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’
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #8: Muse - The Resistance
Written 28th October 2009:
Muse – The Resistance
Muse, without question the greatest live band, ever, ever, ever! (In my humble opinion of course, this is the internet after all!)
Ok, so is there anyone out there who actually doesn’t like Muse? Really? If so you’re probably not really a fan of great Indie music bands so I’m wondering why you have ended up on my Blog dedicated to ‘cool for 15 minute Indie Bands? Anyway rant over lets a have brief history lesson of Muse.
So Muse came on the scene circa 1998, and, if my maths is any good, have actually been going for just over a good decade now. I remember one of their early singles being ‘Uno’, before I was lucky enough to see them record an ‘X-Fm’ session on the day their debut album ‘Showbiz’ came out. Obviously at the time I didn’t really know much of their material at this point but came away thinking, “frigging hell these guys make a lot of noise and create a good sound for a three piece!!”
Much anticipated 2nd album ‘Origin of Symmetry’ followed this and was really when they started to get a bit more recognised and recognition with hit singles ‘Plug In Baby’, ‘New Born’ ‘Bliss’ and ‘Feeling Good’, before the band hit the big time with the arrival of 3rd album ‘Absolution’. After another string of successful hits and rave live reviews Muse had hit the big time, erm, big time!! 4th album ‘Black Holes and Revelations’, was massively anticipated, and being the cool as fudge band that they are, not only did they pull out another great album from the bag, but some argued that it was their best to date.
So with a band now reaching a following of epic proportions in not only the world of Indie music, but music in general how does their 5th album The Resistance stand up, eh?? Short answer not bad, but let’s do this properly and go through it track-by-track.
The album kicks off with ‘Uprising’, a very electronic sort of track, with a rhythmic bass line beating through it, and sound bites ‘nicked’ from Doctor Who in the background (well I’m pretty sure it’s Doctor Who!). This is a really decent opening track and gets the album off to a good start. Next up title track ‘Resistance’ follows and this is classic Muse territory with Matt Bellamy’s obsession with space coming through very strongly in this track. The lyrics “Could Be Wrong, Could Be Wrong” are the first time on the album where I think this record sounds a bit Queen-esque, but certainly not the last!!
‘Undisclosed Desires’ is an amazing song. The band have openly admitted in the past they would be keen to record a future bond theme (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8257767.stm), but I would say a track like this would make the perfect bond theme, with its synth based opening and rhythm throughout, it’s string-laden chorus and it’s whispered backing vocals from Dom over the 2nd verse. This is an amazing, amazing song!!
First single from the album ‘United States of Eurasia’ follows, and is the 2nd track on the album that makes me thinks of ‘Queen’ again, although it still has a distinctly Muse feel to it. It starts with a slow piano melody and softly sung lyrics before it goes into a more epic sounding-prog rock track, with the occasional vocal pieces that reminds me of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ like vocals. I guessing the ‘+ Collateral Damage’ part of this song is the little peaceful like piano at the end of the track, with the fighter jet engines appearing in the background. No really this does happen!! ‘Guiding Light’ opens with massive ‘stadium rock’ like drumming. More of a slowed down rock track with a SUPER MASSIVE guitar solo thrown into the middle of it. Not my personal favourite track on the album in all honesty.
However, I do like ‘Unnatural Selection’, a 7 minute epic of a rock track, starting with a church like organ, before speeding up into an accelerating guitar riff. This track, like, totally, rocks dude!! ‘Mk Ultra’ continues the speeded up, space age rock, with another mental guitar riff opening it. We are still like, totally, rocking here to the max dude!! Now things get interesting with ‘I Belong to You’, a jazz, funk fusion of a track, with Matt Bellamy even pulling off some lyrics in French!! Muse being overly-extravagant? Never!! This is what I would call a ‘marmite’ track, you’ll either love it or hate it, I actually favour the former off the two.
And then we get to the final three tracks off the album, the much talked about ‘Exogenesis’, which is supposed to be a symphony consisting of 3 parts, ‘Overture’, ‘Cross-Pollination’ and ‘Redemption’. Each track seems to have its own purpose in building to an epic finale for an album that overall does nothing to hide its roots of the question of “Are we really alone or is there something really out there?” I’m not too sure about this three part symphony in all honesty, but I must confess I do like 'Part 1: Overture' musically. I guess the purpose of the symphony is to complete the 'story' of this album.
