The Metaphorical Boat Album Briefs - November 2012

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 from Buffalo 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 Metaphorical Boat Album Briefs - September 2012

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.

Released: August 2012

Highlights: Harlequinade, Lion, Videogame. 

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The Vaccines - Come of Age

(Columbia)

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

Highlights: Teenage Icon, Weirdo, Bad Mood

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The Burning of Rome - With Us

(Surfdog Records)

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.

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Elbow - Leaders of the Free World

(V2)

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.

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Various Artists - Doesn't Your Balloon Ever Land?

(Sweeping the Nation)

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.

The Metaphorical Boat Album Briefs - July 2012

As we are now more than halfway through the year, The Metaphorical Boat has taken time to briefly check out some of the albums that are being touted as the best of 2012. The following five albums that we will look at currently have a combined average rating of 8.2 on Pitchfork.

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Beach House - Bloom

(Bella Union)

The fourth album from Baltimore duo Beach House, "Bloom" would be the ideal soundtrack for floating on a cloud on a warm sunny day. Unfortunately, technology has not advanced to the stage where clouds can be used as a viable form of transport. And even if they were, you can bet that the City of London would slap a congestion charge on it. Opening track "Myth" is a charming piece of dream-pop, and if more bands released packaging as intricate as the Digipak for this album, then people wouldn't feel the need to pirate the album.

Released: May 2012

Highlights: "Myth", "Lazuli", "Wishes".



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Best Coast - The Only Place

(Wichita)

Let's start this with a frank admission. Until this year, I could not tell the difference between Beach House and Best Coast. Both bands have beach related names, both have the combination of female vocalist/male instrumentalist, and the albums that both artists released in 2010 both left me in a state on apathy. Now thankfully I have learned that both groups are quite different. I had a feeling that I would enjoy Best Coast's latest album, "The Only Place", especially following lead singer Beth Cosentino's star turn on The Go! Team's "Buy Nothing Day" last year.

It's a decent album, with the upbeat energy of the title track and the Mazzy Star-esque "No One Like You" being the highlights. However, there is the feeling that this album is lacking that special something to make it brilliant.

Released: May 2012

Highlights: "The Only Place", "Why I Cry", "No One Like You".

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Grimes - Visions

(4AD)

And now every music blogger has mentioned Canadian artist Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, at least once. Go me. 

Regardless of what you have heard to the contrary, "Visions" is not a genre-defying album. It isn't a new goalpost in musical innovation. It is however an incredibly strong pop album, and if you enjoy it as such, then there is much to love here, from the Japanese sounding "Genesis", to "Be A Body", which is how Chris Martin might have written "Viva La Vida" if he were a 22-year old girl with easy access to modern sounding synthesizers. Just don't let the fact that she sounds suspiciously similar to one-hit wonder Aneka get in the way of your enjoyment.

Released: January 2012

Highlights: "Genesis", "Oblivion", "Be A Body"

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Japandroids - Celebration Rock

(Polyvinyl)

Are you a fan of the music of rock legend Bruce Springsteen? If you answered "a few of his songs are alright, I suppose", then Canadian band Japandroids are the artist for you.

"Celebration Rock" is quite a brief album given that it's only 8 tracks long, although to the band's credit, all but one of the songs on the album clock in beyond the 4 minute mark. I'd like to think that it's due to the band having a 'no-filler' policy when it comes to selecting songs for inclusion, although given that one of the songs on the album is a Gun Club cover, it could imply a lack of faith in their own material.

However, "Celebration Rock" is an incredibly strong rock record, filled with lots of great hooks tailor-made for live gigs ("For the Love Of Ivy"), and what is destined to be the best rock song of the year, "The House that Heaven Built".

Released: May 2012

Highlights: "The House that Heaven Built", "Fire's Highway", "For the Love of Ivy."



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The Men - Open Your Heart

(Sacred Bones)

The third album from the Brooklyn based punk quartet, The Men follow a 'does exactly what it says on the tin' philosophy when it comes to naming their tracks. "Animal" is a rough and primal track, "Oscillation" features a guitar pattern that is repeated ad finitum throughout, whilst "Country Song" is inspired by the genre of music so favoured in the American Midwest (although mercifully they've left it lyric-less, so we don't need to hear their tales of woe about a cowboy stealing their dog while burning down their trailer). The production is perhaps a too lo-fi in places, but it's a rather fun romp of an album nonetheless.

Released: March 2012

Highlights: "Open Your Heart", "Country Song", "Please Don't Go Away".

