This time last year I offered my favourite Christmas songs here, this year it's time for me to be more of a grouch and complain.
10. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
Surely there could be nothing more egregious than such a marvellous day becoming prosaic through having to live it every day over and over, probably exchanging presents with Ned Ryerson if you catch my drift.
9. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
Three Words: Death. By. Overplay. And that's only from hearing it one month a year.
8. Merry Christmas Everybody - Slade
A Brummie yelling 'It's Christmas' is no way to start anything, no less one of the most pervasive Christmas songs.
7. Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie
In the world of the anti-war Christmas songs, this is blown out of the water by McCartney and Lennon respectively. A rare hit for Lewie whose next greatest hit is called 'You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties'.
6. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
Infectiously irritating and somehow manages to take over five minutes to ram together a number of Christmas cliches.
5. Stay Another Day - East 17
If a Mariachi band from a Doritos advert can make a better version of your song than your attempt, then you ought be feeling remorseful. Moreover this isn't even a Christmas song, the only reason it's considered one is because of the bells added towards the end and the snow on the video: shameless.
4. Once Upon A Christmas Song - Geraldine McQueen
Being a Boltonian, I run the risk of being lynched for criticizing my hometown's state religion. But seriously, Peter Kay, in drag, singing, a parody about how Christmas songs are played ad nauseum in hope that it can share the same status; there really isn't a way it could be found enjoyable. Even Dennis Waterman showed a comedy Christmas song can be done, and no, that isn't London embarassingly rubbing off on me.
3. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl
The song that keeps Shane MacGowan in supply of drugs for another year; the cynic in me says one of the main reasons this song is popular is the fact it gives people an opportunity to shout the line 'you scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy faggot'. That and anything with New York in the title cannot possibly be good, no exceptions, I'll maybe be persuaded into accepting 'Leaving New York', but you can't usually talk me out of R.E.M.
2. Mistletoe and Wine - Cliff Richard
It's sad that the genius behind one of my favourite Christmas songs managed to also be the source of this atrocious malaise through the most banal aspects of the festive season. It's been said before, but hey, I may as well say it: Gifts ON the trees?? We all know you can do better than that Cliff!
1. Lonely This Christmas - Mud
Commits some major high crimes and misdemeanours found in Christmas music. It's by a band who no-one has heard much of apart from their Christmas song. As a song, it's nothing to do with Christmas really, there's just Christmas references shoehorned in. The worst offence is that it's so ridiculously downbeat; come on, it's Christmas not a funeral: lighten up already!
If you'd prefer a more somber Christmas song, how about a cut from the classic Who album Tommy:
I wish it was January 2nd already. Season's Greetings.
Monday 23 December 2013
Monday 11 November 2013
Portishead, Sonic Youth, Cherry Ghost, Delphic: More Album Reviews
Third - Portishead
So for the sake of completing my triumvirate of reviews for the Bristol group's three albums, my thoughts on Third. Compared with the other two LPs this has a much more varied, experimental theme; particularly producing more industrial feeling sounds. For instance if you like beeping to introduce a song (which I'll accept won't be found be melodic by everybody) you'll love 'We Carry On' and 'Magic Doors'. At only 93 seconds long, the folkish 'Deep Water' is certainly an odd fixture in the album in between 'We Carry On' and the anthemic 'Machine Gun' but such variety is idiosyncratic of Portishead, who with all of these boxes ticked still find time to close with a return to classic trip-hop form with closer 'Threads,' which could be a James Bond theme in my opinion, but having said that there's a litany of things which would be better than Adele's and Jack White's recent attempts. 'Silence' introduces the album with an immense buildup moving from drums to an alarm like eeping into strings and guitars. This progressive sound creates a spectacularly ominous atmosphere, nearly everything drops for the desolate and shaky vocals of Beth Gibbons for a verse until the two duel for the rest of the song.
Goo - Sonic Youth
It was always going to be difficult to follow up one of alternative rock's most esteemed albums in 'Daydream Nation' but to me, 'Goo' surpasses it, channelling longer songs like 'Teenage Riot' rather than the short, impactful songs like 'Silver Rocket.'
If Thurston Moore would have died after the recording of this album I have no doubt he would be the revered icon that Kurt Cobain is in alternative music (particularly having married Kim Gordon as opposed to Courtney Love), but like Stewart Lee discussing Bill Hicks: the hardest thing is to put out new stuff every year, gradually decreasing the quality of your own obituary.
Having said that there's shorter cacophanous interludes like 'My Friend Goo' and 'Scooter + Jinx' that are just odious and don't connect the more moderate, tolerable noise rock moments that make up the fabric of the longer tracks. The first two tracks sound really sweet; the delicate opening riff from 'Dirty Boots' and 'Tunic (Song for Karen)' which despite opening with a stabbing guitar vibe winds down into a settled song with Kim describing Karen Carpenter in Heaven with Elvis, Janis Joplin and Dennis Wilson. My pick of the album is 'Mote' which has a wonderfully intense atmosphere and is one of the rarer moments when Lee Ranaldo leads; an anthem in its first half and a descent into a chaotic noise rock instrumental in its second.
Beneath This Burning Shoreline - Cherry Ghost
The second album from the Boltonian band led by Ivor Novello award winner Simon Aldred, 'Beneath This Burning Shoreline' revisits the feel of the tenebrous Northern town that made 'Thirst For Romance' a success. Again Aldred has an effective poetic style and unusual imagery such as in 'Black Fang' the lyric 'Be my backstreet kisser and I will be your Golden Mile' is not only evocative, but conveys something ineluctably Northern also(the Golden Mile being part of the beach front in Blackpool to those eluded by that reference); the inertia in life's progression being an essential trope in the fabric of the LP. 'The Night They Buried Sadie Clay' paired with the next track 'My God Betrays' is the most caliginous corner on the album, describing the eponymous woman being found cold with a bottle by her bed, in dire contrast to the titilation experienced from the briefest intimate encounters experienced in youth and the 'done for dream' mentioned later on again touching on the near-futile attempts to escape isolation heard throughout the album.
