Reviews Jan-Feb 2012

Boy & Bear: Moonfire

Funny lot, Australians. They’ve never been sticklers for originality in their music and thus they’ve produced a wealth of trend following and derivative bands that have had huge success on their own shores but have fallen flat outside of Oz.

On first listen it would be easy to dismiss Boy & Bear on those very grounds. Their sound is smack bang in the middle of Fleet Foxes and Mumford and Sons. And if that sounds like a horrific proposition then you should probably skip to the next review. However if you are a fan of either band or the New-Folk movement in general then there is a lot to like here. The songs are immediate and edge towards the anthemic, with a hint of rock and roll that both the aforementioned bands lack, and they stand up well to repeat listens. In fact the more you listen the less you hear other bands and the more Boy & Bear’s strong songwriting shines through.

It’s by no means perfect, they could do with a bit more individuality and letting their own personality to come through, when they do manage this on Part Time Believer it proves to be an album highlight, however it is a strong debut and sets them up nicely for a successful future home and away.

Rating: 8/10

Craig Finn: Clear Heart, Full Eyes

In his day job as singer/lyricist for The Hold Steady Finn has carved a niche as a narrator of bar room tales and the seemier side of American life and on his first solo album he hasn’t exactly tried to distance himself from that as much as extend the blueprint. Musically it is more diverse, the country pickings of New Friend Jesus and the relaxed surf of Apollo Bay work well and are a break from The Hold Steady’s straight forward rock but beyond that there’s little that couldn’t sit just as happily on Finn’s main band’s records. He is undoubtedly very good at what he does, but here at least he doesn’t quite do enough to make this anything other than a solid solo outing.

Rating: 7/10

Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral

Unlike Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley Mark Lanegan somehow survived the ravages of the grunge scene and has gone on to be a prolific guest and duettist on various and varied records since then. Here though he creates music on his own terms and to be honest it lacks a driving musical force. Yes, he flirts with disco with some electronic beats but his voice, so distinctive and recognisable, works against him and makes all the songs sound a little too similar. It’s listenable, certainly, and the songs separately have merit but as an album it’s a little unmemorable.

Rating: 6/10

Portico Quartet: Portico Quartet

I should probably start this review with a disclaimer: I am a novice when it comes to jazz. I like it but I’m really only starting to delve into it beyond Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. So are Portico Quartet a good place to start? Well yes and no. Their music at its best is inventive and interesting, the blending of drumming and electronic beats gives them a good contemporary feel and on songs like Ruins they pull you in and force you to pay attention. All too often however they drift off into background music, they seem a little to intent on creating the right soundscape that it loses focus a little and while an arresting or discording refrain can draw you back in, all too often it doesn’t. That said as mood music it is excellent, relaxing without being dull but a little more personality wouldn’t go amiss. As I say though I’m only a novice and could well be missing intricacies that a more attuned listener would hear, so perhaps take my rating with a pinch of salt…

Rating: 6/10

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: The Magic Of Youth

It seems a long time ago that ska-punk was the next big thing, but when it was the Bosstones were at the forefront of it. Now, perhaps, they are ploughing a lonelier furrow but it doesn’t seem to have dampened their enthusiasm for the music and it’s hard not to be swept along by that. Nothing they do is startling or particularly original and the songs instantly have a familiar feel which is both their strength and their downfall. It all gets a bit samey and predictable after a while and despite displaying a darker side on occasion in general this is a little lightweight for those who like a little edge to their punk rock. That said you’d hard pressed not to find yourself tapping along to the grooves and you can imagine they’d sound even better live.

Rating: 7/10

Field Music: Plumb

Over the course of their first three albums Field Music have garnered a fair amount of critical acclaim that hasn’t been equalled by record sales and to be honest it’s easy to see why on both counts. Technically Plumb is superb; original, inventive music, moments of pure beauty and occasional theatricality. On an intellectual level it’s hard to fault but from a punter’s point of view it’s difficult to get excited by the songs themselves, they’re nice enough but that’s as much a damning indictment as a compliment. If you like your indie intelligent and unusual it’s worth a listen but if your looking for something a little more emotive you may find it somewhat sterile.
Rating: 6/10

The Revolution Will Be Computerised

It’s not often that I feel like I’m at the forefront of something big. Like most serious (or anal, to give them their correct title) music fans I love finding a band before anyone else, it makes them feel like they’re mine. But due to my age and tastes I have never really been part of a scene, certainly not one that changes the face of the world, or the face of music at least. I was too young for punk, too hardcore for britpop. Even away from music I am something of a Luddite, I eschewed the likes of mobile phones, Facebook and Twitter until it was patently obvious they weren’t mere flashes in the pan. But this year something genuinely revolutionary in music is happening and I am a small part of it.

