I first heard of Wonder Villains all the way back in 2009, after the band won a competition to support Oppenheimer at their final ever gig in the Limelight. When I heard the song that helped them to win the competition, "Oh Peter", I became instantly smitten. This was an uncynical, highly enjoyable pop song at its finest, and the fact that the song referenced one of my favourite TV shows at the time, Heroes, didn't hurt either. From that moment on, I knew that there was something special about these guys, and the singles they released and the dozens of times I saw them live in the intervening period only hammered home that point.
Now nearly five years after first falling for them, Wonder Villains have finally released their debut album "Rocky" (which takes its name from Rocky O'Reilly, who was involved in the production of the album). Having spent the last few years telling all and sundry about how awesome I believe the band to be (and believe me, I have done that a lot on this blog), there's always the worry that when the album is released, I will have set my expectations too high and as a result I will be underwhelmed by it. So, having heard "Rocky", how would I describe the album?
The answer - bloody marvellous.
The album starts as it means to go on with the day-glo pop sound of "TV". This is then followed by the more measured sound of "Blonde" before plunging head first into "Zola", which is one of the highlights of the album. Why its chorus of 'the keeper said to Zola, you're dead when this is over, and you're out until October' hasn't been adopted as a nationwide terrace chant yet is a mystery, but given its recent re-release, there's still hope for it. The band's traditional live opening song "33" comes up next (quite surprising that it's track 4 rather than the opening song), before we get to what is quite possibly my favourite 'new' track recorded for the album.
"Golden Five" is one of the more complex songs on the album with it's many key and tempo changes, but at its heart is a fantastic pop song, one that sits somewhere in between "The Look" by Metronomy and "Boys Don't Cry", complete with irresistible "ba ba ba" hooks that have left it permanently lazered in my brain since I first heard them play it live last year. I've been lobbying for it to be released as a single since then, so even if it doesn't make the jump, it's still great to finally have a studio recording of the track.
The band's penchant for pop-culture referencing remains ever-present on the album. Aside from the aforementioned "Oh Peter", which has been re-recorded to make it more 'band' sounding, there's the Blondie-referencing "Debbie", a tribute to Jason Segal's character in How I Met Your Mother in the form of the hyper-fun "Marshall", "Baby Don't Look So Sad", a song that takes the form of an open letter to Bruce Springsteen, and "Ferrari", a song that contains the band's most memorable lyric - I swapped my brother for a Pokémon card, a shiny Charizard."
Aside from a few minor quibbles (I do feel that "Linklater" sounds better when performed live rather than on record), "Rocky" by Wonder Villains is a fantastic debut album of fun filled, huperactive pop songs of the highest calibre. It is evertyhing I wanted in an album by Wonder Villains, and much, much more. Show me a better pop album released in 2014, and I will show you a liar.
Bridie Jackson & The Arbour are a folk four-piece from Newcastle. Although they released their first album back in 2012, it has only really been in the past twelve months that they have really started to take off. They've released several well-received singles, beat out over 8,000 other bands to win a slot at Glastonbury, recorded sessions on BBC Radio 2, and somewhat oddly, won a North-East Museum Award. All this has culminated in the release of their sophomore album, "New Skin".
The first thing that really stands out on "New Skin" is Bridie's vocals. As I mentioned last year when reviewing their single "Prolong" (which makes an appearance on this album), "Bridie Jackson could sing from the directory of phone directories, and still we would hang on to every single syllable as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world". This can be heard throughout the album, be it on the album's string laden title track, the sinister-playful musings of "Scarecrow", or the closing track "One Winter Evening", Bridie has a voice that warrants attention, one that really speaks to the heart, whether those feelings are of the dark, or of the light.
There's a few other great tracks on the album that are worth highlighting. "Diminutive Man" is perhaps the closest thing to an 'upbeat' track on "New Skin", with its country-ish bent, handclaps and fiddle coming off like a close companion to Laura Marling circa "A Creature I Don't Know". Meanwhile, "Sandgate Dandling Song" sees the band take an obscure folk song, originally written by a 19th century Tyneside musician, and reinterpret it through their own haunted, closed-harmonised gaze. In all honesty the song seems somewhat out of place with the other songs on the record, but in spite of this (or possibly because of it), it is the most irresistible tracks on it.
"New Skin" by Bridie Jackson & The Arbour is a fine example of the more haunting, introspective side of English folk music. It may not be the sort of album that is easy to get into on first listen, but if you give it time to grow, and immerse yourself it the worlds created within it, you will uncover something very special indeed.
Released: 5th May 2014 - available to purchase from the band's website.
Highlights: "New Skin", "Diminutive Man", "Sandgate Dandling Song".
It's been two years after Japanese trio Shonen Knife released"Pop Tune", showing that more than 30 years into their career, they still have the knack for crafting crackingly good pop-punk tunes. Now in 2014, the band give us "Overdrive", their 20th release in all. This time around, the band have expressed their desire to pay homage to 70s hard rock, and as such the album takes a back-to-basics approach, with no computers or keyboards in play, just guitars, bass, drums and vocals. So does this mean that this isn't a typical Shonen Knife album?
Thankfully, the answer is no. The tone may be different, but this is still the same band that we have come to know and love. The album kicks off with "Bad Luck Song", a song that owes a certain debt to Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town", yet has a playful tone to it as lead singer Naoko wonders if songs that are supposed to be bad luck actually might be the opposite. Next up is "Black Crow", and a rock song title like that, you might imagine that the titular crow might be a harbinger of doom, or a metaphor for the destructive habits of mankind. But no, the worst thing this bird does is keep Naoko from falling asleep.
Shonen Knife have been known to write songs around two main things - food and cute animals, and unlike "Pop Tune", this album has plenty of songs about both. "Ramen Rock" sees bassist Ritsuko tell of her love of post-gig noodles, "Fortune Cookie" is about the titular biscuit and their precognitive powers, whilst the best of the food trilogy is "Green Tea". The song features one of the most memorable, bad ass ascending/descending guitar riffs on the album, as drummer Emi sings about all the food she loves that contain green tea, including ice-cream, cookies and chocolate.
