Thursday, 21 July 2011
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #15 Classic Album: Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Written 21st July 2011:
Classic Album: Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Year of Release: 2002
The Band: Paul Banks (Lead Vocals, guitar), Dan Kessler (lead guitar, backing vocals), Carlos D (bass), Sam Fogarino (drums)
So today's classic album, comes from another band that hails from New York, which at-the-time of the album’s release was possibly at the centre of the Indie music map after The Strokes came, conquered and re-juvenated the guitar garage-rock scene in 2001 with their debut album 'Is This It?' (which I may also do a classic review for at some point). Following closely in their footsteps in 2002 was this debut effort from Interpol and with the band hailing from the same city, they were already early anticipated comparisons to The Strokes, but if the truth be told this album is a whole different animal completely to 'Is This It?' which hopefully this review will highlight, but I will draw at least one striking similarity with the aforementioned band in the conclusion of this review.
Turn on the Bright Lights
1. Untitled
2. Obstacle 1
3. NYC
4. PDA
5. Say Hello to the Angels
6. Hands Away
7. Obstacle 2
8. Stella was a diver and she was always down
9. Roland
10. The New
11. Leif Erikson
So 'Untitled' gets 'Turn on the Bright Lights' off to a steady start with its tingling-like guitar riff, slowly becoming accompanied by bass player at the time Carlos D (great name huh?!), who has previously left the band, rhythmic bass line joins and this is certainly not the last time we get this steadily built-up combination of guitars and bass on this album, before lead-singer and guitarist Paul Bank's haunting-like voice first surfaces on the album about 90 seconds into it. It's a slow-pace of an opening track but the steadily built layered sound of guitars and bass indicate that we're only getting warmed-up here. Second track 'Obstacle 1' confirms this assumption with sharp-angular guitars between Paul and lead guitarist Dan Kessler both battling hard for the listener’s attention and the pace of the album instantly picks up while still continuing with the dark and menacing themes set throughout this record. We're next then slowed-down again by 'NYC' with its haunting guitar-riff throughout and Paul's Goth-like vocals, but this is actually a complement to the track, as this is real 'hair-standing-on-the-back-of-the-neck' stuff already and only by the third track of the album! The track continues as we hear Paul's bleak and honest views of that, at the time and possibly still, famous musical Capital in The States and how he had become disillusioned by it after spending so many years growing up there.
'PDA' again moves the album up a few gears with another fast, frenetic guitar-driven track to catch the listener’s attention. Paul’s lyrics hint at a tongue-in-cheek poke of a person’s possible relationship with a psychiatrist with lines such as “You’re so cute when you’re sedated” and “We have 200 couches when you can sleep tight, sleep right”. If the album has not hit top-gear by the end of this track we’re certainly start speeding towards it with 'Say Hello to the Angels'. The track starts with guitars steadily building for the opening 45 seconds or so before another one of Carlos D's, now famed, and perfectly timed bass-playing rhythms carries the track to a whole new-level. This is one of my favourite tracks on the album especially when Paul is effortlessly reeling of lyrics "On silent parts, the parts that birds love, I know there is such a place..."
'Hands Away' really slows the tempo of the album down again, after the last rollercoaster of a track. Another track on the album that is really built up steadily with guitar riffs and bass, Paul's vocals are kept quite minimal on this track and it almost stands as an instrumental track for the record, but to dismiss it for just simply being an instrumental would be a mistake by the listener in my opinion. Next we have 'Obstacle 2', a bit more of a slowed down affair than its earlier relation ‘Obstacle 1’. Paul’s vocals in particular are very much more distinct on this track than any other previously.
As Paul next announces "This next one is called 'Stella was a diver and she was always down', a song-title which I'll let the listener decide it's unglamorous way-of-life meaning behind. This for me is simply the stand-out track on an album which has already featured some big-hitting guitar tracks on it. Again another track laced with moody, tingling guitar rhythms and a thunderous, military-like drumming rhythm throughout by drummer Sam Fogarino, this track has a real epic, yet at the same time almost-tragic-like feel to it, yet it seems to surprisingly merge both elements so well. I don't think I'm doing this track justice with my comments here, but you'll see what I mean when you hear it and I’ll say that I think most listeners will be gripped from start to finish throughout upon first hearing it. With a sharp-edgy riff opening it ‘Roland’ launches into a frantic, pogoing effort with a nice distant-like affect used here on Paul’s vocals to complement it.
‘The New’ starts off with a simplistic guitar opening and just steadily plods along inoffensively to the listener. It builds to a nice melodic chorus and flows comfortably for the first two verses before the now familiar darker-tone of this album takes over in the more complex-side of the second half of this track, with a savage guitar riff becoming exposed throughout this part of it. Album closer ‘Leif Erikson’ is but of course another slowed-down, dark and moody affair, yet this really sums up the sound and mood that the band clearly set out to achieve with this debut record and although that may sound like a negative approach for an album, I really believe this is a record you should give several listens too, to fully appreciate it’s true charms and hidden-depths.
So in summary of re-visiting an album that is now coming up to 10-years old how do I still rate it? I'll be honest and admit that I've only recently got into Interpol myself over the last few years or so and I think if I did buy the album at its time of release (something I really wish I had done now to be honest!) I think I may have overlooked it at somewhat at the time, especially in the shadow of The Strokes back then, and possibly given this album a still respectable 8 Obstacles out of 10 back in 2002.
However, as I bought this album afresh with no major expectations at the time and was thinking "Yeah I'll give this a spin and see what Interpol are like then…." I soon found myself coming back to this record time and time again on a regular basis and quickly found myself hooked on its dark-brooding songs interspersed with fast-archaic guitar tracks. I had at last found another new obsession with a band from New York! I really still believe this album holds up strong even today and I’m even going to award it an unprecedented 10 'Stella’s' out of 10 for a listen by even today's guitar-record standards. For me this is an album that simply stands up and won't let itself be ignored! It even gets better with each subsequent listen thereafter, with a quick listen again this morning re-confirming this for me.
While I commented in my 2nd paragraph that this album followed shortly in the footsteps of The Strokes and was a very different sounding album to 'Is This It?', the one striking similarity that I think that makes both band's comparable, apart from both hailing from New York, is that they have both successfully defined a guitar sound and made it their own with their debut albums and then subsequently followed their debut albums up with another 3 great albums each. This is without question for me an album fans of bands like The Smiths, possibly Oasis, even The Cure and of course The Strokes must have in their record collection! You may find, like me, you'll soon develop an (un)healthy obsession for the band and will be inclined to pick up their subsequent follow-up albums 'Antics', 'Our Love to Admire' and the recently released eponymously titled 'Interpol' all of which I would also recommend, but for me this debut effort is still the definitive Interpol record!
Turning on the Bright Lights
Flynny
Track 2 - Obstacle 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkBAUqp6NKg
Track 5 - 'Say Hello to the Angels' (Live at Brixton Academy 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zcalNxLIhM
Track 8 - 'Stella was a diver and she was always down' (Live in 2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh3hQEG_sH0
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #14: Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval
Written 2nd July 2011:
Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval
Right time for the latest installment in my line of Flynndie Reviews and in today's episode I'm going to cover the recent album release by the Kaiser Chiefs, 'The Future Is Medieval'. Before we move onto the tracks on the record itself, I'm just going to cover the most excellent promotional work the band did for their 4th album release, which I personally thought was a unique yet brillant idea to promote an album, especially for a record that the general public had previously not heard much about.
So the Kaiser's returned to the scene with this previously unannounced album 'The Future Is Medieval' which caught most by surprise. A promo track 'Little Shocks' was given some airplays on the radio, before the band placed snippets of 20 potential tracks on their website, before allowing fans the option to select their own 10 tracks of choice, choose their play-list for their selected tracks and even design the cover for an album! I have never previously seen such a creative manner of promoting an album release and thought it was a real credit to the band to attempt such an ambitious project! I decided to get involved with the fun idea and after giving the 45 second to a minute track samples a few listens I made my own bespoke version of the 'The Future Is Medieval', which you can feel free to check out via the link at the bottom of this review.