So, overall then I like this album generally, but in comparison to the earlier Muse albums and the bigger picture of all things (see what I did there!?), it’s not as mind-blowing but still a great record to listen to for some serious escapism. I think I shall mark this one 7 Resistors out of 10, so another solid album by Muse, but they have done better material in the past in my opinion for sure. Also, if you do get hold of it and like it for being the experimental album that it is, then I would highly recommend that you get hold off the 1998 album 'Six' by Mansun, an album even more ambitious and barmier than this Muse effort.
The Resistance ‘Flynny‘
Muse – The Resistance
Muse, without question the greatest live band, ever, ever, ever! (In my humble opinion of course, this is the internet after all!)
Ok, so is there anyone out there who actually doesn’t like Muse? Really? If so you’re probably not really a fan of great Indie music bands so I’m wondering why you have ended up on my Blog dedicated to ‘cool for 15 minute Indie Bands? Anyway rant over lets a have brief history lesson of Muse.
So Muse came on the scene circa 1998, and, if my maths is any good, have actually been going for just over a good decade now. I remember one of their early singles being ‘Uno’, before I was lucky enough to see them record an ‘X-Fm’ session on the day their debut album ‘Showbiz’ came out. Obviously at the time I didn’t really know much of their material at this point but came away thinking, “frigging hell these guys make a lot of noise and create a good sound for a three piece!!”
Much anticipated 2nd album ‘Origin of Symmetry’ followed this and was really when they started to get a bit more recognised and recognition with hit singles ‘Plug In Baby’, ‘New Born’ ‘Bliss’ and ‘Feeling Good’, before the band hit the big time with the arrival of 3rd album ‘Absolution’. After another string of successful hits and rave live reviews Muse had hit the big time, erm, big time!! 4th album ‘Black Holes and Revelations’, was massively anticipated, and being the cool as fudge band that they are, not only did they pull out another great album from the bag, but some argued that it was their best to date.
So with a band now reaching a following of epic proportions in not only the world of Indie music, but music in general how does their 5th album The Resistance stand up, eh?? Short answer not bad, but let’s do this properly and go through it track-by-track.
The album kicks off with ‘Uprising’, a very electronic sort of track, with a rhythmic bass line beating through it, and sound bites ‘nicked’ from Doctor Who in the background (well I’m pretty sure it’s Doctor Who!). This is a really decent opening track and gets the album off to a good start. Next up title track ‘Resistance’ follows and this is classic Muse territory with Matt Bellamy’s obsession with space coming through very strongly in this track. The lyrics “Could Be Wrong, Could Be Wrong” are the first time on the album where I think this record sounds a bit Queen-esque, but certainly not the last!!
‘Undisclosed Desires’ is an amazing song. The band have openly admitted in the past they would be keen to record a future bond theme (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8257767.stm), but I would say a track like this would make the perfect bond theme, with its synth based opening and rhythm throughout, it’s string-laden chorus and it’s whispered backing vocals from Dom over the 2nd verse. This is an amazing, amazing song!!
First single from the album ‘United States of Eurasia’ follows, and is the 2nd track on the album that makes me thinks of ‘Queen’ again, although it still has a distinctly Muse feel to it. It starts with a slow piano melody and softly sung lyrics before it goes into a more epic sounding-prog rock track, with the occasional vocal pieces that reminds me of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ like vocals. I guessing the ‘+ Collateral Damage’ part of this song is the little peaceful like piano at the end of the track, with the fighter jet engines appearing in the background. No really this does happen!! ‘Guiding Light’ opens with massive ‘stadium rock’ like drumming. More of a slowed down rock track with a SUPER MASSIVE guitar solo thrown into the middle of it. Not my personal favourite track on the album in all honesty.
However, I do like ‘Unnatural Selection’, a 7 minute epic of a rock track, starting with a church like organ, before speeding up into an accelerating guitar riff. This track, like, totally, rocks dude!! ‘Mk Ultra’ continues the speeded up, space age rock, with another mental guitar riff opening it. We are still like, totally, rocking here to the max dude!! Now things get interesting with ‘I Belong to You’, a jazz, funk fusion of a track, with Matt Bellamy even pulling off some lyrics in French!! Muse being overly-extravagant? Never!! This is what I would call a ‘marmite’ track, you’ll either love it or hate it, I actually favour the former off the two.
And then we get to the final three tracks off the album, the much talked about ‘Exogenesis’, which is supposed to be a symphony consisting of 3 parts, ‘Overture’, ‘Cross-Pollination’ and ‘Redemption’. Each track seems to have its own purpose in building to an epic finale for an album that overall does nothing to hide its roots of the question of “Are we really alone or is there something really out there?” I’m not too sure about this three part symphony in all honesty, but I must confess I do like 'Part 1: Overture' musically. I guess the purpose of the symphony is to complete the 'story' of this album.
