albums - current and forthcoming releases...                         [page 15]

late October / early November 2002

Earlier Reviews | see previous reviews page (#14)

VARIOUS ARTISTS  We Are Skint (Skint)

Skint's release of two halves, part retrospective, part forward-looking showcase, hits the shelves on 11th November.  We're treated to 2 CDs, the first of which doesn't contain anything new, but is a glowing tribute to the quality of the acts Skint have signed over the years.  It seems weird to be listening to the Rockafeller Skank and Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out again, but hey, we're all allowed a little dewy-eyed nostalgia every now and then.  This disc is a cracking collection of classic choonz and Brighton big-beat which has more than stood the test of time.  But it's only when you emerge from the timewarp and leap off the sofa to stick the second disc on that you realise that the schlep up to HMV really was worth it.  This is a roller-coaster ride of new material and remixes, confidently driven up the lift-hill by Dave Clark's lead-off track, The Wolf - a frantic, frenetic, urgent, lose-yourself-in-the-beat floor filler.  Quickly followed by a cut-up Timo Maas remix of Fat Boy Slim's - Star 69.  Banging stuff, though I think I preferred the original.  Ain't that always the way ...

Further on we get some new stuff from Lo Fidelity All Stars - an act I've never really got on with, but who seem to have come good with Dark Is Easy - a slick bit of late night loungey groove.  Please, Skint, don't sell this one out and murder it with overexposure on Classic Chillout XXXVIII ...New German signing International Pony get a first airing, continuing the late nite feel but taking things a little more uptempo.  Laid back, sure, but you can still hear the stomp from the club next door.  And right now anything with lo-fi synths and vocoders is getting plenty of play round at mine.  Top stuff.

As if that wasn't enough, Skint have stuck a selection of 23 of their best videos on a DVD, along with a documentary about Req's graffiti, an interview with David Byrne and X-Press 2, and a tour of the Skint-related landmarks of Brighton.  Not generally one for videos, I'm definitely with the star of the Everybody Needs a 303 promo, who mooches around nonchalantly on screen for 3 minutes until a bird waltzes up to him and lipsticks "Why Make Videos?" on his face.   This package shows that Skint are at the top of the game, with great stuff on the horizon, and cartloads of well-earned confidence – enough even to include their three worst promos on the DVD.  You've come a long way, baby.

Review by Simon K
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MANIC STREET PREACHERS Forever Delayed - The Greatest Hits

This collection concentrates more on their later work, overlooking the more anguished moments of the deceased Richey James (let's stop referring to him as 'missing' shall we? He's dead - accept it) but there are enough great tunes to make this a suitable monument to their talents. The real mystery here is how James Dean Bradfield's voice hasn't packed up after so much full-throated wailing (can you imagine they guy singing a lullaby?). To those who already know the singles it's the limited edition remix album that's the reason for buying this. And there are some excellent tracks here, notably the Chemical Brother's doing La Tristesse Durera and Stereolab's version of Tsumani (effectively turning it a typical Stereolab song, complete with that French bird doing her vocals over it).

A reasonable collection for the budget buyer.

Review by Alex M
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BRENDAN BENSON Lapalco (V2)

Obvious comparisons are Fountains of Wayne for the pacier geeky power strummers and Teenage Fanclub and Cosmic Rough Riders for the melodic harmonising acoustic numbers.  Single Good to Me is like an Americanised psychedelic powerpop version of Park Life – you half expect a Phil Daniels “Oi!” at any moment.   Folk Singer displays the slacker side of Benson (“I haven’t got time for my bedding.  She says stop pretending, you’re not John Lennon”) over a cheesy distinctly unfolky tune.    All in all Lapalco is a quirky, melodic but above all frequently funny pop album.  Benson is Detroit’s Squeeze, and there can be no higher compliment.

Review by Paul M
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BALLBOY A Guide for the Daylight Hours (SL Records)

Another slide of idiosyncratic indie music from Ballboy.  Not for them the guitar/bass/drums simplicity of the typical indie group; this has banks of broody synths and dramatic orchestral arrangements to complement the literate poetic, observational songs of Gordon McIntyre.  At times it’s almost a spoken word album with loungecore backing.   Gordon doesn’t believe in blandness: his titles all have meaning - You Can’t Spend Your Whole Life Hanging Around With Arseholes or I Lost You But I Found Country Music being just two of the better ones – and there’s an insert containing David Shrigley cartoons.  So full marks for intelligence.  What of the tunes?