The Metaphorical Boat's Album Briefs - May 2012

So much music, so little time. Here's a round-up of some of the albums that have been floating The Metaphorical Boat this month:
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Jack White - Blunderbuss

 

(XL Recordings)

On his first album recorded after the dissolution of The White Stripes, "Blunderbuss" has given Jack White the opportunity to record out of the strict rigidity he enforced as a member of the duo. Recorded in a similar way to his eye-catching recent TV performances, with half being recorded with an all-male backing band and another with an all-female backing band (a move that could be regarded as either brilliant marketing, or incredibly sexist, depending on what part of the feminist scale you currently reside on), it is perhaps the strongest thing Mr White has recorded since "Elephant" back in 2004. 

The album does cover familiar territory. The power chord riff driven "Sixteen Saltines" could find itself at home comfortably beside "Fell in Love With With a Girl" or "Hypnotize", while "I'm Shakin'" sees his tradition of featuring at least one blues cover per album extended further (it's also worth listening to just to hear how he pronounces the word "nervous"). Elsewhere, "Love Interruption" mixes dark lyrics with light, clarinet led music, whilst closing track "Take Me With You Wherever You Go" goesfrom a piano led waltz into classic Jack White within the space of 4 minutes. 

"Blunderbuss" is an incredibly strong contender for album of the year. Let's just hope that Mr White doesn't decide to go join one of his 1462 other projects before album no.2 comes.

Released: April 2012

Highlights: Sixteen Saltines, I'm Shakin, Take Me With You When You Go

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Various Cruelties - Various Cruelties

 

(Hideout Records)

I've been a great fan of "Great Unknown", the first single released this year from Various Cruelties' self-titled debut album, ever since I wrote about it last October. Apparently Rough Trade Records seemed to like my opinion, given that they quoted it on the single's release page (not that I'm bitter about not being cited). It's a cracking single, but the big question is can they maintain it over the course of an album?

The answer is a very heavy-hearted "no". The album undoubtedly has some wonderful gems on it. The short bounce of  "Cold As You", the majesty of "Beautiful Delerium" and the infectious "Chemicals" are all brilliant in isolation, but over the course of the 11 tracks, it just doesn't seem to gel that well together. The problem might lie with vocalist Liam O'Donnell. Whilst undoubtedly a great singer, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of variety to his vocal technique throughout the album. 

It's not a bad album, unfortunately it's just not as good as it had the potential to be.

Released: April 2012

Highlights: Great Unknown, Beautiful Delerium, Cold As You.

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Pocket Billiards - Last Chance to Dance

(self-released)

In a recent interview, Belfast group Pocket Billiards expressed a desire to break away from the ska-punk genre that they had been pigeonholed into. I'm guessing that's a feeling that Michael Bay could sympathise with. It's a little known fact that Michael Bay had originally intended Transformers to be a heartfelt love story with social commentary inter weaved throughout it, until his financier said to him "Wait a minute, you Michael Bay, the explosions guy. Your audience doesn't want good stories, they want fiery balls of flame. Please change this pronto." Hence why that film is the hulking carcass we know today.

So anyway, "Last Chance to Dance", the 2nd album for Pocket Billiards, sees the band moving away from ska-punk and experimenting with different genres and sounds. Lead single "So Many People So Little Time" uses dubstep/drum and bass rhythms to enhance their sounds. The absolutely bonkers "Tetrisaurus Rex" encompasses elements of chiptune (including samples from Sonic the Hedgehog), whilst the short burst of "Drinkin'" is less of a ska-punk song, more a punk song that happens to feature brass instruments in it. 

It probably won't stop people from labelling the band ska-punk, but "Last Chance to Dance" does show why the band is so beloved in the north, there's just something so unbelievable fun about them.

Released: May 2012

Highlights: Tetrisaurus Rex, Drinkin', So Many People So Little Time

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Various Artists - Home Volume 3.

(Rash Records)

Co-curated by punk-rock legend, 6music presenter and champion of new music Tom Robinson, "Home Volume 3" is the latest compilation from Rash Records which compiles some of the best underground and self-released music by new and upcoming artists. As well as featuring "Seaweed Under the Sofa" by Biscuithead & the Biscuit Badgers, one of the blog's top 50 songs on 2011, the album features protest-rock ("Things that Make Me Angry"), string lead folk ("Restaraunt"), and some epic indie rock courtesy of Pandas and People ("I Am the Floor"). What's even better is that all 20 tracks are available as a free download, so you can enjoy all these wonderful tunes for nothing.

Released: May 2012

Highlights: Seaweed Under the Sofa, I Am The Floor, South By South West Not, Things that Make Me Angry.

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Various Artists - Sing Up For the Boys In Green

 (Indiecater Records)

Back in 2010, Dublin based label Indiecater Records did the impossible by releasing a 32-track World Cup album featuring football songs that were actually good. Now two years on, the label have released another football based compilation just in time for Euro 2012. Unlike the previous album, which featured a song about each team in the World Cup, "Sing Up for the Boys in Green" features 11 songs about one - the Republic of Ireland. 

