Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum

(Muso's Guide, February 26, 2009)

Single review

Icelandic chanteuses… With their unusual vocal styles and devil-may-care attitude to conservatism, they’re ten a penny, right?

Well, here’s something even more unique - Italian-Icelandic Emiliana Torrini. Oh, she’s been around for a while - most notably singing on the soundtrack to The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, but she’s always been fighting to break into mainstream pop.

‘Jungle Drum’ oughta do it.

Off Torrini’s third album, Me And Armini, it is the quirkpop hit to end them all, and is certainly burbling out of a radio near you right now.

Kicking off with a twanging bass, Emiliana chants about being in love against a backdrop of electronic blips and whirrs.

She can’t stop her feet, and neither will you when her delicious vocal rendering of the titular percussive elements lifts the chorus.

The lyrics are seductively simple, starting “Hey, I’m in love”, and spelling it out like all the best pop tunes, “Hey, read my lips/ ‘Cos all they say is kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss”.

A fun, punchy pop record pumped up with dancey rhythms and overlaid with Torrini’s bizarro vowels, the sum total of two minutes and 13 seconds will leave you feeling more energised than the rest of the hit parade put together.

With a terrific vocal, a swirly psychedelic break and even a well-timed keychange, this is true pop music - marching to the beat of its own drum.

Emmy The Great - First Love

(Muso's Guide, February 26, 2009)

Album review

The girl at school who you were obsessed with - you know the type - you wrote poems about her, sang songs about her, you imagined your fingers in her hair and daydreamed of the day she would notice you were alive?
That is not Emmy The Great.

Are you kidding?

That fantasy girl was the popular chick! She wouldn’t give you the time of day, remember?

This here Emma-Lee Moss, on the other hand, is the one you should have been obsessing over. She would have been quirky and different, liked indie bands while other girls liked lipgloss - and played guitar with passion in music class instead of skiving off to go shopping.

After a few years of gigging, Emmy The Great have built up quite a following - and quite a back catalogue of quality music.

First Love, Emmy’s debut longform record, rather tellingly had its release delayed because Emmy was displeased with the “slickness” of the mix that was presented to her.

That’s telling because the now-finalised album is anything but slick - rammed with the sort of delightful DIY production that makes indie fans break out in a cold sweat; there is little standardisation of levels, although the whole performance, although uneven in sound, never dips below perfect in terms of musical quality.

Starting out with the swaying ‘Absentee’, at first backed with only acoustic guitar, adding percussion after the first chorus, there quickly proves to be a real heart to the record which only serves to endear.

Pop culture offers many useful touchstones for Emmy, as in ‘24′ - “You are watching a programme for exactly one hour… Man on the screen he has done more in a minute than you have achieved in your whole entire life” - adding human feeling to the Duracell-bunny violence as perpetrated by Jack Bauer.

‘We Almost Had A Baby’, last year’s single, is a wry, tuneful exploration of a pregnancy scare, as layered with tambourine and as many ‘aah aah aahs’ as a 1950s girl group, waltzing along carelessly, but shot through with melancholy.

Jaunty highlight ‘Dylan’ canters along with a Celtic fiddle to see it through, while lowkey ‘On The Museum Island’ dials down the action - and up the sadness.

New single ‘First Love’ is a live favourite, incorporating the lead line from ‘Hallelujah’ - “The original Leonard Cohen version”. It is smart and touching, and touches as only Emmy knows how on the tender heart of lost love; “You were stroking me like a pet/But you didn’t own me yet,” she spins the tale, and you’re with her all the way.

The lovely ‘MIA’ is the high point of both heartfelt wonder and total quirk overload - it’s about a car crash, and the thoughts which flash through Emmy’s mind after impact, as she hums along with a still-playing car cassette - “I always liked this singer/I remember how you were the one who told me that her name/Was either Mia or M.I.A.”

Emmy The Great’s live shows are fun and interesting, but on record, the lyrics and musicality of the work really comes to light. The songs act as stories, and Emmy leads us through each one with such enthusiasm and delight that it seems as real - and yet as magical - a thing as you could imagine.

Emmy The Great was the girl at school who made you wonder.

Mark Morriss - I’m Sick

(Muso's Guide, February 25, 2009)

Single review

Remember when Britannia ruled and everyone wanted to be photographed in 10 Downing Street?

When the Prime Minister had a history of being in bands and there was a reason to be cheerful in our green and pleasant land?
Mark Morriss does.

With all the fervent desire of a smack addict, Morriss dearly clings to the Britpop scene of which his former band The Bluetones were shining lights, a musical landscape at the fag-end of the 1990s so innocuous in its presence that it gave us little more than lacklustre legend and rock apocrypha concerning Blur and Oasis.

More than 10 years on, Morriss is still at it with more musical offerings. Last year’s Memory Muscle album masterminded with old hand David Arnold yielded much in the way of nostalgia - any former Britpopper worth their salt will still be moved to near-tears when the Hounslow boy’s plaintive indie-bleat peals out of the speakers - but little in the way of musical clarity.

‘I’m Sick’ does have more than a whiff of The ‘Tones about it, but the indie strumming is soon eclipsed by a seemingly-incongruous mariachi trumpet.

It’s unclear as to what form the titular sickness is taking, but with the line, “I’m sick and I want to get well again… I’m adrift, I’m my own worst enemy” it would be naive not to question if the sickness here is an incredible hankering for past… ahem… ‘glories’.

This, sadly, is a very slight return.

Micachu and The Shapes - Jewellery

(Muso's Guide, February 24, 2009)

Album reviews

The very height of London cool, Micachu and The Shapes might just be enough to trigger your anti-hipster nerve on a bad day.

After all, this long-awaited debut has had the Hoxtonite haircuts baying for many months now, and the buzz hasn’t abated just because its release date is nearing ever closer.

The thing about Jewellery is, it is a corker, if the sort of thing you’re after is Micachu’s stock-in-trade - experimental music packed with sounds and effects which are hitherto largely unseen in pop music. When it comes to Michachu, you see, boundaries are inconsequential in any real sense.

Starting with the fuzzy guitar-driven ‘Vulture’, there are some great musical gems here. The opener is a nice mix between lo-fi indie rock and a children’s TV theme, with an effect which makes the whole thing sound like it’s been recorded underwater.

On ‘Lips’, the guitar is tortured audibly, with similarly unhinged vocals. ‘Sweetheart’ comes in like something a minstrel would have played in days of olde, but with drums by Animal from the Muppets to speed its journey onto the next level of ‘kook’.