Ballboy confound with their influences.  The Velvet Underground, The Smiths and The Wedding Present are obvious reference points (Gordon’s vocals are as distinctive in their own way as David Gedge’s) but many tracks, lyrically at least, show a Leonard Cohen-type melancholy.  If anything, it reminds me of Hefner with that superficially simple indie form concealing surprisingly complex arrangements.  The single Where Do The Nights Of Sleep Go To When They Do Not Come To Me is driven along with fat and powerful synths in a Van Halen (Jump) kind of way.  A Europewide Search for Love opens with dramatic orchestral effects, rather like Saloon, before displaying the same keening pop majesty as the Go-Betweens.   Something’s Going to Happen Soon has a simply swooning chorus: “no-one will ever love you as much as I do”.  Sex is Boring - on which they sound as close as they ever get to Belle and Sebastian, and that’s not close - is by turns soft and wistful and boomy and beating with angsty teenage lyrics “and it’s not like you’re going to save me/although you think that you are”.  Or try the doomy, cello-backed Meet Me at the Shooting Range for a melancholy broken-hearted death-wish fantasy: “if I was going to kill you, I’d do it with style”.  

Of all the Scottish bands, Ballboy show the greatest ambition, vision and grasp. Their music is thoughtful and intelligent but often at the same time loud and rocking.  A record to sleep with, knowing there’ll be decent conversation in the morning.

Reviewed by Ged M
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VARIOUS ARTISTS Morvern Callar Soundtrack (Warp)

Nowadays film soundtracks seem to be more about another way of making money...but, hold on, this soundtrack has been put together by Warp Records.  So the fact that the collection is more eclectic than commercial should come as no surprise.

Where else would you get 70's krautrockers Can odd euro-disco I Want More as well as the hypnotic rhythm of the classic Spoon, plus solo tracks from Can bass player Holger Czukay, like the bizarre tongue in cheek inane Cool in the Pool, alongside mid 70's Lee 'Scratch' Perry (Hold of Death), Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood on Some Velvet Morning, some Gamelan drumming, the Velvet Underground's I'm Sticking With You and Ween's altcountry Japanese Cowboy?  As it is a Warp product you'd expect some knob twiddling and atmospheric moody stuff, which is here courtesy of Boards of Canada (Everything You Do Is A Balloon) and Broadcast (You Can Fall), and not forgetting mr Aphex Twin himself who plims and ploms on Goon Gumpas and Nannou.  Overall it can sound a bizarre mix but the more I listen to it the more is seems to make sense. Quite how any of this relates to the film I'll have to wait and see.  Actually it doesn't matter as this album is  great, intriguing listening, a good grounding in off-centre music past and (almost) present. If this is an example of the Warp mind for a soundtrack we've something to look forward to.

Review by Kevin O
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BAPTISTE Nothing Shines Like A Dying Heart (Linear Records)

Baptiste have been London’s best-kept secret since late 1997, forever playing London’s best small venues to a cult crowd who are not into the cod indie scene.  The band have now added a fine debut album to their three 7” singles to date.  ‘Nothing Shines Like A Dying Heart’ is eight tracks of shining beauty that – let’s be honest here – is a damn sight better than most of the usual indie fodder that NME writes about.  The 45 minutes of the album entertains in noisy, moody fashion in landscapes of loneliness that unite us all.  As a piece of art, it’s as beautiful as a young, fresh Joy Division. It’s as progressive as later Velvet Underground and Wayne Gooderham’s vocal is becoming more confident, especially on Confessions of a Clumsy Man which is about as isolated and fucked up as you can possibly get.  If you’ve ever loved Robert Forster, Lou Reed or Steve Wynn, check out this most underground of London groups.

Reviewed by Tone S
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THE ROGERS SISTERS Purely Evil (Troubleman Unlimited, US import)

The Rogers Sisters are one of the biggest unsigned bands raising a noise in New York since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs less a year ago.  ‘Purely Evil’ is a low-fi fearsome hybrid of 60s garage rock and late 70s punk-funk and pop dance, with shades of the B-52s and early Talking Heads. 

Song for Freddie has all the elements of The Rogers Sisters.  A girl group vocal declaims a Pink Floyd type lyric (“he wants to ride his bicycle, he wants to ride it through this song”) over a B-52s groove and a Gang of Four bass line.  The female vocals are sometimes sweetly harmonic like Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson while the male voice is quirky Fred Schneider.  I Dig a Hole is sparse, angular and very Devo in its delivery while Now They Know xoxo is an adrenalised song about fan worship: “see their faces in the nme...and I wish it was me”.  (I’m A) Ballerina is Eastern-sounding, a bit like Siouxsie and the Banshees, with psychedelic 60s guitar effects. Delayed Reaction has all the cerebral punk force of a Magazine song and the title track has a stunning call and response vocal within a not very serious tale of a serial killer.  

The whole album is brilliantly naïve pop that works at two levels: on one, the frenetic rhythms simply provoke a shimmy and a shake in the listener; and on another, the music displays the depth of influences that clearly influenced the songwriting.  In this case, the hype is justified; invest 28 minutes of your time to find out what an indie-pop gem this really is.

