Album reviews - Swell Season and Miike Snow

The Swell Season
‘Strict Joy’
(Plateau)

THE ACCOMPANYING press notes with this album reveal it as documenting a time of “great change, tumult and progression”.
Given that Oscar winning duo Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova reached such highs and bottomed out to a point where their relationship buckled under the strain of its intensity, that might just be the understatement of the year.
Interestingly the duo remain friends and have produced a delightful record that echoes elements of that strain and break-up but does not focus on it, produced by Peter Katis, who has worked with The National and Interpol, an ideal background, one feels, for this project.
This is, for all intents and purposes, a Frames record, the likes of which we haven’t heard since seminal offerings Dance the Devil and For The Birds; with the addition of Irglova’s effortlessly gorgeous vocals and warmth, the perfect foil to Hansard’s sometime glum nature.
The delightful ‘In These Arms’ is an early highlight, the Czech ingénue’s piano twisting delicately and intricately among the Frames (almost all of them are here, so why not refer to them as such) moody brand of Irish rock.
‘The Rain’ is superb; Colm MacCon Iomaire’s goosebump-inducing violin screeching in the background, the song building to a soaring finish that recent albums Burn The Maps and The Cost never reached for the Irish band.
Irglova takes over on ‘Fantasy Man’, a lovely ditty of a song that evokes her memorable walk through the streets in Once singing “If You Want Me”.
The highlights come thick and fast as the album progresses; the bassy, up tempo High Horses stopping abruptly on the line “we’ve gone as far as we can go”, violin holding the note in anticipation; the epic ‘I Have Loved You Wrong’ burnishing with emotion; the banjo-driven ‘Love That Conquers’ evocative of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s ever-so gently countrified offerings; the gloriously downbeat ‘Back Broke’ finishing the album - “back broke and happy; cause you’re nearer to me” - in wonderful style.
A wonderful album, probably - and unfortunately - made better by the heartbreak suffered in its making. Fabulous.
RATING 4/5

Miike Snow

‘Miike Snow’

(Downtown Records)

THE DELIGHTFULLY bouncy electro-pop of opener ‘Animal’ on this album from Miike Snow is a good yardstick of the gems contained within; fizzy, euphoric and ever so-slightly Caribbean in flavour.

However, the warmth of this opening track is gradually replicated by an icy demeanour and aloofness throughout this record from Grammy-winning Swedish producers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg who have teamed up with Brooklyn vocalist Andrew Wyatt to produce a record that screams of potential but falls somewhat short.

Capturing some of the melody of Vampire Weekend and wrapping it - or softening it - in subtle, gentle electro-pop rhythms was a genius idea from Karlsson and Winnberg, also known as ‘Bloodshy and Avant’, the team who produced Britney Spears’ Toxic and others for Madonna etc. Unfortunately, after the heights of Animal and the exceptional, soaring ‘Burial’, they seem to withdraw into their shells as the album progresses.

The electro-house beat of ‘Silvia’ is a case in point; well crafted and a delightful mix of piano and swirling beats, yet it is icy and opaque, lacking any connection with the listener.

Likewise the deep, atmospheric Prince-esque ‘Sans Soleil’, the ueber-dancy A Horse is Not a Home and the shimmering - yet soulless - new wave leanings of Plastic Jungle.

All of the above feel like an opportunity to blow the socks off the listener, albeit a failed one. The record is rescued by the aforementioned highlights, plus the off-kilter and energetic buzz of Black and Blue and the Passion Pit beat of Cult Logic - but it seems that these super-producers missed an opportunity to step out from the shadow of the mixing desk and leave themselves out there - thus making a record that narrowly fails to to meet its potential.

