Surfing the Void - Klaxons - Album Review
Apperances can be deceiving. As I said not so long ago in this blog (when I was complaing about The Strokes being over-rated), the last decade saw the emergence of shite indie, made by scruffy looking sorts who play boring music and need a good scrub. One such band, on appearance, was Klaxons, who the NME started wanking furiously over when they burst on to the scene in 2007. Klaxons went slightly beyond the boring blueprint that was circulating at that time, adding an edgier electronic sound to their music, labelled by many as "New Rave." This difference in what they got described as somehow managed to give them less credability however, and it seems to be to their benefit that they no longer use it as an adjective for their music. Certainly, the fact that they've grown out of sounding like music made by 14 year olds that think they're cool because they watch Skins helps this.
While the aforementioned NME jizzfest certainly included elements of Rave, the follow-up holds back on them slightly.There's an edgier sound present, which isn't in fact what they had originally created. They were made to re-record parts of it, as their label deemed it "too experimental." When you consider one such song was called "Marble Fields and the Hydrolight Head of Delusion," you can see why. You can be thankful for it as well, as rather than do what MGMT did earlier this year and create something that sounds like Stonehenge by Spinal Tap, Klaxons have produced an album that you can actually listen to without being stoned out of your tits.
It's a fairly short album at 38 minutes, and it does suffer from this as you're listening to it. It creates a certain feel of the album being rushed, as if the band want it to be over and done with before it even gets into any sort of rhythm. As a result of this, while there are very good songs present, when you go from the slower Twin Flames to the utterly deranged yet brilliant Flashover, you get no feeling of continuity. It doesn't feel like an album, and for that it's poorer. The only saving grace for it is that the songs are very good, so you'll want to play it over and over to actually get a feel for them. At least it doesn't suffer from the same problem as Myths of the Near Future, where you had the best song by a mile opening then have a closer that had a hidden track present after a full 15 minutes of silence.
All in all, Surfing the Void is better than I thought it'd be. And aside from the moments of brilliance that are present in the likes of Echoes, Flashover and Valley of the Calm Trees, Surfing the Void is definately in the running for album art of the year. That and i'm hating their image less and less each time, so it can't be that bad.
====================
Tomorrow, you'll get The Illusion of Safety by The Hoosiers
Monday 30 August 2010
Sunday 29 August 2010
No Need to Be Frightened Any More
The Winter of Mixed Drinks - Frightened Rabbit - Album Review
A band which up until July had completely escaped by knowledge, Frightened Rabbit have apparently been going for a while. Even more irritating is the fact that they're Scottish, and really good, a type of band I usually champion. Still, you always have to start somewhere, and my introduction to them was at T in the Park, where I caught a glimpse of them whilst waiting for We Are Scientists. I was taken aback by the reception they got (ironically, I had the same feeling when We Are Scientists came on), and as such left, as I felt too weird in amongst people who were quite clearly mad about the band on stage (who were very good, if I remember right).
Since then, I quite annoyingly started at the end buying their most recent album, March's The Winter of Mixed Drinks. I'm quite glad I did, as it's a contender for AOTY, a voyage of self-discovery and recovery from a bad bad woman. It's quite heartwarming to see a subject like that written about properly in this age of five-pieces composed of scrawny teenagers with identical haircuts (coughyoumeatsixcough). For every song that explores the depressing bottom of human emotion (Things, The Loneliness and the Scream) there's a counterpart going in the opposite direction (Nothing Like You, Not Miserable). When you lace the kind of outpourings present here with beautifully crafted melodies and exquiste songcraft, you get 10 tracks that all have a certain quality about them, coming across as both polished yet still harnessing the raw emotion that's been put into creating them. It doesn't do any harm either when you consider that each song is extremely catchy and sticks in your head for days on end.
As this is the first album by Frightened Rabbit i've heard, I can't comment on how they've progressed since previous work. Whatever they've been through in their previous efforts, they've certainly reached a comfortable and accomplished point with TWOMN, their 3rd. Hopefully, it'll serve as a platform to get them the greater recognition and praise that they certainly deserve.
======================================
This was too short, but there'll be another review tomorrow, of Surfing the Void by Klaxons.
