Having formed in 2005, The xx didn't take long to emerge on the British music scene and not just as 'another' band, but with something to offer. Hailing from West London and the entire band consisting of twenty years of age. Originally a four piece but keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the band in November due to exhaustion. Their debut album hones in on dreamy guitar lines that rush of in a twirling pace and thick bass lines that dominates the music which is dark and subtle.
The xx's debut starts out with a mellow and chilly guitar intro, and then transcends into 'VCR' which suggests themes like romance and friendship. 'VCR' is supplied with a recurrent guitar line that progresses itself through-out the entire track, it's hollow and touching, touching in a way because the lyrics fits itself around the guitar line introduced by Oliver Sim who also contributes lead vocals along with Romy Madley Croft. Vocally, 'VCR' sounds like David Bowie's 'Heroes', but again it's the guitar line and the beats produced by Oliver Sim that sums up the song to it's beauty. The xx have drawn many influences, mainly from dark electronica from the 1980's which is moody and murky in sound and chilling vocally. 'Crystalised' starts out with another twirling guitar line that winds up and down in tempo before the vocals kick in from Croft and Sim which are eerie and cold, plus the screeching keyboards in the background emphasize this effect in cool and melodramatic fashion.
Through The xx's entire debut album, they display very emotive sounds and emotional vocals. In 'Islands' which has a bongo drum beat to it and twitchy guitar notes flicking around now and then which stick to their original and eerie sound. 'Islands' also highlights their heartfelt lyrics, like 'Where would I be, if this were to go under, it's a risk I'd take, as if a choice I'd make' which demonstrates their feelings of isolation and love, the love they lost they'd be more than prepared to take that 'risk' to bring it all back. Moving on to the fourth track 'Heart Skipped A Beat' continues the strong start to the album they have made, sticking to their twirling guitar lines, this one sticks out more with a cleaner sound that's almost crisp. The track further demonstrates the use of a sampler which fills in the rhythm of the song along with the keyboards and the introduction of hand-clapping which goes along with the chorus beautifully.
After the emotional start to The xx's debut, it gets darker when we enter 'Fantasy' which sounds like an ambient fantasy, something Brian Eno would nod to in appreciation, but what makes 'Fantasy' brilliant is Qureshi's keyboards and the odd fill in from Sim's guitar which sounds like a wolf cry in the cold winter. After 'Fantasy' which amazingly flows straight into 'Shelter' which is another tale of loneliness and isolation but finding 'Shelter' from the world around them.
The xx do take their feet of the pedal in terms of the beautiful ambience they created in the first half of the album. The second half lacks the onslaught of emotion and drive in the first half, but isn't entirely wasteful. In 'Stars' the closing track to the album, evokes the same emotion demonstrated in 'VCR'. It's hollow once more and almost romantic and the bass line intro is bouncy and vibrant. Unlike 'VCR', 'Stars' is slower and vocally it's more like 'Islands' but sticking to true xx fashion, it's nostalgic and dreamy.
For one of the most hyped artists of the year, along with Florence + The Machine and The Big Pink, The xx show more originality compared to the former artists. They display a darker tone to their music, more vibrant and equally enjoyable to listen to. The xx have a bright future ahead of them and deserve every success with their moody lyrics and cold sound.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Thursday 10 December 2009
Sunday 29 November 2009
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Only one year on from 'The Bedlam in Goliath' and The Mars Volta have not wasted any time in following it up, 'Octahedron' is their fifth effort and they have labelled this as their 'acoustic' album and 'acoustic' Prog-Rock can be an utter disaster if it's not done right, but The Mars Volta do, and not only do they DO, they send 'Octahedron' up into the ranks of 'De-Loused In The Commatorium' and 'Frances The Mute'.
'Since We've Been Wrong' opens up 'Octahedron' in a splendid, mellow and fashionable way. Cedric Bixler-Zavala's vocals are simply stunning in this track, especially with romantic but sinister lyrics like 'Do you remember how you wore that dress? It slit my sight beneath the eyelids'. Omar Rodríguez-López picks and plucks his experimental and jazzy guitar lines as he pleases, and when the song hits the five minute mark, it picks up in pace with Thomas Pridgen's drumming that gives the tempo a kick and the Zavala and López combination kicks in, when Zavala's vocals become more heard and López's Latin fused guitar go to work. 'Teflon' is next up, which fastens proceedings up in typical Mars Volta fashion, Prigden's drumming starts things up with a steady but quick drumbeat and along comes López's sliding guitar as he reminiscences the sound of your teachers nails grinding down that old blackboard at school. Zavala's vocals don't disappoint either, he groans away at the main chorus 'Let the wheels burn, let the wheels burn, stack the tires to the neck with the body inside' with an eerie chilly angst that is sustained through-out the entire track.
The Mars Volta have always shown they are a tight unit, with all the members that have passed through their ranks, Zavala and López's chemistry is un-questionable. Zavala being the bands lyricist, he's known for his metaphorical and biblical style of writing, vocally he can hit anything either, just listen to 'Inertiatic ESP'. López however, is quite the improviser and free-stylist when it comes to his guitar playing but he also knows how to rock... hard! and in 'Cotopaxi' a particular Led Zeppelin sounding track, he blasts out a heavy riff that sounds almost like 'Whole Lotta Love' and is carried out through the entire song, again Prigden's drumming sounds like a wild bear set on the loose in China shop and what sums the track up so well, is Zavala's vocals which hit the high notes in every department and is definitely up there with the great male vocalists in rock like Freddy Mercury, Robert Plant and Axl Rose when it comes to vocal range. 'Desperate Graves' continues the heaviness brought forward by 'Cotopaxi'. It's hard hitting and vocally, Zavala is reaching all the peaks and López's guitar is pulsating with heavy eagerness which is let loose in typical López fashion.
Reaching the end of 'Octahedron' we are brought down to earth in 'Copernicus' which continues the theme of their mellow and 'acoustic' album, considering the songs starts out with an electric guitar, it's slow tempo is almost romantic-like, and the song is easy to fall in love with, Zavala's vocals are clean and half way through the song, a surprise is brought in, with the use of a synthesizer which gives the song a slight Industrial feel and then as it stops it returns to it's peaceful and drawn out affair. The final song of 'Octahedron' and being the longest, going over the eight minute mark, 'Luciforms', which is where López allowed himself some room to manoeuvre himself into doing what he does best, solos. With eight minutes to fill in he brings them out and just at the five minutes and thirty second mark, he produces a stunningly distorted one that the bass and drums just gel together with it so well, they're stuck like glue and as it slows down shortly, López suddenly just starts where he left of on and continues his three minute + solo in typical Omar Rodriguez-López fashion.
Following up on their immediate success from 'The Bedlam In Goliath', The Mars Volta seem to go from strength-to-strength. 'Octahedron', being slower and more melodic then their previous work, is more polished, more accessible than 'The Bedlam In Goliath' and simply has better songs. But still, The Mars Volta continue to rock, even if they have gone a little soft on this album, rockers like 'Cotopaxi' and 'Desperate Graves' are sure to rock the rockers of The Mars Volta fan base.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
'Since We've Been Wrong' opens up 'Octahedron' in a splendid, mellow and fashionable way. Cedric Bixler-Zavala's vocals are simply stunning in this track, especially with romantic but sinister lyrics like 'Do you remember how you wore that dress? It slit my sight beneath the eyelids'. Omar Rodríguez-López picks and plucks his experimental and jazzy guitar lines as he pleases, and when the song hits the five minute mark, it picks up in pace with Thomas Pridgen's drumming that gives the tempo a kick and the Zavala and López combination kicks in, when Zavala's vocals become more heard and López's Latin fused guitar go to work. 'Teflon' is next up, which fastens proceedings up in typical Mars Volta fashion, Prigden's drumming starts things up with a steady but quick drumbeat and along comes López's sliding guitar as he reminiscences the sound of your teachers nails grinding down that old blackboard at school. Zavala's vocals don't disappoint either, he groans away at the main chorus 'Let the wheels burn, let the wheels burn, stack the tires to the neck with the body inside' with an eerie chilly angst that is sustained through-out the entire track.
The Mars Volta have always shown they are a tight unit, with all the members that have passed through their ranks, Zavala and López's chemistry is un-questionable. Zavala being the bands lyricist, he's known for his metaphorical and biblical style of writing, vocally he can hit anything either, just listen to 'Inertiatic ESP'. López however, is quite the improviser and free-stylist when it comes to his guitar playing but he also knows how to rock... hard! and in 'Cotopaxi' a particular Led Zeppelin sounding track, he blasts out a heavy riff that sounds almost like 'Whole Lotta Love' and is carried out through the entire song, again Prigden's drumming sounds like a wild bear set on the loose in China shop and what sums the track up so well, is Zavala's vocals which hit the high notes in every department and is definitely up there with the great male vocalists in rock like Freddy Mercury, Robert Plant and Axl Rose when it comes to vocal range. 'Desperate Graves' continues the heaviness brought forward by 'Cotopaxi'. It's hard hitting and vocally, Zavala is reaching all the peaks and López's guitar is pulsating with heavy eagerness which is let loose in typical López fashion.
Reaching the end of 'Octahedron' we are brought down to earth in 'Copernicus' which continues the theme of their mellow and 'acoustic' album, considering the songs starts out with an electric guitar, it's slow tempo is almost romantic-like, and the song is easy to fall in love with, Zavala's vocals are clean and half way through the song, a surprise is brought in, with the use of a synthesizer which gives the song a slight Industrial feel and then as it stops it returns to it's peaceful and drawn out affair. The final song of 'Octahedron' and being the longest, going over the eight minute mark, 'Luciforms', which is where López allowed himself some room to manoeuvre himself into doing what he does best, solos. With eight minutes to fill in he brings them out and just at the five minutes and thirty second mark, he produces a stunningly distorted one that the bass and drums just gel together with it so well, they're stuck like glue and as it slows down shortly, López suddenly just starts where he left of on and continues his three minute + solo in typical Omar Rodriguez-López fashion.
Following up on their immediate success from 'The Bedlam In Goliath', The Mars Volta seem to go from strength-to-strength. 'Octahedron', being slower and more melodic then their previous work, is more polished, more accessible than 'The Bedlam In Goliath' and simply has better songs. But still, The Mars Volta continue to rock, even if they have gone a little soft on this album, rockers like 'Cotopaxi' and 'Desperate Graves' are sure to rock the rockers of The Mars Volta fan base.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Friday 20 November 2009
The Cribs - Ignore The Ignorant
What makes this Cribs album more exciting, is that a British guitar legend has joined them for their fourth effort. No it's not Pete Townsend or Eric Clapton... but Johnny Marr from The Smiths. What Johnny Marr adds to The Cribs is that extra layer of guitar that the former trio were missing and he also adds that extra edge to The Cribs to, almost making them sound Smiths-like, but don't worry you hardcore Cribs fans, the brothers ain't trying to be Morrissey or anything and a follow up to 2007's 'Men's Needs, Woman's Needs, Whatever' was always going to be a challenge, because for The Cribs, that album was an adventurous one... although 'Ignore The Ignorant' goes back to the style of 'The New Fellas' with a more Pop-Rock direction and of course with the Marr.
The first song of 'Ignore The Ignorant' being 'We Were Aborted' and it's got a catchy guitar riff to it, notable in the intro and plus trademark Cribs chants as they scream 'To Make You Feel Important, Cause You Knew We Were Aborted'. Next up is 'Cheat On Me' and one could say that Johnny Marr's influence is more prominent on this song, with that clean poppy guitar sound that he made his corn through-out the years with The Smiths, one would suggest he's not lost his touch in terms of what he does best. However, the brothers do their part to, Ryan's vocals are crisp and husky and Ross's drumming is elegant and works itself around the song perfectly. 'Ignore The Ignorant' doesn't stop there with it's fast pace start, The Cribs dabble in pop rock expertly, and this is demonstrated in 'We Share The Same Skies'. Johnny Marr also adds his wisdom to it, because with the Smiths, his smooth layers of pop hooks was a key element with them and it certainly has rubbed of on The Cribs. What is brilliant about 'We Share The Same Skies' is that it highlights that The Cribs are not afraid to show their pop side, it's catchy in every direction it goes in, heavy enough for even the more 'mental' Cribs fans and most of all, The Cribs stick to their roots with their chant-like tunes.
The most adventurous song on The Cribs fourth album, would be 'City Of Bugs' an epic six minute pop rock anthem, with a slight twist however, it's dark and quite dreamy in parts, lyrically the song is quite a breeze with self loathing lyrics like 'I'm messed up baby like the Berlin Wall' and catchy rhymes like 'I was born out of glass I'll return there at last in a shattering climax'.
'Ignore The Ignorant' started of in a fast paced typical Cribs style, although, unlike the first half of the album, the second half just simply replicates itself and drags things out. Although, in 'Victim of Mass Production', being one of the better songs of the second half, has it's usual Cribs catchy chorus and even has a beauty of a guitar solo, which should make their fans dance in complete madness at their concerts.