RATING 3/5

Album reviews - Muse and Newton Faulkner

Muse
‘The Resistance’
(Warner Music)

THIS album has been sitting on my desk for the past couple of weeks, just in my sight line, pleading with me to take it home and listen to its undoubted highlights.
The reason for my procrastination? Muse are simply a hard band to like.
They are without doubt one of the biggest bands in the world at this moment, their live shows unrivalled in terms of thrills and spills and sheer magnitude. On record however, they have struggled to replicate their massive sound to my satisfaction, with 2003’s Absolution the exception to the rule.
Interestingly, Muse seemed to have toned down the theatrics on this album, the woozy space rock of their earlier efforts replaced by a taut and fine direction.
Muse have gained a status as world leaders in epic, post-classical rock and fans will not be disappointed with this offering, but perhaps new fans might appreciate it more.
The arpeggio guitar treats on Resistance, the title track, are faintly reminiscent of Radiohead, at least until the very-Muse like piano kicks in and singer Matt Bellamy starts warbling. But there is a restraint here that is refreshing, the band abruptly breaking into territory more normally inhabited by the Who for the refrain - “it could be wrong, it could be wrong, it could never last”. Opener Uprising is admittedly less restrained, Battles like guitars and Dr. Who esque klaxon calls stuffed into its body.
The New Order synthesizer beat of Undisclosed Desires sees the band display a previously unheard harmonising and emotion, and it is impressive.
But the biggest eye-opener is the Queen sound on the opus United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage, a grandiose clarion call to arms.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Muse album without some form of overblown opus - the end of the album concluding with the three part Exogenesis Symphony - parts one, two and three, which can only be described as, a bit like Bellamy, totally barmy and almost existing in Star Wars territory (so much for restraint) but also absolutely superb.
Looks like Muse might have one more fan.
RATING 4/5

Newton Faulkner
‘Rebuilt by Humans’
(Sony)

BEARDED, dreadlocked troubadour Newton Faulkner returns with ‘Rebuilt by Humans’, the follow-up - we are told by the sticker on the front cover - to the million selling 2007 debut Hand Built By Robots.
The success of that album owed much to Faulkner’s - real name Sam - interesting guitar playing abilities, live performances and, cynically, the presence of a admittedly rather decent cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop.
Watching Faulkner at the recent Cois Fharraige festival it is clear that, cycnism aside, this guy is a superb musician, capable of producing full band-like performances by himself.
The soft twinkling guitar ‘Intro’ opens the album and segues effortlessly into the super-cool ‘Badman’, an early highlight, Faulkner’s funky rhythm’s driving the song.
At first listen follower ‘I Took It Out On You’ seems to stray dangerously close to boyband, X-factor territory, but is rescued by Faulkner’s engaging, gravely vocals and well-crafted musicianship.
Faulkner clearly likes his interludes, the 30 second snatch of ‘Hello’ preceding the emotional ‘If This Is It’ - another close skirmish with Ronan Keating territory, which thankfully comes through the other side owing to the presence of heavy orchestration and Faulkner’s howling vocals.
Other highlights are the effortlessly impressive and dark, didgeridoo driven Resin On My Heart Strings, the jazzy Let’s Get Together, Faulkner sounding eerily like Tom Baxter and the delicate This Town.
Unfortunately the album is let down by ill-advised efforts like Lipstick Jungle and the fact that, at 19 tracks, it is simply too long and too near soppy, wind in the hair ballads for my liking. RATING 2/5

Album reviews - Grizzly Bear and Pocket Promise

Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
(Warp Records)

IN 2004 Grizzly Bear - then largely the solo project of Ed Droste - released the hypnotic Horn Of Plenty, an atmospheric record dubbed “anti-folk” in some quarters. Whatever about that baffling label, in 2006 Grizzly Bear released Yellow House, a more complete offering, featuring a full band for the first time.
The journey this quartet have come over the release of these albums is interesting, and relevant to the album. This third offering from Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest, was released earlier in the summer but is already shaping up to be one of the finest of the year.
Veckatimest is definitely the group’s most complete offering in their short career. The band have said they feel it is their most accessible, but that is a debatable point. This is an album that will take weeks to sink in, but as it does, it will insert claws and refuse to be put to the back of the pile.
Opener Southern Point feels like a folk song, but is suffused with a polka beat, driving it forward. Interestingly the band are one of the few non-electronic outfits signed to Warp, but, for all their folk-indie leanings, there is an electro feel to some of the songs on this.
Fleet Foxes comparisons are inevitable, if a little lazy; although likely to be this year’s best release, as that self-titled debut was last year, there is more complexity here, an element of darkness that does not feature on Fleet Foxes pastoral folk offering.
However, the cheery, uplifting doo-wah of clear album highlight Two Weeks feels like it could have made it onto Fleet Foxes album, if not a Beach Boys one. The epic All We Ask features an opening spine-tingling central guitar part that Jeff Buckley would have been proud of, while the song itself goes through at least three distinct phases, rising and falling through thumping bass, military drums and soaring vocals.
This is an example of the genre-mixing, experimental rock that Grizzly Bear excel at and shows why this band are Radiohead’s favourites.
Listen to While You Wait For The Others and fail to be impressed, the band coming together sporadically for glorious multi-vocal choruses.
Superb.
RATING 5/5