Anyway, after such a unqiue album release, there was still such sufficient demand for a full CD album release. The previously 'fan-made' versions were download only if you had previously decided to download another person's copy, but in most cases after paying £7.50 for a choice of tracks, I suspect most fans like myself would have made their own track-listing version and album cover. So this review covers the 'definite' CD version that is now available and opens with previous promo track 'Little Shocks'.
So the album opens with how I would describe as a steady 'creeping-along' type of melody, with the familiar plinky-plonky keyboard sounds in the background to give the track a real Kaiser Chiefs feel to it. As the track 'creeps' along it builds to a big sing-a-long, rock chorus which in true Kaiser Chiefs fashion is very catchy indeed. I really like this track, it's a good opener for the album and shows the maturity the band have reached with such a well written song and particularly chorus. 'Things Change' follows with a funky drumming opening, accompanied by keys and far out-space like sounds, and although that description may sound like this track is really 'out there' the funky beat at the heart of the track actually holds it together well. Throw in an 80's sounding-guitar strum midway through the track, and despite being an eclectic collection of sounds this track actually works and complments opening track 'Little Shocks' well.
'Long Way From Celebrating' continues with another funky melody pulsing through it, before a fast and furious chorus bursts into the track and I can see this being one the band will use during their 'live' sets to tour this record. Next up we have 'Starts With Nothing', with a repeating jagged guitar, and a distant effect used on Ricky Wilson's voice. It's the first track to really steady the pace of the album so far. This is another track where I feel the band has attempted to show a more mature side to them, with it's deep-sounding guitars and I think the track is actually about a disappointed contestant who has left a quiz show unsucessfully emphasised by the lyrics 'You start with nothing and you leave with nothing' and the line 'Yes that is my final answer'. The track finishes with guitar sounds that actually reminded me somewhat of the BritPop classic 'Champagne Supanova' by Oasis and is a nice way to close the song.
At this point I still think the album has not quite got a definitive 'focus' or 'theme' about it that I can think of which moves us nicley on to fifth-track 'Out of Focus'. With a slightly menacing guitar sound to open the track with, and spookily backing keys to it, this track has a really nice flow about it and sits well on it's place in the record, the chorus in particular is very-catchy indeed! 'Dead or in Serious Trouble' is up next and picks up the pace of the record again with an almost battle-off-duel between guitars and keyboard! I think this track in particular has real old-school Kaiser Chiefs feel to it and certainly would not find itself out of place alongside tracks from their debut album 'Employment' and this another track I can see making up part of the band's 'live' set. Next up with have 'When All Is Quiet'. I really like this track, it has somewhat of a bit of a 'Madness' feel to it the way it kinda bounces-along, while the later duel backing vocals give the song a bit of a 'Beach Boys' vibe to it too! For me it's the melody and the pacing of the track that I really like about this song, which all seems to fit perfectly for it.
Next up we have the track 'Kinda Girl You Are', which bearing in mind the previous track had a somewhat 'Beach Boys' vibe to it, opens with an almost guitar like 'Surf Wipe Out' sound. This song was previously unavailable from the initial 20-tracks that were made available from the band's website (www.kaiserchiefs.com). The track coasts along at a fair old pace and rhythm, and standing at 2 minutes 37 seconds long, is one of the shorter, more instant type of track to make up this record. 'Man of Mars' soon slows the pace of the record again with a real-trippy like, 'far-out-there' sound about it, and a nice guitar-solo thrown in about halfway through it. The track as whole has a lot of sounds thrown around it and is cleverly layered when listened to carefully.
Track 10 'Child of the Jago' is another of my favourite tracks, with a simple yet catchy guitar hook flowing through it, Andy White is fine form on guitar for this one while Ricky is also on top-form with his vocals on this track in my opinion. This is very-much a likeable and instant track in my opinion with a nice solo at the end of it and the line 'The Future Is Medieval' helping to build it. The first thing the listener will think of upon hearing the opening of 'Heard it Break' is 80's synth! This has a real-retro feel to it and is very keyboard-synth heavy yet is very catchy indeed! The unique sound of the track finds me struggling to find any easy comparisions to the sound the band have created on it, which is a credit to them. 'Coming up for Air' is another slow-burning, yet very distinctive effort like a few of the previous tracks on this record. Again this track for me shows that the band are certainly maturing in their sound with piano and violin also thrown into the mix on this, possibly the big ballad of the album.
The 13th and final track, 'If you will have me' is actually my personal favourite track on the record. I'm a real sucker, to this type of raw acoustic heartfelt song and this is one of the best of that particular type I've heard in a while. With a nice, soft melody throughout and backing violin this is a real beautiful track and rightly closes the album in my opinion and was even also my choice of album closer on my version of the album I previously made up. Great minds think a-like eh?! However, that is not all as if you keep listening the band have sneakily thrown a secret instrumental track on as a bonus on the album, so keep an eye out for it if you want to catch it, it again has a very space-based theme to it in my opinion with it synth sounds and guitar riffs, but listen out for it and give it a judge yourself.
So overall I really like this album, but my main gripe with it I guess is that it very much feels like a large collection of songs thrown together, rather than a record that seems to have a defenitive focus, flow and theme to it. However, surely this was fully the intention of the band in the first place?! With such a unique release given to the album even allowing fans to choose it's tracklisting how could the band possibly put together a track-listing that would create such a defintive theme for the record? And it's the previous unique album release, and the subsequent demand for a 'definitive' version of the record that has helped me draw my conclusion that the is an album full of well written tracks, that although may seem disjointed at times, still make up a great record and return to top form of the band in my opinion! The open approach of song-writing has really brought out some of the most mature song-writing the band have done to date and I'm quite happily going to give this record 8 Jousting Knights out of 10, which possibly would have been higher if the record had that bit of cohesion it just lacks due to it's creative launch process which I think the band should rightly be applauded for having the balls to do! Overall this is a good return to form for them so I'd recommend the album especially if you previously enjoyed the band's 1st two albums 'Employment' and 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob'.
Always Medieval
Flynny
PS. If you would like to see the original 10-track version of The Future Is Medieval' I put together (which does flow nicely as a collection of songs in my opinion, heh-heh! ;o) ) you can find it here: www.kaiserchiefs.com\addicteaddick
Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval
Right time for the latest installment in my line of Flynndie Reviews and in today's episode I'm going to cover the recent album release by the Kaiser Chiefs, 'The Future Is Medieval'. Before we move onto the tracks on the record itself, I'm just going to cover the most excellent promotional work the band did for their 4th album release, which I personally thought was a unique yet brillant idea to promote an album, especially for a record that the general public had previously not heard much about.
So the Kaiser's returned to the scene with this previously unannounced album 'The Future Is Medieval' which caught most by surprise. A promo track 'Little Shocks' was given some airplays on the radio, before the band placed snippets of 20 potential tracks on their website, before allowing fans the option to select their own 10 tracks of choice, choose their play-list for their selected tracks and even design the cover for an album! I have never previously seen such a creative manner of promoting an album release and thought it was a real credit to the band to attempt such an ambitious project! I decided to get involved with the fun idea and after giving the 45 second to a minute track samples a few listens I made my own bespoke version of the 'The Future Is Medieval', which you can feel free to check out via the link at the bottom of this review.
Anyway, after such a unqiue album release, there was still such sufficient demand for a full CD album release. The previously 'fan-made' versions were download only if you had previously decided to download another person's copy, but in most cases after paying £7.50 for a choice of tracks, I suspect most fans like myself would have made their own track-listing version and album cover. So this review covers the 'definite' CD version that is now available and opens with previous promo track 'Little Shocks'.
