The Antiques are the musically serene country cousins of the raunchy Americana-fuelled folk-rock sound brought to the indie stage by bands like My Morning Jacket and the Kings of Leon. As with their contemporaries, this California quartet's influences are not hard to find, with echoes of Neil Young and The Band resounding everywhere on the full-length debut Nicknames and Natives. With pleasant songs that gently roll along buoyed by quivering pedal steel, sweet soaring lead vocals, and drop-in backing that provides the seemingly spontaneous down-home harmonies, there's definitely nothing to dislike, but then, there's nothing to get really excited about either. The strongest tracks come at the beginning in the moody, country-rock reflection of "Down to No. County," followed by the garage-blues of "Pigless," bringing to mind those Detroit reprobates the White Stripes. After this, however, one jaunty, melodious number melts into the next until you wish that the pace and mood would vary just a little more often.
A few years ago, you'd probably be able to get pretty long odds on the possibility of the biggest pop star of the year being a Beirut-born Londoner, with Leo Sayer's hair and a bunch of songs hugely influenced by '70s disco and soft-rock. Throw in a remarkable vocal similarity to Freddie Mercury, and the bookies would be lapping up your cash.
Yet that's exactly what's happened to Mika -- winner of the prestigious BBC "Sound of 2007" poll and widely tipped as the hottest new pop star of the year. The emergence of the Scissor Sisters over the last few years has undoubtedly paved the way for him, and the recent success of The Feeling proved that there's a huge market for '70s influenced soft-rock.
One listen to Life in Cartoon Motion confirms that you won't be able to escape Mika this year. Each track is unashamedly commercial, blessed with hook-filled choruses that stick in the mind for weeks. You'll have already heard "Grace Kelly," the Scissor Sisters channelling Queen hit single soon to take up permanent residence at a radio station near you.
"Grace Kelly" is pretty representative of what Mika's all about in fact. Beneath the bubblegum pop surface lies some dark lyrics -- "Should I bend over?/ Should I look older, just to be put on the shelf?" - apparently directed at record company staff who had turned down his previous material. It's big, joyous, dumb pop, and the only danger with it is that you'll be utterly sick of it by summer -- when it'll still be being played.
Mika's voice may also prove to be a bit annoying to some. He has an unfeasibly high falsetto, which works on the Pet Shop Boys-like electro pop of "Relax, Take It Easy," but proves to be infuriating on "Love Today." In fact by the time "Stuck in the Middle" rolls round, you're increasingly concerned about the tightness of Mika's underwear.
Another problem with the album is that it relies rather too heavily on the big, brash pop songs. Sometimes, as on "Grace Kelly," it's fine. Other times, such as the screamingly camp "Lollipop," with it's cheerleader-style chorus and child vocals, you want to smash the stereo in with a sledgehammer. Similarly, "Big Girls (You Are Beautiful)," an ode to the delights of the larger lady, wraps up its laudable message inside a tune that grates in the worst possible way.
Yet when Mika tries something a bit different, it sounds great. "Billy Brown" is a Beatle-esque number about a man leaving his wife and family for another man -- it's both witty and poignant. Possibly the highlight of the album is the dramatic ballad "Any Other World," which starts off like a Michael Nyman piano rendition, before building up a string section quite beautifully. If this had been given to Robbie Williams, it could have revitalized his career instantly.
The final track, "Happy Endings," also sees a wonderful vocal performance from Mika, sounding eerily like early Michael Jackson at one point, and working extraordinarily well with his backing vocals. It's the sort of song you can imagine playing over the final scene of an 'emotional' drama on TV -- in fact, if it does, expect it to be downloaded straight to number one.
Whether you enjoy Life in Cartoon Motion rather depends on what sort of mood you're in when you listen to it. At times, it's so relentlessly bouncy and upbeat that you feel like mowing down an entire shopping centre with an AK-47. Yet there's enough promise here to confirm that the hype about Mika is pretty much on the money. Expect him to be around for a lot longer than the next 12 months.
There's no denying that Between Earth & Sky is a pretty good album, but there are still several things about the Colour that make you question their sincerity. For one thing, theyre an L.A.-area band attempting to appear exotic by spelling "color" with a "u." For another, their lead singer, Wyatt Hull, spends a lot of time trying very hard to sound like Bono or occasionally, Jack White, while the band does their best Rolling Stones' imitation. What's more, their video for "Devil's Got a Holda Me" leads one to believe that they weren't satisfied with merely sounding like the Stones; the visual style on display in the video -- including Hull's performance -- is a clear act of mimicry. One gets the sense that this is a band with a roving hand that has simply found its way into the Stones' deep pockets. It's a source that has enriched many other larcenous minstrels, and while I do question the Colour's originality, this swaggering collection of rock 'n' roll has enough high points that they at least deserve a chance to prove what talented thieves they are.