On the animal front, we have "Like A Cat", a great little song in which Naoko imagines what it's like being a feline. There aren't many bands that can get away with lyrics like "Meow meow meow, spend your days like a cat", but it is a testament to the charm of Shonen Knife that we love them all the more for it.
"Overdrive" may be Shonen Knife's version of a heavy-rock record, but at its heart, it is still a Shonen Knife album - full of all the fun, silliness and good times beneath its sludgier veneer that one comes to expect from the trio. It might not be as strong an album as its immediate predecessor "Pop Tune", but it still a worthy addition to the band's catalogue.
The release of the debut album by Belfast's Ed Zealous has been a long time coming. After all, they were being tipped for greatness as far back as 2008, and by 2012 it seemed as if they would never even get to the stage of releasing a full-length. They proved the doubters wrong by releasing an onslaught of new singles over the space of a year, and now in 2014 the band are releasing "Wired", which has been produced by Eliot James, who has previously sprinkled his pixie dust on records by Bloc Party & Does It Offend You, Yeah?. So does the album live up to the anticipation?
Yes. Yes it does.
Let's start with the singles. "Medicines", arguably the song that helped to boost their profile outside of Northern Ireland. is a storming slice of scuzzy electro-rock with a great big chorus. "Thanks A Million" sounds like a song that The Killers would be too scared to put their name towards (in a good way obviously). "Telepaths" is shred-tastic, whilst "Diamonds For Eyes", a song which has picked up a decent following on the blogosphere in the past month since its promotion from buzz track to fully fledged single, is the strongest of the lot, possibly because it's so sonically different from the others.
Which leads me on to one minor quibble with the album. The majority of the songs seem to fit into the same musical archetype - songs with fizzy, dirty electronics, pounding drum beats, great big choruses and a mid-tempo pace seem to dominate the album, with "Talk With Yours Hands", "These Words" and closing track "This Is Not The End" fitting nicely into this pattern. Of course, in the hands of Ed Zealous each of these tracks still sounds rather good in isolation, but over the course of an album a tiny bit more variety would not have gone amiss.
That's not to say that they don't try different things on the album. The album's opener "147" is what one might imagine The Prodigy would sound like if they ever tried their hand at an indie-rock tune, "I Will Destroy You" is like a less-shouty version of Crystal Castles, whilst the cheekily-titled "Videohead" sees the band tackle drum & bass with much aplomb, and must surely be a contender for single status once the album comes out.
It's been a long time coming, but "Wired" has been long worth the wait. Although the band do seem to play it slightly safe at times, the album is a great demonstration of their electro-rock nouse. Whilst it is still early in the year, you'd be a fool not to put money on "Wired" by Ed Zealous being named one of the best albums from Northern Ireland from the year come December time.
Released - 3rd February 2014
Highlights - "Medicines", "Diamonds For Eyes", "Videohead".
As far as record labels go, there's not many out there that can compete on coolness and hipness with French label Kitsuné. Having launched in 2002, its output is just as likely to be sold in Urban Outfitters as it is in your local record store, and to date label has put out acclaimed records by artists such as Is Tropical and Digitalism.
However, the label is perhaps best known for its relationship with Two Door Cinema Club. The appearance of "Something Good Can Work" on their incredibly popular "Kitsuné Maison 7" compilation album in 2009 is credited with introducing the band to a wider audience, with the 2 subsequent studio albums they recorded on the label turning them into global superstars. TDCC have now flown the coop and signed to Parlophone, but the release of their latest compilation album, "Kitsuné Maison 15", shows that the label still has the ability to scout out potential future superstars.
And rather excitingly, on this compilation Kitsuné have seemingly decided to fill the TDCC-sized hole by putting a fellow Northern Irish band on the tracklist. Having noted last year that their song "Voices" had a bit of the French touch to it, Belfast band Go Wolf have earned a place on "Kitsuné Maison 15" with a re-recorded version of that song. The song's as funky and gloriously uplifting as ever, and if the positive blog reception it has received in the past few weeks is anything to go by, it could be the start of Go Wolf's very own journey to international stardom.
A few other acts who've previously appeared on this blog pop up on "Kitsuné Maison 15". Judi Dench's favourite band, Years & Years, contribute "Traps", which as we've noted before, is a song that goes from artsy to dancey within the space of 3 minutes. Hotly tipped Brighton group The Wytches feature on the bonus track with the acoustic "Summer Again", which unfortunately is nowhere near the high standard the band had set themselves with "Beehive Queen".
In terms of highlights, aside from aforementioned "Voices" and "Traps", the most enjoyable tunes on the album are "Deezy Daisy" by Portland, which is the sort of irresistible dance-pop song that Groove Armada only wish they were still capable of making, and the wonderful "Scared" from Swedes Nonono, a song that Portishead might have recorded had they been aiming for the dancefloor instead of the dinner party. "Kitsuné Maison 15" should easily serve its aim at introducing new and eclectic artists across a range of genres, placing them firmly on the lips of music lovers for the foreseeable future. As a result, expect to hear a lot more from Antimatter People, Dillon Cooper, and, here's hoping, Go Wolf over the next year.
Coney Island Sound is the project of Ewan Gordon, a Northern Irish native who's now based in sunny Northumberland. A self-described experimental electronic folk artist, he mixes toy pianos and keyboards with found percussive sounds and guitar and string loops to create his coast-inspired music. Having released several singles over the past year, his debut full-length album, "Klang!", was released last month. Despite the esoteric nature of the release, it has picked up quite a bit of radio support, with Radio Ulster, 6music and XFM all supporting various tracks on the album. And it's not hard to see why the album has picked up such support.
"Klang!" is made of happiness.
The album starts off with "Introducing Mr Kellogg", a track which is built around a riff which appears to have been composed on an old mobile phone, to which the sounds of music boxes, birdsong, subtle percussion and string loops are added to create a cacophony of musical loveliness. The other main highlight of the album is "The Lemonade Song". The track is one of the few tracks on the album to feature vocals, albeit vocals which have been somewhat warped to the point where they become more atmospheric than melodic, coming off like a great successor to the music of Lemon Jelly.