So the album opens with how I would describe as a steady 'creeping-along' type of melody, with the familiar plinky-plonky keyboard sounds in the background to give the track a real Kaiser Chiefs feel to it. As the track 'creeps' along it builds to a big sing-a-long, rock chorus which in true Kaiser Chiefs fashion is very catchy indeed. I really like this track, it's a good opener for the album and shows the maturity the band have reached with such a well written song and particularly chorus. 'Things Change' follows with a funky drumming opening, accompanied by keys and far out-space like sounds, and although that description may sound like this track is really 'out there' the funky beat at the heart of the track actually holds it together well. Throw in an 80's sounding-guitar strum midway through the track, and despite being an eclectic collection of sounds this track actually works and complments opening track 'Little Shocks' well.
'Long Way From Celebrating' continues with another funky melody pulsing through it, before a fast and furious chorus bursts into the track and I can see this being one the band will use during their 'live' sets to tour this record. Next up we have 'Starts With Nothing', with a repeating jagged guitar, and a distant effect used on Ricky Wilson's voice. It's the first track to really steady the pace of the album so far. This is another track where I feel the band has attempted to show a more mature side to them, with it's deep-sounding guitars and I think the track is actually about a disappointed contestant who has left a quiz show unsucessfully emphasised by the lyrics 'You start with nothing and you leave with nothing' and the line 'Yes that is my final answer'. The track finishes with guitar sounds that actually reminded me somewhat of the BritPop classic 'Champagne Supanova' by Oasis and is a nice way to close the song.
At this point I still think the album has not quite got a definitive 'focus' or 'theme' about it that I can think of which moves us nicley on to fifth-track 'Out of Focus'. With a slightly menacing guitar sound to open the track with, and spookily backing keys to it, this track has a really nice flow about it and sits well on it's place in the record, the chorus in particular is very-catchy indeed! 'Dead or in Serious Trouble' is up next and picks up the pace of the record again with an almost battle-off-duel between guitars and keyboard! I think this track in particular has real old-school Kaiser Chiefs feel to it and certainly would not find itself out of place alongside tracks from their debut album 'Employment' and this another track I can see making up part of the band's 'live' set. Next up with have 'When All Is Quiet'. I really like this track, it has somewhat of a bit of a 'Madness' feel to it the way it kinda bounces-along, while the later duel backing vocals give the song a bit of a 'Beach Boys' vibe to it too! For me it's the melody and the pacing of the track that I really like about this song, which all seems to fit perfectly for it.
Next up we have the track 'Kinda Girl You Are', which bearing in mind the previous track had a somewhat 'Beach Boys' vibe to it, opens with an almost guitar like 'Surf Wipe Out' sound. This song was previously unavailable from the initial 20-tracks that were made available from the band's website (www.kaiserchiefs.com). The track coasts along at a fair old pace and rhythm, and standing at 2 minutes 37 seconds long, is one of the shorter, more instant type of track to make up this record. 'Man of Mars' soon slows the pace of the record again with a real-trippy like, 'far-out-there' sound about it, and a nice guitar-solo thrown in about halfway through it. The track as whole has a lot of sounds thrown around it and is cleverly layered when listened to carefully.
Track 10 'Child of the Jago' is another of my favourite tracks, with a simple yet catchy guitar hook flowing through it, Andy White is fine form on guitar for this one while Ricky is also on top-form with his vocals on this track in my opinion. This is very-much a likeable and instant track in my opinion with a nice solo at the end of it and the line 'The Future Is Medieval' helping to build it. The first thing the listener will think of upon hearing the opening of 'Heard it Break' is 80's synth! This has a real-retro feel to it and is very keyboard-synth heavy yet is very catchy indeed! The unique sound of the track finds me struggling to find any easy comparisions to the sound the band have created on it, which is a credit to them. 'Coming up for Air' is another slow-burning, yet very distinctive effort like a few of the previous tracks on this record. Again this track for me shows that the band are certainly maturing in their sound with piano and violin also thrown into the mix on this, possibly the big ballad of the album.
The 13th and final track, 'If you will have me' is actually my personal favourite track on the record. I'm a real sucker, to this type of raw acoustic heartfelt song and this is one of the best of that particular type I've heard in a while. With a nice, soft melody throughout and backing violin this is a real beautiful track and rightly closes the album in my opinion and was even also my choice of album closer on my version of the album I previously made up. Great minds think a-like eh?! However, that is not all as if you keep listening the band have sneakily thrown a secret instrumental track on as a bonus on the album, so keep an eye out for it if you want to catch it, it again has a very space-based theme to it in my opinion with it synth sounds and guitar riffs, but listen out for it and give it a judge yourself.
So overall I really like this album, but my main gripe with it I guess is that it very much feels like a large collection of songs thrown together, rather than a record that seems to have a defenitive focus, flow and theme to it. However, surely this was fully the intention of the band in the first place?! With such a unique release given to the album even allowing fans to choose it's tracklisting how could the band possibly put together a track-listing that would create such a defintive theme for the record? And it's the previous unique album release, and the subsequent demand for a 'definitive' version of the record that has helped me draw my conclusion that the is an album full of well written tracks, that although may seem disjointed at times, still make up a great record and return to top form of the band in my opinion! The open approach of song-writing has really brought out some of the most mature song-writing the band have done to date and I'm quite happily going to give this record 8 Jousting Knights out of 10, which possibly would have been higher if the record had that bit of cohesion it just lacks due to it's creative launch process which I think the band should rightly be applauded for having the balls to do! Overall this is a good return to form for them so I'd recommend the album especially if you previously enjoyed the band's 1st two albums 'Employment' and 'Yours Truly, Angry Mob'.
Always Medieval
Flynny
PS. If you would like to see the original 10-track version of The Future Is Medieval' I put together (which does flow nicely as a collection of songs in my opinion, heh-heh! ;o) ) you can find it here: www.kaiserchiefs.com\addicteaddick
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #13: Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
Written 16th June 2011:
Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See
Right here we go again then, Flynndie review time! I seem to have been neglecting my review duties due to working my socks off just recently, but of course, I've always had the comfort of some quality Indie tunes keeping me company while I've been busy the entire time. So let’s get this show back on the road again then and, errrrrm, wrap our lips around the Arctic Monkeys' latest offering ‘Suck it and See’!
So long-time readers will know (and trust me there are only 2 of them that I’m at least aware of!) that I’ve been quite a stubborn fool with realising the sheer greatness of these young lads from Sheffield. When ‘Whatever People Say I Am That Is What I’m Not’ was released for one reason or another at the time I’m really struggled to get into it, however, since the band’s impressive Glastonbury Headline slot in 2008 when the band were touring their 2nd album ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ I’ve since had a bit of common sense to realise that not only are these boys extremely talented, but they are arguably the ‘hottest’ band in the UK at the current time of writing (although I’d still argue that Muse may rightly have to something to say about that!) So with that brief history of my relationship for these Monkeys of a North Pole flavour let’s take a look at this follow up to 3rd album ‘Humbug’.
So the album opens with a slightly-menacing guitar riff, before the familiar dulcet tones of Alex Turner opens with “She’s Thunderstorms….” and straightaway we are given an early indication that this album has a more laid back, yet re-assured approach about itself compared to it's predecessor ‘Humbug’, which was more of a darker, carefree affair that in some cases previously ‘scared off‘ some fans. The tracks swoons along with a quite literal thunderous drumming accompanying the catchy ‘She’s Thunderstorms…..” chorus that the track previously opened with. ‘Black Treacle’ follows and again the listener will notice that although we have a familiar Arctic Monkey’s guitar riff pulsing through the heart of the track, but this is again two or three beats slower than that of tracks from any of their previous albums. The song title seems to be a comparison to that of the drawing dark nights the evening brings, and the uncertainty that sometimes comes with them.