A band which up until July had completely escaped by knowledge, Frightened Rabbit have apparently been going for a while. Even more irritating is the fact that they're Scottish, and really good, a type of band I usually champion. Still, you always have to start somewhere, and my introduction to them was at T in the Park, where I caught a glimpse of them whilst waiting for We Are Scientists. I was taken aback by the reception they got (ironically, I had the same feeling when We Are Scientists came on), and as such left, as I felt too weird in amongst people who were quite clearly mad about the band on stage (who were very good, if I remember right).
Since then, I quite annoyingly started at the end buying their most recent album, March's The Winter of Mixed Drinks. I'm quite glad I did, as it's a contender for AOTY, a voyage of self-discovery and recovery from a bad bad woman. It's quite heartwarming to see a subject like that written about properly in this age of five-pieces composed of scrawny teenagers with identical haircuts (coughyoumeatsixcough). For every song that explores the depressing bottom of human emotion (Things, The Loneliness and the Scream) there's a counterpart going in the opposite direction (Nothing Like You, Not Miserable). When you lace the kind of outpourings present here with beautifully crafted melodies and exquiste songcraft, you get 10 tracks that all have a certain quality about them, coming across as both polished yet still harnessing the raw emotion that's been put into creating them. It doesn't do any harm either when you consider that each song is extremely catchy and sticks in your head for days on end.
As this is the first album by Frightened Rabbit i've heard, I can't comment on how they've progressed since previous work. Whatever they've been through in their previous efforts, they've certainly reached a comfortable and accomplished point with TWOMN, their 3rd. Hopefully, it'll serve as a platform to get them the greater recognition and praise that they certainly deserve.
======================================
This was too short, but there'll be another review tomorrow, of Surfing the Void by Klaxons.
Sunday 15 August 2010
Is This It?
Is This It - The Strokes - Album Review
Released in 2001, Is This It heralded the arrival of one of the most important bands of the decade, The Strokes. An album met with fawning from all quarters of the media, even being named album of the decade by the NME (it wasn't). Everyone else loved it too, it was named by many as the best album of the year (it wasn't), and described as one of the most important guitar band albums in years.
Despite this, The Strokes have never been a band that ever struck me as anything special. Boring music, boring singing and not the most unique band in the world, although to be fair to them, they did influence all of the tuneless indie that followed it in the last decade (and which saturated the market to such a point it all became completely identical and worthless). But, as there's nothing out this week, and since I told Harry i'd do it two months ago, i've thrown together what I feel about their debut album that spawned a decade of clones.
Remember last week's review of The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, and how I mentioned that despite it being over an hour long, you would never know this whilst listening to it? Is This It manages to go in completely the opposite direction, by being very short (11 songs, ranging from 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes 58) and feeling like it'll never end. This is facilitated mainly by the fact that each songs sounds exactly the same, which is hardly surprising when you consider the genre it belongs to. I wanted to hate this album when I first listened to it and at first, I didn't. The second track, The Modern Age, is probably the best thing here, even if it only managed to achieve this by outshining other songs which aren't exactly the greatest pieces of musical composition ever.
If you've never heard The Strokes barring the riff for Reptilia in a telly show somewhere, or the intro to Last Nite which has been subsequently ripped off more times than anyone who travels by First Bus, then Is This It (and probably anything else they've ever done) can be summarised in three words:
1. Jangling. The guitar sounds like it's being played by Muhammad Ali in an earthquake, and this offers nothing to make the record memorable.
2. Drawling. Before I heard this, I thought the chap singing had an unintelligble voice. Now however, I realise that this cannot actually be the case, because for someone to have a voice that sounds like he's got a doormat clamped over his face requires either a deranged gibbon at the mixing desk, or him to have smoked a pile of Marlboro's that would put both the Cigarette Smoking Man from The X Files and the smokers from Chewin the Fat to shame. While there are a select few vocalists who can sing words you can't make out and remain palatable, Julian (i'm not trying to spell his surname) just bores you to tears, and makes you wish you could at least see him singing in person to see if this voice is real.