The aforementioned "Devil's Got a Holda Me," with its strutting rhythm and stuttering guitar, goes a long way toward doing just that. It's loaded with a powerful bass sound that you can literally feel, particularly in the chorus, and whenever the bass drops out briefly, it creates a delicious moment of tension in anticipation of its return. This is a song that will have you bobbing your head or tapping your feet in spite of yourself. It also serves as a great lead-in for "Just a Taste," a song that is destined to take this band into many a pre-encore break. Let's put it this way, if scientists could design an algorithm to maximize the chance of a crowd whipping out their lighters and singing along with the chorus, it would create something very much like "Just a Taste." On the other hand, "Black Summer" and "Salt the Earth" strive for an epic sound and feature Hull's most Bono-esque vocals. "Black Summer" in particular sounds like an 80s era U2 track minus The Edge's signature sound.
These songs and several lesser, but still worthwhile tracks make Between Earth & Sky a noteworthy, if not particularly original, collection of music. That being said, you have to wonder if it will create fans of the Colour or if it will just remind people how great the artists who inspired them are. Either way, there is hope for this band. The Rolling Stones themselves began their career by stealing from the blues and early rockers like Chuck Berry, but they managed to build on that sound and develop it into something all their own. In one last, ironic feat of duplication, the Colour could follow their idols by swerving from the path they've cleared. So while the Colour may have picked some considerable musical wealth from the Stones' pockets, they can't survive on that forever. They’re talented, but if they ever want to be more than a second tier act, they're going to have to show us that their artistry goes beyond imitation.
Instrumental rock has long been the genre's redheaded stepchild. Radio ignores it, and many people start squirming in their seats if a singer doesn't start whining and growling into their ears. And you know what? Ohio's Six Parts Seven doesn't give a damn about your need for lyrics and vocalization. These gentle souls have issued five albums of cerebral yet pastoral, voice-free rock to growing critical acclaim; now the quartet has delivered its masterpiece.
The eight-song Casually Smashed to Pieces meanders down tree-canopied pathways: mellow and carefree. Guitars spangle and sigh with yearning and regret; vibes chime and banjos jangle in beautiful sympathy, while hazy brass fanfares billow in the distance. In an age pummeled by bad news, an "all is right with the world" vibe peeks through the band's shimmering ease; it's a methodical grace that seems positively pre-internet in its refusal to hustle and bustle. While the pace sometimes gets too dozy, Pieces mostly achieves a languorousness that totally soothes the soul.
There are stupider band names than VietNam -- you remember Test Icicles, don't you? Or Hinder? But basically, bands with names this ass do not come along every day. Yet this unwashed Brooklyn hippie quartet earns a reprieve for its gorgeous debut. VietNam explore the frontiers of psychedelic guitar haze, with a scruffy, country-cracked sound that evokes the mellow side of Spacemen 3 or all those late Moby Grape albums. Bearded guitarists Michael Gerner and Joshua Grubb create a spaced-out vibe, while Gerner croaks protest songs ("Mr. Goldfinger"), life-is-oneness poetry ("Step on Inside") and a scary overdose horror story/cautionary tale ("Toby"). The lyrics suggest they're not so big on capitalism, war or personal hygiene, observing, "It ain't easy givin' head to a man almost dead." VietNam get help from unlikely pals such as Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and a couple of guys from Maroon 5. But there's no mistaking them for anybody else.
Two years after LCD Soundsystem's eponymous full-length debut sent indie scenesters rushing to the dancefloor, the outfit headed by dance-rock producer James Murphy serves up another stiff cocktail of punk, dance, and funk with Sound of Silver. Analog synths, chugging basslines, chunky guitars, and Murphy's wild falsetto excursions are once again the foundation to which is added the new and strange, such as the heavily chorused voices that suggest backward-masking in the opener "Get Innocuous" and the captivating harmonics keyboardist Nancy Whang bounces off of Murphy's vocals on "Someone Great." If this album has its own version of "Daft Punk is Playing at My House," it has to be "North American Scum," an infectious stormer that breezily dismisses Europe as a place where "the buildings are old and you might have lots of mimes." Such lines are good evidence that LCD's music would rather ridicule itself than fall into the kind of pretense and nostalgia it constantly lampoons. The album's title track reflects that hankering after one's teenage years is often interrupted when "you remember the feelings of a real live emotional teenager -- then you think again," while the power ballad "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" wearily serenades the Big Apple as "still the one pool where I'd happily drown." True, LCD's music is not for everyone, which may have something to do with why their fans love them as they do. If you fall into the latter category, however, Silver is gold.