Previously released single ‘Brick by Brick’ is just one of those tracks that makes you stand up and take notice the first time you hear. It's probably the first track on the album, that has a more ‘traditional’ Arctic Monkeys feel to it, as basically Alex make statements of things he would like to do with another individual before the spoken backing of ‘Brick-by-Brick’ by the rest of the band. The track does show a nod to their time spent with Josh Homme while recording ‘Humbug’ as it slows down half-way through, but this only emphasizes the catchiness of the main verses when they kick back in. ‘The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala’ despite being a keeeeeraaaazy song title just offers the assuredness that this records has in bags. With its summery-feeling bass bouncing all the way through it, and Alex’s ‘sha-la-la-la’s’ through out, this has just got summer-festival sing-along anthem written all over it.
‘Don’t sit down cause I’ve moved your chair’ goes back to the slowed-down menacing sound from ‘Humbug’ and opening track 'She's Thunderstorms'. This continues for the opening 45 seconds of guitar of the track with Alex making references to sayings of those usually associated with ‘doing things that can lead to a bad accident’, such as running with scissors in-hand, before a dirty, savage guitar riff and bassline wrap this track up in a moody, confident swagger about itself! Jamie Cook is on real-fine guitar-solo form by the end of this track!
‘Library Pictures’ is nothing short of epic! That was my first impression upon hearing this track and this has been further cemented with each subsequent listen since. The track opens with battling guitars taking their own time to do 0-60mph and keeps building from there. This is simply a track that will feature heavily during the band’s forthcoming UK Oct/Nov tour in my opinion and will become a firm fan-favourite! ‘All my own stunts’ opens with the band just ‘jamming’ in the studio and I previously read that the band tried to ensure that this record was given a definitive more 'live session' approach to it's recording! The track buzzes along-nicely and sits well in it's place on the record. ‘Reckless Serenade’ is the hand-holding partner to ‘The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala’. Opening with deep-bass notes and softly-sung lyrics it’s another mellowed down, coast of a track, but don’t be fooled, this song has a hidden-charm about it and is one of my personal favourite tracks on the album!
Track 9 ‘Piledriver Waltz’ is quite literally a Waltz of a track, another slow-burner, with a plodding-along-like bass-line. It’s a very inoffensive track and keeps the album at it's own pace. ‘Love is a Laserquest’ continues the much-slowed down, almost effortless-like pace on the path that the 2nd half of the album seems to take. Album title track ‘Suck It and See’ picks up the pace again slightly following the previous 3-tracks, and seems to be classic Indie track depicting the relationship between two people, but fortunatley, this track has a nice approach about it, without ever tasting too sickly-sweet which often tends to be a downfall, when many band's attempt a track like this. Album closer 'That's Where Your Wrong' finishes off nicely, but for me I was hoping of a bit more of a 'killer-rock' track by this stage, but I guess this, yet another more mellowed affair, keeps in-line musically with the rest of the album.
So, I've now had 2 weeks to give this album plenty of spins and make my own personal judgement of it. To be honest I really do like this record, it picks up nicely from where the band left-off with 'Humbug', however I do feel it doesn't come close to catching the pure 'living on the edge' feel of the band's first two albums, but then this record doesn't aim to achieve that and as I've said earlier in this review this is a certainly a more laid-back, almost 'casual' like sound from the band. However, I feel this casualness does let the 2nd half of the album down a bit, while the first 8-track of the record really make me sit up and grab my attention, I just personally feel the last few tracks just lack a little substance that would have made this yet another classic record by the Arctics, but don't get me wrong I like this album very much I'm going to award it 8 out of 10 gobstoppers, because if you 'Suck it and See' enough with this record you will find this album has a lot of hidden charm and flavours about itself and deserves more than a good few listens, so certainly a recommended addition for all the Indie record collections out there! Arctic Monkey fans will deffo love this album if they previously struggled with 'Humbug' for sure!!!
Sucking It and Seeing
Flynny
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #12: The Strokes - Angles
Written 18th March 2011:
The Strokes - Angles
This week sees the much anticpated return of The Strokes after a long 5 year absence. Despite their most-recent previous two albums, ‘Room on Fire’ and ‘First Impressions of Earth’ both receiving mixed reviews from the world of music press, I still really enjoyed them and whenever I catch ‘live’ performances of the band I always think to myself they still look effortlessly cool, which is the best kind of ‘coolness’ in my opinion. I also don’t think it is an understatement to say that when their 2001 debut album ‘Is This It?’ arrived it totally breathed new-life back into the indie music scene bringing with it such a refreshing change of style for garage-rock music at the time.
Now despite the band have leaked a few ‘Making of Angles’ mini-clips via their website (http://new.thestrokes.com/, also see the bottom of this blog for links to the clips), in terms of the music for the album, it’s been kept under pretty tight wraps for the past few months. I had eagerly been counting down the days until it’s UK release on the 22nd March via Rough Trade records, however I discovered yesterday (15th March) that the band have decided to stream the album early via their website so I’ve had the album on loop from the site since then and thought now somewhat earlier than expected is a great opportunity to give my ‘First Impressions’ of ‘Angles’.
The album gets underway with the fantastically titled ‘Machu Picchu’ and its funky 80’s-style synth and bass opening cruising through the verses with Casablanca’s familiar gravelly voice, crooning over the top, before a fast-paced chorus comes in with even some bongos thrown-in in the background if you listen very carefully. It’s quite a different sound for the Strokes in my opinion, and the first indication that the band are prepared to push the boundaries musically on this album. Next up follows the 1st single lifted from the album ‘Under Cover of Darkness’, and with its opening guitar riffs followed by a flowing bouncing-rhythm this is much more familiar territory for long-term Strokes fans and as such one of the more instant tracks on the album for the listener.
Third track ‘Two Kinds of Happiness’ is different to any track I’ve previously heard by the band. The verses start and initially remind me of one of those tracks from an ‘80’s Driving Compilation’, whether that is a good or bad thing for you I’ll let you be the judge upon hearing it, although I personally don’t mind it. Again it’s new territory for a Strokes sound, but the chorus goes back to the familiar big crescendo of garage-guitar rock the band are rightly famed for. ‘You’re so Right’ again finds the band pushing out on a new wave of guitar sounds for them, with dark brooding guitars between Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. racing against each other through its verses and a distant-like effect used on Julian’s voice throughout with Nick later throwing in a nice little guitar solo to break-up the two verses. ‘Taken for a Fool’ is another instant-type of Strokes tune with another fast-flowing verse, before a loud sing-along chorus has Julian elaborating on an individual constantly being take advantage off and this track stands well in its place on the album with some really funky bass lines pulsing through it from Nikolai (Fraiture).
Over halfway through the record and ‘Games’ continues with another experimental sound for the record and it’s again Nikolai on fine form with an engrossing bass line carrying the verses of this track before an up-tempo chorus comes in with a super-fast drum-beat courtesy of Fab (Moretti) breaking-up the previous two verses and choruses and the track ends with a somewhat more slower, spaced-out feeling rhythm built from the two verses. ‘Call me back’ is the slowed down track of the album, with a gentle guitar loop being the backing to Julian’s softly sung vocals, before a creepy, jangling guitar bridges the middle of the song and despite being a slowed down number this is arguably the most experimental track on the album with a lot of sounds going on in it for the listener to register.