Although those songs are the highlights of the album, it should be noted that the album works much better as a whole rather than dissecting each track individually (although from this blog's perspective, it's nice to see tracks titled "Nautical By Nature" and "Romaji"). "Klang!" by Coney Island Sound is 52 minutes of relaxing, soul soothing, largely instrumental music which makes life that little bit happier. Fans of artists like Lemon Jelly, Penguin Cafe Orchestra & The Go! Team's instrumental interludes will find much to like here, but in truth Coney Island Sound stands up as a highly original piece of work in its own right. You will be hard pressed to find an album like it this year.
Release Date: 12th August 2013
Highlights: "Introducing Mr Kellogg", "The Lemonade Song", "Science & Health".
"Joy of Nothing", the new album by Bangor born Foy Vance, has been a long time coming. It's been six years since the release of his debut, "Hope", an album which has had an impact on many up and coming Northern Irish musicians. Just take a look at the influences lists of any artist from here with even the slightest folk tinge - 9 time out of 10, you'll find Mr Vance's name listed.
So with a bigger profile, and thousands of adoring ears awaiting his much anticipated sophomore album, the question is this - "What sort of album will Foy Vance have to offer us?" The answer, at least from this blog's humble opinion, is an album which is designed solely to rile up sniffy, "trendy" music critics.
Evidence for the Prosecution #1 - The album as a whole channels genres and sounds that certain critics just love to take umbrage at, with elements of folk, country, midwestern rock all cropping up throughout the 42 minute run time of "Joy of Nothing".
Evidence for the Prosecution #2 - With its unconventional chord progression, one of the songs on the album, "Paper Prince", seems to be Mr Vance's take on the sound of Radiohead circa "OK Computer". For most critics, especially those of the Pitchfork variety, only one band is allowed to sound like Radiohead, and that's Radiohead.
Evidence for the Prosecution #3 - The final track on the album, "Guiding Light", features guest vocals from Ed Sheeran, whom Foy became acquainted with after supporting him on his US tour. Given Mr Sheeran's current role as a critical punching bag (unfairly in my opinion), his appearance would give critics the opportunity to direct some of the negatives adjectives used to describe Sheeran directly at Mr Vance (eg. boring, bland, etc).
So the evidence for critical derision appears pretty damning, but has the album been received poorly? Quite the opposite, in fact. Aside from the odd review backhandedly comparing it to Mumford & Sons, most of the reviews for "Joy of Nothing" have been quite positive.
And it's not hard to see why, as it's a collection of ten songs from an artist who isn't afraid to wear his heart directly on his sleeve. From the opening piano-led salvo "Closed Hand, Full Of Friends", through to "At Least My Heart Was Open" and the string-laden "Regarding Your Lover", the album is a great mix of Springsteen-esque anthemics, folksy rock, and sincere, strong vocals from Foy Vance. And surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), it is the closing ballad, "Guiding Light", featuring the aforementioned Ed Sheeran, which provides the ultimate highlight of the set.
There is the odd track which doesn't quite make an impact - "Feel For Me" sounds too much like a Commodores album track, and not in a good way. But overall, "Joy of Nothing" by Foy Vance is a splendid little album which should find favour with those who like their music a little bit on the wistful side.
Released - 26th August 2013
Highlights - "Closed Hand, Full Of Friends", "Guiding Light", "Joy of Nothing".
Who would have thought this last time last year that many people's most anticipated album of 2013 would be from an artist that turns public information films into sleek, enjoyable tunes? Yet that is exactly what London duo Public Service Broadcasting have done with their debut album "Inform - Educate - Entertain".
For those not immediately familiar with PSB- it consists of J Wilgoose Esq. and his drumming amigo Wrigglesworth, who use vocal samples from archive films as a springboard for their musical excursions into the past. Over the 11 tracks, these include films covering the fashion industry, climbing mountains, car safety and the birth of colour TV.
What is particularly striking about the album is its sheer variety. When an album is centred primarily around vocal samples, it is possible that the music could end up very samey and repetitive. Thankfully, that is not the case on "Inform - Educate - Entertain." If it had to be pigeonholed into one genre, it would be electronic-rock, although even that would be inaccurate, with some songs being more rock-orientated and vice versa.
It is the more rock-orientated songs that end up being the strongest tracks on the album. Their most recent single, the car safety inspired "Signal 30", is a thundering rock track that wouldn't be out of place on a Queens of the Stone Age album, whilst "Spitfire" has one of the best guitar hooks that you're likely to hear on an album all year. There's also a playfully dark sense of humour to be found on these tracks - some of the vocal samples on "Signal 30" are hilarious when taken in isolation ("no drinking and driving...not even water"), and there's something profoundly ironic about the Krautrock influences on "Spitfire".
Of the more electronic-orientated songs, the highlight is "ROYGBIV", the Lemon Jelly-esque track that acted as an introduction to Public Service Broadcasting for many people last year. Slightly re-recorded for the album, the track is the most freeform tracks on the album, with the track evolving and moving in new directions at a whim. The introduction of the banjo line 50 seconds into the song is a particular highlight. Also of note is triumphant "Everest", which mixes Jan Hammer sounding electronics with a wonderful brass section, and the fashion inspired "Now Generation", which mixes a Prince-esque strutter with keyboards that wouldn't sound out of place on a Sega Megadrive game.
It also seems that one track on the album has opened the door to a new genre altogether. "Night Mail" is a track based around the Post Office, yet the way that the samples have been manipulated, it appears that the track is being "rapped" by the presenter, in what might just be the first recorded example of "Post-rap".
If the album has one weakness, it's that it's a rather short album. Although it has 11 tracks, one of these, "Qomolangma", is a short instrumental companion piece to "Everest" (Qomolangma being the Tibetan name for the mountain), whilst the title track is a megamix of the album's remaining songs. Even so, these are minor quibbles that don't detract from the enjoyment of the album.
"Inform - Educate - Entertain" by Public Service Broadcasting is definitely an early contender for album of the year. For an album based on such a narrow premise, it is a richly diverse album, a highly enjoyable one, and one which is very much unique.
