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Updated 2007-11-12
Fionn Regan - The End of History: Alrightish, but a bit too Damien
Rice-esque for my taste.
They Might Be Giants - The Else: After being disappointed by
The Spine I was prepared for another kick in the teeth. But this was really
rather good, if you like TMBG. Which I do.
Cass McCombs - PREfection: Vaguely jangly. Not really into it.
Radiohead - In Rainbows: I really don't understand the whole 'Radiohead
is the Messiah' kind of adulation that frequently gets showered upon them, but this is a
solid album that's well worth a listen. And although it's not really conventional, it's
definitely not an experimental work. It's accessible to casual listening too.
The Decemberists & Land of Talk, the Royal Festival Hall:
Someone at the BBC didn't much like the gig last night,
but I thought it was rather enjoyable. Not necessarily superb, but good. To my
shame I didn't recognise any of the tracks except the final encore (it turns out
I have plenty of the early albums but none of the later ones).
Compared to the Midlake gig at the Royal Festival Hall
I went to back in April the sound was much improved, and this time the performers
could remember the words to their own songs. Which helps. The performers all
looked like they were having fun, and the finale (complete with the audience all
screaming like they were being eaten by a whale) made me grin like an idiot.
Which is a fairly good metric of a good gig, really - if you end up gurning
with delight it was a good show.
Tindersticks: Low-key stuff that makes me think of Nick Cave and
Yo La Tengo, but I find it pretty dreary and uninspiring.
Len - You Can't Stop the Bum Rush: I was hoping for
bubbly pop, after hearing "Steal My Sunshine" for the first time in
years. Instead, I got synthy rap. Bad synthy rap. Disappointed.
Kate Nash - Made of Bricks: Supposedly an artiste in the vein of
Lily Allen, but without any subtlety or charm. Some of the lyrics are genuinely
cringeworthy. A big problem is that the music is drab and uninspired. One can get away
with this if you've got strong lyrics and an astonishing voice, but Kate... hasn't.
You can give this one a miss without any worries.
Garth Brooks - The Chase: Possibly one of my less wise
choices. See, I don't think I had
ever heard any Garth Brooks. I knew he existed, and that was about it. Then
I found out that truck stops in the US had to be excluded from album sales
charts otherwise Brooks would top them each and every week, without
exception. A couple of articles floated my way about him extolling his
astonishing quiet popularity and musical ability. My interest was piqued.
Maybe you missed the hint above; don't feel bad, I did too. When one is
taking musical hints from truck stops it may be time to re-examine your
life. Unfortunately this album is exactly the kind of glossy-smooth cheesy
country that you imagine Wal-mart would sell to Winnebago owners. It's
bland, emotionless, and devoid of life. If you're below 40 don't even bother
with this album, and if you're over 40 think long and hard. Maybe this will
be the clincher: halfway through there was actual yodelling.
Yann Tiersen, the Scala: A weird experience. I like Tiersen for his delicate
instrumental work; the Amelie soundtrack is a work of genius, frankly. I
knew we wouldn't be getting that much of it (it is the Scala, after all) but
I had high hopes for his other stuff. Unfortunately most of the show sounded
like Mogwai on speed. But Mogwai without the interesting bits - a formulaic
repetition of gentle melodic introduction → sudden brash interlude → less
brash but still drum-and-distortion-filled remainder.
There was some innovative stuff here but it was hit and miss. I enjoyed the
piece built around the idea of playing the electric guitar with an electric
drill (using the motor to induce a current in the pickups - genius) but felt
my will to live draining out of me during a weird 10 minute fiddle and
guitar solo unbound by conventions of rhythm and melody. Weirdly, Tiersen
seemed intent on pissing over his more delicate creations, doing 30 seconds
of audience favourites of Le Banquet before kicking in the drums and distorted
guitars yet again.
It wasn't a bad gig, but I'd have enjoyed this gig if someone had unplugged
his guitars and stolen the drumkit. There was no warm-up act either, but he
did do two encores, so we'll call it quits on that.
William Shatner - Has Been: I feel betrayed by this album. Have you heard Shatner's
cover of Common People? It's amazing. It bowls along with energy, has a
rocky interlude from Joe Jackson that will take you by surprise, and is
produced by Ben Folds. It's infused with this arch self-aware nature; it
knows it's ridiculous and camp but it just doesn't care. I was hoping the
rest of the album was the same. Alas, it was not to be. There's some good
stuff towards the end - a Lemon Jelly collaboration that's alright and a
trio of songs that have a sense of humour again - but the middle is flabby
lounge-jazz that will leave you feeling lost and disappointing after the
brash energy of the opening track.
Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob: I feel guilty for liking the Kaiser Chiefs but I do. There's
nothing deep to them - it's all shallow pop-rock - but they're full of
energy and the music sounds good. Really good.
Mindless Self Indulgence - You'll Rebel to Anything: Synthy metal-rock. Nothing further to add at this juncture.
Midlake at the Shepherds Bush Empire, supported by Stephanie Dosen and Robert Gomez: This was a beautiful gig. Stephanie Dosen, obsession with the word "Bush" in the venue name aside, was good with a bit of a Martha Wainwright thing going on. Robert Gomez was alright though many of his songs are a little dischordant in places which works fine on a CD but in a live setting it's not so great. The production's less tightly controlled. Midlake were fantastic, though I may be biased because I think their second album is genius. They played most of it (all of it, maybe?) along with some stuff from their OK first album, and one new song. I'd have liked to hear more new material but I was really glad to have the emphasis on the second album. I highly recommend you give them a listen. They're like Fleetwood Mac. The good bits of Fleetwood Mac.
Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures: Much better than the first album, which had a couple of good tracks and the rest were sub-par. It's mostly pretty shallow stuff but it's sharp rock that's quite listenable.
Múm - Finally We Are No One: A female Sigur Rós.
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Musos love LCD Soundsystem. I get the Gary Numann and Kraftwerk references, I really do, but I just don't find it massively compelling - perhaps because I'm not an aging muso myself. Music that fits in with your life is always going to sound better to you. It's not a bad listen but the tracks are quite long; not a sin in itself but they lack the depth and subtlety they need to get away with their length and it's not upbeat enough to work as a dance album.
Various Artists - Soundtrack from Spaced: I always thought the music from Spaced was excellent, but unfortunately it turns out it works better as 10 second snippets than full length tracks.
Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager: The overriding dynamic, unfortunately, is that of an overambitious singer at an open mic night. You know the guy with one guitar singing too loudly and dramatically? It's a shame as this has some nice fingerstyle folky guitar bits in it and it would be really good if the singer was not trying to sound dramatic. The Coldplayish emo-crescendos can be left out too, thanks.
The Rakes - Ten New Messages: Competentish modern rock. Better than the other album mentioned below.
Sting - Songs from the Labyrinth: Pretentious but in a good way. I don't like Sting but I quite like this album, perhaps because he didn't write it (that was John Rowland). There's some weird processed layered vocals that I'm not sure about in the first few tracks but apart from that it's a fairly straightforward recital of the material.
Arctic Monkeys - Beneath the Boardwalk: The singer's voice is quite annoying. I'm all for the singing-in-your-own-vernacular but maybe we could try not to exaggerate it. They're a bit like Travis for me in that I like about half the songs and hate the other half. I suspect I'll have another Kaiser Chiefs reaction - I'll enjoy this album for about a week but then realise it's got no actual depth after all.
Viva Voce - The Heat can Melt your Brain: Competent, enjoyable pop-rock. It's definitely less like the White Stripes than their live performance.
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway): I've never been that enamoured with Hemingway but I enjoyed this. The thing about Hemingway is he's entirely unpretentious. Ever read any Brett Easton Ellis? He does this thing where the book starts midsentence and ends midsentence. I'm told he considers that this makes his books a genuine slice of life. I consider this a wanky pseudointellectual way of avoiding having to write a decent ending.
Anyway, Hemingway doesn't do that. He tells you a story, from beginning to end, and an enjoyable story it is too. There's symbolism in it if you want it, but fundamentally this is an uncomplicated narrative. I think that literary wank has its place but it's trumped by a good story. This is a good story. Recommended.
The Shins at the London Forum, supported by Jeremy Warmsley and Viva Voce: I can't remember the last time I heard a support act that sucked as much as Jeremy Warmsley. Sorry guys, but there's a reason they put you on at 7PM when there were 3 people in the venue. They were not helped by the traditional gig idiocy of keeping the sound system at a ridiculously high level when there was no-one in there. Bodies absorb a surprising amount of sound, which is why you have fuckoff big sound systems. But when there are 20-100 widely spaced-out around the club that's not really an issue. Yet they keep the sound system at a stupidly loud level. Well, I like my ears, and I'd like to use them for the main act. So set up for the main band then just drop the levels a bit while the place is empty. You can crank it back up to 11 when the main act takes the stage and indulge your megawatt wet dreams then.
Oh yeah, the music. Viva Voce were pretty good, with some pleasantly varied tunes. The fellow playing the bass drum and the acoustic guitar simultaneously was a nice touch, especially as it wasn't done pretentiously. There were some 80s-esque guitar/drum solos, and a girl playing the guitar well is always a turn-on. The only downside was that the whole girl-boy duo thing is a bit derivative of the White Stripes. We'll forgive them this.
As for the Shins, they were good but not exceptional. Possibly the low point was the song "New Slang", possibly my favourite Shins song but rendered here in a downtempo, scrappy fashion. The recording is beautiful. Live, not so much. The rest of the set was good, with one of the guitarists showing off his real rock strut. Their set was more rock-oriented than I expected. This is not a bad thing. The other low point was the encore. Maybe one of the band had to take a dump or something, but they really made the crowd work for them to return to the stage. This was no once-in-a-lifetime gig, but it was a competent gig of decent indie-rock.
Corinne Bailey Rae: This eponymous album is the kind of thing my father would listen to. Like Norah Jones. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - Corinne doesn't produce the same punch-her-in-the-face reflex that Norah does, but Norah's enunciation is better. It's straightforward silky-voiced woman-pop. But every track on this album could be dropped into an American sitcom or drama, and I think most of them have. There's a reason for that.
Arcade Fire (Neon Bible): "The best band in the world?" asks the media. "No," I reply. It's alright, but it waxes and wanes as an album. It does sound a bit different and thus is less generic, but it's neither rollicking good fun nor tugging on one's emotions. Some of it is melodramatic without reason, and you can't force soul. It's not bad, but it's not the miracle of pop that some critics have heralded it as.
Adventures in Capitalism (Toby Litt): Toby Litt is at his best when doing short stories. These are good, although they're not as good as Exhibitionism.
Barton Fink: Slow moving but pleasantly weird. I want John Goodman to be my friend.
The Rakes (Capture Release): Vaguely listenable but absolutely uninspiring. Is it me or does all contemporary mainstream rock sound the same?
Nouvelle Vague (Bande A Part): Some of these tracks made me giggle in public far too much. I would like to hear more music done in a gentle bossa nova format.
Goodbye Lenin: This is far from perfect but it's an enjoyable watch anyway. Yann Tiersen's soundtrack helps a lot with this.