Collections - Delphic
Delphic's debut 'Acolyte' is an album I very much enjoy, so when I got 'Collections' I had high hopes and was lamentably disappointed. To me the energy that characterised their first LP just isn't heard here, the longest song (Atlas) is only 6:05 and doesn't build up to anything; when the lyrics aren't too strong, they really haven't given much to carry the album and this happens far to many times. There are still some cool sounds to be found listening to this, 'Baiya' being a cool pop track, scratching the itch that 'Doubt' did last time around.
'Memeo' is easily one of the most pleasant things I've heard in recent memory and ought to be longer than three and a half minutes.
So for the sake of completing my triumvirate of reviews for the Bristol group's three albums, my thoughts on Third. Compared with the other two LPs this has a much more varied, experimental theme; particularly producing more industrial feeling sounds. For instance if you like beeping to introduce a song (which I'll accept won't be found be melodic by everybody) you'll love 'We Carry On' and 'Magic Doors'. At only 93 seconds long, the folkish 'Deep Water' is certainly an odd fixture in the album in between 'We Carry On' and the anthemic 'Machine Gun' but such variety is idiosyncratic of Portishead, who with all of these boxes ticked still find time to close with a return to classic trip-hop form with closer 'Threads,' which could be a James Bond theme in my opinion, but having said that there's a litany of things which would be better than Adele's and Jack White's recent attempts. 'Silence' introduces the album with an immense buildup moving from drums to an alarm like eeping into strings and guitars. This progressive sound creates a spectacularly ominous atmosphere, nearly everything drops for the desolate and shaky vocals of Beth Gibbons for a verse until the two duel for the rest of the song.
Goo - Sonic Youth
It was always going to be difficult to follow up one of alternative rock's most esteemed albums in 'Daydream Nation' but to me, 'Goo' surpasses it, channelling longer songs like 'Teenage Riot' rather than the short, impactful songs like 'Silver Rocket.'
If Thurston Moore would have died after the recording of this album I have no doubt he would be the revered icon that Kurt Cobain is in alternative music (particularly having married Kim Gordon as opposed to Courtney Love), but like Stewart Lee discussing Bill Hicks: the hardest thing is to put out new stuff every year, gradually decreasing the quality of your own obituary.
Having said that there's shorter cacophanous interludes like 'My Friend Goo' and 'Scooter + Jinx' that are just odious and don't connect the more moderate, tolerable noise rock moments that make up the fabric of the longer tracks. The first two tracks sound really sweet; the delicate opening riff from 'Dirty Boots' and 'Tunic (Song for Karen)' which despite opening with a stabbing guitar vibe winds down into a settled song with Kim describing Karen Carpenter in Heaven with Elvis, Janis Joplin and Dennis Wilson. My pick of the album is 'Mote' which has a wonderfully intense atmosphere and is one of the rarer moments when Lee Ranaldo leads; an anthem in its first half and a descent into a chaotic noise rock instrumental in its second.
Beneath This Burning Shoreline - Cherry Ghost
The second album from the Boltonian band led by Ivor Novello award winner Simon Aldred, 'Beneath This Burning Shoreline' revisits the feel of the tenebrous Northern town that made 'Thirst For Romance' a success. Again Aldred has an effective poetic style and unusual imagery such as in 'Black Fang' the lyric 'Be my backstreet kisser and I will be your Golden Mile' is not only evocative, but conveys something ineluctably Northern also(the Golden Mile being part of the beach front in Blackpool to those eluded by that reference); the inertia in life's progression being an essential trope in the fabric of the LP. 'The Night They Buried Sadie Clay' paired with the next track 'My God Betrays' is the most caliginous corner on the album, describing the eponymous woman being found cold with a bottle by her bed, in dire contrast to the titilation experienced from the briefest intimate encounters experienced in youth and the 'done for dream' mentioned later on again touching on the near-futile attempts to escape isolation heard throughout the album.
Collections - Delphic
Delphic's debut 'Acolyte' is an album I very much enjoy, so when I got 'Collections' I had high hopes and was lamentably disappointed. To me the energy that characterised their first LP just isn't heard here, the longest song (Atlas) is only 6:05 and doesn't build up to anything; when the lyrics aren't too strong, they really haven't given much to carry the album and this happens far to many times. There are still some cool sounds to be found listening to this, 'Baiya' being a cool pop track, scratching the itch that 'Doubt' did last time around.
'Memeo' is easily one of the most pleasant things I've heard in recent memory and ought to be longer than three and a half minutes.
Tuesday 3 September 2013
Bottom 10 '13 Part 2
4. Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke feat. Pharrell and T.I.
As fun as it is to have a catchy bit of bass and to shout 'Hey Hey Hey' at the end of every line, for me it's not enough to save this cut from the bawdy, poor man's Justin Timberlake that is Robin Thicke. I can't tell you why Pharrell Williams keeps showing up in things as if it's 2003, particularly seeing as he doesn't contribute anything substantial to the song and only seems to be there because the name power of Robin Thicke and T.I. isn't good enough. As for Robin himself, he comes across as a complete and total jerk (takes one to know one eh?), largely because of the video. Not only for slapping hashtags cheaply over the top of the video but also having an array of balloons spelling out that a certain part of his body is sizeable. And then there's having the creepy refrain of 'You're a good girl, I know you want it' as women wearing very little indeed dance around him in the MV. Now I'm not going to rant on feminism, misogyny or daterape as there's people far more qualified on the subject who have already written way more eloquently than I could. Not much of a denouement but I hope we don't have a song so pervasive with such a seedy theme.