Aha Shake Heartbreak may have blown open the doors of fame for Kings of Leon, but their third full-length album (named for a United Pentecostal Church ministers' conference) could well usher the Nashville foursome directly to rock and roll's zenith. There's hardly a change in plans for the three Followill brothers and their cousin, and that means producer Ethan Johns, a smorgasbord of musical influences, and a cacophonous ensemble of guitar, bass, and drums. A trio of relentless rockers -- "My Party," "Camaro," and the sarcastic "Charmer" -- are sure to pacify those familiar with the Kings' blueprint, yet there is ripening in the band's approach heard, in several of the record's 13 songs. Reverb guitar and vocals and a "woo woo" chorus add a sinister aspect to "Trunk," and "Knocked Up" features a laissez-faire Caleb Followill crooning "She don't care what her mama said/ She's gonna have my baby." The seven-minute revelation of fatherhood that opens the album leads into the U2-influenced "McFearless," a reggae-splashed "Ragoo," and the rambling English blues of "Black Thumbnail." It's a rogue element that has always left every record fresh, and this time it has Kings of Leon teetering on the edge of rock renown.
Australian rockers Youth Group first reached American audiences on The O.C., doing a cover of a decrepit Eighties oldie, Alphaville's "Forever Young." Dude -- that wasn't even Alphaville's best song! "Big in Japan," my man! But even if The O.C. is history, Youth Group are destined for hugeness. On their third album, they wield massive choruses, stadium-ready production and the keening vocals of Toby Martin. He may sing like Coldplay's Chris Martin (no relation), but with "Let It Go" and "Start Today Tomorrow," he's singing better tormented-lover-boy rock ballads than Coldplay have managed in years. "Sorry" is their best, as Martin bombards his ex with questions: "Did you find what you were looking for in Room Thirteen on the sixteenth floor?/ ... Did you find what you were looking for in the silence between his snores?/ ... Do you find these European handball players beautiful?" In a post-O.C. world, Youth Group keep the fires burning.
"Heretics," from Andrew Bird's forthcoming Armchair Apocrypha, is simply arranged, trading in his signature intricate string lines for one lilting lead violin and a stomping drum march. But even his simpler songs have delicate flourishes: a quick bongo beat makes a guest appearance over the brutish drums, and background vocalists follow the same smoky violin line behind Bird's lead vocal. Bird's low, controlled voice never fully cuts loose (has it ever?), but he doesn't need soaring theatrics to get his point across: One smirk is enough for a line like, "Be careful when you're done/ You're bound to get post-natal."
Bird is a trader in understatement, a provocateur who broadcasts ridiculous edicts in subdued fashion. Lines like "Thank God it's fatal" and "Are we not having fun?" share the same 16 bars while the singular earnest violin leads on headway through the ether. Trading his usual elaborate instrumentation for candor, Bird never forgets that his greatest strength is his poise, which retains its composure without being dispassionate. Perfect phrasing swims in tandem with Bird’s characteristic sense of melody, soluble and graceful as all his music is, and even as Bird complains, "Now we don't wanna hear the sound of a drum," the chorus kicks home on the strength of a rather loud one.
Stuffed with 24 tracks, roughly half of them brief inter-song segues featuring space-age Mellotron synthesizer complex "non-Pythagorean" scales, the latest from the Apples in Stereo should be a pretentious mess.
That it's not is purely a product of the band's cheery disposition and commitment to crafting the shiniest, happiest pop songs this side of 1967.
Although they're obvious students of the '60s, the Apples hardly limit themselves to one decade. On "Same Old Drag" the group shows its love for Electric Light Orchestra, lifting the opening piano riff from "Evil Woman" and imitating Jeff Lynne's trademark vocoder-driven background vocals.
On "Energy," the group leaps into the Britpop '90s, grinning through the kind of tune Blur or Suede would have written if they had sold out and recorded jingles for Pepsi.
In the context of such a refreshing, instantly likable album, even the abstract linking tracks work, breaking up the 13 sugary full-length songs and allowing each to be unwrapped and savored individually.
That's not to say listeners should approach New Magnetic Wonder with anything resembling delicacy, however. As singer and principal songwriter Robert Schneider says on the disc's opening track, "Turn up the stereo/ I feel the magic when the speaker starts to blow."
Maximo Park have announced details of their new album, which is called Our Earthly Pleasures.
The follow-up to the band's breakthrough, A Certain Trigger, will be released in April and is preceded by a single, "Our Velocity," in March.
Our Earthly Pleasures was produced by Gil Norton, famed for his work with Pixies and Foo Fighters, and was recorded in London between September and October 2006.
Speaking about the album, singer Paul Smith said: "Thanks to two years of touring the world and with the contribution of Gil Norton, Our Earthly Pleasures is a heavy, eye-opening record.