Reviewed by Ged M
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THE LIBERTINES Up The Bracket (Rough Trade)

The Libertines are the best live band currently doing the circuit.  Fact.  They perform like four whirling Dervishes liberally spraying sweat whilst thrashing out wonderfully spunky punk pop.   Live everything is pulped to an early Jam/Buzzcocks style mush – all great hooks, 90 mph choruses and spittle encrusted exuberance.  They sing of a world populated by good time girls and dodgy Dickensian types; all snifters, snorters and dallying with your daughters; plenty of low-life geezers and coke snorting teasers.  Laverley jubberly.

On this their debut album they manage to capture eighty per cent of that raw live feel whilst at the same time revealing their influences a tad.  The Jam are still in there with the Setting Sons era Time For Heroes and Up the Bracket , both catchy tunes wedded to lyrics recounting very tense circumstances (“I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes, sunshine”).  Tell The King is Robert Smith fronting The Strokes and the latter’s style show up again with Death on the Stairs, a You Can’t Hurry Love performed by Casablancas and Hammond after 13 lagers.  The Boy Looked at Johnny is Jimmy Pursey performing a samba. Best of all though is the live favourite Horrorshow, which is the darkest Oliver Twist moment, a nasty drug fuelled bop.  Strangely, there’s no place for the band’s finest effort, the debut single What A Waster whilst there is a slot for the only duff moment on the LP, the awful dirge that is Radio America.  Overall the album does not quite live up to the tremendous gig experience but maybe we expect too much from Olde Albion’s premier garage punk combo. This is after all still terrific enough to warrant a nomination for Album of the Year.

Reviewed by Paul M
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HOMESCIENCE Songs for Sick Days (Track and Field)

Homescience wear their Americana influences proudly and affectionately on this beautiful album.  Over the space of 50 minutes, these 22 songs curl around you like a duvet on a flu-ridden day, warm, tender, letting you know it’s OK to feel a little bit sorry for yourself.

The two opening tracks give a flavour of things to come.  Little Wings is a downbeat lo-fi acoustic tune which starts “You cut off my head/But I wont be dead/’Cos little wings will sprout from my shoulders”.  You know that you’re in for something a bit odd, gothic, special.   The vocal style recalls the fragile, melancholic delivery of Mark Linkous, and indeed throughout the album I am reminded of the power of those seemingly simple, uncluttered and heartbreaking songs of Sparklehorse.  Then there’s the carefully put together Don’t Shirk, a sort of  Pet Sounds chewed over by the Flaming Lips, with a vocal melody and slight non-committal rhythm. It sounds brilliant.  And unbelievably the whole album is like this: lo-fi, intimate, sad melodies, mainly acoustic, sometimes electric, sometimes floating, sometimes rhythmic (Song, one of the most straightforward countryrocktype tunes here, is a gentle singalong about a song that you can call your own, natch), sometimes with the odd sound experiment (the backwards sample of train and birds on Complete Train Kit).

Homescience may hail from Scotland but you wouldn’t know it – “We’ve been here livin’  whiskey for days/Tumbleweed could just take me away/From the brownstones and pains/To my home on the range/The stestons’ ten gallons of NYC rain”  they sing over the clip-clop rhythm and bar-room piano on Livin’ Whiskey.  And boy, you’re with them. Americana being a state of mind, of course.  In Homescience and Songs for Sick Days we have something homegrown and special, that may point to the likes of Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips, but avoids the pretentious excesses and pitfalls that they can suffer from.  If you’ve ever liked the more focussed songs of these bands then I suggest you will like this.  Now for my sicknote - “Dear boss, cannot come into work today….You cut off my head…”. 

More info http://www.trackandfield.org.uk/

Reviewed by Kevin O
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JJ72 seem to have been in hibernation for the last couple of years.  No wonder they kept wanting to know why it wouldn’t snow, the poor dears wanted to curl up in a hollow tree stump somewhere in Dublin.  Well, the rest has certainly done them good coz they’ve come back revitalised with more maturity, depth and variety than their eponymous debut.  There are influences from Joy Division/New Order, Smashing Pumpkins (production and mixing were by Flood and Alan Moulder who worked with the Pumpkins) as well as bits of U2 (fortunately not too many).  Mark Greaney’s vocals have developed into a blend of Billy Corgan, Feargal Sharkey and Eartha Kitt. 

The album opens with Nameless, the piano intro immediately putting me in mind of the title track on ‘Mellon Collie…’ except that it’s not an instrumental, Mark Greaney’s falsetto soon chipping in for a haunting ballad.  Things brighten up no end with the jangly guitar pop of single Formulae and I Saw a Prayer, which has a disco feel and swirling keyboards.  But for real JJ72-go-disco check out City; pounding pop with a beat of electronic drums.   