Britain's music scene... or lack of, maybe, is probably one of the biggest problems in it's industry and having The Cribs as one of Britain's biggest 'cult' bands is maybe a bit of a problem to, because really... it could be better than that. But on 'Ignore The Ignorant' The Cribs have proved for the second time, after 'Men's Needs...' that they're one of the few modern 'Indie' bands that are not cashing in on the scene and having their ideas and sense of direction, even Johnny Marr joining them speaks volume.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
The first song of 'Ignore The Ignorant' being 'We Were Aborted' and it's got a catchy guitar riff to it, notable in the intro and plus trademark Cribs chants as they scream 'To Make You Feel Important, Cause You Knew We Were Aborted'. Next up is 'Cheat On Me' and one could say that Johnny Marr's influence is more prominent on this song, with that clean poppy guitar sound that he made his corn through-out the years with The Smiths, one would suggest he's not lost his touch in terms of what he does best. However, the brothers do their part to, Ryan's vocals are crisp and husky and Ross's drumming is elegant and works itself around the song perfectly. 'Ignore The Ignorant' doesn't stop there with it's fast pace start, The Cribs dabble in pop rock expertly, and this is demonstrated in 'We Share The Same Skies'. Johnny Marr also adds his wisdom to it, because with the Smiths, his smooth layers of pop hooks was a key element with them and it certainly has rubbed of on The Cribs. What is brilliant about 'We Share The Same Skies' is that it highlights that The Cribs are not afraid to show their pop side, it's catchy in every direction it goes in, heavy enough for even the more 'mental' Cribs fans and most of all, The Cribs stick to their roots with their chant-like tunes.
The most adventurous song on The Cribs fourth album, would be 'City Of Bugs' an epic six minute pop rock anthem, with a slight twist however, it's dark and quite dreamy in parts, lyrically the song is quite a breeze with self loathing lyrics like 'I'm messed up baby like the Berlin Wall' and catchy rhymes like 'I was born out of glass I'll return there at last in a shattering climax'.
'Ignore The Ignorant' started of in a fast paced typical Cribs style, although, unlike the first half of the album, the second half just simply replicates itself and drags things out. Although, in 'Victim of Mass Production', being one of the better songs of the second half, has it's usual Cribs catchy chorus and even has a beauty of a guitar solo, which should make their fans dance in complete madness at their concerts.
Britain's music scene... or lack of, maybe, is probably one of the biggest problems in it's industry and having The Cribs as one of Britain's biggest 'cult' bands is maybe a bit of a problem to, because really... it could be better than that. But on 'Ignore The Ignorant' The Cribs have proved for the second time, after 'Men's Needs...' that they're one of the few modern 'Indie' bands that are not cashing in on the scene and having their ideas and sense of direction, even Johnny Marr joining them speaks volume.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young
During a long Strokes lay-of, Julian Casablancas has barely been heard about in comparison to Albert Hammond Jr, who has released two solo albums during The Strokes down time. Still Julian can be heard on Queens of the Stone Age's 'Sick, Sick, Sick' and The Lonely Islands' 'Boombox'. Although Casablancas, has gave us something different in 'Phrazes For The Young' from the garage rock revivalists style in The Strokes.
Julian Casablancas has always shown he's a bit eccentric, rehab at 14 would clearly prove that. But 'Phrazes For The Young' is not Indie Rock, it's not Garage Rock and it's certainly not Rock N' Roll either... it's electronic simply, with the added pop vibe. 'Out Of The Blue' is the opener and is full of quirky lyrics and in usual Casablancas style he groans out lyrics like 'Least I'll be in another world, while you're pissing on my casket' and this suggests that Casablancas is still sarcastic and dull as ever, which is what we like to see.
Going back to the electronic pop vibe, songs that follow 'Out Of The Blue', being 'Left & Right In The Dark' and '11th Dimension' demonstrate exactly that. In 'Left & Right In The Dark' the simple poppy synthesizer beats at the start of the song will make it's listeners think 'Hell... this is not what I expected' but it's Julian Casablancas, no one knows what to expect... literally. '11th Dimension' soon follows and it's warm and welcoming embrace soon charms it's listeners into loving the catchy synth's and the eye fluttering guitar riff that passes now and then through-out the song. Lyrically, Casablancas shows up again with lines like 'Where cities come together to hate each other in the name of sport'. Coming to the middle section of this short album, which totals a number of eight songs coming in at 38 minutes long, '4 Chords Of The Apocalypse' a nice slow melody based on a tapping drum beat and electronic organ which oozes a bluesy lonely feeling as it's song title suggests quite plainly.
Criticism for 'Phrazes For The Young' would come in 'River Of Breaklights' and 'Glass' which are just a little boring to be harsh, and a little dragged out, but they don't stray much from the other songs in terms of the album as a whole in sound. The secret highlight of the album would be in 'Ludlow St.' which sounds like a psychedelic waltz of The Doors album 'Waiting For The Sun', being precise, it takes a bow to 'Love Street' with it's romantic lost feelings and twirling music.
A pleasant surprise Casablancas has given us, 'Phrazes For The Young' is full of startling gems and will not be taken to seriously and will not effect the potential Strokes recording in 2010, but would we really mind if he just decided to make another solo record? Probably not.
3½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
Julian Casablancas has always shown he's a bit eccentric, rehab at 14 would clearly prove that. But 'Phrazes For The Young' is not Indie Rock, it's not Garage Rock and it's certainly not Rock N' Roll either... it's electronic simply, with the added pop vibe. 'Out Of The Blue' is the opener and is full of quirky lyrics and in usual Casablancas style he groans out lyrics like 'Least I'll be in another world, while you're pissing on my casket' and this suggests that Casablancas is still sarcastic and dull as ever, which is what we like to see.
Going back to the electronic pop vibe, songs that follow 'Out Of The Blue', being 'Left & Right In The Dark' and '11th Dimension' demonstrate exactly that. In 'Left & Right In The Dark' the simple poppy synthesizer beats at the start of the song will make it's listeners think 'Hell... this is not what I expected' but it's Julian Casablancas, no one knows what to expect... literally. '11th Dimension' soon follows and it's warm and welcoming embrace soon charms it's listeners into loving the catchy synth's and the eye fluttering guitar riff that passes now and then through-out the song. Lyrically, Casablancas shows up again with lines like 'Where cities come together to hate each other in the name of sport'. Coming to the middle section of this short album, which totals a number of eight songs coming in at 38 minutes long, '4 Chords Of The Apocalypse' a nice slow melody based on a tapping drum beat and electronic organ which oozes a bluesy lonely feeling as it's song title suggests quite plainly.
Criticism for 'Phrazes For The Young' would come in 'River Of Breaklights' and 'Glass' which are just a little boring to be harsh, and a little dragged out, but they don't stray much from the other songs in terms of the album as a whole in sound. The secret highlight of the album would be in 'Ludlow St.' which sounds like a psychedelic waltz of The Doors album 'Waiting For The Sun', being precise, it takes a bow to 'Love Street' with it's romantic lost feelings and twirling music.
A pleasant surprise Casablancas has given us, 'Phrazes For The Young' is full of startling gems and will not be taken to seriously and will not effect the potential Strokes recording in 2010, but would we really mind if he just decided to make another solo record? Probably not.
3½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
Sunday 1 November 2009
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Grunge was nearly twenty years ago wasn't it? Not that we're getting a revival here... thank god, but 'Swoon' has probably brought it's older listeners a lot of nostalgia back from that glorious time of alternative rock. Dangerous as it is for Silversun Pickups, for a band that sounds so heavily like the Smashing Pumpkins they can easily be accused as a Smashing Pumpkins rip of act. So basically their follow up to 'Carnavas', which was received warmly, sets up 'Swoon' for some interesting listening.
'There's No Secrets This Year' opens 'Swoon' up to us and in emphatic fashion to, we already get the 90's buzz instantly and when Brian Aubert comes in we instantly remember Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins again and to be precise 'There's No Secrets This Year' sounds something of 'Gish' or even 'Siamese Dream'. Although, the song holds it's own, with the heavy distorted guitars bouncing of each other and Christopher Guanlao's drumming being the secondary drive of the song. Continuing with 'There's No Secrets This Year', it demonstrates that Silversun Pickups aren't a band of their time, a band that could have so easily fitted in, in the 1990's, more so than now, where 'alternative rock' now, comes in the form of My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco, and all having the ability to appeal to a screaming bunch of ignorant young teenagers and not much else.
'The Royal We' is a song which builds in tempo and speed until the very last chord has rung out, Aubert's vocals is the joy in to behold in this track as they keep you in suspense until he gives his all out in the verse leading up to the chorus. Once again, the guitar playing is the highlight, very-Pumpkins-esque once more, which it cannot escape, further more, the song will leave it's listeners exhausted with joy, as 'The Royal We' is epic in it's own hazy self, with it's blending dreamy rock influences mixed in with the odd splash of classical takes.
As the albums goes, midway we are ushered into 'It's Nice To Know You Work Alone', which is one of the few songs of the album that doesn't sound like the Smashing Pumpkins, as Nikki Monninger displays good stuttering bass lines broken up through-out the entire song and Aubert's grinding guitar adds the heavy rock theme to the track.
The final song in 'Swoon' is quite a surprise, 'Surrounded (Or Spiraling), which bows it's head to My Bloody Valentine vocally and with the fuzzy dreaming sparkling guitar lines during the slow parts of the song. As the song builds up, we get back to the Pickups, where they create their main riff through the chorus which intensifies the song as a whole and closes the album in fine fashion.
Silversun Pickups, again, not a band of their time, and 'Swoon' is definitely not an album of it's time either. Although, it's nice to hear the 90's alternative rock scene now and then revisited, it's not something Silversun Pickups should make a habbit of. The album on the whole is solid, created around heavily distorted riffs, powerful drumming and exquisite bass lines. Songs like 'Growing Old Is Getting Old', despite it's true irony, is way to dragged out and should be cut down in length, but the main problem for it's more aged listeners, is that it has Smashing Pumpkins all over the album, but if you can get your head round that, then there's no reason why people shouldn't enjoy this 90's nostalgic force.
3½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
'There's No Secrets This Year' opens 'Swoon' up to us and in emphatic fashion to, we already get the 90's buzz instantly and when Brian Aubert comes in we instantly remember Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins again and to be precise 'There's No Secrets This Year' sounds something of 'Gish' or even 'Siamese Dream'. Although, the song holds it's own, with the heavy distorted guitars bouncing of each other and Christopher Guanlao's drumming being the secondary drive of the song. Continuing with 'There's No Secrets This Year', it demonstrates that Silversun Pickups aren't a band of their time, a band that could have so easily fitted in, in the 1990's, more so than now, where 'alternative rock' now, comes in the form of My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco, and all having the ability to appeal to a screaming bunch of ignorant young teenagers and not much else.
'The Royal We' is a song which builds in tempo and speed until the very last chord has rung out, Aubert's vocals is the joy in to behold in this track as they keep you in suspense until he gives his all out in the verse leading up to the chorus. Once again, the guitar playing is the highlight, very-Pumpkins-esque once more, which it cannot escape, further more, the song will leave it's listeners exhausted with joy, as 'The Royal We' is epic in it's own hazy self, with it's blending dreamy rock influences mixed in with the odd splash of classical takes.
As the albums goes, midway we are ushered into 'It's Nice To Know You Work Alone', which is one of the few songs of the album that doesn't sound like the Smashing Pumpkins, as Nikki Monninger displays good stuttering bass lines broken up through-out the entire song and Aubert's grinding guitar adds the heavy rock theme to the track.
The final song in 'Swoon' is quite a surprise, 'Surrounded (Or Spiraling), which bows it's head to My Bloody Valentine vocally and with the fuzzy dreaming sparkling guitar lines during the slow parts of the song. As the song builds up, we get back to the Pickups, where they create their main riff through the chorus which intensifies the song as a whole and closes the album in fine fashion.
Silversun Pickups, again, not a band of their time, and 'Swoon' is definitely not an album of it's time either. Although, it's nice to hear the 90's alternative rock scene now and then revisited, it's not something Silversun Pickups should make a habbit of. The album on the whole is solid, created around heavily distorted riffs, powerful drumming and exquisite bass lines. Songs like 'Growing Old Is Getting Old', despite it's true irony, is way to dragged out and should be cut down in length, but the main problem for it's more aged listeners, is that it has Smashing Pumpkins all over the album, but if you can get your head round that, then there's no reason why people shouldn't enjoy this 90's nostalgic force.
3½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
Saturday 17 October 2009
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
With our music industry in total disarray in modern times, good music is hard to come by and thank god Bat For Lashes (Solo artist Natasha Khan) has come back. 'Two Suns' is the follow up to her debut 'Fur And Gold' in 2007 and for the second time, Natasha Khan doesn't disappoint.
Natasha Khan has clearly delved into her inspirations well in this album, and demonstrates this in the opener 'Glass', where Khan has looked to native influences mainly from America. The drumming, is the main notation in this song, it's simple, but clearly effective as Khan, going back to those native American influences, brings out some lovely bellowing drum thumps that give it's listeners a feeling of being in native tribes in the empty deserts of America. Khan's vocals also doesn't falter either, still hitting the high notes, she also maturely knows how to keep the rhythm of her vocals in tune with the music, something she is a master at.
Natasha Khan also sent demonstrates why she's so good and this is pretty much all evaluated on 'Daniel'. Which includes everything, catchy chorus, amazing and haunting vocals and another thing that Bat For Lashes is a master at, fantastic lyrics. 'Daniel' paces itself out slowly to start with, a simple clashing drumbeat and then what sounds like a keyboard flash, in comes the bass line which pretty much sets the entire song apart from everything else on the album. After the chorus the song breaks up into a synthesizer jaunt, then Natasha re-introduces herself into the song again with lyrics like 'But in a goodbye bed, with my arms around your neck, into our love the tears crept, just catch in the eye of the storm' which are beautifully crafted lyrics and just another signal of Khan's genius.
