Having a listen on spotify now. One for the list, I think.
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Albums Thread - 2015
- Thread starter Theatre of Trees
- Start date
Having a listen on spotify now. One for the list, I think.
Currently liking Ghost Culture. Possible early 2015 top 5 entry
tinycowboy
Well-known member
Little bit too well mannered for me. Like the single though.
AmexRuislip
Retired Spy 🕵️♂️
Waiting for the debut album 'Let it Reign' from Carl Barat & the Jackals, Feb 16th.
The single A Storm is coming, is released Feb 23rd
The single A Storm is coming, is released Feb 23rd
That's fair. It's nicely crafted though.
I've had a very 'well mannered' day; Timber Timbre > Twerps > Decemberists.
Vietcong next, mind. Time to wake up a bit.
tinycowboy
Well-known member
Don't get me started on Vietcong...
I've got 68 songs to catch up on. Currently on Starry Eyed Cadet: one for you and Buzzer maybe (if you haven't already heard them) - jangly guitar, chanson, Scandinavian-sounding singer with silky but light voice, a touch of Alvvays. They've got a Bandcamp page.Machiavelli
Well-known member
What Timber Timbre? I got Hot Dreams courtesy of this thread (or last year's, if I'm being precise), and think it's extremely lush, brilliantly orchestrated and justly described as cinematic -- a bit like Lambchop when they were good, ie, Why I Quit Smoking.
Can you, or anyone else, expand on their earlier work?
spring hall convert
Well-known member
Vision Fortune's last record on the ever reliable Faux Discx was awesome, haven't heard the new one yet but the song they released prior to the album sounded a bit like Drums Not Dead era Liars. They play Bleach next month with Soft Walls, a mouthwatering bill.
http://fauxdiscx.bandcamp.com/album/mas-fiestas-con-el-grupo-vision-fortune
Don't get me started on Vietcong...
Does indeed sound like my kind of BAG. Will investigate.
Buzzer maybe. Only Hot Dreams here.
Theatre of Trees
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #230
Chromatics - Dear Tommy is out in March, the follow up to 2012's Kill for Love
Contains a reworked version of this track
[yt]CjQ2jGUNSck[/yt]
The first single can be found here, https://soundcloud.com/johnnyjewel/chromatics-just-like-you, which is free to download.
Contains a reworked version of this track
[yt]CjQ2jGUNSck[/yt]
The first single can be found here, https://soundcloud.com/johnnyjewel/chromatics-just-like-you, which is free to download.
Theatre of Trees
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #231
This is rather nice, from an EP called Dross.
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There's an element of early Lush in this I think.
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There's an element of early Lush in this I think.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
Got to share this review of the new Peace album 'Happy People'. If you read a more scathing review of an album this year I'd like to see it!
http://www.drownedinsound.com/releases/18638/reviews/4148690
"Happy People is a record that basks in its own mediocrity...Peace’s lyrical fumbling is not just gauche, but wilfully bad, like Alan Partridge refashioned as a street poet for frustrated millennials."
http://www.drownedinsound.com/releases/18638/reviews/4148690
"Happy People is a record that basks in its own mediocrity...Peace’s lyrical fumbling is not just gauche, but wilfully bad, like Alan Partridge refashioned as a street poet for frustrated millennials."
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
I can't top that but if I could I'd do the same demolition job on an equally bad album: Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs.
In theory this kind of music is probably the music I love most in this world: Nordic pop with a female singer. It's always a let down when you come across a bad album but this one surprised me because it got a fantastic review in the Guardian and elsewhere it was praised quite highly. There was no clue to the mess that this album is. Ms Sundfør is a Norwegian singer with a not too bad pedigree behind her and the concept was 10 different songs discussing 'love'. Fairly safe ground and plenty of scope there. The result is unbearable.
It starts with the kind of Euro-disco electro-pop that surely no-one still listens to, that bland vocoder, key change cliched shit that passes for music on mobile phone adverts and radio stations in Eastern Europe. It then bizarrely switches to full-blown classical orchestral and then back to Eurovision-standard dance music and then onto 6 octave ballads that Mariah Carey occasionally inflict upon us under the banner of "emotive, powerful love songs". It's not. It's shit, it's all been done before and I don't want to hear it ever again. I forget whether it's cod-classical or Now That's What I Call Auto-Tune thereafter. I've a good mind to write a stiff letter of complaint to the Guardian about nepotism in their reviews because I can't believe that a serious music critic could have written the gushing review that he/she did unless they were a kindly elder relative.
