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[Inertia : 2010]
We so enjoyed watching the impassioned spit-flying-from-the-mouth live performance from Frightened Rabbit earlier this year at the Laneway Festival in Sydney, and they have brought the same visceral energy and orchestral pop melodies to their third LP The Winter Of Mixed Drinks.
It’s a fitting name for a record that mixes both grand majestic choruses (“Swim Until You Can’t See Land”) and the wretched aching we became accustomed to in their previous effort (Midnight Organ Fight, 2008).
The more upbeat vibes significantly outweigh the downers to make the record, on the whole, an uplifting piece of beautifully produced Glaswegian stompers, but unfortunately Frightened Rabbit – and in particular vocalist and songwriter Scott Hutchison – are at their best when in the depths of despair. There is nothing on The Winter Of Mixed Drinks that can compare to the anguished losers anthem “This Modern Leper” from Midnight Organ Fight, whose chorus goes: “Is that you in front of me/ Coming back for even more of exactly the same? You must be a masochist/ To love a modern leper on his last leg”. Brutal.
All the same, this is a great album – like a more ballsy version of early Snow Patrol (they were good in the early days haters – you can think what you want!) or a less polite incarnation of The National.
Our favourite track is “Fun Stuff” – a nicely slow-burning folk song almost like a secular hymn of sorts: violins, acoustic guitar roughly strummed, a chorus of vocals… It’s got all the markings of a traditional singalong. All it’s missing is a dodgy pub.
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[Friends of Friends & Exponential : 2010]
Considering that around the Album Of The Week listening quarters we are generally (and evidently) favorable to a great hook and a singalong chorus, as far as instrumental music goes it takes something pretty fucking epic to make our collective jaws hit the tiles [See Apricot Rail’s debut]. Ernest Gonzales and his astounding electronic opus Been Meaning To Tell You led to more split chins than a roomful of fly kicking Chuck Norris’s.
From the album’s opening song “Dancing In The Snow”, we knew that this was a special record - beatboxing, xylophonic tinkering, knob twiddling blips, fuzzy synth chords and flamenco guitar slowly add to the layers in the track that gracefully kicks off the record.
Throughout Been Meaning To Tell You both digital and analogue instruments and recording methods are effortlessly interchanged – incredible live guitar riffs mixed in with programmed beats and synth drones. “Etchasketch Trees” is a particularly nice example of the melding of both worlds (although a bad name, we can admit). But technicalities aside, most of all, the way Ernest Gonzales manages to hook you in is the way he creates a mood – a particular feeling. For an album without words, it certainly manages to connect on a very human level.
If you like The Postal Service you will adore this album. If you listen to music so you can “feel” something you will adore this album. One of our favourites from the year so far.
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[sub pop: 2005]
Let me get this out from the beginning. I love this album, like really love it, as in it’s a self gifting type of album as in I will put in on as a treat for myself and hopefully others (if they have stayed around after an over enthusiastic verbal assault as I put it on the stereo).
Released in 2005 Apologies to Queen Mary is the debut album from the Montreal band. Its led by the prolific Spencer Krug who has released music with a variety of supergroups / former bands including sunset rubdown, fifths of seven, frog eyes, moonface and swan lake.
In saying that the reputation is impressive but from experience (um sting was part of the police and……….) it really means nada.
Spencer Krug’s vocals will hit you with paranoid shaky yelps from track one……….meh, whatever Just listen to the album, its not hard, Maybe start off with myspace and if you like the tunes get the album. If you found this site I guarantee you’ll dig it.
Love you xx
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[pop frenzy / merge: 2009]
I've just made some new friends. Friends I plan to take with me to a coastal headland sometime soon with a blanket and a bottle of red as the weather cools and the sun is putting itself to bed. While the waves do their crashing, my ears will do their listening - to The Clientele’s 'Bonfires on the Heath' as the onshore breeze slaps my face. Delightful. Thank you Popfrenzy for releasing this album of sublime lullaby layering, harmony & melody.
