Crystal Castles ‘Crystal Castles’ – Review

The new Crystal Castles album has creepy cover. It’s just a picture of a strange, pale girl dressed in black and hunching over a grave. It’s a striking image yet a vague one, hard to define, hard to connect with. These accusations could just as easily be thrown at the duo’s music not too long ago – sterile, distant, weird and yet striking.

Their debut album defined a certain feeling in electronic music a couple of years back. In particular ‘Alice Practice’ captured an excitement that a new age of nostalgia fueled electro was upon us. It took the beeps and sirens of rave and contrasted them perfectly with 8 bit game sounds and It was something of a revelation. But if people thought that the song would change the face of electro they were wrong, it wouldn’t even predict the major mood of their album. It sat along side a whole host of different musical styles from synth pop to digi punk, techno to shoegaze. It was a deliberate mish-mash of everything and the result was an equally brilliant and frustrrating experience.

Now they are back with album number two and to confuse us even more this is also self titled. Like the first record there is a lot to digest here, it’s fourteen tracks long and each song sounds unique.  This time though they have given us links, themes that reappear along the way, and these titbits keep the songs glued together to make a cohesive and well structured whole. A hip hop beat for example is used to great effect on several tracks, including stand out ‘Empathy’. Alice’s vocals are given the shoegaze treatment most of the time, her voice is hidden and soft making a few tracks sound like M83. It makes the album a smoother ride than the first one, which featured all kinds of crazy vocal tricks and distortion.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still lots of shouting and noise – too much on album opener ‘Fainting Spells’ and first single ‘Doe Deer’ – but the noise now seems to be more carefully considered as a part of the whole. There are no jarring departures from form like there were on the first album, instead emphasis seems to have been placed on the overall sound rather than a single hook or lyric. Therefore when their custom 8 bit sounds appear on ‘I Am Chalk’ they don’t sound gimmicky, they sound like just another instrument.

It’s hard to judge, sitting in an arm-chair, just how good this album is – it simply isn’t meant to be listened to like that. These are songs that need to be heard on the dance floor, or live at a sweaty club. Crystal Castles have always enjoyed a reputation as one of the most insane live acts around and I get the feeling that these songs will fit in nicely with their older material. As a studio band they have moved on leaps and bounds with album number two – it may not have the zeitgeist defining singles that the first one had, but it irons out the niggles and flaws of that album very well. They are still the old Crystal Castles but just more refined.

8/10

Best Coast ‘When I’m With You’

Best Coast have gone and made a video for ‘When I’m With You’ and it’s a pretty good video for an excellent song. Still no news on the album to report  sadly although it will be out later this year.

http://www.mtvu.com/video/?vid=501225

The Drums ‘Forever and Ever Amen’ and album news

The Drums  premiered their new single ‘Forever and Ever Amen’ on Zane Lowe’s show last night. The single is the follow-up to ‘Best Friend’, ‘I Felt Stupid’ and ‘Lets Go Surfing’ and is taken from the forthcoming debut album ‘The Drums’. That is out on June 7th according to Amazon and a couple of album covers have appeared online – one being a cool picture of the band, the other being a shot of their logo on a stage. The record is rumoured to have 12 tracks with one or two having previously been released on the ‘Summertime’ ep. Hear the new single below at Zane’s blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/zanelowe/

Girls ‘Album’ – Review

Every feature and review of this band that I have so far read has started by giving a brief history of its lead singer. Ok,  this man has one heck of an interesting story, even by this industry’s standards, but for me it just detracts from the music. For him too you suspect because he called the album, ‘Album’, as if to ask us to focus on the music and nothing else. So I will.

At it’s heart ‘Album’ is a classic pop recod with rock n roll vigour pouring through its veins. It has a DIY aesthetic that makes this sound like a long lost treasure as well as a glimpse into the future. And underneath the fuzz and feedback of tracks like ‘Morning Light’ and ‘God Damned’ there is such a sweet heart, a heart that has been broken many times. Christopher Owens has clearly been messed up by a long list of things; but ignore the Cult, the pills, suicides etc and top of the list is women. The persecutors are named and shamed here, ‘Laura’, ‘Lauren Marie’, as well as you suspect numerous more unnamed. After all I heard about the band I was surprised to find that the majority of these tracks are very laid back; acoustic, classic songs of heartbreak. ‘Ghost Mouth’ and ‘Hellhole Ratrace’ are two such tracks, both featuring that classic ‘Be My Baby’  drumbeat, pretty guitars and overwhelmingly evocative vocals. The lyrics are at times very morbid, ‘I’ve got a sad song in my sweet heart, and all i really am is needing some love and attention’. But the very fact that this album has been made suggests that Owens now has an optemistic attitude, an attitude (as the final track ‘Darling’ suggests) that has been discovered through music.

