Album Review: Paramore - S/T

Having never been a huge fan of Paramore, but always been a big fan of their singles, I've found myself listening to their entire discography over the years but have never been overly impressed; sure they were often showing glimpses of being a great pop punk band, but the reliance on a strict formula and cringe worthy ballads totally killed it for me. On their latest self titled album I was totally caught off guard by how much I enjoyed this album, with a total line up overhaul, Paramore have strung together a diverse collection of top tier pop songs that just relentlessly deliver in memorable hooks, melodies and energy. With tracks such as 'Fast In My Car', 'Grow Up' & 'Ain't It Fun' all jostling for single of the year you also have some awesome heavier moments such as the Post Rock closer 'Future'. It could be criticised for being perhaps a bit too long but as far as I'm concerned the isn't really a dud on the whole album, but if it was only 12 track it'd have been one of the greatest pop record released this generation.  As it stands it's a flawed pop masterpiece. 

Memory Tapes - Grace/Confusion

We all have a band like this, love one and only one release and be practically indifferent to anything they've released besides that release, and this is mine I'd like to welcome you to 'Memory Tapes'. I loved 2009's 'Seek Magic' to the point of it my album of the year, it was bright and fun, it took you threw a journey of ideas without ever seeming cumbersome or lost. 2011 saw 'Player Piano' come out and I honestly couldn't tell you a thing about it, it was an album that failed to hold my attention, and I must've listened to it no more then 2 or 3 times... this coming off the back of an album I still listened to frequently at the time of 'Player Pianos' release. Now we end up at 'Grace/Confusion' an album which has some fantastic moments and ideas but it sure likes to take it's sweet time getting to them & whereas the more ambitious moments found in 'Seek Magic' were equally as long and as adventurous each song felt like it had a sense of purpose and it held your attention the whole way. 'Grace/Confusion' has a lot of moments which will make you really pay attention but more then half the time is spent transitioning from moment to moment and it fails to hold your attention whilst doing so. The are 2 songs on here that I cannot recommend enough though 'Neighbourhood Watch' is a beautiful song with moments of melodic sombre and frantic epic electronic infused noise, it was a build that I loved with results that paid off. The second song is the lead single 'Sheila' which really feels like it could have been one of the stronger moments from 'Seek Magic' and it has found the long lost groove found on that album, both these songs are excellent and would've made a fantastic single, in fact the is enough here for a great EP but as it stands at least half the material here is disposable and whilst it does make those bright moments shine that little bit brighter I'd be lying if I said the journey to get there wasn't a bit of a slog..

Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man (6.7/10)

I have been quite a huge fan of Bat For Lashes for quite some time now, the first time I heard 'What's A Girl To Do' I knew I found the quirky female musician for me. Fast forward to 2012 and we see Natasha grace us once again with her third album 'The Haunted Man' and where the kookiness has left Bat For Lashes ambition has never been greater... unfortunately this leaves a distinctive lack of charm and identity. Bat For Lashes has never released a killer album, I found Two Suns to be a bit top heavy, but for me it's always been about those great moments Bat For Lashes produces on quite a consistent basis. This year it's all about the likes of 'Laura' which is an incredible conventional ballad with some real power behind it with an incredibly strong vocal performance, 'The Haunted Man' is quite an epic  , 'Rest Your Head' has a really nice dream scope underlying the driven momentum & 'Winter Fields' hits you in the face with an incredibly haunting yet driven sound. However this album falters, where the low points of previous efforts where mealy disappointing, the lulls in this album often feel soulless and lifeless & this can mostly be blamed on incredibly limp production.  The synths and drums on this album sound particularly pathetic as you hear snare hits quietly whimper in the background & with synths that leave no impression at all, I honestly couldn't pin point a single tone or sound a synth produced on this entire album despite their heavy presence.  'Oh Yeah', 'Horses Of The Sun' & 'Deep Sea Diver' are three clear examples of an idea not quite coming together  they all sound like songs with killer ideas in them but they never feel like cohesive and engaging songs threw and threw. This album is a collection of some incredibly ambitious ideas & to her credit she does have more then her fair share of moments where the album all comes together to produce something fantastic but unfortunately about half the duration of the album left me incredibly frustrated, underwhelmed and bored. I think these songs will for the most part translate really well live but I cannot stress how truly awful the production is at times & this hindrance really shows up some of the flaws of the song writing.

+ 'Laura', 'Marilyn' & a few others are really strong songs; some of her best to date
+ Shows a lot of ambition
+ Should translate well live with a lot of big moments which will sound much better without lifeless drums

- A lot of songs don't quite come together as well as I would have liked
- The production is awful, the drums & synths have no presence and it's often way too bassy
- This album lacks true identity, relies a bit heavily on sounding 80's & conventional