Surfer Blood ‘Miranda’

A new song from the always entertaining Surfer Blood. It’s taken from their forthcoming e.p ‘Tarot Classics’.

Bon Iver and James Blake duet!

The biggest and best sad acts of 2011 have to be Bon Iver and James Blake, both of whom made terribly weepy albums that still managed to find critical and commercial success. A collaboration sounds like a match made in heaven and on the evidence of the song below it’s turned out they are indeed a match made in heaven. No news yet if this is a one-off or if an album is on the way (fingers crossed for the latter!)

Jay Z and Kanye West ‘Watch the Throne’ – Review

Jay Z and Kanye West are unquestionably the two biggest stars in rap, and possibly the best as well. So surely a collaboration album couldn’t fail? Well in many respects ‘Watch the Throne’ doesn’t fail; It’s a massive, skyscraper sized, gold-plated, stadium ready record, featuring the most expensive samples money can buy and guest appearances from the likes of Beyonce, La Roux and Frank Ocean. Needless to say it shifted nearly a million units in its first week alone.  Both Jay and Kanye’s last solo albums were their biggest and most over the top to date and, in certain respects, this album is even more ambitious and dramatic. So If that’s what you were expecting then ‘Watch the Throne’ is a roaring success, but if you were after something more substantial or exciting then you may well be disappointed.

Whilst ‘Watch the Throne’ is somehow even bigger than ‘The Blueprint III’ or ‘Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy’ it’s more streamlined and less chaotic. In fact it arrives in what can only be described as an understated manner. Opening track ‘No Church in the Wild’ is a slow burner, dominated by a Frank Ocean chorus and a couple of verses from Jay. When Kanye steps in, quite late in the day, he steals the show with a line about how doing cocaine off the body of a black woman makes her look like a zebra. Classic Kanye no doubt, but it’s too little too late to save this song. Beyonce adds a bit of energy to track two, ‘Lift Off’, but for some reason the track fails to “lift off” in truly spectacular fashion. It’s only on first single ‘Otis’ that things really get going. This is a chooooon in which both Jay and Kanye manage to convince you they are the coolest men in the universe whilst unleashing some funny one liners that prove they still know how to have some fun. The antics get wilder on ‘Niggas In Paris’, which is built around a quote from the Will Farrell comedy ‘Blades of Glory’.

However, not all of the album is as ‘chillaxed’, and as it progresses the mood becomes more serious, with themes of race, nationality, wealth and politics becoming central to the conversation. ‘Made It In America’ works in this respect, but ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Murder to Excellence’ are considerably less successful. ‘That’s My Bitch’ is a strangely addictive song but it’s strikingly similar to one of the hip hop parodies from Chris Liley’s ‘Angry Boys’ show. The sexist chorus is a just a bit embarrassing, the beat a bit too clinched, and the sample has been used countless times. It’s just far too predictable to work. The album closer ‘Why I Love You’ is also a bit underwhelming – the duo are at their best when they are trading verses, but their solo raps are a bit unmemorable and a bit too familiar a lot of the time.

Part of the appeal of Kanye’s excellent ‘Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy’ was hearing him knock down some of the public perceptions. He revealed a human side that hadn’t been seen before, and his confessionals were fascinating. ‘Watch My Throne’ just reinforces these perceptions; it’s the stereotypical big budget hip hop album and for the most part it’s pretty joyless and arrogant. In fact, I like it when Jay and Kanye cut loose, as on ‘Otis’, but far too often they are trying to get away with meaningless rhymes or straining to be serious, as on ‘Murder to Excellence’. I’m left feeling a bit confused as to what they were trying to achieve – was this meant to be a serious and innovative rap album or was it meant to simply be a chance for Kanye and Jay to let off some steam and have fun? It sounds like they weren’t sure either which has resulted in an inconsistent, incohesive, clichéd and sample heavy mess. From time to time they show why they are the best rappers (and why Kanye is the best hip hop producer) but they do it far too little to make this the classic album it wants to be.

5.5/10

Spector

Here is a new band worth getting excited about (they have been few and far between in recent months). They’re called Spector and the two songs I’ve heard have been stuck in my heard for days.

New From Girls ‘Honey Bunney’

Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’.