Album Review: Infadels - The Future Of Gravity Boy

Infadels are in a genre of music which I find very easy to dismiss, the kind of electro rock pop that is so very often very generic and disposable and at first I felt it would easily fall into this category. But after a while I found something strange happening, I was nodding along, I was enjoy the simple in you face romper stomper uplifting electro pop on offer here with it climaxing perhaps at the anthmatic 'Mercury Rising' which just sounds massive. Under no circumstances will I ever trick you into thinking this band where anything more then just a straight electro pop band playing very straight forward electro pop songs but that's why I think I enjoyed this album; they aren't trying to be anything else, but having said that they do take some risks at the end of the album. It's not reinventing the wheel or anything but for what it is I really enjoyed this album and for those looking for that next electro pop hit to dance along to when the sun finally comes back out then 'The Future Of The Gravity Boy' is a very safe bet.

Album Review: Ladyhawke - Anxiety

I love the self titled album that came out in 2008, it was a great blend of rock and 80s pop sensibilities with huge songs and even bigger hooks and interesting song writing that just came around as so effortless, natural and just had a spark to it. 'Anxiety' on the other hand is a stodgy uninspired collection of songs which, for whatever reason, decides uninspired 90s britpop revival was the best course of action. With the exceptions of 'Sunday Drive' and 'Black White & Blue' ,both of which I quite like, the album just sounds like any number of female fronted brit pop bands we've long since forgotten about & the is reason for us forgetting them & that's because it was all so forgettable. This album is totally disposable, the are some ideas here which lead me to believe Ladyhawke can come back with another fantastic pop album, but this isn't it & certainly wasn't worth the 4 year wait.

Album Review: Japandroids - Celebration Rock

I think it'll be the guitar driven sound with the uplifting woah's and ooh' that makes it so whenever I hear a song by these guys I find it a thrilling experience. The difference between listening to a single song by Japandroids and an entire album though is quite telling; whereas I find listening to a single song utterly exhilarating and brilliant, I always find listening to an album very difficult and quite dull. Japandroids are to me a single listen band, a band I'll get their albums just so the songs can crop up on random or be put on a playlist but the moment I start listening to successive tracks the appeal goes right out the window because I find it all too repetitive. Up until the weak cover of 'For The Love Of Ivy' I was quite content with what I heard but beyond that I just wanted to turn the thing off. It wasn't the song quality, the are some great songs all over this thing it just outplayed it's welcome. Will still recommend this album for the tracks but not as a complete listening experience.

Album Review: The Walkmen - Heaven

I've always been one of these people who will always say 'I enjoy but do not love The Walkmen'. I don't know why this is the case, they produce music that sound like my cup of tea and the sort of thing I should go wild for, up until 'Lisbon' I never really considered them a band worth following but here's the thing 'Lisbon' really grew on me and showed me more of what I liked about The Walkmen then ever before with some really nice interplay between band and vocals. This album though, frankly, is a choir to sit through. It's not bad it's just very dull with the exception of a few songs such as the fantastically brooding and building 'Line By Line', 'Heaven' & 'The Love You Love' but for the most part this album comes off very predictable & flat and is the first album I've heard of theirs where I felt this way. It feels over long as well even though it's only 47minutes & to me seems like  a shadow of their discog up until this point, fans however, appear to really enjoy it so maybe I don't know what I'm going on about but for me this a load of songs I think I should enjoy but don't actually enjoy. 

Album Review: James Blackshaw - Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death

James Blackshaw's guitar playing style is one you can pick off a mile away, for starters he rock as 12 stringed acoustic and he just has this way with it, the way he plucks and constructs a melody is fairly unique and bespoke to him. It has to be said that 'All Is Falling' his last album released in 2010 really didn't do much for me & was the first release of his to leave me feeling that way but I'm glad that this album seems to have gone back to what makes James so unique and stand out and that's those songs mostly constructed with nothing more than his 12 string and a couple of keys thrown in for good measure. Unlike many guitarists that noodle and frantically pluck at their guitars this album doesn't do it at the expense of emotion or song structure. This album is just here to swallow you in sheer acoustic beauty and it does it so well that if you like the sound of that in anyway then I suggest you pick this record up, though the heavy breathing you can hear which many might describe as intimate can be a bit distracting at times.

Album Review: DNTEL - Aimlessness

I love 'Life Is Full Of Possibilities' and the 'Give Up' so much that I think it's a bit odd that everything else DNTEL has produced has left me so very cold. 'Dumb Luck' the collaborative album with various indie musicians was by no means bad it just lost a lot of the electronic charm that drew me to Jimmy Tamborellas production in the first place. After several bits and bob compilations being released I sort of lost track on the guy until 'Aimlessness' came up on my feed of recommended releases. Now I wouldn't call this the level of either 'Life Is Full Of Possibilities' or 'Give Up' it does come appealingly close. It's got more of the DNTEL feel that I love, it's both sparse and totally rammed up the arse with pop quirks & with vocals being used more sparingly it allows DNTEL to experiment a bit more like he did in 'Life Is Full Of Possibilities' as opposed to the rather monotonous approach of 'Dumb Luck'. Aimlessness is a good album with some glorious moments but while not quite up to his best, it is a defiant step in the right direction.

Album Review:Liars - WIXIW

After 2 releases which toned down the experimentation a few notches we see Liars return with WIXIW (pronounced Wish You) an album which see's the band embrace all things electronic. Fans of the bands later 2 albums 'Sisterworld' and 'Liars' may be slightly disappointed with the direction taken on the more experimental 'WIXIW', which see's the bands more contemporary influences in the last 2 records all but disappear, in favour for sombre atmospheric electronic sounds. It's all a lot more chilled, with the exception of the frantic, noisy & pounding sounds found on 'Brats', this album is all about the atmosphere which is incredibly easy to get lost in. This album is one probably best listened to in solidarity & threw headphones, when listening to a few of the tracks released prior to the album I found they bit left me feeling a bit cold, but as a collection of song's it's pretty great & see's the band feeling reinvigorated. *Note: I do actually really enjoy Sisterworld but am glad they didn't get stuck in a contemporary sound, that's not what Liars are about*