Throughout the record, there is evidence of Micachu’s experimental ear - the whirr of a vacuum cleaner and the clunking of kitchenware are commonplace, all the while set against the fuzzy, often dense, backing of guitars and drums.

The frenzied instruments and regularly distorted vocals call to mind bands like Bearsuit, but with a deceptive tunefulness and insightful lyrics which stand up to repeated listens. While there are some flat moments - ‘Wrong’ just sounds like toddlers hitting saucepans, while ‘Guts’ drunkenly slopes to its conclusion - there is plenty of cause for celebration here.

As with all ‘buzz’ artists, there will be those who say that the lustre of Michachu is an illusion. But from the point of view of exciting, innovative sounds brought by an artist who is truly unafraid of trying the new, this Jewellery is pure gold.

Alyth - People Like Me

(Muso's Guide, February 24, 2009)

Album reviews

A record which has been truly hewn out of Scottish spirit and nationalism, this, Alyth’s second long playing release, is a true flower of Scotland.

The magical nature of Alyth’s music isn’t just down to the use of her native Gaelic language. It’s not even due to the unique use of Scottish traditional instruments and sounds, although that does help to intrigue and bewitch sassenachs. It’s Alyth’s very spirit, which brings all these incredible elements together and binds them in one truly delicious sound.

Alyth’s debut record An Iomall was unleashed a full nine years ago. A mix of traditional songs and known folk standards, it floored critics and marked a massive leap forward in the mainstreaming of the Gaelic language genre. Since releasing her debut album, Alyth has not been resting on her laurels - far from it. She has appeared on over 16 albums in her career, and over 2007/08 she toured the world with The Chieftans and Moving Hearts, all of which has made for a well-rounded and accomplished sophomore record.

From the outset, Alyth is here in full voice, and charms and cajoles with every spellbinding note. Opener ‘Nuair Bha Mi Og’ - swoops in with the mists of the Highlands, Alyth’s voice all confidence and strength over the traditional rhythms.

On ‘Dh’fhag E Gun Chadal Am Dhusgadgh Mi’, her voice seems to soar on its own, making the richness of the gaelic vowels and the musicality of its intonations an intensely primal experience. Simply put, to the ear of those who do not speak it, Gaelic singing has an otherworldliness and seems to be saying so much more than any song in English.

As such, it is a bit of a shame that Alyth has made People Like Me an album made predominantly from English language songs. That said, tracks like ‘The Beautiful Lie’ have all the sweetness of the Scottish but with the added bonus that the stunning lyrics are easily understood - “We’ll be like bluebirds do”, she warbles, for all the world a songbird herself.

The highlight of the album would have to be the closer ‘People Like Me’. A delicious ensemble piece which brings together all the musicians, including members of Scottish band Lau - who have worked with Alyth on People Like Me.

Packed with the magical, the ethereal and the spiritual, even the banal is a delight to behold when filtered through Alyth’s music.

Amadou and Mariam - Ce N’Est Pas Bon

(Muso's Guide, February 23, 2009)

Single review

Two of Mali’s most famous musicians Amadou and Mariam are the very essence of the genre “world music”.

Known as “the blind couple from Mali”, their 2008 record Welcome To Mali was largely produced by world music fan Damon Albarn.

It makes sense that Albarn would elect to be a part of the fifth record from such a successful music duo, and he is the latest in a long line of influential collaborators for the duo - including Manu Chao and Herbert Grönemeyer.

‘Ce N’Est Pas Bon’ has been released as a download-only single and, as such, is the perfect time to discover what an African nation of more than 11 million know and what you, well, probably don’t. Fresh from playing at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the blues duo have produced something here closer to the British pop which we all know so well.

What we get from Albarn is the great soundscape, the very essence that makes this “op”. His familiarity with the African rhythms and guitar sounds is all too clear - after all, he borrowed from it liberally on the unfinished monkey business of Gorillaz.

The track is catchy and dancey, with a great lyric about power corrupting and people losing out thanks to big business and politics in the duo’s native French. With this sort of socio-political awareness coming in such a pop package, Albarn’s coming up roses this time, and Amadou and Mariam reach a whole new audience.

Ca c’est bon.

Tilly and The Wall - That Remix Sucks

(Muso's Guide, February 23, 2009)

Album review

Tilly and the Wall are a little, well, off the wall.

They use a tapdancer to keep rhythm on their records and they hail from Omaha, Nebraska with no sense of shame. But they make exceedingly good pop songs. And they have been kind enough to offer ‘That Remix Sucks’ for free to help soothe your ailing coffers - a collection of remixes, new and old, to make the feet tap and the wallet sing. What could be better?

The original ‘Beat Control’ boasts the 80s danceability of Miami Sound Machine’s ‘Love Will Save The Day’. It has a bass sound which makes it a surefire dancefloor hit at the indie clubs, but its sweetly naive melody makes it a pop song with a fun side.

The La Lepus remix of ‘Beat Control’ does what remixes do best, which is to substantially change the song. As such, ‘Beat Control (La Lepus Remix)’ is missing many component parts which make the original so damn cool. In fact, it repeats the “break it down” section of the original vocal for well over the first minute, before filtering the original through some sort of electronic jiggery pokery. The result is a remix which has removed all of the charm and plenty of the class from the original.

The ‘Beat Control (James Reuill Remix)’ is a different beast - although largely unrecognisable, it has a distinct euphoric dance beat which makes for a great dance tune. Taking “let the beat control you” as its central vocal tenet, it is beefy and funky, and would guide anyone through a cross-training cardio programme with uptempo ease.

The ‘Beat Control (Tom Knight Remix)’ is the strongest on show here. Striking up for all the world like ‘Forever In Electric Dreams’, it lifts the main vocal line and places it on an even more 1980s rhythm, holding onto the track’s originality but giving it a more dancey treatment.

Brazilian sexpoppets CSS have a go at ‘The Freest Man’ here, which had the capacity to improve the record tenfold, but which has made the mistake of computerising human emotion, leaving it sounding for all the world like an ode to robot love.

‘Bad Education’, here taken on by No Context, is perhaps the most baffling of all the tracks here. Stretching Tilly and The Wall’s four-minute flamenco marvel into a more than nine-minute dancefloor disaster, there’s nothing that says FAIL like the remix sans vocals. For a gymtastic workout tune, fine, but not for the Tilly and the Wall fan.

To say, “That remix sucks, uh, sucks” would be a little glib, and there are great things about free music, of course. But it doesn’t make the best of these Tilly and the Wall songs, and that’s a crying shame.