Pocket Promise
I’ve Been Here For Ages
(Stop Go Music Limited)

THERE IS so much good music coming out of the North of this country that, at last, the notion that the anaemic Snow Patrol are the sole ambassadors for Northern Ireland should be counteracted.
Hard rock outfit And So I Watch You From Afar have already impressed this year, while this debut from the hugely promising (and aptly titled) Pocket Promise appears ready to add to the strength in depth among the booming scene in Belfast and beyond.
Where And So I Watch... are all screeching guitars and a Rage-esque wall of sound, Pocket Promise have produced an album full of lush instrumentation, indie-rock with an intelligent bent. The band released a double A-side before the album came out and one half of that single opens this album, the excellent, Radiohead influenced If Not The Tide Will Change.
Surprisingly the other half of that single is one of the lower points of the album, Talking Over Talking just a bit too standard soft-core guitar rock for us.
However, if this is a low point - there are many high points, an impressive level of depth, melody and heartfelt harmony on several of the songs.
The lush, sweeping strings of Deja Vu is preceded by the seven minute epic Sorry, while the skiffle lullaby beat of Inside Out will drag you under its spell.
There is an energy prevalent throughout all the songs on this offering, which at a little under 50 minutes, feels a little short.
However, if this album gets heard by the right people, you will find it difficult to wander past a radio without Pocket Promise’s indie rock blasting at you.
RATING 3/5

Album reviews - La Roux and Temper Trap

La Roux

La Roux

(Polydor)

THIS IS an album I really didn’t want to like; is that highly unprofessional to say?

Billed from the first of this year as one of umpteen female-led electro-pop outfits to watch by music magazines (exclusively British-based publications) my hackles were raised when I heard about La Roux, along with Florence and the Machine, Little Boots etc.

However, even a mere half-listen to this album will induce a disco-high, foot-tapping, enjoyable-against-better-judgement, aural experience.

La Roux, the electropop, synth duo of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid have pulled off that most impressive of feats, namely living up to the hype.

Where Jackson is the singer/synth-playing La Roux persona, Langmaid is the shadowy co-writer and producer, willing to leave Jackson in the limelight. But Jackson is no window dressing, there is real talent and spikiness in her voice and performance, while the former Faithless contributor Langmaid has clearly done much to encourage her out of her shell.

The interesting thing is not just that they have co-written most of the offerings on this 12-track debut - but that Jackson comes from a folk background, and that comes through in the songs, despite being twisted inside out with synthesizers and drum machines.

First single Quicksand is not as dancy as expected, a synth-pop sound in evolution and an interesting contrast with In For The Kill, the second single from the album, Jackson allowing her personality to filter through.

The effortlessly cool and unflinchingly dark Tigerlily is an eye-opener, right down to the clearly Thriller-inspired spooky voiceover.

Things hot up on the bouncy disco-beat of Bulletproof, the duo’s first UK number one, “I’ve been there done that, messed around / I’m having fun don’t put me down / I’ll never let you sweep me off my feet”, declares Jackson boldly.

The best thing about this is that the album is so much more than the sum of its singles; the gentle, relaxed beat of Cover My Eyes is stuffed with emotion; the acerbic I’m Not Your Toy is a smash waiting to happen, while Armour Love will seduce you with its angular rhythms.

A thrilling debut, worth the hype.

RATING: 4/5

Temper Trap

Conditions

(Infectious Records)

THIS Australian four-piece have literally mined every known influence under the sun and produced an album suffused with bits from here and there; U2/Edge jangly guitars, Bloc Party’s angular drumming, the Killers’ thumping bass-lines, Coldplay harmonies, Stars/Broken Social Scene vocals, Sufjan-strings - the list could go on. Do they succeed?

Yes, in a word.