The story of Suede has been recounted on many occasions, but here's a quick summary of how they got to where they are now - the band first achieved attention in 1992 when the graced the cover of Melody Maker before they'd even released a single, and released two critically acclaimed albums before the departure of guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler during the recording of "Dog Man Star". They replaced him with a 17-year-old guitarist and a keyboardist and released three more albums under this line-up, before splitting up in 2003 following the release of the much maligned yet underrated "A New Morning". The band members went on to different project before the post-1994 line-up reunited for a charity gig in 2010, turning it into a full reunion the next year.
Now, Suede have released their sixth studio album "Bloodsports", their first studio album in 11 years, and their first album with Ed Buller producing since "Coming Up" in 1996. With such a stellar back catalogue of hits juxtaposed with the long gap between releases, the question is whether the band will be happy to tread on past sounds, or whether they have progressed their material beyond what they have already recorded.
At first, the answer appears to have been a little bit of both. The opening track "Barriers" is unmistakably a Suede song, containing the guitar riffs and synth flourishes that mark some of their best songs, yet it also feels like a logical progression from lead singer Brett Anderson's most recent solo album. Likewise, "It Starts and Ends With You" is up there with some of the best pop moments of the band's career, yet has a remarkably original structure - depending on what way you approach the song, it is either entirely chorus-less or contains nothing but choruses. Plus it has one of the strongest guitar outros the band has ever committed to tape.
On the less pop-orientated end,"What Are You Not Telling Me" is a percussion-less conspiracy ballad, dominated by multi-tracked vocals which reach a paranoid conclusion. It does bear some sonic resemblance to their song "Daddy's Speeding", and it underpins a key flaws with the record.
It is incredibly familiar.
Take "Snowblind" for example. It's a good song, that's for sure, but it does sound quite similar to "Starcrazy". "For The Strangers" has lyrical nods towards one of their early b-sides, "To The Birds", and ends in a similar fashion to "By The Sea". "Hit Me" sounds like it has been pieced together from the best bits of "She", "Beautiful Ones" & "Electricity" to create a wonderful Suede collage. And it's hard to listen to "Sometimes I Feel Like I'll Float Away" without hearing "My Insatiable One" playing in the back of your head. Of course, there's nothing wrong with revisiting sounds as long as the end product is better than the original songs, it is just unfortunate that this is not always the case on "Bloodsports".
And even the unfamiliar has the potential to be disappointing. The slow-burning "Always" doesn't have a direct reference point amongst other Suede material (pun unintentional), but is the weakest song on the album. Listen carefully to the last few seconds of that song. It sounds like a Brett Anderson has been temporarily replaced by a Dalek. And on certain tracks (step forward "Sabotage" and "For the Strangers"), some of the guitar lines sound unmistakably U2-esque. For a band that has great pride in being regarded as outsiders, it is rather unsettling to hear them sound like the most commercial rock band in the world.
Don't get me wrong, "Bloodsports" is a good album. In parts, it is even fantastic. Brett Anderson hasn't sounded this good on record for at least fifteen years, and it contains songs that any other band starting out in 2013 would kill to have written. It is a much better album than "A New Morning", and is on a par, and possibly even better than "Head Music". The problem is that when you've released three albums as iconic and faultless as "Suede", "Dog Man Star" & "Coming Up", even a very good album is going to feel like an anticlimax. "Bloodsports" is great, yet it doesn't sound like the classic album that it had the potential to be.
Released: 18th March 2013
Highlights: "It Starts and Ends With You", "Barriers", "Hit Me".
Aghagallon-born Ciaran Lavery has been drifting about the Northern Irish scene for a few years now, firstly under his Captain Kennedy moniker and now under his legal name. The culmination of this work is is debut album, "Not Nearly Dark", an album which rather appropriately drops just as the days are beginning to get much longer.
The central sound of "Not Nearly Dark" is rather paradoxical. On the one hand, it sounds like it is a very intimate affair, as if Ciaran Lavery alone is in the room with you. Yet the album is largely a band-orientated one, with Mr Lavery being augmented by a traditional line-up, as well as strings and brass. This format is best exemplified by the opening and best track of the album "Little More Time", a folksy little number that whilst expansive, is underpinned by the gentle strum of the acoustic guitar.
The majority of the album follows this format, with a couple of exceptions. "Awful Love" starts with a simple kick drum/guitar combo which slowly builds up throughout the song, as if it's about to erupt into a cataclysmic anthemic climax. Instead, Lavery pulls the rug from under the listener's feet and allows the song to segue into the short organ interlude "Rest", before tapering out altogether. Normally allowing a song to end with a whimper rather than a bang would be somewhat unwelcome, yet on an album as vulnerable as "Not Nearly Dark" this seems to be somewhat appropriate.
The voice that carries the album is one that seems to match the instrumentation of the album. Ciaran Lavery has a voice that sounds somewhere in between E from Eels and Tom Waits, the sort of impure, rugged voice that could only come about from a life of emotional fragility. It is on tracks like the closing moments of "Follow You Down" that this really comes to the forefront.
"Not Nearly Dark" is an album that could best be described as dependable. If you like your songs folk-flavoured, expansive whilst lo-fi, and with emotions at the front and centre, then you will find a lot to like in Ciaran Lavery's debut album. And with similar offerings by artists like Ben Howard riding high in the charts, there couldn't be a better time for it to be released.
It's hard to believe that in 2013 we are now on to the 10th album release from Eels, the vehicle for the songs of Mark "E" Everett. Ever since shooting into the public consciousness in the late 90s with his alt-rock hit "Novocaine For The Soul", and since then has been releasing albums of a consistent quality, with "Electro-Shock Blues", the hopeful "Daisies of the Galaxy" and the primal "Hombre Lobo" being some of the strongest records in his back catalog. "Wonderful, Glorious" is the group's first album in three years, and sees Eels alternating between the familiar, the unfamiliar, and the downright unexpected.
"Nobody listens to a whispering fool", E informs us on the album's opening track "Bombs Away", which sets the stage for Eels' journey of the delicate, the rough, and everything in between. It's a brave introduction to the album, yet has a feeling of familarity about it, sounding like a slower, funkier version of "Cancer For the Cure".