We should know by now, that Natasha Khan doesn't hold back, if she wants to let herself loose she will and even if she lets herself sound like her influencers. 'Peace of Mind' highlights a particular similarity in vocal style to Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick. Remember 'Somebody To Love'?, well Khan's vocals are pretty much on the same tone as Slick's. Although, what sets the two songs apart is that Khan has created more of a native American Indian (again) feel to 'Peace of Mind' compared to the psychedelic hippie anthem 'Somebody to Love'. We're soon put into the piano ballad 'Siren Song', this is a typical Bat For Lashes song, it almost sounds like it could have been on 'Fur And Gold'. Still, Khan provides a change in the form of a ringing piano build up and a build up of intense singing, as Khan provides yet another epic masterpiece.
The second half of 'Two Suns' you could accuse of falling away, but this is definitely an album worth sticking around for, even for 'Pearl's Dream', which is beautiful track possibly influenced by MGMT with a slight electronic drumbeat in the vein of the New York duo. If there is one song Khan has put a lot of effort into, it would be 'Two Planets'. Dominated by hand-clapping throughout, it also again has that native American Indian drumming to it, but the song isn't structured entirely through those components, 'Two Planets' is focused on Khan's eerie vocals and charming lyrics. If there is any criticism to be made, it would be in the closer, 'The Big Sleep', it would be a delightful song without Scott Walker's vocals, they just contrast badly and makes it almost cringe-worthy to listen to and almost wastes Khan's efforts on the musical side of the song.
What can you say about 'Two Suns'? It's a masterpiece in it's own right, built around a lot of historical influences, it definitely shows that Khan's trip to New York has had a significant impact on her music and all for the best, it almost seems any direction Khan would take, it wouldn't be a wrong one, but I guess you can accuse Bat For Lashes for being quite melodramatic or even a bit of the same ol', same ol' sort of thing. One thing however, you cannot label Bat For Lashes as, and that's talent-less. Natasha Khan is probably Britain's most talented female vocalist around at the moment, and after 'Two Suns' she ain't going to give that up with out a fight.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Natasha Khan has clearly delved into her inspirations well in this album, and demonstrates this in the opener 'Glass', where Khan has looked to native influences mainly from America. The drumming, is the main notation in this song, it's simple, but clearly effective as Khan, going back to those native American influences, brings out some lovely bellowing drum thumps that give it's listeners a feeling of being in native tribes in the empty deserts of America. Khan's vocals also doesn't falter either, still hitting the high notes, she also maturely knows how to keep the rhythm of her vocals in tune with the music, something she is a master at.
Natasha Khan also sent demonstrates why she's so good and this is pretty much all evaluated on 'Daniel'. Which includes everything, catchy chorus, amazing and haunting vocals and another thing that Bat For Lashes is a master at, fantastic lyrics. 'Daniel' paces itself out slowly to start with, a simple clashing drumbeat and then what sounds like a keyboard flash, in comes the bass line which pretty much sets the entire song apart from everything else on the album. After the chorus the song breaks up into a synthesizer jaunt, then Natasha re-introduces herself into the song again with lyrics like 'But in a goodbye bed, with my arms around your neck, into our love the tears crept, just catch in the eye of the storm' which are beautifully crafted lyrics and just another signal of Khan's genius.
We should know by now, that Natasha Khan doesn't hold back, if she wants to let herself loose she will and even if she lets herself sound like her influencers. 'Peace of Mind' highlights a particular similarity in vocal style to Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick. Remember 'Somebody To Love'?, well Khan's vocals are pretty much on the same tone as Slick's. Although, what sets the two songs apart is that Khan has created more of a native American Indian (again) feel to 'Peace of Mind' compared to the psychedelic hippie anthem 'Somebody to Love'. We're soon put into the piano ballad 'Siren Song', this is a typical Bat For Lashes song, it almost sounds like it could have been on 'Fur And Gold'. Still, Khan provides a change in the form of a ringing piano build up and a build up of intense singing, as Khan provides yet another epic masterpiece.
The second half of 'Two Suns' you could accuse of falling away, but this is definitely an album worth sticking around for, even for 'Pearl's Dream', which is beautiful track possibly influenced by MGMT with a slight electronic drumbeat in the vein of the New York duo. If there is one song Khan has put a lot of effort into, it would be 'Two Planets'. Dominated by hand-clapping throughout, it also again has that native American Indian drumming to it, but the song isn't structured entirely through those components, 'Two Planets' is focused on Khan's eerie vocals and charming lyrics. If there is any criticism to be made, it would be in the closer, 'The Big Sleep', it would be a delightful song without Scott Walker's vocals, they just contrast badly and makes it almost cringe-worthy to listen to and almost wastes Khan's efforts on the musical side of the song.
What can you say about 'Two Suns'? It's a masterpiece in it's own right, built around a lot of historical influences, it definitely shows that Khan's trip to New York has had a significant impact on her music and all for the best, it almost seems any direction Khan would take, it wouldn't be a wrong one, but I guess you can accuse Bat For Lashes for being quite melodramatic or even a bit of the same ol', same ol' sort of thing. One thing however, you cannot label Bat For Lashes as, and that's talent-less. Natasha Khan is probably Britain's most talented female vocalist around at the moment, and after 'Two Suns' she ain't going to give that up with out a fight.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Monday 12 October 2009
St. Vincent - Actor
St. Vincent's (Annie Clark) second album comes in at quite a change in style and, if you dare, enjoyment in comparison to 2007's 'Marry Me'. 'Actor' is a unique blend between electronic pop and indie folk even as distant as styles from 1940's war time music in the form of love and romance. But St. Vincent however vamps he later up into dreamy and formulated synth pop, which will make it's listeners wonder where she draws her inspiration from.
'The Strangers', the first song of 'Actor' and starts out with that 1940's war time music feel mentioned above. The recurrent lyric throughout the whole song being 'Paint the black hole blacker' gives of the impression to listeners that she is either a mad artist or everything that's going on in her life is just a little bit miserable and might as well 'Paint that black hole blacker'. However, the song does kick itself out of that 1940's war time feel and enters into a little bit of Bloc Party, do see 'Song For Clay (Disappear Here) for full effect, but what St. Vincent does with it, is basically not included guitars and just included synthesizers and giving off some fuzzy sounds to warm us with delight. Second up is 'Save Me From What I Want', which in it's title, is a bit ironic don't you think? But none-the-less, Miss. Clark adds her own little bit of grace. The song is focused on a twirling guitar trail that leads into a mellow chorus where she melodically sings the title of the song.
The key song of the album is demonstrated in the first half of the album, which includes the title of the album, 'Actor Out Of Work'. This song has it all really, the catchy drumming loops, the catchy synthesizers and of course the quirky lyrics, but again, Annie Clark adds to it by adding some experimentation to it, and she highlights this at the drop of a hat and when you least expect it, she fills in a synthesizer car crash by running around her synth machine and hitting it as loud as she can to create her full desire. Going back to those quirky pop lyrics, St. Vincent proves her quirkiness by singing her 'Woo, Woo's' and of course lines like this 'I think I love you, I think am maddd' just makes you wanna love her, despite how mad she might be.
Another surprise with this album is that, not only St. Vincent creates perfect pop hooks, but she can even pull it of, by adding violins to it, even verging on swing. This is all demonstrated in 'Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood', the main structure of the song is completely fitted around in a steady simple drum beat and plus, the odd fill ins of the acoustic guitar which pluck curiously. Plus, let's not forget, Annie's brilliant quirky lyrics are a complete treasure as she sings to herself in a dream, with a line like 'And I can't see the future, but I know it has big plans for me'. The weirdness continues, straight into 'Marrow' we enter, starts out in a slow tempo, with another steady drum beat giving the song it's rhythm, but again, Annie Clarke shows up and brings her dirty synth notes to the table and blasts us into the future. The synth solo is probably the most notable point of the entire song, it's an all out full scale attack, with noisy electronica influences coming from everywhere, almost makes you feel if your listening to Nine Inch Nails' 'The Great Destroyer'.
No one really expects St. Vincent to be the next Bjork or if you want to be extreme, Madonna. But she is herself and she brings her talents forward in superb fashion, again in comparison to her debut, 'Actor' really brings out the potential Annie Clark has been hiding all along while touring with Sufjan Stevens band.
3½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
'The Strangers', the first song of 'Actor' and starts out with that 1940's war time music feel mentioned above. The recurrent lyric throughout the whole song being 'Paint the black hole blacker' gives of the impression to listeners that she is either a mad artist or everything that's going on in her life is just a little bit miserable and might as well 'Paint that black hole blacker'. However, the song does kick itself out of that 1940's war time feel and enters into a little bit of Bloc Party, do see 'Song For Clay (Disappear Here) for full effect, but what St. Vincent does with it, is basically not included guitars and just included synthesizers and giving off some fuzzy sounds to warm us with delight. Second up is 'Save Me From What I Want', which in it's title, is a bit ironic don't you think? But none-the-less, Miss. Clark adds her own little bit of grace. The song is focused on a twirling guitar trail that leads into a mellow chorus where she melodically sings the title of the song.
The key song of the album is demonstrated in the first half of the album, which includes the title of the album, 'Actor Out Of Work'. This song has it all really, the catchy drumming loops, the catchy synthesizers and of course the quirky lyrics, but again, Annie Clark adds to it by adding some experimentation to it, and she highlights this at the drop of a hat and when you least expect it, she fills in a synthesizer car crash by running around her synth machine and hitting it as loud as she can to create her full desire. Going back to those quirky pop lyrics, St. Vincent proves her quirkiness by singing her 'Woo, Woo's' and of course lines like this 'I think I love you, I think am maddd' just makes you wanna love her, despite how mad she might be.
Another surprise with this album is that, not only St. Vincent creates perfect pop hooks, but she can even pull it of, by adding violins to it, even verging on swing. This is all demonstrated in 'Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood', the main structure of the song is completely fitted around in a steady simple drum beat and plus, the odd fill ins of the acoustic guitar which pluck curiously. Plus, let's not forget, Annie's brilliant quirky lyrics are a complete treasure as she sings to herself in a dream, with a line like 'And I can't see the future, but I know it has big plans for me'. The weirdness continues, straight into 'Marrow' we enter, starts out in a slow tempo, with another steady drum beat giving the song it's rhythm, but again, Annie Clarke shows up and brings her dirty synth notes to the table and blasts us into the future. The synth solo is probably the most notable point of the entire song, it's an all out full scale attack, with noisy electronica influences coming from everywhere, almost makes you feel if your listening to Nine Inch Nails' 'The Great Destroyer'.
No one really expects St. Vincent to be the next Bjork or if you want to be extreme, Madonna. But she is herself and she brings her talents forward in superb fashion, again in comparison to her debut, 'Actor' really brings out the potential Annie Clark has been hiding all along while touring with Sufjan Stevens band.
3½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
Monday 5 October 2009
Paramore - brand new eyes
This album comes a bit of a surprise like many other albums this year, but for Paramore, this is a bit of a hard rock orgy at points and considerably grown up in parts. I guess we all expected them not to follow up 'Riot!' so well but they have and if not, emulated it.
Going back to the hard rock orgy that was mentioned above, Paramore demonstrate this in 'Careful' the opening track to 'brand new eyes'. Most notably, is Zac Farro's drumming which is particularly gentle but harsh with thunderous power. When Hayley Williams singing starts, you begin to hear echo's from 'Misery Business' from their previous album 'Riot!', but how it parts itself away from 'Misery Business' is that it's a lot harder and more grown up vocally, considering Hayley is only, like 20? The up tempo start to 'brand new eyes' doesn't stop there, straight after 'Careful' we're slashed right into 'Ignorance' which starts in a stuttering guitar intro which stops to a thick bass line and a muted guitar sound which Hayley, almost talking, sings 'If I'm a bad person you don't like me well I'll make my own way, it's a circle I mean cycle' which oozes her confused sensibility. Again, the tempo doesn't die on track three, well it does, but not for long, when you hear the slow guitar lines from Josh Farro, you think Paramore are going to go all emo on us, but thankfully they snap out of it and Hayley booms out swagger-like lyrics like 'Next time you point a finger, I might have to bend it back or break it, break it off' which gives us the impression, if you fuck with her, you'll burn for it.
Paramore's third release is full of wonderful little surprises and 'The Only Exception' is definitely one of them. It's a beautiful love song about never falling in love, but one day finding that one 'Exception'. The song is built around a slow acoustic guitar melody, accompanied by the odd bass fill ins, but the highlight of the song is Hayley Williams vocals, as you can imagine falling in love with the girl or guy of your dreams listening to her sweet but far out voice. Paramore go back to the hard rock orgy straight after the romance of 'The Only Exception' in 'Feeling Sorry' which is a song about not having sympathy for anyone or wasting time about 'Feeling Sorry' for people. It starts out in forced and hard guitar mode, along with clashing drums and a flowing bass line and again, Hayley's blasted vocals which sound like they've been turned up to max... or wait, isn't that already Hayley's singing everyday?