‘Gratisfaction’ reverts back to a more similar Strokes sound from their second album ‘Room on Fire’, and is again another track which I feel doffs it’s cap towards another retro 80’s like guitar sound, while 9th track ‘Metabolism’ goes back to duelling guitars between Nick and Albert, gradually building in intensity as the verse progresses before a crashing bridge and then dropping-down a pitch and then finally gradually starting to re-build again, making this possibly the most intense track on the album. Final track ‘Life is Simple in the Moonlight’ is just simply classic Strokes. Initially building with a softly played and sung verse before Julian belts out a catchy chorus backed with guitars and synths all the stops are pulled out for the finale of this album with Julian ending on the lyrics “Don’t try to stop us/Don’t try to stop us/Move out of the way”, but I’d say that with this 4th album, overall being a great return to form for the band, it would be hard to see anyone stopping the Strokes building upon much more fame and success if that’s already possible.
This album sees the New York band really pushing the boundaries of what a guitar record can and arguably should sound like ‘In This Modern Age’ and sometimes this can be a downfall for some bands when attempting to make a somewhat more ambitious record like this. However I feel that the tracks the band have clearly tried something different on (‘You’re so right’ and ‘Games’ are two prime examples of this) the band pull-off successful well, as initially I seemed to struggle with them but they seem to grow on me more with each listen, a mark of a good record. Throw into the mix some old-fashioned easily accessible Strokes songs and it all adds up to a real return to form for the band, which in my opinion is arguably their best material since the almighty ‘Is This It?’ and with this new record I am going to award it 9 ‘Angles’ out 10 and a definite album recommendation from me to get hold off for early part of 2011.
The Strokes - ‘Making of Angles’ – Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk_w-YyJbfY
The Strokes - ‘Making of Angles’ – Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYiQUPR5N1w
The Strokes - ‘Making of Angles’ – Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZsirqdYAHU
An Acute Angle
‘Flynny’
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #11: Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
Written 15th March 2011:
Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History
Today’s album review comes from a band that I was lucky enough to catch the highlights of their set for their performance at last summer’s Reading Festival on the NME/Radio 1 stage (my personal favourite stage as it’s the best place to discover these types of great up and coming smaller bands!) I managed to catch their performance late on BBC3 (yes I know, I should still be actually going to these type of Festivals, but I’m gonna use the lame excuse of I’m getting too old for it now!), but at the same time watching their performance on the box helped me to take in, in full a great performance by a band I didn’t really know much about at the time. Needless to say after being very impressed by their set, I thought I must track down the album immediately! So it is now, some 6 months later, I have finally got round to buying it and this here be the review of their debut album ‘Tourist History’.
Right, so let’s take a quick look at the band first. They are a 3-piece group hailing from Bangor, Northern Ireland and are made up from Alex Trimble (Lead Vocals, Guitar & Synth), Sam Halliday (Guitar & Vocals) and Kevin Baird (Bass & Vocals). They formed in 2007 and released their first EP in January 2009 called ‘Four Words to Stand On’, before their full debut album, this here ‘Tourist History’, was released in March 2010.
So onto the album then and things get started with opening track ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’, which also previously appeared as a track on the ‘Four Words to Stand On’ EP. The track opens with some tingling guitar before the first taste of synthesisers crash in for the first time on the album (but certainly not the last!) and the track goes into full on ‘Indie-Synth-Pop’ as I will describe it. We also get our first taste of Alex Trimble’s softly spoken, yet powerful voice that accompanies the well written lyrics by this band. Instantly from this track you can tell this album is already likely to bit a lot of fun. ‘Come Back Home’ follows on next and continues the excellent work done by the first track to encapsulate the listener in this fast-paced Indie pop record. Although the track starts off with slow synth effects, it’s not very long before guitar and bass kick in with a very bouncy rhythm throughout the verses before the song hits with its great sing-along “Now you’re on your own/Won’t you come back home/See you not that kind/To find the strength to find another way”! Trust me it’s a very catchy chorus!
Track 3 ‘Do you want it all?’ slows down the frenetic pace slightly from the opening two tracks but still continues with nice melodic Indie-Pop. The track literally repeats the line “Do you want it all?” throughout, but the melody and Alex’s voice really carry the song and it still sounds good, despite me struggling to explain just quite how in this paragraph! The track finishes with another ace frenetic electro-rock-out. ‘This is the life’ opens with what sounds like a guitar-riff played backwards, before a high-pitched but yet another easy listening riff leads into the chant-along like chorus of “If this is the life/Is the life/Who’d argue?” The track features an excellent but cleverly-worked duelled guitar ‘fight-off’ between Alex and Sam, and is a nice way to sign-off the track.
Next with its acoustic like picking at the start ‘Something good can work’ nonchalantly makes its way into the album, with an understated riff flowing gently behind hit, and this is simply a track you will find yourself nodding along to without even realising it, such it’s subtle catchiness. The same understated-ness cannot be said about previous single “I Can Talk”, with its robotic-like chant at the start followed by a 150mph guitar-riff, and then heading into an old-school disco vibe throughout before ending on the chants again, it’s a very direct track for the listener!
This is followed by track 7 and another single ‘Undercover Martyn’, which although doesn’t quite have the same musical impact as the previous track, it still hurtles along at an average speed of 75mph on the Indie-Disco Highway! I’d also just like to point out it’s also not about me being ‘undercover’ in anyway, as note the incorrect spelling of Martin in the song-title! ;o)
‘What you know’ kicks in with another high-flying guitar solo and its calypso drum rhythm making me wish I could return to my youth of being 18 and at Indie-Club with my hands freely in the air while busting some moves!
‘Eat that up, It’s good for you’ I can only describe as pure Indie-pop perfection! This whole track is incredibly catchy, and I would defy anyone to not have a wry smile appear on their face the first time they listen to this. Starting off with a church organ to open the track, it then drifts into a catchy happy-clappy rhythm, with a playful, high-pitched guitar backing it while Alex sings about being “Sky-high” and “Fighting off the space-ships”. This track clearly has a charm of its own and even ends in a crescendo of orchestration sounds, which still don’t sound out of place on it! Closing track ‘You are not stubborn’ is actually a track that is also anything but stubborn, with its jolly-romp of a beat pulsing through it, and it’s a nice little track to close of an altogether fun album throughout!
So, these three young lads from County Down, Northern Ireland, have created a fantastic fun-sounding debut album, which considering some of the sounds and effects on this album is a superb achievement from a 3-piece band. As you can probably tell I really like this album, and having already given it plenty of listens since getting hold off it I’m going to award this album 8 bags of popcorn out of 10 and make that the family-sized bags as well, as this is a really good fun album to listen too! If I’m being honest I haven’t been this impressed with a debut album by a 3-piece band since a band you may have heard off called ‘Muse’ turned up on the scene back in 1999, so I’m hoping these lads are a good one to watch out for in the long-term future as well.
History Tourist ‘Flynny’
Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History
Today’s album review comes from a band that I was lucky enough to catch the highlights of their set for their performance at last summer’s Reading Festival on the NME/Radio 1 stage (my personal favourite stage as it’s the best place to discover these types of great up and coming smaller bands!) I managed to catch their performance late on BBC3 (yes I know, I should still be actually going to these type of Festivals, but I’m gonna use the lame excuse of I’m getting too old for it now!), but at the same time watching their performance on the box helped me to take in, in full a great performance by a band I didn’t really know much about at the time. Needless to say after being very impressed by their set, I thought I must track down the album immediately! So it is now, some 6 months later, I have finally got round to buying it and this here be the review of their debut album ‘Tourist History’.
Right, so let’s take a quick look at the band first. They are a 3-piece group hailing from Bangor, Northern Ireland and are made up from Alex Trimble (Lead Vocals, Guitar & Synth), Sam Halliday (Guitar & Vocals) and Kevin Baird (Bass & Vocals). They formed in 2007 and released their first EP in January 2009 called ‘Four Words to Stand On’, before their full debut album, this here ‘Tourist History’, was released in March 2010.