3. Started From The Bottom - Drake
This is a song I still struggle to believe anyone actually likes, it has no retaining features whatsoever! The beat isn't catchy at all and is matched by Drake lackadaisically repeating the utterance 'Started from the bottom now we're here.' In spite of this some of the lyrics are really evocative, I personally have utmost sympathy for him having arguments with his parents, encountering traffic on the way home from work and having an uncle who'd lend him his car (which turns out to be a Lexus by the way), why it was so bad he wears his chains even when he's at home so he can remind himself he's rich. In fact, in case you didn't know, Drake has a great deal of money and has good friends and dislikes his haters, but if you've heard anything else from his back catalogue you already know that. At this rate if this is your only reason for rapping, should I be expecting Bill Gates to turn up on this list next year?
2. Heatwave - Wiley
I seem to remember 'Heatwave' escaped last years list by only a few days so here it is this year. What really gets on my nerves about Wiley is he has such a limited ability to rhyme: Case in point: in the first three lines he rhymes the word 'day' three times, which is about as lazy as when Chris Brown rhymed 'dick' three times in 'Look at me Now' or when our beloved Pitbull memorably rhymed 'Kodak' with 'Kodak' in 'Give Me Everything.' But what can you rhyme Kodak with? Kojak? Prozac? It's somewhat understandable with a word like Kodak but are you going to tell me Wiley couldn't think of anything to rhyme with 'day'? And it's the same throughout the song rhyming 'them' with 'then' with 'heatwave' with 'them' and 'road' with 'road' with 'flavours' with 'zone'. Not to sound cynical but is Wiley just trying to write an annoying phrase repeated over a partyish beat in hope that it'll stick in the heads of slow people for a short while?
1. Walks Like Rihanna - The Wanted
Now I could criticize this song for its video which is a mix of amateurish shooting and acting and ripping off 90s boybands or for its insipid, generic music or the asinine verses and that's as well as may be, but as is the growing theme on this half of the list, the lyrics are what will condemn this song. And all it takes is the chorus for me which has to go down as one of the most ill-thought utterances anyone has made for a long time:
'She can't sing'
Well that's not the most polite thing you could say of someone, I mean even if she's tone deaf you couldn't protect her feelings could you?
'She can't dance'
I don't profess to be an expert on how the fairer sex thinks, but how can saying such a thing be taken well? You're ostensibly saying this woman is a bumbling oaf.
'But who cares?'
Ah! So there's something positive...
'She walks like Rihanna'
Of every conceivable compliment you could give to someone, I struggle to imagine a less effectual one. For a start how many times have you heard a guy say his favourite thing about his best gal is her walk? There's been many a romantic ballad talking about eyes, lips, hair or clothes, and if we must there's plenty of stuff out there about understandable yet more visceral body parts which you can imagine for yourself. As well, of all people that you could reference, does Rihanna even merit a cultural reference such as this? Does she even have that distinctive a walk as opposed to anyone else in the public eye? And is that what anyone thinks of as characteristic of her? Could this be a backhanded compliment given that Rihanna is meant to have serious alcohol/drugs problems? Are we back to using this song as a vehicle for calling a woman a buffoon? Notwithstanding all of these things, this is what sums up the song for The Wanted or whoever their handlers are. That's what makes it the worst song of the year and #1 on this year's list.
So there you have it, my hostility towards music assuaged another year.
As fun as it is to have a catchy bit of bass and to shout 'Hey Hey Hey' at the end of every line, for me it's not enough to save this cut from the bawdy, poor man's Justin Timberlake that is Robin Thicke. I can't tell you why Pharrell Williams keeps showing up in things as if it's 2003, particularly seeing as he doesn't contribute anything substantial to the song and only seems to be there because the name power of Robin Thicke and T.I. isn't good enough. As for Robin himself, he comes across as a complete and total jerk (takes one to know one eh?), largely because of the video. Not only for slapping hashtags cheaply over the top of the video but also having an array of balloons spelling out that a certain part of his body is sizeable. And then there's having the creepy refrain of 'You're a good girl, I know you want it' as women wearing very little indeed dance around him in the MV. Now I'm not going to rant on feminism, misogyny or daterape as there's people far more qualified on the subject who have already written way more eloquently than I could. Not much of a denouement but I hope we don't have a song so pervasive with such a seedy theme.
3. Started From The Bottom - Drake
This is a song I still struggle to believe anyone actually likes, it has no retaining features whatsoever! The beat isn't catchy at all and is matched by Drake lackadaisically repeating the utterance 'Started from the bottom now we're here.' In spite of this some of the lyrics are really evocative, I personally have utmost sympathy for him having arguments with his parents, encountering traffic on the way home from work and having an uncle who'd lend him his car (which turns out to be a Lexus by the way), why it was so bad he wears his chains even when he's at home so he can remind himself he's rich. In fact, in case you didn't know, Drake has a great deal of money and has good friends and dislikes his haters, but if you've heard anything else from his back catalogue you already know that. At this rate if this is your only reason for rapping, should I be expecting Bill Gates to turn up on this list next year?
2. Heatwave - Wiley
I seem to remember 'Heatwave' escaped last years list by only a few days so here it is this year. What really gets on my nerves about Wiley is he has such a limited ability to rhyme: Case in point: in the first three lines he rhymes the word 'day' three times, which is about as lazy as when Chris Brown rhymed 'dick' three times in 'Look at me Now' or when our beloved Pitbull memorably rhymed 'Kodak' with 'Kodak' in 'Give Me Everything.' But what can you rhyme Kodak with? Kojak? Prozac? It's somewhat understandable with a word like Kodak but are you going to tell me Wiley couldn't think of anything to rhyme with 'day'? And it's the same throughout the song rhyming 'them' with 'then' with 'heatwave' with 'them' and 'road' with 'road' with 'flavours' with 'zone'. Not to sound cynical but is Wiley just trying to write an annoying phrase repeated over a partyish beat in hope that it'll stick in the heads of slow people for a short while?