This year the finest British songwriter of the last 20 years, Ginger, is releasing a triple album. And I am buying it. Revolutionary, huh?

The revolutionary part of this is how the album is being funded. Ginger, of The Wildhearts in case you were wondering, Has raised the money for this release through Pledge Music, a website where artists ask the fans to directly pay for the making of an album. No record companies, no record shops just the artist, the website and the fans.

Make no mistake for an established artist such as Ginger to do this is quite a gamble, it is a great big ‘fuck off’ to the music industry, perhaps the most important one since punks started setting up their own record labels. Of course it could’ve all fallen flat on its face, Ginger could have not made the requisite funds to make the album and it could’ve all been chalked up as an admirable failure. But it hasn’t, it’s been a roaring success. Ginger has made over 500% of his original target, the album has been made and is ready for release soon. It worked, and if it’s worked once who’s to say it can’t be the template for more and more bands who want to make music a meritocracy rather than the Cowell-led game of chance and the right haircut that it is now.

It’s crazy I know but maybe, just maybe in the future people will buy albums and the money will go to the people who make them. Wouldn’t that be grand?

There’s still time to pledge for Ginger’s album if you want to get in on the ground floor (although I’ve been in the lift holding the doors for you for, y’know, ages). This could be the start of something big that we’ve all been waiting for.

Pledge here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/gingerwildheart

Album of the Year 2011

Doesn’t 2011 seem like such along time ago now? Well as 2012 slowly starts to warm music wise there is still the small matter of the UYE album of the year list to sort out. Oh and as an added bonus we’ll throw in a playlist of 20 of 2011’s best songs too.

Top Ten Albums
10. Tom Waits – Bad As Me
9. Seasick Steve – You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks
8. King Blues – Punk & Poetry
7. White Denim – D
6. Terrorvision – Super Delux
5. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones
4. Devin Townsend Project – Deconstruction
3. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Tao Of The Dead
2. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
1. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

The 2011 Playlist

Chicago – Tom Waits
Honda Civic – The Felice Brothers
Take ‘Em Down – Dropkick Murphys
Everything Happens For A Reason – King Blues
The Highwayman – Arbouretum
Weight of the Sun (Or, the Post-Modern Prometheus) – …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Promises, Promises – Incubus
St. Peter – Black Spiders
Juular – Devin Townsend Project
Renegade 86 – LetLive
Shiny Things – Terrorvision
48 Roses – Mariachi El Bronx
One Foot Before The Other – Frank Turner
Rox In The Box – The Decemberists
Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes
Breaking Hearts – James Vincent McMorrow
Molly-O – Steve Earle
Underneath A Blue And Cloudless Sky – Seasick Steve
Quail And Dumplings – Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Street Joy – White Denim

Still Catching Up…

Mariachi El Bronx – II

By day The Bronx are straight ahead punk rockers, butby night they become a full-blown Mariachi band. And credit to them they don’t play it for laughs or as a novelty, they obviously have a deep love and respect for the music. As an actual album though the songs are too one-dimensional and apart from a couple of songs they struggle to be distinctive. Opener 48 Roses however is one of the songs of the year.

Rating: 6/10

Horrible Crowes – Elsie

By day Brian Fallon is the sensitive, soul searching singer forThe Gaslight Anthem. But by night he’s the sensitive, soul searching singer for The Horrible Crowes. But he sounds a bit more like Greg Dulli. This is a more soulful offering than his day job and gives Fallon the opportunity to display his vocal range a bit more but unfortunately there aren’t enough great songs and it’s not enough of a departure to justify this side project. It’s a shame because if he’d combined the best moments of this with the best moments of The gaslight Anthem’s American Slang they’d have one truly great album rather than two merely decent ones.

Rating: 6/10

Hank Williams III – Gutter Town/Ghost to a Ghost

Having split from his record company, Williams has clearly revelled in being free from the restrictions they placed upon him, releasing four albums on one day. These two, the country side of his output, are full of ideas but the execution is shoddy. They sound cheaply made and unfortunately this isn’t balanced out by strong songwriting. At his best Hank III is a foul-mouthed tornado of ‘hellbilly’ brilliance but the glimpses of that are all to rare. Hopefully having got all this out of his system he’ll come back with a higher quality control, because even on this inconsistent offering there are moments which reveal him to be a truly unique force in country music.

