The Wild Palms sound is reminiscent of late 80’s-early 90’s goth-tinged indie (think Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure circa Head on the Door.) Right now, this is not a commercially lucrative furrow to plough and nor is it particularly as ‘cool’ as it once was and so an album like ‘Until Spring’ exudes a sense of what-the-hell freedom and sincerity that makes it simultaneously an act of homage and of exploration. Songs idle, twist and sprawl just this Continue Reading
The Decemberists’ Colin Melloy describes ‘The King Is Dead’ as an exercise in restraint, and he ain’t whistling Dixie, not when you recall that the band’s 2009 release, ‘The Hazards of Love’ was by contrast an exercise in epic, high-concept, multi-layered, unfathomably compound, high-fulutin’ boreal forest romance craftin’, hewn out of the very rocks that line the banks of the Hudson River; a rock opera in the mould of Tam Lin and The Scarlet Letter – only with more random Continue Reading
Why stew in your own juices when you can invite the whole weary world to stew in them also? Liam’s previous band, The Havenots has clearly not left the sweetest of tastes in his mouth even though the Leicester band’s sophomore release cooked up the dreamiest of whisper-soft Americana and the most heartbreaking boy-girl harmonies in 2005. It was like Joy Zipper but with rollerblades instead of razorblades; sun kissed sugar melodies blowing around in the surly pouting ether of Continue Reading