3. What? Beautifully applicable because i've had this album on a good few times this week to try and make any of it stand out for praise, and I can't. The only thing I can remember is the song already mentioned. The rest of the album is a complete blur, passing by in the manner of a condescending flick of the head, from someone with a woman's hair cut, a coat with an upturned collar and woman's jeans. The album reeks of the horrible indie subculture which arose in the 00's, and which I once considered myself to be a part of.
Is This It was released in 2001. Now, from 2001 to 2005 (the year I started buying music) I have 31 albums that fall into that timespace, so i'm not the most qualified to comment on how this album influenced music in that timescale, but after that, there are countless bands who fit the same cookie cutter mould that The Strokes seem to have pioneered, and the one that seems to have come closest to them and had the most prominence are Arctic Monkeys. Is that an achievement? That this album spawned a decade of utter shite from little jumped up twerps with hairstyles and regional singing voices? That's probably why I hate this album and band. That they were responsible for the only decent thing the music buying (moving in to ripping-off) public listened to, which could only be called decent because of the manufactured tripe it was up against. What a shame. Even with Is This It's legacy (which it doesn't deserve), I can't see what all the fuss is about.
========================
Next week.... christ knows. If you want anything, give me a shout. And I started to ramble this week, my apologies.
Released in 2001, Is This It heralded the arrival of one of the most important bands of the decade, The Strokes. An album met with fawning from all quarters of the media, even being named album of the decade by the NME (it wasn't). Everyone else loved it too, it was named by many as the best album of the year (it wasn't), and described as one of the most important guitar band albums in years.
Despite this, The Strokes have never been a band that ever struck me as anything special. Boring music, boring singing and not the most unique band in the world, although to be fair to them, they did influence all of the tuneless indie that followed it in the last decade (and which saturated the market to such a point it all became completely identical and worthless). But, as there's nothing out this week, and since I told Harry i'd do it two months ago, i've thrown together what I feel about their debut album that spawned a decade of clones.
Remember last week's review of The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, and how I mentioned that despite it being over an hour long, you would never know this whilst listening to it? Is This It manages to go in completely the opposite direction, by being very short (11 songs, ranging from 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes 58) and feeling like it'll never end. This is facilitated mainly by the fact that each songs sounds exactly the same, which is hardly surprising when you consider the genre it belongs to. I wanted to hate this album when I first listened to it and at first, I didn't. The second track, The Modern Age, is probably the best thing here, even if it only managed to achieve this by outshining other songs which aren't exactly the greatest pieces of musical composition ever.
If you've never heard The Strokes barring the riff for Reptilia in a telly show somewhere, or the intro to Last Nite which has been subsequently ripped off more times than anyone who travels by First Bus, then Is This It (and probably anything else they've ever done) can be summarised in three words:
1. Jangling. The guitar sounds like it's being played by Muhammad Ali in an earthquake, and this offers nothing to make the record memorable.
2. Drawling. Before I heard this, I thought the chap singing had an unintelligble voice. Now however, I realise that this cannot actually be the case, because for someone to have a voice that sounds like he's got a doormat clamped over his face requires either a deranged gibbon at the mixing desk, or him to have smoked a pile of Marlboro's that would put both the Cigarette Smoking Man from The X Files and the smokers from Chewin the Fat to shame. While there are a select few vocalists who can sing words you can't make out and remain palatable, Julian (i'm not trying to spell his surname) just bores you to tears, and makes you wish you could at least see him singing in person to see if this voice is real.
3. What? Beautifully applicable because i've had this album on a good few times this week to try and make any of it stand out for praise, and I can't. The only thing I can remember is the song already mentioned. The rest of the album is a complete blur, passing by in the manner of a condescending flick of the head, from someone with a woman's hair cut, a coat with an upturned collar and woman's jeans. The album reeks of the horrible indie subculture which arose in the 00's, and which I once considered myself to be a part of.
