JUNE: This Month’s Releases In Full
words: Jamie Milton
The highlight of my month was seeing the lead singer of Friendly Fires sweat it out on the new turf of the Glastonbury Other Stage with the campest dance routine for some time. It worked, and the crowd loved it. It goes to show, all you need is energy, enthusiasm and people will find it difficult not to warm to you. Even though the greatest entertainer alive has passed, there’s still room for his take on wowing an audience. Hopefully in time, the crop of stars who merely look uninterested, staring down blankly will be abolished. It’s not one of the biggest problems in music, but it might be for live music.
In the recording studio however, things have brightened up. June has been our busiest month to date, releases coming in from all sides. Results vary, but the uniting feature of all, bar a couple, is this sense of determination to make something not just special, but vastly different. This was highlighted first and foremost in our album of the month, Dirty Projectors’ ‘Bitte Orca’. Dave Longstreth incorporated an “accessibility factor” into the record which I declared “makes the whole listen stick in your head rather than forcing you to scratch it in bewilderment.” Kasabian, a less likely act to twist and turn in such style, also produced a forward-thinking record that made no mistake of attempting to abolish a lager-swigging status thrown at them so early in their career. However, I saw it as an unsuccessful move: “It’s when the band stick to their guns that they become a more formidable prospect.”
A couple of “veterans” did indeed stick to their guns, with mixed results. Eels returned to some hostility and criticism towards his latest ‘Hombre Lobo’ concept album. Often deemed safe and restrictive, for an album that covered one single subject, ‘desire’, more could have been made of it. On the EP front, Deerhunter returned after only a short while with their surprisingly tight and coherent ‘Rainwater Cassette Exchange’, a project that provided an “even more accessible Deerhunter than the band exposed on the last record.”
Debut albums came thick and fast, artists ranging in the size of hype that upheld them. La Roux produced the finest debut of the year to date, a real shock to the system, a record refusing to be dictated by a couple of hit singles. We Were Promised Jetpacks followed a trend of emotional, Scot-bred songwriting, tweaking the sound of Frightened Rabbit and producing something more damaged and edgy. Let’s Wrestle released their first album proper: one “prolonged, aggressive but intelligent chant of triumph.”
The surprise of the month came in the form of Jack Penate – a previously interesting pop star but never one to make a fuss about, his Paul Epworth produced sophomore album inhales African guitars, drums and spirits, carrying the soul and confidence he exited with from his debut. Future Of The Left also turned more heads that previous with their latest. Matt McDonald put it best: “Future of the Left are still nowhere near a headline slot at Glastonbury and a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Pepsi. But each and every one of their songs communicates the idea that they would never want to be.” That was June.
JUNE’S RELEASES, IN SCORE ORDER:
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca 8.8 [mp3: Two Doves // alt ]
La Roux – La Roux 8.8 [mp3: Colourless Colour // alt ]
Jack Penate – Everything Is New 8.3
Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another 8.3
Deerhunter – Rainwater Cassette Exchange 8.0
White Denim – Fits 7.9
We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls 7.9
Broken Records – Until The Earth Begins To Part 7.9
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer 7.8
Eels – Hombre Lobo 7.6
Let’s Wrestle – In The Court Of The Wrestling Let’s 7.5
Dinosaur Jr – Farm 7.1|
Amazing Baby – Rewild 6.7 [mp3: Invisible Place // alt ]
Regina Spektor – Far 6.7
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 6.1
Little Boots – Hands 5.0
The Gossip – Music For Men 4.3
ALBUM REVIEW: Kasabian – The West Ryder…
words: Jamie Milton
We all know how the old saying goes, but what on Earth are you expected to think when looking at that cover? What should your first thought be? “Get me out of here…”? Do you projectile vomit or do you hold it in? My guess is it was meant to be provocative but this thing nearly acts as some form of propaganda, hinting to the trusted listener that this might be more interesting than one would expect. Entailing the psychedelic “charm”, you could say, of the debut album (let’s ignore ‘Empire’ for as long as we can), ‘West Ryder…’ is far more striking and deep than any bands they’re lazily lumped together with. It excavates down under electronic territory, hinting at more classic influences (The Beatles and The Clash in ‘Where Did All The Love Go?’ is just one example), but despite what the title and album cover would suggest, it’s not exactly Fucking Mental. No – it’s actually dangerously safe.