And it is this feeling of familiarity that greets many of the songs on the record. As mentioned before, the album's lead track, "Peach Blossom", fits somewhere between the sound of "Souljacker" and "Hombre Lobo", "True Original" sounds like a retread of "Jeannie's Diary", whilst "Accident Prone" sounds very much like Eels by numbers.
That's not so say that this feeling of deja vu is detrimental to the record. The best song on the album, "On The Ropes", is a wonderful song about the light at the end of the tunnel, about not allowing yourself to let the world knock you down, which in many ways revisits the themes of "Daisies of the Galaxy". It is very much a song that would sound trite coming from other artists, yet when performed by Eels it most definitely works.
Despite this familiarity, the album does go off into unexpected territory and flights of fancy, particularly in the album's latter half. "Stick Together" sounds like the theme to a 70s gameshow into a hand-clap centric finale over the course of 3 1/2 minutes, whilst "Open My Present" contains a central guitar riff that wouldn't go amiss on the latest Jack White release. E leaves the biggest surprise for last though. The title track and album closer "Wonderful, Glorious", Sees E & co veer off into a strange amalgamation of funk rock and Beatles-eque psychedelia. It's a highly unexpected album closer, yet it feels strangely apt for a record of this sort.
"Wonderful, Glorious" is an album of great duality, showing that ten albums in, Eels have managed to find the right balance between comfort and shock, light and dark, and rough and smooth. It might not have the big hits of "Beautiful Freak", the immediacy of "Daisies of The Galaxy", nor the consistency of "Hombre Lobo", but it is an album that will find a place in the minds of E's devotees.
Released: 4th February 2013
Highlights: "Peach Blossom", "On The Ropes", "Wonderful, Glorious".
I recently got into a conversation with someone as to whether Mumford & Sons should really be considered a folk band or not. The person I was talking to argued that the sound of the band owes more to American bluegrass music than to the English folk tradition, and therefore should not really be considered to be folk, or 'nu-folk', at all.
This conversation sticks in the mind when it comes to reviewing "Black Bank", the second album by English group Straw Bear. On the surface, "Black Bank" may appear to be a quintessential English folk album. Yet this pigeonholing would be a disservice to their music.
There are some wonderfully folksy tunes on the album, that's for sure. The delicate sound of the album opener, "Kitty" is both wistful and hopeful at the same time, whilst "Quartermaster" is a song that wouldn't seem out of place at Ye Olde Renaissance Faire. However, there are aspects, both musical and lyrical, that give it an edge over other 'folk' artists.
This includes their ability to flesh out characters and situations that you feel empathy for. The titular "Kitty", for example, is described as the "archetypal artist...(who) only creates fantasies of stadium tours and celebrity dates", painting a picture of someone whose critical self-consciousness leaves her unable to reach her full potential.
Sometimes, their lyrical odysseys can be downright bizarre. "Urban Fox", a song that has more than a hint of Blur in it, is a tale about those noisy little critters keeping people awake at night due to their, to use a euphemism, over-activeness. That vocalist Ian Ray can sing about this without corpsing is a testament to his resolve, especially given the "angry Scottish monologue" that occurs halfway through the track. Another track on the record, "Cocker Pug", sees Ray compare himself and others to various breeds of dog over a sunny guitar riff, before settling on a springer spaniel (and definitely not a bulldog).
And then there are the songs that cannot in good conscience be considered folk at all. "Manana" sounds like the song that you would find as the last track on a Britpop compilation CD when the compilers couldn't get the rights to "Smile" by The Supernaturals and needed a less well known track to fill in the space at the end, which would eventually osmosisize into the wider world's psyche. And the closing track, the rocky romp "State of The Nation", sounds like a cross between the garage power of The Hives and the more reflective sound of The Guillemots. It's rare to see a band leave their best song to the very end of an album, but in this case it seems to work rather effectively.
"Black Bank" by Straw Bear is a rather odd beast indeed. It's an album that largely eschews the folk tradition, yet there is something typically British about it. In the end, the best way to describe is probably "Postmodern English folk". It is an album full of quirky gems that seem tailor made for repeat listening.
And by popular demand, this review will end with a pun. If "Black Bank" becomes successful, and artists begin to cite it as influence, does that mean those bands are Straw Bear-y flavoured?
Release Date: 10th December (purchase it from their official website here)
Highlights: "Kitty", "Cocker Pug", "State of The Nation".
"Ancient Mars" is the follow-up release from Canadian duo The Zolas. Having previously been members of cult indie-rockers Lotus Child, the group released their debut album, the cabaret inspired "Tic Toc Tic", back in 2009. According to the band, they have "traded in the cabaret glitz...for reverbed pianos and tough, minimalist production" in the intervening years, something which shines through over the album's 40 minutes.
The album kicks off with "In Heaven", a track which kicks off with a simple piano line, erupts in a chorus of guitar lines before reaching a serene conclusion. This is followed by the album's stand-out track, "Hole In My Heart", which features a glorious, ELO sounding chorus and wonderful lovelorn lyrics.
Elements of spaced-out rock with a pop aesthetic appear throughout the record, which is quite apt given its name. The title track is a blissed-out jam with lyrics about wanting to be able to travel back in time, whilst "Escape Artist" goes from sincere piano balladry into something slightly far out over its running time. "Strange Girl" is the closest the band get to a proper rock track, in spite of featuring a Wurlitzer throughout, and "Observer", the album's other big pop number, features some wonderful uses of dynamics.
The only real disappointing tracks on the album are the ones that have been left to the very end. The minimalist, lo-fi approach to "Cold Moon" remains somewhat distracting and out of place given the music that has preceded it, and whilst bonus track "Cultured Man" does improve things a little, it doesn't live up to the earlier tracks' promise.
"Ancient Mars" by The Zolas is a decent album by a group who don't consider pop to be a dirty word. It's a record that features great choruses and well thought-out production, yet one that doesn't feel artificial or laboured.
