Silent Alarm - Bloc Party

Having just got back from seeing them live this evening I thought I would write a little review of this album. One of the favorites of this year for a lot of critics and I think very rightly so.

There are some really powerful songs on the album, with some amazing lyrics. The album opens with a great track "Like eating glass" I think the opening to this song really kicks things off for this album, I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking "fuck I'm going to like this album". The album keeps that buzz as it then moves onto "Helicopter" and "Positive Tension".

This then brings me to "Banquet" which has to have now gone down as one of my all time favorite songs, the lyrics, the music. Everything about this song really makes my brain hum and whirr. I can listen to this song over and over and never get sick of it. I love the lyrics to this song and the tune and I have to include a section of them:

Turning away from the light
Becoming adult
Turning into my soul
I wanted to bite not destroy
To feel her underneath
Turning into my soul

She don't think straight
She's got such a dirty mind and it never ever stops
And you don't taste like her and you never ever will
And we don't read the papers, we don't read the news
Heaven's never enough, we will never be fooled

And if you feel a little left behind
I will see you on the other side

All in all the album is just fucking great I'd seriously recommend buying it if you haven't already. An album of this year and something a bit different, Kele's voice is an unusual one in some respects I haven't really heard someone sing like him and I think it really works for them. I think this whole band click together really well and having just got back from seeing them live I can safely say that they really know how to put on a show.

Tracks to hear - Banquet, This Modern Love, The Pioneers and Plans

Intensive Care - Robbie Williams

Sorry to review such a mainstream album, and sorry it's Robbie. I'm afraid I am a fan. I know it's cool not like him, but that has never worried me. Knebworth 2 years ago was amazing, so I was very interested to hear his new album, his first without his writing partner Guy Chambers. The reason Robbie has been so successful perhaps?

His new writing partner, Stephen Duffy, co-wrote his past 3 songs with him as well as all the songs on this album. Stephen doing the music and Robbie on the lyrics. If those 3 songs, Radio, Misunderstood and Tripping were much to go by, then this album was going to suck....really bad.

However, after a couple of listens, there are some really good songs on it, and a couple of the best songs Robbie has written for a long time. The album has a very 80's feel to it, which I love, 80's music was great, but I think a lot of Robbie's fans will struggle to get to grips with this "new sound" of his. I just think it needs a little time.

Robbie is still as arrogant as ever, as shown in the opening line to the album being "Here I stand, victorious, the only man to make you cum." But that song, Ghost's, is a great song. As I said, an 80's feel to it, the drum beat is like something out of the Human League. The only bit of this song that lets it down is in the chorus when Robbie says "Well it looks like we could have made it baby" is far too cheesy. The next track, Tripping is the one we all know, and hate. I really thought it was a bad song for him to release, and it is probably the weakest track of the album. Make me Pure was on the flip side to Tripping, a double A-side so to speak. It should have been the main track. It is a lovely song. The lyrics are great and the quiet gospel choir in the background just make it work. It will be one of the highlights with the crowd at his gigs at Wembley next year, mark my word. Spread your wings is supposedly the lyrical sister, to the opening track 'Ghosts". Robbie is quoted as saying "I want to write songs that will still break peoples' hearts in 20 years time, and I hope, and reckon, this one will do just that." Sorry Robbie, it's not going to. The chorus is great, but the rest is very poor. Advertising Space is my personal favourite on this album. Another ballad and right up there with Angels and Feel. I believe this one will be released in time for Christmas, clever idea, it could be a runner for the christmas number one. But who knows, The Tweenies could be releasing a song!