Trumpet trills, hammond organ runs, breathy vocals and subtle strumming melt over opening track 'I Wonder Who We Are' and then dips into the more melancholic introspection of 'Harvest'. Cue the pour of your second glass of red. This music feels like an Autumn day when you are reluctantly letting go of the Summer sunshine but well ready for the mood of cooler weather.
'Bonfires on the Heath' is this London quartet's 5th album and Alasdair MacLean is their main songwriter and vocalist - and the band harmonise beautifully around his breathy vocals.
Halfway through the record you get the urge to dust off my cobwebbed tambourine and play along. 'Bonfires on the Heath' is sweet and sometimes a little sad but it is always beautiful. The Clientele create luscious indie pop with a bittersweet dose of folk. Perhaps I should have brought some 85% cocoa chocolate with me to cap off the bottle of red I’ve finished - Drunk and wonderfully heavy-hearted. Hear this record.
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[virgin: 2010]
Trip Hop on the steps of the Sydney Opera House
Martina Topley Bird, whose vocals mesmerised us on ‘Maxinquaye’,
Tricky’s debut album after he left Massive Attack, took the stage as support. All Polynesian princess in a flowing printed dress, frangipani tucked into her bleached afro she introduced herself behind a tight stack of keyboards, instruments and mics. What could have been a subdued solo performance was given substance as she built with live voice recordings then looped and delayed them to give depth while she tapped a tambourine to her hip and tinkered on effects. She was charming with the crowd and perhaps a little more confident in our vocal range than we were asking us to harmonise with her on new material.
A sweet selection of songs from Quixotic and her new album The Blue God helped the bulging crowd settle into the steps of the Opera House.
The stage was re-set with a one drum kit at one end and the second at the other, a stash of keyboards and black boxes in the middle and six mics across the front. The sticky sweet scent of mary jane wafted around the forecourt as all and sundry prepared for the performance. The stage was flooded in smoke and blue light and out of the blue smoke emerged the Massive Attack collective. Wowed by a wall of sound and an impressive LED screen flashing names of drugs in quick succession the pioneers of trip hop set their scene. 3D (Robert del Naja) led the rotating vocal crew of legendary Horace Andy, Martina Topley Bird, and Deborah Miller and when Grant Marshall or ‘G’ uttered his first word the crowd exploded. It was like 3D was having the time of his life conducting the best jam session the band has ever had. The dense sound, crazy lasers and LED wall scrolling philosophical quotes, media grabs (Pauline Hansson’s move to the UK got a notable arousal) and images fuelled the music further. The classics ‘Safe From Harm’, ‘Teardrop’, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and ‘Angel’ welcome alongside the new Heliogland tracks. Conjured under the stars in a better setting you couldn’t imagine, the crowd left in a haze with the resonance of Karmacoma still pounding in our ears as we descended the steps. Magic.
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[Dew Process: 2010]
Swedish five-piece Shout Out Louds are one of those ‘under the radar’ bands. They’ve released good LPs with some winning singles (“Very Loud”, “Tonight I Have to Leave it”) but they’ve never really made a distinct impression. It’s kind of like they’ve cruised the runway, built up ample speed and then have pulled up the brakes for an emergency refueling just before taking off.
Work is not quite a ‘take off’ record, but it’s a really good one full of melodic, infectious tunes made from tight songwriting and simple stripped-back production. Sub Pop production maestro Phil Ek (Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes) was on the knob twiddling duties for the first time and kept the mix uncomplicated to capture the mid-Eighties Cure-like guitar pop sound that make Shout Out Louds so appealing.
The yearning voice of vocalist and principal songwriter, Adam Olenius, is bare with emotion on tracks like “Fall Hard” and album opener “1999” – an irresistibly catchy synth-rock tune. The vocal hook in “Throwing Stones” feels like it should be shouted (out loud) en masse at some sort of Scandinavian pop rally; and “Show Me Something New” is shimmering pure pop delight.
Work is their best album yet.
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