Hailing from the musical hotspot of Melbourne - there is literally a bar around every corner groaning with any manner of new, up and coming bands - this indie quartet have recently decamped to London and it is hard to see them remaining relatively unknown for long.

The plodding beat of opening track ‘Love Lost’ echoes with these influences and more, finding peaks and troughs, rising and falling along with Dougie Mandagi’s (what a great name) vocals.

‘Rest’ is stuffed with pulsating rhythms and atmospheric guitars, no standard run of the mill indie music here. The Unforgettable Fire-esque Sweet Dispositions impresses, “Don’t stop till you surrender”, sings Mandagi and we are tempted to agree.

The epic ‘Soldier On’ is the centre-piece of this album, a whiff of Empire of the Sun about it despite its acoustic nature, building to a booming conclusion.

‘Resurrection’ exhibits the confidence this band has in spades; what could be a bad Scissor Sisters-style disaster instead veers toward a bouncy, Zeppelin influenced - check out the falsetto vocals on this - breakout, all jangly-spacey guitars and thumping drums.

Oh yes, I’ll have some more of this please.

RATING 4/5

Album reviews - Wallis Bird and Mos Def

FROM Tuesday's Limerick Chronicle: Many thanks to guest reviewer Ger Fitzgibbon for his interesting insights into the world of Mos Def...

Mos Def - ‘The Ecstatic’

(Downtown Records)

IN the past ten years, the mainstream has chewed away at the edges of some of hip hop’s finest craftsmen, and the genre has suffered because of it.

In 2006, when he released the utterly uninspiring ‘True Magic’, Mos Def forced many purists to gasp a sharp breath and avert their eyes. Once the finest exponent of the cut-and-paste sample with the hard political question, Dante Smith seemed to be on a greasy slide to the middle.

Thankfully, ‘The Ecstatic’ has tethered the thinking man’s hip hop leviathan back to his base. Mos Def’s fourth solo album is a masterful return to form, and one that has come not a moment too soon.

The overlapping production of Madlib, Oh No and Mr Flash (plus another posthumous appearance from J Dilla on ‘History’) pulls the sound of the record in different angles, with Bollywood samples in ‘The Embassy’ contrasting with the bombastic synth in ‘Life in Marvellous Times’.

But throughout ‘The Ecstatic’ there is a simmering energy that is driven by some of Mos Def’s finest lyrical flow in years. He, like Q Tip before him in 2008’s opus ‘The Renaissance’, seems invigorated by the pragmatic joy of the world view of Obama’s America - ‘And we are alive in amazing times/delicate hearts, diabolical minds’.

‘The Ecstatic’ may not reach the stratospheric heights touched by ‘The Renaissance’, but it takes a admirable shot nonetheless. It is, however, a tad unsettling to think that the skill required to execute such a polished hip hop record today lies in the hands of probably less than two dozen men, many of whom are scraping 40.

Still, if Mos Def can continue to summon this sort of prolificacy, we will not have to wrestle with the death of hip hop just yet.

RATING 4/5

GER FITZGIBBON

Wallis Bird - New Boots’

(Rubyworks)

IT CAN’T be easy to be Wallis Bird; acoustic guitar-toting dynamo, a whirlwind of energy and whitticisms - leading the way for the new batch of Irish singer songwriters in her inimitable style.

It can’t be easy because of her very obvious independent streak; this is the type of girl who would likely tell some big-wig record company exec to go and jump if she was asked to bend her music to some mainstream bent.

Bird, from Wexford, surfed into 2008 on the back of some gushing reviews for her debut album Spoons and strong word of mouth on her exuberant live performances, before playing sold out tours of Ireland, the UK and Europe, and supporting acts as diverse as Gabrielle and Billy Bragg.

Spoons was a triumph to her individuality; a superbly crafted acoustic pop album that was often whimsical but also capable of erupting with a harder edge, and there was plenty of bite to her lyrics.

Bird had already recorded Spoons when she signed with Island Records - a deal that fell apart last year, a marriage destined not to work, the spiky singer reckoning that they did “f*ck all with it”.

Now, after much soul searching, Bird is back with excellent follow-up New Boots. An album that is at times overwhelming due to it’s incredible energy, it nonetheless firmly underlines the potential displayed on her debut.