Is This It was released in 2001. Now, from 2001 to 2005 (the year I started buying music) I have 31 albums that fall into that timespace, so i'm not the most qualified to comment on how this album influenced music in that timescale, but after that, there are countless bands who fit the same cookie cutter mould that The Strokes seem to have pioneered, and the one that seems to have come closest to them and had the most prominence are Arctic Monkeys. Is that an achievement? That this album spawned a decade of utter shite from little jumped up twerps with hairstyles and regional singing voices? That's probably why I hate this album and band. That they were responsible for the only decent thing the music buying (moving in to ripping-off) public listened to, which could only be called decent because of the manufactured tripe it was up against. What a shame. Even with Is This It's legacy (which it doesn't deserve), I can't see what all the fuss is about.
========================
Next week.... christ knows. If you want anything, give me a shout. And I started to ramble this week, my apologies.
Tuesday 10 August 2010
For French-Canadians, It's Not That Bad
The Suburbs - Arcade Fire - Album Review
Few records that i've ever bought have ever been put on and immediately left me thinking "that meant something." You know what I mean, the kind of music that makes you sit up (if you weren't sitting up already) and take note of what you're listening to, the message being put across by the artist. Even as time goes on and music evolves (or goes backwards on the evolutionary scale, depending on how you look at it), there are few bands left that can actually do this. As it turns out, Arcade Fire are one of them. Although i've still not heard Funeral, by all accounts it's fantastic and showed a glimpse of what they could be capable of. Neon Bible came next, and while there were flashes of brilliance, plodding stuff like the title track and anything that had French in it completely ruined any hope of it being the complete record many made it out to be. So, what was to be the case with album #3?
As I have matured since I first started listening to music (seriously, never do critical evaluations of albums, it ruins your ability to enjoy music), I can put an album on and generally, take everything in after about 3 listens. I make a conscious effort to know what i'm listening to and enjoy it, and after that, I go deeper. I listen to the words, to the way the album is structured and the music that's being used to create the sound that eventually gets out to the buying public. With The Suburbs, each of these steps takes longer. Aside from the fact that it's over an hour long and has 15 (real) tracks, each of these is so dense, so perfectly crafted that you have to take longer to fully appreciate it. Each song is a work of perfection, and each song actually feels like the band cared about it, and put all their efforts into making it the best piece of work possible from them, which is rare in music today.
The real ace up the sleeve for The Suburbs is how you don't realise where time goes whilst it's on. Coming in at over 64 minutes long, you would be forgiven for thinking you're in for a slog when you first put it on. Fortunately you're not however, as from the fairly low-key opening title track rolling into Ready to Start, the best song on the album, it never lets up. The two part songs, Half Light and Sprawl add some beautiful structure to the full record, and help to keep the lull in the middle from Deep Blue (a song about the chess playing computer of the same name) and current single (why?) We Used to Wait from causing the record to stop. It's in these two parters where the comments of frontman Win Butler were explained, when he said The Suburbs sounded "like Depeche Mode meets Neil Young." It's a marriage that sould have been made sooner, judging from the results. Empty Room and Month of May especially however sound like they're channeling The Clash, and this is just another sound that Arcade Fire pull off like they've been doing it their whole life.
As far as lyrics go, The Suburbs is mainly a criticism of the way the world is now. 3 years have passed since Neon Bible's release in 2007, and the world has turned to pot. Win Butler (and his wife/daughter/nieces/whichever burds do backing vocals) muses about the problems in the world throughout, and while there are times when it can sound a bit too bitter, and a bit too whiny, it all hits home perfectly. The Suburbs has fulfilled the vision that Neon Bible set out to start, something that completely reflects the environment it was born in and combines biting critcism with expert song writing. Just about every song is about some topic of the harshness of the world as it is today, and it could be argued that The Suburbs is the first observant record since This is a Fix by The Automatic, or Glasvegas' eponymous drbut effort. Certainly, it's the most important record you're likely to buy this year, and could well be the best.
============================
Next week: Harry Gover's moaning shall subside, as I listen to what the NME thinks is the best album of the last decade. That should be fun.
Few records that i've ever bought have ever been put on and immediately left me thinking "that meant something." You know what I mean, the kind of music that makes you sit up (if you weren't sitting up already) and take note of what you're listening to, the message being put across by the artist. Even as time goes on and music evolves (or goes backwards on the evolutionary scale, depending on how you look at it), there are few bands left that can actually do this. As it turns out, Arcade Fire are one of them. Although i've still not heard Funeral, by all accounts it's fantastic and showed a glimpse of what they could be capable of. Neon Bible came next, and while there were flashes of brilliance, plodding stuff like the title track and anything that had French in it completely ruined any hope of it being the complete record many made it out to be. So, what was to be the case with album #3?