So onto the album then and things get started with opening track ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’, which also previously appeared as a track on the ‘Four Words to Stand On’ EP. The track opens with some tingling guitar before the first taste of synthesisers crash in for the first time on the album (but certainly not the last!) and the track goes into full on ‘Indie-Synth-Pop’ as I will describe it. We also get our first taste of Alex Trimble’s softly spoken, yet powerful voice that accompanies the well written lyrics by this band. Instantly from this track you can tell this album is already likely to bit a lot of fun. ‘Come Back Home’ follows on next and continues the excellent work done by the first track to encapsulate the listener in this fast-paced Indie pop record. Although the track starts off with slow synth effects, it’s not very long before guitar and bass kick in with a very bouncy rhythm throughout the verses before the song hits with its great sing-along “Now you’re on your own/Won’t you come back home/See you not that kind/To find the strength to find another way”! Trust me it’s a very catchy chorus!
Track 3 ‘Do you want it all?’ slows down the frenetic pace slightly from the opening two tracks but still continues with nice melodic Indie-Pop. The track literally repeats the line “Do you want it all?” throughout, but the melody and Alex’s voice really carry the song and it still sounds good, despite me struggling to explain just quite how in this paragraph! The track finishes with another ace frenetic electro-rock-out. ‘This is the life’ opens with what sounds like a guitar-riff played backwards, before a high-pitched but yet another easy listening riff leads into the chant-along like chorus of “If this is the life/Is the life/Who’d argue?” The track features an excellent but cleverly-worked duelled guitar ‘fight-off’ between Alex and Sam, and is a nice way to sign-off the track.
Next with its acoustic like picking at the start ‘Something good can work’ nonchalantly makes its way into the album, with an understated riff flowing gently behind hit, and this is simply a track you will find yourself nodding along to without even realising it, such it’s subtle catchiness. The same understated-ness cannot be said about previous single “I Can Talk”, with its robotic-like chant at the start followed by a 150mph guitar-riff, and then heading into an old-school disco vibe throughout before ending on the chants again, it’s a very direct track for the listener!
This is followed by track 7 and another single ‘Undercover Martyn’, which although doesn’t quite have the same musical impact as the previous track, it still hurtles along at an average speed of 75mph on the Indie-Disco Highway! I’d also just like to point out it’s also not about me being ‘undercover’ in anyway, as note the incorrect spelling of Martin in the song-title! ;o)
‘What you know’ kicks in with another high-flying guitar solo and its calypso drum rhythm making me wish I could return to my youth of being 18 and at Indie-Club with my hands freely in the air while busting some moves!
‘Eat that up, It’s good for you’ I can only describe as pure Indie-pop perfection! This whole track is incredibly catchy, and I would defy anyone to not have a wry smile appear on their face the first time they listen to this. Starting off with a church organ to open the track, it then drifts into a catchy happy-clappy rhythm, with a playful, high-pitched guitar backing it while Alex sings about being “Sky-high” and “Fighting off the space-ships”. This track clearly has a charm of its own and even ends in a crescendo of orchestration sounds, which still don’t sound out of place on it! Closing track ‘You are not stubborn’ is actually a track that is also anything but stubborn, with its jolly-romp of a beat pulsing through it, and it’s a nice little track to close of an altogether fun album throughout!
So, these three young lads from County Down, Northern Ireland, have created a fantastic fun-sounding debut album, which considering some of the sounds and effects on this album is a superb achievement from a 3-piece band. As you can probably tell I really like this album, and having already given it plenty of listens since getting hold off it I’m going to award this album 8 bags of popcorn out of 10 and make that the family-sized bags as well, as this is a really good fun album to listen too! If I’m being honest I haven’t been this impressed with a debut album by a 3-piece band since a band you may have heard off called ‘Muse’ turned up on the scene back in 1999, so I’m hoping these lads are a good one to watch out for in the long-term future as well.
History Tourist ‘Flynny’
Friday, 11 March 2011
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #10: R.E.M. - Collapse into Now
Written 11th March 2011:
R.E.M. – Collapse into Now
Well, well, well, I haven’t written one of these album reviews for a while, but lately I’ve really been getting back into my Indie bands with a burning passion recently (not that my passion for Indie music ever dies of course!) but even by my standards I’ve been listening to a hell of a lot new alternative but kick-ass guitar-inspired sounds! Ranging from core Indie-rock, to acoustic-sessions, to electro-funk, to even weirdo Radiohead stuff and all topped off with a pinch of Folk-Rock! All of that has added up to the ingredients of one hell of a tasty Indie-Recipe, Yum-Yum!!
Anyway, today’s review is of a band that seems to have stood on the shoulders of the alternative, Indie guitar-God forever, and probably at some point during there long career covered each of the Indie-Ingredient Genres above from one of their many albums. Yes that’s right this week marked the return of ‘Rapid Eye Movement’, or more commonly known as R.E.M with their 15th studio album (yes 15th!) ‘Collapse into Now’. Usually, I cover a bit of history of the band I’m reviewing, but in the case of R.E.M. that would take up most of this blog itself so in short, they formed in 1980, consist of Michael Stipe (Vocals), Peter Buck (Guitar), Mike Mills (Bass) and formerly Bill Berry (Drums). Probably their most well-known song was ‘Losing My Religion’ from the 1991 ‘Out of Time’, and my personal favourite album by them was 1998’s release ‘Up’. That is all for now!
Ok, so onto 2011 and ‘Collapse into Now’. This is the band’s first album since 2008’s ‘Accelerate’, that I personally thought was a great return to form by them and took them back to their early ‘alternative, guitar-rock’ roots, which I think suits the band at their best alongside their low-fi acoustic/country offerings. So the album opener ‘Discoverer’ kicks things off with some jagged guitar from Messer Buck before the familiar ‘Hey-Hey’ vocals from Stipe come in. It’s a reasonable opener for the album and sets a nice precedent of the direction of Georgia’s finest latest offerings.
Next up ‘All the Best’ follows, which maintains the band at ‘coasting-rock’ as a like to call it, and by that I mean the track has a fast up-beat rhythm to it as in it ‘coasts’ along nicely, which swings into a chorus and so forth. Track 3 ‘UBerlin’ was a ‘love at first sight, errrm, first listen’ track for me. This is R.E.M going slightly back to their ‘Country and Western’ style sound from circa 1991-96, a particular style I always liked and thought suits them and particular Stipe’s voice. I love this track and the lyrics which seem to paint a picture of how Stipe views how modern life evolves possibly all too quickly these days. Well, that’s how I interpret his lyrics in this particular track, but that has always been a fascination with this band for me, attempting to decrypt Stipe’s purposefully cryptic lyrics.
We then move onto ‘Oh My Heart’ which I know from a previous interview with Stipe that this song was written about the City New Orleans. This is another track I liked upon first listen and deliberately has a ‘French’ feel to it as oft-associated with New Orleans with its opening brass-horn and accordion throughout. A very pleasant track, and in some ways, possibly a follow-up track to ‘Houston’ from ‘Accelerate’. ‘It Happened Today’ is another upbeat acoustic affair, nothing too special in my opinion but a nice track all the same. ‘Every Day Is Yours to Win’ follows and is slowed down R.E.M number which reminded me off their sound from their ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’ days, but again a very nice, listenable track which I enjoyed.
Earlier single ‘Mine Smell Like Honey’, starts off sounding like the opening of 80’s TV show Magnum P.I. (well that was my first thought anyway), but is again another fast paced rock track with a sing-along chorus with nice backing vocals from Mike Mills. ‘Walk It Back’ is a beautiful slow piano-driven ballad and another real highlight of the album. ‘Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter’ for a start is an awesome song title, and is quick paced guitar-riff driven song, with a marching drum-beat throughout and Stipe sharing vocals with Canadian-electronic artist ‘Peaches’ through the verses and chorus while Buck nails an epic solo later in the track. ‘That Someone Is You’ keeps up the pace of the album with another fast track and the classic Stipe-Mills punchy one-two vocals in the chorus.