Going back to those little surprises in 'brand new eyes', well again they have landed another one, with 'Misguided Ghosts' and this song is just about two people who have no direction in life, doesn't conform to normal ideas of life, just go their own way, whether they've walked the same road once before, it doesn't matter, because whoever they are, they're just misguided. 'All I Wanted' is probably one of the songs Paramore went all out for, it's a guitar drenched anthem and Hayley is battling with it, with her high screaming vocals shouting out 'All I Wanted Was You!' I thank that speaks for itself what the song is about.
'brand new eyes' is probably one of the most surprising albums of the year, especially after all the problems Paramore were having within the band. They seem to be sorted now and grown up a bit and showed they're not just one of those 'emo' bands. Because with this album, they are leaving that scene behind and will outlast a lot of other bands coming from there to. If you don't like the hard rock feel from 'brand new eyes' then surely the camp fire setting of the acoustic ballads like 'The Only Exception' and 'Misguided Ghosts' will charm you enough to warm to them.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Going back to the hard rock orgy that was mentioned above, Paramore demonstrate this in 'Careful' the opening track to 'brand new eyes'. Most notably, is Zac Farro's drumming which is particularly gentle but harsh with thunderous power. When Hayley Williams singing starts, you begin to hear echo's from 'Misery Business' from their previous album 'Riot!', but how it parts itself away from 'Misery Business' is that it's a lot harder and more grown up vocally, considering Hayley is only, like 20? The up tempo start to 'brand new eyes' doesn't stop there, straight after 'Careful' we're slashed right into 'Ignorance' which starts in a stuttering guitar intro which stops to a thick bass line and a muted guitar sound which Hayley, almost talking, sings 'If I'm a bad person you don't like me well I'll make my own way, it's a circle I mean cycle' which oozes her confused sensibility. Again, the tempo doesn't die on track three, well it does, but not for long, when you hear the slow guitar lines from Josh Farro, you think Paramore are going to go all emo on us, but thankfully they snap out of it and Hayley booms out swagger-like lyrics like 'Next time you point a finger, I might have to bend it back or break it, break it off' which gives us the impression, if you fuck with her, you'll burn for it.
Paramore's third release is full of wonderful little surprises and 'The Only Exception' is definitely one of them. It's a beautiful love song about never falling in love, but one day finding that one 'Exception'. The song is built around a slow acoustic guitar melody, accompanied by the odd bass fill ins, but the highlight of the song is Hayley Williams vocals, as you can imagine falling in love with the girl or guy of your dreams listening to her sweet but far out voice. Paramore go back to the hard rock orgy straight after the romance of 'The Only Exception' in 'Feeling Sorry' which is a song about not having sympathy for anyone or wasting time about 'Feeling Sorry' for people. It starts out in forced and hard guitar mode, along with clashing drums and a flowing bass line and again, Hayley's blasted vocals which sound like they've been turned up to max... or wait, isn't that already Hayley's singing everyday?
Going back to those little surprises in 'brand new eyes', well again they have landed another one, with 'Misguided Ghosts' and this song is just about two people who have no direction in life, doesn't conform to normal ideas of life, just go their own way, whether they've walked the same road once before, it doesn't matter, because whoever they are, they're just misguided. 'All I Wanted' is probably one of the songs Paramore went all out for, it's a guitar drenched anthem and Hayley is battling with it, with her high screaming vocals shouting out 'All I Wanted Was You!' I thank that speaks for itself what the song is about.
'brand new eyes' is probably one of the most surprising albums of the year, especially after all the problems Paramore were having within the band. They seem to be sorted now and grown up a bit and showed they're not just one of those 'emo' bands. Because with this album, they are leaving that scene behind and will outlast a lot of other bands coming from there to. If you don't like the hard rock feel from 'brand new eyes' then surely the camp fire setting of the acoustic ballads like 'The Only Exception' and 'Misguided Ghosts' will charm you enough to warm to them.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Monday 28 September 2009
Muse - The Resistance
An album with such a heavy influence in classical music is always going to be taken seriously, which Muse have demonstrated very well in 'Origin of Symmetry' and 'Absolution', but unlike those albums 'The Resistance' falls short, and I repeat, VERY short.
'Uprising' is the lead single from 'The Resistance' and unlike most lead singles from Muse, this one here sounds a very half hearted attempt at what Matt Bellamy described as 'A hard rock take on Goldfrapp'... Hmm I don't think so Matt, this sounds more like a repetitive chorus repeated once to much which gives us the thought of 'Shut the fuck up' after the first two minutes, never mind a dragged out five minutes of it. After 'Uprising' we are taken into a slightly beautiful song called 'Resistance' which does have it's moments of brilliance, especially with the jittery piano intro and the hard hitting chorus which is Muse at their best, but, they could have done without the almost cheesy moments of 'We Could Be Wrong, Could Be Wrong' and that part alone is bound to give you a love/hate relationship with this song.
Moving on to 'United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)' and this is a sorry and foolish attempt at Queen, which you get a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' feel from it, before entering a groovy and hard hitting piano bridge which takes references from Middle Eastern culture. After all that has passed, we enter a very nice calming and soothing piano solo with the added orchestra of violins and strings in places, which doesn't save the scare of the first four minutes of terrible attempts at Queen, but it does gave you a relief of some sort. 'Guiding Light' is definitely one of the albums high points, Matt Bellamy's vocals are beautiful and reassuring as he sings 'You're My Guiding Light, When There's No Guiding Light Left', even though the solo again rings out more Queen-esque styles but Matt's vocals alone in this song is a complete saviour.
We find ourselves indulged in 'Unnatural Selection' which is another hard hitting heavy Muse at their best, but here comes the snag, the main riff sounds HEAVILY like the dominating and boulder crushing riff that's in 'New Born', now there's nothing wrong with that if your just wanting heavy and catchy riffs to dance to or whatever, but for music enthusiasts and hardcore Muse fans, this is sure to annoy them and along with that seven minutes of mediocrity we don't want more Queen, and we got more of them at the vocal crescendo at the end which takes it's sorrows from 'Bohemian Rhapsody' yet again.
To the high points of the album, which lack few and far between, one of them however would be 'MK Ultra' which has a driving bass line leading the horde just like the songs of 'Origin of Symmetry' did. 'MK Ultra' proves itself in many forms, it's again, Muse at their best, has the calming start and somehow, out of no where comes to the blasting fire power the band has severely lacked on 'The Resistance' with a gracious nod again to 'New Born' but not as heavily replicated as 'Unnatural Selection'.
The final point in the album to be made is in 'Exogenesis', which is something Matt said he has been working on, on a long time. 'Exogenesis' runs for a total of thirteen minutes plus. The 'Symphony' is divided into three parts with part one being 'Overture' and this is swallowed in the darkness of an orchestrated chill of violins and more strings and Matt's restrained guitar pulling out a gentle but grinding solo and sings melodically but quietly to the gruesomely exceptional music behind him. Part two 'Cross-Pollination' starts of with a fast paced piano intro, but slows down to Matt's low and fierce vocal lines, but we somehow find ourselves racing in tempo with a guitar riff building intensity, and flickering the sharp solo before the whirlwind come down of the piano riff that the song started out with. Finally, part three enters into something that's a little more upbeat in comparison to 'Cross-Pollination'. 'Redemption' is probably the most beautiful piano ballad Matt Bellamy has came up with, it's slow but uniquely uplifting. Again, the violin's come in again and add it's bit of genius to Matt's unique ballad and just to complete this Symphony, Matt's hurried and low vocals just bring up the mood a little more before the outro consisting of the piano riff that was used as the intro and the slow in and out use of the violins.
Muse's fifth album has not raised any eyebrows, mainly around music critics and am sure hardcore Muse fans would be slightly disappointed with this effort. 'The Resistance' does have it's high points in 'MK Ultra' and the entire Symphony of 'Exogenesis' which would definitely be considered a masterpiece amongst the more classical sides of Muse fans. Although at to many parts in the album, they have uplifted roots from Queen and failed to pull it of and used riffs from their previous songs that have just been meddled around with to achieve some effect that's just not happened. 'The Resistance' is not a serious disaster overall, but very mediocre for a band with the heavy, heavy amount of talent that Muse has and let's hope that the next time, is a little less Queen and a lot more Muse hopefully.
2½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
'Uprising' is the lead single from 'The Resistance' and unlike most lead singles from Muse, this one here sounds a very half hearted attempt at what Matt Bellamy described as 'A hard rock take on Goldfrapp'... Hmm I don't think so Matt, this sounds more like a repetitive chorus repeated once to much which gives us the thought of 'Shut the fuck up' after the first two minutes, never mind a dragged out five minutes of it. After 'Uprising' we are taken into a slightly beautiful song called 'Resistance' which does have it's moments of brilliance, especially with the jittery piano intro and the hard hitting chorus which is Muse at their best, but, they could have done without the almost cheesy moments of 'We Could Be Wrong, Could Be Wrong' and that part alone is bound to give you a love/hate relationship with this song.
Moving on to 'United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)' and this is a sorry and foolish attempt at Queen, which you get a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' feel from it, before entering a groovy and hard hitting piano bridge which takes references from Middle Eastern culture. After all that has passed, we enter a very nice calming and soothing piano solo with the added orchestra of violins and strings in places, which doesn't save the scare of the first four minutes of terrible attempts at Queen, but it does gave you a relief of some sort. 'Guiding Light' is definitely one of the albums high points, Matt Bellamy's vocals are beautiful and reassuring as he sings 'You're My Guiding Light, When There's No Guiding Light Left', even though the solo again rings out more Queen-esque styles but Matt's vocals alone in this song is a complete saviour.
We find ourselves indulged in 'Unnatural Selection' which is another hard hitting heavy Muse at their best, but here comes the snag, the main riff sounds HEAVILY like the dominating and boulder crushing riff that's in 'New Born', now there's nothing wrong with that if your just wanting heavy and catchy riffs to dance to or whatever, but for music enthusiasts and hardcore Muse fans, this is sure to annoy them and along with that seven minutes of mediocrity we don't want more Queen, and we got more of them at the vocal crescendo at the end which takes it's sorrows from 'Bohemian Rhapsody' yet again.
To the high points of the album, which lack few and far between, one of them however would be 'MK Ultra' which has a driving bass line leading the horde just like the songs of 'Origin of Symmetry' did. 'MK Ultra' proves itself in many forms, it's again, Muse at their best, has the calming start and somehow, out of no where comes to the blasting fire power the band has severely lacked on 'The Resistance' with a gracious nod again to 'New Born' but not as heavily replicated as 'Unnatural Selection'.
The final point in the album to be made is in 'Exogenesis', which is something Matt said he has been working on, on a long time. 'Exogenesis' runs for a total of thirteen minutes plus. The 'Symphony' is divided into three parts with part one being 'Overture' and this is swallowed in the darkness of an orchestrated chill of violins and more strings and Matt's restrained guitar pulling out a gentle but grinding solo and sings melodically but quietly to the gruesomely exceptional music behind him. Part two 'Cross-Pollination' starts of with a fast paced piano intro, but slows down to Matt's low and fierce vocal lines, but we somehow find ourselves racing in tempo with a guitar riff building intensity, and flickering the sharp solo before the whirlwind come down of the piano riff that the song started out with. Finally, part three enters into something that's a little more upbeat in comparison to 'Cross-Pollination'. 'Redemption' is probably the most beautiful piano ballad Matt Bellamy has came up with, it's slow but uniquely uplifting. Again, the violin's come in again and add it's bit of genius to Matt's unique ballad and just to complete this Symphony, Matt's hurried and low vocals just bring up the mood a little more before the outro consisting of the piano riff that was used as the intro and the slow in and out use of the violins.
Muse's fifth album has not raised any eyebrows, mainly around music critics and am sure hardcore Muse fans would be slightly disappointed with this effort. 'The Resistance' does have it's high points in 'MK Ultra' and the entire Symphony of 'Exogenesis' which would definitely be considered a masterpiece amongst the more classical sides of Muse fans. Although at to many parts in the album, they have uplifted roots from Queen and failed to pull it of and used riffs from their previous songs that have just been meddled around with to achieve some effect that's just not happened. 'The Resistance' is not a serious disaster overall, but very mediocre for a band with the heavy, heavy amount of talent that Muse has and let's hope that the next time, is a little less Queen and a lot more Muse hopefully.
2½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
Sunday 27 September 2009
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
So, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have dropped their guitars and went for the synthesizers approach, any fan of the band would have been pretty scared by the prospect of such a thing and after the success of their previous albums, it would have probably been a smart idea to carry on in that format.
It's Blitz! opens up with a magnificent feel good song by the name of 'Zero'. Which has a heavy synthesizer beat floating around Karen O's sweet and romantic vocals which echo her punk influences like Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders. Yeah Yeah Yeahs also prove their development in sound with 'Heads Will Roll' and this song again, has another heavy synthesizer beat dominating the track, further more it's another feel good song which the band captured on 'Zero' and just like 'Zero' it has that party feel and all the glitter to make you feel that you were back in the 70's listening to 'Heart Of Glass'.
Probably the most challenging effort the band has ever made would be in 'Skeletons', which is an epic, sad and notorious love song and no matter what mood you might be in, it will demonstrate some effect of romance and sadness on you. 'Skeletons' draws influences from Electronica and Celtic forms and when you feel the song couldn't hit a higher note of depression, a beautifully placed bagpipe solo rings out and draws the song to a winding close. After 'Skeletons' we are thrashed into 'Dull Life', now this song is what Yeah Yeah Yeahs do best, fast paced punk rock in a slick and furious tone with Nick Zinner's stylish swagger with the six stringed instrument that he earns his corn through.