Serpent Sky is a major highlight, sounding like early Banshees but heavier, with its sparse guitar riff and the pounding drums of Fergal Matthews.  Always and Forever is similar to Formulae, showing off the band’s poppier sensibility, and its guaranteed to be a future single, as is the brilliant Half Three.  The maturity is evident on Brother Sleep, a beautiful, uplifting acoustic ballad with Greaney keening ‘I’m gonna see you through this my love’.  Sinking is an atmospheric piece with rumbling bass from Hilary Woods, a simple keyboard riff, and something of Berlin’s Take my breath away in there somewhere.  At 7 minutes, with the last 3 being instrumental, it never outstays its welcome.  The album plays out in restrained style with Oiche Mhaith (Good Night).

This isn’t as fervent or raw as their debut, and the good ship JJ72 has been steered into poppier waters, but it’s no less passionate, and Serpent Sky shows they can still be abrasive.  The religious imagery (Christian symbols, angels, prayers, epiphanies) doesn’t swamp things but rather is a framework for Greaney to explore the big issues of life and love.  There isn’t a remotely duff track and this easily slots into my top 5 albums of the year.

Review by Graham S
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Look at the Oasis brothers and then tell me that dunce level intellect and nursery rhyme songs don’t get you to the top; Camper Van Beethoven – who formed in 1983 and collapsed in 1990 - were just too smart, too good and too piss-taking to make it like they deserved.  The evidence is laid out in the three ‘proper’ albums ‘Telephone Free Landslide Victory’ (1985), ‘II & III’ and ‘Camper Van Beethoven’ (both 1986), plus the collection of odds and sods ‘Camper Vantiquities’ (1993) and the live album in this box. 

If you think that the Coral are eclectic, wait till you hear CVB.  Tex-mex, psychedelia, 60s rock ‘n’ roll, country and folk are scattered over the albums as evidence of their ability to move between forms.  While this is a real strength, it also made the band impossible to categorise.  They were more than a novelty band, though their breadth of influences, ability to play any style and the jokes scattered over the album sleeves might have made them too difficult to categorise for the MTV Ritalin generation and hence stuck in a niche marked ‘oddball’. 

‘Telephone Free Landslide Victory’ has ska, songs with Russian, Chinese and Greek stylings, a song that’s a dead ringer for the Only Ones (Oh No), even down to the same title, and some left-field pop, Ambiguity Song and their best known track Take the Skinheads Bowling.  ‘II & III’ continues in the same mixture of styles.  Sad Lovers’ Waltz is a warm and affecting country song.  Then, in what would have been side two, it switches to a firmer, more contemporary feel.   If you like current American bands like, to take random examples, Butterflies of Love and Apples in Stereo, you’ll relate to this CD in particular – 15 years disappears in a flash.  (We’re a) Bad Trip is Monkees styled garage-pop; Circles and Cattle (Reversed) are Pink Floydish backwards sounding psychedelia; Sometimes is a desolate yet jaunty Lee Hazelwood pop song, while ZZ Top Goes to Egypt is a Rolling Stones riff clashing with the Batman theme in a screel of violins.  The self-titled third album is the band at their most rocky and confident.  Joe Stalin’s Cadillac is a standout and LuLu Land is a poppy tune with fascinating diversions into Left Banke baroque rock.  There’s a diminishing return on ‘Camper Vantiquities’ and the live album though they’re as varied in content as the main albums.  On the live album, All Her Favourite Fruit is a stirring orchestral piece and there’s an excellent version of Eye of Fatima. 

CVB were proud of their covers, which show off their talent to be anyone in any style.  ‘TFLV’ has a pretty pure version of Black Flag’s Wasted; ‘II & III’ has a unique (and genius) country rock take on Sonic Youth’s I Love Her All the Time while ‘CVB’ contains a straight cover of Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive. And, on the compilation, there’s the Kinks’ I’m Not Like Everybody Else and a faithful version of Ringo’s greatest hit, Photograph.  

‘II & III’ closed with No More Bullshit, full of echoes of the Soft Boys, and like that band, CVB were destined to remain a cult.  Since their demise, we’ve had the whole Americana thing with its rediscovery of various American musics.  Well, the news is that the college boys from Santa Cruz were there 15 years before everyone else and deserve the credit.  This box set is overdue justice for an overlooked band.

Reviewed by Ged M
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Opener Just the Way I’m Feeling, although it sounds like Oasis at the start, is unmistakable Feeder, reminiscent of High, (a pinnacle in their back catalogue that casts a shadow over several tracks here) with poignant strings and darker lyrics: ‘Torn in two…I'm waiting for your healing hand…Nurse the bleeding’ etc.  The first single (and one of their best), Come Back Around, is classic Feeder, a melodic heavy rocker.  It’s very upbeat but again there’s a yearning in the lyrics: ‘Come back around, I miss you around’.  Child in You is a moving slowie, ‘Cry about it shout about it, you feel that there’s no sense in going on’.  The title track is a poppier version of Radioman from ‘Yesterday…’  There are traces of the Manics, Smashing Pumpkins (Forget About Tomorrow), and a polished sound that should appeal to the American market.  There’s more use of balladry, synths and strings here than on previous releases and Feeder’s soundworld now is light years away from the likes of Sweet 16 and My Perfect Day.  

