Missing the hook

(Morning Star, Sunday 24 June 2007)

ALBUM: Editors - An End Has A Start
(Sony)

YOU have to hand it to Editors. Bringing elegiac guitar anthems to the masses straight outta Birmingham garnered them both critical and commercial success which would lead to any more mainstream band - ie Keane - facing accusations of selling out.

But Tom Smith's Midlands miserabilists wore their Echo-style coats and lyrics with all the aplomb of Interpol and the success of their debut album assures them a good hearing for this sophomore effort.

It's a shame, then, that they've made a change in direction. Not from the gloom - it's still front and centre, on the title track here especially.

No, the change of direction has been away from listenable pop music, leaving behind the anthems and the soaring sweep of breakout hit Munich.

From single Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors to When Anger Shows, there's not a hook on the whole record to make radio play a cert.

The guitar work by pixie-cute Chris Urbanowicz has remained passable, but the mourning tone of Smith's vocal makes for depressing listening from start to finish. By the time you get to album closer Well Worn Hand, you'll be glad the start has an end.

Putting the Left into a great big field: Glastonbury preview

(Morning Star, Thursday 21 June 2007)

The Fratellis
(Saturday, 7.45pm, Pyramid Stage)
For sheer festival exuberance and rousing pub songs drenched in singalong genius, Glasgow's best are the top draw on the Pyramid Stage's altogether wicked bill.

Maximo Park
(Saturday, 8pm, Other Stage)
Paul Smith delivers a live show to slay and the new record's strength is in its added rockiness. Mon the Park!

The Holloways
(Sunday, 11.40am, Other Stage)
With single Generator hitting the airwaves hard, there's nothing to stop these Londoners being a band of the weekend.

Young Knives
(Sunday, 4.45pm, John Peel Stage)
Punk reborn, with an edge of surrealism, not to be missed, if only for bassist The House of Lords' legendary banter.

Kate Nash
(Friday, 2.20pm, The Park Stage)
Beauteous Lahndan lady with more than a passing similarity to Jamie T (also one to see - Sunday, 9.25pm, John Peel Stage), Nash mixes feminine minxery with romantic daydreams and dazzles.

A bit backward

(Morning Star, Friday 08 June 2007)

ALBUM: Metro Riots - Night Time Angel Candy
(Universal)

BLAZING a trail, like a set of indie scenesters, straight through Camden, it will come as no surprise to all and sundry that the pseudo-politically monikered Metro Riots hail from London.

The mixing of their stylised indie-punk and standard blues here is quite a treat.

Single New Epidemic is a definite strength in the canon, giving lie to the assumption that young bands don't know what came before.

In fact, maybe Metro Riots' biggest problem would be looking backward a little too much. A band so aware of musical history cannot help but ape. On New Epidemic, as on the excellent Baby You've Become Another Habit, they do make the slip of throwing their punky blues influences into too small a pot, coming out with a 1970s garage band's wet dream of an anthem for disaffected youth.

Still, they rock and they look the part, so go on, Metro Riots, have your moment in the limelight. You've sort of earned it.

Worldwide mix

(Morning Star, Friday 01 June 2007)

ALBUM: Pink Martini - Hey Eugene
(Wrasse Records)

I HAD a pink martini once. It was a bit sickly and, frankly, made the morning after a real gut-wrencher.

But what this Pink Martini promise is less nauseating morning-after regret and more fizzy exuberance and chilled rhythms.

From the outset, frontwoman China Forbes marks herself out as a chameleon, channelling old-school Hollywood Garland glamour on Everywhere before diving headfirst into the sultry Latin rhythms of Tempo Perdido.

In fact, it's changeable throughout. Pink Martini go for full-on salsa from roasting hot Rio on the one hand, being instantly substituted with influences that any world music aficionado would embrace on the other.

For example, the sweet Japanese-language Taya Tan, or the frankly astonishing Bollywood-inspired Arabic language Bukra Wba'do.

If all this sounds like a bit of a mix, it is, but in the best way.

Forbes's astonishing voice guides the shyest of music fans through the most cathartic of musical landscapes and with vigor and class in equal measure.

Pink Martini may take their name from an alcoholic assault weapon, but the aftershock of Hey Eugene is given to freshness and clarity.

THE TWANG - LOVE IT WHEN I FEEL LIKE THIS

(AU magazine June 2007)

(b-unique)

There's nary a music fan in the world who doesn't enjoy a big dumb indie
anthem, and summer is the time to display them, from country's tip to
tail, as beered-up festival goers revel.
The Twang decided this was a basis for a pop career, and have presented 11
tracks for their debut with the potential to sweep a crowd into a frenzy
as surely as 'A Design For Life', all soaring guitars and modern urban
slang.
Their unsavoury deal assures them a stadia-lined future, but
unfortunately, their sound is best defined as 'Jasper Carrott fronting the
Stone Roses'. After the hype of downloads 'Wide Awake' and 'Either Way',
the album's tunefulness -- or lack -- is genuinely disappointing and Phil
Etheridge's heavily-accented voice just verges on comedic.
These Brummies love their modern slang, so they surely won't mind if you
give Love It When I Feel Like This the twang.

GOOD SHOES – THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK

(AU magazine June 2007)

(Brille Records)

Good Shoes’ DIY ethos doesn’t begin and end with their plasticine artwork and use of what sounds like children’s percussive implements, but these are as good cues as any when defining their debut album.
The four piece are heralded by singer Rhys’ shouty London vocal over a fractured guitar riff - a sound of no surprise to the current music fan - but the staccato technique employed on most of the tracks will start to grate.
Single ‘Never Meant To Hurt You’ addresses love with teen clarity – “Life’s a fucking bore” - whilst ‘Small Town Girl’ is similarly angst-ridden. Punky power pop for the pogoing intellectual.