Threatmantics - viola ‘n’ roll

(Muso's Guide, February 23, 2009)

Interview

To listen to Threatmantics frontman Heddwyn Davies, one could almost believe that the Welsh music scene is one big love in.

Spotted and selected by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs for support - their first tour slot - Heddwyn has recently been working with the band’s Richard James on a Welsh folk record.

So is it a case of “who you know”? Straight-talking Heddwyn believes it’s down to just one thing - a hell of a lot of hard work.

“We spent a lot of time putting together little runs of two or three shows up in North Wales, but we’d never really had enough money to be able to put a tour together,” he explains.

That was until the band - Heddwyn (vocals/viola), brother Huw (drums/keys) and Ceri Mitchell (electric guitar) put out their second single on BBC Radio Wales Evening Session guru Huw Stephens‘ singles club, which is co-run by Euros Childs’ management - now Threatmantics management.

“We got introduced through that, and Euros got to hear our stuff and asked us to support him like a one-off show in Cardiff. On the back of that, he asked if we would do the tour with him.”

Heddwyn, who describes Euros as one of his own all-time musical heroes, says that the experience was “pretty special”. So is he now friends with his idol? “He did physically assault me and Huw after one night out, so that’s as close as you can get, I think!”

A mere five months after the release of their debut long-playing record Upbeat Love, Threatmantics still make a pretty manic live experience - all that hair and viola flying around. Do the band enjoy themselves onstage?

“I used to get very nervous about a year or so ago - those were dark days! It is the easiest way to convert people to your music. I suppose when people read the line-up - viola, keyboards, drums - they think it’s a bit folky, but that’s not what it is.”

So how would Heddwyn define the Threatmantics sound?

“It’s a lot louder and a lot punkier live. It’s the best way to make people understand.”

And… Why the viola?

“My and Huw’s dad is a violin teacher, so I learned when I was young and played it for a few years, then gave up when I was 16 and I started getting more interested in rock.”

“When I went to uni and started a band playing guitar and it was just going nowhere! I tried the viola again, and found that the years of hard graft when I was 12 or 13 had paid off. I can just play loads more - everything that I wanted to play on guitar I can play on viola! So it worked out in that respect.”

The viola certainly offers Threatmantics something different, and marks them out in the scene. Dad must be proud?

“He’s not seen us yet! There’s a muted response - he’s more of a purist! Whether he’d approve of me sawing my viola in half and blaring out of a massive PA, I don’t know. I don’t think he’s quite ready for that.”

If viola is a sign of Heddwyn going back to his roots, then surely so is the band’s occasional dip into Welsh language lyrics.

“Singing and writing in Welsh is not an important part of the band per se. I write some songs in Welsh because that’s what seems to fit the song - there’s no political agenda per se, but anyone who spends time singing any Welsh songs in Wales, there’s always going to be some degree of politicisation.”

Heddwyn does admit that the big hitters on the Welsh scene do influence any young band coming through.

“Obviously, the musical landscape is extensive with Gorky’s and Super Furries and the Manics as well, so we’re influenced by that, but there’s no sort of crusade in being Welsh.”

Upbeat Love is an exciting, exhilarating record. From the viola-driven jog of single ‘Little Bird’ to the soulful ‘James Lemain’, there’s lots of new delights to discover on each listen. So what’s next?
“Upbeat Love took about a year from start to finish, which was mind-boggling. Some of the tracks have been around for a very long time compared to others. Every now and again we’ll come back to one that we haven’t played for a while and I quite enjoy that, but we are really excited about some demos we’ve just finished which are already in our live show.”

Having a break any time soon? It seems like there’s no threat of that.

50% hit rate for art popsters

(Morning Star, Friday 20 February 2009)

Album review

Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
(Domino Records)

A LOVELY bunch of boys making the kind of angular artpop that fills indie disco floors and makes all the girls swoon, Franz Ferdinand are one of the better bands to come out of Britain in the last decade.

There's plenty to recommend them, but on this, their third studio album, it would be naive to avoid the obvious - there's something missing.

Oh, the singalong pop choruses are there. On No You Girls Never Know, Alex Kapranos's distinctive Scottish burr takes on a more overt Matinée style, drawling a disaffected "Kiss me/Flick your cigarette then kiss me" before pounding out the flawless chorus, "No you girls never know ... how you make a boy feel."

But for every Bite Hard, shot through with Nick McCarthy's signature jagged guitar, there's a Twilight Omens, uncomfortably bringing eau de Abba into the Franz fold, or worse, the instantly forgettable What She Came For.

With about a 50 per cent hit rate, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is a success indeed in today's music climate.

But for these lovely boys, it's way off the mark from what fans have come to expect.

Lady Sovereign - Jig-Raw Mixtape

(Muso's Guide, February 17, 2009)

Album review

Formerly the musical saviour of the western world, or something like it, Lady Sovereign must feel that she is all too fast becoming something of a footnote to urban, as she as she sees fit to alert us that she is “still in the game”, in the first minute of Jig-Raw Mixtape.

Happily, following on from her online release of ‘I Got You Dancing’ this Jig-Raw Mixtape is free to a good home, and proof positive that she is well and truly back in the game. It was produced by Jack Beats of Scratch Perverts, and contains snippets of tracks from her new album Jigsaw, which is out on 6th April.

Samples pop up like old friends throughout Jig-Raw, as Lady Sovereign puts together her own pick’n'mix (does that still exist following Woolworths’ demise?) including The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’, as she spouts, “I’ve waited hours for this/I’ve made myself so sick”, against that incredibly recognisable keyboard part, turning Robert Smith out of his grave for it. In this whistle-stop tour through the new, improved Lady Sovereign, she covers many topics of hot discussion in her own inimitable street style.

From social networking - Facebook and friend requests - to social problems, she is vociferous, spitting, “if you love me, then thank you, if you hate me, then fuck you”. And if you don’t like her? “Go on, report me/I’m English, try and deport me”. The couplets on show are skilled indeed - intelligent and modern, putting a poetic angle to the street speak she spouts so freely, “Dirty kisses/Dirty dishes in my sink/I’ll be your dirty misses”.

It’s great to get something like this ahead of the record - Jig-Raw Mixtape has whet the appetite for Jigsaw properly. On the strength of this, it’s set to be a slick slice of urban with the stamp of a woman who has seen it all before. Here’s to Lady Sover-reigning supreme.

1990s - Kicks

(Muso's Guide, February 17, 2009)

Album review

Although they have been hailed by many - including influential Rough Trade bods - as the future of music, the very charm of Scotrock combo 1990s is that they sound, well, a bit like the past.