This is their least heavy, most accessible release to date.   It’s also their most personal, mature and complete, and although some of it is melancholic and despairing, it also manages to be uplifting and hopeful.  I miss the out and out rockers like Insomnia and Hole in my Head, though there is the pounding, distorted Helium, and the fuzzy-guitared Godzilla is a bone cruncher; but bands have to grow.  Who knows what this album would have been without personal tragedy to spur on its development.  We can only be thankful that Feeder have bounced back with their strongest album to date. 

Review by Graham S
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The Boo Radleys. Mention their name to most people and they’ll probably snigger, “Oh, they’re the band that got in the top ten with that cheesy, annoying “Wake Up Boo!”, aren’t they? Then they disappeared, didn’t they?” To anyone with any sense of taste, they are in fact the band that released a run of great albums, Giant Steps, Wake Up!, C’mon Kids (THE most underrated album of the nineties.) and Kingsize, then disbanded after being criminally ignored by nearly everyone. Since then, Martin Carr has returned under the Brave Captain moniker and released material that, while good, has failed to hit the heights of some of his previous work with Sice and Tim and Bobby Boo.

The much-delayed Advertisements For Myself has rectified this. Admitting that he only really listens to guitar music by Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Carr is now making records clearly influenced by his new idols, the eccentric electronica of Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Kid 606. The great thing is it doesn’t sound like a new gimmick he’s experimenting with. It works.

Opening with one of many call-to-arms on the album, “The Sound Of Wichita” is Carr at his best, a pop song, yet pop that would leave pop fans scratching their heads. “Stand Up and Fight” is a protest at voter apathy, with Carr’s admittedly rather thin vocals struggling to be heard over the huge distorted bass. “Rod’s Got One” perhaps sums the album up best, starting like a classic Boo’s song with melancholic lyrics (“Breaking my arms to reach you”) before turning into a techno assault on the ears. “Dive”, an ode to thoughts of suicide, sounds like Kid 606 in a bad mood. “Mobilise”, a cross between the Furries’ “Juxtaposed With U” and the Captain’s own “Corporation Man”, can’t fail to leave a smile on his fans faces.

Some critics have said that this album is simply too diverse and doesn’t gel, but the mix of classic Carr indie and ambient instrumentals, (the topically titled “The Blair Bush Project Live @ The Old Skool” in particular) make it a brave, rather charming, album. Its good to see the Brave Captain back in form. Still miss Sice’s voice though.

Review by Robert B
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J Mascis is the forgotten man of grunge.  With all the fuss around the reheating of (hopefully) the last bits of Kurt left at the bottom of Courtney Love’s freezer, the press have been recalling the heights of the late eighties and early nineties with nods to the likes of Mudhoney and Soundgarden, but barely a mention of Dinosaur Jnr.  Strange, given that the reputedly indolent one nearly took on the Nirvana drumstool (which incidentally might have saved us from the now ubiquitous Foo Fighters) and that there was a time that his Cure influenced pop-metal was top of the pile.  Since those halcyon days Mascis’ motto has obviously been “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.  For him the guitar has always been the thing and his latest outing doesn’t skimp on the solos or the back to basics rock n’ roll riffing.  This album has a better balance than some of the Dinosaur ones, which tended to start off with an absolute barnstormer (Freak Scene, the Wagon, Out There) leaving the rest sounding a bit like an extended b-side.  Here he sets off with more stripped-down openers in “Freedom” and very Dinosaur-titled “If that’s how it’s got to be” gradually building up to the rockier likes of “Tell the truth” and this album’s Wagon rehash, “Everybody lets me down”.  J’s familiar strained vocal now sounds strangely comforting, especially given Conor Oberst’s taking of the same basic style, but pushed to extremes where desperation rather than exhaustion takes the upper hand.  Give me another ten or so listens and I might work out what the lyrical obsession with freedom is all about. In the end this is the musical equivalent of a nice Gap sweater – not particularly special, but well worth the money and you know you’ll get the use out of it.

Review by Matt H
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Men! Problems pulling girls? Then you need The Kiss of Morning. Simply insert into your CD player, press play and learn the songs on your guitar  (er, I did mention that you need a guitar didn't I?) You will thus be able  to entice women with your renditions. The quiet tracks will reveal your  caring side while the thrashing electric ones will hint that you go like Stephenson's Rocket. Best of all, you are practically guaranteed a shag when you tell her you wrote the songs yourself, safe in the knowledge that Coxon's inconspicuous style will ensure his album receives minimal attention.

Graham Coxon is Blur's recently departed guitar player and this album proves his worth as a songwriter. Damon Albarn writes about interesting people but invariably says nothing more than what boring lives they lead. Coxon sticks to songs about love or people who have pissed him off and his music is less constricted as a result.