Please Don't Die A very personal song lyrically about love, memory and honour apparently. It's a more 'classic' Robbie song, not so much the silly side (Rock DJ, Millenium) but more along the lines of Supreme and No Regrets. Your Gay Friend is a much more upbeat song which kicks off with a "Woo-hoo." It's good, just good, I can't say much more about it really. Sin Sin Sin Probably the most retro feeling song on the album, the rhythm in background reminds me of a really well known song, but I forget which. I'm not so keen on Robbie's voice on this track, admittedly he doesn't have the best voice in the business, what he lacks in singing ability he makes up in showmanship ten fold. Random Acts of Kindness is another weak filler and The Trouble with Me starts off well "I got a head full of fuck" (at least he is honest) but the song doesn't hold my interest enough, and becomes another filler. A Place to Crash sounds like a great song. I don't think the polished recorded version you hear on the album is brilliant, but I am pretty sure this song will be great fun on his tour next year. Intensive Care finishes up with King of Bloke and Bird which is another great ballad. Something Robbie seems to be doing well on this album, and is a good way to finish.

Overall, it isn't his best album, but it isn't his worst either. The ballads on this album are good, really good, but the rest doesn't live up to the old 'classic' Robbie tracks. It was always going to be a difficult album to make, Guy Chambers has a lot to answer for, but it certainly isn't a bad effort.

'The Dresden Dolls' - The Dresden Dolls

Punk rock with pianos! Kind of like a Weimar Cabaret White Stripes with the genders switched. 'Cabaret' re-scored by Polly Harvey. The Kurt Weill style instrumentation lends an air of sinster glamour, but it still seems contemporary rather than gimmicky. They describe themselves as 'Brechtian Punk Cabaret' which could potentially seem a bit arch, but they pull it off superbly.

Smart Tracks: 'Girl Anachronism', 'Coin Operated Boy'

Fabriclive 07 - John Peel

Its funny how time can change perspective on an album. What was, less than a year ago, a joyously diverse and creative mix of tunes has now also aquired a sense of knockout emotion. Its difficult to listen to 'You'll Never Walk Alone' bleeding into the clattering opening chords of 'Teenage Kicks' without a small tear in the eye or lump in the throat. In other words, this electrifying album remains a fitting tribute to its curator, John Peel, who would famously burst into tears at anything he found remotely and often oddly emotional.

Listening to the album again (it fully repays repeat listens), its impossible not to smile at the obvious joy that Peel would have found in contriving such bizarre juxtapositions of musical styles on one album. Opening with a piece drenched in lush strings and intercut with commentary from a Liverpool Champion's League match, it then summersaults into a piece of grinding dirty blues, followed by a reggae blast, a pulsating drum and bass track and then a hopelessly infectious piece of 60's American girl group doo-wap, itself tumbling into a bluegrass cover of 'Lust For Life'. And this is just the first few tracks. The rest of the album continues in a similarly vivid and playful way.

It even has a 40-second snatch of a morris dance shanty, until that gives way under the weight of pounding trance beats. Indeed, so audacious is the sequencing that its difficult to know whether to be amused by Peel's mischievious enthusiasm, or gasp at the sheer range of sounds that he's assembled. Either way, its rather like the aural equivalent of finding yourself with a huge plate of cheeses in the biggest wine cellar you can imagine. There are some pretty sublime combinations to be had.

Few compilation albums can lay claim to being works of art in their own right, but this is exactly what Peel's Fabriclive mix album can boast. Not only for the characteristic ecleticism of it's curator, but for his childlike enthusiasm for cutting and pasting the contradictory styles together. There can't be many albums that would be as brave as to segue a piece of soul-infused American disco-funk with the majestic arrival of Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' (itself shot through with more snatches of Liverpool football commentary), yet somehow, amazingly it just works.

A truly magnificent album in it's own right. As it was before he died, it remains a wonderful tribute to the unique specialness of John Peel's massive contribution to his country's cultural life. Highly recommended, and definitely one of those albums you'd want to save first in the event of a fire. In fact the only thing thats missing is Peel's endearing voice informing you that he's accidentally put one of the tunes on at the wrong speed.

'Twentythree' Tristan Prettyman

Ok this is the first time I have ever done anything like this and I am a little scared but what the hell we're all friends here right?