Towards the rear end of the album, we are plunged into 'Dragon Queen' and in this song, Karen O' produces some flat vocal lines and somehow still sounds simply amazing, and the Synthesizer's still flicker around us and almost reminisces The Who's 'Baby O'Riley'. We move on to 'Hysteric' which further shows the development of Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound, it's basically another cheeky little love song, not to be taken to seriously however, but wonderful in many ways with Karen O's light vocal lines gliding along to Nick Zinner's soft guitar lines and Brian Chase's jazzy drumming. The final song on 'It's Blitz!', 'Little Shadow' is another beautiful ballad, apart from Karen O's fantastic vocals, but the drumming is a particular highlight here, it surges through you like a bullet in your gut and has the dramatic power drumming from 'Gold Lion' which he blasted apart in a million pieces in superb fashion.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs have demonstrated that after three albums, they are certainly a band that's here to stay, considering a lot of these so-called 'Alternative' and 'Indie' bands are fading away, Yeah Yeah Yeahs however, show they are rocking and they are dancing and on their third album 'It's Blitz!' they have evolved their sound from fast paced punk rock to new wave/synthesizer rock and how we cannot wait until their next album.
4½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
It's Blitz! opens up with a magnificent feel good song by the name of 'Zero'. Which has a heavy synthesizer beat floating around Karen O's sweet and romantic vocals which echo her punk influences like Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders. Yeah Yeah Yeahs also prove their development in sound with 'Heads Will Roll' and this song again, has another heavy synthesizer beat dominating the track, further more it's another feel good song which the band captured on 'Zero' and just like 'Zero' it has that party feel and all the glitter to make you feel that you were back in the 70's listening to 'Heart Of Glass'.
Probably the most challenging effort the band has ever made would be in 'Skeletons', which is an epic, sad and notorious love song and no matter what mood you might be in, it will demonstrate some effect of romance and sadness on you. 'Skeletons' draws influences from Electronica and Celtic forms and when you feel the song couldn't hit a higher note of depression, a beautifully placed bagpipe solo rings out and draws the song to a winding close. After 'Skeletons' we are thrashed into 'Dull Life', now this song is what Yeah Yeah Yeahs do best, fast paced punk rock in a slick and furious tone with Nick Zinner's stylish swagger with the six stringed instrument that he earns his corn through.
Towards the rear end of the album, we are plunged into 'Dragon Queen' and in this song, Karen O' produces some flat vocal lines and somehow still sounds simply amazing, and the Synthesizer's still flicker around us and almost reminisces The Who's 'Baby O'Riley'. We move on to 'Hysteric' which further shows the development of Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound, it's basically another cheeky little love song, not to be taken to seriously however, but wonderful in many ways with Karen O's light vocal lines gliding along to Nick Zinner's soft guitar lines and Brian Chase's jazzy drumming. The final song on 'It's Blitz!', 'Little Shadow' is another beautiful ballad, apart from Karen O's fantastic vocals, but the drumming is a particular highlight here, it surges through you like a bullet in your gut and has the dramatic power drumming from 'Gold Lion' which he blasted apart in a million pieces in superb fashion.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs have demonstrated that after three albums, they are certainly a band that's here to stay, considering a lot of these so-called 'Alternative' and 'Indie' bands are fading away, Yeah Yeah Yeahs however, show they are rocking and they are dancing and on their third album 'It's Blitz!' they have evolved their sound from fast paced punk rock to new wave/synthesizer rock and how we cannot wait until their next album.
4½ / 5
Linus Broadbent.
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
It looks like these Sheffield boys have came back from the sweltering desert in Josh Homme land with some balls, as their third effort is a real shift in style and complexion from their past two albums which were definitely a little more acceptable in terms of the mass public's opinion on what proper music is, where this album, is a bit of a harder listen.
So the Monkeys open with 'My Propeller', a nice jaunting track, where the guitar lines actually reminiscent the sound of what we think a propeller would sound like when it's old and battered. Alex Turner doesn't disappoint with his lyrics either, as usual he comes up with quirky lines like 'Coax me out my low and have a spin of my propeller' which could sound sexually deviant when you think of it.
Track two, would come in the form of 'Crying Lightning', which is also the lead single from 'Humbug'. It's a grower, especially for a single, it doesn't have the impact most lead singles would have, but again, lyrically it delivers, may I suggest how lyrics these days are never as good as this 'And your pastimes consisted of the strange, the twisted and deranged and I hate that little game you had called 'Crying Lightning''. After 'Crying Lightning' we enter 'Pound' mode 'Dangerous Animals' which has a Black Sabbath aura to it, with the main riff is a hard pounder which is destined to enter your head along with the chorus which equally pounds itself to the back of your mind 'D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S A-N-I-M-A-L'.
As 'Humbug' progresses on it's dark and wonderful path, we soon encounter 'Potion Approaching' which is another thumper, it's another song you feel that Mr. Homme might have had a bit of an influence over, which is obvious, as he's produced most of the tracks, but you could argue that certain parts do sound very Homme-ish in terms of his guitar playing style and unique sound which the Monkeys seemed to have stole and made it their own. Despite all that, it's Arctic Monkeys at their best, music is solid and lyrics present as ever. When 'Potion Approaching' finishes, we are blessed with a song called 'Fire And The Thud' which has a very special guest on it, Miss. Alison Mosshart of The Kills/Dead Weather. Although her role in the song is just backing vocals and she only appears in the last minute and a bit. However, the song wouldn't work any other way, as Alex Turner and co, already add their dreary and murky label on it, Alison just applies the finishing touches with her echoing and haunting voice which simply pierces your heart like a nail through the eye.
Towards the end of the album, 'Cornerstone' gives us a nice little ballad about keeping your short-cuts to yourself and picking up the scent of your girlfriend on the seatbelt, despite that, 'Mardy Bum' fans would be happy with this effort for another genuine sing-a-long. 'Pretty Visitors' gives us a slight bit of comedy in the line 'What came first the chicken or the dickhead?' and another bit of Josh Homme pops up again with the dark echoing vocals in the background to a ferocious guitar riff and drum beat dominating proceedings. Now, something the Arctic Monkeys are very good at now comes into play and that's writing excellent closing songs for an album, and just to refresh your memory may I mention how good 'A Certain Romance' and '505' are? Well, here comes another one, 'The Jeweller's Hands'. They display many styles in this song, like Psychedelia, Rock and maybe some elements of Jazz (Probably in the drumming). The song is also basically, Arctic Monkeys on The Doors and my reference to this would be in the later half of the song where Alex Turner scarily brings Jim Morrison back from the dead as he isolates us and brings our defences down further as he sings 'If you've a lesson to teach me I'm listening, ready to learn. There's no here to police me I'm sinking in until the return. If you've a lesson to teach me don't deviate, don't be afraid. Without the last corner piece I can't calibrate, let's get it engraved'. Even the lyrics would resemble something Jim Morrison would write and if anything, that speaks volume for Alex Turner's song writing capabilities and the rest of the band also do their bit, by keeping a very tight rhythm that haunts us with it's mellow and black perceptions until the final note.
'Humbug' has been a very pleasant surprise, hopefully a departure from their previous work and they can enter a new world of mystery and deviant behaviour. It's hardly going to be winning any awards or going to be album of the year, but who gives a fuck? Arctic Monkeys are a band that's not going to fade away within a few years, they're here to stay and this album demonstrates that.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
So the Monkeys open with 'My Propeller', a nice jaunting track, where the guitar lines actually reminiscent the sound of what we think a propeller would sound like when it's old and battered. Alex Turner doesn't disappoint with his lyrics either, as usual he comes up with quirky lines like 'Coax me out my low and have a spin of my propeller' which could sound sexually deviant when you think of it.
Track two, would come in the form of 'Crying Lightning', which is also the lead single from 'Humbug'. It's a grower, especially for a single, it doesn't have the impact most lead singles would have, but again, lyrically it delivers, may I suggest how lyrics these days are never as good as this 'And your pastimes consisted of the strange, the twisted and deranged and I hate that little game you had called 'Crying Lightning''. After 'Crying Lightning' we enter 'Pound' mode 'Dangerous Animals' which has a Black Sabbath aura to it, with the main riff is a hard pounder which is destined to enter your head along with the chorus which equally pounds itself to the back of your mind 'D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S A-N-I-M-A-L'.
As 'Humbug' progresses on it's dark and wonderful path, we soon encounter 'Potion Approaching' which is another thumper, it's another song you feel that Mr. Homme might have had a bit of an influence over, which is obvious, as he's produced most of the tracks, but you could argue that certain parts do sound very Homme-ish in terms of his guitar playing style and unique sound which the Monkeys seemed to have stole and made it their own. Despite all that, it's Arctic Monkeys at their best, music is solid and lyrics present as ever. When 'Potion Approaching' finishes, we are blessed with a song called 'Fire And The Thud' which has a very special guest on it, Miss. Alison Mosshart of The Kills/Dead Weather. Although her role in the song is just backing vocals and she only appears in the last minute and a bit. However, the song wouldn't work any other way, as Alex Turner and co, already add their dreary and murky label on it, Alison just applies the finishing touches with her echoing and haunting voice which simply pierces your heart like a nail through the eye.
Towards the end of the album, 'Cornerstone' gives us a nice little ballad about keeping your short-cuts to yourself and picking up the scent of your girlfriend on the seatbelt, despite that, 'Mardy Bum' fans would be happy with this effort for another genuine sing-a-long. 'Pretty Visitors' gives us a slight bit of comedy in the line 'What came first the chicken or the dickhead?' and another bit of Josh Homme pops up again with the dark echoing vocals in the background to a ferocious guitar riff and drum beat dominating proceedings. Now, something the Arctic Monkeys are very good at now comes into play and that's writing excellent closing songs for an album, and just to refresh your memory may I mention how good 'A Certain Romance' and '505' are? Well, here comes another one, 'The Jeweller's Hands'. They display many styles in this song, like Psychedelia, Rock and maybe some elements of Jazz (Probably in the drumming). The song is also basically, Arctic Monkeys on The Doors and my reference to this would be in the later half of the song where Alex Turner scarily brings Jim Morrison back from the dead as he isolates us and brings our defences down further as he sings 'If you've a lesson to teach me I'm listening, ready to learn. There's no here to police me I'm sinking in until the return. If you've a lesson to teach me don't deviate, don't be afraid. Without the last corner piece I can't calibrate, let's get it engraved'. Even the lyrics would resemble something Jim Morrison would write and if anything, that speaks volume for Alex Turner's song writing capabilities and the rest of the band also do their bit, by keeping a very tight rhythm that haunts us with it's mellow and black perceptions until the final note.
'Humbug' has been a very pleasant surprise, hopefully a departure from their previous work and they can enter a new world of mystery and deviant behaviour. It's hardly going to be winning any awards or going to be album of the year, but who gives a fuck? Arctic Monkeys are a band that's not going to fade away within a few years, they're here to stay and this album demonstrates that.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Kasabian's third studio album is a bit of a landmark... okay, it's not 'Nevermind' but for Kasabian this is certainly a grown up album considering their previous effort 'Empire' was more appealing to Britain's very horrible scene of scenesters and it's very nice to see at least one of the early 'NME Bands' to have shone through the mud. Kasabian also go for a very unusual album title 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'. You can either call it wonderfully funny or one of the worst album titles ever... either way, the album title doesn't matter.
So 'West Ryder...' has it's high energy start with 'Underdog', as Sergio Pizzorno's eye fluttering-like guitar sound plucks away in distorted flashes and when Tom Meighan's vocals kick in, you fall straight in love with Kasabian just like how you did when their debut was released. After 'Underdog' in comes 'Where Did All The Love Go?' which sounds very Oasis-like, but even at that, it parts itself from Oasis with it's middle eastern influence on the solo, which would go down well in a concert in India. Kasabian also dabble in electronic art, which is their primary field, but in 'Swarfiga, which is simply two minutes and eighteen seconds of synthesizers, bass and the odd percussion, but the previous track 'Where Did All The Love Go?' sets into 'Swarfiga' so well that you would think it was just an extended jam. With the slightly slow tempo 'Swarfiga' complete, which perhaps slows the albums mode down by a considerable amount, but then 'Fast Fuse' is thrown at us, and this song is driven by a bass line, in the same form as Muse did in their album 'Origin of Symmetry' which the bass was a main power throughout the album. 'Fast Fuse' doesn't stop there however, it also proves Kasabian are attempting to bring this album out in a higher tempo compared to their self titled and 'Empire' where both those albums varied in pace and melody but never sustained any specific speed of energy.
What is also striking about Kasabian's third album, is that they continue to show different styles within their music, even their vocalist Tom Meighan shows different vocal styles in this album, again, in 'Underdog' he sounds more 'English' and expresses his Leicestershire accent perfectly. Sergio Pizzorno is a bit of a wizard with the guitar, as he's proved in many departments... need I suggest you to listen to 'Shoot the Runner', 'Reason Is Treason' and 'Stuntman' from their previous two albums, but in 'West Ryder...' he shows you how to play the acoustic guitar in 'Ladies and Gentlemen (Roll The Dice)'. His playing is some simply yet fantastic, while he just plucks away as if it all comes to him on the spot and again... Tom Meighan doesn't fail either as his baritone vocals smother the guitar flicks around him as he sings along almost drunk-like along to the beautiful melody.