In theory this kind of music is probably the music I love most in this world: Nordic pop with a female singer. It's always a let down when you come across a bad album but this one surprised me because it got a fantastic review in the Guardian and elsewhere it was praised quite highly. There was no clue to the mess that this album is. Ms Sundfør is a Norwegian singer with a not too bad pedigree behind her and the concept was 10 different songs discussing 'love'. Fairly safe ground and plenty of scope there. The result is unbearable.
It starts with the kind of Euro-disco electro-pop that surely no-one still listens to, that bland vocoder, key change cliched shit that passes for music on mobile phone adverts and radio stations in Eastern Europe. It then bizarrely switches to full-blown classical orchestral and then back to Eurovision-standard dance music and then onto 6 octave ballads that Mariah Carey occasionally inflict upon us under the banner of "emotive, powerful love songs". It's not. It's shit, it's all been done before and I don't want to hear it ever again. I forget whether it's cod-classical or Now That's What I Call Auto-Tune thereafter. I've a good mind to write a stiff letter of complaint to the Guardian about nepotism in their reviews because I can't believe that a serious music critic could have written the gushing review that he/she did unless they were a kindly elder relative.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
Three albums that I’ve been listening to a lot over the weekend.
Marika Hackman – ‘We Slept At Last’ This collection of songs is completely unrecognisable from her previous EPs where she did a nice but unremarkable line in guitar folk and placed herself in the same market as Laura Marling. She’s re-invented herself and her music whilst staying firmly in the folk tradition. Often on the album she has gone right back to Nick Drake/Leonard Cohen sparseness with exquisite lyrics whereas in others she’s more Nick Cave with a fuller backing band and with his trademark darkness. This is one of those albums that needs 4 or 5 listens before you can really get your head around what she’s up to but it’s well worth the investment in your time.
Breakfast In Fur – ‘Flyaway Garden’ Another upstate NY band making indie dream-pop but this time with a psychedelic tinge to it. The album starts very brightly and there’s some quite lovely songs but the album trails off very rapidly at the end and I lost interest. I’ve listened to the album about 4 or 5 times now and each time the same result.
The Amazing – ‘Picture You’ Wow! This album is a must listen to for anyone beguiled by Kozalek or War On Drugs. It’s a fantastic album, and almost impossible to describe without avoiding the superlatives-overload. Various reviewers have said that it draws heavy influence from Led Zep but I hear Pink Floyd far more in it, it’s both post-rock and prog-rock, indie and mainstream and incredibly lush, cinematic (told you I’d find it impossible to avoid the usual clichés), whatever you want to use describe this ‘big’ album. I think that would be my best description: ‘big’. This Swedish band have made a very bold and confident statement and this is no time for false modesty. It’s quite something. Highly recommended.
Marika Hackman – ‘We Slept At Last’ This collection of songs is completely unrecognisable from her previous EPs where she did a nice but unremarkable line in guitar folk and placed herself in the same market as Laura Marling. She’s re-invented herself and her music whilst staying firmly in the folk tradition. Often on the album she has gone right back to Nick Drake/Leonard Cohen sparseness with exquisite lyrics whereas in others she’s more Nick Cave with a fuller backing band and with his trademark darkness. This is one of those albums that needs 4 or 5 listens before you can really get your head around what she’s up to but it’s well worth the investment in your time.
Breakfast In Fur – ‘Flyaway Garden’ Another upstate NY band making indie dream-pop but this time with a psychedelic tinge to it. The album starts very brightly and there’s some quite lovely songs but the album trails off very rapidly at the end and I lost interest. I’ve listened to the album about 4 or 5 times now and each time the same result.