With yet another great song title ‘Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I’ is I’d imagine the band’s acoustic offering as tribute to the late actor, and is a very touching melodic piece as such, with Buck in fine form, possibly on mandolin, as he has been known to play on R.E.M albums in the past. I actually adore this track and as a strong, emotional song, this is possibly my favourite track on the album. Final track ‘Blue’, really reminds me initially of the track ‘Country Feedback’ from ‘Out of Time’ merged with the amazing track ‘E-Bow the Letter’ also from ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’, in terms of its slow-deliberate pacing and the echo-type effect used on Stipe’s voice for the track but particularly as it finally sees Stipe re-united with Patti Smith in a vocal duet on a R.E.M album for the first time since the aforementioned 1996 album.
So as you can probably gather from this review, I personally really rate this album by R.E.M. and not purely just as a fan of the band. During this review I’ve made a lot of comparisons to tracks having a familiar feel to R.E.M. songs of yesteryear, and while this may cause alarm bells that the band could just simply being re-hashing older material, I still feel that the band have actually written some rather strong, touching and moving songs more with subtle nods to tracks of their past legacy, rather than simply re-hashing older tracks. For me this really is a sublime R.E.M album and features some really strong, thought provoking tracks on it.
Sometimes I tend to feel some past R.E.M albums can be ‘marmite’ albums as such with some tracks you simply love and others that don’t tend to have the same type of impact on you, but I feel this particular album really keeps the listeners’ attention throughout and for this reason I’m going to give it 9 Collapses out of 10! This is a really strong R.E.M. album and I’d even go to say that this is their best release for over a decade, and even a full 21 years after forming the band still have plenty to offer and that is something I can only admire about these great, great musicians whom master their craft year-upon-year!
Think I’m Going to Collapse Now ‘Flynny’
R.E.M. – Collapse into Now
Well, well, well, I haven’t written one of these album reviews for a while, but lately I’ve really been getting back into my Indie bands with a burning passion recently (not that my passion for Indie music ever dies of course!) but even by my standards I’ve been listening to a hell of a lot new alternative but kick-ass guitar-inspired sounds! Ranging from core Indie-rock, to acoustic-sessions, to electro-funk, to even weirdo Radiohead stuff and all topped off with a pinch of Folk-Rock! All of that has added up to the ingredients of one hell of a tasty Indie-Recipe, Yum-Yum!!
Anyway, today’s review is of a band that seems to have stood on the shoulders of the alternative, Indie guitar-God forever, and probably at some point during there long career covered each of the Indie-Ingredient Genres above from one of their many albums. Yes that’s right this week marked the return of ‘Rapid Eye Movement’, or more commonly known as R.E.M with their 15th studio album (yes 15th!) ‘Collapse into Now’. Usually, I cover a bit of history of the band I’m reviewing, but in the case of R.E.M. that would take up most of this blog itself so in short, they formed in 1980, consist of Michael Stipe (Vocals), Peter Buck (Guitar), Mike Mills (Bass) and formerly Bill Berry (Drums). Probably their most well-known song was ‘Losing My Religion’ from the 1991 ‘Out of Time’, and my personal favourite album by them was 1998’s release ‘Up’. That is all for now!
Ok, so onto 2011 and ‘Collapse into Now’. This is the band’s first album since 2008’s ‘Accelerate’, that I personally thought was a great return to form by them and took them back to their early ‘alternative, guitar-rock’ roots, which I think suits the band at their best alongside their low-fi acoustic/country offerings. So the album opener ‘Discoverer’ kicks things off with some jagged guitar from Messer Buck before the familiar ‘Hey-Hey’ vocals from Stipe come in. It’s a reasonable opener for the album and sets a nice precedent of the direction of Georgia’s finest latest offerings.
Next up ‘All the Best’ follows, which maintains the band at ‘coasting-rock’ as a like to call it, and by that I mean the track has a fast up-beat rhythm to it as in it ‘coasts’ along nicely, which swings into a chorus and so forth. Track 3 ‘UBerlin’ was a ‘love at first sight, errrm, first listen’ track for me. This is R.E.M going slightly back to their ‘Country and Western’ style sound from circa 1991-96, a particular style I always liked and thought suits them and particular Stipe’s voice. I love this track and the lyrics which seem to paint a picture of how Stipe views how modern life evolves possibly all too quickly these days. Well, that’s how I interpret his lyrics in this particular track, but that has always been a fascination with this band for me, attempting to decrypt Stipe’s purposefully cryptic lyrics.
We then move onto ‘Oh My Heart’ which I know from a previous interview with Stipe that this song was written about the City New Orleans. This is another track I liked upon first listen and deliberately has a ‘French’ feel to it as oft-associated with New Orleans with its opening brass-horn and accordion throughout. A very pleasant track, and in some ways, possibly a follow-up track to ‘Houston’ from ‘Accelerate’. ‘It Happened Today’ is another upbeat acoustic affair, nothing too special in my opinion but a nice track all the same. ‘Every Day Is Yours to Win’ follows and is slowed down R.E.M number which reminded me off their sound from their ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’ days, but again a very nice, listenable track which I enjoyed.
Earlier single ‘Mine Smell Like Honey’, starts off sounding like the opening of 80’s TV show Magnum P.I. (well that was my first thought anyway), but is again another fast paced rock track with a sing-along chorus with nice backing vocals from Mike Mills. ‘Walk It Back’ is a beautiful slow piano-driven ballad and another real highlight of the album. ‘Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter’ for a start is an awesome song title, and is quick paced guitar-riff driven song, with a marching drum-beat throughout and Stipe sharing vocals with Canadian-electronic artist ‘Peaches’ through the verses and chorus while Buck nails an epic solo later in the track. ‘That Someone Is You’ keeps up the pace of the album with another fast track and the classic Stipe-Mills punchy one-two vocals in the chorus.
With yet another great song title ‘Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I’ is I’d imagine the band’s acoustic offering as tribute to the late actor, and is a very touching melodic piece as such, with Buck in fine form, possibly on mandolin, as he has been known to play on R.E.M albums in the past. I actually adore this track and as a strong, emotional song, this is possibly my favourite track on the album. Final track ‘Blue’, really reminds me initially of the track ‘Country Feedback’ from ‘Out of Time’ merged with the amazing track ‘E-Bow the Letter’ also from ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’, in terms of its slow-deliberate pacing and the echo-type effect used on Stipe’s voice for the track but particularly as it finally sees Stipe re-united with Patti Smith in a vocal duet on a R.E.M album for the first time since the aforementioned 1996 album.
So as you can probably gather from this review, I personally really rate this album by R.E.M. and not purely just as a fan of the band. During this review I’ve made a lot of comparisons to tracks having a familiar feel to R.E.M. songs of yesteryear, and while this may cause alarm bells that the band could just simply being re-hashing older material, I still feel that the band have actually written some rather strong, touching and moving songs more with subtle nods to tracks of their past legacy, rather than simply re-hashing older tracks. For me this really is a sublime R.E.M album and features some really strong, thought provoking tracks on it.
Sometimes I tend to feel some past R.E.M albums can be ‘marmite’ albums as such with some tracks you simply love and others that don’t tend to have the same type of impact on you, but I feel this particular album really keeps the listeners’ attention throughout and for this reason I’m going to give it 9 Collapses out of 10! This is a really strong R.E.M. album and I’d even go to say that this is their best release for over a decade, and even a full 21 years after forming the band still have plenty to offer and that is something I can only admire about these great, great musicians whom master their craft year-upon-year!