Verdict: 5/10

Anthrax – Worship Music

Having flirted with new singers, old singers and even older singers for this album Anthrax finally settled on Joey Belladonna. It appears it was a backward step. He may be considered the ‘classic’ frontman for the band but his style is markedly 80’s sounding and makes Anthrax sound dated, something they never did with the underrated John Bush. There are moments when Anthrax still sound relevant but in all honesty this is a poor showing from one of metal’s greats.

Verdict: 5/10

Tom Waits – Bad As Me

Tom Waits’ status as a living legend is undisputed and this latest can only enhance his reputation. Recently his output has been increasingly and intentionally difficult but here he blends his desire for the unique with his earlier late night, smoky bar room blues and it works wonderfully. From the opening stomp of Chicago to the quiet sincerity of Last Leaf this is an album packed with fine songs. It perhaps lacks a true classic track but it’s an excellent way into Waits’ world.

Verdict: 8/10

Seasick Steve – You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

A rather belated review this one as I had pretty much written off Steve as a one-trick pony after the ‘old hobo’ schtick wore thin on Man From Another Time. However after much deliberation I gave this a listen and while it is far from a volte-face into Drum ‘n’ Bass or Dubstep or something it sounds fresh and packed with good songs. The country stylings of Underneath A Blue and Cloudless Sky and the edgier sound of Treasures proving the albums title is a misnomer.

Verdict: 8/10

Scroobius Pip – Distraction Pieces

Having had a reasonable amount of success with Dan Le Sac providing beats over his raps Pip has decided that for his solo effort he’ll instead have guitars behind him. Musically this is fine but lyrically he isn’t as sharp on this album and as such it becomes a bit too pun-heavy. It’s a shame because Pip has a real talent for sincere, intelligent and witty wordplay but for some reason it doesn’t seem to have clicked here.

Verdict 5/10

Luke Haines – 9 1/2 Psychadelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of the 1970’s and 1980’s

Oh come on, surely the album title is enough for you to know whether or not you want to listen to this album? If, like me, it definitely is then be warned, aside from a nice line in kitchen sink nostalgia it’s average at best. Still, great title though.

Verdict: 4/10

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

If you like your alt-country quiet, reflective and occasionally homo-erotic then this is the album for you. It is an understated piece but not without charm and some damn fine songs. Quail and Dumplings in particular is a highlight.

Verdict: 7/10

So…what sort of music are you into?

Option A

Random person:  So what kind of music are you into then?

Me: Well as a teenager I was mainly into rock and metal, you know stuff from Kerrang! and all that. Then I discovered the likes of The Pogues and Johnny Cash and from there I’ve developed a fondness for folk and country, quite a bit of Americana, mainly the gothic, murder ballads type of thing, I also like a bit of old school soul, Motown and Stax stuff. But I can’t always tell which is which. I have a soft spot for reggae and ska, probably due to my early love of Madness, in fact I like a lot of Stiff’s output. I like the odd bit of hip-hop but perhaps not enough to be worth mentioning and I’m not all that keen on dance but I  do have a minimal amount of gabba on my iPod. I love jazz but never really know where to start with it in terms of current groups. I don’t mind a bit of swing every now and then, I’m not keen on prog but then I do quite like Mars Volta and I love Devin Towsend so I can’t dismiss it entirely. I’m quite into punk but I wouldn’t call myself one, I like to think there is some good in most genres you just sometimes have to dig deep to find it. I like to think I have a pretty wide ranging taste in music which is summed up by the fact that on my iPod as you scroll through Ralph McTell sit’s happily alongside Raging Speedhorn. So in answer to your question the music I’m into mainly falls somewhere between those two. But not exclusively, you understand…

Option B

Random Person: So what sort of music are you into?

Me: Oh all sorts…mainly rock music.

Random Person: Do you like Guns ‘n’ Roses?

Me: No.

