Album Review: Bobby Conn - Macaroni

The is a lot that can be said about politically driven albums & fun/funky isn't often one of those things. This album takes Indie Rock & infuses it with funky disco vibes to make an album bursting at the rims full of character and identity. Given the subject matter this album could easily be self indulgent and ham fisted & whilst I wouldn't exactly call the lyrical content & message subtle it certainly isn't ham fisted in it's approach and most certainly doesn't get in the way of the music. The are huge choruses, excitable and dynamic vocal deliveries and brilliant interplay between bass, guitar, strings and synth which all seems determined as it might to make you dance & just forget about all your problems despite slapping you in the face with them. A surprise for me, never hearing of this artist before, but I'm almost certain to give this one plenty more listens once the dust settles, it just has so much personality! Think Devo meets Jay Retard after a date with !!! and a brief exchange with The Apples In Stereo and you've sort of got an idea of what this album sounds like & it's a whole lot of fun.

Label: Fire Records

Stand Out Songs: Macaroni, Govt, Face Blind, GREEED, Afterschool

Thoughts on: Tigercats - Isle Of Dogs

Genre: Indie Pop

Mood: Fun/Playful/Upbeat

Label: Acuarela

=====================

Tigercats are an East London Indie Pop band and this is their debut 'Isle Of Dogs', they've supported the likes of the Lovely Eggs, Wave Pictures and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and it plays exactly as you'd expect it to sound considering who they've supported with that of course being sugary upbeat indie rock. The first thing that came to mind when I listened to this CD in bold neon lit capital letters was Los Campesinos & I mean why not they do sound very similar. The album is a mass of major notes played in a very playful fashion with boy/girl call back vocals and is as a result Indie pop music that you can dance too, much like Los Campesinos did with their debut 'Hold On Now Youngster'
Not that any of this is to take away from this album which is great fun with an arsenal full of short & sweet pop songs. The first song that jumped out of me was 'Konny Huck' with it's really quite strange synth noise & jumping bass line it's just urges you to jump & shake along with a huge grin on your face. The next single 'Full Moon Reggae Party' unsurprisingly has a huge reggae influence on top of these very sweet duelling chorus vocals, again it seems to be written with the aim to make you dance.

The songs rarely stray away from this formula which does tend to show signs of straining towards the middle of the album where the songs simply aren't nearly as memorable or grabbing as the fantastic first 5 tracks, no this isn't to say they are bad, they are still good pop songs but seem to drop a lot of the momentum picked up at the start of the record. In fact I wouldn't say it's even the quality of the songs, on the own they stand up well, I just think the style started to wear a bit thin after a while & I was kind of hoping they'd show me something a bit different. Up until the fantastic 'Kim & Thurston', which is an incredibly sombre number named after the King & Queen of Indie Rock, it was all very much one paced. On the subject of 'King & Thurston' it is a truly pretty song with a very hypnotic and melodic bassline & sweetly sung vocals. The album ends very strongly as well,returning back to the pace found on the rest of the album, with 'East Island' and 'Banned From The Troxy' being 2 of the best songs on the whole record.

Overall I really enjoyed this album and it's energy & though it lost that little something for me towards the middle I still come out of this album with a huge smile on my face & that's what most albums from this genre fail to do these days as they often feel very insincere, where as this all seems completely honest and enthusiastic. Plays like a cross between Tokyo Police Club & Los Campesinos, but has reason to exist in it's own right, if you're looking for an album that's full of great catchy songs with a care free attitude then you can do a lot worse then 'Isle Of Dogs'

Listen On Spotify: Tigercats – Isle of Dogs

Stand out Songs: Konny Huck, Full Moon Reggae Party, Kim & Thurston, Easter Island & Banned From The Troxy

Upcoming UK Dates:

6th July [Indietracks Festival] 29th September [Nottingham Indie Pop All Dayer]

Thoughts on: Yppah - Eighty One

Genres: Electronica/IDM/Trip Hop

Mood: Summery/Euphoric/Chilled

Label: Ninja Tune

==========================

Here we are in the UK just off the back of some glorious weather where this album would have worked wonders and in the pit of windy, damp & grey familiarity which is when this album decided to get released. Okay I am being a bit hasty as the Great British summer is now but a few months away this is one album I expect to be listening to heavily when Sun finally decides to come back to us. In essence this album is very 90s in it's sound, it's all very upbeat and shimmers with big sounds, light dance beats, reverb & the all important shimmery guitars which are so often the back bone of euphoric electronica.

The music is mostly instrumental with the use of vocal samples but the album also makes use of a frequent guest vocalist 'Anomie Belle' to add a bit of variety in the rhythm and structure of the music on display here & she does a very good job with her vocals, whilst not remarkably different or original, suit the sombre euphoric tones to a tee. Highlights include lead single 'Film Burn' which has an almost shoegazey feel to it, 'R.Mullen' one of the albums more up-tempo songs just sounds massive and slaps a smile onto your face.

On the whole then this album plays out a soundtrack to one of the greatest summers of your life, it's incredibly positive in outlook and very bright, it's got catchy melodies and the atmosphere to back it up, this isn't some shallow attempt to capture the innocence of unadulterated joy it fully embodies it & does it show.

Listen On Spotify: Yppah – Eighty One

Stand Out Songs: 'R.Mullen', 'Film Burn', 'Never Mess With Sunday' & 'Three Portraits'

No Dates In The UK Scheduled