1. Walks Like Rihanna - The Wanted
Now I could criticize this song for its video which is a mix of amateurish shooting and acting and ripping off 90s boybands or for its insipid, generic music or the asinine verses and that's as well as may be, but as is the growing theme on this half of the list, the lyrics are what will condemn this song. And all it takes is the chorus for me which has to go down as one of the most ill-thought utterances anyone has made for a long time:
'She can't sing'
Well that's not the most polite thing you could say of someone, I mean even if she's tone deaf you couldn't protect her feelings could you?
'She can't dance'
I don't profess to be an expert on how the fairer sex thinks, but how can saying such a thing be taken well? You're ostensibly saying this woman is a bumbling oaf.
'But who cares?'
Ah! So there's something positive...
'She walks like Rihanna'
Of every conceivable compliment you could give to someone, I struggle to imagine a less effectual one. For a start how many times have you heard a guy say his favourite thing about his best gal is her walk? There's been many a romantic ballad talking about eyes, lips, hair or clothes, and if we must there's plenty of stuff out there about understandable yet more visceral body parts which you can imagine for yourself. As well, of all people that you could reference, does Rihanna even merit a cultural reference such as this? Does she even have that distinctive a walk as opposed to anyone else in the public eye? And is that what anyone thinks of as characteristic of her? Could this be a backhanded compliment given that Rihanna is meant to have serious alcohol/drugs problems? Are we back to using this song as a vehicle for calling a woman a buffoon? Notwithstanding all of these things, this is what sums up the song for The Wanted or whoever their handlers are. That's what makes it the worst song of the year and #1 on this year's list.
So there you have it, my hostility towards music assuaged another year.
Monday 26 August 2013
Bottom 10 '13
10. Power - Kanye West
Not too bad a song, so why does it appear here? Someone as good at sampling as Kanye, completely wasting the use of one of the best songs ever in King Crimson's '21st Century Schizoid Man' is a crime that cannot go unpunished.
9. Five Years' Time - Noah and the Whale
An insipid, flat track which I hold somewhat responsible for allowing ukeleles to get a foot back into the door of modern music; they belong with George Formby, in Hawaii and nowhere else in my book.
8. Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
It has a lot of asinine whistling, it has an ill-thought-out, generic, country-sounding opening line, it's been played relentlessly on an advert. Alabama and Arkansas aren't even next to each other, and Arkansas rhyming with 'Ma and Pa' is just gorky. Never stood a chance with me really.
7. One More Night - Maroon 5
The Adam Levine Experience have never really matched the quality of their debut 'Songs About Jane' and now the other 4 members of the band seem like they're going along for the ride and as well they might given the chart success of releases like 'Moves Like Jagger.' With there being nothing to this song but some unenthusiastic oohing and lyrics about reluctantly getting back with an ex I'm not sure what you could do to make it more bland and anonymous. What's even more perplexing is that such a song kept a song as fun as Gangnam Style off the top off the Billboard Charts. Yet another reason we're better than the US, we sure didn't make that mistake. At any rate, it's a real shame we didn't get more of this from Maroon 5:
6. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift
And now, from the completely passive to the actively irritating. There's the awkward phone call in the middle of the song, there's the horrid sounding high-pitched 'Weeee!' in the chorus, there's the chunky, unmelodic endings to each line of the verses and there's the cranky, juvenile and somewhat spiteful register of Swift herself. All this does is undermine the effectiveness of what a breakup song is trying to achieve, can you really see whoever it's directed to saying to themselves 'Well damn, that sure put me in my place, such a shame she's so reluctant to take me back'?
5. Scream and Shout - will.i.am
It really is surprising how many grating sounds and choruses will.i.am has been able to fashion over the past few years, from the horrific sounds of 'The Time' which won it a place on this list two years ago, to his butchering of The Buggles 'Video Killed the Radio Star' on 'Check It Out' and the trying repetition of the words 'Tell me where'd you get your body from' in 'I Got It From My Mama'. Moreover, in that last song he dragged Gwen Stefani down to his 'stars that couldn't help will.i.am to a hit club' which lamentably boasts Mick Jagger as a member. 'Scream and Shout' is perhaps the worst offender yet: a mess featuring a dull bassline, too much autotune and an uncharacteristic performance from Britney Spears. Aside from the logistical problem of turning up a song in the club, the lyrics are a hodgepodge of used pop music clichés, most noticeably to me 'Shout' by Tears for Fears and 'All Eyez on Me' by 2pac. The other thing that bothers me about will.i.am (and plenty other pop artists by the way) is how much he says he rocks (and rolls) when he's nowhere near either. Unfortunately I doubt there's the slightest bit of self-awareness when he sings 'It goes on and on and on' but then again can a machine experience self-awareness or comprehend irony? I'll leave you to ponder that while I write up my top 4 least favourite songs for this year.
Not too bad a song, so why does it appear here? Someone as good at sampling as Kanye, completely wasting the use of one of the best songs ever in King Crimson's '21st Century Schizoid Man' is a crime that cannot go unpunished.
9. Five Years' Time - Noah and the Whale
An insipid, flat track which I hold somewhat responsible for allowing ukeleles to get a foot back into the door of modern music; they belong with George Formby, in Hawaii and nowhere else in my book.
8. Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
It has a lot of asinine whistling, it has an ill-thought-out, generic, country-sounding opening line, it's been played relentlessly on an advert. Alabama and Arkansas aren't even next to each other, and Arkansas rhyming with 'Ma and Pa' is just gorky. Never stood a chance with me really.