After their 2007 debut Cookies brought in such astounding plaudits, it seems that the three-piece went for the “if it ain’t broke” ethos, which is marginally safer than the “let’s throw everything we can at it” ethos employed by all too many bands. Right from the off, the very essence of Kicks is accessible, melodious music.

Taking as their cue the sunshine superpop of fellow countrymen Teenage Fanclub, instant pop classics pour from the speakers like so many infectious diseases, ready to leap upon an unsuspecting listener and imbue them with the 1990s’ indie dream. ‘Giddy Up’ is a pounding, ‘Rocks’-style stomper which functions as an ode to the “whatever” ethos - “I guess I could but I prefer not to”, while ‘Tell Me When You’re Ready’ makes a virtue of the band’s laidback, uncomplicated lyrical output, with plenty to identify with for the youth of today - “you never have any money/And I don’t care… Girl you’re taking such a long time to get ready”.

Kicks is a nice little record - it’s pleasant to nod along to, and 1990s do make an enjoyable night out in their live incarnation. But, to be honest, there is little here that is explosive . Just one of the tracks galvanises the rock footstomp which they so clearly think they have cornered. The epic - in feel, if not length - ‘Kickstrasse’ features The Long Blondes’ Kate Jackson, and she makes a terrific appearance on a bawling chorus - but it is the one moment when Kicks is actually elevated above the investigative rock which the band showed themselves to be so adept at on 2007’s Cookies.

Perhaps the 1990s can have a few listens to ‘Kickstrasse’ now it’s out there, and truly grasp what it is that they could shine at. They obviously have it in them – now they just have to find it.

Angus and Julia Stone - A Book Like This

(Muso's Guide, February 16, 2009)

Album review

Like the very first kiss with a new beau, an album’s opening track can tell you all you need to know about the relationship you’re about to embark on.

Its tenderness, its very sweetness holds the key to your future, and whether you should hang around and make it to the second, or bolt before the whole affair has a chance to progress.

An enchanting strumming which speaks of warm comfort and heady delights woven into a mid-tempo beat greet the ears as the debut record from one of Australia’s hottest acts puckers up, and the clinch only gets sweeter.

Sydney natives Angus and Julia Stone may be brother and sister, but their vocal deliveries could scarcely be more different on this debut record. Hers, fractured and emotional, with Emiliana Torrini vowels and Bjork intonations. His, gently soothing, with more than a hint of the Jason Mraz about its soft, mellow pronunciation.

The brother/sister combination is a nice hook for the band, but there is so much talent from both parties that it could be a duo of any provenance. On opener, duet ‘Mango Tree’, the pair’s distinct voices intertwine with each other, leading the listener round an intricate melodic journey and enveloping them with the truly sweet sound of folk. As far as setting out their store goes, ‘Mango Tree’ is fairly indicative.

The vocal duties are shared - Angus leads on the heart-wrenching ‘Just A Boy’, Julia on new single ‘Hollywood’, which has a naivety and guilelessness that just begs to be adored, with lines like “I blame you Hollywood/For showing me things you never should/Show a young girl/In this cruel world”, namechecking The Sound Of Music, Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid among others.

Album highlight is ‘Silver Coin’ - piano, guitar and cello making the most of each other, with Angus’ innocent yet sensuous vocal draping itself over every note leaving you longing for more. Just like the perfect first kiss.

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

(Muso's Guide, February 16, 2009)

Album review

British music’s enfant terrible, the view from here seems to suggest that La Allen’s gone from a cheeky-chopped, trainer-wearing, anti-cool urbanista ready to cock a snook at all comers to the lean demure socialite that Agyness Deyn would never deign to be.

Since 2006’s Alright Still, it seems she’s spent more time in the tabloids than the recording studio , but here is an album to refute all evidence to the contrary.

Where you fall on It’s Not Me, It’s You largely depends on how you felt about Alright, Still.

Having once declared herself as not being in music for the long haul, it’s hard to look at any of her recorded output with seriousness - if she doesn’t respect the art, why should it respect her?

That said, It’s Not Me, It’s You is a whole lot of fun.

Single ‘The Fear’ has the requisite mix of tuneful pap and yoof attitude, mocking the moral pausity of the diet-engorged elite; “I’m not a saint, and I’m not a sinner/Everything’s cool so long as I’m getting thinner.”

Elsewhere, the controversial ‘Everybody’s At It’ has galvanised the Daily Hate Mail and the like into a cold outrage thanks to its assertion that drugs are everywhere. Which just goes to show that there’s always someone ready to be offended, even by throwaway pop.

That saidm the bizarrely politicised ‘Fuck You (Very Much)’ is a sure sign that Allen has made an attempt to mature, even if it doesn’t pay off as such.

Apparently targetting the BNP, it seeks to exclude them from British society, thus removing their narrow politics from the fray. A very convincing argument, but the execution, “Fuck you, very, very much/Cause your words don’t translate/And it’s getting quite late/so please don’t stay in touch” - leaves a lot to be desired if it is intended to be an adult take on the subject.

By and large, the “I hate myself and want to diet” ethos of the debut has been channelled in an infinitely more grown up direction, slipping only occasionally (’Not Fair’ is about a gent who ahem… underperforms in bed, one can only imagine it’s autobiographical).

Also gone is the cod-reggae over-exertion of Alright, Still, replaced with the smooth sheen of electronica.

The question remains, at 23, is Lily knocking on a bit to still be wearing the ‘MySpace mouth’ hat?

She was a young pup of 19 when her first musical murmurings were committed to record, and in some ways her tales of seedy nights out in clubs and knocking back pub leches are still pertinent and on show here even after her extensive remodelling.

But in some ways it seems less honest, and more likely to be purposely pointing in a certain direction.

On It’s Not Me, It’s You, if you look past the faux-substance, it really seems that in swapping her oversized trainers for peep-toe Manolos, Lily has sold her scampish soul for style.

The Von Bondies - Pale Bride

(Muso's Guide, February 16, 2009)

Single review

In any record collection, there are bands you quite like - maybe bought their first record but didn’t really follow them - and there are music legends, the sort of throw-it-all-into-the-mix, grinding, exciting, thrillride for the senses.

They make consistently exciting records and their live show is enough to make you sell your gran, and it doesn’t even matter if it’s a bit cold out and your new haircut’s rubbish, because ohmigod this band are just sensational. Hurtling onto the international music scene back in 2001, The Von Bondies coulda-woulda-shoulda been that band.