The highlight of the album is Ican Ican't with the fantastically catchy "Three Nil-Nils." Special mention much go out to The Holy Roman Army with "Royston Flies Into the Heart of Darkness", which has spawned what will no doubt become a future catchphrase: "Do I look like a want a f****** Tiffin Square?" 

If you're not a fan of football, or the Irish national football team, then this is will probably not be your cup of metaphorical tea. But if you're one of those people that has followed the team's international progress with an increasing warmth, and you've heard "Joxer Goes to Stuttgart" one too many times, then "Sing Up for the Boys in Green" might just be the thing for you.

Released: April 2012

Highlights: 3 Nil-Nils, Royston Flies into the Heart of Darkness, Little Red Elvis.

The Metaphorical Boat's Album Briefs - March 2012

Whilst I listen to quite a lot of albums at TMB, I very rarely get around to writing up full reviews of each one I listen to. Therefore, I will be introducing a new monthly feature where I will briefly look at some of the albums that have been floating The Metaphorical Boat over the course of the month. Starting with:

Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

 

(Columbia)

It's reassuring that in Bruce Springsteen's 6th decade of music, he can still throw the odd curveball in his music. In contrast to the hopeful messages of  his previous album "Working on a Dream", "Wrecking Ball" is perhaps the most angry record that he's ever recorded, and his most directly political one as well. With lyrics like "I'd find the b******* and shoot 'em on sight" being targeted at those individuals responsible for economic downturn, it's an album guaranteed to make those of us who didn't do business at university breathe a sigh of relief.

"We Take Care of Our Own" is the closest to a 'pop' single The Boss has released in about 20 years, with the rest of the album featuring elements of Celtic-rock ("Death to My Hometown"), country ("We Are Alive"), and even a hip-hop gospel track, the spectacular "Rocky Ground."

Released: March 2012

Highlights: We Take Care of Our Own, Rocky Ground, Easy Money.

 The Black Keys - El Camino

(Nonesuch)

Until recently, The Black Keys seemed to have been forever confined to the history books as being nothing more than a mere footnote on the blues-rock history alongside more accomplished luminaries like The White Stripes. However, their decision to allow their music to be used incessantly in advertisements has seen their fortunes rise tremendously, to the level that they are now fully certified stadium rockers. This of course means that the band have now accepted the mantle of being the 10's version of Moby.

By now you're all probably familiar with "Gold on the Ceiling", which has been all over TV recently in an advert for donkey urine that has somehow managed to pass itself off as a lager. If you like that track, then you're probably going to like the rest of the album, which doesn't really veer too far from the blueprint of driving drums, dirty guitar riffs and keyboard sounds courtesy of producer Danger Mouse that sound like they've been ripped straight out of the 70s.

Released: December 2011

Highlights:  Gold on the Ceiling, Hell of a Season.

Tribes - Baby

(Island)

In almost every review I have read of "Baby" by Tribes, the same album comparison keeps cropping up again and again: this album is the 21st Century version of "Coming Up" by Suede (the only exception I've seen is the Pitchfork review, which bizarrely compares it to "Dog Man Star"). I am going to go right ahead and say it now: this album is nothing like "Coming Up." In my humble opinion, Suede's "Coming Up" is the greatest album ever released, so to compare any album to it is a futile experience indeed.

That being said, "Baby" is a decent debut album from the London boys. "We Were Children" sounds like it could easily be a Manic Street Preachers b-side (which is by no means an insult), and "Corner of an English Field" sounds like it's been tailor made for festival season.

Released: January 2012

Highlights: We Were Children, Corner of an English Field

Tigercats - Isle of Dogs

(Fika Recordings/Acuarela)

One of the interesting things about the release of Tigercats' debut album is that it is being released by two different labels. Although artists releasing albums under two different is not uncommon, what is uncommon is for each label to be handling different formats - Fika Recordings will be releasing the vinyl version of "Isle of Dogs", while Acuarela will be releasing the CD version. I can just picture the Looney Tunes-esque shenanigans going on behind the scenes of the two labels in order to convince the band's fans to go for their chosen format over the other.

The album itself is a rather fun beast indeed. There is a real sense of playfulness in not just the band's indie-pop stylings, but also in their not-very-subtle winks to their influences (one song is called "The Vapors", whilst another is an ode to the formerly married pair from Sonic Youth). It's a light, fluffy album, but one that is likely to make you hit repeat over and over again.

Released: April 4th 2012

Highlights: Full Moon Reggae Party, Konny Huck, Harper Lee