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.
Wednesday 26 August 2009
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
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