(Morning Star, Friday 07 March 2008)
ALBUM: Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha
(Parlophone)
THE sixth studio album from this legendary British band is the most openly rocky since the crunching guitars of In It For The Money (1997).
The Zep-style strains of opener Diamond Hoo Ha Man do, however, signify an album lamenting the loss of harmonious glee which Oxford's finest had long since made their own.
Diamond Hoo Ha is not Supergrass' best, it is clear from the start.
Fans will believe that the band's enthusiasm and talent has not disappeared, simply gone off on a rockier tangent for a while. Let's hope they're right.
Friday, 7 March 2008
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Friday, 8 February 2008
Dazed pop
(Morning Star, Friday 08 February 2008)
ALBUM: The High Wire - Ahead of the Rain
THE sleepy peaceful world of The High Wire offers a welcome foil to today's
frankly brash world. Londoners The High Wire nail their shoegazing colours firmly to the mast on this debut, with the drifting instant Saint Bees heading up a frankly devastating selection of dazed pop for confused kids.
Ahead of the Rain is a journey for the sleepwalkers out there.
From the blissed-out Easy to a sweetly naive You Don't Know What I Know, The High Wire have My Bloody Valentines' swooning signature all over them and it's a very good thing too.
ALBUM: The High Wire - Ahead of the Rain
THE sleepy peaceful world of The High Wire offers a welcome foil to today's
frankly brash world. Londoners The High Wire nail their shoegazing colours firmly to the mast on this debut, with the drifting instant Saint Bees heading up a frankly devastating selection of dazed pop for confused kids.
Ahead of the Rain is a journey for the sleepwalkers out there.
From the blissed-out Easy to a sweetly naive You Don't Know What I Know, The High Wire have My Bloody Valentines' swooning signature all over them and it's a very good thing too.
Friday, 1 February 2008
A bit bizarre
(Morning Star, Friday 01 February 2008)
ALBUM: Paul Vickers and the Leg - Tropical Favourites
(SL Records)
AS the Scottish granddaddy of all that is wonky and alternative about modern pop, Paul Vickers's teaming up with The Leg was sure to be an event.
As one of those musical matches guaranteed to make obsessive fans water at the mouth, the completed Tropical Favourites ends up as half a disappointment.
After the initial collaborative single Wild Geese, there was a lot to work with and, when it comes off, the record is imbued with both proper musical sensibilities and Vickers's own unique Dawn of the Replicants-honed absurdity.
On tracks such as The Ballad of Bess Houdini and Wild Geese, there is an artistry, a sort of seasick meandering through the valley of the unusual.
But, when it falters, it can seem like a racket. Opener Umbrella Propeller has the vague association with a blasting car horn and all the associated tunefulness that this implies, while Powerful Soup is the aural equivalent of a Giorgio de Chirico painting - at best confusing and, at worst, vaguely terrifying. Proceed with caution.
ALBUM: Paul Vickers and the Leg - Tropical Favourites
(SL Records)
AS the Scottish granddaddy of all that is wonky and alternative about modern pop, Paul Vickers's teaming up with The Leg was sure to be an event.
As one of those musical matches guaranteed to make obsessive fans water at the mouth, the completed Tropical Favourites ends up as half a disappointment.
After the initial collaborative single Wild Geese, there was a lot to work with and, when it comes off, the record is imbued with both proper musical sensibilities and Vickers's own unique Dawn of the Replicants-honed absurdity.
On tracks such as The Ballad of Bess Houdini and Wild Geese, there is an artistry, a sort of seasick meandering through the valley of the unusual.
But, when it falters, it can seem like a racket. Opener Umbrella Propeller has the vague association with a blasting car horn and all the associated tunefulness that this implies, while Powerful Soup is the aural equivalent of a Giorgio de Chirico painting - at best confusing and, at worst, vaguely terrifying. Proceed with caution.
Just irritating
(Morning Star, Friday 01 February 2008)
ALBUM: Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down
(V2/Mercury Records)
KICKING off like the bastard offspring of Maximo Park and the Futureheads, it's an immediate shame that Laura-Mary Carter's best Wendy James impression comes on so strong.