The Amazing – ‘Picture You’ Wow! This album is a must listen to for anyone beguiled by Kozalek or War On Drugs. It’s a fantastic album, and almost impossible to describe without avoiding the superlatives-overload. Various reviewers have said that it draws heavy influence from Led Zep but I hear Pink Floyd far more in it, it’s both post-rock and prog-rock, indie and mainstream and incredibly lush, cinematic (told you I’d find it impossible to avoid the usual clichés), whatever you want to use describe this ‘big’ album. I think that would be my best description: ‘big’. This Swedish band have made a very bold and confident statement and this is no time for false modesty. It’s quite something. Highly recommended.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
Cracker – ‘Berkeley to Bakersfield’
I’d forgotten all about Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker’s alter-ego and I wasn’t aware of Cracker at all, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear this. It’s a double album split into the protest/political tunes in the first half (presumably the Berkeley part) and more traditional homespun affairs of life in a small unfashionable part of rural California (Bakersfield). The album works as two distinct parts, the alt-country style has always lent itself well to protest tunes and Woody Guthrie himself would be proud of the stance the band take in the first part of the album. They’re certainly not going to be invited to the Grand Ole Opry any time soon with this material but then again, who wants to listen to that saccharine sweet ‘my dog has died’ country music anyway?
Noveller – ‘Fantastic Planet’
aka Sarah Lipstate, a Brooklyn musician and film-maker. This is an instrumental only album predominantly electric guitar but lots of electronica and assorted percussion too. It’s certainly not heavy enough to be described as post-rock, it’s not really rock at all, the tunes have a soundtrack feel to them and I’m guessing given her other artistic talents that this is deliberate. It’s mood music, basically. It won’t lift you to particularly great heights or take you too far away but I prefer this to previously mentioned more experimental instrumental albums. I’ve given the copy I was given back to my friend though, it’s not something I’d be moved to buy or deliberately return to given there’s other music to listen to but you’re not going to rip the piss out of someone for liking it. The music equivalent of watching Fulham FC.
Ibeyi – ‘Ibeyi’
Twin sisters, French Cuban and their late father was a key member of Buena Vista Social Club. I had read about them before I heard the album so I had certain preconceptions of what the music would sound like. Completely wrong. They are a lot more ambitious and wide-ranging than you’d be given to expect. They draw on old African tunes with a genuine feel to them rather than having been through a Latin American translation. But then it’s Bjork or maybe Neneh Cherry. They take influences from hip-hop too. Most of the tracks are slightly downtempo none more so than ‘Mama Says’ which I presume is a reference to their mother dealing with the death of their father. Musically it’s very accomplished and I think it’s a great debut album, it will be interesting to see where they go from here because they’ve set a very high bar for themselves.
I’d forgotten all about Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker’s alter-ego and I wasn’t aware of Cracker at all, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear this. It’s a double album split into the protest/political tunes in the first half (presumably the Berkeley part) and more traditional homespun affairs of life in a small unfashionable part of rural California (Bakersfield). The album works as two distinct parts, the alt-country style has always lent itself well to protest tunes and Woody Guthrie himself would be proud of the stance the band take in the first part of the album. They’re certainly not going to be invited to the Grand Ole Opry any time soon with this material but then again, who wants to listen to that saccharine sweet ‘my dog has died’ country music anyway?
Noveller – ‘Fantastic Planet’
aka Sarah Lipstate, a Brooklyn musician and film-maker. This is an instrumental only album predominantly electric guitar but lots of electronica and assorted percussion too. It’s certainly not heavy enough to be described as post-rock, it’s not really rock at all, the tunes have a soundtrack feel to them and I’m guessing given her other artistic talents that this is deliberate. It’s mood music, basically. It won’t lift you to particularly great heights or take you too far away but I prefer this to previously mentioned more experimental instrumental albums. I’ve given the copy I was given back to my friend though, it’s not something I’d be moved to buy or deliberately return to given there’s other music to listen to but you’re not going to rip the piss out of someone for liking it. The music equivalent of watching Fulham FC.
Ibeyi – ‘Ibeyi’
Twin sisters, French Cuban and their late father was a key member of Buena Vista Social Club. I had read about them before I heard the album so I had certain preconceptions of what the music would sound like. Completely wrong. They are a lot more ambitious and wide-ranging than you’d be given to expect. They draw on old African tunes with a genuine feel to them rather than having been through a Latin American translation. But then it’s Bjork or maybe Neneh Cherry. They take influences from hip-hop too. Most of the tracks are slightly downtempo none more so than ‘Mama Says’ which I presume is a reference to their mother dealing with the death of their father. Musically it’s very accomplished and I think it’s a great debut album, it will be interesting to see where they go from here because they’ve set a very high bar for themselves.
tinycowboy
Well-known member
I'm a bit behind the times on this one (I'm having to work long hours at work at the moment, OK?), but I am really liking the Tigercats album. Great tuneful indiepop with a bit of soul, perfect for a late night train home.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
The Dodos – ‘Individ’
This album has some very good tracks in particular ‘Goodbye and Endings’ but there’s a fair amount of album filler in there too and it takes a while for it to get going. They’ve drawn comparisons with Antlers and I’d agree especially with not having the strongest of vocal presences which at times makes it very samey to a lot of garage rock/college bands that do scuzzy psych-pop. I’m not sure why Resident had it as their album of the week a few weeks back as it’s good but not ‘album of the week’ good.