So, overall then I like this album generally, but in comparison to the earlier Muse albums and the bigger picture of all things (see what I did there!?), it’s not as mind-blowing but still a great record to listen to for some serious escapism. I think I shall mark this one 7 Resistors out of 10, so another solid album by Muse, but they have done better material in the past in my opinion for sure. Also, if you do get hold of it and like it for being the experimental album that it is, then I would highly recommend that you get hold off the 1998 album 'Six' by Mansun, an album even more ambitious and barmier than this Muse effort.
The Resistance ‘Flynny‘
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Flynndie Reviews - Blog #7: Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
Written 20th October 2009:
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
Who the fuck are Arctic Monkeys?
Well, to be honest at first I really wasn’t too sure about the Arctic Monkeys. Alright ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor’ was a decent track, but as Alex says at the start of the video “Don’t Believe the Hype”. That is exactly what I thought upon hearing their 1st album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ and following singles ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ and ‘View from the Afternoon’ which subsequently featured on the ‘Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?’ EP.
After this ‘Fluorescent Adolescence’ was released, the 1st single from they’re forthcoming 2nd album ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ which radio stations across the UK were all over quicker than a fly to shit! I fucking hated it and to be honest it’s still not a particular favourite track off mine by them, and I used to curse it every time it came on the radio.
What changed all this however was the off chance that I caught their Saturday night highlight slot at Glastonbury 2007 as by this point, due to my stubbornness, I still had not heard much off their new material from the 2nd album at this time! After watching this performance by them though, it finally dawned on me that these boys can really fucking play well and do actually have some awesome tunes in their locker.
After this I went out and brought the 2nd album (which I gave a brief review in Blog #1 of Flynndie Reviews, fact fans!!), and became hooked, even then going out and buying the 1st album!! So by the time the imminent release of the 3rd album came round I was like, ‘right I ain’t gonna fucking miss being on the band wagon this time, especially with Josh Homme’s involvement’, but after this previous hate/love relationship with the Monkeys how do I feel having had a few listens to their 3rd offering, ‘Humbug’? Read on to find out……
Ok, so the album opens with a short, sharp quick drum solo, before going into menacing guitar heavy riffs which straightaway you can tell Mr. Homme has had his fingers in at some point. I actually quite like this opening track and feel it is a good indication quite early off the major change in-direction this album takes from the 1st two offerings from the Monkeys. Even from as early as this track, 'My Propellor', you may already notice Alex’s voice sounds a bit different on this record in comparison to the previous two LPs, more dark and mature sounding in my opinion.
Next up is 1st single from the album ‘Crying Lightning’, again a pretty solid rock track with a deep, heavy bass line coursing through its veins. I wasn’t too sure about it when I first heard it but it seems to get better with each listen. This is then followed by ‘Dangerous Animals’, another track that seems to get better with each listen with a definite nod towards the sounds of ‘Queens of the Stone Age’ particularly with its spellings off the words of the song title throughout and over the chorus.
‘Secret Door’ starts with a loose, slow guitar riff before going into the 1st melancholic rock track on the album, this one doesn’t blow me away by any means but again I found I quite liked it the other day. ‘Potion Approaching’ is a ‘live’ favourite of the band I believe, it starts with jagged guitars and a bass line that coasts through its chorus, before in the 2nd half of the track it goes on into a full on trippy riff?!?! I’m wondering what ‘Potions’ the Arctic’s were on when they wrote this track?
The middle of the album is the weakest part of the album for me. First, ‘Fire and the Thud’, is possibly the weakest track on the album another chilled out, acoustic type track, before next single ‘Cornerstone’. Again, this track doesn’t really do anything much for me, it coasts along steadily with jangly guitars, but doesn’t have too much about it. I guess it’s appropriate for radio play! ‘Dance Little Liar’ is another slowed down affair with some droning guitar sounds in the background.
Thankfully, ‘Pretty Visitors’ really picks things up again, easily my favourite track on the album, it starts with a haunting organ piece before going into a fast catchy bursts of chorus before the big sing-a-long chorus and then the immortal line ‘What came first? The chicken or the dickhead?’ What a classic line!!! Last track ‘The Jeweller’s Hand’ is another quiet, slow track, and hasn’t again caught my attention too much on previous listens.