This is Coxon's fourth solo album, though you'd be forgiven for not noticing the first three as he doesn't shout for attention. Instead of groundbreaking musical genres we get plenty of great tunes that grow on you like...er...hair (well, it's the only pleasant thing I could think of). Apart from occasional guest contributors it's mostly the man, his guitar and a drum kit - and half the tracks even dispense with percussion. The songs switch from folksy and acoustic to loud and electric, with lyrics that are melancholy or bitter but not depressing. Coxon never goes out of his way to sing the right note and the inclusion of occasional mistakes suggests that he doesn't bother with many takes.  The best track is probably "Mountain of Regret", a bluegrass ballad which has the authenticity and excellence of a
50 year old classic.

Coxon's songwriting seems to have weathered the detrimental effects of fame. In fact, it's probably doing something as uncomplicated as this that has kept the man sane. It's ironic but if he released this anonymously he would probably be hailed as the new Badly Drawn Boy. As it is he seems doomed to relative obscurity. And you know what? I'm sure he couldn't give a gorillaz.
 

Review by Alex M
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Stereolab have always supplied us with a fairly unique sound but one that is never excessively complicated. By dabbling with dance, pop, jazz, rock and every other genre under the sun has given Stereolab a chance to please any listener no matter how musically challenged they are. ‘ABC Music’ gives us all a chance to catch those BBC Sessions we missed over the years, spread nicely over two discs with 32-tracks altogether you sure are getting value for money, good news for all those smug art students who’ve been told they must like Stereolab. 

Oh joyous pop music! This is tremendous, you won’t be able to believe you’ve been handed so many fantastic electronic-pop tunes, moog, wurlitzer and some tuneful keyboard effects are all standard as part of the Stereolab tune machine. The instant party hits are here ‘John Cage Bubble Gum’ and ‘French Disko’ offering you the chance to boogie on down to some fun unpretentious discotheque classics. Kraftwerk and Air would be easy comparisons for those unfamiliar with Stereolab, but Stereolab are far more polished and organised as shown in the beautifully constructed pop fun of ‘Lo Boob Oscillator’ that later kicks in to a natty piece of drone-rock. 

The track ‘Moogie Wonderland’ is just that, fabulous blip-blip-blip noises and a tuneful moog styling on top of that. Although Stereolab can’t be criticised for not being diverse enough, but this particular collection of songs seems a little repetitive at times, yet when they are of such a high quality the complaint seems somewhat feeble.

You’d expect a large collection of session tracks to lack interest and merely be a rather tedious gathering of bands more average efforts, Stereolab go and prove those doubters wrong by featuring the classics as well as the rarities, you just can’t go wrong. This record is officially an essential purchase. I laugh at those who think leather jacket and messy haired posers such as The Strokes are cool. Silly dancing to Stereolab records with a sensible jumper and neatly combed hair wins hands down. 

Review by Richard C
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As this is TapRoot’s second album ‘Welcome’ is a bit misleading.  Formed in ’97, Rolling Stone has hailed them as ‘the next contenders for the new-metal crown’ and their debut album ‘Gift’ sold over 250,000 copies in the US.  This latest offering (allegedly) finds the band in a more reflective, but no less aggressive, frame of mind.  They certainly can’t complain about the recorded sound, produced by Toby Wright (Alice In Chains, Korn, Metallica) and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Foo Fighters).  But the best production in the world ain’t gonna help if the songs are crap.  Fortunately they’re not.

First song Mine has a hip-hop beat in parts but don’t expect Linkin Park-style rap-metal.  Taproot are more mainstream rock than that, and their harmonies do make them sound like a nu-metal boy band.  Poem, the first single, is a cross between RHCP and Korn, but along with the crunchy guitars there’re enough harmonies to have an eye set firmly on the singles chart. 

Myself is another Korn-y song alternating between radio-friendly harmonic bits and heavy staccato guitars with nu-metal growls and Sumtimes has another heavy riffing intro that gives way to easy-listening metal with a Beach Boys vibe in there somewhere. 

There are the token introspective ballads about isolation, Breathe and Art with its string section along with the power chords – ‘Occasionally I feel like the walls around are closing in on me’.  The vocals do get particularly nasal; give that guy some Tunes, quick (no, not the ones you sing, the ones for clearing your hooter).  Like (yes, every song has a one word title) is a genuine acoustic boy band ballad (oh, except for use of the word ‘fucking’ – not very Backstreet Boys, that).  But we’re soon back in heavier territory for the Led Zep meets Sabbath Dreams and album closer Time. 

Although there’s plenty of stuff on this album to keep the nu-metal kids happy, there’s really nothing here that would upset the average mum (except the odd ‘fuck’) and the band are obviously going all out for the same sort of acceptable-metal niche as Linkin Park.  With albums as catchy as this they’ll probably do it, too.