As I have matured since I first started listening to music (seriously, never do critical evaluations of albums, it ruins your ability to enjoy music), I can put an album on and generally, take everything in after about 3 listens. I make a conscious effort to know what i'm listening to and enjoy it, and after that, I go deeper. I listen to the words, to the way the album is structured and the music that's being used to create the sound that eventually gets out to the buying public. With The Suburbs, each of these steps takes longer. Aside from the fact that it's over an hour long and has 15 (real) tracks, each of these is so dense, so perfectly crafted that you have to take longer to fully appreciate it. Each song is a work of perfection, and each song actually feels like the band cared about it, and put all their efforts into making it the best piece of work possible from them, which is rare in music today.
The real ace up the sleeve for The Suburbs is how you don't realise where time goes whilst it's on. Coming in at over 64 minutes long, you would be forgiven for thinking you're in for a slog when you first put it on. Fortunately you're not however, as from the fairly low-key opening title track rolling into Ready to Start, the best song on the album, it never lets up. The two part songs, Half Light and Sprawl add some beautiful structure to the full record, and help to keep the lull in the middle from Deep Blue (a song about the chess playing computer of the same name) and current single (why?) We Used to Wait from causing the record to stop. It's in these two parters where the comments of frontman Win Butler were explained, when he said The Suburbs sounded "like Depeche Mode meets Neil Young." It's a marriage that sould have been made sooner, judging from the results. Empty Room and Month of May especially however sound like they're channeling The Clash, and this is just another sound that Arcade Fire pull off like they've been doing it their whole life.
As far as lyrics go, The Suburbs is mainly a criticism of the way the world is now. 3 years have passed since Neon Bible's release in 2007, and the world has turned to pot. Win Butler (and his wife/daughter/nieces/whichever burds do backing vocals) muses about the problems in the world throughout, and while there are times when it can sound a bit too bitter, and a bit too whiny, it all hits home perfectly. The Suburbs has fulfilled the vision that Neon Bible set out to start, something that completely reflects the environment it was born in and combines biting critcism with expert song writing. Just about every song is about some topic of the harshness of the world as it is today, and it could be argued that The Suburbs is the first observant record since This is a Fix by The Automatic, or Glasvegas' eponymous drbut effort. Certainly, it's the most important record you're likely to buy this year, and could well be the best.
============================
Next week: Harry Gover's moaning shall subside, as I listen to what the NME thinks is the best album of the last decade. That should be fun.
Sunday 1 August 2010
I'd Quite Like to Runaway...
The Runaway - The Magic Numbers - Album Review
I remember when I first played The Magic Numbers (by that I mean their first album). I remember where I bought it as well, and I can remember times afterwards when I had it on or had certain songs on. Not least because Forever Lost is in an episode of Scrubs, but aside from that, it was a really good album, under-rated when it came out and still to this day. When next album Those the Brokes was released just a year later and managed to be better and catchier, you knew that this band was on to something.
So, where to with album #3? TTB implied that the band were going for a more mainstream yet still palatable sound, one which would get them the recognition that they deserved but whilst still retaining the base of their sound, charming guitar melodies with two singing voices which compliment each other perfectly, which isn't bad considering they're of opposite gender. Both Romeo Stodart and Angela Gannon's voices manage to take some of the darkest material that can go into songs (especially on The Runaway) and make it sound beautiful. The Runaway utilises both of their voices to perfection and to be frank, it has to. That they both seem to believe what they're singing about feels like the only reason to carry on listening to most of this album, which is a real shame, given what they've shown they were capable of. Some of the songs seem to be better suited to read as poems, the emotions you can feel from reading them don't seem to come across when you hear them played.