November is such a wonderful month. I don't know why it gets such a bad rep. It's probably Wycliffe Jean's fault for that, I suppose. But anyway, here's a few albums that will add buoyancy to The Metaphorical Boat this month:
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Muse - The 2nd Law
(Helium 3/Warner)
So much has been said about Muse's sixth studio album already that it's very hard to talk about it without retreading pre-existing arguments, so I apologize in advance if you've heard this all before. "The 2nd Law" is Muse's most eclectic album to date. And somewhat counter-intuitively, it is also Muse's most consistent album to date, even more so than "Black Holes & Revelations" (which in hindsight sounds a bit dated).
Whilst there are all the hallmarks of the 'classic' Muse sound, including lead single "Survival", and "Explorers", a song that sounds like it's on the verge of bursting into "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen at any moment, it does explore new territory for the band. This includes Faith No More-esque funk metal ("Panic Station"), James Bond theme tunes ("Supremacy"), and even their fabled descent into dubstep-rock ("Madness", "Follow Me" & the two part closer "The 2nd Law"). It also features the first writing/singing credits for bassist Christopher Wolstenholme. "Save Me" is a passable attempt at a rock ballad, whilst "Liquid State" sounds like a rockier version of Pendulum, complete with Auto-tuned vocals.
"The 2nd Law" will not be to the tastes of those who prefer their music subtle and understated, but for those who aren't afraid of the overblown, Muse's latest will be right up your street.
Released: September 2012
Highlights: Panic Station, Madness, Explorers.
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Lucy Rose - Like I Used To
(Columbia)
I absolutely adore Lucy Rose, and her debut album "Like I Used To", is a wonderful artifact of beauty, yet for some reason I always find it rather difficult to perfectly describe what her music sounds like. So I will try to describe it by way of analogy.
Listening to Lucy Rose is like having two comfort blankets being beamed directly into your ears. When she opens her mouth, it is as if the only person in the world she thinks is important is yourself, even if she's singing about something as pedestrian as going for a bike ride. There's a gentle fragility in her voice, which comes across in songs like "Lines" and "Middle of the Bed", which only serves to make her even more endearing.
Released: September 2012
Highlights: Lines, Bikes, Middle of the Bed.
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Rebekah Delgado - Don't Sleep
(Four In The Morning)
If you're one of those people who like their pop music to be rather doom-laden, then the debut album by London songstress Rebekah Delgado might be just up your street. Her debut album, "Don't Sleep", was inspired by her chronic insomnia, and therefore its no surprise that the album seems to inhabit that strange realm between the awake and the asleep.
Songs such as "Little Boy Blue" and the title track make it clear why she has been dubbed "the female Nick Cave" by some critics, with her striking vocals and gothic production style dominating each track. "The Hunger That Never Sleeps", meanwhile, recalls The Velvet Underground at their most experimental.
That's not to say that there aren't a few lighter moments on the record. The lead single from the album, "Ménage a Moi", which is a cheeky little ode about loving yourself, whilst "Sing Your Through The Storm" is a tender piano ballad, complete with a choir that could surely become in instant top 10 hit if Adele were to release it as her next single.
"Don't Sleep" is a confident debut album from an artist who is content to make music on her own, brooding terms.
Released: October 2012
Highlights: Little Boy Blue, Ménage a Moi, Sing You Through The Storm.
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Space Wolves - Space Wolves
(UT Records)
And finishing off this round-up is a quirky little album fromBuffalo band Space Wolves, which is available as a free download. Running at less that 20 minutes across its 13 tracks, its an incredibly brief album, albeit one that's full of wonderfully fun, lo-fi garage rock. The album combines Space Wolves' obsession with humanity's three great loves - love, food and parenthesizes. Think Guided By Voices with a pizza fetish and you're nearly there.
Released: October 2012
Highlights: Here's Pizza (Do You Love Me Too), Pizza Ice Cream (Is My Dream), I Saw You (With Your Boyfriend).
The sophomore album from Newcastle band Little Comets, "Life Is Elsewhere", has the sound of a band who have been given a new breath of life. Their debut album "In Search Of Elusive..." was released at the point where apathy towards British indie groups was at an all-time low, and went over the heads of many people. Subsequently, Mark Harle left the group in order to seek "gainful employment." Whilst all this might have been enough to bring a band to a grinding halt, the band used it as an opportunity to re-evaluate themselves and reformulate their sound.
The first fruits of their new approach arrived at the end of last year, with the release of "Worry", a song that mixed Afro-beat rhythmic structures with a massive chorus that seemed to have been appropriated from 80s mainstream pop (in particular, Steve Winwood's "Higher Love"). The band followed it up in June with the spectacular "Jennifer", which will most likely go down as the greatest song that Little Comets will ever record, with its mix of heartbreak, angst, and a guitar hook which hits straight for the heart. It is these tracks which set the blueprint for the overall sound of "Life Is Elsewhere."
One of the most noticeable things about "Life Is Elsewhere" is that it eschews the straightforward rock rhythms that dominated the debut in favour of more unorthodox structures. Given that it was the band's drummer that left the group, this seems a somewhat surprising development. These include drum patterns akin to Kate Bush's "Hounds Of Love" album ("Tense/Empty", "Semaphores on the Lawn"), Paul Simon's "Graceland" ("The Western Boy") or Vampire Weekend ("Worry", "Waiting in the Shadows of the Dead of Night"). In fact, the only song on the album that seems to be somewhat conventional is "Woman Woman", and that's a song that features no percussion whatsoever.
This new approach to songwriting has also helped to quell one of the flaws that marred Little Comets in the past, the vocals of lead singer Robert Coles. In the past, his idiosyncratic vocal style didn't seem to suit the music, which is one of the reasons why it took me about a year before I could get any further than 10 seconds into their song "Joanna". This time around, his vocals seem to suit the style of the music a lot better, especially given the lyrical content involved on "Life Is Elsewhere".
Despite some flourishes of pop moments on the album, including the "Worry" and "Bayonne", the album is something of a sombre, dark affair. The band's self-described "kitchen-sink indie" is in full force on this record, with tales of violence, deception, and hurt being on full display. "Bayonet" features lyrics about being shot in the back, whilst title of "In Blue Music We Trust" is pretty self-explanatory.