It didn’t exactly slap you in the face at the time but Kasabian’s debut took on board an almost cult status before being handed one. It flirted with themes of totalitarianism in promo videos, made itself out to be pretty clever. This might be the first time that Kasabian actually set out to sound smart and inventive instead of turning another simple riff into a football-game soundtrack, but what they’ve lost is a coherent theme. They drift in between a surprisingly scarce supply of upbeat pop (exemplified in opener ‘The Underdog’ more so than at any time), whilst also serving up a slice of more down-tempo numbers that dominate the second half of the record. Many of these are timid: although they hire Serge Pizzorno’s vocal duties more so than previously, they lack a cutting edge or a driving force. ‘Take Aim’, directed by thick acoustic tongue, is a rare success that manages to build into more than just a mid-tempo slab of filler. ‘West Ryder Silver Bullet’, although impressive in an everchanging structure, comes across as a more tame effort, something you’d find at the tail of a Muse record, but with less build and therefore less to be intrigued about – regardless of the dubious inclusion of Rosario Dawson (a Sin City star, in case that names’ bugging you…).
It’s when the band stick to their guns that they become a more formidable prospect. It feels almost wrong falling for the psycho-trip, odd-ball ‘Vlad The Impaler’, but the refrain of “get loose, get loose” and Pizzorno’s interruptive, spontaneous cry of “yeah!” perfectly balances crafted experimentation with that programmed ability to write a catchy song. Tom Meighan’s proverbial step back on ‘West Ryder’ is welcomed. Ignoring him for his less appealing traits of constantly chanting “Hello Sandhurst/Bognor/Kiddleminster! Fuckin’ Empire!” is no easy battle. But he delivers on ‘Fire’, a chant-able but likable song that carries a Spaghetti Western swagger in its verse but goes gung-ho with the sing-along with its monosyllabic chorus.
These moments aside – ‘West Ryder…’ is a record riddled with the filler factor. Although each song has at least one latching hook, some go unnoticed. Meighan and Pizzorno’s apparent craft for exploring unique ideas through the artwork, the identity of the band, is not replicated whatsoever at the very heart of the record. At no point, not even during the instrumental ‘Swarfiga’, which sole purpose must have been to mess with your head, do you begin to believe that Kasabian are anything more than a hit-factory. They’d be better off siding with the verse-chorus formula, turning a blind eye to the lazy “lad rock” criticisms and producing a full-on collection of potentially annoying but dreadfully catchy rock songs.
ALBUMS + TRACKS: 140 character reviews
words: Jamie Milton
It’s about time we at MFM actually made use of twitter instead of just declaring to our followers how much we hate the BNP all the time. This feature might be a one-off, we’ll see what the response is like. Here, we’ll review this week’s notable album releases as well as any new tracks that have exposed themselves over the last few days. Excellent, let’s begin…
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———————————————————————————————- That took longer than I expected…Anyhow, was quite fun so look out for more of these as well as the bog-standard, “I’m quite intelligent” types that we much prefer.
This makes up for the puzzling album cover. The video for ‘Fire’ is absolutely brilliant and the song itself isn’t too shabby. Tom and co. play the role of fugitives behind one of the most stand-out choruses of the year so far.
Good luck trying to catch the hearts and minds with this concept, lads.
Far left – Meat Loaf circa-1975 at a Tudor-themed party.
Middle – Spiritual, the dark side, oooooo.
Top Right - Severely distressed, on the level of the “Reeed Ruuum” kid. Bottom Right – The pick of the bunch. Completely at a loss as to why he’s even there and what on Earth he should be doing. Solution? Put a red scarf over your face and look seriously confused.
All mp3s posted on Music Fan's Mic are posted after gaining the relevant permission.
Jamie Milton began Music Fan's Mic in 2006 as a means of publishing and collecting his reviews for other publications. Since then both Milton and Gareth O'Malley are co-running the blog and posting the best new music on a regular basis.
Boom-box-in':
Yeasayer - Odd Blood LP
Final Fantasy Heartland LP
Beach House - Teen Dream LP
These New Puritans - We Want War
Gigi - The Old Graveyard
jj - The xx Intro
Toro Y Moi - Causers of This LP
Liars - Sisterworld LP
Vampire Weekend - White Sky
Los Campesinos! - In Medias Res
MFM @ HYPEM