I first discovered Tristan Prettyman through a post on a blog friend's site. Through a link I managed to download a live performance at a coffee house in San Dieigo. It was love at first listen! As she chatted between the songs she revealed that she was about to make an album with Virgin Records, and many of the tracks that she played that night are on the album.

Only on general release overseas I managed to get a promotional copy via the power of ebay and it has rarely left my cd player since!

All the tracks on the album are written / co written by Prettyman and I can honestly say there is not one track that makes me want to hit the skip button. I hate trying to compare music to that of other artists but if I was pushed i would say she reminds me of a more laid back Ani DiFranco. She is very one woman and her guitar and the simplicity of the tracks are great.

My only critism, having listened to a lot of the tracks live, is that they seem to have quite cheesey introductions, but if you can get over those first few seconds you are in for a treat. Slow and serious at times, playful and lively at others, this really is an album to suit all moods.

My highlights of the album - Love,love,love, Shy that way (duet with her man Jason Mraz) and The Story.

In the words on the songstress herself "I'm the secret ingredient you're missing".

'Auf Der Maur' - Melissa Auf Der Maur

Most famoulous known as the bassist from hole and the smashing pumpkins. This is Auf Der Maur's first solo project. Although not having the strongest vocals or the most amazing voice Miss Der Maur certainly makes the most of it.

The songs are well written with explosive and really interesting lyrics. Her sound is something reminiscent of hole and the smashing pumpkins but something much more is it behind. I really think she has an eplosive and raw talent.

There are so many unique and interesting songs on this album , it's a really absorbing CD and I've found myself waiting for a second album (which is on the way according to her website).

I'd also heard that Auf Der Maur had funded the making of this album from her own pocket even before having a label to distribute the album which certainly shows her passion for the music produced on this album.

I don't think any review I could ever rate could really do this CD enough justice.

recommended tracks - Taste you, Taste you (French version), Followed the waves, Head unbound, I'll be anything you want, skin receiver and I need I want I will.

'Brand New Second Hand' Roots Manuva

I think the moment this fella nabbed me was about a minute into the first verse of 'Juggle Tings Proper' where he talks about wrapping his head with foil a la Joe Wicks in 'Enders... UK Hip-Hop has always had a bit of a chip on it's shoulder when compared to the slicker US version. This album seems to sidestep all of that. A scratchy, silly, murky dubby re-tooling of hip-hop, recalling that thick early Wu-Tang Clan basement tapes sound. Roots has one of the best voices in rap, best since Chuck D anyway, and there's not a fake American syllable on here.

Fancy tracks: 'Juggle Tings Proper', 'Movements', 'Wisdom Fall'.

"You Could Have It So Much Better" - Franz Ferdinand

Okay, okay, so it's Franz Ferdinand and anyone who knows me in that spooky place some rumour is called "real life" then you'll know that i am a sympathizer to their ways. However, i havent read any reviews whatsoever of this album.. so hopefully i've escaped being tainted in my opinion too much.

I admit to having done what i did for their eponymous album and that is to have it on a cdr for a long time before buying the shininess... but what do you get?

Well, FF are clearly there in full force but the cleverness of the first album's lyrics has lost its way a little (a "Dark Of The Matinee" competitor is sadly missing, although Radio Four gets a mention this time.) and seemingly so has the bassist who appears to lead the band all around the shop. There are some truly great songs amongst them but, fearfully, we're looking a bit Coldplay "X&Y" where in effect they've recorded cd2 of the previous album. Dont get me wrong, i do like it but there are stark contrasts between the good and the not-brilliant on this album.

I get the impression that during their tours in their winniebago, or whatever the current rock-kitsche tourwagon is now, that they've been listening to The Monkees and also to early Beatles songs (the 1962-1965 period)... and even in one track there is the sudden pseudo-Bay City Rollers popping in for a laugh and a joke.