Review by Graham S
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This is Ian McNabb’s seventh solo album and the third on his own Fairfield label.  Unlike his last release, the wonderful ‘Ian McNabb’ album, this one doesn’t rock like a bastard.  ‘The Gentleman Adventurer’ is a softer record but he’s just as profound as ever with some very clever observations.  Check out Lady By Degrees, a track that helps you win the woman of your heart’s desire.  Or German Soldier’s Helmet circa 1943, one of the best songs you’ll ever hear - fine songwriting indeed.  Even though it was recorded in a top Liverpool studio, it has a home feel to it.  The album comes in two parts so, according to Ian, you can use the half-time break to put the kettle on or have a pee.  Over 14 tracks, Ian reminds us why he was one of the most important and underrated songwriters to come out of the ‘80s Liverpool scene and he continues to be important.  Part 2 of the album is a bit more upbeat and rocks more.  But, to be really honest, to benefit from McNabb, see the guy live (but keep your girlfriends away, they’ll probably fall for his Jim Morrison looks and Scouse charm) and just live with the record and let it grow on you.  Like Neil Young, if you like one, you’ll love them all. 

Reviewed by Tone S
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First the Artrocker album proved that garage rock was as raw and alive as ever.  Now comes Rough Trade to show us where it came from, the gutters it fell into over the past 30 years, and point to where it’s going in the near future.  Some people think garage is samey or past its sell-by.  Samey my arse – and it’s as relevant as ever.  Listen to the simple, classic riff from L.A.L. and the same lazy, elegant riff by The Modern Lovers or a variation by Thee Headcoats and you’ll get an idea of the endlessly shuffled hands in the rock and roll deck.    It’s impossible to produce a rock ‘n’ roll greatest hits and Rough Trade haven’t tried.  Instead they’ve thrown it together like a mix-tape: someone’s idea of what they know you love, what they think you’ll love and what you really ought to love if you love music as much as you claim.  In the best way, RT is the big brother you never had, wisely steering you through the rocks of posturing punk, faux soul and ersatz blues rock to bring you a collection of diamonds. 

There are 46 tracks on here: no themes, no sacred cows, no apparent order, just track after quality track.  The Fall (from 2000) sit between Monster Magnet (1990) and The Cramps (1979) and it feels right.  The Stooges from 1972 kick it off; the Beatings from 2002 almost close it.  In between there’s everything from the sultry r’n’b tones of Boss Hog to the full out rock ‘n’ soul of the Detroit Cobras to the insane hollerings of the Birthday Party to the fuck you punkiness of STP.  

The classic, like the MC5’s Skunk (Sonically Speaking) and Pere Ubu’s Nonalignment Pact, sit alongside overlooked gems like Crime’s Hotwire My Heart and Born in 69 by Rocket From the Crypt.   Hear the Gories and understand the wellspring for the current Detroit sound or listen to The Make Up’s mewling gospel-punk testifying.   Mudhoney offer the turbocharged Hate the Police, which immediately runs into the brass fuelled caffeine rush of the Saints’ Know Your Product.  Rocket USA by Suicide is eerie and hypnotic while Cat Claw by the Kills is just awesome and brings us bang up to date.  If this album demonstrates anything, it’s that great rock ’n’ roll – which this is – produces bolts of energy, demands your attention and makes you feel alive.  Dead music, manufactured music, music without soul can’t do that – only music that constantly reinvigorates and reinvents itself, that charges up its audience and is itself energised by them.  “Hey hey, my my, rock and roll will never die”, sang Neil Young, and here are 46 good reasons why.

Reviewed by Ged M
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Inspired by the Help! album released in the Britpop days of 1995. NME and the Warchild charity once again team up to try and combine charity and credibility by asking a rather diverse group of artists to provide a cover each of a number one from the last fifty years. It could be a warning sign as to how far NME’s standards have fallen since 95 that they’ve asked mainstream stars like Darius and Sugababes to contribute, or you could argue its a way to get more copies sold and more money raised. I’ll leave it to the individual to decide.

Starsailor kick things off with their version of The Small Faces’ “All Or Nothing”. Its okay, but not an awe-inspiring start. The first surprise comes with Feeder covering Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s hit “The Power Of Love”. Stripping it of its glossy 80’s production, they actually add more feeling to it and it works. The second surprise is I’ve found the first Stereophonics song in ages that hasn’t made me feel like ending it all. Somehow, and I’m not really sure how, their stripped-down version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” sounds really good. One day I may regret saying that.

Not that all the acoustic versions of old classics works. Oasis doing “Merry Xmas Everybody” would have sounded much better covered straight, with Liam belting it out Noddy-style. Elbow’s purposefully lacklustre cover of Thunderclap Newman’s  “Something In The Air” is much better, providing an unfortunately accurate comment on new millennium apathy. Kudos must also go to Muse thrashing the living daylights out of “House Of The Rising Sun”, Badly Drawn Boy and Jools Holland’s “Come On Eilleen” (for actually making the lyrics plausible) and McAlmont and Butler’s “Back For Good”. The duo couldn’t have found a more fitting song and album closer.