The main highlight of the album would come in the form of 'Secret Alphabets' and this song suggests what Kasabian do best and that's in their primary field of 'Electronica'. This song also points out the development Kasabian have made in their song writing and development as musicians. Their bassist Christopher Edwards shows his progression as a bassist, this song is primarily fuelled by his mono bass lines and Ian Matthews simple, yet artistic drumming is key in this song, because that's all the song is... drum and bass with the in and out use of synthesizers. Tom Meighan's vocals just add to the haunting and fearsome chill of this song by groaning and crooning the lyrics out as he wanders around in his own mental asylum.
After the brilliant nightmare of 'Secret Alphabets' we are introduced to the lead single of the album, 'Fire'. Now, it's probably one of the most commercially acceptable songs of the album, but it's certainly not the most worthy one, reasons for being so, it's simply not as hard hitting as 'Underdog' and not as jingly and catchy as 'Where Did All The Love Go?' which doesn't make it a bad song, it just makes it the wrong choice of a lead single. The album closes with something less Kasabian like which is 'Happiness' a nice ballad of simple love and joy in life, which is what we all like to hear in some form or another. This song also feels like it might have appeared from the Rolling Stones 'Let It Bleed' and it's main comparison would be in the form of the Stones cover of 'Love In Vain' from the great Robert Johnson. The song expresses use of piano techniques that the Stones frequently used in 'Let It Bleed' and gospel choirs, even the vocals from Tom Meighan could be compared to early Mick Jagger when they were full of sole and heartlessness feelings.
Kasabian's third studio effort is close to fulfilling their potential, if not completely fulfilling it. 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum' is masked in the usual Kasabian forms of Rock and Electronica. But what makes it more original is that they have experimented more mentally and instrumentally, they are more open to different forms of music and made it their own which is what most artists in music in Britain are lacking at the moment, which will make the 'Lunatic Asylum' something they should be VERY proud of and work very hard to follow up.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
So 'West Ryder...' has it's high energy start with 'Underdog', as Sergio Pizzorno's eye fluttering-like guitar sound plucks away in distorted flashes and when Tom Meighan's vocals kick in, you fall straight in love with Kasabian just like how you did when their debut was released. After 'Underdog' in comes 'Where Did All The Love Go?' which sounds very Oasis-like, but even at that, it parts itself from Oasis with it's middle eastern influence on the solo, which would go down well in a concert in India. Kasabian also dabble in electronic art, which is their primary field, but in 'Swarfiga, which is simply two minutes and eighteen seconds of synthesizers, bass and the odd percussion, but the previous track 'Where Did All The Love Go?' sets into 'Swarfiga' so well that you would think it was just an extended jam. With the slightly slow tempo 'Swarfiga' complete, which perhaps slows the albums mode down by a considerable amount, but then 'Fast Fuse' is thrown at us, and this song is driven by a bass line, in the same form as Muse did in their album 'Origin of Symmetry' which the bass was a main power throughout the album. 'Fast Fuse' doesn't stop there however, it also proves Kasabian are attempting to bring this album out in a higher tempo compared to their self titled and 'Empire' where both those albums varied in pace and melody but never sustained any specific speed of energy.
What is also striking about Kasabian's third album, is that they continue to show different styles within their music, even their vocalist Tom Meighan shows different vocal styles in this album, again, in 'Underdog' he sounds more 'English' and expresses his Leicestershire accent perfectly. Sergio Pizzorno is a bit of a wizard with the guitar, as he's proved in many departments... need I suggest you to listen to 'Shoot the Runner', 'Reason Is Treason' and 'Stuntman' from their previous two albums, but in 'West Ryder...' he shows you how to play the acoustic guitar in 'Ladies and Gentlemen (Roll The Dice)'. His playing is some simply yet fantastic, while he just plucks away as if it all comes to him on the spot and again... Tom Meighan doesn't fail either as his baritone vocals smother the guitar flicks around him as he sings along almost drunk-like along to the beautiful melody.
The main highlight of the album would come in the form of 'Secret Alphabets' and this song suggests what Kasabian do best and that's in their primary field of 'Electronica'. This song also points out the development Kasabian have made in their song writing and development as musicians. Their bassist Christopher Edwards shows his progression as a bassist, this song is primarily fuelled by his mono bass lines and Ian Matthews simple, yet artistic drumming is key in this song, because that's all the song is... drum and bass with the in and out use of synthesizers. Tom Meighan's vocals just add to the haunting and fearsome chill of this song by groaning and crooning the lyrics out as he wanders around in his own mental asylum.
After the brilliant nightmare of 'Secret Alphabets' we are introduced to the lead single of the album, 'Fire'. Now, it's probably one of the most commercially acceptable songs of the album, but it's certainly not the most worthy one, reasons for being so, it's simply not as hard hitting as 'Underdog' and not as jingly and catchy as 'Where Did All The Love Go?' which doesn't make it a bad song, it just makes it the wrong choice of a lead single. The album closes with something less Kasabian like which is 'Happiness' a nice ballad of simple love and joy in life, which is what we all like to hear in some form or another. This song also feels like it might have appeared from the Rolling Stones 'Let It Bleed' and it's main comparison would be in the form of the Stones cover of 'Love In Vain' from the great Robert Johnson. The song expresses use of piano techniques that the Stones frequently used in 'Let It Bleed' and gospel choirs, even the vocals from Tom Meighan could be compared to early Mick Jagger when they were full of sole and heartlessness feelings.
Kasabian's third studio effort is close to fulfilling their potential, if not completely fulfilling it. 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum' is masked in the usual Kasabian forms of Rock and Electronica. But what makes it more original is that they have experimented more mentally and instrumentally, they are more open to different forms of music and made it their own which is what most artists in music in Britain are lacking at the moment, which will make the 'Lunatic Asylum' something they should be VERY proud of and work very hard to follow up.
4/5
Linus Broadbent.
Wednesday 19 August 2009
The Horrors - Primary Colours
So The Horrors have dropped the goth look and went for something a little more socially acceptable and that's in dress sense and musical style. Still, at least Faris still has his gigantic hedge-like hair style.
Primary Colours is a surprise in more ways than one, it's far more complex and more structured in comparison to 'Strange House' which was just a garage rock orgy. Primary Colours is also in a total different style compared to it's predecessor with it being more post-punk-ish.
The Horrors don't stop with the surprises, 'Mirror's Image' the opening song to 'Primary Colours' is an electronic dream. The intro dots along at a pacey speed and when Faris enters the fold he dominates the music behind him with his graceless vocals that makes the song more of a dreamy opener. Straight after 'Mirror's Image' we are plunged into 'Three Decades' which is another electronic dream, the drumming in particular is the main highlight in this song as 'Coffin' Joe Spurgeon sustains the rhythm elegantly as he bashes his cymbals at a glancing speed.
A lot of people have been comparing 'Primary Colours' to Joy Division, well there are similarities I guess, especially in the song 'Do You Remember' as the guitar playing would be reminiscent of some of the songs of 'Unknown Pleasures' may I suggest 'Disorder' in particular. Still, The Horrors don't exactly replicate Joy Division entirely, they have the sense to distort their sound perfectly which gives it a sense of originality and makes it marvellous sound to behold. The Horrors even slightly go back to their roots on 'New Ice Age' which has the punky 100 MPH feel from 'Strange House' but even at that, the song itself isn't a minute and a half long, they drag it out a bit and make it fit with the rest of the album perfectly.
If I was to pick out the weak tracks in 'Primary Colours', then I guess there's only two out of the ten tracks available, which would be 'Who Can Say' and 'I Only Think Of You' reasons for being so, in 'Who Can Say' Faris comes out with a lame and corny spoken line of statement 'And When I Told Her I Didn't Love Her Anymore, She Cried And When I Told Her Kisses Were Not Like Before, She Cried', sorry Faris, but really, cheese and punk don't go! and with 'I Only Think Of You' well, I guess it's a nice depressing song about love and friendship but with the song being at such a slow tempo, they really don't have to drag out for seven minutes and repeat the same lyrics constantly it tends to get boring after the first two minutes and makes you think "I get the point".
The Horrors also get Stooges-like, for example, in 'I Can't Control Myself' we kind of here 'No Fun' from The Stooges self titled album back in the 60's. The sound is similar in the vocals as they stutter and strut along to the brash guitar chords that make the song entirely punk and for The Horrors, they just went retro there. One of the key songs of 'Primary Colours' would have to be the song that closes this very complex album is 'Sea Within A Sea', this song is certainly a grower, it will take it's time, but really it's worth listening to and all seven minutes and 58 seconds of it to. This song is built around an electronic buzz that constantly startles itself around Faris' vocals which just whisper for the first couple of minutes and then the rest of the band do the talking, but not lyrically... instrumentally, yes. After Faris' vocals have ceased, the keyboards stamps it's mark on the song and probably makes it the most exciting part to listen to, where it just buzzes and flickers around your brain and washes your mind clear and lets you fall in love with the music that surrounds you then suddenly Faris brings you to attention as he comes back with his groaning vocals that are sounding sleepy by this point but full of romance, he eventually puts us to sleep as he we march into a 'Sea Within A Sea'.
For a second album, The Horrors have really went for it, this is a very ambitious effort and even their debut 'Strange House' received good responses and would be a hard album to follow up, The Horrors however have executed their second album perfectly, most of 'Primary Colours' sounds nothing like it's predecessor and for that they deserve respect for their ambition and ability to change their sound so drastically but in amazing fashion, 'Primary Colours' will certainly be considered for the Mercury Prize at the end of the year, if not win it.
4½ / 5.
Linus Broadbent.
Primary Colours is a surprise in more ways than one, it's far more complex and more structured in comparison to 'Strange House' which was just a garage rock orgy. Primary Colours is also in a total different style compared to it's predecessor with it being more post-punk-ish.
The Horrors don't stop with the surprises, 'Mirror's Image' the opening song to 'Primary Colours' is an electronic dream. The intro dots along at a pacey speed and when Faris enters the fold he dominates the music behind him with his graceless vocals that makes the song more of a dreamy opener. Straight after 'Mirror's Image' we are plunged into 'Three Decades' which is another electronic dream, the drumming in particular is the main highlight in this song as 'Coffin' Joe Spurgeon sustains the rhythm elegantly as he bashes his cymbals at a glancing speed.
A lot of people have been comparing 'Primary Colours' to Joy Division, well there are similarities I guess, especially in the song 'Do You Remember' as the guitar playing would be reminiscent of some of the songs of 'Unknown Pleasures' may I suggest 'Disorder' in particular. Still, The Horrors don't exactly replicate Joy Division entirely, they have the sense to distort their sound perfectly which gives it a sense of originality and makes it marvellous sound to behold. The Horrors even slightly go back to their roots on 'New Ice Age' which has the punky 100 MPH feel from 'Strange House' but even at that, the song itself isn't a minute and a half long, they drag it out a bit and make it fit with the rest of the album perfectly.
If I was to pick out the weak tracks in 'Primary Colours', then I guess there's only two out of the ten tracks available, which would be 'Who Can Say' and 'I Only Think Of You' reasons for being so, in 'Who Can Say' Faris comes out with a lame and corny spoken line of statement 'And When I Told Her I Didn't Love Her Anymore, She Cried And When I Told Her Kisses Were Not Like Before, She Cried', sorry Faris, but really, cheese and punk don't go! and with 'I Only Think Of You' well, I guess it's a nice depressing song about love and friendship but with the song being at such a slow tempo, they really don't have to drag out for seven minutes and repeat the same lyrics constantly it tends to get boring after the first two minutes and makes you think "I get the point".
The Horrors also get Stooges-like, for example, in 'I Can't Control Myself' we kind of here 'No Fun' from The Stooges self titled album back in the 60's. The sound is similar in the vocals as they stutter and strut along to the brash guitar chords that make the song entirely punk and for The Horrors, they just went retro there. One of the key songs of 'Primary Colours' would have to be the song that closes this very complex album is 'Sea Within A Sea', this song is certainly a grower, it will take it's time, but really it's worth listening to and all seven minutes and 58 seconds of it to. This song is built around an electronic buzz that constantly startles itself around Faris' vocals which just whisper for the first couple of minutes and then the rest of the band do the talking, but not lyrically... instrumentally, yes. After Faris' vocals have ceased, the keyboards stamps it's mark on the song and probably makes it the most exciting part to listen to, where it just buzzes and flickers around your brain and washes your mind clear and lets you fall in love with the music that surrounds you then suddenly Faris brings you to attention as he comes back with his groaning vocals that are sounding sleepy by this point but full of romance, he eventually puts us to sleep as he we march into a 'Sea Within A Sea'.
For a second album, The Horrors have really went for it, this is a very ambitious effort and even their debut 'Strange House' received good responses and would be a hard album to follow up, The Horrors however have executed their second album perfectly, most of 'Primary Colours' sounds nothing like it's predecessor and for that they deserve respect for their ambition and ability to change their sound so drastically but in amazing fashion, 'Primary Colours' will certainly be considered for the Mercury Prize at the end of the year, if not win it.
4½ / 5.
Linus Broadbent.
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand have returned, with 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand' it comes as a bigger hit than what Katie Price's break up with Peter Andre was and we all knew that was coming.