7. One More Night - Maroon 5
The Adam Levine Experience have never really matched the quality of their debut 'Songs About Jane' and now the other 4 members of the band seem like they're going along for the ride and as well they might given the chart success of releases like 'Moves Like Jagger.' With there being nothing to this song but some unenthusiastic oohing and lyrics about reluctantly getting back with an ex I'm not sure what you could do to make it more bland and anonymous. What's even more perplexing is that such a song kept a song as fun as Gangnam Style off the top off the Billboard Charts. Yet another reason we're better than the US, we sure didn't make that mistake. At any rate, it's a real shame we didn't get more of this from Maroon 5:
6. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift
And now, from the completely passive to the actively irritating. There's the awkward phone call in the middle of the song, there's the horrid sounding high-pitched 'Weeee!' in the chorus, there's the chunky, unmelodic endings to each line of the verses and there's the cranky, juvenile and somewhat spiteful register of Swift herself. All this does is undermine the effectiveness of what a breakup song is trying to achieve, can you really see whoever it's directed to saying to themselves 'Well damn, that sure put me in my place, such a shame she's so reluctant to take me back'?
5. Scream and Shout - will.i.am
It really is surprising how many grating sounds and choruses will.i.am has been able to fashion over the past few years, from the horrific sounds of 'The Time' which won it a place on this list two years ago, to his butchering of The Buggles 'Video Killed the Radio Star' on 'Check It Out' and the trying repetition of the words 'Tell me where'd you get your body from' in 'I Got It From My Mama'. Moreover, in that last song he dragged Gwen Stefani down to his 'stars that couldn't help will.i.am to a hit club' which lamentably boasts Mick Jagger as a member. 'Scream and Shout' is perhaps the worst offender yet: a mess featuring a dull bassline, too much autotune and an uncharacteristic performance from Britney Spears. Aside from the logistical problem of turning up a song in the club, the lyrics are a hodgepodge of used pop music clichés, most noticeably to me 'Shout' by Tears for Fears and 'All Eyez on Me' by 2pac. The other thing that bothers me about will.i.am (and plenty other pop artists by the way) is how much he says he rocks (and rolls) when he's nowhere near either. Unfortunately I doubt there's the slightest bit of self-awareness when he sings 'It goes on and on and on' but then again can a machine experience self-awareness or comprehend irony? I'll leave you to ponder that while I write up my top 4 least favourite songs for this year.
Tuesday 16 July 2013
2013 Reviews: Foals, Everything Everything, Editors and Boxer Rebellion
So here's my views on the work of four bands whose 2013 releases I have been anticipating keenly:
Arc - Everything Everything
Arc is a fantastic development upon their debut Man Alive showing greater consistency throughout maintaining the verbosity, harmonies and catchy riffs that have brought EE success. While I think individual songs like My Kz Ur Bf, Suffragette Suffragette and Schoolin' are all better than any individual tracks are better than the best moments on Arc there's not nearly as many mistakes made. The content still makes great use of an elaborate lexicon and is fit very well to keep up a good flow. Cough Cough is a fantastic example of them using many an unorthodox image in quick succession along with prominent drums throughout to make a fetching number.
Holy Fire - Foals
Now I was expecting a lot from Foals new album after how much I enjoyed Total Life Forever, but there's a number of things I think let it down. For one, when the opening lyrics of the album (and lead single) are "Sticks and stones don't break my bones" it doesn't scream of creativity, rather it makes it sound like a twelve year old wrote the lyrics, that or Rihanna. Nevertheless both Inhaler and My Number have proven popular with many an indie clubber so in that sense they have been a success. As well there seems to be a loss of the knack for intros that they had throughout their last album, which is a problem when one of the greatest strengths in their past work is their ability to build. Providence is a splendid example of this: the first 25 seconds are wasted diving straight in only to start again from scratch, nonetheless its climactic instrumental which completes the song, capped by an even more spectacular drum fill than on After Glow is proof positive that they are still able to construct an excellent song even though it basically has to be compacted into three and a half minutes.
The Weight of Your Love - Editors
So I've already given my take on the albums's first single A Ton of Love and was apprehensive of the level of quality that they would display. Having owned it for two weeks now, the album for me starts at track five. The first four tracks appear to be the band trying to show that they've matured, in reality it comes across as the soporific, saccharin spewing of middle-aged men; In all honesty how can songs such called Sugarand What Is This Thing Called Love be anything but insipid? Then again Editors show they are far from losing their intensity on Two Hearted Spider and their pensiveness and passion on The Phone Book and the string heavy Nothing . The Special Edition came with a second disc which featured two acoustic covers and three extra songs which should definitely have been on the album: The Sting is definitely worth a listen and having been one of the first new songs to surface after In This Light and On This Evening and capturing many a fans imagination, it surprises me it's relegated to b-side status.
Formaldehyde is a vivacious rocker and will be the second single released from the album. I have to say that it should have been the lead single, as it'd be much more likely to get attention than the foray into sounding like U2 that is A Ton of Love. The final thing to say is while hugely approve of the song, the lurid cover art doesn't do anything for me.
Promises - The Boxer Rebellion
Diamonds is a great opener to the album with a terrific guitar riff and a lively beat, in a similar manner to the earlier single Step Out of the Car. On the flipside this is a potentially solid album let down because of the majority of its tracks having terse, incongruous lyrics. For instance, in the track New York the brief utterance "In New York" is repeated apropos of nothing we've already heard or go on to hear on the track or the album. Moreover the naming of a number of tracks, including the title track, come across as McGuffins, and doing this with Promises watermarks the other tracks as somewhat ill-conceived seeing as this is the name they want to be indentified as epitomizing the LP.
Arc - Everything Everything
Arc is a fantastic development upon their debut Man Alive showing greater consistency throughout maintaining the verbosity, harmonies and catchy riffs that have brought EE success. While I think individual songs like My Kz Ur Bf, Suffragette Suffragette and Schoolin' are all better than any individual tracks are better than the best moments on Arc there's not nearly as many mistakes made. The content still makes great use of an elaborate lexicon and is fit very well to keep up a good flow. Cough Cough is a fantastic example of them using many an unorthodox image in quick succession along with prominent drums throughout to make a fetching number.