While not as good as Help! (Jimmy Eat World’s emo take on “Firestarter” simply doesn’t work, and More Fire Crew’s UK garage version of Gabrielle’s “Dreams” is awful), there’s something for everyone on, its for a good cause, and its momentarily stopped me hating Stereophonics. Wonders never cease.

Review by Robert B
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This souvenir of April’s holiday camp bash is a good buy for those who like their post-punk sounds early eighties style, mostly unaffected by the riffs of the 70’s rock giants, or filtered through a folk sensibility.  Falling into the former category are the curators, Shellac’s, spiky, mutedly shouty effort, the Joy Division-tinged “Trem two” from the apparently seminal Mission of Burma (not nearly as shouty as I, vaguely, remember them), Arcwelder’s harmonising “Do Something Right”, and the ever dependable Fall with “Two Librans”.  On the folkier side there is a pretty effort from one Nina Nastasia, and Will Oldham throws in another of his seemingly endless supply of quirky tunes, this with a reggae tinged beat!  There is also, less surprisingly, a decent dose of post-rock, the better efforts coming from Shipping News and Do Make Say Think with the heavily Slint-influenced “Quiet Victories” and more upbeat (and lightweight) “Classic Noodlandling” respectively.  The whole thing rounds off with a quiet, orchestral instrumented piece from Rachel’s, which although better than the avant-garde fiddling of the Threnody Ensemble and unremarkable contribution of High Dependency Unit, does make you notice the non-inclusion of fellow ATPers Godspeed You Black Emperor, who frankly do this sort of thing rather better.

Review by Matt H
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North London’s Candidate have been garnering praise from the broadsheet reviewers for a couple of years now.   This, their third album, is dedicated to the Wicker Man film and is unsurprisingly a collection of folky ditties but with no shortage of musical instruments being used it avoids being too one dimensional.  The most obvious point of reference would probably be Nick Drake though a whole host of 60s/70s beardies would probably claim some jos stick flavoured input.  The current artists who will no doubt tip a respectful nod will include Kings of Convenience, Obi and James Yorkston.    

There’s no shortage of charm with the instrumental bossanova of Song of the Oss being one of the more instantly appealing tracks, evoking memories of the Monochrome Set’s catchier tunes.  That’s probably the lone frivolous moment as Candidate’s real talent lies with matching delicate arrangements with Joel Morris’s Scott Walker like vocals.  This is particularly impressive on the highlight track Rain on the Roof, a lovely plaintive ballad accompanied by banjo that would have even the hardest nosed rock motherfunkster swaying appreciatively.  This album will probably remain the little secret of broadsheet readers but now thankfully it’s mine too.  A Candidate for folk album of the year?

Review by Paul M
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If I said to you ‘Swedish singer songwriter’ you might think you were in for an introspective Ingmar Bergman doomfest.  I thought that and I couldn’t be more wrong.  Think the chirpier tunes of Nick Drake, Matthew Jay, the Lilac Time and Simon and Garfunkel, and you’re getting a sense of the quality of the songwriting.  The only thing separating Fredrik Kinbom, a.k.a. Frock, from them is recognition but he’s unlikely to stay unknown for long. 

He has a strong voice and his songs are shot through with melody.  The production is clear and effects are used sparingly but effectively to put extra colour into the songs.   Like fellow-Swedes The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Fredrik Kinbom taps into classic pop-rock to mix the melancholic with the melodic, the upbeat with the soft and tinkling.   Monday Adventure is as poppy as fellow Brighton residents Electric Soft Parade, with a fierce melodic kick in the chorus.  Kinbom sounds like Paul McCartney on Lagoa Wish, which is laid back but never comatose, with lovely mournful string sounds.  Turning Off the Telly at Dawn has a more direct Beatles reference in the lyrics (“I’ll get a ticket to ride...I’ll crack the world open wide”) and an unexpected echo of a James Bond movie soundtrack.  Violin Terror starts with soft, rain speckled melodies until it kicks off suddenly, like a Friday night pub ruck, into electric (and electrifying) life.  Like his adopted hometown, Brighton, it’s an album with twisty lanes, shadowy alleys and undiscovered treasures.   For the adventurous, there’s lots here to explore. (www.frockmusic.com)

Reviewed by Ged M
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Honeyrider have, in ‘Sunshine Skyway’, delivered the perfect mix of good time 60s influenced power pop.  All the songs are really summery so why wasn’t it released then?  Saying that, it does bring a ray of sunshine into your room where all you can see from your window is the rain.  The press release compares them to the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Primitives.  I don’t know what drugs the PR was on but it doesn’t sound like the Brothers Reid or Tracey Tracey.  If anything, it’s the Beach Boys updated for the 21^st Century with one track that’s Doors-fuelled.  A perfect summer album.   

Reviewed by Tone S
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