Think I’m Going to Collapse Now ‘Flynny’
Monday, 14 December 2009
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #9: Stapleton - Rest and Be Thankful
Written 14th December 2009:
Stapleton – Rest and Be Thankful
“Stapleton? Never heard of them!” you’re probably thinking. “Are they new?” Well, to be honest I don’t know a great a deal about them myself but I will give you an overview of what I do know about them before reviewing the album. Ok so I first heard of Stapleton when they were the opening support band when for Idlewild at The Kentish Town Forum waaaaaaay back in March 2000, so that answers the question of how long they have been around for to start with. I was quite impressed with them live, with their punchy start/stop/start/stop Indie rock and catchy riffs and choruses, and even after hearing a few tracks on the radio, but for one reason or another I never did go out and buy their debut album ‘Rebuild the Pier’, so ended up not really knowing about what happened to them.
Fast forward 9 years and after a great conversation with a friend about do you remember ‘such and such’ band supporting ‘such and such’ band over the years I decided to find out whatever happened to this Scottish 4-piece. Well turns out they are still going strong despite even finding info about them on the internet a bit of a task in itself, but anyway I managed to get hold off their most recent album ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ (their 5th album I believe!) and this here blog be my thoughts.
Right, so ‘From Wood to Ridge’ opens and sets the tone for the rest of the album with its melodic rhythm trundling along patched with soft rock riffs interspersed throughout. It’s a nice opening track to the album but nothing that is gonna set the world alight, but with the anonymity of this band I don’t think they are concerned with that in the slightest. ‘Versus the Underground’ continues with the soft rock action and its steady drumming throughout with the nice catchy hook ‘and its goodbye to company’ coming in just before the chorus.
‘Tonight We Will Carry Him Home’ is not only a kick-ass great song title but also the first track I really get into when I listen to this album. Not quite sure why, I guess I just like the simple riff that repeats through the opening verse and the chorus is quite strong on this track as well. We then move on to ‘Absent Friends’, a much more slowed down track with another gentle guitar picking through it. Not a personal favourite of mine, but an inoffensive track all the less.
However, ‘Passing Places’ is one of my more favourite tracks on the album. With the most up-tempo rock opening to any track on the album this song coasts along nicely and features some nice lyrics probably about a relationship with another person as tends be the heart of great song lyrics, “Tell me when you are leaving/I’ll pretend that it’s ok/I can count the words without the use of fingers!”, good stuff. ‘Dear Dusk’, keeps up the newly lifted pace of the album and is another track I particularly like on the record, with another riff that loops through it but paces the song along nicely.
Track 7 ‘Borovets’, whatever that means, goes back to a slowed down affair before possibly my highlight of the album, a bit of a rock out towards the end of the track “I wish I had told you all that I wanted too, I wish I had told you all that I wanted too….” class stuff!! ‘Chez Chef’, was part of a former EP I think, but opens with a great little drum riff followed by a jangly guitar, before slowing for the chorus. It’s another great little track that helps the album along nicely and the verses and chorus will hook you whether you want them to or not.
‘Asking For You’ is, wooooooah, an instrumental! Haven’t heard one of them on an album for a while!! It’s alright though, but just goes on a bit too long in my opinion. Next we have ‘Birds in Formation’, this is a classic slowed down rock track before going into an up building verse, and this is another highlight of the album and a really great song. Last track ‘End and End Well’, in my opinion doesn’t end the album too well. It alright, a fun romp of a track but pales in comparison to its predecessor.
So was this journey of reminiscing about an obscure support band from 9 years ago worth it then?? Well in my opinion I really do like this album, it can be a little hit and miss and if you like your Indie heavier I would suggest to look elsewhere, but if you want a bit of a chilled out, melodic album to stick on as some background noise for doing some work, then this is recommended stuff, in fact I will give this 7 Rests and Thanks out of 10, so worth a look. I’m still hoping to obtain that debut album ‘Rebuild the Pier’ some nearly 10 years later as well, but have a feeling it may have been deleted, so if anyone can point me in the right direction of that one it would be most appreciated.
Thankfully Resting ‘Flynny’
Stapleton – Rest and Be Thankful
“Stapleton? Never heard of them!” you’re probably thinking. “Are they new?” Well, to be honest I don’t know a great a deal about them myself but I will give you an overview of what I do know about them before reviewing the album. Ok so I first heard of Stapleton when they were the opening support band when for Idlewild at The Kentish Town Forum waaaaaaay back in March 2000, so that answers the question of how long they have been around for to start with. I was quite impressed with them live, with their punchy start/stop/start/stop Indie rock and catchy riffs and choruses, and even after hearing a few tracks on the radio, but for one reason or another I never did go out and buy their debut album ‘Rebuild the Pier’, so ended up not really knowing about what happened to them.
Fast forward 9 years and after a great conversation with a friend about do you remember ‘such and such’ band supporting ‘such and such’ band over the years I decided to find out whatever happened to this Scottish 4-piece. Well turns out they are still going strong despite even finding info about them on the internet a bit of a task in itself, but anyway I managed to get hold off their most recent album ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ (their 5th album I believe!) and this here blog be my thoughts.
Right, so ‘From Wood to Ridge’ opens and sets the tone for the rest of the album with its melodic rhythm trundling along patched with soft rock riffs interspersed throughout. It’s a nice opening track to the album but nothing that is gonna set the world alight, but with the anonymity of this band I don’t think they are concerned with that in the slightest. ‘Versus the Underground’ continues with the soft rock action and its steady drumming throughout with the nice catchy hook ‘and its goodbye to company’ coming in just before the chorus.
‘Tonight We Will Carry Him Home’ is not only a kick-ass great song title but also the first track I really get into when I listen to this album. Not quite sure why, I guess I just like the simple riff that repeats through the opening verse and the chorus is quite strong on this track as well. We then move on to ‘Absent Friends’, a much more slowed down track with another gentle guitar picking through it. Not a personal favourite of mine, but an inoffensive track all the less.
However, ‘Passing Places’ is one of my more favourite tracks on the album. With the most up-tempo rock opening to any track on the album this song coasts along nicely and features some nice lyrics probably about a relationship with another person as tends be the heart of great song lyrics, “Tell me when you are leaving/I’ll pretend that it’s ok/I can count the words without the use of fingers!”, good stuff. ‘Dear Dusk’, keeps up the newly lifted pace of the album and is another track I particularly like on the record, with another riff that loops through it but paces the song along nicely.
Track 7 ‘Borovets’, whatever that means, goes back to a slowed down affair before possibly my highlight of the album, a bit of a rock out towards the end of the track “I wish I had told you all that I wanted too, I wish I had told you all that I wanted too….” class stuff!! ‘Chez Chef’, was part of a former EP I think, but opens with a great little drum riff followed by a jangly guitar, before slowing for the chorus. It’s another great little track that helps the album along nicely and the verses and chorus will hook you whether you want them to or not.
‘Asking For You’ is, wooooooah, an instrumental! Haven’t heard one of them on an album for a while!! It’s alright though, but just goes on a bit too long in my opinion. Next we have ‘Birds in Formation’, this is a classic slowed down rock track before going into an up building verse, and this is another highlight of the album and a really great song. Last track ‘End and End Well’, in my opinion doesn’t end the album too well. It alright, a fun romp of a track but pales in comparison to its predecessor.
So was this journey of reminiscing about an obscure support band from 9 years ago worth it then?? Well in my opinion I really do like this album, it can be a little hit and miss and if you like your Indie heavier I would suggest to look elsewhere, but if you want a bit of a chilled out, melodic album to stick on as some background noise for doing some work, then this is recommended stuff, in fact I will give this 7 Rests and Thanks out of 10, so worth a look. I’m still hoping to obtain that debut album ‘Rebuild the Pier’ some nearly 10 years later as well, but have a feeling it may have been deleted, so if anyone can point me in the right direction of that one it would be most appreciated.
Thankfully Resting ‘Flynny’
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