curiouser and curiouser

Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

Having a family member on Tumblr all of a sudden is enough to motivate me to start updating this thing again after a three-month silence. Since there’s so much to get through, I’m going to be lazy and just start from 2012 (there’s already nearly a dozen reviews!) - however, there’s just one more from last year that I want to put up. Originally written for Forge Press, and also readable here, it’s my review of Los Campesinos!’s newest album. One of my favourites of last year, and they’ve also just released the video for ‘Songs About Your Girlfriend’, one of my favourite tracks from the record.

Hello Sadness isn’t the title you’d expect to accompany the most accessible Los Campesinos! album yet – but lyrically, it’s spot on. Detailing lead singer Gareth’s most recent break-up, the album chronicles his feelings of grief so comprehensively that you may feel like you’ve just been dumped too.

Of course, they’re still the same upbeat indie pop group who penned that one song on the Budweiser advert. ‘Songs About Your Girlfriend’ is a highlight of the album, catchy and fast-paced, favouring tongue-in-cheek lyrics directed to an ex’s new boyfriend.

Songs that have already been paraded around the internet, opener ‘By Your Hand’ and the title-track, are solid parts of Hello Sadnessbut it’s relieving to hear that they’re by no means false advertising.

Whilst there are admittedly low points midway in the album during ‘Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)’ and ‘Hate For The Island’, they are growers, drilling into your head after a few listens.

Lyrically Los Campesinos! have stuck to their tried and tested formula of hyperrealism twinned with obtuse metaphors. Descriptions of stretch marks and “the sound of your pissing through the thin walls” permeate closer ‘Light Leaves, Dark Sees Pt. 2’ shortly after the slow-burning ‘To Tundra’ declares, “Take her body to tundra / Just take me with you as well”.

Standout track ‘Baby I Got The Death Rattle’ marries death and sex so perfectly with the line “Not headstone / But headboard / S’where I wanna be mourned”. It starts slow and builds itself up on a sensuous soundscape of backing strings and a strong percussion, proving that the band work best when everyone has a part to play. Kim’s vocals are arguably underused throughout Hello Sadness, but here they fit well.

Despite another line-up change, the band sound at their most cohesive, having created a tight album that really is their best one yet.

Ponytail - Do What You Want All The Time

RIP Ponytail :( Really great album. Read it here as well.

As both opening track and the lead single of Do What You Want All The Time, a lot was resting on ‘Easy Peasy’. There was never anything to worry about though, as Molly Siegel’s excitable vocals match the frenetic energy of the music with shouts “We’re running out of time” over and over.

‘Flabbermouse’ continues the tone of the album, and ‘Honey Touches’, despite its delicate name, is a bombastic perfect piece of organised chaos. ‘AwayWay’, if played live, would be an instant crowd-pleaser with shouts of “I know I know / You know you know” barely making it from behind out the accompanying feel-good wash  of squealing guitars and a cowbell.

If sophomore album Ice Cream Spiritual got good reviews three years ago, then Do What You Want All The Time can only be described as the creation of a band at the top of their game. At just over half an hour long, and with only seven tracks, it’s a tighter, more densely packed affair, tjan their previous effort, and so much the better for it.

Closer ‘Music Tunes’ starts off with a simple plucking of  guitar strings, but the looped sound keeps increasing in speed until it sounds like a helicopter taking off. Fortunately though, it fades and it replaced with a beautifully layered soundscape, leaving a lasting impression of how brilliant art-rock can actually be.

8/10

The Crookes - Chasing After Ghosts

As if I gave this album a 7. I love The Crookes, so I would like to rescind my earlier verdict and up it to 8 or 9/10. Definitely one of my albums of the year. Also readable on Forgetoday.com, as usual.

Chasing After Ghosts, the debut album from much-hyped band The Crookes, is a fabulous slice of traditional indie rock laden with poetic skills.