The darkest moment on the album by a long shot is "Violence Out Tonight", a striking story about the brutality of rape. As someone who abhors violence against women, this song is one that will strike a chord, and Little Comets should be commended taking a stand against such brutality, as well as making the fact known that many of the transgressors remain unpunished, in the following lyric: "the poor conviction rate for rape can often leave a woman feeling more at blame than able to talk about violence."
The 2nd album by Little Comets is one that sees them making seismic steps forward from their debut. "Life Is Elsewhere" is a mature offering of songs that are just as likely to make you think than move. It's an album that despite its bleakness, offers something reassuringly human at the centre. And it is an album that deserves to be listened to over and over again.
Released: 15th October 2012
Highlights: "Jennifer", "Worry", "W-O-E", "Violence Out Tonight".
When Mumford & Sons released their debut album "Sigh No More" back in 2009, no-one could possibly have predicted the monumental success that would greet it. Emerging from the much hyped London folk scene alongside artists such as Noah & The Whale, Laura Marling & Jay Jay Pistolet, Mumford & Sons towered well above their peers, with "Sigh No More" selling in excess of 1.2 million copies in the UK and spawning two massive hit singles, "Little Lion Man" & "The Cave". Bigger things were to come, with the album becoming a smash hit in America, going double platinum and leading to the band performing with Bob Dylan at the Grammys.
Three years later, and the band are gearing up to release their sophomore album, "Babel". Much has changed in the intervening years. Whilst their peers have gone off in different musical directions (N&TW going mainstream rock, Marling going country & Pistolet becoming lead singer of indie darlings The Vaccines), the "Mumford sound" has become somewhat ubiquitous, with hundreds of groups emerging that have followed their anthemic, literate folk blueprint to the letter. So the question surrounding the follow-up is this: do Mumford & Sons alter their sound at the risk of losing followers, or do they stick rigidly to the sound of their debut record?
Well, given that the lead single for this album, "I Will Wait", is a re-recorded version of a track that first featured on the b-side of "The Cave", the answer to this appears to be, for the most part, the latter. Anyone looking for "Sigh No More" Mk2 will be very pleased with this follow-up. Many of the trademarks of the Mumford & Sons sound can once again be found on this record. The instrument set-up of banjo/guitar/bass/drums remains largely unchanged. So too is the band's tendency to start a song rather muted, before bringing in the drums & banjo to bring the song to a rousing climax (c.f "Holland Road", "Lovers' Eyes", "Hopeless Wanderer"). The notable exception is "Reminder", which features just Marcus Mumford's vocals and guitar, which is the tenderest track on the record, as he sings about his "stoic mind and bleeding heart".
Some of the Christian lyrical themes that featured on the debut also appear on this album. "Below My Feet" features the lyric "I was told by Jesus all is well, so all is well". "Broken Crown", which is by far the angriest song on the album, alludes to both Judas and the story of Adam and Eve, whilst the title track, which no doubt is a contender to be the next single from the album, refers to the city in the Bible where everybody spoke a common language before being scattered across the world.
But despite recreating some of the ideas featuring on the debut album, "Babel" is still a worthwhile follow-up. For a start, the band sound a lot more confident than they did on the first album. The experience of several years of touring have had a positive effect on the recording of this album, with the tracks sounding as if they were designed for rousing shout-alongs at concerts.
The remarkable success of "Sigh No More" and its subsequent influence on the music industry meant that Mumford & Sons are taking a risk by releasing an album which doesn't veer to strongly away from its blueprint. It is to their credit therefore that "Babel" is a more than worthy successor. When it comes to creating the Mumford & Sons sound, which is literate, intelligent, rousing folk music tailored for the rock crowd, there is only one band in the world that can ever reach those heights, and that is its originators. Whether album number 3 will see a seismic shift in their sound remains to be seen.
Released: 24th September 2012
Highlights: "Babel", "Hopeless Wanderer", "Reminder", "Below My Feet".
It's that time again where The Metaphorical Boat takes a look at some of the albums that have ticked our fancy recently.
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Eugene McGuinness - The Invitation to The Voyage
(Domino)
He's signed to Domino Records, the label that did rather well from the success of Arctic Monkeys, and he plays guitar in Miles Kane's live band. So surely the third album from Eugene McGuinness, "The Invitation to The Voyage", can only sound like one thing, right?
Well prepare yourselves to be amazed, for the album is not a series of "Favourite Worst Nightmares" knockoffs, but a collection of ten intelligent, sophisticated, grown-up pop tunes. Eugene McGuinness comes across as a rather literate fellow, with the lyrics of "Harlequinade" referencing the commedia dell'Arte, and "Japanese Cars" teaching me a new word: 'tarantism' (which according to the Free Dictionary, is a "A disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to dance, especially prevalent in southern Italy from the 15th to the 17th century and popularly attributed to the bite of a tarantula.")
There's some side-splitting word-play on the only guitar-heavy track, "Lion" (sample lyric: "I'm sitting on the ventriloquist's knee, allowing his hand somewhere it shouldn't be"), whilst "Shotgun" channels the spirit of Henry Mancini by way of Tricky. Overall, it's a highly enjoyable set of pop gems, and it's a real contender for my album of the year come December.
Has there been a band in recent memory that has inspired such Marmite reactions than The Vaccines? Their supporters see them as the band that have brought (or attempted to bring) indie-rock back into the mainstream, whilst their detractors have considered them as a watered-down version of the major label-led "landfill indie" blight of the mid-00s. I suppose that for myself, I have been somewhat of a cautious supporter of the band. Although I declared "Norgaard" my favourite single of 2011, I acknowledged that their album was not as consistent as it could have been.
With their second album "Come of Age", out this week, both the band's supporters/detractors will have something to cheer/moan about. The band don't really change things up too much on this album, with the exception of ridding itself of the sub 2-minute tracks (which were my favourite moments of the last album, incidentally). The band showcase their literacy in popular music throughout, with slight musical references to popular songs. "I Always Knew" features a riff not too dissimilar to "Crocodile Rock", "Aftershave Ocean" calls to mind "Days" by The Kinks, whilst it's hard to to listen to "Weirdo" without immediately thinking of "Creep".