Surfing the Atlantic wave which brought The Strokes and, most notably, The White Stripes into the UK’s musical consciousness, they started out with the very best sort of musical promise - the dirty, sleazy, bluesy kind. Having long since severed ties with former Detroit compadres The White Stripes, The Von Bondies are back with new record Love, Hate And Then There’s You and this lead single, which bears little resemblance to the blues rock punch which brought them fame.

Make no mistake, ‘Pale Bride’ is a serviceable pop rock canter, and Jason Stollsteimer - on this co-writing with drummer Don Blum - can still command a rock chorus better than anyone out there, with his extraordinarily expansive range and slightly operatic vocal trill. But the dirty blues which make Lack Of Communication great and Pawn Shoppe Heart distinctive has missed this particular track off the list. Starting with a rumbling guitar of no small wonder, Stollsteimer is straight in with his holler of melancholy, singing, “Here she comes, my pale bride”. There’s a singalong chorus, and the pounding drums keep the pace up, but this is a record which could have been made by any other band.

Crucially, it could have been made by The Von Bondies four years ago, which is more than a little disappointing. Fingers crossed that Love, Hate And Then There’s You will have more to impress.

Wondrous acoustic pop to melt your heart

(Muso's Guide, Friday 13 February)

LIVE: Emmy The Great

AS the snow beats down on Cardiff, the Emmy The Great show rolls into town.

A air of love and melancholy descends on the crowd as the band, who are introduced by a self-consciously attractive brown-haired girl as Hank Wangford And The Lost Cowboys, appear onstage.

Kicking off with opener Bad Things Are Coming, We Are Safe, the crowd are blessed with a terrific slice of unfeasibly sweet acoustopop.

Emmy plays guitar and is backed by the usual beat combo accoutrements as well as keyboards and violin, played by a fresh-faced youngster who mirrors Emmy's vocal with a beautiful, honey-drizzled croon.

From live favourites to album tracks from the soon-to-be-released First Love, Emmy The Great have the perfect set. Highlight On The Museum Island is touching and heartfelt, while Dylan is bouncy and sweet.

But, although the songs are wondrous, there is something special about getting to know this delightful girl through her own observations.

With her smooth vocals, quirky lyrics and snappy dialogue, Emmy has created the perfect warming atmosphere to melt hearts.

Eugene McGuinness - Fonz

(Muso's Guide, February 13, 2009)

Single review

With all the evasion skills of Dr. Richard Kimble, Eugene McGuinness refuses to be defined by where he’s from, and will not be pinned down on what sort of music he concocts. And that doesn’t give a music fan much to work with, but here goes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, ‘Fonz’ is a slightly schizophrenic song. It makes a basis of the sort of twangy garage rock guitar that found its feet post-Britpop with American bands like The Strokes, but with a very very British feel.

The staccato rhythm of percussion keeps the song chugging along nicely, with an upbeat angle and plenty to recommend it to any indie disco dancefloor, sounding not unlike punks like Television.

Former wunderkind McGuinness makes a virtue of his curiously almost atonal singing - he has the vocal range of Morrissey circa Meat Is Murder, but paying a far greater attention than that singer to what his voice is doing compared to the music which surrounds it.

Lyrically, McGuinness is knowing and deft - such couplets as “Things aren’t so glossy/Without a posse” and the excellent “And so we synchronised our watches/And arranged for the meeting of our crotches” lift the song well above the ordinary - and he slots words neatly into every nook and cranny of this short, sharp shock of a tune, again not unlike Morrissey back in the day.

Calling to mind a stuttering soloist like Jack Peñate, McGuinness’ grasp of the straightforward pop hit is unerring, the song, at a mere two minutes 23 seconds, not risking a second of its welcome overstayed.

The video has a nice line in artschool chich, with the self-conscious moptop singer stop-motioning around the set along with other band members who, on occasion, disappear through solid walls and appear to do a variety of speedy instrument changes throughout.

A neat, sharp song from a seriously talented singer/songwriter - he may attempt to avoid pigeonholing, but Eugene McGuinness can be firmly filed under ‘quality’.

Emmy The Great

('Sup magazine, February 12, 2009)

Live review

Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

PHOTOS: MARK THOMAS

The chill is battering down the door in Cardiff's Welsh club, so the assembled performers really have plenty of defrosting work to be getting on with.

Cue the support. In a warming moment of audience engagement, a baby-faced boy with a guitar almost the size of himself steps up to the microphone with a supremely embarrassed look on his face. The crowd hushes ever-so-slightly and there comes a hint of a murmur, "Hello", before the band launch straight into guitar-drenched indie.

Welcome to the stage, Exlovers.

There's not a hint of declaring themselves, or announcing their name. Note to support acts: you're trying to raise your profile, so make sure people know who you are. It helps when they want to buy your record.

From that inauspicious start, the London quintet with shades of Belle & Sebastian are off, and it would be churlish to suggest that the crystal-clear chiming Smithsian guitars and sweet boy-girl vocals are anything other than blissful, tuneful perfection. It's just the presentation that needs some work.
Thanks are due to Exlovers, though, as the mood of lost love and melancholy they have created is the perfect precursor to Emmy The Great.

Or who we assume to be Emmy The Great, but who are actually introduced by a self-consciously attractive brown-haired girl as "Hank Wangford and the Lost Cowboys".

Here the japes start with Emma-Lee Moss, but this is by no means the end.


A clear-eyed, no-nonsense type who comes on stage with a stripey jumper and her jaw set, Emma-Lee plucks up her guitar with such nonchalance, that when the magic starts, it's actually an exquisite shock. Any effort on her part is almost imperceptible, yet the result is mind blowing.
Starting with opener Bad Things Are Coming, We Are Safe, the band's sweet acoustopop flows gently over the assembled fans like a warm breeze.

As well as Emma-Lee's guitar, the anti-folk crusaders boast keyboards and a baby-faced violinist, who plays his instrument in both the sanctioned way and in the manner of a guitar throughout the duration of the show. The honeyed backing vocals he provides complement Hong Kong-born Emma-Lee perfectly.
Inter-song banter takes the form of mild mocking, as Emma-Lee introduces single First Love with "This isn't about Alexandra Burke," a nod to the song's reference to Hallelujah, as she terms it, "the original Leonard Cohen version".

She perkily asks, "Hey, how do you say 'clwb'?", and receives the answer - basically, "club" - before cheekily posing the next query, "So how do you say C-Y-N-T?" - that is, the name one of Cardiff's biggest club nights. The amusing answer has not escaped Emmy, and she is tickled in a childlike way by the inferred rudeness here.

From live favourites to album tracks from the soon-to-be-released First Love, Emmy The Great have the perfect set. Highlight On The Museum Island is touching and heartfelt, while Dylan is bouncy and sweet.