In fact, this is the very negative which takes You Bring Me Down from wondrous, jagged, indie-guitar smash to merely another drone scarcely equipped to bother iTunes.
There's nothing wrong with the melody and the musicianship is accomplished and, in isolation, Carter's voice is unchallenging.
It's just that, together, they bring nothing but irritation. As the repetitive refrain barked out by Carter goes, "Dunno why, but it brings me down."
ALBUM: Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down
(V2/Mercury Records)
KICKING off like the bastard offspring of Maximo Park and the Futureheads, it's an immediate shame that Laura-Mary Carter's best Wendy James impression comes on so strong.
In fact, this is the very negative which takes You Bring Me Down from wondrous, jagged, indie-guitar smash to merely another drone scarcely equipped to bother iTunes.
There's nothing wrong with the melody and the musicianship is accomplished and, in isolation, Carter's voice is unchallenging.
It's just that, together, they bring nothing but irritation. As the repetitive refrain barked out by Carter goes, "Dunno why, but it brings me down."
ONE NIGHT ONLY - STARTED A FIRE
(AU magazine February 2008)
(Vertigo)
ONE Night Only have a terrible name.
It's not so bad - one of the greatest Brit bands of all time The Beatles, have one of the most appalling names ever dreamed up. But still - as a listener, one might say the name One Night Only is a deliberate barrier to musical enjoyment.
Unless... aha! It's a ruse! There's nothing to fear here, because One Night Only's debut album is one of the most 1980s - and therefore, thrilling - records to be released this side of the new millennium.
It's a gift for these retro times, with opener Just For Tonight being entirely indicative of its overblown style - its elegiac, 'St Elmo's Fire'-style soaring rock with a hint of style about the gills.
Elsewhere, the emotive He's There gives a nod to the stellar gloom of Editors coated in some otherworldly sparkle which takes the mundane above and beyond. If One Night Only can get offer their self-given handicap, they are destined to rise high.
(Vertigo)
ONE Night Only have a terrible name.
It's not so bad - one of the greatest Brit bands of all time The Beatles, have one of the most appalling names ever dreamed up. But still - as a listener, one might say the name One Night Only is a deliberate barrier to musical enjoyment.
Unless... aha! It's a ruse! There's nothing to fear here, because One Night Only's debut album is one of the most 1980s - and therefore, thrilling - records to be released this side of the new millennium.
It's a gift for these retro times, with opener Just For Tonight being entirely indicative of its overblown style - its elegiac, 'St Elmo's Fire'-style soaring rock with a hint of style about the gills.
Elsewhere, the emotive He's There gives a nod to the stellar gloom of Editors coated in some otherworldly sparkle which takes the mundane above and beyond. If One Night Only can get offer their self-given handicap, they are destined to rise high.
THE SEQUINS - THE DEATH OF STYLE
(AU magazine February 2008)
(Tough Love Records)
WITH distinctive indie-pop warblings to rival Sir Ferghal of Sharkey, there's a tradition into which The Sequins neatly slip.
Unfortunately, it is a tradition of irritating, overdone art rock which garners all the affection of haemmaroids.
'The Death of Style' is a voyage through the minds of five particularly self-aware Midlanders, evidenced most strongly on the frightful 'Everyone Loves The Sequins'.
There's a market for this stuff, of course. It's called space year 2001, folks. So The Sequins - and everyone else with a copy of Roxy Music's 'Roxy Music' tucked under their arm - should trundle back there.
Friday, 25 January 2008
Too sweet to swallow
(Morning Star, Friday 25 January 2008)
ALBUM: Laura Critchley - Sometimes I
(Big Print Music)
CHIRPY pretty songstresses from Liverpool are the bedrock of modern pop. Think Cilla to Sonia and many inbetween.
Laura Critchley is set to be part of that esteemed line-up, weaving, as she does, the tales of a fractured heart with an upbeat, summery disposition which gets the foot tapping and drills those choruses into your brain.