Another Catch Up

White Denim: D

Following on from the excellent but inconsistent Fits this is a far more cohesive set of songs even if it does lack a stand out track like I Start To Run. Musically adept and surprisingly catchy this is a fine album full of charm.
Rating: 8/10

Eddie Vedder: Ukulele Songs
No prizes for guessing what this album consists of, Eddie Vedder playing songs, right, on a ukulele, right. They’re nice enough but very few of them demand repeated listens making this little more than a pleasant distraction.
Rating: 6/10

Incubus: If Not Now, When?
Incubus have long since transcended the limits of the nu-metal genre that they were lumped into at the beginning of their career and have grown into a mature abs sensible rock band. Perhaps a little to sensible if this offering is anything to go by. A little bit more meat on these songs wouldn’t go amiss but the likes of Promises, Promises and Isadore are undeniably lovely.
Rating: 7/10

Spiers & Boden: The Works
The driving force behind Bellowhead Spiers and Boden are also a firmly established duo on the folk scene. This is basically a best of set of their solo stuff. And while the songs are all played well and are decent enough tunes you can’t help thinking they’d be far better with the full Bellowhead treatment.
Rating: 5/10

The Horrors: Skying
At the start of their career The Horrors were a classic case of style over substance but over the course of their previous album and this they’ve certainly added depth to their music, impressive sounding as it is though they have yet to find the song writing suss or charisma to make you want to keep coming back for more.
Rating: 6/10

Fucked Up: David Comes To Life
Hardcore concept albums are a rarity indeed and probably with good cause. However this is a far more accessible album than you might first expect. The music is more punk pop than raging hardcore and as long as you can cope with the screamed vocals then this is actually an album that shows a remarkable deftness of touch. It is however over-long and has very few stand out tracks.
Rating: 6/10

Wild Beasts: Smother
Wild Beasts really are a musical oddity, they’re strong pop sensibilities and high camp vocals are not everyone’s cup of tea but they worked brilliantly on previous album Two Dancers, sadly on this follow up they have re-hashed the same ideas but seem to have lost the sinister and sexual undertones of it’s predecessor. A disappointment.
Rating: 4/10

Devin Townsend Project: Deconstruction/Ghost

Metal’s last true genius does it again. And again.

Devin Townsend has long been one of the most prolific, creative and consistently brilliant forces in heavy music and his latest two albums are the culmination of perhaps his most ambitious project yet. The final half of a quadrilogy of records each with their own distinct styles. Following from the tense, quiet Ki and the fun-but-heavy Addicted Townsend has now released the full-on assault of Deconstruction and the ambient soundscapes of Ghost.

Of the two Ghost differs most from Townsend’s usual output (if someone as eclectic as Townsend can be said to have a ‘usual’ output). There are no pounding drums, ear splitting riffs or screamed vocals, it does however highlight his deftness of touch that is often overlooked in his songwriting, the likes of Kawaii and the country-flecked Blackberry stand alongside anything from classic albums such as Infinity or Terria. As a whole though the album does occasionally lose your attention and has a tendency to go a bit pan-pipe moods but it is a still a strong and brave work that very few metal musicians would have the self belief to even contemplate let alone pull off as masterfully as Devin Townsend does.

Deconstruction is more familiar territory but is no less astonishing for that fact. Billed as the heaviest of the four albums in the project it certainly fulfils that criteria and while it still falls short of Strapping Young Lad’s brutality it is still a beast of a record. Where it stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of it’s metal contemporaries is in it’s sheer scale. Deconstruction is an extreme album that doesn’t rely purely on volume or viciousness. Townsend crams more ideas into one song than most bands can fit into an album or even a career in some cases. The songs are, for the most part, epic and intricately structured and show off Townsend’s trademark wall of noise production to its full effect.

On first listen Deconstruction is a bewildering jumble of light and dark, noise and silence but once you unlock its charms it rewards you with every play and the layers are stripped away leaving even more layers beneath.

Songs such as Juular and Sumeria are hook-filled and immediate whereas Deconstruction and The Mighty Masturbator are more progressive and reveal Devin Townsend’s warped sense of humour, the latter invites you to “see the vagina faced lady” while the former is easily the finest song ever written about a cheeseburger.

Across the two albums Devin Townsend proves that he is still the most unique and diverse artist working in metal – if not music as a whole. He is still capable of creating masterpieces and Deconstrunction in particular is yet another high watermark in a long career full of them. Simply genius.

Ratings: Deconstruction: 9/10
Ghost: 7/10

Frank Turner: England Keep My Bones

Britain’s finest folk-punk troubadour gets it right again

There are some things that are compulsory to mention when writing about Frank Turner, firstly his punk rock past and his stint with underground hardcore heroes Million Dead and secondly that his conversion to his current singer-songwriter guise makes him a modern day Billy Bragg. We’ll come back to the former but first let’s deal with the Billy Bragg, the similarities are there of course, but the left-leaning politics and the one-man-and-his-guitar schtick were hardly unique to Bragg in the first place. Where Turner is similar to Billy Bragg is in his shared admiration for Woody Guthrie and it is his template that both artists follow.