Holy Fire - Foals
Now I was expecting a lot from Foals new album after how much I enjoyed Total Life Forever, but there's a number of things I think let it down. For one, when the opening lyrics of the album (and lead single) are "Sticks and stones don't break my bones" it doesn't scream of creativity, rather it makes it sound like a twelve year old wrote the lyrics, that or Rihanna. Nevertheless both Inhaler and My Number have proven popular with many an indie clubber so in that sense they have been a success. As well there seems to be a loss of the knack for intros that they had throughout their last album, which is a problem when one of the greatest strengths in their past work is their ability to build. Providence is a splendid example of this: the first 25 seconds are wasted diving straight in only to start again from scratch, nonetheless its climactic instrumental which completes the song, capped by an even more spectacular drum fill than on After Glow is proof positive that they are still able to construct an excellent song even though it basically has to be compacted into three and a half minutes.
The Weight of Your Love - Editors
So I've already given my take on the albums's first single A Ton of Love and was apprehensive of the level of quality that they would display. Having owned it for two weeks now, the album for me starts at track five. The first four tracks appear to be the band trying to show that they've matured, in reality it comes across as the soporific, saccharin spewing of middle-aged men; In all honesty how can songs such called Sugarand What Is This Thing Called Love be anything but insipid? Then again Editors show they are far from losing their intensity on Two Hearted Spider and their pensiveness and passion on The Phone Book and the string heavy Nothing . The Special Edition came with a second disc which featured two acoustic covers and three extra songs which should definitely have been on the album: The Sting is definitely worth a listen and having been one of the first new songs to surface after In This Light and On This Evening and capturing many a fans imagination, it surprises me it's relegated to b-side status.
Formaldehyde is a vivacious rocker and will be the second single released from the album. I have to say that it should have been the lead single, as it'd be much more likely to get attention than the foray into sounding like U2 that is A Ton of Love. The final thing to say is while hugely approve of the song, the lurid cover art doesn't do anything for me.
Promises - The Boxer Rebellion
Diamonds is a great opener to the album with a terrific guitar riff and a lively beat, in a similar manner to the earlier single Step Out of the Car. On the flipside this is a potentially solid album let down because of the majority of its tracks having terse, incongruous lyrics. For instance, in the track New York the brief utterance "In New York" is repeated apropos of nothing we've already heard or go on to hear on the track or the album. Moreover the naming of a number of tracks, including the title track, come across as McGuffins, and doing this with Promises watermarks the other tracks as somewhat ill-conceived seeing as this is the name they want to be indentified as epitomizing the LP.
Tuesday 11 June 2013
Parklife 2013 Reviewed
Parklife in Heaton Park, Manchester was this past weekend and had a lineup that's pretty strong for dance music fans including names such as Four Tet, Simian Mobile Disco, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Madeon, Goldie, Boys Noize and Fake Blood. Here's some of the highlights of my experience of the two days.
Quote of the weekend
'If I had a brain, I'd be suicidal'
This was said by some girl who sounded cripplingly Manc and already drunk pushing her way through the queue on the first day, the scary thing: if someone like Socrates or Nietzsche said that people would think it profound.
Crazy P
First thing we saw on the main stage, pretty spectacular with some fun music and strange girations from the lead singer.
Delphic
Played straight after Crazy P, the first band I was really looking forward to and they exceeded my high expectations, alternating extremely smoothly between tracks from their two albums. The best bits were the slow buildup to the repeating intro of 'Doubt' and the drop on 'Clarion Call' which just sounded amazing.
Fabio
Good set from the drum and bass legend but what I enjoyed most were the pearls of wisdom from his MC Texas such as: 'Remember: some water, bit of sun cream and you're set for the day' and 'Go home if you ain't got the stamina'
The Temper Trap
Kind of sad to listen to, they were fine but people only really cared when they played 'Sweet Disposition.' The same can be said of The Maccabees lack of a reception for most songs except 'Pelican' and 'Precious Time' but on a larger scale later in the evening, however they were pretty sloppy which was conspicuous given how good Delphic sounded together earlier on, on the same stage.
Jag Skills
For someone who throws so much into a DJ set to keep your attention, it's astounding how much he struggled to keep mine. I know he's a mashup DJ but by cutting too many samples too short, some only to one line, he didn't sustain any momentum for me, nonetheless I seemed to be in the minority.
Melé
The first DJ I saw on David Rodigan's stage, very pleasant in the open air on such a good day, Zinc was good as well
Jurassic 5
So at 7pm on the main stage J5 killed it, they played their classic tracks like they'd not been apart at all. DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark did this cool thing with a massive prop turntable in the middle of the stage (the picture below might explain it) getting about 6-7 minutes just to themselves, the reaction from the crowd for 'Quality Control' and 'Concrete Schoolyard' was incredible and their performance of 'What's Golden' rounded out the spectacle in superb fashion.
Everything Everything
The final band I was really anticipating seeing put in a good set on Sunday night consisting mainly of hits; the choice of 'Tin (The Manhole)' I found slightly confusing though. I was impressed with how well Jonathan Higgs' falsetto held out with how weak it sounded on opening track 'Cough Cough'
Quote of the weekend
'If I had a brain, I'd be suicidal'
This was said by some girl who sounded cripplingly Manc and already drunk pushing her way through the queue on the first day, the scary thing: if someone like Socrates or Nietzsche said that people would think it profound.
Crazy P
First thing we saw on the main stage, pretty spectacular with some fun music and strange girations from the lead singer.
Delphic
Played straight after Crazy P, the first band I was really looking forward to and they exceeded my high expectations, alternating extremely smoothly between tracks from their two albums. The best bits were the slow buildup to the repeating intro of 'Doubt' and the drop on 'Clarion Call' which just sounded amazing.