Unfortunately, Critchley's market is firmly on Magic FM - this saccharine girl-pop is quite frankly enough to give anyone else a toothache.
A song called Superstar is dedicated to Karen Carpenter, Laura's heroine. Sadly, something this sweet would look out of place on even the Carpenters' sugary records, because Carpenter sang from the heart, something that Critchley hasn't proven herself capable of on this debut.
ALBUM: Laura Critchley - Sometimes I
(Big Print Music)
CHIRPY pretty songstresses from Liverpool are the bedrock of modern pop. Think Cilla to Sonia and many inbetween.
Laura Critchley is set to be part of that esteemed line-up, weaving, as she does, the tales of a fractured heart with an upbeat, summery disposition which gets the foot tapping and drills those choruses into your brain.
Unfortunately, Critchley's market is firmly on Magic FM - this saccharine girl-pop is quite frankly enough to give anyone else a toothache.
A song called Superstar is dedicated to Karen Carpenter, Laura's heroine. Sadly, something this sweet would look out of place on even the Carpenters' sugary records, because Carpenter sang from the heart, something that Critchley hasn't proven herself capable of on this debut.
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Friday, 4 January 2008
Picks for 2008
(Morning Star, Friday 04 January 2008)
Operator, Please
FORMED specifically to compete in a school battle of the bands, Operator, Please are the sort of band who might star in your favourite off-centre comedy film - think of them onstage at Napoleon Dynamite or Donnie Darko's school dance.
A fabulous Aussie quintet with a nice line in musical magic tricks, Tim Commandeur on drums, Sarah Gardiner on keyboards, Ashley McConnell on bass and classically trained Taylor Henderson on violin are like an aural explosion, a sensory thrill ride of bombast and adrenalin, all wrapped up in a teenaged package.
Now known the world over, the band recently charmed Radio 2 doyens Radcliffe and Maconie with single Leave It Alone, a whooping and frankly dazzling example of what the kids can do given their space.
Signed to Brille, their debut Yes Yes Vindictive promises to give a right kick up the arse to the lugubrious R'n'B that has made its home at the top of the chart in recent months. An album standout certainly has to be the excellently named Just A Song About Ping Pong. Oh, and they won the battle of the bands, by the way.
Noah and the Whale
NOAH and the Whale have been making a splash - sorry - on the live music circuit recently, garnering praise from critics and generally setting the scene for a 2008 takeover.
The London-based lads - Charlie on vocals and guitar, Doug on drums, Tom on fiddle and bassist Matt - have made an impressive fist of marrying traditional folk with their own pop sound and coming out sounding surprisingly far from a dog's dinner.
The melodic melancholy of most modern alternative pop combos is all present and correct, but with a nice twist in the charismatic leadership of intense frontman Charlie.
The band have a confidence which belies their youth and their take on folk means that they're less "swigging lager behind the bike sheds" and more "raiding your parents' record collection for some Woody Guthrie."
Tied now to the painfully cool indie label Young and Lost Club, the band have discovered the strength of bare production on string-pinned ballad Peaceful The World Lays Me Down and their growing maturity can only mean special things in the year ahead. There she blows.
The Courteeners
DRINKERS from that invariably poisoned chalice of celebrity recommendation, Manchester's The Courteeners have been tipped for the top by an axe-wielding Manc with a career to envy, John Squire, and supported the Coral on tour.
Drifting down the same river as the Gallagher brothers, mouthy Liam Fray on vocal and guitar heads up the quartet, with Daniel "Conan" Moores on guitar, Marc Cuppello on bass and drummer Michael Campbell.
The band make generic rock, the like of which has music fans foaming at the mouth - see Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, The Twang - but, with the very spirit of working-class Northerners lifting them above the mundane, they are bound to be charting higher and higher in the next year.
Highlights include Fallowfield Hillbilly and Aftershow, as well as single What Took You So Long - mercifully not a cover of Emma Bunton's pop "classic."
The Courteeners will be big in 2008, whether you like it or not, so buckle up.
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