble heavy guitar riff of the era on their self titled debut.
Lack of originality is usually a red mark against a group. But in the case of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart an exception should be made. They evoke the spirit of mid 1980s indie pop so well that you can't help but be bowled over by their effort.
Opening track 'The Contender' is pure Flatmates, 'Young Adult Friction' is Icicle Works and the album's stand out track 'Everything With You' has the memory of Ride etched all over it.
Even Scritti Pollitti and Prefab Sprout get a nod on twee ballad 'A Teenager In Love', and Teenage Fanclub's mark is all over 'This Love Is Fucking Right'.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart clearly love the era and it shows. The 1980s production is painstakingly genuine. This is not merely a 1980s indie rip-off, this is a 1980s indie album in all but the 2009 date. If Sounds was still around, I like to think The Pains of Being Pure At Heart would be on their latest giveaway.
8/10
http://www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart
With his last two albums, The Mysterious Production of Eggs and Armchair Apocrypha, Andrew Bird left behind the jazz sound that had been marked his earlier albums.
Noble Beast moves even further away from that and embraces a lush pastoral sound. The music is breathtaking from the opening song 'Oh No' (featuring Bird's trademark whistling) to the album closer 'On Ho'. Bird adds violin, guitar and vocals and is joined by a host of musicians including members of Lambchop. Bird's lyrics have been criticised because he is arch and impersonal, never showing his true feelings. There is some truth to this, but his wordplay is evocative and poetic and fits perfectly with the mood of his music.
It is an impressive album, but there is something missing. The aforementioned 'Oh No', 'Not a Robot, But a Ghost' and 'Fitz and the Dizzyspells' are all great songs, but there is no 'Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left' or 'Fiery Crash' (from his previous albums) to really grab hold of you. Some of the songs are over long and the whole seems a little unsatisfying. However, it is the kind of album you need to live with and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was in my albums of the year list by the end of 2009.
Limited edition versions of the album come with a 2nd disc of instrumentals featuring percussion from Wilco's Glenn Kotche.
7/10
http://www.andrewbird.net/
There is a certain fear surrounding Carl Newman, the New Pornographers front man and power pop stalwart, that as he gets older the power will fade and he will pop no more. Surely such consistently catchy indie-rock cannot last forever?
The last New Pornographers' album, 2007's Challengers, hinted at more subdued offerings to follow. Thankfully Get Guilty, his second solo album under the name AC Newman, allays such concerns, and delivers another package of tight, punchy songs.
Among the best are opening track 'There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve', 'Like a Hitman, like a Dancer' and the slower 'Prophets'. Surprisingly the album's first single 'The Palace at 4am' is one of the most pedestrian tracks on the album, still good, but far less memorable.
7.5/10
January 2009
Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern - Pram Town
Since breaking up Hefner after 2001's Dead Media album frontman Darren Hayman has been ploughing an increasingly lonely furrow of bedsit indie music. His latest incarnation, backed by The Secondary Modern, follows up their debut with this folk opera (Hayman's own description) about Harlow in Essex, the titular Pram Town.
First off, the instrumentation is just lovely. The mixture of acoustic instruments (banjo, ukele, dulcimer, recorder and more all feature) and bedroom electronics prove to be the perfect backing to Hayman's affectionate tales of the kind of world that he himself escaped.
The songs are thoughtful vignettes about growing up in the reality of the post war British new town dream. It is bittersweet stuff and Hayman clearly has a love-hate relationship with these places (he grew up in nearby Brentwood).
It is the most consistently enjoyable album that Hayman has produced since Hefner's demise. The songs 'Pram Town' and 'No Middle Name' are superb and 'Losing My Glue' and 'Fire Stairs' are probably the album's standout tracks.
Released to little fanfare by The Track and Field Organisation this album is unlikely to attract many new listeners. And that is a crying shame when the album is something of a career high from an underated talent.
9/10
http://www.hefnet.com/pramtown.htm
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion, the 6th album from New York's Animal Collective, has been named the first great album of 2009 by several critics. Releasing the album in the muscially lean 1st weeks of January was a smart idea, allowing the album to stand up on its own.
Time will tell whether the claims of greatness are overstated, but it is an exciting and accomplished album that evokes the Beach Boys and The Flaming Lips in equal measure. The songs are warm and poppy built atop swirling loops and beats. 'My Girls' and 'Summertime Clothes' are alternate reality chart hits, out of step with their winter setting.
It is their most fully formed album to date. Too weird in parts to crack the maimnstream, but offering some real delights to anyone willing to give it a listen. It lacks some of the jarring excitement of their previous release Strawberry Jam, taking many of its cues from the Panda Bear solo album, but it is a more cohesive listen than either of those.
The album does start to tail off two thirds in, not because the latter songs aren't good, but because the album has a similar pace and feel throughout. It is a good album, very good, just not great and I'd be dissapointed if it turned out to be the best we are going to hear in 2009.
8/10
Reinvention is something that apparently comes easy to New Zealand quartet Cut Off Your Hands. Started as a hardcore punk band in their hometown of Auckland they have since relaunched as a slick, indie-pop outfit more reminiscent of the Smiths than Minor Threat. For their debut album You & I, they have even enlisted ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler as producer, whose influence is evident, particularly with the Marr-esque guitar sound of 'Turn Cold'.
The problem with this reinvention though is that this brand of indie-pop has been done before. Not just originally by Marr and Butler, but more recently by the likes of Voxtrot, Futureheads and The Maccabees. The sounds of all three is strewn across You & I. There are moments where Cut Off Your Hands's individuality shines through, such as on 'In the Name of Jesus Christ'. This track, which centres on Church hypocrisy, sounds more genuine than the rest of the album, conjuring up images of church life in small town New Zealand. But such glimpses of an original sound are rare.
At the moment Cut Off Your Hands are still to find their real voice, and while You & I is full of promise it is not offering anything spectacular or new. 'In the Name of Jesus Christ' has the embryo of originality and let's hope for their next reinvention they leave the retro copycatting to the likes of the Futureheads and focus on their own sound.
6/10
http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands