Music means a huge amount to me. It always has. It sustains me through the bad times and makes the good times even better. Here's my latest purchases / gig reviews.
Right from the outset, this bursts into your eardrums like a stab of an aural hypodermic. This band is very guitar-oriented, but what I immediately notice is the very tight sharp drumming (check out the ending to the final track, Forever and Always), backed up by great rhythm guitar and bass. I do like a lower-down sound for background unlike some of the rawk/metal bands who seem to go for a style using the final tiny frets right up the top of the neck - not me - there's a whole neck, use it! Which these guys do admirably. Drums follow the usual BFMV pattern of hard on the on-beat with the twin guitars picking up the off-beat (or vice versa). The guitar sound is driven and precise with little unnecessary bravura. Vocals are clear and well-balanced with the rest of the band - even the rough-screamy stuff - although lyrics are standard fare (battles, lightning, devils). They don't seem to be a band that goes heavy on studio effects to fill out the sound and I can imagine their live delivery is as complete as this album sounds. Very tight sound, but restrained enough to let the music work rather than thrashing around egotistically. A stonking band Britain should be proud of and one which easily rivals some of the current US greats.
I was first introduced to this band by a fellow tube enthusiast (in fact a District Line driver!) whose son is one of the guitarists. Sadly, I should say was, as this band is no more. Another band who were signed, not promoted and broke up in frustration. Their sound is very crisp and melodic, with some gorgeous vocal harmonies. Several stand-out tracks, such as Keep Me In Your Heart, The Letting Go and You Could Be The Light. The overall flavour is Crowded House meets an acoustic Nickleback with shades of Del Amitri and even Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and 10,000 Maniacs - check out Let My Love Be Your Shelter and Making Plans as perfect examples (great snare sound in the former, nice strings addition to the latter). Modern folk as it should be done. And hooray for having the bravery to say 'bathroom' with a Southern accent :-)
Quietdrive are an American band in the same mould as All American Rejects, Fall Out Boy and You Me At Six; loosely defined as pop-punk but their sound is more akin to me of indie-pop, probably because of my British ears, although I can hear how the sound derives from bands like Sum 41. M calls them 'whingey teenage boys' but I think they feature great lyrics, some really fun tracks on both albums and nicely balanced vox and instrumentation. Vocals tend to be harmonised to major or minor thirds with guitar tending to semi-quavers and bass/drums thunking along enthusiastically, which gives an exciting, belting, full sound. I can imagine live they're enormous fun and the crowd would have a damn good stomp, with some cracking sing-along romps like Take a Drink and Maybe Misery from the first album, and Daddy's Little Girl, Believe and Birthday from no. 2. I am currently *obsessed* with the brief burst of terrific harmonies from around 2:45 on the closing track of Deliverance, the gorgeous Starbright. I have personal reasons for loving the lyrics in particular, but that harmony - I kid you not, I just drove home and repeated that burst of harmony close to twenty times :-D
Covering Cyndi Lauper's Time after Time on their first album was a stroke of genius: it's thoughtful version as befits the song, part gentle, part thrashy, but it well suits the nature of the band. Being so well known, I can imagine the song caught the imagination of quite a few folks who (like me) know and love the original as well as new listeners. Of the two albums, I do prefer the latter - not sure why; possibly just second-album confidence. It grabs the listener's attention right from the opening beat, with track after track of tight, driving punch. Lyrically, both albums contrast well with the pace of the backing; lots of introspection, doubt and anxiety contrasting well with the pace of rhythm and insistent guitar. Incidentally, check out the acoustic version of Motivation on Youtube.
Ironically, I never have a quiet drive when listening to this band while on the road; I'm too busy singing along and bopping. :-D
I was drawn to this by the title track, a cover of the Black song from the 1980s, and thought I'd take a punt on the whole album. I was initially sceptical because of the diva-esque Céline Dion associations; not my cup of tea at all. Partly this comparison is because she's multilingual, with a mother tongue of Belgian French. Set this all aside, however; this singer really is good, startlingly so - possibly because the vocals show emotion and depth, not a plastic and surface-level regurgitation of noise. The standard mix of ballads, love songs and aspirational, soaring vocals, but done to an exceptionally high standard. Her deep voice is subtle and precise; the mid-range capable of restraint all the way to full force. This collection of songs doesn't play on her vocal talents so much as provide a vehicle in which they can come out if need be. And this, I think, is the key success for this album - there's only so much full-on power balladry I can tolerate before I just want to hear some good songs. Lara doesn't seem to fight with her backing for supremacy, but rather to complement them and allow the musicians providing the base to show their talents too. And I have to say, it was the guitar intro to Wonderful Life that first made me listen to her music!
The first of these two albums was released on an independent label and is a bit rough-and-ready. Few stand-out tracks, good clean guitar and drum sound, much more rocky than their 'headline' track (yes, the old fave Chasing Cars) and the sound for which they're now known. It features 14 tracks and the version I have has a further nine bonus tracks which makes it a bit of a slog to get through. Absolute Gravity is kind of fun with quirky little sound-effects and a blindingly noisy bit of guitar in the middle (yum) while NYC has much more of their later sound coming through. Overall, this album seems to be having a hard time deciding if the sound will be indie or rock, noisy or melodic, and quite how to make the lead singer's voice fit the style.
Who knows if that's the production or the band themselves, though? By the time Eyes Open came along, they'd managed to get all this sorted and down pat. From the opening bars you notice immediately that all parts have a cohesion and drive which the previous output seems to lack. The vocals have harmonies added which give them a lot more depth and punch, and the mix seems to have promoted them to the fore a touch more. The guitars have retained their roughness which from my point of view is bang on the mark; they've developed very much their own sound and identity. My only one down track is Set the Fire to the Third Bar which might surprise some; I'd just like the unison vocals to split into harmony at some point and for the song to evolve and do something, rather than just plod along in the same vein. And as for that song, yes, the one radio stations up and down the country kept playing in the whole of 2007, it's a great slice of music despite prompting many pub arguments about the grammar of the whole 'if I just lay here' thing (argument: it should be 'if I just lie here'; defence: it's talking about a hypothetical situation which often takes the past tense form, and it's redeemed by 'would you lie with me' which proves that the lyricist knows the difference between 'lay' and 'lie'. Unlike Alanis Morissette and Avril Lavigne, amongst others). I'm glad it caught the mood of the moment, and it always brings a smile to my face when I hear it on pub jukeboxes. Unashamedly proper British indie, this, as it's supposed to be.
I first heard Dirty Little Secret on Scuzz and KerrangTV, way back about four or five years ago, and wasn't initially that wowed by it - I liked it and it's fun, but when I got the album I was a bit sceptical as I'd Youtubed some of their other stuff and wasn't wholly sold on it. I also seem to remember being a bit put off by their singer's ineffable smirk in the video (which also features on the front cover of this CD). Buuut... it's been in my CD changer solidly for about six weeks solid now and I love it! Dirty Little Secret deserves to have had the commercial success it enjoyed, as it's a great track. Some of the tracks don't stand forward as much as others - inasmuch as some are faves and others are skippable - but there's none which is a duff. The version I got has a couple of bonus tracks, one called Eyelash Wishes and an acoustic version of Night Drive which are great extras.
Perhaps at first glance somewhat outside of my usual tastes, being a fusion of world music, dance, trance and rap, this is a collaboration between the two members of 1 Giant Leap and many musicians from around the world, all recorded on a laptop locally in places like Ghana, Senegal, India, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, UK, Turkey and Thailand. It's an album of great peace and solidarity, for me, showcasing how music talks a separate and common language away from all the politics and other nonsense and cuts through all of that to real beauty. I've always had a liking for bands like Galliano, Massive Attack, De La Soul and Arrested Development anyway, with the jazz and soul influence, and crossovers where someone from rock can join with someone from jazz or funk or hip-hop and produce something really quite startling, like Trout by Neneh Cherry which features Michael Stipe, or Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes with Youssou N'Dour. The contrasts really fit well and give me a buzz.
On that basis, this really does tick a lot of my boxes. The quality of musicianship is evident in every song, for once featuring real artists rather than sampled fragments of people emulating a particular cultural heritage. I was startled to realise who some of the contributors are - Michael Stipe dueting with Asha Bosle, anyone? Or how about Robbie Williams with Maxi Jazz? The female harmonies at the start of Ma'Africa always make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I love singing along to Braided Hair (even though mine's dead straight!) and dancing to Dunya Salam or Passion. It's obvious that the basis is electronic, but so many other instruments and voices have been woven in and layered through that to be honest it's not at all false. The whole project hangs together with a perfect cohesion and it delights me every time I listen to it. There's really not a duff track on it. Go buy it!
Odd band, this. Another of the pop-punk genre who call themselves a rock band. Yes - definitely more rock than pop, with almost identical lead vocals to Fall Out Boy and Quietdrive (no surprise to learn, then, that they covered Sugar We're Goin' Down as a B-side). But - hooray! they're British! From Surrey, no less. That was quite a surprise for me, as they are so similar to their American counterparts. Musically, it doesn't grip me as much as F.O.B. or QD, but that shouldn't put you off from giving them a punt. I always get a sense that they're racing slightly ahead of the drums and bass and the lyrics aren't always as crisply delivered as perhaps they could be. I've heard tinges of roughness in the singer's voice which could really do with coming out some more and giving their sound a bit more of edge. Great backing vocals and the lyrics certainly aren't as poor-little-me as QD although covering much the same territory. Heh - the Brits have bollocks ;-) To be fair, I've probably not given this band much of a chance, and I will be looking out for their newest album which - as of Feb 2010 - has just been released. Watch this space.
Very American band, this, with a large basis in the southern blues/rock sound starting from the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Stevie Ray Vaughn: no surprise, then, to find our they're from Kentucky. On that basis, perhaps this is an unusual choice for me, with my preference for punk/goth/grunge-derived noise-meisters. I bought this on the basis of the great riff starting up Please Come In (available on Youtube) which Black Stone Cherry have managed to incorporate seamlessly in a great track, unlike some bands who stumble on a killer riff then don't know what to do with it. Tight, cohesive, well-balanced and crisp, here's a band who really know how to play together. Cute dual-guitar riff on the opening track, with some good clear vocals and harmonies, and a lovely tinny snare sound and solid bass. Lyrically, I felt I got more out of the whole package by knowing what they were singing; some bands really kill their sounds by having daft lyrics. Take some time to read the lyrics while you listen and you'll find way more than at first meets the ear. When I was first listening to this album I was a bit dismayed after Please Come In, but it really has grown on me. I was a bit put off by the cheesy Things My Father Said, but at the same time I'm able to appreciate the sentiment and have respect for it musically. All of the tracks, bar none, starts well and develops solidly; there are no real duff tracks at all. Overall, I think this might appeal more to those into 'classic' rock (I am loathe to use the phrase 'old-skool' as I don't really know what that defines) - folks who like the 60s and 70s bands such as Led Zep, Deep Purple, Jeff Healey, Gary Moore and Aerosmith. But for a first-level entry into the genre, you can't do far wrong with this one.
Filter, filterfilterfilter... ahhhhhh... how I love and adore these two albums... A huge grin comes on my face when I slap either of these on the stereo! Guitars are rough and feedbacky, layered with effects, drums are sharp and insistent, bass is powerful. Vocals range from ice-cold fury, to pleading hurt, to harsh and hoarse. From the moment the first bars of Amalgamut slammed out of my speakers, I was leaping round the room making a complete tit of myself punching imaginary foes and thrashing around like a spaz, but boy did I feel good! The music is generated by a lot of hate and anger, and when done right fills me with such a buzz I could run round the block four times straight. Even the quieter, more acoustic tracks such as Where Do We Go From Here and World Today are still powerful anthems to pain and despair. Maybe hearing a band creating an audio version of the hell I go through at times is a kind of succour and catharsis. It certainly made me laugh when "Motherfuckerrrrr! You're gonna die, you fucking piece of shit!" yelled out of my car stereo next to some little old peeps <evil grin>! Even now when I listen to Almagamut I hear new things, a chord progression, a layer of effects, a drum pattern. To my shame, I've not given Title of Record half as much airplay as Amalgamut - I've just clicked with the latter somehow.
As for Title of Record, the earlier of these two albums, Filter's raw unadulterated anger is still in relatively embryonic state. In that sense, it reminds me of Radiohead's first album, Pablo Honey, which was derided by the British press of the time and got them labelled as 'Nirvana-lite'. Sure, it sets the scene for their later output, but when you hear The Bends, you know this is a band who have really worked it out. Ditto with Filter: there's something about Title of Record which doesn't quite have the same ferocity, direction or impact of later work. In fact, I'd go so far as to venture that while the 'teenagy' Radiohead realised their angst into an adult caught in a terrifying world of depression and mental disturbance, the teenagey Filter turned their angst into pure rage and vitriol. If you're the sort who likes to trace a band's development, then I'd recommend this; but if you prefer to hear the finished article, go for Amalgamut. Thoroughly recommended band.
I have a special thank you to make at this point: one of my students and I got talking about the music on his iPod and discovered lots of similar tastes. He recommended this band to me and I didn't follow it up. He reminded me a few weeks later and I made the effort to write it down and chase it up. I'm bloody glad I did - nice one, Kieran! (Unfortunately, I got all over-enthusiastic and started bouncing around all sorts of stuff on YouTube and Amazon, and ended up spending £120 on CDs. Yowp!)
OK, so onto the record. After I first finished listening to it, I found myself quite annoyed that there's only six tracks. I want more! (Later edit: I have got more.) After a short introductory track, the well-put-together and brilliantly-mixed In Search Of Salvation bursts out. Great vocal balance between sung harmonies and shouty backing yells - reminds me a lot of Bullet For My Valentine. So Who Said Romance Was Dead features some fab bursts of staccato guitars and drums. Each track features some very accomplished guitar playing, although it struck me that occasionally they tend to race a little compared to the drums, which is common with 15-year-old players but quite surprising in a band of this calibre. Maybe I just have pants hearing. It seems that Rise From Your Grave is a fave of fans, as it featured on their earlier EP too - no surprise there, it is a cracking track. Overall, this is clearly a band with a future, and long may they last.
This is the album whose track Heartbeats was used for that Sony Bravia advert - you know, the one with all the millions of coloured balls bouncing down a street in San Fran - and yes, this is partly why I bought it. It appears to be just González and an acoustic guitar, as there is only one credit to another person, the trumpeter on Broken Arrow. Quite often his voice is tracked, and he uses a gentle percussion or soft clapping in the background. The guitar-playing reminds me of early Suzanne Vega; not surprisingly Lene Marlin's early stuff also puts me in mind of Vega, and even less surprisingly both Marlin and González are Scandinavian. On occasion his vocals are so soft and quiet as to be almost indistinguishable, but a few others are quite punchy. The overall effect is lulling, peaceful, intriguing; like lying under a tree in the summer staring up at multi-shifting patterns of green.
This is Lakeman's latest offering (2008) and was bought after I saw him live in London in September of that year. It's rather different from Freedom Fields (see below), with less of a classic folk focus; still strong throughout with the fiddle, which of course is his primary instrument, but with odd introductions such as slide guitar on Feather in a Storm and hurdy-gurdy on Blood Red Sky. Sparkling mandolin and banjo is scattered here and there, along with his characteristic guitars with odd tunings. His West Country roots are still drawn on greatly with yet another shipwreck song; that sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but far from it, it just reflects the world he lives in and rightly so should he include it in his music. I like the way he takes events both ancient and recent and gives them a new setting, rather than just repeating or reworking existing traditional folk songs - which is a great endeavour, don't get me wrong, but I love hearing this genre develop and learn. There are a few touches of American folk and bluegrass threaded through the album, particularly in Race To Be King and Feather In A Storm, touches which really do the trick. And as for the live Seth? Superb - stonkingly, stompingly great. One track he did solo - him and his fiddle - he was so out of breath afterwards he could barely thank the audience! He really put a huge amount into the performance. Go see!
I've been into Suzanne Vega since hearing 'Marlene' on the radio in 1985. Back then she had such a sweet little voice, almost too shy and self-conscious for her own good. I mean, she still has a sweet little voice, but her music has grown in confidence and style over the years and her live show was very slick and well put-together. She did a great range of tracks from pretty much all her albums (I didn't catch anything from 'Days of Open Hand', I don't think, although I could be wrong). Her band was a drummer/percussionist and a bass player, although there were keyboards 'piped in' from offstage somewhere. She also did a track (or two, possibly) from her new album, I'll be looking out for that! She did two encores, which were very, very welcome.
The tracks were, to the best of my memory, Song of David (Rock in this pocket), If you were in my movie, Frank and Ava, Cracking, Pornographer's Dream, Calypso, When Heroes Go Down (which touchingly she forgot the lyrics for!), Gypsy (my all-time favourite - such a surprise to hear it, I almost burst into tears), Dreaming of Karen (?), Penitent, Fat Man & Dancing Girl, Left of Center, Blood Makes Noise, Solitaire, The Queen & the Solider, New York is a Woman, Luka, Tom's Diner, Marlene, All I have of you (?), Small Blue Thing and it Makes Me Wonder. I'm sure I have the titles to a couple of them wrong, so let me know if you can correct me.
Oh, such sweet, joyful, sunny music. I love this band. They hail from Mozambique and have all the usual African tight, vibrant harmonies and crisp, bright guitar-playing. I have to admit, I'm always fascinated by how people from different cultures can take an item - music, an instrument, a language - and turn it into something completely new. The rhythms are so catchy, you will find yourself bopping all over the house to this. The lyrics reflect living conditions where the band come from, and are therefore thought-provoking and sad, but hey, I don't speak mozambiquian so I can just feel pleased I gave these guys some income to help with their campaigning, and pretend the lyrics are about kittens or something.