There's nothing terribly complicated about the Fratellis' debut album, Costello Music, but that's by no means a criticism. Rather than inject their songs with complex chords, or steep their lyrics with their political and social agendas, this Glasgow trio have instead focussed on writing 13 songs that are pure, unabashed entertainment. And it's a pace -- and an attitude -- that doesn't let up, from the jumpy opening bars of "Henrietta" to the groupie-reminiscing of "Ole Black 'n' Blue Eyes." In many ways, Costello Music sounds like a return to the hedonistic rush of early 1990s Britpop, with it's exhilarating guitar riffs and arrogant swagger -- "Chelsea Dagger" somehow applies the attitude of early Oasis to the pop catchiness of Great Escape-era Blur. But the Fratellis also know their history: the ska-punk of "Cuntry Boys & City Girls" and "For the Girl" has the Fratellis sounding like the cheeky offspring of the Clash, or a less-irritating Madness. But all this analysis kind of misses the point of Costello Music: this is music for dancing, not for contemplation. It's loud, fast and in-your-face, exactly what you'd expect from three young men with guitars.
On February 27, musician/producer/part-time Beastie Boy Money Mark will release his latest recorded effort entitled Brand New By Tomorrow.
"This isn't your typical jump up and down and have fun record like I usually make," says Mark of the 11-song project. "I was really vulnerable at the time I was making the album," Mark continues. "I was writing for therapy, just to get through my day. These songs didn't come easy. Maybe I wrote a couple in one sitting, but that sitting was a long dark night."
Tracks on the album contain titles such as "Color Of Your Blue," "Eyes That Ring," "Pick Up the Pieces" (the album's first single), "Black Butterfly," "My Loss," and "Summer Blue" just to name a few.
Money Mark was instrumental, literally and figuratively, on Beastie Boys albums like Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, and the oh, so groovy The In Sound From Way Out. He also played on a couple Beck records, Blackalicious and the first Handsome Boy Modeling School.
This album will mark Money Mark's first album to be released via Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label. Mark and Jack met during a late '90s recording session helmed by Mario Caldato, Jr. (who also produced Brand New By Tomorrow). Following said meeting Mark subsequently played upright piano in Jack's band during a tour of Japan. "I gave Jack a set of demos," Mark explains, "and he wanted to issue them as they were. I told him my idea was to redo them, and after Jack heard that he said 'Cool, that's what I really want to put out!'"
Only a couple of times every half-generation or so are rock fans treated to music from a band so sure and firm and complete that they sound only like themselves even as each song introduces new aspects of their sound. After just one CD -- 2004's Funeral -- the Arcade Fire appeared to be one of these bands. This song, from their much-anticipated second release Neon Bible (due out in early March), suggests this Montreal septet is the real thing indeed.
Over an ominous opening rumble, acoustic guitars strum a couple of insistent, unresolved chords and you're immediately intrigued. Win Butler then lends his distinctive warble to a solid, descending melody as a vague, indescribable sound roils around him and then, check it out: a piano, somewhat distantly, pounds out four ascending (again unresolved) notes, withdraws, returning to underpin the abbreviated chorus (just the words "black mirror" repeated). See, one of the things this band does so well -- and uniquely -- is use their instruments orchestrally, employing recurring themes as motifs that are not simply the melody the singer is singing.
Another asset on display is how Arcade Fire songs can effortlessly spin out in unanticipated directions. Listen, for instance, to the dramatic turn taken at 1:20 -- Butler's voice leaps up into that "I may be coming unhinged" range while dynamic chords forge into surprising new territory before linking at 1:37 back to the chorus (1-2-3-4! goes the piano). Don't miss another turn at 2:17, when Butler sings an emphatic French phrase over an increasingly frenetic but still indescribable musical background; and then, ahh!, the offhandedly marvelous theme the strings play from 3:12 (announced by that great dissonant trill at 3:11), leading the song back into the ominous rumble we started with.
Kaiser Chiefs never fail to deliver fabulous indie-pop tunes that appeal to the widest common denominator without losing what gave them edge in the first place. The Brit poppers will be releasing their new album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, in the US on March 27. Die hard fans can pick up the import starting on February 26.
The almighty Stephen Street, who has worked on such legendary albums as The Smiths' Meat is Murder and Blur's Modern Life is Rubbish, produced the new tunes. This marks his second time to work with the Chiefs, as he also produced their debut album, Employment.
The unusual vocals of lead singer Ricky Wilson add something fantastic to the clear guitar tones and light indie that the band propagate as a matter of course. Wilson's voice seems to be perfectly suited to the kind of jokey, funky tunes that the Kaiser Chiefs come out with, and it gets a good showing on this first single "Ruby," a fun, upbeat enjoyable track from one of the UK's best bands today.
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