Fabio
Good set from the drum and bass legend but what I enjoyed most were the pearls of wisdom from his MC Texas such as: 'Remember: some water, bit of sun cream and you're set for the day' and 'Go home if you ain't got the stamina'
The Temper Trap
Kind of sad to listen to, they were fine but people only really cared when they played 'Sweet Disposition.' The same can be said of The Maccabees lack of a reception for most songs except 'Pelican' and 'Precious Time' but on a larger scale later in the evening, however they were pretty sloppy which was conspicuous given how good Delphic sounded together earlier on, on the same stage.
Jag Skills
For someone who throws so much into a DJ set to keep your attention, it's astounding how much he struggled to keep mine. I know he's a mashup DJ but by cutting too many samples too short, some only to one line, he didn't sustain any momentum for me, nonetheless I seemed to be in the minority.
Melé
The first DJ I saw on David Rodigan's stage, very pleasant in the open air on such a good day, Zinc was good as well
Jurassic 5
So at 7pm on the main stage J5 killed it, they played their classic tracks like they'd not been apart at all. DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark did this cool thing with a massive prop turntable in the middle of the stage (the picture below might explain it) getting about 6-7 minutes just to themselves, the reaction from the crowd for 'Quality Control' and 'Concrete Schoolyard' was incredible and their performance of 'What's Golden' rounded out the spectacle in superb fashion.
Everything Everything
The final band I was really anticipating seeing put in a good set on Sunday night consisting mainly of hits; the choice of 'Tin (The Manhole)' I found slightly confusing though. I was impressed with how well Jonathan Higgs' falsetto held out with how weak it sounded on opening track 'Cough Cough'
Thursday 16 May 2013
Keeping it real - My views on recent trends
Justin Timberlake
I'm quite ambivalent on the two new songs from JT that have been circulating. 'Suit and Tie' has many flaws that I can point to: Jay-Z rapping like he only cares about his paycheque instead of the song, the lethargic intro which keeps repeating the phrase 'shit tied' which just sounds ridiculous and the chorus comes across as really cheesy, but I guess that comes with the territory of a song called 'Suit and Tie.' Having said that I think I'm mainly disappointed that the catchiness of the first line of the first verse doesn't carry on.
The other song that has been doing the rounds is 'Mirrors' which is a much more laid back pop ballad and quite reminiscent of the soulful R&B songs that came out a decade ago. I see it as being a very pleasant listen, however considering the full version is 8 minutes long, JT doesn't make good use of the time he spends and could easily fit everything in 5 minutes or less. Had there been greater complexity to it I'd seriously be considering buying his new album.
Editors
So Editors, one of my favourite bands (so much so that the first header I made for this blog was taken from some of their album art) has a new song called 'A Ton of Love' released two Mondays ago. I have to say, it hasn't got me looking forward to their new album, their first without lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz who left because of differences in 'future musical direction' which doesn't appear to bode well for the rest of their new material. A lot of people have commented that it sounds a lot like U2, which I thought the first time I listened to it as well, particularly with Tom Smith lifting his voice in the refrain in very similar manner to Bono. The other thing it sounds suspiciously close to is 'The Cutter' by Echo and the Bunnymen. While the intro I thought was a welcome return to the guitar work from their first two albums, it also kind of shows their lack of direction, alongside not really having compelling lyrics. One of the things I really liked about their earlier lyrics was the fact they didn't need to talk about love to sound interesting, whereas now their lead single from the album 'The Weight Of Your Love' is 'A Ton Of Love' and it appears there's nothing left for them to make songs about other than generic, rockish love songs. My final gripe (that ties in with how how I've just described the new song) is that its under four minutes long; there's only one song shorter on In This Light and two on An End Has A Start which again makes it look like they aren't exploring with their music like they used to.
PSY
As much as I loved the fun of 'Gangnam Style,' as it was a breath of fresh air after a summer dominated by 'Call Me Maybe' because of a noticeable lack of competition I'm struggling to reserve the same patience for PSY's new song 'Gentleman' which proves his success could only ever be a one-off. As a novelty song, it didn't matter that there's under five English words in it, because people enjoyed the childish humour of the video, the dancing and the lively beat, but the nature of novelty is it doesn't last. The awkwardity of the majority of the lyrics being in Korean is only matched by how awkward the English lyrics feel, almost wrestled in to make something recognizable for us Westerners. Not to mention him singing 'Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you wet' as if he's a rap artist from about 10 years ago. The video has PSY arsing about and dancing, presumably to entertain non-Korean viewers, and again, it worked the first time, the second it just seems like its begging for your attention to be held any way possible.
Daft Punk
So 'Get Lucky' has been top of the UK charts a number of weeks and will get a lot of spins by the end of the summer with its warm, lively, disco feel thanks to the contribution of Nile Rodgers. Its not too recognizable as a Daft Punk song as well with their ubiquitous, repetitive vocal style taking a backseat to Pharrell's singing, only appearing two minutes in, which to be honest I don't mind. The track to me feels very similar to quite a few other songs, mainly 'Don't Stop the Music' by Rihanna 'Say Say Say' by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney and it didn't surprise me that I found mashups with both of these with a quick google search.
I'm quite ambivalent on the two new songs from JT that have been circulating. 'Suit and Tie' has many flaws that I can point to: Jay-Z rapping like he only cares about his paycheque instead of the song, the lethargic intro which keeps repeating the phrase 'shit tied' which just sounds ridiculous and the chorus comes across as really cheesy, but I guess that comes with the territory of a song called 'Suit and Tie.' Having said that I think I'm mainly disappointed that the catchiness of the first line of the first verse doesn't carry on.
The other song that has been doing the rounds is 'Mirrors' which is a much more laid back pop ballad and quite reminiscent of the soulful R&B songs that came out a decade ago. I see it as being a very pleasant listen, however considering the full version is 8 minutes long, JT doesn't make good use of the time he spends and could easily fit everything in 5 minutes or less. Had there been greater complexity to it I'd seriously be considering buying his new album.