Lead single and opening track ‘Godless Girl’ is a beautiful, atmosphere-laden, ditty, setting up the album as a sweet homage to old ways, romance and youth. In contrast, ‘Chorus of Fools’ is more upbeat, a bit like The Libertines but less of a drug-addled joke, with dashes of something Smiths-like which permeate the whole album.

But what about the poetry, you ask? ‘The Crookes Laundry Murder, 1922’ (based on a real murder, history fans) is a slow, Eighties-inspired track that showcases Daniel Hopewell’s lyrical prowess when it comes to storytelling. It’s not quite up there with Turner’s efforts on last year’s Humbug, but gratuitous Arctic Monkeys comparisons aside, it’s a damn good effort for a first album, as George Waite croons “Leave the flowers at the gates. / If the rain fades your name, leave to fate. / Wake me for the mourning.”

‘I Remember Moonlight’ is one of the most romantic songs on the album, an ambitious recollection of a girl who got away: “Love, I remember moonlight / like the pale white of your skin beneath those coloured tights.” Clearly, though they may be known as musical poets, they aren’t abandoning mentions of real life any time soon either.

In an album flooded with youthfulness and heartbreak, ‘Carnabetian Charms’ fits in as the antithesis of the lads in The Crookes. With lines like “His glasses thick frames provide elegant ways to be seen / Stole style from the backs of trendy London magazines” it’s almost an attack on other bands of similar sound – but should also be taken as a warning for The Crookes themselves, that they not change as they get more and more praise.

Heavy closer ‘City of Lights’ is practically anthemic, whilst remaining romantic and true to The Crookes’ style. Though not Sheffield-born, we would be wise to adopt these ex-English students as our own, as they head on to bigger and better things.

7/10

The Goldberg Sisters - The Goldberg Sisters

I can’t even remember this album. Which says a lot about it, I guess, since it was only seven or so months ago that I reviewed it. Also up on ForgeToday.com.

Everyone remembers Crazy Eddie, Chandler’s one-time roommate in Friends, right? Well his real name is Adam Goldberg and he went and made some music under the moniker of The Goldberg Sisters.

Opening track ‘The Room’ starts dramatically, introducing listener’s to Goldberg’s slightly nasal, Lennon-esque vocals. It builds up to a crescendo of wails and other layered noises, before cooling off. It’s a light, gentle kind of psychedelic experimentation, but carries the forewarning that there’s more to come.

In contrast, ‘The Heart Grows Fonder’ is a crooning folk-rock tune complete with hand-claps. Although the song finishes after six minutes, there’s a bit of speaking around the tenth or eleventh minute, sped up and slowed down alternatively. As the last track on the album, it does one hell of a sign-off.

Lead single ‘Shush’ has the…privilege? shame? of its video being shot, in one take, on an iPhone. The album itself was recorded in just six weeks, so Goldberg seems the type to do whatever he feels works. It opens with some pretty, electronic notes, before Goldberg pops into negative mode with lyrics such as “has he ever so much as been / as much as a man?”

Goldberg’s lyrical manipulations of words create a strange juxtaposition of playfulness and the serious nature of the sounds he creates. The song becomes a bombastic affair which kind of falters, as if isn’t sure what it’s doing, much like the album as a whole.

After all, there’s a dark country track to be found in the following ‘Don’t Grow’, which doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. Midway through the album is also the fast-pace ‘Erik Erikson’ – its title referencing the psychologist who coined the phrase ‘identity crisis’. It’s understandable then, that the album doesn’t know who or what it is.

As a melting pot of styles, The Goldberg Sisters makes for an interesting experience. But that doesn’t necessarily mean good.

5/10

Max Shire - Goodbye Twenty Nine

So, I just looked and I have fifty more reviews/articles to put up. Six of which were written today. LOLOLOLOLOL. Anyway, this was written for Forge Press, and is also available on the Forge website. Sometimes it’s just more fun to review something you don’t like.