Mould's latest offering, and oh what a joy to get him back playing guitar again, even if this album is a lot more melodic than I really prefer - I guess I would really label myself as a SUGAR/Hüsker Dü fan (even though I have every one of Mould's solo albums - even Loud Bomb stuff, lol) - but there are still some solid alternative rock tracks on there, such as Return to Dust and Stupid Now. I dunno - his knack for melody gets me suckered every time. I will always rate his guitar sound as my favourite evereverever, even when I'm a littleoldperson shouting at the garlic in Sainsbury's. I read a review that he had broken up with his long-term partner and was only now, in his mid 40s, discovering what most gay men do in their early 20s, hence tracks like Who Needs To Dream? Mould often writes bitter lyrics, lyrics of failure of relationships, loss of trust and broken heartedness, and this album is no exception in that respect. Even at the end of an ode to love and beauty (Old Highs, New Lows) he manages to squeeze in a line about trying 'to ignore the decay'. From my point of view, this is a core part of his song-writing, and has been since his Hüsker Dü days. But oh my good giddy aunt, what was he thinking of, when he decided to rhyme 'California' with 'tried to warn ya'? Is that a crime? My best mate Ade doesn't think so, but at 256 Towers the jury's out... Aww well, it's still fantastic to have the 'old Bob' back, the one who ends every line with 'yeah' and who ends his songs properly like everyone should. I'm still waiting for another aural orgasm like Panama City Motel, but once is enough for me, and if I ever yearn it I always get side-tracked by Believe What You're Saying, Gee Angel, Your Favorite Thing, If I Can't Change Your Mind, Hear Me Calling, Paralyzed.... shall I stop now before the froth from my mouth makes my keyboard icky?
I could not stop listening to Dance Dance and Sugar, We're Goin Down last summer, so I finally had to pick myself up a copy. Now I can hear it on a decent stereo (hearing things on mp3 doesn't really cut it) I'm sure my neighbours are wishing I was stone deaf ;-) This band combine some highly catchy tracks with cute lyrics, tight instrumentation and indie/hardcore blends. Stonking drums (bass-drum heavy, yee, I love feeling my floor buzz). (No, you know what, I really don't care about the neighbours, they listen to stuff like Justin Timberlake.) I hate that this band are labelled emo, because that tends to mean that people could end up dismissing a seriously cool band. I mean, hey, they may be, but that's no reason to dismiss them out of hand, huh?
I am liking this. Sadly the band has split up, but I do think they had sorted their sound and could have gone forward a great deal with it. The music is very much in the Scuzz/Kerrang TV kind of mould, if you know what I mean, British hard rock/indie-gone-metal. Lots of graunchy guitar and thunking bass/drums, with good clear lyrics sung in a proper raawwk voice. Production could have been crisper, though... damn shame we'll never get to hear where they could have gone. Right from the outset this collection shines, with the riff of Replica hooking me immediately and making this my personal stand-out track.
Ooo some good old stompy stuff. Again, a second album, which could have been overproduced as the band discovered that the record company has more money than sense and all that fame goes to their heads (I've yet to run out of bands who've fallen into this trap) but instead really consolidates their sound and makes them definably different. Don't believe it when people say he got his singing voice from Radiohead, it's actually heavily influenced by Jeff Buckley (and then, so was Thom Yorke). Some seriously good noise going on here. There's something about British indie rock which has a wonderfully menacing undercurrent, which I've yet to find in large doses in American equivalents. And yes, I know it's an old album, but I've intended to buy it for aaaages, despite having it on mp3 for yonks.
I bought this after hearing Mr Powder Blue Bread Box on Robert Elm's (rather splendid) BBC London 94.9FM radio show. That track has a quiet, understated tense innocence which really appealed to me. Some of the tracks feature accordion in quirky measures, which can bug you if you're not into that kind of thing, but Lullaby's vocals - quiet, reserved, gentle - really make this album soar. Her lyrics seem to be on the surreal, eccentric side, which hey, I like anyway. The album's been well-mixed and produced and is really not as overdone as most second albums tend to be.
Bought on a whim. I quite like it, but it has some very country overtones which are a bit cheesy, to me. Good strong female vocals.
I'm loving this, absolutely loving it! I'd never heard of him before. In fact, I can't quite remember how this album ended up in my Amazon basket. It might have been from one of those 'people who bought this also bought...' links, to be honest. It's very folky, but with a very modern twist. Apparently he's known for his fiddle-playing, but from my point of view I prefer the guitar basis of most of the songs on this album. I'll definitely be looking out some more. Current faves: Setting of the Sun; The White Hare.
Last updated: 03/05/2010
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