Reviews

Is this a Jim’ll Fix It? It’s still difficult to take Ms Scout Niblett entirely seriously. This is yet again an album of raw emotions and gall, and that’s about it. It’s really the sound of her wanting to achieve something, rather than actually achieving it. It’s built on very basic art-rock (nee punk) principles, namely that nobody can tell you that you can’t. It’s unclear whether it is intentionally obnoxious, aspiringly unconventional, or whether it is genuinely the sound Continue Reading

So just who is it Ryan Adams wants to be this time? Because it is at least clear that this alt-country troubadour is always chasing becoming something. The new Willie Nelson? Gram Parsons? The next Elvis? Springsteen? Morrissey? Evan Dando or Julian Casablancas? He’s certainly put his potential about a bit since the turn of the century, whoring himself across genres and through celebrity circles, demonstrating he can be enviably prolific and malleable, perhaps fearing that if he stands still Continue Reading

This women has been lauded, my has she been lauded. In fact she must have got so weighed down by the stuff that she fell perpetually below radar. Aside from the gust of air that carried her into public consciousness, otherwise known as her 2001 Mercury Prize nomination (for the pretty and gifted ‘Little Black Numbers’), she has remained undeservedly low key. But in a funny way, with a newly skewed hindsight, this album makes that treatment seem justified. Because Continue Reading

Listening to this record, the fifth from Texan pop-experimentalists Spoon, as a belated newcomer to the whole Spoon thing, there is the overwhelming suspicion that had Sonic Youth or the Pixies never existed, aside from the ‘alternative’ landscape being completely unrecognisable these Austin boys might have turned out quite nice. You know, clean cut, perfectly-formed pop songs with sensible haircuts, respectful of universally perceived limits of taste and decency would have been order of the day and their grandparents could Continue Reading

It sort of doesn’t quite seem right that we’re here at all. Right? Right. Five albums have already been submitted under the Eels moniker, not to mention solo endeavours from main-man E, like a band formed from his own neuroses, under his sole direction and image, wasn’t enough. This was a band too that many thought would collapse in on themselves like a novelty hit black hole after their debut had the good fortune to provide MTV with two wholesome, Continue Reading

It used to be that every band in Scotland sounded, in one way or another, like Teenage Fanclub. Even Idlewild got there in the end you’ll notice. Of course that’s not exactly an all encompassing truth, anymore especially, since we’re sure there are trainee Franz Ferdinands throwing out their Travis pin badges and cluttering up rehearsal space the length and breadth of the country. But wait, here comes the second band, after Biffy Clyro, to sound a bit like Biffy Continue Reading

The lowest note on a piano is around 33hz. It’s not the only interesting thing about this band. But it’s close. Picking up where Wham, Hall and Oates and Prince (during his Purple-rinse period) left off, vocalist Benny Lo and the boys have crafted an album that artfully reproduces the electro-funk of the mid-nineteen eighties right down to the billowing shirts, the bouffant hair-styles, and the leg-warmers. It’s danceable, gently erotic and as packed with perky pop bombshells as a Continue Reading

It would be like opening a bag of crisps to find they’d dropped spuds from the ingredients list without telling you. Going to bed in your clothes then shedding them all before leaving the house in the morning. Putting your headphones on and not pressing play. You get the idea? Of course Trent’s still a bit testy. About what? About everything, probably. He’s neither grown up with his audience or out of the blunt angst that made his name in Continue Reading

Absolute class. Outfoxing the likes of nouveau jazz sirens like Amy Winehouse, the Poistal Service’s remix of Nina Simone’s lyrical and melancholy ‘Little Girl Blue’ provides a rich, spiritual and dazzling introduction to what amounts to a very, very fine remix album indeed. With a melody lifted from the traditional Christmas carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’, some bubbling beats and an android groove producer Jimmy Tamborello prepares the way for a bakers half-dozen or so tracks of unexpected turns and surprises. Continue Reading

You are not this album’s best friend. Yet. Though maybe you will be, maybe that’s the deal here. It treats you as if you are from the word go. Actually, that word is “I” and is followed by “checked into a bargain priced room in La Cienega”, followed by many many more chattering illustrations. Those words are so vivid and familiarly worn that he, John Darniele, could surely only have chosen them for an intimate exchange. You don’t address a Continue Reading