I think this one of Holy Fire's better album. It just feels a bit more complete. I'll admit I didn't found it as inspired as antidote but they finally managed to add more form and style to their kind of music. The result is a rough, hard sound with echoing melodies, and at times is pretty gorgeous. One thing to note for previous fans of other albums is that Foals has quite an ominous feeling over the entire album. Everything feels more aggressive and they use effects like distortion to feed into the tone of the album.
Some stand out tracks include "Late Night", "Everytime". This is an album that gets stuck in your head, I found myself humming a couple of their tunes while I was doing the dishes.. The best track in my opinion is a high energy dance songs called "My number". If you are a fan of their music this is one of those songs that you listen to and you can tell the band has been hard at work trying to being something fresh and new to the table. I recommend that you take a listen to this band and see what they have to offer.
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I've been a fan of Frightened Rabbit for a couple of years and I say without hesitation that I am impressed with their consistency. Their last two albums have been a great continuation of their early stuff. To me, something is gained and lossed in the improved production values in their more recent work. The songs are more expansive--"anthemic" is the word most-often used--and they teem with Hutchinson's own brand of dour (but hopeful) sentiments. But, the earlier work is more personal, more intimate. Nonetheless, most of these songs are solid; you will find yourself coming back to them. And, there is minimal filler. The surging "Late March, Death March" is a real standout, while the short and punchy separated songs of "Housing (In)' and "Housing (out)" work well. In "December Traditions" shows that the bands sojourn recording the album in the wonders of the Welsh countryside has somehow tightened them and achieved a level of focus which has sometimes been absent. It sweeps along with a great lyric and ends with the full gamut of the bands voices. For those Frabbits fans that like the bands more distinctively Scottish side the deluxe edition is a must with three extra songs. The gentle acoustics of the stunning "If you were me" harks back to the Midnight Organ Fight and is a song of shattering heartbreak; "Snow still melting" is a pounding rock song with a great melody and finally "Escape Route" ends the album with a bang; an intoxicating mix of acoustics and high drama. I'd highly recommend the band to anyone looking for something accessible but a bit off the beaten path.
The second effort from Darkstar is a grower. It has many touchpoints and is as far from dubstep as you could imagine a band called 'future of dubstep' being. However, there is much here to enjoy and admire. Its probably better to label it as indie dance than dubstep although maybe some labels are as confusing as they are helpful. Some tracks are memorable on first listen and others grow. Take for instance Timeaway Vs Amplified Ease. Timeaway winds up like a clockwork toy and its obscured vocals and beat don't grab instantly but will grow on you. Amplified Ease however will appeal on first listen. Its very much in the Animal Collective mould in terms of vocals and style - maybe too much so? If you want to compare this to other albums then it seems some way between Animal Collective and Balam Acab. This is experimental but not overly so and it does have a dreamlike quality that draws you in. You Don't Need A Weatherman is a great number with sparse arrangements somehow put together to provide a lush electronic stage for the vocals. The centre piece, for me at least, is A Day's Pay For A Day's Work. Dreamlike vocals, a simple piano start and vocals that sound like they could have come off The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. It builds slowly and works to become an almost lo-fi electronica anthem - if ever such a thing existed before now. Overall its going to take some time to measure this fully. Its a rewarding effort and its creativity and understated electronica works well. It won't be to everyones tastes. It won't fill dancefloors. But you are likely to hear about this more as the year goes on. Its soundscapes and imagination are worth investigating.
hmmm yea This is the debut album from Danish singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Soren Lokke Juul, Their is no doubt that this album has moments of utter beauty that stand out and make the hairs on your arm stand up. So much so that I felt a bit underwhelmed when I finished listening to the whole album. I really wanted to love this album and for all the elements to come together but it just doesn't quite make it all the time (other times it does succeed). Opener "New" builds and bellows with subtle emotional nuances that are intriguing but left me yearning for something more. Most of the time I felt like just popping in a sigur ros CD. The next song "Birds" has a pleasent piano melody accompanied by some nice sounding synths. The HIghlight for me is "lips,lips,lips" where the melody is covered in melancholy as the singer reaches out repeated phrases which really work together beautifully in this song.
The second half of the album starts to add meat to the skeltons on these songs. "Reality Sublime" and "La Femme" have fairly standard drum machine tracks that actually give a bit of mojo to these songs. I got out of my chair and did a couple of stretches at this point. The closing track "somewhere else" is sparse and based around his vocals and a delay pedal. This is a nice subtle, debut that left yearning for a bit more. That being said I am excited to see what else indians has to offer because their is a lot of potential in this songwriter and think that he may have a bright future in front of him. This is a solid album! It is a concept album that refuses to get bogged down by the fact that it is a concept album. Each song matches its title against another song to create a sort of foil effect between tracks- which is pretty cool. This did not detrimentally affect the songs themselves, rather it strengthens them and brings the whole album together better then expected. Although certain tracks work as singles, if you're a fan of those tracks then investing in the album is well worthwhile as it pulls everything together and enhances the entire sound. Where most bands sound washed-up or overproduced after a couple solid albums, Silverstein stays rock solid. Some personal standouts for me include 'Stand Amid the Roar', 'On Brave Mountains We Conquer', 'One Last Dance', 'Massachusetts', all good songs that are fun to rock out to. Very good guitar riff's with classic Siverstein melodies. Always interested as to what these guys are up to next.
Every week we mention a couple of artists that are worth your time to check out that were not featured in our weekly reviews.
Artist Album Rating Guards In Guards we trust 3.0 Four tet 0181 3.3 Koitus Koitus 3.1 Covers Cadece 3.7 So this is our first 5 out of 5 review - it may not be that surprising. This is an almost perfect near-masterpiece and probably album of the year-I didn't expect a miracle to be honest but this is even better than I hoped for. MBV is surprisingly good and fresh-sounding. A lot can go wrong when a band has an excessive amount of time to record/revise (think G n' R's "Chinese Democracy" which most certainly did not live up to the hype). Thankfully, that is not the case here and for the most part, MBV delivers. The songs are direct and focused and while the trademark sound is still there (fractured guitar drone and ethereal vocals), there is a new reliance on 7th chords which gives this an updated sound. MBV is not stuck back in the 90's which was my biggest fear before listening to this. My only gripe is a couple of songs which seemed more like half-baked ideas than fully realized songs (she found now, is this and yes), but the other tracks more than make up for this. MBV is a worthy successor to "Loveless" and well worth the wait. PS The jet-engine sample in Wonder 2 is one of the coolest things I've heard in the past few years.
Target Earth has elements of every era of Voivod, really, every album, including the 3 albums with Eric as vocals/bass. It has everything included and it does it well. AND it seems like some tunes are not like any era or album from the past, but are the new/future Voivod. So all the old plus something new. The real question is where the hell did this guitar player come from? I honestly thought that Piggy would be the only person capable of making this music. So the odds are defied. The stars were aligned. The probability of this album being produced as it came out to be were very low. How lucky for us! One question remains. Will we get to see them do this live someday in our home town, and see Jack Luminous done top to bottom once more? I bet we will!
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May 2024
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