It is a mixed bag but then it did take me a long time to adore their first album.. but adore it i did and buy it i did and i am sure that with more listens, this album will burn itself into my affection too. There are clearly X singles on this album and i'll be damned if i guess them incorrectly...

Go and buy it, you wont escape it... but yes, you could have it so much better...!

'Lapalco' - Brendan Benson

This album would easily make it into any top 5 list I compiled of my favourite albums of all time. I can't think of many other albums that reward such repeated listening.

Brendan Benson is a singer-songwriter from Detroit and best mate of Jack White from the White Stripes. Not something to put off people who don't like the White Stripes though - they don't sound alike. Brendan Benson is much more melodic and a typical Brendan Benson song is tuneful, immediate, catchy, and sweet - but not too sweet.

Nowhere on Lapalco is this better represented than track 2 - a wistful but instantly catchy and optimistic tune called Metarie. It starts with Benson duetting with a distant female voice: 'Met a girl - introduced myself, i wanted to go with her and no-one else' to which she replies that he needs a bath, his clothes are wrong and he's not her type, 'we wouldn't get along'. The song soars towards the end with layers of rising harmonies and lush, but subtle production. At the end of the album, the song is refrained, but this time as a more delicate, stripped down version.

Its a cheerily positive and happy album, great to listen to on the way to work. He's writing about things that make him happy, even if the outcomes don't always turn out quite the way he'd planned. The only risk with listening to it on public transport is that after the second or third listens, you may well find yourself whistling or singing along to the harmonies and inviting melodies, oblivious to those around you.

'Bakesale' - Sebadoh (1994)

I should have saved this for a few reviews down the line this probably being my favourite album, but what the hell... in at the deep end.

Sebadoh is what ex-Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow did when J. Mascis told him they were breaking up and reformed the next day with a new bassist and signed to Warner Brothers. It started off as a home-made project, just Lou, an acoustic guitar with 2 strings missing (and tuned like a ukelele) and a pair of cassette recorders. Understandably, a lot of the band's early material centres on that event (chiefly early single 'Asshole'), but mostly Lou wrote about awkward relationships, troubled friendships. Nick Drake with added tape hiss. Beautiful, plaintive, direct.

By 'Bakesale' Sebadoh had become a fully fledged electric band, Lou on Guitar and Vocals, Jason Lowenstein on Bass and Vocals and Bob Fay on drums. Live, they could be erratic, 20 minute tuning breaks, swapping instruments, stopping moshpits to prevent their weedier fans getting stepped on. Songwriting duties were shared pretty equally by this stage, but Lou's songs remain the focus. They bookend Bakesale, opening with 'License to Confuse' (a fizzing, garage-y tune in which Lou confesses to being 'a nervous little dick') and ending with 'Together Or Alone' (noble and bittersweet).

While earlier albums featured individual strokes of genius ('Brand New Love' on '...Vs Helmet', or 'Soul & Fire' on 'Bubble & Scrape'), Bakesale was where they got the perfect balance between cohesion and chaos. Like many American bands of the early to mid '90s, Sebadoh were briefly feted as 'The Next Nirvana', but they were more fragile, awkward and special than that. It's what Alicia Silverstone in Clueless would probably have called 'complaint rock'... but wonderfully so.

"Fires" - Nerina Pallot

I first encountered Nerina at a Jamie Cullum concert at Audley End House. She was one of the two support acts. After listening to her there and loving her voice and the whole live performance I went on to buy the album fires.

The album itself is well constructed and Nerina's voice really carries on the tracks. This album seriously went beyond my expectations and it has fast become one of my favorite albums.

She's certainly could be considered very Tori Amos and you do get a lot of Joni Mitchell from her tracks. For those who require a more recent artist in comparison I'd suggest KT tunstall though I would rate Nerina's material as better.

As far as I'm aware she has wrote the material on the album herself and it really carries in the songs. I love the lyrics and her sound and I shall certainly be keeping my eye on her in the future.