But although the songs are wondrous, there is something special about getting to know this delightful girl through her own observations. At one point, she says that the band were making snowmen this morning - "Well, I made one, the others threw snowballs. They're destructive, I'm creative". The off-the-cuff comment is truer than she can imagine - with her her smooth vocals, quirky lyrics and snappy dialogue, Emma-Lee has created the perfectly warming atmosphere. Let her melt your heart at a venue near you soon.

Howling Bells - Cities Burning Down

(Muso's Guide, February 12, 2009)

Single reviews

Howling Bells are a funny one.

There’s no reason to think that they should sound like other Antipodean recording artistes, but it is startling that their sound is indicative of an adolescence mired in angst and clouded by misery. An adolescence spent in Britain, if you will.

But Australian they are, and a band out of time, as singer Juanita Stein’s ethereal voice elevates the folk goths to something really quite exquisite.

‘Cities Burning Down’ sees the Bells plowing the auditorily dense shoegazing soundscape, with astounding results. From an intro beat that fades in like a Kevin Shields dream sequence, Stein’s vocal is truly captivating from the off, haunting and almost primal as “Trapped in rising water”, she croons. She is Cassandra, telling of doom and destruction against an elegiac backing.

The song’s swelling guitars mark out its intense melancholia, with a distressing awareness of the inevitable - “Cities burning down again…”. Howling Bells have a lovely knack of merging all the presence of a stadium filler Simple Minds-style with a delicious outsider schtick, aping goth gloom like a post-modern The Cure.

As a pre-cursor to the upcoming Radio Wars album, ‘Cities Burning Down’ carries tremendous weight. It’s clear that the Bells have been savvy enough not to desert their successful formula, but, in this song anyway, they are striding once again into that dark night, and it’s delicious.

Threatmantics - Little Bird/Sum Sum

(Muso's Guide, February 11, 2009)

Single review

Some ballsy troubadours play it fast and loose on that finest of genre lines - the line between rock and folk music.

Get it wrong - all those repetitive beats and fiddles - and you wind up like the Rednex, best known for 1994’s ‘Cotton Eye Joe’. Shudder.

Get it right, and you’re talking the greatest - Bob Dylan, the man who judged it all perfectly.

In that regard, Threatmantics - blithely attempting to strike that precarious balance - are coasting.

Setting their store out early doors, ‘Little Bird’ hears singer/violist Heddwyn Davies playing up a stringed storm. The sawing strings back lyrics of a common folk thread, witness ‘Woke up this morning in the afternoon‘ - while the verse gives way to unexpected crashing rock guitars. Overall the whole quiet bit/loud bit schtick is a little wearing, but clocking in at a mere two minutes 53 seconds means that there’s no time for aggravation.

‘Sum Sum’ is a bit of a different beast. Kicking off like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with a country soul, they romp with repetitive riffs which make a mockery of “melodious”. Guitar slowly gives way to more viola, and the two stringed instruments subsequently share the stage in an uneasy, mercurial dalliance.

Repeated listens will show for the record that Heddwyn’s voice is unusual, but it works with the instruments in use here. On ‘Sum Sum’, the implementation of some Supergrass-style harmonies give something more obvious in the way of modern pop touchstones and structure.

Despite their initial disparity, these songs hang together quite well, and Threatmantics come out as an accomplished trio with some off-the-wall meanderings which really pay off.

The View - Which Bitch?

(Muso's Guide, Feb 11, 2009)

Album Reviews

“Hello, is that The View’s parents?”

“Oh, it’s gone to voicemail, hang on a minute… Hello, The View’s parents. This is… a concerned listener. It has transpired that your sons’ difficult second album has been set loose on the unsuspecting ears of the British music public and it’s… well, it’s surprisingly good. Yes, really! If you would kindly call back on this number then we’ll just have a quiet word about the name.”

Now where were we?

As Scotland’s brattiest, scampiest, young rascals, The View were a delight indeed. Hard-partying and heavy-drinking, these four Dundonian miscreants exploded onto the scene with songs about stinky trousers and drunken hairdressers, but musically they were… well, let’s just say that they weren’t as terrific as the hype would have had you believe.

The live shows before the release of their debut album, 2007’s Hats Off To The Buskers were sloppy, their lyrics were parochial and their vocals, frankly, were incomprehensible.

So now these young pups have made the leap to album number two, and it’s a genuine delight to report that Which Bitch? is, frankly, a lot better than it had any right to be.

Starting off with ‘Typical Time’, the kick-off has ragtime piano and a smattering of mouth organ, with Kyle Falconer’s thick Scottish accent chiming in sweetly. Lyrically, it reflects a broader world view already than Hats Off To The Buskers, witness, “We’ve flown around the world together/Seen a marvellous range of sick bags even in Baghdad”.

Then ‘5Rebbeccas’ [sic] comes in, all beefy percussion and guitars. Like a beefed up ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’, it’s drenched in chiming guitars and tasty harmonies, and really shows producer Owen Morris’ hand in its Oasis-style drums.

There are some low points - ‘One Off Pretender’ has a bizarre spoken quality which recalls 2008’s most mediocre band The Twang and is, as such, a rotter, but these are few and far between on an album that carries the maturing ‘Days Of Pearly Spencer’-style drama of ‘Glass Smash’ and The View’s own ‘Day In The Life’, the string-laden segue-tastic ‘Distant Dubloon’. The latter calls to mind the mythology of the Good Ship Albion, a standard of early 2000s indie-botherers The Libertines, with whom The View have been most favourably compared in the past.

There’s plenty here to show that The View have moved on since their debut record. Strings, mandolins and whistling á la Roger Whittaker are a start, but really the maturing of the songwriting and the more expansive take on life shows that, contrary to popular belief, the boys have not been skiving lessons for a sneaky fag, but have been learning and growing as musicians. And it’s really great to hear.

Now, back to informing The Views’ parents. They will be pleased at their boys’ progress.

The Martin Green Machine - First Sighting

(Muso's Guide, February 10, 2009)

Album Review

The Martin Green Machine was founded little over a year ago by accordionist Martin Green for the famed Celtic Connections festival.

A prestigious and eclectic group of musicians who bring together such varied instruments as accordions, french horns and tuba. It’s either going to tickle your temporal lobe or trigger your gag reflex, so here goes.

