Been a busy month actually with some good new releases coming through. I had a couple that were almost ready to be reviewed this month, but will have to carry them over to October. A heads up will be to have a listen to the debut from Mosman Alder – Humdrum Star……pretty enjoyable so far, with one track standing out.
If you get the chance also, cast your eyes over to cousin
Ash’s blog Upbeat Soundz and look at the review for Days Of Abandon. A great review and it should reinforce to everyone
how good the album is!!
Get ready for a busy next 2 months….
September Spotify Playlist -
Cheers
LF
Albums
Album: Alvvays
Year: 2014
Similar Artists: Best Coast, Veronica Falls
My Rating: 7/10
Upbeat, light, bubbly, cute, charming & clever; when
indie-pop is done right, all of those thoughts are provoked and yes plenty more
too. Keeping things simple, relatively short & sharp and probably mentioning
the words ‘love’ in there at some point all provide a means for good indie-pop
music!
Alvvays have done just that on their great little 9 track
self-titled debut LP. It is very easy listening if getting caught up in catchy
guitar and cheery vocals rouses your taste buds. There is simplicity, but a
layer of intricacy at the same time; both seen in top track ‘Next Of Kin’. The
song winds around, floats along and keeps you bopping through its entirety as
lead lady Molly Rankin charms almost
hypnotically with the line “…I left my
love in the river…”.
‘Dives’ is another great track, this time with a much slower
pace and perhaps some more moody guitar playing. The keys and guitar overlap so
effortlessly even if this is the darkest moment on the album. ‘Atop A Cake’
follows and things quickly return to the punchy, fun tempo which we have experience
in abundance to this point. Without being absolutely blown away, there are a
lot of pleasantries that make these songs very enjoyable. The same can be said
about the second track on the record ‘Archie, Marry Me’ – possibly the most reminiscent
of something Best Coast esque, but again something that delivers all flavours
of good indie-pop music.
I’ve been lucky enough to secure a ticket to see Alvvays in
San Francisco with my better half and a great friend later this year. I think
it’ll be the perfect show where we can all have a dance and enjoy ourselves
over a few drinks, I might even try and convince the band to come out to
Australia over our summer too!!
Album Strange Desires
Year: 2014
Similar Artists: Passion Pit, Vampire Weekend
My Rating: 7/10
“Your going to loveBleachers, and your probably going to hate yourself for it” – Bailey
Lions, The Music
There is a not lot I can say apart from that direct quote from
the review on The Music. Strange Desires
feels like something I should be listening to when I’m 16, having my first
drink and thinking this is the best music ever created. Well, unfortunately for
Bleachers its not, but there is a couple of very excitable little highs along
the way with this album.
Lets start with ‘I Wanna Get Better’ – there is going to be
a very high chance that after a few listens of this song you’ll know just about
every word and turn it up every time it comes on. Yes it seems like such a clichéd
top 40 style track, but for whatever reason you’ll find yourself singing along
in no time. Of a similar ilk is ‘Rollercoaster’ - probably not as contagious but will still do
its best attempt to get you singling along, and maybe even make you want to
turn it up, just a little bit more!
‘Wild Heart’ and ‘Shadow’ are reasonable tracks too, as is ‘Reckless
Love’ which tones things down for a couple of minutes and lets you gather your
thoughts as to why on earth there is even a remote chance that your enjoying
what your hearing.
Now I want to take a quick minute to talk about two tracks
that have featured artists: ‘Take Me Away’ featuring Grimes and ‘I’m Ready To
Move On’ featuring Yoko Ono. This has to be purely for publicity as they are
hands down the two worst tracks on the album. Why on earth would this bloke put
his album in jeopardy and have two shockers on it? I cant think of any decent
tracks that have an artist “featuring” on them, and if I have missed something
outstanding here, then please leave a comment below slamming me.
Anyway, you’ll listen to this album and probably be just as surprised
as me that you enjoyed it and have no idea why. But you’ll probably want to turn
it on again! Let me know how you go with it as possibly I’ve slightly lost the
plot.
Album: Alias
Year: 2014
Similar Artists: Good question??
Similar Artists: Good question??
My Rating: 5.5/10
Now I have to be careful what I say here because I’m not out
to bag The Magic Numbers. I have seen them play one of the best show I’ve been
too which was in 2010 at The Corner Hotel, and they also have one of the better
albums of the last 10 years – a self titled release in 2005. If you don’t have
your hands on it, go out and get it because there wouldn’t be many people out
there who wouldn’t like it!
The sad story is, since that great first record, the 3 LP’s
they have released since have been nowhere near as good (minus a couple of
tracks of LP #2). And Alias, all be it, a significant improvement on those
previous efforts, is no exception. There are a couple of high points and some
reasonable cohesion, but unfortunately its not even close the best that The
Magic Number can produce.
‘Out On The Streets’ and ‘Shot In The Dark’ are the best 2
tracks on the album and deliver some short lived joy. I’ve found myself signing
along to ‘Shot In The Dark’ a couple of times whilst wandering around at work
so generally that is a half design sign of a good song. The other tracks aren’t
poor, but aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination either.
Get your hands on a copy of 2005’s The Magic Numbers and then we’ll chat!!
Album: Post Tropical
Year: 2014
Similar Artists: Bon Iver, London Grammar – (sorry, but such
bleedingly obvious comparisons)
My Rating: 6/10
Ok, there is no way I can start out without putting a little
disclaimer regarding the Bon Iver comparison noted in James Vincent McMorrow’s
debut LP Post Tropical. I don’t like pigeonholing
artists unfairly, or making absurd comparisons just for the sake of it. I
provide a similar artists note just as a bit of a reference point for those
skim-readers out there (yes I know who you are!), whom might want to know if it’ll
be worth your while continuing to read on. Hopefully it always is worthwhile! Any
I think McMorrow has probably made a clear decision to target someone such as
Bon Iver and produce something of high similarity. Nothing against him if that’s
what he wants to do and that’s where he’s interest lie; good luck to him
because I’m dam sure that Bon Iver has sold a few records in the last couple of
years…
Anyway, disclaimer aside, Post Tropical is a reasonable album and possesses some very hauntingly
savvy musical features. McMorrow has an incredible voice and uses it
purposefully and to its absolute best; breaking into strong ballads with at
times some great harmonies backing him. He strikes me as a delicate man,
perhaps even shy, but I can only imagine the love he gets from the ladies after
each and every one of his shows – shall we call it swooning?
‘Gold’ is a real highlight for me and a 3 star (memorable)
track. The snare drum kicks things off nicely (yes it I used the word nicely!),
before some horns mutter in steadily, then hit you with a fair sort of a
wallop. It’s also the shortest track on the album at 3 minutes and I have found
that some of the other tracks to tend to drag somewhat. ‘Glacier’ really builds
and slams you with power and emotion throughout its big crescendo toward the end
of the song. Opener ‘Cavalier’ has a bit of swagger to it after its mild intro,
but again possess some horns and a big-ish finish.
I’m expecting this album to feature heavily in EOY lists,
but for we it just lacks that extra something that really drags it across the
line. Pleasant mood-filling listening, but just missing the finishing touches
of a solid record…..
No comments:
Post a Comment