Perhaps the most ill-advised track on the album is "I Wish I Was A Girl" (which isn't a cover of the early 00s song by Violent Delights). The song attempts to be a Franz Ferdinand-esque strutter, but comes across as just laughable. I'm sure that feminists will be delighted to hear that Justin Young wants to be a girl because "life is easy when you're easy on the eye." There is the possibility that the track is supposed to be satirical, although if someone was to claim that The Vaccines' whole career was just one long satirical joke, I imagine there'd be many people who wouldn't be surprised.
But anyway, "Come of Age" is more of the same from a band who have some decent tunes. Released: September 2012
Having reviewed the lead single from San Diego band The Burning of Rome's debut album, "With Us", a few weeks ago I was expecting the entire album to showcase the same gloriously bonkers style as offered on "Ballad on An Onion Sprout." However, it seems like that song was something of a false friend, as the rest of the album, with the exception of the Little Shop of Horrors sampling "Audrey II", the album seems to be rather...normal.
Which isn't to say it's a bad album, as it does have some good tunes on it, in a very eclectic range of styles. "Little Piranhas" is a great piece of Arcade Fire-esque alt-rock, "Norman Bates" has the feeling of Depeche Mode about it, and "Cowboys & Cut Cigars" sounds like either The Black Keys if they were 87% more evil, or Marylin Manson if he was 13% less evil. The song that owes the most debt to another artist however is "Opus For Sleeping", which I can only conclude has only been composed in order to mock the overly bombastic music of Muse.
It's an incredibly varied kaleidoscopic album that flirts with many different styles, which unfortunately comes at the cost of any real cohesiveness. There's some real gems to be found here however, and because no song on the album sounds like another, there's bound to be at least one song on this album you can fall in love with. Released: September 2012 Highlights: Ballad of An Onion Sprout, Cowboys & Cut Cigars, Opus for Sleeping.
Look at me reviewing an album from 7 years ago. I'm really on the cusp of new musical discoveries.
There seems to be a growing feeling in popular culture that despite releasing three albums that sold reasonably well, Elbow's career didn't really start until 2008 with "The Seldom Seen Kid", an attitude that I must confess I also shared. This attitude hasn't really been helped by the band themselves, seeing that during their recent sets all but three of the songs didn't feature on either "SSK" or "Build a Rocket Boys". Having listened to "Leaders of the Free World" for the first time recently, I'm starting to think that their earlier material deserves to be removed from the shadows of their most recent work.
The notable thing about "Leaders of the Free World" is that unlike their recent work, which seems happy to flirt with mid-tempo stadium anthemics, this is a straight-up rock album. I've felt sorry for Elbow drummer Richard Jupp, as he doesn't seem to have had much to do on recent albums (I remember the band's performance of "Lippy Kids" during the Mercury Prize, where all he seemed to do for the song's duration was dust his symbols). On "Leaders of the Free World", he gets to flex his muscles on stompers such as "Forget Myself" and the deeply political title track (this album was released during the height of the Bush Administration). Sure, there were hints of what was to come on tracks such as "The Stops" and "My Very Best", but above all this album shows a louder, more aggressive side to Elbow that they deserve to bring out on a regular basis.
Released: September 2005
Highlights: Forget Myself, The Stops, Leaders of the Free World.
There seems to be an unwritten law which states that "the longer a music blog is running, its odds of releasing a compilation album reaches 1". Because I am not an egotistical person, I hereby dub this rule "McBride's Law".
The latest music blog to release a compilation of their favourite tunes is the wonderful UK based Sweeping the Nation, with the release entitled "Does Your Balloon Ever Land?". There's a few tracks from great acts that I've mentioned before on this blog, including local boys Amateur Historians, This Many Boyfriends (with a sneak preview track from their upcoming debut album) and Maybeshewill. There's also great tracks from Runaround Kids, Nature Set & Screaming Maldini.
The album is currently on sale for the reasonable price of £3 for 25 tracks. That's the equivalent of three Battenberg Cakes, or 4 Caramac Bars. All the proceeds from the release will directly benefit Macmillan Cancer Support, so really don't have an excuse not to buy it. Released: August 2012
Highlights: Lesser Loved, Just Saying, The Party & The Aftermath.
Like many people of a certain age, I was first introduced to the California ska-punk band Reel Big Fishwhen two of their songs, "Beer" and a cover of a-ha's "Take On Me", featured in the severely underrated 1998 film BASEketball, starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame. "Sell Out" became familiar to me when it featured as the loading music for the Playstation game Fifa 2000, and I've slowly became acquainted with the rest of their back catalogue after picking up their "best of" album, which due to licencing issues contained re-recordings of their most well known songs. After five years, the band have released their 7th studio album, "Candy Coated Fury", which has been described as a "return to the hyperkinetic ska and biting wit of the band’s
beloved early albums."
Most of the songs on the album follow a similar musical pattern - sardonic, sly, bordering on negative lyrics which is juxtaposed with bouncy, brass led melodies and a reliable ska-rock rhythm section. This blueprint is used to the greatest effect in songs such as opener "Everybody Else Is an Asshole", "Your Girlfriend Sucks" and "I Love, You Suck".
Some of the more interesting moments on the album happen when the band move away from this blueprint into less straightforward territory. "I Dare You To Break My Heart" was inspired by the band's attempt to write a song inspired by The Darkness (making Reel Big Fish one of the few bands to be PROUD of being influenced by that group) adds elements of glam-rock and 80s hair metal into the band's ska-punk style, whilst "Hiding In My Headphones", which features guest turns from Coolie Ranx and Sonic Boom Six, adds a reggae hip-hop element to the mix.
Like the band's other albums, "Candy Coated Fury" features two ska cover versions of 80s hits, "Don't Let Me Down Gently" and " The Promise". These covers might not be as good as the originals by The Wonder Stuff and When In Rome respectively, but they do sound rather good when performed in the band's idiosyncratic style.
After performaning for over twenty years, the chances are that if you have been a fan of Reel Big Fish up to now, then you will probably find much to like in the dependable "Candy Coated Fury". And if not, then you are missing an incredibly fun, upbeat, yet angry album.
Released: 31st July 2012
Highlights: "Everyone Else is An Asshole", "Don't Let Me Down", "I Dare You to Break My Heart".