Editors
So Editors, one of my favourite bands (so much so that the first header I made for this blog was taken from some of their album art) has a new song called 'A Ton of Love' released two Mondays ago. I have to say, it hasn't got me looking forward to their new album, their first without lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz who left because of differences in 'future musical direction' which doesn't appear to bode well for the rest of their new material. A lot of people have commented that it sounds a lot like U2, which I thought the first time I listened to it as well, particularly with Tom Smith lifting his voice in the refrain in very similar manner to Bono. The other thing it sounds suspiciously close to is 'The Cutter' by Echo and the Bunnymen. While the intro I thought was a welcome return to the guitar work from their first two albums, it also kind of shows their lack of direction, alongside not really having compelling lyrics. One of the things I really liked about their earlier lyrics was the fact they didn't need to talk about love to sound interesting, whereas now their lead single from the album 'The Weight Of Your Love' is 'A Ton Of Love' and it appears there's nothing left for them to make songs about other than generic, rockish love songs. My final gripe (that ties in with how how I've just described the new song) is that its under four minutes long; there's only one song shorter on In This Light and two on An End Has A Start which again makes it look like they aren't exploring with their music like they used to.
PSY
As much as I loved the fun of 'Gangnam Style,' as it was a breath of fresh air after a summer dominated by 'Call Me Maybe' because of a noticeable lack of competition I'm struggling to reserve the same patience for PSY's new song 'Gentleman' which proves his success could only ever be a one-off. As a novelty song, it didn't matter that there's under five English words in it, because people enjoyed the childish humour of the video, the dancing and the lively beat, but the nature of novelty is it doesn't last. The awkwardity of the majority of the lyrics being in Korean is only matched by how awkward the English lyrics feel, almost wrestled in to make something recognizable for us Westerners. Not to mention him singing 'Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you wet' as if he's a rap artist from about 10 years ago. The video has PSY arsing about and dancing, presumably to entertain non-Korean viewers, and again, it worked the first time, the second it just seems like its begging for your attention to be held any way possible.
Daft Punk
So 'Get Lucky' has been top of the UK charts a number of weeks and will get a lot of spins by the end of the summer with its warm, lively, disco feel thanks to the contribution of Nile Rodgers. Its not too recognizable as a Daft Punk song as well with their ubiquitous, repetitive vocal style taking a backseat to Pharrell's singing, only appearing two minutes in, which to be honest I don't mind. The track to me feels very similar to quite a few other songs, mainly 'Don't Stop the Music' by Rihanna 'Say Say Say' by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney and it didn't surprise me that I found mashups with both of these with a quick google search.
Thursday 18 April 2013
Reviewing a few albums
An Awesome Wave - Alt-J
So I got this for Christmas and have to say for all the hype I'd heard it get, it didn't live it up to it. There's a few things I'll say to elaborate.
- In spite of a lot of people praising the originality of this LP; to me it sounds like a band that at some point in 2011 got together and said 'I know, we like Bombay Bicycle Club, Everything Everything and we like bass fairly heavy. Let's see what we can do with that.' They don't sound original, they sound like the fruit of the last few years' trends in indie music.
- The lyrics are that pretentious, it means you can't take a lot of this music seriously. First time I listened to 'Tesselate' I heard the words 'Triangles are my favourite shape, three points where two lines meet' and thought that's just silly.
- It's an album that would be much better as an instrumental album, the interesting variation of the instrumentation is let down by the vocals, they're sang in a dull, uninterested, nasal manner and as I've already said, the lyrics don't help as well.
- The interludes really kill any momentum created, they could probably be developed into songs but don't go anywhere. The Intro is probably the best sounding thing on the album, its problem is it's not a full song and the vibe it creates is killed by the next track being a capella. Moreover it doesn't serve the album well to begin with two tracks that are so different whichdon't even last four minutes together.
Overall, it's still a reasonable album, it's generally pleasant to listen to but I think is let down in so far as Alt-J have just tried too hard and hence compromised what they did well.
Portishead - Portishead
So Portishead's second album: not nearly as good as Dummy. The first thing I think it misses is the intimacy that I took for granted with their first album. It felt like you were sat in the same room as Beth Gibbons as you listened to Dummy, but with Portishead it feels like you're watching her in B/W on a cinema screen. In tracks like 'Cowboys' and 'Seven Months' she sounds like she could be a classic female movie villain like the witch from The Wizard of Oz. Nonetheless there are some really great sounding moments where the music and vocals work together to really portray doubt, uncertainty, dependence and fear. Compared with Dummy which kept a fairly consistent air about it, the intensity seems to be noticeably more polarised, with the quieter moments being in my view the better part of the album. The closer, 'Western Eyes' is probably my favorite song on the album. It's a somber but very well put together number with evocative strings and piano alongside Gibbons' tender vocals; then concluded with a interesting sample of a soul song from of their own making.
Controlling Crowds - Archive
I've taken to this album very much as it is a superb combination of two of my favourite genres: Trip-Hop and Progressive Rock. Originally a trip-hop act, Controlling Crowds incorporates some heavier guitar riffs with catchy and isn't afraid to take its time to build up well and create great anthemic moments such as at the end of 'Bullets'. While there is a good tempo and beat kept throughout as is natural with trip-hop and electronica, it doesn't impede the creation of dramatic yet catchy alternative rock. There's also a great mix of vocals as well, with male and female singing and rapping featuring noticeably but without one dominating. 'Controlling Crowds' is the title track and opens the album making plenty of impact while displaying a very patient temperament.
Eye In The Sky - The Alan Parsons Project
A classic 80s progressive rock album, nonetheless there's certainly quite a lot of fun moments with catchy pop rock songs like 'You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned' and 'Step By Step'. Influenced by Orwell's 1984, the LP deals with the themes of surveillance within the context of government and religion. 'Silence and I' is an fantastic ballad with heavy orchestration making a great finishing instrumental.
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