Review: Clinic - Bubblegum

Oct 212010

It can hardly be said that Clinic have changed much over the past 10 years. Right from their initial releases up to 2008’s “Do It” they’ve kept that same dense gothic sound, with its fast paced guitar rhythms, humming electro organs, and creepy, sometimes hilarious lyrics. But for 2010’s “Bubblegum” they’ve decided to alter the mix and shake things up with a new sound. Or have they?

“Bubblegum” is a non-committed reinvention, the band deliberately trying to make a non-‘Clinic’ album. The sound is certainly softer, featuring many acoustic guitar driven tracks, but in making this change they’ve sacrificed the intensity and unique feeling of frenetic gloom that made them interesting in the first place. Soft guitar ballads, slow atmospheric rock, these things can be found from ten-a-penny bands, musicians who don’t have half the ingenuity or wit of this Liverpool four piece.

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Review: Divine Comedy - Bang Goes The Knighthood

Sep 142010


In some ways, Bang Goes the Knighthood is very different from Neil Hannon’s past work. Long time fans on pressing play for the first time will expect the stirrings of a string section or the familiar rat-a-tat of his signature drum beat – but there is no grand opening this time. Instead, Hannon’s 10th album begins with wistful melancholy; Down On The Street Below is about looking at your own life and feeling out of place. Of course it’s about his own minor celebrity status, albeit too elegantly written to seem like egocentric wallowing.

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Review: The Chemical Brothers - Further

Jun 242010

A new Chemical Brothers album. Not news to stir the emotions is it? Five years since their last decent track (Galvanize, if you were wondering) and much further back since their last full length really hit the spot; you could be forgiven for immediately writing Further off without a second thought. Stick with it though and Tom and Ed’s seventh studio album reveals a partial return to form. Gone are the odd guest vocalists that plagued the last few records, and back is the expansive and ever-so-slightly psychedelic twisting electronica that we all fell in love with, ooh fifteen years ago. This is no mere big beat revival though, Further contains some of the most experimental tracks the duo have produced outside their Electronic Battle Weapons series.To continue the experimental theme, the album comes with an accompanying disc of visuals too – a dose of the famed Chemicals live experience in your living room.

Why only a partial return to form? Some of the tracks lack the propulsion to get them over the finishing line. Escape Velocity struggles to live up to its name, and its nigh-on 12 minute length; accelerating but ultimately remaining Earthbound. When they do re-tread old ground it’s pretty decent, Horse Power feels as if lifted straight from Surrender, piling on snatches of sound that recall previous singles in abundance. It’s with Horse Power that Further really starts to come alive, leading into a great run of tracks to close the record out. Recent single Swoon is the album standout, shifting and stretching layers of synths set to a bouncing bassline – reminiscent of Orbital’s halcyon days. Although you’d struggle to pin another single out of the remaining tracks there’s no filler here. So, shake off your apathy and giver Further a whirl – there’s life in the old dog yet.

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

The Chemical Brothers – Swoon (mp3)

Review: James - The Night Before

May 312010


After almost 30 years of writing and performing in some form or another, it wouldn’t be surprising if James settled into that “established act of yester-year” phase. Like The Cure or Depeche Mode, they could be recycling their old ideas in increasing less-essential albums, mopped up by the faithful, whilst live they perform greatest hit sets to casual fans, young and old.

Their reformation album Hey Ma seemed to lay the ground work for this phase. Despite its post 9/11 protesting, it was very much a glossy business-as-usual piece of work that could’ve sat between 91’s Gold Mother and 92’s Seven, without being as memorable as either.

But James have never been a band who’ve been able to stay static for long. Although the James sound is always noticeable, they’ve always shown a determination to try new things and take their music into new directions. The Night Before thankfully keeps up this tradition, if a little more modestly than before. Album opener It’s Hot includes a Peter Hook inspired bassline that’s more exciting than almost the whole of Hey Ma.

The Night Before is one of twin mini albums; the other, The Morning After, will follow towards the end of the year. It seems really to be logical extension of the final pre-break up album Pleased To Meet You, boasting the same deep sound, but made lighter by some of the gloss left over from Hey Ma.

It’s a solid collection; not one of James’ best, but far from one of their worst. It’s the bookends that make the album, aside from Hot, the bizarre Dr Hellier is the song that resonates the most. A strange sci-fi concoction which compares the war on terrorism to a Fantastic Voyage-esque quest to heal the body, probably suggesting that the solution is worse than the problem.

Maybe it’s the glossy production that lets it down. For a band with such roots in improvisation and anarchic live performances, the sheen feels disappointing. The songs with more edge are by far the most immediate sounding, without necessarily being the catchiest. Still, it’s a strong step forward; always a band of swings and slides, it feels that James still have some creative life in them after all. Confirmation will hopefully come later in the year.

Rating: ★★★½☆☆

James – Dr Hellier (mp3)

Buy The Night Before

Review: Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back

May 072010

It isn’t normally a good sign when a late-in-their-career artist brings out a covers album. It normally signifies a significant drop in bankability and the chase of a fast buck; in the desperate hope that tried and tested tunes will earn them some attention.

Fortunately, Peter Gabriel’s career prospects seem a little more healthy. Gabriel is a man who  doesn’t complete an album until he’s good and ready, which seems to be about roughly 8 years. If his hardcore fans were disappointed that this new release was not his long muted I/o project, at least they can take some solace in the fact that Scratch My Back is at least more high concept and significantly more challenging than the average covers collection.

Scratch My Back discards the Peter Gabriel style guide completely; there are no drums, no synths, and no guitar. Each song is played with orchestral arrangement; the arrangements are not lush or overblown, they’re carefully restrained and very deliberate – it’s the most low key thing he’s ever released.

The album puts its best foot forward with a version of Bowie’s Heroes. Not the easiest song to cover, Gabriel takes Bowie’s post glam-rock crowd pleaser and changes into a song of fragile, tender beauty. While Bowie’s original is an arms in the air anthem, Gabriel brings out its sweeping beauty, as if it were composed to be a morning after companion to its original. This is the best kind of cover version, one that makes comparison totally irrelevant; it has been taken apart and put back together to create a totally different entity.

Of course it can’t keep up that memento. And indeed, what follows is the mixed bag covers albums usually deliver. The melancholy strings perfectly serve the feelings of injustice behind Talking Heads’ Listening Wind and Gabriel’s more sweeping, grandiose take on Bon Iver’s Flume gives it a fresh touch of tenderness and intensity.

But some tunes rally against his wrought orchestrations. Paul Simon’s Boy in the Bubble loses its joyful melody. Arcade Fire’s My Body is a Cage is overdone, and the lyrics just don’t have the same impact sung by Gabriel’s more trained voice. And Radiohead’s Street Spirit becomes so tragic, it’s almost hilarious.

All together, it becomes a bit too much, a bit too melodramatic. But despite its misses, it’s hard not to admire the courage and ambition of the project. It’s not an easy thing to take a risk and throw away your safe, usual musical methodology and approach something in a completely different way. Scratch My Back may not be the greatest covers collection ever produced, but it’s got to be one of the most original and the most impressive.

Rating: ★★★★☆☆

Peter Gabriel – Flume (Bon Iver Cover)

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