It has been compared to a lo-fi Pet Sounds, but it would be much more accurate to describe it as a lo-fi ‘Today’, Pet Sounds predecessor. Like Brian Wilson on Today, Girls know the power of sitting high energy rockers alongside the slower more emotional numbers. The first track, ‘Lust For Life’, is one of the best singles of the year and it kicks of the album brilliantly. The chord progression is deceptively simple and old fashioned, the sound of someone steeped in the music of everyone from Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello. It’s lyrical content is jarring, ‘I wish I had a boyfriend, I wish I had a loving man in my life’, and delivered in a conversational manner with no punches spared – ‘You’ve been a bitch, I’ve been an ass’. He strikes like a wounded animal and seems to instantly regret his fiery temper and directness – This is equally an album of apology as it is an album of sorrow, regret and rage. As the band name suggests, girls are at the forefront of Owen’s mind.

The more upbeat moments are also cheap and cheerful stabs at classic sounds, and they hit the mark perfectly. The songs don’t sound poured over at all, rather they sound like they were written and recorded in the haze of a party, when the alcohol and pills were taking over. And though they sound like many a classic Beach Boy or Roy Orbison track, these songs hold delicious twists in both music and lyrics. ‘I’ve got a High School crush on a California Girl oh yeah’, sings Owens on one song and it could be any surf song from the early sixties, albeit one recorded on the cheapest set up available. Then in the next line he sings ‘I’ve got a cool guitar and a bag of marijuana man’, and suddenly all has changed. The song is unexpectedly called ‘Big Bad Mean Motherfucker’.

‘Album’ is one of the most interesting releases of the year. It perfectly captures the essence of pop music and then rids it of all the excess and unnecessary production that has become a by-product of the digital age. This is a forward thinking and highly enjoyable record that fortunately seems to be at the forefront of a new line of albums with similar sensibilities. It will be fascinating to see where Girls go next and whether their second album will capture the same energy and lo-fi buzz, or whether they will take advantage of the opportunities available to them and go for a more produced and crafted sound that was rejected here. Right now though you need this ‘Album’ in your life.

8.5/10

Reverend and The Makers ‘A French Kiss…’ – Review

Old Rev’s debut album ‘The State of Things’ wasn’t that good. It was pretty shocking actually. some OK songs really let down by flat production and vocals that made you want to move to London so you never had to hear a northern accent again. It didn’t help that Rev thought he was some kind of modern day Joe Strummer – his full political rage was delivered on the truly bad ‘Mongral’ album unleashed earlier in the year. Fair play – the guy has strong and noble political views, but he seems to think he is some kind of messiah whose words will change the world. They won’t because he simply isn’t good enough at this moment in time.

Not that this album is bad, which is all the more surprising. There is nothing really that stands out but there aren’t too many stinkers either, in fact it all kind of blurs into one hazy record – the album title is quite apt. It is an album of chaos but there are moments to savor. Brief moments – not entire songs – but basslines, hooks and sometimes lyrics that actually make you think. On first single ‘Silence is talking’ it’s the borrowed horn section that really steals the day and makes the track a winner.

The influence of Britpop is all over this record, a nice shift of gears from the more upbeat Jam-esque vibe of ‘The State of Things’. It is commendable that Rev has opted for a more adventurous album when many of his contemporaries prefer to stick to one formula. It is also commendable that he continues to strive for political change even in the face of hostilities and flak he receives. His political ramblings even hit the mark on ‘No soap in a dirty war’.

If a political, britpop throwback record is your cup of tea then you are likely to love ‘French Kiss in The Chaos’, even if it isn’t the classic you imagine Rev wants it to be. It is considerably less annoying than the debut and makes some positive strides in the right direction. This is a man with something to say and I look forward to hearing what will come next.

5.5/10

Humbug!

Arctic Monkeys new album will be released on Monday 24th August (only a few days before they headline Reading and Leeds) and it will be called….’Humbug’. OK – wasn’t expecting that and I still don’t know what to make of it but it certainly conjures some images… Here is the track-listing

1. “My Propeller”
2. “Crying Lightning”
3. “Dangerous Animals”
4. “Secret Door”
5. “Potion Approaching”
6. “Fire and the Thud”
7. “Cornerstone”
8. “Dance Little Liar”
9. “Pretty Visitors”
10. “The Jeweller’s Hands”

I’m really excited, everything I’ve heard about the album sounds really interesting and I am already won over by some track titles (and Ten is a magic number for albums). Crying Lightning is already familiar and it’s got some great lyrics. I was less impressed by an early demo of  ‘Fire and the Thud’ and a live version of ‘Dangerous Animals’ but they will probably grow on me. Just can’t wait to see them live again!