Opener ‘Repetition’ is a melting pot of sawing strings, jazz and guitar noodling. From a male saying, ‘Hello, I love the accordion/ It is really a wonderful instrument with its beautiful sound coming from the reeds and bellows”, then there comes a female chant and, latterly, a slap-bass funk out. It’s fair to say that ‘Repetition’ is repetitious, and also thankless, really not lending itself to repeated listenings.

As far as musicianship goes, the record smacks of accomplishment. On ‘Horse’, a terrific sense of the dramatic stands out in stark relief, thanks to the talents displayed on brass, percussion and expressive vocal hiccups. But there’s plenty here that simply doesn’t make sense - and that struggles to make enjoyable listening.

On ‘23A’, gentle guitar strumming hovers over a complex beat, while ‘Quayle Paint’ sounds for all the world like a funeral march in Last Of The Summer Wine. ‘Rory’ is tuneful and sweet, but the cinematic opening gives way to Scottish female vocal after about a minute and the whole meaning becomes lost somewhere.

‘PSP’ skips along at a fair rate, sounding for all the world like a 1960s TV theme, but again, leaving nothing but doubt where the heady light of realisation should be dawning.

It is hard to make a record which brings the listener into your world, of course. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

But to set out to make a record which is so wilfully dense, one can only imagine that’s as easy as 1-2-3. Here is a nigh-on perfect example.

The Bishops - If You Leave Today

(Muso's Guide, February 9, 2009)

Single review

Wasn’t the 1960s great? Minis and mini skirts, moptops and mods, there was something for everyone.

The teens sashaying down the Kings Road with nothing on their mind but where they were going to get hold of some grass and whether they could bag a Beatle. Simply FAB.

In a unique case study of popular music history, witness The Bishops. Like those unfortunate Japanese soldiers in WW2 who stepped blinking into the light decades later baffled about where the war had gone because they simply never received the order to stop fighting, this London trio sound like they went to ground sometime in 1966… And now here they are - blissfully unaware of the forty-something years which have passed, brothers Mike and Pete Bishop and Chris McConville are channeling The Kinks and hoping to get on Ready, Steady, Go with their latest spinner.

“If You Leave Today” is a handsome single, all tambourine-driven percussion and a guitar solo which would make Bruce Welch proud. It’s tuneful and lovely, and really sounds like Paul Heaton fronting The Hollies with some really lovely chiming guitars. Although there’s an occasional drum beat which sounds like someone kicking a bin.

‘By Your Side’ is more of the same, retro-pop with a jubilant note and plenty of charm to boot. It’s packed with handclaps to make the teens scream and sounds for all the world like a lost Everley Brothers hit, with plenty of added reverb on the vocal and a simple guitar line that would make The Coral blush. Groovy, baby.

A long chat with Roddy Woomble

(Muso's Guide, February 9, 2009)

Interview

Hope Is Important - thus spake Scot punk rockers Idlewild on their debut album in 1998. A mere 11 years on, and Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble would be the first to admit that that is still the case.
Doe-eyed Woomble has been on loan out from his bandmates for some time. Firstly for his own solo debut, 2006’s My Secret Is My Silence, and then for the recording of a folk record, Before The Ruin, which brings Roddy together with two of the Scottish folk scene’s biggest names - John McCusker and Kris Drever.

So how did it happen that the singer with the punk rock band most famously described as “a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs” became a soft-voiced, tender-hearted folkie?

Roddy says it wasn’t such a strange meeting. “I’ve been friends with John for a number of years. He produced My Secret is My Silence and he had played with Kris for years and produced Kris’ album, so he was sort of the catalyst.”

Was there a feeling that the “Scottish supergroup” might be a lucrative one?

“There was nothing like “Oh, I think we should do this because we can crack the folk and rock market”. It was just a nice idea between us to work on some stuff. We really didn’t know how it would go. We met up just to see if anything stuck to the walls, if we could come up with anything good. And we did - straightaway we came up with some songs that really did sound good. There were a lot of ideas flying around and we knew it was going to be an album.”

So, filled with hope, Roddy teamed up with two musicians widely regarded as Scottish legends…

“They are legends. They have both learned about this playing in pubs, playing everywhere, playing with loads of different people. I learned to be in a band by being in a band. I was in a sort of punk rock band that couldn’t play to begin with! Limitations existed totally within the band. And most rock bands are a bit like that, to be honest.”

Roddy says that is why the past few years have seen him team up with people and push himself - and he really feels the benefit of stepping out of the comfort zone.

“I feel much more confident as a singer and a lyricist now. I think if you’re classically trained or you play a certain kind of music, you’re more inclined to follow tried and tested ways of doing things. I don’t necessarily follow any sort of direct routes or structures, and I think that’s what interests John and Kris because as folk musicians, they’re not like that either.”

The material on My Secret Is My Silence and Before The Ruin is substantially different from the work Roddy has done with Idlewild. He says that the chemistry when he writes with the band compared to when he writes with Kris and John has a lot to answer for.

“It is very different, but there is an element of just hanging out with different people and it moving at a different pace. With Idlewild, we wrote our first song together when we were young, so it feels very familiar. I don’t mean that in a bad way, although it sometimes does have negative effects if you get complacent, but I don’t think we ever have as a band. But also, I really like the change. Working in Idlewild’s practice space you can make really noisy songs. And then I go and practise with John and Kris and it’s sort of one fiddle and one acoustic guitar and we fill that sound out - we find a different route through music just with those ingredients. For me, anyway, just coming up with melodies and words and singing along with them is pretty interesting.”

When Roddy brought out My Secret Is My Silence, it was as a solo record, but he is keen to point out that he worked on that with a variety of talented musicians.

“I put it out under my own name because I thought that was easier than thinking of a new band name or Roddy Woomble with… The songs were written with different people - some with John, some with Rod [Jones from Idlewild] and everyone added so much to it, all the different musicians who played on it. I really love it.”

Because of the list of musicians appearing on My Secret Is My Silence, it was recorded really quickly - a fact which Roddy thinks made it all the most impressive, and which has been mirrored in the recording of Before The Ruin.

“We only had all the people that were going to be on My Secret Is My Silence for such a short period of time that we did it all in about a week, but I think it captured something. We didn’t linger too long on any of the tracks, so they have a real freshness and that’s kind of what we’ve done with Before the Ruin as well, although I do think Before the Ruin is a a bit more - I won’t say slick because that makes it sound negative, but it’s a bit more tastier.

“I don’t mean I prefer Before the Ruin to it because I love them both differently and I think they are quite different sounding records. I think My Secret Is My Silence is much more a big band raggedy kind of sound, sort of folk rock kind of thing, whereas Before the Ruin is kind of smooth.”