It’s ok, your CD isn’t skipping – though the first thirty seconds of Max Shire’s opener ‘Tomorrow My Servant’ may have you checking twice. After it sorts itself out, there are some interesting layers of edgy, grunge guitar riffs alongside a light, looping rhythm. Musically, it’s a good song, but lasts far too long at over seven minutes, and fails to stay interesting, a recurring problem for many of the seven tracks on the album.

It’s strange, but Max Shire would be better off slurring or distorting his voice much more, because then we wouldn’t hear so clearly how mundane and trivial his lyrics are: “Wake at six now / Hit the gym first / Got to work at just past nine.” Second track ‘Strum’ sounds great, so long as you pretend the lyrics are about something entirely different. Max’s vocals carry well against the alt-rock background, reflecting powerful emotion. The problem is, the aging angst trope has always been tricky to pull off, and it’s just been done so much better elsewhere, and another EP consisting of mostly the same theme just isn’t going to be appreciated.

Half way through Goodbye Twenty Nine is standout track ‘Office Scum’, which has a peculiar juxtaposition of a swooping, majestic chorus with crude lyrics such as “I’m office scum / I’m bent over daily.” Also notable is the decent breakdown towards the end which reasserts Max Shire’s corporate anger as his key theme.

Goodbye Twenty Nine ends unironically on ‘Last Hurrah’, a more acoustic affair attempting to show off Max’s varied skills. It comes across a little contrived, much like the high-pitched vocals, but is a nice ending to the EP, and of course, ties in to the album title itself, as Max sings “And I miss my past / But I don’t feel that bad / Anymore.”

5/10

Rango

Written for Forge Press, and also online on Forgetoday.com. Not a memorable film, in hindsight.

Why oh why are all animated films assumed to be for children? With trailers such as Rio and A Turtle’s Tale preceding Rango, it’s clear that the wrong demographic is being aimed at here. Yes, Rango is bright and colourful and will probably keep your younger sibling entertained, but there’s so much more to be appreciated from it.

Firstly, it’s weird. Really weird. It’s essentially a lizard’s existential crisis wrapped up in a spaghetti western. A person suspiciously looking a lot like Clint Eastwood makes an apt appearance as the Spirit of the West at one point, guiding our titular hero Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp) towards his destiny. Although, Rango is not his real name, and we never actually find out what is.

The amount of times Rango asks himself “Who am I?” gets a little grating, but it makes sense in the wider scheme of things. As a chameleon, Rango survives by blending in, but his attempts to find a place within the gritty town of Dirt lead him to exaggerate his back story and leads to his placement as sheriff. Rango must then balance his sheriff duties with working out who he really is.

It’s clear that the subject matter is for an older audience; though there is a lack of gore and violence, the  comedic western theme harks back to older films like Blazing Saddles, and this sense of homage will be sadly lost on many.

The fact that Rango looks amazing – so amazing, in fact, that it doesn’t need to be shown in 3D – only adds to the strange factor. Colours are, as mentioned, incredibly vivid, and the various, often unidentifiable critters inhabiting the town of Dirt are detailed down to the finest hair and feather. Indeed, there are small parts of the film which are seemingly only included for bragging rights. Do we really need to be shown individual grains of sand for this to be a good film? No. And yet we are.

The characters, incidentally, are stellar staples of the Western theme. There’s the not-to-be-trusted mayor, the nervous banker, the headstrong female (voiced in Rango by Isla Fischer, but seen just as recently in the Coen Brothers’ True Grit), and the comedic saloon regulars who make up Rango’s support group.

Of course, many moments are stolen by the owl – yes, owls – mariachi band, who are hilariously narrating the film as it goes along, placing Rango’s occasional acknowledgement of them in a strange, awkward state. But that sort of humour isn’t for kids, again, and what they’ll enjoy most is the amazing action sequences. Bill Nighy voices Rattlesnake Jake, one of the standout characters, complete with a machine gun for a tale, who features in some of the best action moments of the film.

Overall, Rango is a good film, with A-List credentials featuring a Hans Zimmer soundtrack and Gore Verbinski’s directorial flourish. But why bother with genius references to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly when your average viewers age is pre-teen?

7/10