So, a bit of a mixed bag of a review on this one then, I think I shall award it 6 Bah, Humbugs!! out of 10, but this album does tend to be a bit of a grower. I just think in comparison to the 1st two albums, this is an album that I won’t listen to as much in the future as I have done with the other two in the past. I appreciate that they have tried something a bit different with this record and let’s face it you can’t blame them for wanting to go out to the desert to work with Josh Homme, but I still think this is their weakest album to date and ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ is still my, erm, favourite!!
Bah, Humbug!! Flynny
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
Who the fuck are Arctic Monkeys?
Well, to be honest at first I really wasn’t too sure about the Arctic Monkeys. Alright ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor’ was a decent track, but as Alex says at the start of the video “Don’t Believe the Hype”. That is exactly what I thought upon hearing their 1st album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ and following singles ‘When the Sun Goes Down’ and ‘View from the Afternoon’ which subsequently featured on the ‘Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?’ EP.
After this ‘Fluorescent Adolescence’ was released, the 1st single from they’re forthcoming 2nd album ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ which radio stations across the UK were all over quicker than a fly to shit! I fucking hated it and to be honest it’s still not a particular favourite track off mine by them, and I used to curse it every time it came on the radio.
What changed all this however was the off chance that I caught their Saturday night highlight slot at Glastonbury 2007 as by this point, due to my stubbornness, I still had not heard much off their new material from the 2nd album at this time! After watching this performance by them though, it finally dawned on me that these boys can really fucking play well and do actually have some awesome tunes in their locker.
After this I went out and brought the 2nd album (which I gave a brief review in Blog #1 of Flynndie Reviews, fact fans!!), and became hooked, even then going out and buying the 1st album!! So by the time the imminent release of the 3rd album came round I was like, ‘right I ain’t gonna fucking miss being on the band wagon this time, especially with Josh Homme’s involvement’, but after this previous hate/love relationship with the Monkeys how do I feel having had a few listens to their 3rd offering, ‘Humbug’? Read on to find out……
Ok, so the album opens with a short, sharp quick drum solo, before going into menacing guitar heavy riffs which straightaway you can tell Mr. Homme has had his fingers in at some point. I actually quite like this opening track and feel it is a good indication quite early off the major change in-direction this album takes from the 1st two offerings from the Monkeys. Even from as early as this track, 'My Propellor', you may already notice Alex’s voice sounds a bit different on this record in comparison to the previous two LPs, more dark and mature sounding in my opinion.
Next up is 1st single from the album ‘Crying Lightning’, again a pretty solid rock track with a deep, heavy bass line coursing through its veins. I wasn’t too sure about it when I first heard it but it seems to get better with each listen. This is then followed by ‘Dangerous Animals’, another track that seems to get better with each listen with a definite nod towards the sounds of ‘Queens of the Stone Age’ particularly with its spellings off the words of the song title throughout and over the chorus.
‘Secret Door’ starts with a loose, slow guitar riff before going into the 1st melancholic rock track on the album, this one doesn’t blow me away by any means but again I found I quite liked it the other day. ‘Potion Approaching’ is a ‘live’ favourite of the band I believe, it starts with jagged guitars and a bass line that coasts through its chorus, before in the 2nd half of the track it goes on into a full on trippy riff?!?! I’m wondering what ‘Potions’ the Arctic’s were on when they wrote this track?
The middle of the album is the weakest part of the album for me. First, ‘Fire and the Thud’, is possibly the weakest track on the album another chilled out, acoustic type track, before next single ‘Cornerstone’. Again, this track doesn’t really do anything much for me, it coasts along steadily with jangly guitars, but doesn’t have too much about it. I guess it’s appropriate for radio play! ‘Dance Little Liar’ is another slowed down affair with some droning guitar sounds in the background.
Thankfully, ‘Pretty Visitors’ really picks things up again, easily my favourite track on the album, it starts with a haunting organ piece before going into a fast catchy bursts of chorus before the big sing-a-long chorus and then the immortal line ‘What came first? The chicken or the dickhead?’ What a classic line!!! Last track ‘The Jeweller’s Hand’ is another quiet, slow track, and hasn’t again caught my attention too much on previous listens.
So, a bit of a mixed bag of a review on this one then, I think I shall award it 6 Bah, Humbugs!! out of 10, but this album does tend to be a bit of a grower. I just think in comparison to the 1st two albums, this is an album that I won’t listen to as much in the future as I have done with the other two in the past. I appreciate that they have tried something a bit different with this record and let’s face it you can’t blame them for wanting to go out to the desert to work with Josh Homme, but I still think this is their weakest album to date and ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ is still my, erm, favourite!!
Bah, Humbug!! Flynny
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