The theme running through this 13-track offering is of a performer living on the edge, one searching for love, that may be just beyond her reach. Capable of running the gamut of memorable female front women from Joni Mitchell to Chrissie Hynde in the blink of an eye, there is affection and anger here in equal measure.

Unsurprisingly there is a harder edge to this second album; see the bassy-funk of La La Land and the visceral energy of opening track Can Opener, which features a spine-tingling yelp from Bird. The jazzy Travelling Bird has plenty of bite, while first single To My Bones screams of radioplay potential.

By contrast the whimsical acoustic groove of An Idea About Mary, the emotional When We Kissed and soaring Measuring Cities showcase a singer and songwriter capable of combining the sweet with the sour.

This Bird is too wild to be caged up - and more power to her.

RATING 3/5

ALAN OWENS

Album reviews

The Chapters
‘Perfect Stranger’

THE SIREN call of 'Juice', the opening track on the debut album from hotly tipped Irish band The Chapters, is an immediately affecting one, dispelling preconceived notions about this outfit.

I had fears that the album in my hand was going to be a proto-pop/rock offering, a la the Blizzards - as is the wont of many Irish bands out there, seeking to follow in the footsteps of that bizarrely popular band.

Not in this case.

"I don't know why you hurt yourself so/I just don't get it," croons lead singer Ross McNally, his gravelly timbre a refreshing one, revelling in its impurities. These gruff tones remind one more of The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon.

The short, sharp opening track is followed by the keyboard/synth-driven tones of 'Videotapes' - clearly a summer hit waiting to happen, the harmonic efforts of McNally’s fellow bandmates filling the listener's ears with beautiful melodies. No surprises that this is the first single off the album.

Several tracks continue in this vein, ie 'Automobiles', but it is when the Chapters display their range that you find yourself being sucked in by their music.

Particularly 'Moving' and the foot-stomping acoustic-punk of 'Ukrainian Gymnast', featuring a superb closing barbershop-quartet effect.

Original single 'Looking For Love' is still bursting with energy, throwing up all sorts of Talking Heads comparisons but sounding fresh, bouncy and like a band having fun.

That is the key here; rather than banging out some run of the mill, moody rock and roll, the Chapters have combined a retro synth sound with some well crafted songs and an all pervading sense of a band happy with their sound.

This is an excitingly catchy and engaging album that will require, nay demand, to be listened to over and over.

Let's catch hold of ourselves here; these lads are not the saviours of Irish rock and roll, but there is enough here that sounds fresh and exciting to lift the spirits of this oft-beleagured reviewer.

RATING: 3/5

Tinariwen
‘Imidiwan: Companions’

IF SOMEONE told you that an eight-piece electric guitar group, hailing from the bowels of the Southern Sahara Desert, had released one of the albums of the year, would that sound far fetched? Well it’s true.

The “band” is Tinariwen, a rag tag collection of Tuareg guitarists, poets and rebels - members of a nomadic people who inhabit the Sahara. It is clear that their environment is a crucial ninth member of the group, forming and shaping the sound on their fourth album “Imidiwan” or Companions, like the wind shapes the dunes in that expanse of desert.

This beguiling 13 track album has been produced by Jean-Paul Roman, who worked with Tinariwen on their debut album The Radio Tisdas Sessions, which was rapturously received in world music circles.

Let me say, I hate that genre-definition, “world-music” - and find it hugely condescending. Surely all music is world-music? The problem is that anything slightly left of centre - or sung in a foreign language - is labelled as world music.

This is an album that Hendrix fans and sean-nos chant lovers alike should love in equal measure - the album containing a magnetic quality that makes it simply intoxicating.

Intoxicating is a word that keeps recurring; opening track Imidiwan Afrik Tendam (My Friends From All Over Africa) containing a fabulously intoxicating melody, fixed over a chorus of guitars and bongos. Tenhart (The Doe) features the most gorgeously repetitive, simple blues guitar lick, transposed with a sort of Malian rap, while the incessant throb of Enseqi Ehad Didagh (Lying Down Tonight) is eye-opening, despite its raw simplicity.

The album was recorded in the Malian desert village home of band members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and Hassan Ag Touhami and is such a simple, yet devastatingly effective offering, that you can simply close your eyes and see the windswept village and its inhabitants.

An astonishing album.

RATING: 4/5