From lead single and lead song The Pulse, you knew that this album was going to be more low-tempo than the others were. What you didn't know was just how drastic a departure it would be, as after listening to this album, I honestly can't pick out any great moments. There are brief flashes of brilliance, The Pulse is probably the best example of the albums work, and Throwing My Heart Away provides a pretty strong reason for Angela Gannon to take lead vocals, but that's about it. It's all very lovely to listen to, but unless you're the kind of person who live in a constant state of serenity, then I can't think of a reason to keep listening to this. It sounds like the kind of bland, innocuous songs you get as hold music when you phone up some obscure government office. That or the kind of thing that gets played in dentists room's where you still sit in a wooden chair (I don't have to worry about this, my dentist's a child of the 80's, he had INXS on
the last time I was there).
The Magic Numbers are a band I have always championed. Despite never having any huge popularity, they still have a strong fanbase, mainly comprised of people who can listen to albums in full and appreciate the fact that all members of bands should play an instrument, apart from a lead singer. I always thought that if they kept building on the material that was in their first two albums, they could eventually get the success that they seemed to warrant. With The Runaway however, i'm unsure. Is this just a difficult third album, or is it the beginning of a fade into an obscurity that Snow Patrol circa 2002 would be ashamed of? I hope that there's another album in 2011, which gets back to showcasing what The Magic Numbers are really able to do.
Oh, and there's a bonus track from the soundtrack to one of those gay Twilight films. For shame, I sincerely hope that the record company made them do that, and it wasn't their choice.
=========================
Next Week, The Suburbs, by Arcade Fire. I really feel I should listen to Funeral before that, but we'll see what happens
I remember when I first played The Magic Numbers (by that I mean their first album). I remember where I bought it as well, and I can remember times afterwards when I had it on or had certain songs on. Not least because Forever Lost is in an episode of Scrubs, but aside from that, it was a really good album, under-rated when it came out and still to this day. When next album Those the Brokes was released just a year later and managed to be better and catchier, you knew that this band was on to something.
So, where to with album #3? TTB implied that the band were going for a more mainstream yet still palatable sound, one which would get them the recognition that they deserved but whilst still retaining the base of their sound, charming guitar melodies with two singing voices which compliment each other perfectly, which isn't bad considering they're of opposite gender. Both Romeo Stodart and Angela Gannon's voices manage to take some of the darkest material that can go into songs (especially on The Runaway) and make it sound beautiful. The Runaway utilises both of their voices to perfection and to be frank, it has to. That they both seem to believe what they're singing about feels like the only reason to carry on listening to most of this album, which is a real shame, given what they've shown they were capable of. Some of the songs seem to be better suited to read as poems, the emotions you can feel from reading them don't seem to come across when you hear them played.
From lead single and lead song The Pulse, you knew that this album was going to be more low-tempo than the others were. What you didn't know was just how drastic a departure it would be, as after listening to this album, I honestly can't pick out any great moments. There are brief flashes of brilliance, The Pulse is probably the best example of the albums work, and Throwing My Heart Away provides a pretty strong reason for Angela Gannon to take lead vocals, but that's about it. It's all very lovely to listen to, but unless you're the kind of person who live in a constant state of serenity, then I can't think of a reason to keep listening to this. It sounds like the kind of bland, innocuous songs you get as hold music when you phone up some obscure government office. That or the kind of thing that gets played in dentists room's where you still sit in a wooden chair (I don't have to worry about this, my dentist's a child of the 80's, he had INXS on
the last time I was there).
The Magic Numbers are a band I have always championed. Despite never having any huge popularity, they still have a strong fanbase, mainly comprised of people who can listen to albums in full and appreciate the fact that all members of bands should play an instrument, apart from a lead singer. I always thought that if they kept building on the material that was in their first two albums, they could eventually get the success that they seemed to warrant. With The Runaway however, i'm unsure. Is this just a difficult third album, or is it the beginning of a fade into an obscurity that Snow Patrol circa 2002 would be ashamed of? I hope that there's another album in 2011, which gets back to showcasing what The Magic Numbers are really able to do.
Oh, and there's a bonus track from the soundtrack to one of those gay Twilight films. For shame, I sincerely hope that the record company made them do that, and it wasn't their choice.
=========================
Next Week, The Suburbs, by Arcade Fire. I really feel I should listen to Funeral before that, but we'll see what happens
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