Album Review: Lone - Galaxy Garden

Summer is the ideal time to listen to this euphoric dance music, the sort of music that you can dance to as well as sit back and listen to with a nice cold drink lounging in the sun. Both energizing and calming 'Galaxy Garden' is yet another release from Manchester producer 'Lone' & if you're familiar with his past work you pretty much know what you're going to get. When I first heard this album it didn't do that much for me but the was something about laying down by the sea with my headphones firmly lodged into my ear canals basking in glorious sunshine which allowed this album to show its true colours. This is the perfect soundtrack for the incredible weather we've been experiencing recently & will go nicely alongside the likes of Yppah, John Talabot and Actress in your CD collection for what has been a very good year for dance & electronic music in general.

Album Review: Best Coast - The Only Place

I have to say I've sort of been taken aback by this hi-fi approach Best Coast seem to have gone for on this album. Is this the follow album you'd expect from the band that set lo-fi lovers hearts alight back in 2010 with 'Crazy For You'? Well definitely not and whilst not bad I can sort of side with the nay sayers on this one.... to sum it up I think this album is really quite boring, the are a couple of stellar indie pop songs here such as 'Last Year' & 'Dreaming My Life Away' but for the most part I've heard better examples of this polished clean hooky guitar driven flavour of indie pop elsewhere. The distinct problem with this album is a clear lack of personality, you get the feeling any band would've made this album, I still say to anyone that likes Indie pop to check this out as the is a lot about this album that is right but for me it's a bit too bland, predictable and lacking any real personality to justify any sort of real recommendation in this quite pedestrian rock album .

Album Review: Tenacious D - Rize Of The Fenix

I'm not going to beat around the bush, to this day I still love the self titled 'Tenacious D' album and I frankly will never get over how perfect a song 'Tribute' actually is & the original TV series involving the duo is still to this date an incredibly funny & one of the best band based sitcoms I can think of. Truth be told though somewhere around 2006 when the album & movie double 'Pick Of Destiny' came out it all became apparently clear that the joke had long outstayed its welcome & 'the d' gracefully faded into obscurity. Is 'Rize Of The Fenix' even necessary? Well no it isn't at all necessary but to say it was bad would be a disservice to the album it's self, whilst not nearly as fun as charming as the debut the are a few giggles to be had out of this album and for the most part the song writing here is solid. 'Rize Of The Fenix', 'The Roadie', 'Death Star', '39' and the surprisingly hilarious skit 'Flutes & trombones' does justify it's existence somewhat but on the whole this album is one from a band of diminishing returns, a must for fans but those with a passing interest needn't bother.

         

Album Review: Allo Darlin' - Europe

Ahh twee pop, you fickle mistress you! I have quite a mixed relationship with Twee pop on a whole, usually I see the genre as a collection of bands trying to cover up their weak songwriting, with so cute it'll make you sick melodies and lyrics, however when the balance is finally tuned and crafted along side some solid songwriting then it quite often churns out some of my favourite albums. Prepare to file 'Europe' by Allo Darlin' in the later camp as this album combines sensible doses of sweet & very solid song writing with a nice dose of melancholy on the side. This album is pretty fantastic, it's melodic & uplifting with some upbeat guitar driven numbers and my personal favourite the slower ukele numbers, any question as to whether this album was fantastic or mearly very good is settled by the time 'Tallulah' comes in with real emotional force with nothing more then sweetly sung female vocals and a ukele, a truly stunning song on a very very very good album.

Album Review: Jimmy Edgar - Majenta

Off the bat, this album is really enjoyable at what it does & what that is is a sleazy minimal dance music. Yes this album is clearly not short of any libido as implied sexual acts and the general groove and feel of the thing just screams 'This is sexy and it's having a sexy time come and join us by being sexy' and by doing so it gives it's self just about enough identity from the rest of the minimal dance crowd. This album is really low-key as you'd expect a minimal dance album to be, it's the sort of thing you can throw on in the background, at a club, during a comedown, obviously during sex or in the car and it wouldn't feel out-of-place. It's full of bleeps bloops, shuffling drum patterns, melodic chimes, repeated vocals, Prince and high-pitched female squeals & if you like that sort of thing I'm sure you'll really enjoy this album.

Album Review: Hush Arbors/Abouretum - Auerola

I've never been that much of a fan of split LPs, it often feels like an excuse to basically combine 2 bands set of B-Sides in one easy to digest package, whilst some bands have a catalogue of B-Sides to salavate over other bands do no,  & whilst I acknowledge this may not a collection of songs that both artists wrote a while back but couldn't fit them on their earlier recordings it sort of feels like it. This album contains 8 painfully bland songs with none of them doing anything for me. It's the usual indie rock meets folk song writing type of fair & all feels very uninspired, as a fan of Hush Arbors I had hoped for stronger songs from at least these guys but whilst they clearly try to hit the harmonious pop note they strike so often they fail here in an explosion of mediocrity. As for Arboretum it's slightly better but only slight, his collection of songs play off with distorted guitars dragging a sprawling mood but none of it rubbed off on me, this split LP is the very definition of average.

Album Review: The Destroyers - Hole In The Universe

The Destroyers are very much a Gypsy Punk outfit from Birmingham, they bring the sounds from Eastern Europe and give them a punk rock edge and structure & as other bands have shown in the past this combination can really succeed & for the most part it works particularly well on this album. However this is a collection of songs, like I have said earlier about this kind of music, that'd fare much better in a live environment (ideally a festival). You see the problem I have with this album is it tends to grate after a little while, I dunno I just think the is limited appeal for this kind of music when I can't cha-cha in the sunshine in some field. It's by no means a bad album, in fact it's a very enjoyable one, but it's more an album I'd have in my collection so the odd song crops up when my media player is on shuffle, it's loud & fun but a little bit tiresome when listened to in a single sitting.