But moving away from them, 'Tonight' is less surprising than the hype it got, it starts out in ordinary Franz Ferdinand fashion 'Ulysses' a catchy song. That's all it is. It's not like 'Take Me Out' or 'Do You Want To' as they had the instant catchy pop guitar hooks, especially in 'Take Me Out' as that was one of the best songs to appear in the early 2000's along with The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' and both songs were similar in a lot of ways. 'Ulysses' falters in some parts, it's badly put together, more like there was no effort put into it what-so-ever and the song writing is also weak on a consistent basis and the entire track itself, shows what Britain is lacking in many aspects of it's recent bands which is repetitiveness, predictability and most of all plain flat out boring to listen to degenerate copy-cat Indie Rock bands.
'Tonight' does briefly now and then show some light, although not much and shows some glimpses of Franz's early work which can be considered almost genius. In the short 2 minutes and 21 seconds of 'Turn It On' Franz display their guitar work which sounds similar to 'Cheating on You' which appeared on their debut album is definitely more worthy a lead single than 'Ulysses'.
The album progresses in it's obvious fashion, 'No You Girls' appears and no doubt you would have heard it in some night club or on the radio at work. The track achieves its purpose and that's by getting extensive radio and TV play, this is another song that expresses the problem with the British music scene at the moment, this song tries to replicate the sound on 'Take Me Out' and does sound like the entire band have no long term plan on which direction they want to take their music in and so they try to produce songs similar to their previous work which is just not cutting it.
Now, 'Tonight' does bring out an instant classic in it, probably not in the eyes of the mainstream but what I mean is, this is the best song Franz Ferdinand have ever constructed and that song is 'Lucid Dreams', nearly 8 minutes long and it starts out in calm manner as it peacefully strolls around in a park with pop fever and as that fades, in comes around three to four minutes of instant instrumental Electronic haze, which will fizzle your mind until it fries out and dries up and leave you wondering were you on an acid trip. The album also closes out in a nice sing-a-along fashion 'Katherine Kiss Me' is just a simple acoustic melody which Alex Kapranos sings to in his low voice which makes you fall in love with him and makes you ask 'Alex Kiss Me?'
Finally, 'Tonight' is a solid effort, considering 2005's 'You Could Have It So Much Better' wasn't well received but even at that, it flowed better than 'Tonight' which nearly everything was just replicated from it's predecessor, songs like 'Send Him Away', 'Twilight Omens' and 'Live Alone' really could have been left out and stuck in some vault and be released posthumously or something, because they don't even give of the 'filler' feel, they just bore you, because you simply think you've listened to these songs before from somewhere else. This album will also raise no eyebrows amongst music critics or even hardcore Franz Ferdinand fans which will be slightly disappointed and will expect more from a band like this who have so much talent and potential to fulfil, plus this album will surely not be nominated for 'Album of the Year' or anything but I guess it shall give fans of Franz Ferdinand something to listen to until they hopefully release a more ambitious and less predictable record on their fourth effort.
2½ / 5.
Linus Broadbent
But moving away from them, 'Tonight' is less surprising than the hype it got, it starts out in ordinary Franz Ferdinand fashion 'Ulysses' a catchy song. That's all it is. It's not like 'Take Me Out' or 'Do You Want To' as they had the instant catchy pop guitar hooks, especially in 'Take Me Out' as that was one of the best songs to appear in the early 2000's along with The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' and both songs were similar in a lot of ways. 'Ulysses' falters in some parts, it's badly put together, more like there was no effort put into it what-so-ever and the song writing is also weak on a consistent basis and the entire track itself, shows what Britain is lacking in many aspects of it's recent bands which is repetitiveness, predictability and most of all plain flat out boring to listen to degenerate copy-cat Indie Rock bands.
'Tonight' does briefly now and then show some light, although not much and shows some glimpses of Franz's early work which can be considered almost genius. In the short 2 minutes and 21 seconds of 'Turn It On' Franz display their guitar work which sounds similar to 'Cheating on You' which appeared on their debut album is definitely more worthy a lead single than 'Ulysses'.
The album progresses in it's obvious fashion, 'No You Girls' appears and no doubt you would have heard it in some night club or on the radio at work. The track achieves its purpose and that's by getting extensive radio and TV play, this is another song that expresses the problem with the British music scene at the moment, this song tries to replicate the sound on 'Take Me Out' and does sound like the entire band have no long term plan on which direction they want to take their music in and so they try to produce songs similar to their previous work which is just not cutting it.
Now, 'Tonight' does bring out an instant classic in it, probably not in the eyes of the mainstream but what I mean is, this is the best song Franz Ferdinand have ever constructed and that song is 'Lucid Dreams', nearly 8 minutes long and it starts out in calm manner as it peacefully strolls around in a park with pop fever and as that fades, in comes around three to four minutes of instant instrumental Electronic haze, which will fizzle your mind until it fries out and dries up and leave you wondering were you on an acid trip. The album also closes out in a nice sing-a-along fashion 'Katherine Kiss Me' is just a simple acoustic melody which Alex Kapranos sings to in his low voice which makes you fall in love with him and makes you ask 'Alex Kiss Me?'
Finally, 'Tonight' is a solid effort, considering 2005's 'You Could Have It So Much Better' wasn't well received but even at that, it flowed better than 'Tonight' which nearly everything was just replicated from it's predecessor, songs like 'Send Him Away', 'Twilight Omens' and 'Live Alone' really could have been left out and stuck in some vault and be released posthumously or something, because they don't even give of the 'filler' feel, they just bore you, because you simply think you've listened to these songs before from somewhere else. This album will also raise no eyebrows amongst music critics or even hardcore Franz Ferdinand fans which will be slightly disappointed and will expect more from a band like this who have so much talent and potential to fulfil, plus this album will surely not be nominated for 'Album of the Year' or anything but I guess it shall give fans of Franz Ferdinand something to listen to until they hopefully release a more ambitious and less predictable record on their fourth effort.
2½ / 5.
Linus Broadbent
Tuesday 28 July 2009
Metric - Fantasies
Where did this come from? it's not Blondie is it? no, not at all. But Metric's return to the world of music has not been on top of all the major magazines lists of hot anticipations of the year or merely been spoke about. Metric's first album since 2005's 'Live It Out' has a fresh sound to it, it's more new wave, but rock & roll at the same time, it's more catchy than 'Live It Out' or 'Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?' and completely dominates 'Grow Up and Blow Away'.
As we enter 'Fantasies', we are drowned in electonica as Emily Haines, the frontwoman of Metric, beats out, her heart is "Beating Like A Hammer" in 'Help, I'm Alive'. The heavy use of keyboards are heard prominently throughout the song, but hey... it's Metric, that's what you would expect huh? what else is surprising in this song, is that Josh's bass lines, they are probably the most important part in the song, apart from Emily's sneering keyboard beats, as they keep the rhythm flowing properly and giving time for Emily to take control as the song beats out it's chorus. Straight after 'Help, I'm Alive' we have no time to rest, as we're hit by 'Sick Muse', which is new wave at it's peak. Poppy and catchy, is what sticks in our heads but without the pretentiousness cheesiness degenerate pop star-esque from 1982. It's straight forward, even almost rock & roll to an extent and it's something Debbie Harry of Blondie should take note of for the next Blondie album if such a thing happened. Again, we have no time to rest, suddenly, out of no where, comes in 'Satellite Mind' with real flow and structure, which is probably the strongest track of the album, it's flow and rhythm through out the song is exquisite. The song is like a roller-coaster, you're up and down before you know it and guitarist James Shaw is the one to point the finger at, his displays of guitar craft is beautifully done as he steadily keeps the pace of the song in every part, and making everyone else, including Emily to catch up with him.
We eventually get time to rest in this album, as 'Twilight Galaxy' settles us down with it's slow and almost ambient style tempo. 'Twilight Galaxy' is like the story of a dramatic come down, as Emily groans 'I'm Higher Than High, Lower Than Deep' to the sound of an electronic frenzy as the song closes out with a shallow low tempo dying out and fading as Emily continues till the point the song gorgeously finishes.
To the commercial success of Metric, well, 'Gimme Sympathy' has been a popular song on alternative radio stations in America and Canada and can you see why? Simply, it's radio friendly, which is usually a bad thing, for example look at Kings of Leon, but with Metric, on a smaller scale obviously, 'Gimme Sympathy' doesn't bore you, like 'Sex On Fire' would and it's not over done and over played, reasons why? well, there's hundreds, to many to discuss, but Metric have the cunning line here "Who would you rather be, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?" well, probably the best response to that I've heard is from the likes of NME, who said "Can we be Metric instead" and yeah, who wouldn't.
The album doesn't stop here with the classic tracks. More hot spots from the album would consist of the tracks 'Front Row' and 'Stadium Love'. Which again, are quite poppy, but far from radio friendly but both excellent in their own way. 'Front Row' has even been used for the series 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Stadium Love' is your typical party song when you're so wasted to stand up you just want to dance along anyway as the electronic fantasy continues with the heavy drumming from Joules Scott-Key blasts the song into a new dimension.
Metric's 'Fantasies' has surely came as a surprise. It appears Emily and co, have managed to show the world what their made of and 'Fantasies' is surely, not an album to be overlooked as a potential top ten entry in 2009's top ten albums.
5/5
Linus Broadbent.
As we enter 'Fantasies', we are drowned in electonica as Emily Haines, the frontwoman of Metric, beats out, her heart is "Beating Like A Hammer" in 'Help, I'm Alive'. The heavy use of keyboards are heard prominently throughout the song, but hey... it's Metric, that's what you would expect huh? what else is surprising in this song, is that Josh's bass lines, they are probably the most important part in the song, apart from Emily's sneering keyboard beats, as they keep the rhythm flowing properly and giving time for Emily to take control as the song beats out it's chorus. Straight after 'Help, I'm Alive' we have no time to rest, as we're hit by 'Sick Muse', which is new wave at it's peak. Poppy and catchy, is what sticks in our heads but without the pretentiousness cheesiness degenerate pop star-esque from 1982. It's straight forward, even almost rock & roll to an extent and it's something Debbie Harry of Blondie should take note of for the next Blondie album if such a thing happened. Again, we have no time to rest, suddenly, out of no where, comes in 'Satellite Mind' with real flow and structure, which is probably the strongest track of the album, it's flow and rhythm through out the song is exquisite. The song is like a roller-coaster, you're up and down before you know it and guitarist James Shaw is the one to point the finger at, his displays of guitar craft is beautifully done as he steadily keeps the pace of the song in every part, and making everyone else, including Emily to catch up with him.
We eventually get time to rest in this album, as 'Twilight Galaxy' settles us down with it's slow and almost ambient style tempo. 'Twilight Galaxy' is like the story of a dramatic come down, as Emily groans 'I'm Higher Than High, Lower Than Deep' to the sound of an electronic frenzy as the song closes out with a shallow low tempo dying out and fading as Emily continues till the point the song gorgeously finishes.
To the commercial success of Metric, well, 'Gimme Sympathy' has been a popular song on alternative radio stations in America and Canada and can you see why? Simply, it's radio friendly, which is usually a bad thing, for example look at Kings of Leon, but with Metric, on a smaller scale obviously, 'Gimme Sympathy' doesn't bore you, like 'Sex On Fire' would and it's not over done and over played, reasons why? well, there's hundreds, to many to discuss, but Metric have the cunning line here "Who would you rather be, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?" well, probably the best response to that I've heard is from the likes of NME, who said "Can we be Metric instead" and yeah, who wouldn't.
The album doesn't stop here with the classic tracks. More hot spots from the album would consist of the tracks 'Front Row' and 'Stadium Love'. Which again, are quite poppy, but far from radio friendly but both excellent in their own way. 'Front Row' has even been used for the series 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Stadium Love' is your typical party song when you're so wasted to stand up you just want to dance along anyway as the electronic fantasy continues with the heavy drumming from Joules Scott-Key blasts the song into a new dimension.
Metric's 'Fantasies' has surely came as a surprise. It appears Emily and co, have managed to show the world what their made of and 'Fantasies' is surely, not an album to be overlooked as a potential top ten entry in 2009's top ten albums.
5/5
Linus Broadbent.
Sonic Youth - The Eternal
Another Sonic Youth album and the follow up to 2006's 'Rather Ripped' comes in a groovy pop rock feel. Okay, that sounds pretty bad, but what I mean is, 'The Eternal' is far from sounding like 'Daydream Nation' and far from sounding like 'Confusion Is Sex'.
The album kicks of in fast motion, as 'Sacred Trickster' whirls round you like a tornado does but in double quick time, before you know it this song is finished the moment you start enjoying it and at the end of it you're feeling like 'Ohh' but in that 'Ohh' you can certainly think to yourself "good song". Then, we enter a dominating power chord riff in 'Anti-Orgasm' this song is simply beautiful in many ways. First of all the title is humorous, and again back to the opening riff mention, it feels like a heavy metal song at times and as Kim screams "Anti-War - Is Anti-Orgasm" it drones back to the feel of heavy metal as the vocals connects so well with the dominating riff. As the song takes a winding close, it calms right down in to Sonic Youth normality, with the dreamy instrumental closing, you almost forget the past that was three minutes ago when you were pounded with probably the most heaviest riff they've came up with since 'Daydream Nation's' 'Silver Rocket'.
More highlights from Sonic Youth's 16th studio album comes up with 'Antenna', not much to say about this song apart from it's epic beauty, Thurston Moore's vocals are really romantic in this song, he seduces his listeners by singing calmly lines like "Radio transmitting nowhere it falls away, she's far away" which am sure Kim would enjoy having that sung to her before she goes to bed with her hubby Mr. Moore.