On his latest album Turner has expanded the template somewhat. On previous albums his punk rock past (told you we’d come back to it) has been mentioned and has cone over in his attitude but on One Foot Before The Other it comes to the fore in what is the most overtly rocking moment in his solo career. At the other end of the scale though is English Curse, an a capella traditional folk ballad. It is a credit to Turner that neither song seems out of place or forced, which is why he is equally accepted at Download as he is at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

It is this broad appeal that has seen Framk Turner’s stock rise considerably over the course of four albums but thankfully he shows no signs of bowing to mainstream pressure on this album. He is still happy to tackle big subjects such as religion on Glory Hallelujah as well as revealing more of himself on I Am Disappeared and Song for Eva Mae. Throughout the songs he maintains an honesty and (sorry for the pun) frankness which is refreshing amongst the obtuseness of the lyrics of his singer-songwriter brethren. Nor is he prone to falling into the trap of making the more sentimental numbers overly saccharine. Instead he gets the perfect blend of the anthemic and the reflective. If there is a criticism of the album it is that perhaps he could have cut a couple of songs which make it a slightly flabby record but other than that this record stands alongside his previous outstanding output perfectly and pretty much cements Frank Turner’s position as the most intelligent, relevant and exciting songwriter of his generation.

Rating: 8/10

Felice Brothers: Celebration, Florida

The Felice Brothers throw the kitchen sink at their latest album, with varied results. 

Of all the bands who were likely to embrace electronica the Felice Brothers would not have been top of the list. Their previous albums have been pretty rustic Americana affairs displaying a fine line in raucous anthems and barroom balladry.  With their latest effort though they’ve thrown in samples and beats all over the place and somehow it fits. In fact it lends a sinister tone to songs like Container Ship and Ponzi. 

However while it works it does mask the fact that the song writing on this album is perhaps not as strong as on previous efforts. Now Felice Brothers albums have always been flawed diamonds, their self-titled debut had some truly brilliant tracks but was overlong and had too much filler. Follow-up Yonder is the Clock was more consistent but less exciting. Celebration, Florida (named after a real town) is somewhere between the two, it is their most cohesive album to date and it has some truly great numbers on it, Honda Civic and Cus’s Catskill Gym being the two main highlights. The former is a beautifully crafted, catchy song that stands alongside the likes of Penn Station and Frankie’s Gun in their canon and the latter boasts a blockbuster riff and a marvellous stay away from Don King refrain. However too often on this album the pace slows and the interest wanes.  And while it all flows wonderfully and fits together very well for large chunks of the album you find yourself drifting off amongst the indistinct songs. First and foremost they’ve always been storytellers with a knack for Dylan-esque rhymes but these seem to be less to the fore than on earlier records. 

This is not to say that the songs in themselves are bad, they’re not, but when compared to their best moments they just don’t cut it. And the fact that you know they can do so much better makes them all the more frustrating. You get the feeling that the Felice Brothers still have the ability to create a truly classic album but this just isn’t it. However you have to admire their willingness to take risks, their ability to come up with the odd moment of brilliance and their knack of revealing something new with repeated listens that you can forgive their inconsistency. And in the end you’re left wanting to know where this band goes next.

Rating: 7/10

Arbouretum: The Gathering

Dense, epic rock from the depths of time.

Arbouretum are not an easy band to pin to a genre. Their Myspace page has them down as Folk Rock/Grunge/Other which doesn’t exactly help much. The other consists of a bit of stoner rock, some fuzzed up Sabbath-esque riffs and a hint of the gothic. Although that’s gothic in the vast cathedral sense rather than the eyeliner and self harm sense. But even with all that the description falls short of accurately depicting them.

More than anything Arbouretum sound old, not retro or dated, just old, ancient even. Grand and epic, their name is apt as they seem very organic with their roots firmly buried in the land. Never is this more so than on album highlight The Highwayman.

However, all of this combines to also become their biggest flaw. The songs all sound marvellous but the also all sound very similar and they rarely grab you.

It is an album that flows beautifully from song to song but sometimes it all passes you by. Individually there aren’t enough that stand out to make it as good an album as it sounds like it should be.

It is an album that ticks plenty of boxes, the songwriting is strong and the music played flawlessly it’s just missing a certain spark to raise it above just good. It does hint at future greatness though and they’re definitely a band to keep your eye on.

Rating: 7/10