It is interesting that a musician who gives such pause to the different emphases of his work is not given to retreading the material after the fact.

“I don’t sit and listen to my records - I do before they are released but after they’re released I don’t tend to. The only time I would listen to them is to reference things for gigs or for other records that I’ve working on.”

Roddy says that he is “pretty intensively” working on the new Idlewild record at the moment and he is definitely “really enjoying listening to the demos”, but he knows that when it is released he won’t listen to it anymore.

“At the minute it feels like I’m making the record for myself, but when you put it out it’s for everyone.”

Off the back of Before The Ruin, Drever, McCusker and Woomble recently played a series of live shows which kicked off in some style at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, as featured on BBC2’s The Culture Show. Roddy says that the live shows as a trio were really good.

“We were really looking forward to because it means that we can actually get into singing and get into playing, because there’s a really nice dynamic on stage, it’s very relaxed and we do some songs from Kris’ albums and some songs from my album and we do some of John’s music. It’s a concert very much in the spirit of the way that the record was written and recorded.”

Roddy says that, although fans of Idlewild may be drawn to his new work, their interest isn’t something he took for granted.

“I never demanded of people ‘you must follow me’, I was just doing something that interested me. If |’m convinced that what I’m doing is good work then I know that other people will like it.”

Roddy’s folk direction is very different to his Idlewild roots, but he insists that he is continuing with - and is very committed to - both.

“This has taken a lot of planning, it wasn’t just like, ‘Aah, today I feel like writing folk songs’! At first, I didn’t have enough confidence to throw myself straight into it. John was great in that he was encouraging me to try some new things. We wrote some songs together first and see if it worked, and then I went and worked on a Kate Rusby record. John was the one who was pushing me towards doing my own record so I’ve got a lot to thank him for in terms of pushing me to do that - getting me out of just talking about it, and into doing it.”

As for Idlewild, the new album is well underway, and Roddy is thrilled to be working on new material - but he is reticent to pin down the band’s sound in recordings.

“There’s always talk every time you do a record about what direction it’s taking and I never really understood that because it’s always going in a direction, you’re never stopping still. I think it’s a bit of an obsession in the western world with originality - everyone has to be the first to do something. Basically, it’s difficult for me to say. To me, we’re just carrying on writing really strong songs. If it’s referencing any records, it’s probably referencing the last two that we did - Make Another World and Warnings/Promises. It’s difficult to sum it up in a few words - it’s quite poppy, I think it’s what people expect from us, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. I think it’s good.”

The last 11 years of making music on his own terms have given Roddy Woomble confidence and success, but as he steps on, he’s filled with hope for the future, as well he should be. After all, it is important.

Favours For Sailors - I Dreamt That I Dreamt That You Loved Me In Your Dreams

(Muso's Guide, February 9, 2009)

Single review

Tuneful American college pop is a great thing indeed.

There’s nothing like an upbeat, unfeasibly cheery song shot through with the mere hint of adolescent melancholia and - get this - topped off with the bright sunshiney light of California sunshine.

Try Fountains Of Wayne for that tight, intelligent power pop that only Yanks can offer and you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and here are some new pretenders to the crown… Hold the phone! What’s that? Favours For Sailors aren’t American? Well, of course they’re not. They can spell ‘favours’ right for a start.

Hailing from the considerably less exotic south east of England, this giddy four piece are a testament to the power of hard work. Claiming to have locked themselves away in 2005 when the last rays of summer sunshine were inching away from the capital, they made the leap of faith into the blue. The blue, in this case, being the popular music deep.

The improbably-named ‘I Dreamt That I Dreamt That You Loved Me In Your Dreams’ smacks of all the good stuff mentioned above - tight, accomplished rhythm and delightfully light vocals usher in the age of Favours For Sailors with considerable ease. Starting with “whoa whoas” to cheer the darkest February day, there’s nonetheless something darker afoot here - “Nothing’s what it seems, get the fuck out of my dreams” trills singer JRC, and you just know he means business.

Tuneful, fun music to pogo to with a frightfully accomplished guitar solo, Favours For Sailors here take their musical cues from the old guard - in 30 years’ time, this will be ‘Since You Been Gone’. The Rainbow one, not the Kelly Clarkson one.

Favours For Sailors are clearly having trouble with reality - they live in a dream, dream, dream world, and they still can’t get their hands on that girl. But along the way, they’ve found some lovely pop moments, and even the final lyrical letdown can’t take the cheer out of this one. Doing American blissful, off-kilter quirk-pop better than our friends across the pond, it’d take a heartless soul to resist this. Hello, sailor.

Heading for a fall

(Morning Star, Friday 6 February 2009)

Album review:

Razorlight, Slipway Fires
(Vertigo)

RAZORLIGHT divide public opinion. If you liked the London foursome's last eponymous album, then there's plenty more sentimental pap in this, their third record, to woo you.

On piano-led opener and 2008 top five single Wire To Wire, singer Johnny Borrell pontificates: "How do you love in a house without feelings?" but he has no answers.

For those who nearly choked on the over-produced rhetoric that the band peddled on singles like America, there is more self-congratulatory material here. Tabloid Lover is every inch a Duran Duran for the noughties, apparently taking a pop at one of Borrell's celebrity exes, while North London Trash sees the band taking on the Boomtown Rats, singing about broken homes and other gritty realisms.

The band's debut promised an edgy indie rock band, but since then, it seems like Razorlight are doing everything within their power to stumble and fall.

Idlewild new album news exclusive!!!

(Muso's Guide, February 3rd, 2009)

News

Our favourite “flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs”, Idlewild, have kept us and the rest of the world guessing as to what’s going to happen next. A certain Roddy Woomble revealed a few of his thoughts to Muso’s Guide in a recent chat, so we thought it only courteous to share.

“At the minute it feels like I’m making the record for myself, but when you put it out it’s for everyone,” offered Woomble. “There’s always talk every time you do a record about what direction it’s taking and I never really understood that because it’s always going in a direction, you’re never stopping still. I think it’s a bit of an obsession in the western world with originality - everyone has to be the first to do something.

“Basically, it’s difficult for me to say.” He continues: ”To me, we’re just carrying on writing really strong songs. If it’s referencing any records, it’s probably referencing the last two that we did - Make Another World and Warnings/Promises. It’s difficult to sum it up in a few words - it’s quite poppy, I think it’s what people expect from us, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. I think it’s good.”

Full interview with Roddy Woomble to follow next week - keep tuned to read more!

Spring clean

(Somerfield magazine, February 2009)

Real life: "Fundraising helped me learn to love life"

(Somerfield magazine, February 2009)