Straight after 'Antenna' we go back to rock & roll, 'What We Know' is simple straight forward rock, similar to the opener 'Sacred Trickster' it's over all to quickly, but again a worthy highlight as the music fits around the lyrics perfectly once more as it all just clicks so soundly. As we move on to 'Poison Arrow' I somehow and I mean, somehow got the feel of ABC's 'Poison Arrow' in this song, even though they are both two completely different songs but as Kim skips through the chorus "Who Shot The Poison Arrow?" you should get the feel of the 1980's classic by ABC, but on the song itself, it's a worthy single, it's nothing that's going to 'Wow' Sonic Youth listeners but it's solid enough to please them.
Now, probably the strongest song on the album by a mile would have to be, 'Malibu Gas Station'. Reasons why? Well, it's typical Sonic Youth, the song speeds up and slows down, creating a whirlwind tempo for it's listeners. It's all classic Sonic Youth as well, as it re-creates their sound back from the 1990's and compares to songs like 'Dirty Boots' from 1990's 'Goo' and possibly 'Sugar Kane' from 1992's 'Dirty.
Sonic Youth's 2009 release 'The Eternal' has proved that they are still capable of releasing solid music even in their later stages in life, but it's hardly blowing everything out the water. In conclusion, it's a 'safe' album. Like 2006's 'Rather Ripped' it achieved that Sonic Youth are still 'here' but unlike 'Rather Ripped, it didn't experiment much, as songs from 2006's 'Rather Ripped' like 'Turquoise Boy' and 'Pink Steam' blemished Sonic Youth's hazy and melodic jams. You might be able to criticise the point that maybe Sonic Youth deliberately tried to re-create the sound from 'Sonic Nurse', for example 'The Eternal's' 'Massage The History' sounds bitterly like 'Sonic Nurse's' 'Patter Recognition' with the slow tempo trance like manner. But really, to sum the album up, 'The Eternal' simply struts out in a rock & roll way and a few pop hooks to make you feel this was a worth listen.
3/5
Linus Broadbent.
The album kicks of in fast motion, as 'Sacred Trickster' whirls round you like a tornado does but in double quick time, before you know it this song is finished the moment you start enjoying it and at the end of it you're feeling like 'Ohh' but in that 'Ohh' you can certainly think to yourself "good song". Then, we enter a dominating power chord riff in 'Anti-Orgasm' this song is simply beautiful in many ways. First of all the title is humorous, and again back to the opening riff mention, it feels like a heavy metal song at times and as Kim screams "Anti-War - Is Anti-Orgasm" it drones back to the feel of heavy metal as the vocals connects so well with the dominating riff. As the song takes a winding close, it calms right down in to Sonic Youth normality, with the dreamy instrumental closing, you almost forget the past that was three minutes ago when you were pounded with probably the most heaviest riff they've came up with since 'Daydream Nation's' 'Silver Rocket'.
More highlights from Sonic Youth's 16th studio album comes up with 'Antenna', not much to say about this song apart from it's epic beauty, Thurston Moore's vocals are really romantic in this song, he seduces his listeners by singing calmly lines like "Radio transmitting nowhere it falls away, she's far away" which am sure Kim would enjoy having that sung to her before she goes to bed with her hubby Mr. Moore.
Straight after 'Antenna' we go back to rock & roll, 'What We Know' is simple straight forward rock, similar to the opener 'Sacred Trickster' it's over all to quickly, but again a worthy highlight as the music fits around the lyrics perfectly once more as it all just clicks so soundly. As we move on to 'Poison Arrow' I somehow and I mean, somehow got the feel of ABC's 'Poison Arrow' in this song, even though they are both two completely different songs but as Kim skips through the chorus "Who Shot The Poison Arrow?" you should get the feel of the 1980's classic by ABC, but on the song itself, it's a worthy single, it's nothing that's going to 'Wow' Sonic Youth listeners but it's solid enough to please them.
Now, probably the strongest song on the album by a mile would have to be, 'Malibu Gas Station'. Reasons why? Well, it's typical Sonic Youth, the song speeds up and slows down, creating a whirlwind tempo for it's listeners. It's all classic Sonic Youth as well, as it re-creates their sound back from the 1990's and compares to songs like 'Dirty Boots' from 1990's 'Goo' and possibly 'Sugar Kane' from 1992's 'Dirty.
Sonic Youth's 2009 release 'The Eternal' has proved that they are still capable of releasing solid music even in their later stages in life, but it's hardly blowing everything out the water. In conclusion, it's a 'safe' album. Like 2006's 'Rather Ripped' it achieved that Sonic Youth are still 'here' but unlike 'Rather Ripped, it didn't experiment much, as songs from 2006's 'Rather Ripped' like 'Turquoise Boy' and 'Pink Steam' blemished Sonic Youth's hazy and melodic jams. You might be able to criticise the point that maybe Sonic Youth deliberately tried to re-create the sound from 'Sonic Nurse', for example 'The Eternal's' 'Massage The History' sounds bitterly like 'Sonic Nurse's' 'Patter Recognition' with the slow tempo trance like manner. But really, to sum the album up, 'The Eternal' simply struts out in a rock & roll way and a few pop hooks to make you feel this was a worth listen.
3/5
Linus Broadbent.
Sunday 26 July 2009
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Who was surprised? Indeed, we all were, or should have been. This stunning line up for a band is the best thing as a super group since Velvet Revolver or Audioslave. Which both failed to deliver what The Dead Weather did deliver, and guess what that was? Complete originality. Does this album sound like The White Stripes? No it doesn't, does it sound like the Kills, Queens of the Stone or even The Raconteurs? Again, no it doesn't.
So the album stars of in slow motion, as Alison screams she's 60 feet tall, not only does '60 Feet Tall' prove The Dead Weather are tight. It also proves that Alison isn't afraid of the great task she's undertaken, fronting a band that's not been fronted by Jack White, that's a hard duty to carry out. Still, '60 Feet Tall' teases it's listeners continuously, as it drifts in and out of racing pulsing tempo's to a slow come down. Dean Fertita (from Queens of the Stone Age) shows his art of guitar playing, as he drives in these pulsing solos in our faces and stops when the time is right, when we have to come down from the high he's given us.
As the album progresses, we reach 'Hang You From The Heavens', the leading single from 'Horehound'. Does it disappoint? Probably not, it's certainly a grower, as Alison wants to 'Drag you by the hair and hang you up from the heavens'. This song is definitely a worthy lead single, especially for an album that was just cut in three weeks. The second single however, 'Treat Me Like Your Mother', now this is the blues isn't it? This is rock n roll huh? As Jack belts out 'Who's got it figured out?' well who has got it figured out? Certainly Jack has, the drumming in this song is simply superb, as it throws itself into crescendos more than it slows down.
To the down points of the album, which there isn't many, if any at all. But songs like 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' and 'New Pony' are certainly songs they could have missed out on. Seeing how 'New Pony' was a Bob Dylan cover, they could have easily put in the b-side of the single 'Hang You From The Heavens' cover of Gary Numan's 'Are Friends Electric?' in place of it. 'New Pony' simply sounds messy all over, although not something good ol' Bob D' would be disgusted about, but it simply falters. 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' on the other hand, the only song on the album that has been solely wrote by Jack White, which turns out to be probably the weakest song of the album. It gives of the 'filler' feel to it, the lyrics are hardly present if noticeable at all. The instrumentation on the other hand is even worse, it basically doesn't turn up and everything sounds of key and the music doesn't fit around the lyrics, never mind fitting with itself.
As the album draws to a close, it brings out the gems in it and possibly the brilliance out of each individual member of this supreme super group. 'Bone House'? Where did that come from? The groovy electronic intro might prove otherwise, but it shoots of the blues in a flash, as soon as you might freak out about the heavy use of Synthesizers and organ's, the guitar work from Dean shows up once more along with Jack Lawrence's fitting and smooth elegant bass lines. Jack's timed perfection in his percussion skills blows the skin out of the water while Alison smokes everything out with her haunting and chilling voice that would send the devil crazy itself. The later half of the album continues to grow strong, as we approach 'No Hassle Night'. Goth blues. This is what Jack White wanted wasn't it? He wanted something different in his hectic music schedule and damn well got it in this track. This song grooves and slides along the path of grinding rock, which fits in brilliantly with Alison's vocals again, as she groans along to the music of her peers with her sneer of a 'No Hassle Night'. Now, probably the most deserting, haunting, spooky and chilling song of the album and probably the most bluesy track that Jack has ever believed in, the most raunchy vocal performance I've ever heard from Alison as she bellows 'Will There Be Enough Water?' well, I hope for their sake there isn't, because if there wasn't enough water for this group, I'd gladly let them go thirsty, if they pull out classic tracks like 'Will There Be Enough Water?' which is surely a track Bob Dylan would envy.
In conclusion to this devilish experience of music, The Dead Weather pull out all their weapons when it comes to experimenting with the blues. They execute and time nearly everything to perfection apart from the odd song or two. This is what music has been missing, people who are in touch with blues and people that are out of touch with themselves as they feel that music is all that matters, just as Jack White and look at his music schedule! If people thought blues rock was dead, then think again, because this super group has brought what the great Robert Johnson brought to the world and what was that?... well I repeat once more, he and they, brought the blues.
4/5
Linus Broadbent. (15/07/09)
P.S. Considering this review was wrote on the 15th of July and I created this blog, on the 26th, it would suggest that I wrote the review before this blog, just in case you got confused.
So the album stars of in slow motion, as Alison screams she's 60 feet tall, not only does '60 Feet Tall' prove The Dead Weather are tight. It also proves that Alison isn't afraid of the great task she's undertaken, fronting a band that's not been fronted by Jack White, that's a hard duty to carry out. Still, '60 Feet Tall' teases it's listeners continuously, as it drifts in and out of racing pulsing tempo's to a slow come down. Dean Fertita (from Queens of the Stone Age) shows his art of guitar playing, as he drives in these pulsing solos in our faces and stops when the time is right, when we have to come down from the high he's given us.
As the album progresses, we reach 'Hang You From The Heavens', the leading single from 'Horehound'. Does it disappoint? Probably not, it's certainly a grower, as Alison wants to 'Drag you by the hair and hang you up from the heavens'. This song is definitely a worthy lead single, especially for an album that was just cut in three weeks. The second single however, 'Treat Me Like Your Mother', now this is the blues isn't it? This is rock n roll huh? As Jack belts out 'Who's got it figured out?' well who has got it figured out? Certainly Jack has, the drumming in this song is simply superb, as it throws itself into crescendos more than it slows down.
To the down points of the album, which there isn't many, if any at all. But songs like 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' and 'New Pony' are certainly songs they could have missed out on. Seeing how 'New Pony' was a Bob Dylan cover, they could have easily put in the b-side of the single 'Hang You From The Heavens' cover of Gary Numan's 'Are Friends Electric?' in place of it. 'New Pony' simply sounds messy all over, although not something good ol' Bob D' would be disgusted about, but it simply falters. 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' on the other hand, the only song on the album that has been solely wrote by Jack White, which turns out to be probably the weakest song of the album. It gives of the 'filler' feel to it, the lyrics are hardly present if noticeable at all. The instrumentation on the other hand is even worse, it basically doesn't turn up and everything sounds of key and the music doesn't fit around the lyrics, never mind fitting with itself.
As the album draws to a close, it brings out the gems in it and possibly the brilliance out of each individual member of this supreme super group. 'Bone House'? Where did that come from? The groovy electronic intro might prove otherwise, but it shoots of the blues in a flash, as soon as you might freak out about the heavy use of Synthesizers and organ's, the guitar work from Dean shows up once more along with Jack Lawrence's fitting and smooth elegant bass lines. Jack's timed perfection in his percussion skills blows the skin out of the water while Alison smokes everything out with her haunting and chilling voice that would send the devil crazy itself. The later half of the album continues to grow strong, as we approach 'No Hassle Night'. Goth blues. This is what Jack White wanted wasn't it? He wanted something different in his hectic music schedule and damn well got it in this track. This song grooves and slides along the path of grinding rock, which fits in brilliantly with Alison's vocals again, as she groans along to the music of her peers with her sneer of a 'No Hassle Night'. Now, probably the most deserting, haunting, spooky and chilling song of the album and probably the most bluesy track that Jack has ever believed in, the most raunchy vocal performance I've ever heard from Alison as she bellows 'Will There Be Enough Water?' well, I hope for their sake there isn't, because if there wasn't enough water for this group, I'd gladly let them go thirsty, if they pull out classic tracks like 'Will There Be Enough Water?' which is surely a track Bob Dylan would envy.
In conclusion to this devilish experience of music, The Dead Weather pull out all their weapons when it comes to experimenting with the blues. They execute and time nearly everything to perfection apart from the odd song or two. This is what music has been missing, people who are in touch with blues and people that are out of touch with themselves as they feel that music is all that matters, just as Jack White and look at his music schedule! If people thought blues rock was dead, then think again, because this super group has brought what the great Robert Johnson brought to the world and what was that?... well I repeat once more, he and they, brought the blues.
4/5
Linus Broadbent. (15/07/09)
P.S. Considering this review was wrote on the 15th of July and I created this blog, on the 26th, it would suggest that I wrote the review before this blog, just in case you got confused.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
