Whilst we have to contend
with wave after wave of dreadful Libertines rip offs (still) in the UK other
English speaking nations seem to be churning out refreshing, epic indie rock
every two seconds. The Besnard Lakes are one such band, they can play it hard
and fast and the can play it dreamy, no mean feat.
‘Disaster’ sounds
like the Beach Boys crossed with early REM whilst ‘Devastation’ is an
absolute epic almost like Jesus and Mary chain and the Earlies combined.
Convinced? Go on treat yourself.
Oh dear, whatever are we to do with these fellows?
The previous Arcade Fire album was largely heralded as a masterpiece, so with
almost Christ-like expectations for the follow up it was always going to be
difficult. Difficult it is, the grossly annoying preacher man vocals make this
hard going to listen to at times. ‘Antichrist Television Blues’
sounds like Bruce Springsteen, which is fine if indeed you are the bicep
bulging bore. Also ‘Windowsill’ is far too much of an anti US foreign
policy song for my liking (guys you are at least two years too late to join
that bland bandwagon). Neon Bible just seems to find the group a bit unsure
about their music. If the third album is as uninspired as this I’d
recommend a career in trolley pushing, at least you have an excuse for being
monotonous then.
Menomena describe their music as post-punk,
post-hip hop, post-pop, post-rock which implies they don’t quite sound
like anything you’ll ever have heard before. Menomena sounds good
that’s for sure but to suggest Friend and Foe is way ahead of its peers in
any respect is a bit over the top.
There are at least four stand out tracks to
this album and it all starts well with ‘Muscle’n Flo’ followed
by the excellent ‘Pelican’ the rest of the album isn’t too
shabby either. This is loud, multi-instrumental US indie rock. Part Arcade
fire, part Oxford Collapse. There is more interesting stuff out there but
Friend And Foe already looks like it will get the exposure it
deserves.
Currently most US stadium rock bands shamelessly take their inspirational cue
from British artists of the 80’s (think Interpol — Joy Division).
Kings of Leon from listening to this, are rather unfashionably getting hints
from their homeland. ‘The Runner’ could be Neil Young ‘Black
Thumbnail’ Steppenwolf and I’ll tell you this, they sound bloody
fantastic.
Kings of Leon have apparently been almost totally ignored
in the US in comparison with the UK and god alone knows why. They tick all the
boxes for unadulterated, good time, great sounding rock. Anyone who plans on
purchasing some bourbon and kicking loose this year needs to buy
this.
The Hold Steady are apparently
going to be big in 2007. Witty, exciting and fresh are some of the words used
to describe this album by critics. One can only assume their definitions of the
latter are Graham Norton, St. Mirren Vs Dunfermline and tinned pork. This is
dumb Less Than Jake style pop punk. It’s feasible they may make some
headway but I’ll bet if they do there are 100 emo/ska bands out there
crying on the toilet muttering about how they could have been Elvis.
‘Chip’s ahoy’ is passable but the rest is pretty poor. Anyway
what do you expect from an album with a cover that looks like it was knocked up
on Photoshop?
Nick Cave is
almost like some sort of comedy Goth. His music can be delightfully dark but as
he’s from the antipodes you suspect after a night baying at the moon and
stomping pentagrams in the neighbours flowerbed he wakes up, has a Steinlager
and goes out to enjoy the sun. Grinderman see’s him reunited with some of
the Bad Seeds in what is a very raw scaled down album. ‘No Pussy
Blues’ the standout track is as amusing as it is creepy, lyrically Cave is
very much on form here and the Fallesque drumming and bass are wonderful to
behold. Conversely ‘Man On The Moon’ finds Cave in melancholic yet
melodic mode, proving he’s as versatile as ever. Grinderman is exactly
like waking up to a Steinlager, great idea at the time but if you stick with it
all day you’ll get a headache.
Patrick Wolf has turned into something of an enigma.
There is no debating the fact he’s an odd child with an odd sense of style
and one has to wonder in this day and age if that’s why he’s been so
lauded ‘look everyone this wonky guy dresses like he has special needs and
he sings!’. Well Patrick Wolf extends his extrovert demeanour onto his
music, one only has to listen to the title song to realise the lad has a
musical gift. This is by no means perfect but its infectious, jaunty, electro
pop, what more could you want!
After a foray
into folksy country music Womble rejoins his posse to knock out another safe
and boring Idlewild album. Once dubbed the Scottish REM (surprisingly a billing
which stuck) Idlewild are pretty adept at putting together yawnsome
unthreatening little rock songs but there is nothing on this new album to
suggest they have moved on from their marginally successful early singles.
Worryingly for them their upcoming tours include a number of dates at
University Unions and the like, its doubtful whether their Athens USA
‘counterparts’ ever had to do that at a similar stage in their
career.