Krill – ‘A Distant Fist Unclenching’
If you like the Pixies then you’ll love this album. Guaranteed. I believe that they are also from Boston too so perhaps the similarities are intentional. There’s the heavy but crystal clear guitar playing, the switch from softly spoken to screeching vocals, the quite bizarre lyrics. Don’t think though that they’re a glorified Pixies tribute band because there’s far more to them than that. You can also trace references from Interpol, Sonic Youth maybe even the Smashing Pumpkins. Unlike the Dodos, this album starts very strongly but keeps the tempo and quality high. Stand out track for me is ‘Torturer’. A quite brilliant album from a band I’d never heard of before now and for some bizarre reason, their band name irritates me because I feel it doesn’t do them justice, it’s a bit naff and the band are far from that.
H Hawkline – ‘In the Pink Of Condition’
I wrote a few weeks back about being unsure if this was self-knowing art college stuff or offbeat whimsy and I’ve decided it’s both and I quite like it. He’s a Welshman who’s now decamped in LA and has worked quite a bit with Cate Le Bon who produced this album. It starts very much in the same kind of vein as I found the latest Ariel Pink album although not quite so off the wall. He does appear to be quite happy with himself as evidenced by the general tempo of the album and the title itself but get past the first 2 or 3 songs and he’s an extremely talented songwriter and there’s a lot to enjoy here. I’m glad I stuck with it sand it’s inspired me to return to Ariel Pink’s latest which I didn’t get on with at all.
This album has some very good tracks in particular ‘Goodbye and Endings’ but there’s a fair amount of album filler in there too and it takes a while for it to get going. They’ve drawn comparisons with Antlers and I’d agree especially with not having the strongest of vocal presences which at times makes it very samey to a lot of garage rock/college bands that do scuzzy psych-pop. I’m not sure why Resident had it as their album of the week a few weeks back as it’s good but not ‘album of the week’ good.
Krill – ‘A Distant Fist Unclenching’
If you like the Pixies then you’ll love this album. Guaranteed. I believe that they are also from Boston too so perhaps the similarities are intentional. There’s the heavy but crystal clear guitar playing, the switch from softly spoken to screeching vocals, the quite bizarre lyrics. Don’t think though that they’re a glorified Pixies tribute band because there’s far more to them than that. You can also trace references from Interpol, Sonic Youth maybe even the Smashing Pumpkins. Unlike the Dodos, this album starts very strongly but keeps the tempo and quality high. Stand out track for me is ‘Torturer’. A quite brilliant album from a band I’d never heard of before now and for some bizarre reason, their band name irritates me because I feel it doesn’t do them justice, it’s a bit naff and the band are far from that.
H Hawkline – ‘In the Pink Of Condition’
I wrote a few weeks back about being unsure if this was self-knowing art college stuff or offbeat whimsy and I’ve decided it’s both and I quite like it. He’s a Welshman who’s now decamped in LA and has worked quite a bit with Cate Le Bon who produced this album. It starts very much in the same kind of vein as I found the latest Ariel Pink album although not quite so off the wall. He does appear to be quite happy with himself as evidenced by the general tempo of the album and the title itself but get past the first 2 or 3 songs and he’s an extremely talented songwriter and there’s a lot to enjoy here. I’m glad I stuck with it sand it’s inspired me to return to Ariel Pink’s latest which I didn’t get on with at all.
Thanks, my live music diary for next month is starting to look pretty full but I think I can fit that one in!
I am pretty certain they're partners. I feel compelled to share this heartbreaking news.
What do you (now) reckon to Ariel's Pom Pom? At times it's sublime, but I do feel he is trying too hard at times to be off-kilter/goofy. Reading some interviews around the time of its release cement this feeling with me.