Recommended tracks are - Everybody's gone to war, Damascus, Idaho and geek love.

"Wind In The Wires" - Patrick Wolf

"Wind In The Wires" is Patrick's second album, following 2003's "Lycantrophy". In this two years, you can hear his growth in confidence and skill at writing, recording and performing each of the 13 tracks. Patrick is quite clever, you see, not only does he sing and write the lyrics but he also plays EVERY instrument, bar the clarinet, on the album; including violins, violas, piano, accordian, guitars, kantale (whatever that is) and even a mountain dulcimer (sounds like a mountain goat).

His lyrics are clever, witty, dry and on occasion dark but then he brings simple, beautifully warm songs too. The opening track "The Libertine" is a tremendous opener for the album and was wisely released as a single too. The power in Wolf's vocals and lyrics here alone almost shadows the preceding album but it is clear when listening to the whole album, to whom he dedicates to "the lost souls" that he's somewhat of a lost soul himself with his melancholly songs. This fits perfectly with where he wrote and recorded the album - the West Country. He references the sea in numerous places and the whole album has an almost eeiry sea-shantie feeling to it (particularly strong in "The Shadowsea"). Luring and familiar but with an unknown depth that by the time you've understood it, you're too far out at sea.

There are clear resemblances to one of his mentors, Björk, particularly on the beautiful "Ghost Song" which has a fantastic set of lyrics and vocals pitched against an accordian. Patrick provided a mix of "Army Of Me" for Björk's recent cover album, although a little disappointing really. His Björkisms are also echoed in his song "Tristan" which almost suggests that he's also signed a deal with Satan or an 80's electro artisté. Interestingly, it gets released on Hallowe'en with Patrick playing a Scala gig.

I felt waves of sentiment whilst listening to this album. It is warm, dark, sentimental, delicate and personal and easy to fall in love with.

"Le Petit Nabab" - Le Tone

Ok, this review isn't very good, but i wrote it for Amazon a few years back and they accepted it. I'm going to amend it, cos to be frank, it was shit first time around (and still is) but it gets the ball rolling....

Le Tone, a fairly unknown French band/DJ combo. I bought this album a few years back for the song Joli Dragon, which was used on a few TV commercials back then. I guess then, i listened to that song and dismissed the rest. However, a couple of months ago, i whacked the CD on and listened to it for the first time properlly!

I guess you could describe them as a cross between Air and Lemon Jelly, I would imagine Air were an influence for them. It's fairly different to most stuff you would normally hear, there are lots of random noises (telephones, chickens, car horns, ladies screaming, beeps etc). It's of the sort that would make you parents say "They wouldn't have made this rubbish in my day." The intro is very random and bizarre, but works and sets it up for Joli Dragon which is the song I knew. There are very little lyrics on this album, it's mainly samples and tunes. Some songs are dreamy and chilled out, where as others are quite upbeat and wouldn't go amiss later on in the evening at a party. Rocky VIII is my personal favourite on the album, it has an infectious and repetitive beat that will make you tap your foot, nod your head and it has scratching, something all good tunes must have!

New Blog

I'm getting fed up, fed up with Music Journalists who "review" music albums. I'm fed up with them saying things are amazing just because they are flavour of the month (Franz Ferdinand, NME), fed up with the total disregard for someone's music based on the fact that they are "uncool" (Jamie Cullum, Guardian).

Music should be based on the music itself, not the image that comes with it. Which is why I am setting up this new site. A place to review albums, new and old based purely on the music. I'd like some suggestions for what to review, but I would also like YOU, yes YOU, to review some as well, as it is not just my opinion that matters. Mine is mearly personal taste, so is yours, but more than one persons opinion counts for so much more. If you message me, drop me an email, leave me a comment, I'll add you as a member to this site, and you too can add your reviews.

I'm interested to hear what other people say, you never know, it might get us listening to a new band.